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North Andover Select Board approves application to fly Palestinian flag on Town Common

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

Dozens of people crowded into North Andover High School on Monday to voice their opinions during a lively Select Board meeting where a proposal to fly the Palestinian flag above Town Common was ultimately approved.The request to fly the flag on the Town Common flag pole was approved after about an hour of public comment, during which those gathered spoke both in favor of and against flying the flag amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.“It’s a big deal for us to see the Palestinian flag that many of us think represents the attempted genocide of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Iden Irelander. “It basically represents Hamas, since they are the elected ruling party in Gaza.” One supporter said, “It’s a flag that represents its people, it’s a flag that represents a nation, the heritage of the people, their traditions, their culture and it doesn’t represent a terrorist group.” This application came after an Israeli f...

Flakes to a Warm-up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

First flakes of the season were flying last evening with the most notable snows across central Massachusetts. Across the higher terrain, 0.25-0.75″ of an inch fell for several spots, marking the first measurable snow for some communities, including the Worcester Airport. With some linger moisture on the ground early this morning and temps below freezing inland, there may be a bit of black ice on the sidewalks, driveways or patios. A few spot rain/snow showers are possible today, with the best chance for a few flakes across the interior this morning. It won’t add up to much and all and all, it’ll be a mainly dry day with breaks of sun too as highs head for the mid to upper 40s. A bit of a breeze develops today too, gusting 15-20mph. After a chilly night tonight, mid 20s to low 30s, we’ll bounce back to near 50 tomorrow. While progress is slow the next couple days, we trend up quite nicely to end the week. While we fall just shy of 60 Thursday, most locations...

Animal Rescue League searching for new home for ‘mischievous’ sibling mini stallions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

The Animal Rescue League of Boston is looking for a new home for a pair of sibling mini stallions who were recently transported to ARL from a horse sanctuary in Plymouth County after initially being surrendered by their previous family on Martha’s Vineyard.The 20-year-old brothers named Dwight and Stanley are not only stunning, they are in fantastic health and are very social horses. They also have a bit of a mischievous side as well.After being surrendered, during their time at the sanctuary they displayed their wonderful personalities, but also spent a little too much time trying to interact with the mares on the property, so the sanctuary reached out to ARL for assistance, and the stallions were transported to ARL’s Dedham Animal Care and Adoption Center.Mini horses make wonderful pets and typically live longer than full-size horse breeds, so these two have many years ahead of them. The stallions will be gelded later this month and will then be looking for their new home, however...

Teck Resources agrees to sell steelmaking coal business

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

VANCOUVER — Teck Resources Ltd. has agreed to sell its steelmaking coal business in a series of deals that value the operations at US$9 billion.The company says Swiss commodities giant Glencore has agreed to pay US$6.9 billion for a 77 per cent stake in the coal business, known as Elk Valley Resources.Meanwhile, Japanese company Nippon Steel Corp. will acquire a 20 per cent stake in exchange for its interest in one of Teck’s coal operations and US$1.7 billion in cash, including US$1.3 billion at closing and US$400 million to be paid out of cash flow from the coal business.South Korean steelmaker POSCO will swap its interest in a pair of Teck’s coal operations for a three per cent stake in the overall steelmaking coal operations.Teck has been weighing the future of its steelmaking coal business since it became apparent its plan to spin off the operations into a separate company did not have the required shareholder support.The company says the sale is subject to several c...

A suspect in the 1994 Rwanda genocide goes on trial in Paris after a decadeslong investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A Rwandan doctor who has been living in France for decades goes on trial Tuesday in Paris over his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in his home country.Sosthene Munyemana, 68, is facing charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes. He has denied any wrongdoing. If convicted, he is facing life sentence.The trial comes nearly three decades after the genocide in which more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them were killed between April and July 1994.Munyemana arrived in September 1994 in France, where he has been living and working as a doctor until he recently retired.He has been investigated for decades and over 60 witnesses are expected to testify at his trial. Members of the Rwandan community in France first filed a complaint against Munyemana in 1995. Munyemana, who was a 38-year-old gynecologist in the district of Burate at the time of the genocide, is accused of having co-signed in April 1994 “a moti...

