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Dianne Feinstein asks to be ‘temporarily’ replaced on Judiciary amid some party pressure to resign from the Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday night that she had asked to be “temporarily” replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee while she is recovering from shingles, but the California Democrat remained committed to returning to the Senate amid some pressure from her party to step down.“I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee, so I’ve asked Leader Schumer to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work,” the 89-year-old Feinstein said in a statement.Feinstein said she had expected to return to Washington “by the end of the March work period,” but that her return had been “delayed due to continued complications related to my diagnosis.” She planned to return, she said, “as soon as possible once my medical team advises that it’s safe for me to travel.”The statement came after a rare instance of lawmakers urging a member of their own party to step down from Congress. Calif...

River y Boca, el clásico eterno y más grande de Argentina, atrae más allá de sus fronteras

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

(CNN) — “El Monumental es simplemente increíble… mi lugar favorito es River Plate”, dijo Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez y los hinchas del Millonario estallaron de júbilo.A los pocos días, el guardameta que fue una de las figuras en el tricampeonato que consiguió la selección argentina en el Mundial de Qatar agregó lo siguiente: “Cualquier hinchada en Argentina podría ser la mejor… Pero creo que la hinchada de Boca está por encima”, logrando el regocijo de los hinchas xeneizes.Las declaraciones del portero del Aston Villa significaron en los fans de Boca y de River algo así como tirar un fósforo encendido en hierba seca. Y es que el duelo sobre quién es el equipo más grande del país está siempre latente en los hinchas de los dos colosos argentinos.Análisis: Boca le gana el superclásico a River (2022)Ambos bandos esgrimen distintos argumentos, intentando sentenciar el pleito. Los cuales van desde los títulos obtenidos, la cantidad de seguidores, el ...

Corte de apelaciones bloquea parcialmente fallo que pone en riesgo acceso a píldora abortiva

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

Un tribunal federal de apelaciones bloqueó la noche del miércoles parte de un fallo emitido la semana pasada por un juez designado por el expresidente Donald Trump que pone en peligro el acceso a la píldora abortiva mifepristona, y la decisión dejó una incertidumbre considerable sobre el acceso al medicamento.La Corte de Apelaciones del Quinto Circuito accedió a la solicitud de emergencia del Departamento de Justicia para frenar la parte de la decisión emitida por el juez de distrito de EEUU Matthew Kacsmaryk, quien suspendió la aprobación original de la mifepristona por parte de la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés), que data de 2000.Pero el panel de tres jueces dijo que parte de la decisión de Kacsmaryk, que suspende los cambios que la FDA hizo al uso aprobado del medicamento en 2016, podría entrar en vigencia. El panel también determinó que el hallazgo de la agencia en 2021 de que la mifepristona puede distribuirse por correo también se det...

Federal appeals court preserves access to abortion drug, but under tighter rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal appeals court preserves access to abortion drug, but under tighter rules.Source

Jeremy Hunt says UK outlook ‘brighter than expected’ despite GDP flatline

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

LONDON — Chancellor Jeremy Hunt insisted the U.K.’s economic outlook is “brighter than expected” despite official figures showing no growth in February.The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate that the U.K. economy saw no month-on-month growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in February. The opposition Labour Party’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in a statement that the U.K. was now “lagging behind on the global stage with growth on the floor.”February’s flatline followed growth of 0.4 percent in January, and means the U.K. economy continues to avoid a recession, defined in the U.K. as two quarters of declining GDP in a row. In the three months to February, GDP grew by 0.1 percent.Hunt, the U.K.’s top finance minister who was brought in to revamp the British economy after a market rout under his predecessor, said: “The economic outlook is looking brighter than expected — GDP grew in the three months to...

