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EU gives France an ‘F’ grade on spending plans

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

BRUSSELS / PARIS ― The French government has been told by the European Commission it urgently needs to adjust next year’s spending plans to fall into line with the EU’s debt and deficit rules when they return after a four-year suspension. Paris is among four governments handed warnings over their budget plans by the bloc’s executive in its role policing member countries’ public expenditure. The rules, aimed at preventing instability in financial markets and the build-up of public debt, will retake effect on January 1 after they were shelved to allow greater investment during and after the COVID pandemic. “France’s draft budgetary plan risks not being in line” with the bloc’s rules, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Strasbourg, pointing to rising public expenditure and insufficient cuts to energy support.Belgium, Finland, and Croatia fall into the same category, the Commission said in its statement on Wednesday. Ignorin...

EU countries rally to exempt banks from new green and human rights rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

BRUSSELS — A new push from member countries to exempt financial institutions from proposed EU rules on the oversight of business supply chains risks further complicating already thorny negotiations. The proposed rules, now being negotiated by EU institutions, are meant to compel EU-based companies to police their global value chains for environmental or human rights risks.Ahead of a fourth — and potentially penultimate — round of negotiations on Wednesday, EU ambassadors have swung behind a long-standing call by France to exempt the entire financial sector. Paris wants to shield its finance houses from the compliance burden such rules would entail as they seek to win new business following the exit of Britain, and its outsized financial sector, from the EU.A majority voted last week in favor of a proposal from the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU to “exclude the financial sector from the scope” of the rules and to “delay its extension to this sector to a later ...

Boston police arrest man accused of cutting hole in pants of victim to steal cash and phone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

A 36-year-old man was taken into custody after Boston police say he allegedly robbed a person at knifepoint, cutting open the victim’s clothing to get at their cash and other items in the process.The Boston Police Department said Brandon Frazier of East Boston was arrested after officers were first called to the area of 406 Meridian St. for a report of an armed robbery on Monday.Police arrived to find the victim, who told authorities that a man had approached him while wielding a knife and demanded money from him.According to the victim, when he refused, the suspect proceeded to “cut a hole in the victim’s pants” to get at his money, cell phone, and ATM card.“The victim then stated the suspect placed the knife to his throat and demanded his pin number,” Boston PD stated in a news release.After the victim refused to give a number, police say the suspect threw the victim’s phone and ATM card to the ground before fleeing the scene.Frazier was l...

Belichick refuses to shed light on starting QB decision for Patriots

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

Patriots coach Bill Belichick declined to reveal his starting quarterback when talking to reporters Tuesday morning, repeating only that all of his players should be prepared when New England comes out of its off week to face the New York Giants on Sunday.“I’ve told all the players the same thing: Be ready to go,” Belichick said. “Hopefully, they will be.”Pressed on the question more than a dozen times in the eight minute availability, Belichick repeated a version of the same answer. Asked if he had made a decision, he said, “We’ll let you know on Sunday.”2021 first-round draft choice Mac Jones has started every game this season, but he hasn’t been able to finish three of them — twice in blowouts when Belichick said there was no point in sending him out there, and again in Week 10, a 10-6 loss to Indianapolis. With a chance to rally the Patriots, Bailey Zappe was 3 of 7 for 25 yards and finished by throwing an interception on a fake-spike play to seal the game.Zappe, a fourth-round ...

Gun Bills Finally Going Up For Public Hearing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

Lawmakers are interrupting their session-long push for new gun laws to give the finally public a chance to weigh in on a series of bills.Senate Democrats plan in the new year to unveil and debate a bill they want to put on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk this term, and the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on firearms bills that have been idling all year.The committee, chaired by Rep. Carlos Gonzalez of Springfield and Sen. Walter Timilty of Milton, plans to gather in Gardner Auditorium to accept testimony on 56 gun-related bills.House and Senate Democrats spent months this year at odds over whether to involve the Public Safety Committee in the review of a bill authored by Judiciary Committee Co-chair Rep. Michael Day of Stoneham, a top deputy to Speaker Ron Mariano.The House ultimately circumvented the joint committee process and approved Day’s controversial legislation 120-38 in October. That bill cl...

