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Battenfeld: Michelle Wu great at winning elections, not so great at getting results

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has shown she’s great at winning elections, but her track record on delivering results is much more mixed.All four of Wu’s endorsed candidates won their City Council races last week, but then this week Wu dropped a bomb by admitting she’s abandoning her promise to join a program to ban developers from including fossil fuels in new buildings.Wu’s decision to not participate in a state pilot program to rid buildings of fossil fuels – one of the cornerstones of her “Green New Deal” plan – drew criticism from environmental activists.The Democratic mayor put out word of the fossil fuel ban retreat in an interview with the Boston Globe to try to soften the blow, saying it “breaks my heart” to do it. She blamed the retreat on the state, saying she got “clear indications that Boston would not be chosen” for the pilot program.But some climate advocates blamed the real estate industry for pressuring the city to drop out of the program.Wu had said in July that the city...

7 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, including the offense scraping by on turnovers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

The Chicago Bulls fought back from a 17-point deficit before dropping a 118-109 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks as the team’s shooting woes persist.Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 35 points to power the Bucks as the Bulls fell to 4-7 with the loss.Here are seven takeaways from the game:1. Another deficit erased after a slow start.The Bulls were ice cold from the floor in the opening minutes of Monday’s loss. They missed their first eight shots of the game and finished the first quarter 6-for-23 (26%) from the field. DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine were a combined 0-for-9 from the floor.Scoring seesawed back and forth through the opening frame. The Bucks opened on a 9-0 run, the Bulls answered with an 8-0 run only to be clobbered by another 11-0 Milwaukee run. But the Bulls couldn’t finish enough shots to keep pace. They ended the quarter trailing 35-18.2. A fruitless comeback.After that sluggish start, however, the Bulls snapped back into a competitive form. They dominated ...

Putin approves new restrictions on media coverage ahead of presidential elections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies reported on Tuesday.The changes come ahead of the election to be held in March in which Putin, who has ruled Russia for the last 24 years, is expected to seek a new six-year term.Putin, 71, has not declared whether he will run, saying he will announce that only after the parliament formally sets the election date.Under the amendments that he approved, only journalists contractually employed by registered media outlets will be allowed to cover election commission meetings, potentially barring freelancers and independent journalists. The changes also include barring any coverage of the commission’s actions on military bases or in areas under martial law without prior permission of regional and military authorities. In addition, the changes prohibit campaign activity on “blocked resources.” Under an inte...

Guyana tells UN court that Venezuelan referendum on territorial dispute is an ‘existential threat’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Guyana on Tuesday urged judges at the United Nations’ highest court to call for a halt to parts of a Venezuelan referendum about a territorial dispute that Guyana representatives called an “existential threat” designed to pave the way for the annexation of a large part of the country.Two days of hearings that opened at the International Court of Justice are the latest legal tussle between the South American neighbors in a dispute that dates back to an arbitration award by an international tribunal in 1899 that drew the border between them.The Tunisia-sized swath of jungle west of the Essequibo River in the dispute is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources.Guyana launched a case at the world court in 2018 seeking to have U.N. judges uphold the 1899 ruling. It returned to the court last month after Venezuelan authorities published five questions the country plans to ask in a consultative referendum scheduled for Dec. 3 abou...

In fight to curb climate change, a grim report shows world is struggling to get on track

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

The world is off track in its efforts to curb global warming in 41 of 42 important measurements and is even heading in the wrong direction in six crucial ways, a new international report calculates.The only bright spot is that global sales of electric passenger vehicles are now on track to match what’s needed — along with many other changes — to limit future warming to just another couple tenths of a degree, according to the State of Climate Action report released Tuesday by the World Resources Institute, Climate Action Tracker, the Bezos Earth Fund and others.On the flip side, public money spent to create more fossil fuel use is going in the wrong direction and faster than it has in the past, said study co-author Kelly Levin, science and data director at the Bezos Earth Fund.“This is not the time for tinkering around the edges, but it’s instead the time for radical decarbonization of all sectors of the economy,” Levin said.“We are woefully off track and we are seeing the impact of ...