Tampa Bay doesn’t deserve undefeated Rays, but Orlando does | Commentary

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

Running off at the typewriter …The Tampa Bay Rays are 12-0 after Wednesday night’s 9-7 win over the Boston Red Sox and one win shy of tying the record for the best start in Major League Baseball history — and still it doesn’t matter.The Rays are one of the best-run organizations in professional sports and do more with less than any team in any sport, yet they still have the fourth-worst attendance in all of baseball. Which is better than last year and the year before when they were third-worst in attendance even though they made the playoffs in both seasons. And in case you were wondering, the last time they made the World Series during a non-COVID season was 2008 when they had the fifth-worst attendance in the league.Translation: The Tampa Bay area simply doesn’t deserve such a quality team. Time to demolish the idea that baseball will ever work there.Raze the Rays!Move them to Orlando!Short stuff: Glad to see that the Florida Gators just restructured ...

Germany appeals for reducing tension over Taiwan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Germany’s government appealed for efforts to reduce tension over Taiwan as the German foreign minister flew to China for official talks following Chinese military exercises near the self-ruled island democracy Beijing claims is part of its territory.Annalena Baerbock was due to arrive Thursday. Her ministry said she would discuss Taiwan, Ukraine, human rights and other issues with Chinese officials.China’s ruling Communist Party sent warships and fighter planes near Taiwan last weekend in retaliation for a meeting between U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen.“Threatening military gestures” increase “the risk of unintentional military confrontations,” a spokeswoman for Baerbock’s ministry, Andrea Sasse, said in Berlin. “We therefore call on all partners in the region and are working also with our international partners to contribute to a de-escalation in the strait of Taiwan,” Sasse said Wednesday.Taiwan spl...

Northern China blanketed with floating sand and dust

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Many areas in northern China were blanketed with floating sand and dust on Thursday, and a sandstorm was expected to sweep through parts of Inner Mongolia. The sandy, dusty weather and strong winds will last until Sunday, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement, adding the public should take precautionary measures to guard against poor air quality. It renewed a blue alert for sandstorms — the least severe warning in the country’s four-tier weather warning system — and forecast that more than a dozen regions, including major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, would see some areas affected by floating sand and dust on Thursday.The center’s chief forecaster, Gui Hailin, earlier said the sandy and dusty weather began Sunday in southern Mongolia. As cold air moved southward, the weather spread to various regions including northern and northeast China, he said.In Beijing, buildings and traffic were shrouded by low visibility. The IQAir website showed an ...

Destructive cyclone forecast to hit northwest Australia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A tropical cyclone is expected to intensify to the most destructive category before it crosses the northwest Australian coast with winds gusting at more than 280 kph (170 mph), meteorologists said Thursday.Cyclones are common along the sparsely populated Pilbara coast of Western Australia state and fatalities are rare, but authorities fear that Cyclone Ilsa’s extraordinary wind speeds could take some in its path by surprise.Ilsa reached Category 4 intensity Thursday over the Indian Ocean and is expected to strengthen to the maximum destructive category on a five-tier scale before it crosses the Pilbara coast by early Friday, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.Category 5 cyclones have a maximum mean wind speed exceeding 200 kph (124 mph) with gusts exceeding 280 kph (174 mph). They typically cause widespread destruction, the bureau said. The last Category 5 storm to cross the Australian coast was Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Yasi caused hundreds of millions of...

MEPs approve revamped EU product safety rules  

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:52 GMT

The updated law will ensure that products in the EU, whether sold online or in traditional shops, comply with the highest safety requirements.Last week, MEPs endorsed the revised rules on product safety of non-food consumer products with 569 votes in favour, 13 against and no abstentions. The new regulation aligns the existing General Product Safety Directive with the latest developments in digitalisation and the surge in online shopping.Improving safety assessmentsIn order to guarantee that all products placed on the market are safe for consumers, the General Product Safety Regulation includes measures to guarantee that risks for the most vulnerable consumers (e.g. children), gender aspects and cybersecurity risks are also taken into account during safety assessments.Market surveillance and online shopsThe new regulation extends the obligations of economic operators (such as the manufacturer, importer, distributor), increases the powers of market surveillance authorities and introd...