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European Parliament wants Ukraine’s EU membership talks to start in December

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

BRUSSELS — European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said she wants the European Union to open serious negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership bid in mid-December this year.“We must keep our promises on opening negotiations,” the Maltese member of European Parliament told journalists after participating in a summit of EU heads of state and government. “Ukraine’s efforts on reforms have been extraordinary, even and especially in times of war. If the reform criteria have been sufficiently met, we need to respond.” “And I remain optimistic that this can still be achieved this year,” Metsola said.Metsola has been one of the most outspoken EU figures supporting Ukraine’s bid to become the bloc’s 28th member, having twice visited the country since the full-scale invasion started and meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who addressed EU leaders by video link Thursday. She pushed for months for Ukraine’s accession talks to start th...

Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson criticize each other in unusually sharp language in affirmative action case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling Thursday on affirmative action pitted its two Black justices against each other, with the ideologically opposed jurists employing unusually sharp language attacking each other by name.The majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts said colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, saying programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause because they failed to offer “measurable” objectives to justify the use of race.Justice Clarence Thomas and the court’s other four conservatives joined Roberts’ opinion. But Thomas, who in 1991 became the second Black person to ascend to the nation’s highest court, issued a lengthy concurrence that attacked such admissions programs and tore into arguments posited by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman...

Your risk of getting sick from germy food has gone up again, CDC says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

(CNN) — The risk of getting sick from E-coli, salmonella, listeria and other foodborne germs rose to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.“Progress in reducing (intestinal) infection incidence was not observed during 2022, as influences of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided,” the CDC said in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.“Collaboration among food growers, processors, retail stores, restaurants, and regulators is needed to reduce pathogen contamination during poultry slaughter and to prevent contamination of leafy greens.”Listeria is a rare but serious illness that even with treatment has a high mortality rate of 20% to 30%, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The infectious bacteria is so hardy that it can continue to grow while refrigerated.Salmonella and E-coli are two of the more common foodborne illnesses. Symptoms of salmonella in...

Flight delays are easing on a busy travel day. One airline has by far the most cancellations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

By DAVID KOENIG (AP Airlines Writer)DALLAS (AP) — Backups are easing at U.S. airports thanks to a break in the weather, but United Airlines continues to struggle, accounting for more than 80% of canceled flights in the United States early Thursday.United vowed to get back on track for the July 4 holiday weekend when the number of air travelers could set a pandemic-era record, though Thursday is expected to be the busiest day of the holiday stretch at the nation’s airports.Hundreds of thousands of people have had travel plans thrown in the air after a wave of storms raked the Northeast over the past few days and frustrations are running high. Airports in Chicago, Denver and Newark, New Jersey — all hubs for United — were seeing the most delays on Thursday, according to FlightAware.By midday on the East Coast, United had canceled more than 390 flights, the bulk of the 475 cancellations toted up by FlightAware. The Chicago carrier is poised to lead all airlines ...

H-1B visa: Canada launches new bid to poach skilled tech workers from US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

Canada’s history of trying to poach skilled foreign technology talent from Silicon Valley continued Tuesday with the announcement of a new program to lure away thousands of tech workers from the U.S.“I would say the majority would come from Silicon Valley,” said Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco. “This is where the talent is. This is where we’re coming to attract talent.”The nation to the north, with a population that just surpassed 40 million thanks to high immigration numbers, is once again attempting to leverage foreign workers’ difficulties with the U.S. H-1B visa, the work permit of choice for Bay Area companies wanting to hire tech workers.“We’re targeting newcomers that can help enshrine Canada as a world leader in a variety of emerging technologies,” Canada’s immigration minister, Sean Fraser, said in a statement.Canada’s overt efforts to persuade Silicon Valley H-1B workers to abandon the U.S. and head northward date back a decade, when the Canadian gov...

Harvard reacts to Supreme Court decision throwing out affirmative action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

Harvard University today affirmed its belief that “diversity and difference” are essential to excellence in education after the Supreme Court ruling that threw out affirmative action policies as part of the university’s admission process.In an open letter to the university community, Harvard wrote, “deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.”Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”Related Articles Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions, and Biden ‘strongly’ disagrees Read the opinion: SCOTUS declares affirmative...

Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions, and Biden ‘strongly’ disagrees

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”Justice Clarence Thomas — the nation’s second Black justice, who had long called for an end to affirmative action — wrote separately that the decision “sees the universities’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a p...

We’re older than we used to be, especially in these states

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

Tim Henderson | Stateline.org (TNS)The median age rose in almost every state last year, census estimates show, continuing a long-term trend that is pushing states to prepare for aging populations.Seventeen states had median ages over 40 in 2022, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates of the age at which half of residents are older and half are younger. That’s up from 12 states in 2020 and just seven in 2010.Nationwide, the median age was below 30 until 1980, but it rose to 38.9 as of 2022, according to the bureau estimates.That leaves more states planning for future health and housing challenges for older residents. Some states have issued or are considering executive orders, agency plans and legislation to assist state residents who need more help with health crises, housing and long-term care as they live longer.Millennials started turning 40 last year, and the youngest baby boomers are quickly approaching 60.“As the nation’s median age creeps closer to 40, you can really s...

Mike Lupica: Domingo German becomes the latest imperfect Yankee to throw a perfect game

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

A legend of this newspaper, and of this business, involves the day that Don Larsen pitched his perfect game for the Yankees in the World Series, the first perfect game a Yankee had ever pitched, still the only one a World Series had ever seen.Joe Trimble was writing the game story for the Daily News on that October day in 1956. Dick Young was sitting next to him. When it was over, after Larsen had struck out Dale Mitchell and Yogi had jumped into Larsen’s arms, Joe was still searching for the right way to begin what felt like the biggest game story he would ever have to write for this newspaper.That was when, or so the legend has it, Young leaned over and said, “The imperfect man pitched a perfect game.” Joe Trimble wrote it, the most famous line that would ever appear under his byline.Now another imperfect young man, Domingo German, has pitched another perfect game for the Yankees, against the Oakland Double A’s on Wednesday night, the fourth in the teamR...

Saying strike is “imminent,” UPS gets a Friday deadline from union to come up with a better contract

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:11 GMT

By MATT OTT (AP Business Writer)Frustrated by an “appalling counterproposal” earlier this week, the head of the union representing 340,000 UPS workers said a strike is imminent and gave the shipping giant a Friday deadline to improve its offer. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters walked away from negotiations Wednesday, demanding that UPS give its “last, best, and final offer” no later than June 30.Teamsters officials did not say what time the Friday deadline was or what actions it might take if it is not met.“The largest single-employer strike in American history now appears inevitable,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, who accused UPS executives of hoarding profits instead of sharing them with workers.“Executives at UPS, some of whom get tens of millions of dollars a year, do not care about the hundreds of thousands of American workers who make this company run,” O’Brien said.In a brief statement, Uni...