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Azerbaijan gets nod to host COP29 climate summit 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Next year’s COP29 climate summit is set to take place in oil-rich Azerbaijan after Eastern European countries resolved a political deadlock on Saturday. Geopolitical tensions had left the 2024 conference in limbo for months, with Russia blocking EU countries from hosting and feuding neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan vetoing each other. But after Armenia and Bulgaria formally withdrew their bids earlier this week, the 23-country Eastern European group backed Azerbaijan during a meeting on Saturday, Bulgarian Environment Minister Julian Popov told POLITICO. Earlier on Saturday, Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources, said in a speech that he was “delighted” to announce that there was overall consensus on Azerbaijan’s candidacy to host COP29. “We are very grateful to all countries, in particular to the Eastern European group and the host United Arab Emirates for their support,...

John Kerry warns against carbon capture’s ‘great facade’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Some countries at the COP28 climate talks are lying about the potential for capturing the greenhouse gases fossil fuels emit, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said.Kerry was speaking at an event on Friday evening on the sidelines of the U.N. COP28 climate talks in Dubai, where the nations of the world are wrangling over the draft of a pledge to end fossil fuel use.The deal has been forcefully opposed by fossil fuel-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia. Negotiators from Riyadh argue carbon pollution can be largely captured and buried using scrubbing technology that Kerry said remains largely unproven at the needed scale.“There are people here who want to just continue business as usual. And the great facade is: ‘Oh no, we’ll be able to capture everything,’” said Kerry, his voice hoarse from a chest cold. “No scientist tells me we can capture it all. Can’t do it. Can we capture some? Yes, and by the way, I’m for it.”Kerry said it was...

Football season in review: Memorable fall for Massachusetts teams

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

Perfection is one of the hardest things to attain in high school football.There were more than 250 schools which fielded football programs this past season and only three of them left Gillette Stadium able to make that claim.For all the complaining that the current playoff format hurts the Central Mass. schools, two of three schools who ran the table were CMass entries Uxbridge and West Boylston. Uxbridge capped off a perfect season with a 42-16 win over Amesbury, while West Boylston rolled past Carver, 41-7.King Philip has been knocking on the door of a Div, 2 state title the last two years, but this year the Warriors kicked it in. They posted a perfect 13-0 record, including an impressive 42-14 win over Marshfield.King Philip’s Luke Danson (53) holds up the championship trophy celebrating their Division 2 win over Marshfield in Foxboro. (Photo by Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)King Philip was one of two Hockomock League teams to win state titles. Foxboro made the most of its five-mi...

Battenfeld: Biden starts crucial part of re-election campaign bogged down by corruption charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

President Joe Biden enters a crucial stage of his re-election campaign bogged down by an impeachment inquiry, a potential mutiny in his own party and new questions about corruption related to his son, Hunter.While before he only faced questions of competence, now it goes much deeper with Republicans trying to link him to Hunter’s business dealings.House Republicans formalized their impeachment investigation against Biden this week giving more power to committees seeking subpoenas and testimony from witnesses.“The impeachment inquiry strengthens our hand when we go to court against this administration or anyone who refuses our subpoena,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer said.There could be a vote on starting the formal inquiry as soon as next week and if any Democrats join the effort, that would be a signal that it’s looking very bad for Biden. Republicans are trying to tie the president to Hunter Biden’s sketchy consulting contracts to determine if the president somehow financia...

Live updates | Israel strikes north and south Gaza after US vetoes a UN cease-fire resolution

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

Israel pounded areas of the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which enables a U.N. chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. But U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza killed about 1,200, most of them civilians and took more than 240 people hostage.The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400 over the past two months, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatan...

