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MEPs confirm Bulgarian Iliana Ivanova as new commissioner

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

Iliana Ivanova takes over as EU Commissioner from Maria Gabriel who stepped down to become Bulgaria’s alternate Prime Minister under a new coalition agreement. The new commissioner on Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth has a short but interesting mandate ahead.Ivanova comes from the ranks of the center-right GERB party, the party of the former Bulgarian PM, Boyko Borissov. From 2009 to 2012 Ivanova was a Member of the European Parliament. During that period, she served as Vice-chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control and Vice-chair of the Special Committee on the Economic, Financial and Social crisis. Ending her tenure as MEP, Ivanova has been a member of the European Court of Auditors since 2013.For her role as the new Commissioner on Innovation, Research and Education she faced off Daniel Lorer, a Bulgarian MP put forward by the government of Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed thought to the European Parlia...

Miss Manners: It was awkward to see her after this emotional episode

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Some months ago, my husband and I bought a house. The prior owners were around during the process more often than is typical, and our closing went smoothly. In fact, one agent said it was the easiest closing they’d ever been to.Related ArticlesAdvice | Miss Manners: This newbie player is always holding up our game Advice | Miss Manners: I’m tired of being mistaken for a wife rather than an exec Advice | Miss Manners: Is it OK to point a knife at someone? What about a piece of cake? Advice | Miss Manners: Was I wrong to wear black to the wedding? Advice | Miss Manners: She took my keepsake T-shirts but never made me the quilt One of the owners fist-bumped me in celebration, and I said, “That’s what happens when everyone behaves like adults.” His wife was less enthusiastic because she loved the house and was sad to be leaving it. She seemed to be on the verg...

Dear Abby: My boss doesn’t see what the new co-worker is doing

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I work for a department within law enforcement that has been on a hiring spree for the past few months due to retirements. One of our new hires is an obnoxious know-it-all.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: I’m afraid if I say anything, my fiance will halt our wedding plan Advice | Dear Abby: Does my husband’s brother deserve another chance after what he did? Advice | Dear Abby: Her selfish husband acts like he doesn’t remember the hell she went through Advice | Dear Abby: If I wear this T-shirt, people might guess the secret I’ve only told my husband Advice | Dear Abby: Why do I meet so many dumb men? When we are talking policy, she constantly corrects us, usually incorrectly. When we try to explain to her about her being wrong, she twists whatever we’re talking about to make her sound right, or says we’re being rude.It’s not just policy stuff. Every...

Macron skips UN General Assembly amid busy diplomatic schedule

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is hopping from one diplomatic meeting to another, but there’s one place he isn’t going — and that’s the U.N. General Assembly in New York.Macron is not alone. Other heavyweights aren’t showing up to the global diplo fest either. In addition to the absences of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladmir Putin, Britain’s Rishi Sunak and India’s Narendra Modi are also skipping the gathering in New York next week.All have varying and different reasons for not attending the meeting that draws heads of state and government from across the world. The likely result is that U.S. President Joe Biden, and his speech, are likely to get even more attention than in previous years.While Putin and Xi frequently skip the gathering, Sunak and Macron’s absences have raised eyebrows. Both the U.K. and France hold permanent seats at the U.N. Security Council, meaning that only one leader of the five countries that have permanent seats will be attending t...

Apple to update iPhone 12 to assuage radiation concerns

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

PARIS — Apple will update the iPhone 12 to become compliant with European rules on electromagnetic radiation, according to a report by Agence France-Presse and confirmed by POLITICO. The U.S. tech giant pledged to provide a software update in the coming days, a French official from the digital ministry told POLITICO. Earlier this week, the French National Frequency Agency required Apple to withdraw the device from the local market as tests showed the iPhone 12’s specific absorption rate (SAR) slightly exceeded the legal limit. SAR refers to the “measure of the rate of radiofrequency energy absorbed by the body from the equipment.”Regulators in other European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium then reportedly said they were also assessing the potential health risks. When Apple does update the software, the French National Frequency Agency will verify whether the device is compliant with electromagnetic radiation rules, the French official added. If it’s the ...

Hungary’s Orbán calls for less climate panic, more babies

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

BUDAPEST — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused other European leaders of fearmongering over the threat of climate change at the expense of ignoring the problem of falling birth rates. “Europe is acting out of fear and fear makes us defeatist,” said the right-wing leader on Thursday. “We say there’s no future, and as such, this is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Hungary is one of a number of Central and Eastern European countries that are trying to reverse falling birth rates. All countries across the European Union have fewer than the 2.1 children per woman needed to keep the population stable without migration. This aging population raises thorny questions for governments around how to fund the welfare state as the number of older people increases and the proportion of people of working ages falls. In his address at the two-day Budapest Demographic Summit, a pro-family conference organized by the Hungarian government, Orbán said that “Western elites” w...

Rubiales arrives at Spanish court to be questioned for kissing a player at Women’s World Cup

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish soccer federation, arrived at court in Madrid on Friday to give testimony to a judge investigating his kissing a player on the lips last month at the Women’s World Cup.Judge Francisco de Jorge earlier this week ordered Rubiales to answer questions at Spain’s National Court.Rubiales kissed Spain forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. He said she had consented to the kiss, but Hermoso has denied that repeatedly.Rubiales did not speak before entering the courthouse with his lawyer.Spanish state prosecutors formally accused Rubiales last week of sexual assault and an act of coercion. According to Hermoso, Rubiales pressured her to speak out in his defense immediately after the scandal erupted.Rubiales announced on Sunday that he was resigning from his post. He he had already been provisionally suspended by soccer governing body...

Candidates in Ontario Liberal leadership debate take aim at Bonnie Crombie

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

Candidates in the Ontario Liberal Party’s race to become the next leader kicked off the first official debate Thursday in Thunder Bay, Ont., by taking aim at perceived front-runner Bonnie Crombie.MP Nate Erskine-Smith, MP and former provincial cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi, and Ted Hsu, a former Liberal MP and current provincial caucus member, all offered criticisms, both veiled and not so veiled, of the Mississauga mayor.The three variously brought up donations she has taken from developers, her track record on housing as mayor, and some early campaign missteps such as statements that she would be open to Greenbelt land swaps in certain circumstances.“Trust is really important and we have to be very mindful in this instance,” Naqvi said.“You cannot elect a leader who one day says they’re going to open the Greenbelt, and the next day changes their mind, or one who takes money from the same people who are donating to Doug Ford, and says that somehow they&...

What’s at stake as 13,000 workers go on strike at major US auto makers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers.The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.A small percentage of the union’s 146,000 members walked off the job at a GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit; and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday.Shawn Fain, the combative president of the UAW, says the targeted strikes will give the union leverage in contract talks and keep the auto companies guessing about its next move.It could also make the union’s $825 million strike fund last much longer.Both sides began exchanging wage and benefit proposals last week. Though some incremental p...

China is sending Vice President Han Zheng to represent the country at UN General Assembly session

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:53 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China is sending Vice President Han Zheng to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday, suggesting that the country’s most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, will not attend. This year’s gathering of world leaders at United Nations headquarters in New York starts Monday with a sustainability summit. The weeklong general debate gets underway on Tuesday.Chinese President Xi Jinping has not attended the U.N. session in person for several years. He participated via video conference during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic.Wang Yi attended last year and generally represented China at the U.N. Wang is the head of the foreign affairs committee of China’s Communist Party. He was not mentioned in the ministry’s announcement. Zheng is a past member of the Politburo Standing Committee, an elite group of leaders within the party. He retired from that position but assumed the position...