Israeli Cabinet to consider possible deal for release of some hostages held by Hamas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet was to convene Tuesday to consider a possible deal for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas, as troops battled Palestinian militants in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza and around hospitals overcrowded with patients and sheltering families.Details of any deal, worked out through international mediators, were not immediately known. Talks over the past weeks have centered on a swap of some of the estimated 240 people taken hostage by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack into Israel for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, accompanied by a temporary cease-fire in Gaza.Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.Senior Hamas officials said an agreement was near. But talks have repeatedly stalled and past predictions of a breakthrough proved premature. Israel announced that its War Cabinet, and then the full Cabinet – whose approval is needed on any deal – would convene Tuesday eveni...

Mass. business leaders want Beacon Hill lawmakers to ‘exercise control’ with spending

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

Business leaders from across Massachusetts warned Tuesday that state spending far outpaced inflation over the past five fiscal years, and cautioned lawmakers to “exercise control” as the fiscal 2025 budget process kicks off next month.Red flags from chamber of commerce leaders up and down the coast and out west come after top lawmakers painted a grim fiscal picture last week for Massachusetts, airing concerns that four consecutive months of below benchmark revenue collections this fiscal year could bode poorly for the state.State spending between fiscal year 2018 and 2022 grew by nearly 27% even as inflation in the Boston area only increased by about 15%, the chamber leaders said in a statement. Even when accounting for the “rapid pace” of increases in health care spending, spending “still substantially outpaced inflation,” they said.“This approach is not sustainable and not responsible,” leaders from Greater Boston, Worcester, Western Massachusetts, the North and South Shores, Cape...

Giving thanks isn’t just a holiday tradition. It’s part of how humans evolved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

By MADDIE BURAKOFF (AP Science Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — It’s the season of giving thanks — and it turns out humans have been doing it for a long, long time.As more researchers dig into the science of gratitude, they’ve found the feeling likely played a key role in helping our ancestors band together and survive. That legacy continues today, as being in the mood for gratitude shapes who we are as a species and how we connect with the people around us.“This is something that is part of our human DNA,” said Sarah Schnitker, a psychologist at Baylor University. “It is a glue, in a sense, that holds us together.”Humans are social animals. That’s how we’ve lasted so long; not by being the biggest or the strongest, but by figuring out how to work together.A key part of building relationships is the idea of reciprocity: “If you like me and do nice things for me, then I like you and do nice things for you,” said Michael To...

True or false: Coaching played a role in the Chicago Bears’ collapse against the Detroit Lions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

Another week, another review of what might have been if the Chicago Bears could just finish games.The latest failure came when the Detroit Lions scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter Sunday at Ford Field to pull off a 31-26 victory. It was the Bears’ eighth loss in 11 games this season and their ninth NFC North loss in as many games in coach Matt Eberflus’ two seasons.As the Bears look for answers with two more divisional matchups coming up, Tribune writers Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane sort through it all in a spirited “true or false” conversation.True or false? The Bears’ 31-26 loss to the Lions was about as bad a defeat as a team could suffer.Wiederer: False. The “Brutal Losses” file at Halas Hall is not only packed, it doesn’t ever gather much dust. So the research isn’t difficult. Sunday’s late collapse was painful and dispiriting for certain, but this team has had significantly worse displays to lament.Wha...

Mississauga man dead, others injured in rollover crash on Hwy. 407 in Vaughan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:25:24 GMT

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is investigating after a man died and others were injured in a single-vehicle rollover crash on Highway 407 in Vaughan over the weekend.The OPP was dispatched to a single-vehicle crash on Hwy. 407 westbound, east of Hwy. 27, at around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the car veered onto the right shoulder, struck a steel guide rail, and rolled over.A 65-year-old male passenger from Mississauga was pronounced dead at the scene. The 34-year-old driver was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, while a 32-year-old passenger suffered minor injuries in the crash.Sgt. Schmidt said no charges have been laid as of yet.Fatal Collision – #Hwy407 near #Hwy27. Single Vehicle rollover. One person pronounced deceased. Two other occupants with significant injuries. #407OPP Investigating. ^yb pic.twitter.com/Sx8SXjZT2i— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) November 20, 2023