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Food prices surge at European Parliament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

STRASBOURG — The price of food — and also much-needed coffee — at the European Parliament is set to increase between 6 and 14 percent from April as a result of inflation.Signs at the so-called Flower Bar and the MEPs’ restaurant, seen by POLITICO in Strasbourg on Monday, said the uptick is due to higher costs of ingredients, energy and salaries.David Gueble, the Parliament’s executive chef, said that they had been asking for a price rise for a long time. “We can’t sell at a loss,” the chef said. “For us it was vital to be able to continue working.”But he promised the costs would remain “attractive.”Signs said, “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”The increase will affect cafes and cafeterias used by officials, lawmakers and visitors at the European Parliament’s buildings in Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg. “EP catering service providers are nonsubsidised in the three places of work,” a European Parliament spokesperson said. The ...

Green groups take EU Commission to court over sustainable investment list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

NGOs are stepping up their fight against Brussels’ decision to label nuclear energy and natural gas as sustainable investments. Eight Greenpeace organizations on Tuesday plan to file a lawsuit at the Court of Justice of the EU against the European Commission over its decision to label nuclear and gas as sustainable in its so-called taxonomy, which aims to channel investor cash into the green transition. Legal charity ClientEarth, the WWF European Policy Office, Friends of the Earth Germany and Transport & Environment will file a similar lawsuit related to natural gas only. “By including gas and nuclear into the taxonomy, it has become the contrary of what it was meant to be,” said Nina Treu, director of Greenpeace Germany, which is among the Greenpeace organizations taking the EU executive to court. “Instead of hindering greenwashing, it has now become a tool for greenwashing.” The Commission’s complementary delegated act on nuclear and g...

T. rex skeleton expected to fetch millions at Zurich auction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Interested investors may have to dig deep into their pockets to claim a giant Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton going up for auction on Tuesday — a first in Europe — that’s been dug up from three sites in the United States and could make the ultimate ornament for a tycoon’s abode or other eye-popping display.The 293 T. rex bones, assembled and erected into a growling 11.6-meter-long (38-foot-long) and 3.9-meter-high (12.8-foot-high) posture, are expected to fetch 5 million to 8 million Swiss francs ($5.6-$8.9 million) when it goes under the hammer at a Zurich auction house.Promoters say the composite T. rex — dubbed “Trinity” and drawn from three sites in the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations of Montana and Wyoming — was built from specimens retrieved between 2008 and 2013. More than half of the restored fossil is “original bone material,” and Koller auction house says the skull is particularly rare and was remarkably well-preserved. “When din...

Indonesia dismisses rebel claim of army deaths in Papua

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s military chief on Tuesday dismissed a separatist group claim that they had killed more than a dozen government soldiers who were searching for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the rebels in the restive Papua region.Adm. Yudo Margono and the military’s top brass flew to the region on Monday after initial information said attackers from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, ambushed 36 government soldiers in the hilly district of Nduga in mountainous Papua Highlands province.Rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom said in a statement on Monday that his group’s fighters were holding the remains of 12 soldiers, including nine who he said “were arrested and executed.” The rebels offered no proof to back up their statement. Margono confirmed only one fatality and said four other soldiers were missing. The rest returned to their post, he said. Four were wounded and were in stable condition and evacuated to a hospi...

Saudi foreign minister to visit Syria as relations thaw

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat is expected to arrive in the Syrian capital on Tuesday, the first official visit by an official from the kingdom in more than a decade, the Syrian government said. The visit by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to Damascus follows that of his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mikdad, to Riyadh last week. The kingdom cut off diplomatic relations with Damascus in 2012, after the outbreak of Syria’s civil war. Syria and Saudi Arabia said last week they were moving toward restoring consular services and resuming flights between the two countries.Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters in a 2011 uprising that descended into civil war. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League.However, in recent years, as Assad consolidated control over most of the country, Syria’s neighbors have begun to take steps toward rapprochement. T...