Germany’s Scholz confident of resolving budget crisis, says no dismantling of the welfare state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Saturday he is confident that his troubled government will find a good solution to a budget crisis triggered by a court ruling last month, and promised his center-left party there will be no dismantling of the country’s welfare state.Leaders of Scholz’s three-party coalition have been wrangling over money since Germany’s highest court annulled a decision to repurpose 60 billion euros ($65 billion) originally meant to cushion the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for measures to help combat climate change and modernize the country.The immediate challenge is to plug a 17 billion-euro hole in next year’s budget. Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner have met repeatedly to seek to resolve the impasse, but have run out of time to get the budget through parliament before the new year starts.The issue has added to tensions in the 2-year-old coalition, which has become notorious ...

US and Philippines condemn China coast guard’s dangerous water cannon blasts against Manila’s ships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, separately condemned a high-seas assault Saturday by the Chinese coast guard together with suspected militia ships that repeatedly blasted water cannons to block three Philippine fisheries vessels from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.The noontime assault by China’s ships off the Scarborough Shoal, one of the most aggressive this year, caused “significant damage” to the communication and navigation equipment of one of the three Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ships of the Philippines, Filipino officials said.They said without elaborating that suspected militia vessels accompanying Chinese coast guard ships used a long-range acoustic device that could impair hearing causing “severe temporary discomfort and incapacitation to some Filipino crew.”It’s the latest flare out of the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a flashpoint in Asia that has put the U....

Veterans Affairs won’t pay for truck cover for retired navy reservist’s wheelchair

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Winter hasn’t arrived yet in the Niagara region, but the rain and cold the last few weeks have kept Stephen La Salle from leaving home as often as he’d like. Every time the retired naval lieutenant goes out, his wheelchair is exposed to the elements in the bed of his truck because Veterans Affairs has refused to pay for a cover to protect it. It’s an example of the “almost demeaning” bureaucracy La Salle said he’s encountered in the department since he left the Canadian Armed Forces last fall. “They’re looking at things from … a policy and a cost basis, but not what’s going to have the best impact on the veteran and their quality of life,” he said. La Salle’s leg was amputated below the knee after he was injured during a training exercise in 2018. He suffered a rare nerve injury that caused chronic pain and that still prevents him from being able to walk with a prosthetic. When his occupational therapist lear...

A fire in a hospital near Rome kills at least 3 and forces the evacuation of facility and patients

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

ROME (AP) — A fire broke out in a hospital on Rome’s outskirts, killing at least three people and forcing the overnight evacuation of the smoke-filled facility and its patients, officials said Saturday.Patients in intensive care at St. John the Evangelist hospital in Tivoli were transferred immediately to other hospitals via ambulance, the Tivoli mayor’s office said in a statement. Less-critical patients were moved into a nearby municipal gymnasium and then transferred to other facilities.The governor of the Lazio region, Francesco Rocca, said from the scene that three people were killed and an investigation would determine the cause of the blaze. He acknowledged there were “notable delays” in updating Italy’s aging hospitals with sprinkler systems and other fire safety infrastructure.The fire department initially said four people were killed after the blaze broke out late Friday. Italian news reports said the confusion arose because a body, already in the hospital morgu...

‘Grateful’: Hudson bicyclist continues recovery after hit and run, with help from local community

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:51 GMT

Barbara Espy opens her eyes in the morning and blinks. She exhales. For more than 70 days, the Hudson, Wis., resident couldn’t get out of bed without help. She couldn’t turn onto her side without excruciating pain.When Espy needs to, she will begin her morning routine. But first, she takes a second to appreciate the moment.A blink. A breath. She’s here.Espy was not supposed to survive the hit-and-run crash July 2, when a motorist dragged her several feet through the parking lot near the boat launch in downtown Hudson. The crash kept her at Regions Hospital for 40 days, and at Prescott Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for another 30 days. Her list of severe injuries compounds upon itself: Traumatic brain injury. Broken pelvis. Several fractured vertebrae. Lacerated liver. Fractured hip. She lost pints of blood. Her ankle was, according to reports from the scene, left hanging by the skin.She was not supposed to still have her left ankle.She was not supposed to be here at all.“The fir...