Worsening warming is hurting people in all regions, US climate assessment shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

Revved-up climate change now permeates Americans’ daily lives with harm that is “already far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States,” a massive new government report says. The National Climate Assessment, which comes out every four to five years, was released Tuesday with details that bring climate change’s impacts down to a local level.Overall, it paints a picture of a country warming about 60% faster than the world as a whole, one that regularly gets smacked with costly weather disasters and faces even bigger problems in the future. Since 1970, the Lower 48 states have warmed by 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius) and Alaska has heated up by 4.2 degrees (2.3 degrees Celsius), compared to the global average of 1.7 degrees (0.9 degrees Celsius), the report said. But what people really feel is not the averages, but when weather is extreme.With heat waves, drought, wildfire and heavy downpours, “we are seeing an acceleration of the impacts of climate...

UAlbany women rout Gryphons in 100-point blowout

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The Great Danes jumped to an early lead and pushed ahead to claim a 91-point win over the Gryphons, Monday night. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! COACH COLLEEN MULLEN: “Tonight we were focused on playing UAlbany basketball. We wanted to execute on the offensive and defensive end in order to grow as a team. I am proud of the way our young group contributed tonight. We are looking forward to building off of this moving forward.”KEY STATSJunior Lilly Phillips led the scoring for the Great Danes with a career-high 18 points.Phillips and sophomore Gabriela Falcão led with eight field goals each. Phillips held the slight lead with nine attempts (.889) while Falcão was close behind with 10 attempts (.800).In an overall effort, graduate student Fatima Lee finished with 16 points, six assists, and four rebounds after going 4-7 from outside the arc.Junior Abby Ray finished with a career-best and team-high ei...

Play of the Week Winner - Columbia's Anna Shepard

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

EAST GREENBUSH, NY (NEWS10) -- Congratulations to this week’s winner of our Play of the Week poll, Columbia's Anna Shepard! Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Shepard connected on the game-winning goal in overtime from way downtown to win the Blue Devils the Section 2 Class AA championship. Vote here for this week’s Play of the Week poll!

Saint Rose earns No. 1 seed in NCAA east region bracket

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (NEWS10) - The College of Saint Rose women's soccer team was awarded a top seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament this evening. It is the 18th time in 21 competitive years that the Golden Knights are included in the women's championship bracket, which is comprised of 56 teams this fall. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! In total, there are eight regions that consist of six, seven, or eight teams, with two institutions from each region hosting first and second-round contests.Saint Rose (19-0-1) will serve as a host in the East Region, which brings the opening two rounds to Albany, N.Y. this Friday and Sunday, November 17 and 19. As the number one seed and earner of a first-round bye, the Golden Knights will face the winner of Friday's 1:00 pm matchup between fourth seed Roberts Wesleyan (10-2-3) and fifth seed and Northeast-10 Conference rival Southern New Hampshire (9-4-5). Sunday's second round is ...

Two-fifths of EU’s young adults have tertiary education

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:59 GMT

In 2022, more than two-fifths (42.0%) of the EU population aged 25–34 had a tertiary level of educational attainment (some people within this age group might still be studying).Of the 240 NUTS 2 regions for which data are available (no data for Mayotte in France or Åland in Finland), there were 72 regions (equivalent to 30% of all EU regions) where this share had already reached or surpassed the EU’s policy target for this area: 45.0%. The regions that already reached this target are shaded in green-blue on the map.At the top end of the distribution, there was the Lithuanian capital region with 73.6%, followed by the other 11 regions where at least 60.0% of young people had a tertiary level of educational attainment. These included the capital regions of France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg and Denmark. Many of these regions attract highly qualified people, probably due to the varied educational, employment and social/lifestyle opportunities that the...