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France ‘in shock’ after knife attack on children in the Alps

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

PARIS — Five people, including four children and one adult, were injured in a knife attack in the French Alpine town of Annecy on Thursday, according to French media reports.Two children and one adult are in critical condition, according to the AFP.A man attacked young children in a playground in a park near the lake of Annecy before being stopped by the French police. The suspect, a Syrian asylum seeker, has been arrested, according to local media.French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced the stabbing as an act “of absolute cowardice” in comments made online.“Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them, their families and the rescue services,” he said.French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin were heading to the site of the attack on Thursday morning. The attack is not being treated as a terrorism case, per authorities.A security perimeter has been set up around the park and childre...

Pharma reform: Patients can’t afford to wait. Act now.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

As EU health ministers convene for their meeting on June 13 2023 they have been asked by the Presidency to consider: What measures on EU level do we need in your view to ensure equitable access to medicines to all patients in EU? What do you consider as important elements in order to ensure a highly competitive and innovative pharmaceutical industry in EU for the benefit of EU citizens? These two questions have been central to the revision of the EU’s pharmaceutical legislation. And across the innovation community, from large research-based pharmaceutical companies, to contract research organizations and biotech SMEs, there is growing concern that the raft of proposals in the Commission’s draft text will fail to have an impact on access for patients and cost Europe dearly in lost competitiveness, research, investment, jobs and growth.  The views of the health ministers will be key. Many of the competencies that impact on faster, more equitable access to medi...

Eurozone fell into recession as energy prices soared

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

The eurozone confounded previous forecasts and shrank for two consecutive quarters, figures on Thursday showed, as energy shocks, Russia’s war in Ukraine, inflation, and monetary tightening gnawed at growth momentum over the winter.Data showed the 20-nation currency area wasn’t able to dodge a recession — albeit a very shallow one for now — making politicians’ sense of optimism about the eurozone’s economic resilience to such challenges look premature.GDP shrank by 0.1 percent over the first three months of 2023, according to the revised data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office. The news was made worse by its revision of the last quarter of 2022 — to a contraction of 0.1 percent, having previously forecast 0 percent. A recession is defined as two successive quarters of contraction. The figures make difficult reading for governments battling Europe’s cost-of-living crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion and resulting soaring energy prices, and heap pressu...

Britain’s political parties are quietly raking in millions. No one will say where it’s coming from

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

LONDON — What connects a Lancashire manor house, several exclusive dining clubs, and a bronze sculpture of David Cameron on a bicycle? The answer is millions of pounds in opaque donations to Britain’s political parties.This is the weird world of “unincorporated associations” — shadowy groups which constitute one of the least-regulated and most-poorly understood aspects of British election finance. Jess Garland, of campaign group the Electoral Reform Society, said they represent a “dangerous loophole in our political financing rules.”In the past five years alone, donations to British political parties from these little-known entities have surpassed £14 million — a sum almost equivalent to the ruling Conservative Party’s entire outlay during its triumphant 2019 election campaign. British political parties are generally required to be open about how and where they raise their cash. Yet unincorporated associations remain an enormous transparency black...

Cool, Some Smoke, Some Showers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

While mostly cloudy skies and a few spotty showers/sprinkles drifted through the skies yesterday, the big story across the Northeast U.S. was the amount of smoke in the air. While the amounts of smoke were modest in central and eastern Mass, western Mass, CT, and certainly down near NYC, saw very unhealthy levels of air quality and reduced visibility thanks the heavy smoke in the air. This morning, the air quality is worse the farther south and west you go. That will tend to be the case through the day, but from time to time, enough smoke mixes in to produce unhealthy air quality for sensitive groups, but we won’t be seeing the Mars like views they had over New York yesterday. What we will see later today, are a few spotty showers popping up from time to time as highs hold in the 60s. Certainly cool for early June, but not as cold as the past weekend. Pop-up showers and storms are a bit more widespread tomorrow with highs again in the 60s. Keep the umbrella handy midday into ...