Longtime Lennon-Ono insider Elliot Mintz writing memoir

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — //EMBARGOED FOR 4:30A EASTERN; edited by Anthony McCartney; photo linked will time release to be live on the wire when embargo lift.Elliot Mintz, a longtime insider with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, will release a memoir next year that will weave in behind-the-scenes moments with the famous couple.The U.S. publisher Dutton and British publisher Transworld announced the deal with Mintz, who first met Lennon and Ono in the early 1970s and remained close to Ono after Lennon’s murder in 1980. The book is currently untitled.“I have waited fifty years to share my experiences with Yoko and John,” Mintz, 78, said in a statement Tuesday. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. It is a privilege to share my odyssey and include the reader in intimate portrayal of my two dearest friends.”Mintz, a spokesperson and radio and television host, has worked on various Lennon-Ono projects over the years, including hosting the radio documentary series “The Lost Lennon Tapes,” whi...

Reclusive Taliban leader releases end-of-Ramadan message

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The reclusive top leader of the Taliban released a message Tuesday lauding the changes in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover and the measures they imposed after seizing the country following two decades of war.The statement from Hibatullah Akhundzada was made public ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday later this week that marks the end of the fasting Muslim month of Ramadan. Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, rarely appears in public or leaves the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province. He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and allies who oppose education and work for women.In recent months, Akhundzada appears to have taken a stronger hand in directing domestic policy, banning girls’ education after the sixth grade and barring Afghan women from public life and work, especially for non-governmental organizations and the United Nations.The message was distributed in five languages: Arabic, Dari, English, Pashto and Urdu. T...

Italy captures brown bear that fatally mauled runner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

ROME (AP) — Authorities in northern Italy have captured a bear that fatally mauled a runner and became the focus of a battle over what to do with Italy’s growing brown bear population.Officials in Trento announced Tuesday that the bear, identified as Jj4, had been captured overnight.Andrea Papi, 26, was killed while out on a mountain training run between April 5-6. The Trento provincial authorities ordered the bear killed, but an animal rights group appealed to an administrative court, which suspended the order on April 11.Jj4 is the same Alpine brown bear that injured a father and son out walking in the region in 2020. Then too, provincial authorities ordered her killed but a court blocked the move.She was born to two bears brought to Italy from Slovenia two decades ago as part of a European program to repopulate the brown bear population that had been dwindling but has now rebounded and is increasingly having encounters with the human population.Papi’s family had said they didn’t ...

Putin rallies his troops with 2nd Ukraine visit in 2 months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday visited command posts of the Kremlin’s forces fighting in Ukraine in an apparent effort to rally his troops as the war approaches its 14th month and Kyiv readies a possible counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons.A video released by the Kremlin and broadcast by Russian state television showed Putin arriving by helicopter at the command post for Russian forces in the southern Kherson region and afterward flying to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard of the eastern Luhansk region Dressed in a dark suit, and in an apparent demonstration of authority, Putin appeared to chair the meetings with his military top brass. It was his second trip in two months to the Russian-occupied territories in the neighboring country.The locations of the military headquarters in the Kherson and Luhansk regions weren’t disclosed, so it wasn’t possible to assess how close they are to the front line.Russia’s war in Ukraine has ...

In The News for April 18, 2023: Did you miss out on the new federal benefits?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:31 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Tuesday, April 18, 2023 …What we are watching in Canada …A new report finds that hundreds of thousands of Canadians may have missed out on the new federal dental and housing benefits created last year. The analysis by senior economist David Macdonald at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives assesses the take-up of both benefits, as well as how much the federal government has actually spent on the measures. Macdonald finds only 44 per cent of people who were likely eligible for the top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit actually received it, while just over half have received the Canada Dental Benefit. That means the federal government spent less than it previously allocated for the measures. Macdonald says the federal government could have eased the requirements for applying, or at the very least, better infor...