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Nigeria’s president defends end to fuel subsidy as hardship bites harder

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday defended the West African nation’s decision last week to stop subsidizing fuel, a move that has pushed up prices for transportation and commodities.Tinubu appealed for patience as millions of citizens face additional economic hardship. The money saved by ending the decades-old subsidy will help the government’s efforts to fight poverty and implement other initiatives, he told governors in a meeting in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.“We can see the effects of poverty on the faces of our people. Poverty is not hereditary, it is from society. Our position is to eliminate poverty,’’ a statement from the Nigerian presidency quoted Tinubu as saying. The governors supported the subsidy’s removal and promised to work together in implementing it, the presidency’s statement said.Though Nigeria is an oil-producing nation, it depends on imported refined petroleum products, and the government has subsi...

Reportan varias personas heridas, entre ellas varios niños, por un individuo armado con un cuchillo en Francia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

(CNN) — Al menos ocho personas, entre ellas niños, resultaron heridas este jueves por un individuo armado con un cuchillo en la ciudad francesa de Annecy, según informó el ministro del Interior de Francia, Gérald Darmanin, en su cuenta oficial de Twitter.“Varias personas, entre ellas niños, han resultado heridas por un individuo armado con un cuchillo en una plaza de Annecy. El individuo fue detenido gracias a la rápida intervención de la policía”, dijo.El sospechoso detenido en relación con el ataque con arma blanca es un varón, según informó la Prefectura de Alta Saboya.El Ministerio del Interior de Francia informó que la primera ministra del país, Elisabeth Borne, viajará este jueves a la ciudad de Annecy con el ministro del Interior, Gérald Darmanin.El ministro de Sanidad de Francia, François Braun, ha tuiteado que sus pensamientos están con las víctimas del ataque con arma blanca en la ciudad francesa de Annecy.“Todos mis pensamientos van inmediatamente ...

‘Code Red’ air quality alert as impact of Canadian wildfires sweeps through DC area

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

Poor air quality will continue through Friday in the D.C. region courtesy of the smoke from the wildfire ravaging parts of Canada. With “unsafe” and “unhealthy” air posing a threat, here’s what you need to know.Listen to WTOP online and on the radio at 103.5 FM or 107.7 FM.Current traffic conditionsWeather forecastClosings and DelaysSign up for WTOP alertsHealth experts and meteorologists urge everyone, especially people with asthma, heart disease and respiratory issues, as well as older adults, to stay indoors.In Northern Virginia, Thursday’s air quality index, or AQI, is forecast at an unhealthy level — 156 — the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality said. The D.C. Department of Energy and Environment predicts the same unhealthy levels for Thursday.A Code Red Air Quality Alert has also been issued for Maryland’s suburbs to the north of D.C.AQI describes how clean the air is and what health effects may be expected. A satisfactory AQI...

Preserving our blue planet: UN World Oceans Day spotlights urgent need for action

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

Thursday marks World Oceans Day, a United Nations program focused on raising awareness of one of our planet’s most important resources. Whether we live in the ocean or not, we are all bound to the salty water of the sea.“Our survival depends on a healthy ocean,” said Cassandra Brooks with the University of Colorado. On this year’s World Ocean Day, the UN is calling attention to human impact on the ocean, how to protect the aqueous ecosystem’s health, and how to defend its organisms. “Oceans are critically threatened by not just climate change but also habitat degradation and overfishing,” said Brooks.According to the UN, the oceans generate roughly 50% of the world’s oxygen. Fish are a main source of protein for more than 1 billion people.By 2030, about 40 million people will work in fields that revolve around the ocean, like shipbuilding, fishing and transportation. Experts say our oceans are under attack and state that by 2050, the a...

An iconic Taco Bell menu item is going vegan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

New York (CNN) — One of Taco Bell’s most recognizable menu items is going vegan.The chain is testing a vegan Crunchwrap, marking the first time that Taco Bell has sold a fully vegan entree.Similar to a traditional Crunchwrap, the vegan version uses a “proprietary, boldly seasoned” plant-based protein created by the company, and is then topped with two vegan sauces: a blanco sauce (similar to sour cream) and a vegan nacho sauce. Then it’s all wrapped in a crunchy tostada shell.However, it’s not going nationwide just yet: A total of three Taco Bell locations — one each in New York City, Hollywood and Orlando — will sell the vegan Crunchwrap beginning June 8 until supplies last. Those cities were selected because they have “notable vegan populations,” the company said. The vegan version is priced the same as a traditional wrap, which ranges from $4.99 to $6.79 depending on the city.Although the menu item can be classified as vegan since it doesn’t contain any animal ingredients, it mig...