Chicago Bears team leaders to chat with select group of Arlington Heights area community members at invite-only meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

Despite headlines this week about the Chicago Bears’ proposed Arlington Heights stadium project possibly being “at risk,” the NFL football team’s brass will come face to face with about 300 people later this month at a meeting meant to promote communication between local stakeholders and the team.The Bears, operating as the Chicago Bears Football Club, has proposed a multi-billion dollar stadium development at the site of the former Arlington International Racecourse the team purchased in February.“We will hear directly from Kevin Warren on his experience with stadium development and what it’s going to take to make Arlington Park the home of the Chicago Bears,” according to a meeting announcement.The meeting, set for June 26 at the Metropolis Center for the Performing Arts, located in Arlington Heights, is an initiative of the newly formed Touchdown Arlington group, a private group that sees the arrival of the team as an economic opportunit...

5 things we learned at Chicago Bears practice, including the ‘best friends’ rapport between DJ Moore and Justin Fields

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

The Chicago Bears are completing organized team activities and will be back at Halas Hall next week for a mandatory three-day minicamp. Coaches and players feel encouraged with the progress they’re making through the offseason program and hope to squeeze a little more out of their remaining practices before separating for a short summer break in advance of training camp.Here are five things we learned Wednesday from practice and during interviews with coaches and players.1. The chemistry continues to grow between new receiver DJ Moore and quarterback Justin Fields.With each practice, it has becoming increasingly apparent that Fields is gaining trust in Moore, who is showing a consistent ability to get open. The most attention-grabbing endorsement Wednesday might have come from Bears safety Jaquan Brisker.“They look like they’re best friends,” Brisker said. “Justin’s definitely throwing him the ball. … You’re going to see. You will see....

AP Exclusive: Drone footage of collapsed dam shows ruined structure, devastation and no sign of life

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Exclusive drone footage of the collapsed Ukrainian dam and surrounding villages under Russian occupation show the ruined structure falling into the flooded river and hundreds of submerged homes, greenhouses and even a church — and no sign of life.An Associated Press team flew a drone over the devastation on Wednesday, a day after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River. The buildings that remain visible above the rushing waters did not show damage typical of a bomb dropped from above, such as scorch marks or shrapnel scars. Russia accused Ukraine of bombarding the structure, which was under Moscow’s control, while Ukraine alleged that Russia blew it up from within.The collapse of the dam in an area that Moscow has controlled for over a year and the emptying of its reservoir has irrevocably changed the landscape downstream, and shifted the dynamic of the 15-month-old war.In the images captured by the AP, most of the dam was submerged by ...

Retailer Roots reports $8M Q1 loss, sales down from year ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

TORONTO — Roots Corp. reported a first-quarter loss of $8 million compared with a loss of $5.3 million a year earlier, as its sales edged down on lower demand for its popular sweatpants.Roots chief executive Meghan Roach says the results aligned with the company’s internal projections and reflected a challenging economic environment.The retailer says the loss amounted to 19 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended April 30 compared with a loss of 13 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year.Sales in the quarter totalled $41.5 million, down from $43.1 million a year ago.Roots says the decline in sales came as its direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $35.4 million, down from $37.4 million in the same quarter last year.Partner and other sales, which includes wholesale Roots branded products, licensing to select manufacturing partners and the sale of certain custom products, totalled $6.1 million, up from $5.7 million a year ago.Roach noted the company saw strengt...

Smoky haze blanketing US and Canada could last into the weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — On air quality maps, purple signifies the worst of it. In reality, it’s a thick, hazardous haze that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. and Canada, blotting out skylines and turning skies orange.And with weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.That means at least another day, or more, of a dystopian-style detour that’s chased players from ballfields, actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights and sparked a resurgence in mask wearing and remote work — all while raising concerns about the health effects of prolonged exposure to such bad air.The weather system that’s driving the great Canadian-American smoke out — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “will probably be hangi...