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France and Germany confident of EU spending rules deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

PARIS AND BRUSSELS ― France and Germany are confident that last ditch talks on an overhaul of the EU’s public spending rules will result in a deal despite lingering disagreement between the bloc’s biggest governments.On the eve of a virtual meeting of all 27 finance ministers on Wednesday, France’s Bruno Le Maire and his German counterpart, Christian Lindner, spoke to reporters before sitting down to dinner in Paris where they hoped to wrap up a compromise.“It’s now possible in the next few hours to have an agreement on fiscal rules,” Lindner said. The ambition had always been to find agreement before the end of the year. After weeks of fraught negotiations, governments hope to agree to the reformed framework that will set out a laxer pace of debt and deficit reduction than had previously been the case.  The talks had pitted a group of countries led by Germany who wanted tougher targets against others from southern Europe, particularly France and Italy...

Bicyclist struck and killed by trash truck in Allston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

A bicyclist died Tuesday after being struck by a trash truck in Allston, police said. The crash happened in the area of Hano Street and Cambridge Street near 10 a.m. Emergency crews responded and soon closed Cambridge Street between Harvard Street and Union Square. Boston police in an initial post on X described the bicyclist as an adult male and said he had been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.Police on scene later confirmed the bicyclist had died.Boston police said the driver in this crash remained at the scene. This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

As foundation for ‘excited delirium’ diagnosis cracks, fallout spreads

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

Renuka Rayasam, Markian Hawryluk, Samantha Young | KFF Health News (TNS)When Angelo Quinto’s family learned that officials blamed his 2020 death on “excited delirium,” a term they had never heard before, they couldn’t believe it. To them, it was obvious the science behind the diagnosis wasn’t real.Quinto, 30, had been pinned on the ground for at least 90 seconds by police in California and stopped breathing. He died three days later.Now his relatives are asking a federal judge to exclude any testimony about “excited delirium” in their wrongful death case against the city of Antioch. Their case may be stronger than ever.Their push comes at the end of a pivotal year for the long-standing, nationwide effort to discard the use of excited delirium in official proceedings. Over the past 40 years, the discredited, racially biased theory has been used to explain away police culpability for many in-custody deaths. But in October, the American College of Emergency Physicians disavowed a key p...

Older Americans are now earning almost as much as younger workers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

Michael Sasso | Bloomberg News (TNS)The share of Americans working beyond retirement age has almost doubled since the late 1980s and the wage gap between them and their younger colleagues is shrinking, according to a Pew Research Center report.Older workers are now as likely to hold college degrees as younger ones and can expect to earn $22 an hour compared to $13 in 1987, a 69% increase in 2022 dollars, according to the Pew report issued last week. That’s in contrast to the 19% boost in median hourly earnings for 25- to 64-year-olds.The trends are reshaping the U.S. workforce, as seniors’ participation in the labor market is expected to rise while the participation rates of most other age groups stall or decline. All told, about 19% of people 65 and older today are employed, compared with 11% of that cohort in 1987, according to the report.A few factors are converging to push older Americans into the workforce, and keep them there longer. Traditional pension plans that often incent...

Map: See where redistricting challenges continue across the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

Three years after the last census noted changes in population and demographics in the United States, several states are still wrangling over the shape of congressional or state legislative districts. Redrawn maps are being challenged on grounds they are racially discriminatory, overly partisan or both.Redistricting litigation is ongoing in several states, including Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, where Democrats are hoping to make gains. Most recently, New York’s highest court gave Democrats a chance to redraw the state’s congressional districts, a major victory as the party tries to win control of the U.S. House next year.Democrats also are expected to gain a seat in Alabama, where districts were revised after federal judges ruled that the original map enacted by Republican state officials had illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents.“The parties are fighting these battles district by district in courtrooms across the country that are aimed at giving Democr...