EU to Zuckerberg: Explain yourself over Instagram pedophile network

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wants Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to explain and take “immediate” action over a recently exposed large pedophile network on Instagram. Instagram has been letting a vast network of accounts promoting and purchasing child sexual abuse material flourish on its platform, according to investigations by the Wall Street Journal and researchers released on June 7. The social media platform lets users search for explicit hashtags, and has offenders exploit its recommendation algorithms to promote illicit content.“Meta’s voluntary code on child protection seems not to work,” Breton wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Mark Zuckerberg must now explain & take immediate action.”Breton said he will discuss the issue with Zuckerberg at the Meta headquarters on June 23 during a trip to the U.S. The politician will travel later this month to see how social media companies including Twitter are preparing to comply wi...

How Seville won the World’s Fair

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

How Seville won the World’s FairGlitzy international expositions can be money losers — but the Andalusian city proved they don’t have to be.By Aitor Hernández-MoralesPhoto courtesy of STP CartujaThis article is part of POLITICO’s Global Policy Lab: Living Cities, a collaborative journalism project exploring the future of cities. Sign up here.Cities enter into a devil’s bargain when they agree to host an international exposition.They bask in the global spotlight while the event lasts — but once the fair shutters and visitors leave, locals are left dealing with a fat bill and empty grounds.When it hosted Expo ‘92, Seville attempted to avoid that fate by designing its World’s Fair grounds to be reused as an innovation campus immediately after the event ended.Just months later, those plans collapsed when Spain’s deep economic recession drove off the businesses that were meant to move in.Improbably, today Seville’s former fairgrounds are a succ...

Eurozone enters recession, latest data shows

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

The eurozone contracted for two consecutive quarters, data out Thursday shows, meaning it has entered a technical recession, signaling a loss of growth momentum in the single currency area buffeted by energy shocks, war, inflation, and monetary tightening.Eurozone GDP fell by 0.1 percent over the first three months of 2023 compared with the previous quarter, according to the figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency. GDP was also revised downward for the last quarter of 2022, to -0.1 percent from 0 percent previously forecast.Thursday’s data is a downward revision on previous flash estimates released in April that showed growth of 0.1 percent in the eurozone for first quarter of the year. These were corrected downward following German data showing the country contracted for a second consecutive quarter, slipping into a recession.Employment continued to increase in the eurozone, by 0.6 percent in the first quarter this year, up from 0.3 percent in the previous qua...

When will the smoke go away in Massachusetts? Wildfire smoke may return ‘off and on throughout the summer’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

Could haze and smoke be the story of the summer?After smoke from the Canadian wildfires caused the air quality to plummet across Massachusetts in recent days and some people put back on their N95 masks, meteorologists are warning that smoke from up north could impact the region at times over the next several weeks.“We might be experiencing this off and on throughout the summer, depending on how the weather pattern shapes up,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Gresiak told the Herald on Wednesday — which was a better day for air quality in the Bay State, while New York City and other spots on the East Coast dealt with hazardous conditions.The haze and smoke could continue to affect the region because the Canadian wildfires are out of control, and it doesn’t appear they’ll be put out soon.The wildfires are in remote areas of northern Quebec where very few people live, Gresiak said.“It may be awhile before the fires get extinguished,” he ad...

The ‘Madden 24’ teaser wasn’t kind to Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen. He took notice.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:00 GMT

The release of the new “Madden” cover athlete every summer is a joyous day on the football calendar, for players and fans alike.For Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen, it was one to forget.On Wednesday, EA Sports announced that Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen will grace the cover of “Madden NFL 24″ when it’s released Aug. 18, joining Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson as stars to receive the honor in recent years. At the end of a roughly one-minute video teasing the new gameplay and highlighting some of the league’s biggest stars, Allen bulldozes his way for a touchdown against the Ravens, punctuated by an emphatic stiff-arm of Queen.Needless to say, it didn’t sit well with the Ravens’ fourth-year linebacker.“How i get signed up to be the one ran over on the release video,” Queen tweeted with a laughing emoji.Queen, a 2020 first-round draft pick who is set to become a free agent next offseason after the Ravens d...