A leaked memo reveals mooted changes to EU sustainability law would make it weak and unenforceable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A flagship EU law intended to push European companies toward net zero faces being seriously weakened by member states, a confidential document passed to The Associated Press reveals, with firms seemingly no longer forced to implement Paris Agreement goals.The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive was designed to make companies eliminate environmental and human rights violations throughout all areas of their business. The legislation was meant to ensure firms’ operations were aligned with a global rise in temperatures of no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But a Nov. 9 briefing obtained by The AP details a watered-down proposal that would drop the entire financial sector from the initial law. Banks and insurers are among Europe’s biggest contributors to global warming, by financing or insuring new oil and gas projects, or agribusinesses that chop down tropical rainforests. Nonprofits also warn the new proposal would mean firms merely need to ha...

EU lawmakers try to balance protection and privacy over online child pornography

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a series of amendments to a draft law to fight online child pornography as they tried to find the right balance between protecting children and protecting privacy.Under the the draft position adopted by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the Parliament, internet providers will have to assess the risk of their services being used for online child sexual abuse, and to take measures to mitigate these threats.But to “avoid generalized monitoring of the internet,” lawmakers proposed excluding end-to-end encrypted material from detection, while making sure time-limited detection orders approved by courts can be used to hunt down illegal material when mitigation actions are not sufficient.They said they “want mitigation measures to be targeted, proportionate and effective, and providers should be able to decide which ones to use.”Their position now needs to be endorsed by the whole Parliament befor...

Long-haul carrier Emirates signals it will hold off on major Airbus purchase over engine worries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates signaled Tuesday it will hold off on a major purchase of Airbus A350 aircraft over concerns about their Rolls Royce engines, marking a major blow for the European manufacturer as it hopes to close the sale during the Dubai Air Show this week. Emirates President Tim Clark’s comments to journalists at the show came the day after his airline announced a $52 billion purchase with Airbus’ rival Boeing Co., while its sister airline FlyDubai bought another $11 billion of aircraft from Boeing. Ethiopian Airlines said it was buying 31 aircraft from Boeing. Mesfin Tasew, the group CEO, made the announcement, saying the airline also signed options to potentially purchase another 36 aircraft as well.Airbus has yet to strike a major deal at the show, which comes as global airlines like Emirates have bounced back from the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic with increased global demand for travel.In his comments to journa...

Russian court fines Google for failing to store personal data on its users

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Tuesday fined Google for failing to store personal data on its Russian users, the latest in a series of fines on the tech giant amid tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine.A magistrate at Moscow’s Tagansky district court fined Google 15 million rubles (around $164,200) after the IT company repeatedly refused to store personal data on Russian citizens in Russia.Google was previously fined over the same charges in August 2021 and June 2022 under a Russian law that obliges foreign entities to localize the personal data of their Russian users.The U.S. tech giant was also ordered to pay a 3-million-ruble (about $32,800) fine in August for failing to delete allegedly false information about the conflict in Ukraine.However, Russia can do little to collect the fine, as Google’s Russia business was effectively shut down last year after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. The company has said it filed for bankruptcy in Russia aft...

UN chief calls for an “ambition supernova” as nations make minor progress on climate action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

Countries’ climate action plans are still far behind what’s needed to curb human-caused warming and limit the devastating effects of extreme heat, storms and droughts, but some nations have taken marginal steps toward slashing emissions, a United Nations analysis of national plans found Tuesday.The report looked into the climate plans of 195 countries and found that emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas will go up 9% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, but will be 2% lower than 2019 levels because of some climate action from countries switching to cleaner energy. But climate scientists warn that the world needs to spew around 45% less by then.“The world is failing to get a grip on the climate crisis,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “Inch by inch progress will not do. It is time for a climate ambition supernova in every country, city, and sector.” He called for “net-zero” — when countries only spew as much carbon into the atmosphere as t...