Bruins notebook: Parker Wotherspoon looking to stick in NHL

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

How long defenseman Parker Wotherspoon remains in Boston will no doubt depend on how he plays in the short-term future. When you’re 26 years old and have a grand total of 17 NHL games like Wotherspoon had heading into Tuesday’s game against the Minnesota Wild, you pretty much have to prove yourself on a nightly basis.But in his latest recall from Providence, Wotherspoon showed enough in two tough games games against the Islanders and Rangers to make the B’s decide to keep him on the roster, designating Ian Mitchell to be the one to go back to Providence. And with the expected return to the lineup of Charlie McAvoy, it was rookie Mason Lohrei to be squeezed up to the press box, not Wotherspoon.While Wotherspoon is not exactly huge – he’s 6-foot-1, 195 pounds – coach Jim Montgomery said he brings “snarl” and “jam” that is needed on the B’s, especially on the defense corps with Derek Forbort out. Players like that add to the general good vibe for a team.“O...

MCAS Miramar Marine arrested after pursuit ending in fatal crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — A U.S. Marine based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was arrested Monday night after a pursuit following alleged theft from a sporting goods store ended in a crash that killed one and left another seriously injured.Around 10:28 p.m., officers from the Escondido Police Department were alerted to reports of theft involving three suspects — two women and one man — at a Dick's Sporting Goods store on Auto Park Way.When officers arrived on scene, the suspects entered a pickup truck and fled the scene. According to EPD, responding police pursued the suspect vehicle through Escondido onto Washington Avenue, where the driver attempted a high-speed turn onto Fig Street.During the turn, however, the driver, identified as 21-year-old lance corporal John Eugene Brand, lost control of the vehicle, colliding with a nearby retaining wall.Police later identified the truck as one belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps. Stolen goods from the Dick's were allegedly found inside.The t...

Italian fashion influencer apologizes for charity miscommunication, is fined 1 million euros

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

MILAN (AP) — An Italian fashion blogger-turned-businesswoman has apologized after being fined 1 million euros (dollars) by Italy’s anti-trust authority for improperly communicating a charitable contribution tied to sales of a traditional Christmas cake sold with her logo.In an Instagram post, Chiara Ferragni on Monday said she would donate 1 million euros to the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin to give “concreteness” to her apology, but she said she would challenge the fine itself.Ferragni said that she had not given sufficient oversight to the communication surrounding the sales of the Balocco-brand pandoro with her logo, and that she would no longer tie in charity with commercial activities.Ferragni started as a fashion blogger and went on to sell clothing, accessories and makeup under her own brand in addition to doing promotional work as an influencer. She is also on the Tod’s luxury fashion group board of directors.Italy’s anti-trust agency on Friday also fined B...

Thousands rally across Slovakia to protest the government’s plan to amend the penal code

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Thousands returned to the streets of major cities across Slovakia on Tuesday to continue their protests against a plan by the new government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico to amend the country’s penal code.The changes proposed by the coalition government include a proposal to abolish the special prosecutors’ office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism by mid-January.According to the proposal, those cases will now be taken over by prosecutors in regional offices, which haven’t dealt with such crimes for 20 years.Michal Simecka, head of the liberal Progressive Slovakia, the strongest opposition party, said the changes “would result in amnesty for mafia and corrupt people.”“We have to show them that we’ll defend justice,” Simecka said.Meanwhile in the streets people repeatedly chanted “We’ve had enough of Fico.”The legislation approved by Fico’s government needs parliamentary and presidential approval. The ...

Greece approves new law granting undocumented migrants residence rights, provided they have a job

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved new legislation that will grant tens of thousands of undocumented migrants residence and work permits amid a shortage of unskilled labor.The law drafted by the center-right government links the right to residence with proof of employment. According to the labor ministry, it will affect some 30,000 people, many of them agricultural laborers.The United Nations migration and refugee agencies praised the new law, which applies to migrants who have been living in Greece without residence permits for at least three years up to the end of November. It will not cover later arrivals.Lawmakers in the 300-member parliament voted 262 in favor of the law — despite grumbling from the governing New Democracy’s right wing and with the backing of leftwing opposition parties. New Democracy had threatened to expel any of its lawmakers who didn’t back the measures — making a single exception for a former prim...