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Commission welcomes political agreement on stronger control of exports of waste 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached on 16 November between the European Parliament and the Council on waste shipments, which will ensure that the EU takes greater responsibility for its wasteand does not export its environmental challenges to third countries. The rules will also facilitate the use of waste as a resource. The agreement is a contribution to the goal of the European Green Deal of reducing pollution and advancing the circular economy. Export of plastic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries will be prohibited. Only if strict environmental conditions are met, individual countries may receive such waste five years after the entry into force of the new rules. In the light of the global problems of soaring amounts of plastic waste and the challenges to its sustainable management, with this measure the EU legislators aim to prevent environmental degradation and pollution in third countries caused by plastic waste generated in the EU. Other waste sui...

Dear Abby: The bride has no room for all the gifts she wants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

DEAR ABBY: Several of our grandchildren have had weddings in the last few years, along with showers and receptions. They all had plans to move into residences of their own. The shower gifts were household items — nothing extravagant, but nice.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: They dated for a month, and now she’s threatening to reveal his private business Advice | Dear Abby: I’m tired of my husband telling me that he doesn’t intend to change Advice | Dear Abby: Is it out of line to tell him I’ll help him leave his odious wife? Advice | Dear Abby: After decades of gaslighting me, my mother refuses to admit what she did Advice | Dear Abby: The co-worker who was supposed to leave is still here, and things are not getting better Another granddaughter is now planning to be married in the next few months, and she wants all the things the previous grandkids wanted. Her parents wi...

Single-family home sells for $2.7 million in Palo Alto

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

794 Allen Court – Google Street ViewA 1,056-square-foot house built in 1953 has changed hands. The property located in the 700 block of Allen Court in Palo Alto was sold on Oct. 30, 2023. The $2,701,000 purchase price works out to $2,558 per square foot. This single-story home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. Additionally, the house features a two-car garage, providing ample room for vehicles and storage needs.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:A 1,170-square-foot home on the 700 block of Stern Avenue in Palo Alto sold in April 2023, for $5,928,000, a price per square foot of $5,067. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Price Court, Palo Alto, in January 2023, a 2,353-square-foot home was sold for $3,170,000, a price per square foot of $1,347. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In October 2023, a 1,400-square-foot home on Ross Road in Palo Alto sold for $2,750,000, a price per square foot of ...

Hong Kong’s Disneyland opens 1st Frozen-themed attraction, part of a $60B global expansion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong Disneyland opened its first Frozen-themed attraction on Monday, with thousands of eager visitors turning up to experience the new rides, some lining up for hours to get an early start. Based on Disney’s wildly popular Frozen animation film, the new section of the park features landscapes and characters from the movie and two new rides, a roller coaster and a boat ride that takes visitors through different scenes featured in the film. “Over the past decade, the film has grown into one of the most successful franchises in Disney history,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences. “World of Frozen represents Hong Kong Disneyland’s largest and boldest expansion since the park opened in 2005.”The opening comes after Disney announced in September a $60 billion expansion of its parks and cruises over about a decade. Now that Chinese tourists are venturing abroad again after the pandemic, the pandemic, the new attraction is meant to be a game changer for ...

This Week in Business: Dick’s, Deere earnings and home sales

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

Dick’s Sporting GoodsDick’s Sporting Goods reports its third-quarter sales and profit on Tuesday.Wall Street analysts forecast that Dick’s earned $2.45 per share on sales of $2.94 billion. Those number would represent a small decline from last year’s third quarter. Dick’s shares lost nearly a quarter of their value in August after the Pennsylvania company missed second-quarter profit targets, which it blamed on theft.Home salesThe National Association of Realtors on Tuesday reports data on existing home sales in OctoberAnalysts forecast that home sales fell for the fifth month in a row amid surging mortgage rates and a near record-low level of properties on the market. Sales sank 15.4% compared with the same month last year and are down 21% through the first nine months of the year versus the same period in 2022. Existing home sales, in millions, seasonally adjusted annual rate:May: 4.30June: 4.16July: 4.07Aug.: 4.04Sept.: 3.96Oct. (est.): 3.90Source: F...

No more Thanksgiving ‘food orgy’? New obesity medications change how users think of holiday meals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

For most of her life, Claudia Stearns dreaded Thanksgiving. As a person who struggled with obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing about what she ate — and the guilt of overindulging on a holiday built around food.Now, after losing nearly 100 pounds using medications including Wegovy, a powerful new anti-obesity drug, Stearns says the “food noise” in her head has gone very, very quiet.“Last year, it felt so lovely to just be able to enjoy my meal, to focus on being with friends and family, to focus on the joy of the day,” says Stearns, 65, of Somerville, Massachusetts. “That was a whole new experience.”As millions of Americans struggling with obesity gain access to a new generation of weight-loss drugs, Stearns’ experience is becoming more common — and more noticeable at the times of year when cooking, eating and a sense of abundance can define and heighten gatherings of loved ones and friends. Medical experts and consumers say the drugs are shifting n...

Michigan school shooting survivor heals with surgery, a trusted horse and a chance to tell her story

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

MAYFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — For Kylie Ossege, the 19-year-old college student who survived two deadly mass school shootings in Michigan — one as a senior at Oxford High School in 2021 and another 14 months later as a freshman at Michigan State University — Blaze stands as a source of comfort in a world otherwise shattered by bullets.Ossege runs a brush along Blaze’s broad forehead, then gives him a kiss between the eyes.“I feel very at home when I’m with him,” Ossege says of the 13-year-old American Quarter Horse she has owned since 2019. “He’s my best friend.”A better friend than time, perhaps, which now gathers for Ossege like dust in a corner, a clingy bundle of haunting memories that she can neither forget nor sweep away: Fifteen minutes as she lay shot and bleeding in an Oxford High School hallway. Six weeks recovering in a hospital. Fourteen months between a deadly high school shooting and another at MSU. And daily physical pain she can never fully escape.Ossege was severe...

Russia puts Ukrainian Eurovision winner Jamala on wanted list

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

KYIV — Susana Jamaladinova, a Ukrainian of Crimean Tatar origin known professionally as Jamala, is now on Russia’s wanted list, state news agencies RIA and TASS reported Monday.The ministry of internal affairs accuses the 40-year-old Eurovision-winner of discrediting Moscow’s army, Russian news website Mediazona reported. The site said Moscow put Jamala on the wanted list in October, and in November the singer was arrested in absentia by a Russian court.Jamala, a vocal critic of Russia’s occupation of her native Crimean peninsula and invasion of Ukraine, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 with the song “1944,” which is about the deportation and ethnic cleansing of around 200,000 Crimean Tatars carried out by Soviet authorities in May 1944.Jamala, who is currently on a fund- and awareness-raising tour in Australia, reacted to the news by posting an Instagram story of herself outside the Sydney Opera House, with a facepalm emoji.

Q&A: How to create a sustainable lithium supply chain for a carbon-neutral world?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

Chile’s Atacama Desert hides a precious secret—salt flats packed with lithium, a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and other gamechanging green technologies. Striving to meet this demand, mining companies are converging on the “lithium triangle” spanning Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. Deposits are abundant, but extracting them sustainably remains a challenge. The possible impact of lithium production on the local environment and neighboring communities are relevant concerns that must be taken into consideration.SQM, the world’s largest lithium producer by volume with more than 25 years of experience in lithium production in Chile’s Salar de Atacama region, has continuously improved production processes, adapted technologies and strengthened its cooperation with local communities in order to respond to those concerns.As production scales, to support the planet’s transition to a low carbon mobility, pushing toward the highest standards of min...

Microsoft hires OpenAI founders to lead AI research team after ChatGPT maker’s shakeup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:38:25 GMT

Microsoft announced Monday that it has hired Sam Altman and another co-founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI after they unexpectedly departed the company days earlier in a corporate shakeup that shocked the artificial intelligence world.Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella also tweeted that the major investor in OpenAI — behind the chatbot that kicked off the generative AI craze — looked “forward to getting to know” OpenAI’s new chief executive, former Twitch leader Emmett Shear, and the rest of the management team.Nadella wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Microsoft was “extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.”Altman said “the mission continues,” in reply to Nadella on X. OpenAI said Friday that Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which had lost confidence i...