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Who is Maria Arena, the 4th MEP caught up in Qatargate?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

BRUSSELS — And then there were four. Belgian lawmaker Maria Arena became the fourth current member of the European Parliament this week to be fully embroiled in the Qatargate corruption scandal, seven months after a spate of high-profile arrests shook the EU to its core.She remains unquestioned, uncharged and the Belgian authorities have made no request to lift her parliamentary immunity. But police did conduct six raids at properties linked to the Belgian MEP and her family on Wednesday, in the latest twist in a scandal that prompted soul-searching and ethics reforms in the EU capital this year. Former Vice President and Greek MEP Eva Kaili, Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella and Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino have spent time detained and charged in the scandal, while Pier Antonio Panzeri, an ex-MEP, admitted his guilt and struck a plea bargain in return for a reduced sentence when the time comes.Arena and the four current or former lawmakers charged in the scandal built their...

Macron sacks education, health ministers in mini-reshuffle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron sacked Education Minister Pap Ndiaye and Health Minister François Braun in a small cabinet reshuffle Thursday, after confirming earlier this week that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would stay on in her role.  A long-time Macron supporter, 34-year-old Gabriel Attal, has been promoted to replace Ndiaye, and Aurélien Rousseau, Borne’s former chief of staff, takes over as health minister.Other party figures are also joining government ranks, including Aurore Bergé, leader of Macron’s Renaissance group in the National Assembly, who is taking over as the new solidarity minister. Thomas Cazenave will replace Attal as budget minister.The reshuffle has been described by French government officials as “adjustments” to government after the Elysée announced Macron was keeping Borne in the job. In the new line-up, the most embattled ministers were let go, while Macron loyalists were rewarded.Marlène Schiappa, who was junior minister for social econo...

Vegas-area home searched in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing is tied to uncle of long-dead suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A home that Las Vegas police searched this week in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur is tied to a man long known to investigators, whose nephew had emerged as a suspect shortly after the rapper’s killing.The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confirmed it served a search warrant Monday in the neighboring city of Henderson. But the department hasn’t released other details, including whether they expect to make an arrest for the first time in the slaying of the rapper nearly 30 years ago.Residents of a suburban small Henderson neighborhood — nestled in the foothills of the city about 20 miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip — identified the property where they said they saw officers detain two people while investigators searched the home Monday night.“There were cruisers and SWAT vehicles. They had lights shining on the house,” said Don Sansouci, 61, who had just gone to bed with his wife when a swirl of blue and r...

UPS pilots vow to not cross strike picket lines

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

(CNN) — The union representing pilots flying cargo planes for UPS say they will not cross picket lines if Teamsters strike next month, a spokesperson for the Independent Pilots Association confirmed to CNN.The union representing 3,400 pilots has vowed solidarity “by not ‘turning an aircraft wheel’ on behalf of the company,” which could spell even deeper disruptions for the worldwide shipper. The heads of the two unions say in letters to each other that their support proved pivotal during a previous Teamsters strike in 1997.“The IPA is committed to exercising our contractual rights, both domestically and internationally, to honor any potential IBT strike and act in sympathy with our fellow workers at UPS by not working,” said pilot union head Captain Robert Travis. “No one wants a work stoppage, but should a legal IBT strike be initiated, you and the IBT can count on the IPA for support.”This does not mean UPS pilots are going on strike, rather there will be a work stoppage...

As temperatures rise, mosquitoes are also on the move. Scientists worry that could mean more malaria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

By MARY KATHERINE WILDEMAN (Associated Press)As the planet warms, mosquitoes are slowly migrating upward. The temperature range where malaria-carrying mosquitoes thrive is rising in elevation. Researchers have found evidence of the phenomenon from the tropical highlands of South America to the mountainous, populous regions of eastern Africa. Scientists now worry people living in areas once inhospitable to the insects, including the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the mountains of eastern Ethiopia, could be newly exposed to the disease. “As it gets warmer at higher altitudes with climate change and all of these other environmental changes, then mosquitoes can survive higher up the mountain,” said Manisha Kulkarni, a professor and researcher studying malaria in sub-Saharan Africa at the University of Ottawa.  ___EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and Grist exploring the intersection of climate change and infectious d...

New Nets forward Darius Bazley: ‘Brooklyn was the place to be’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

If there’s one thing new Nets forward Darius Bazley is going to do in Brooklyn — it’s play some defense.Bazley, the versatile, prep-to-pro forward who signed a one-year deal with the Nets this offseason, says he’s excited to bring his game to New York.“This is like the Mecca of basketball,” Bazley said in his introductory interview with reporters on Thursday. “So just playing in front of fans that appreciate the game, that love the game of basketball, love the sport.“I think it’d be really fun.”Bazley said he doesn’t have a relationship with Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn, but noted he worked out with Nets forward Cam Johnson this summer. He also says he has a relationship with both Mikal Bridges and Ben Simmons.And for the 6-foot-8 forward who has played minutes at both the four and five in his four-year NBA career, defense will be the calling card that earns him regular minutes in head coach Jacque Vaughn’s rot...

Getting to know Jean Tatlock: Was she Oppenheimer’s ‘truest love’ or the first casualty of his ambition to build the atomic bomb?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

When the blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” opens July 21, audiences will be introduced to Jean Tatlock, one of the most remarkable people to know and love the UC Berkeley physicist, who arguably should be as famous as “The Father of the Atomic Bomb.”The thumbnail version of Tatlock’s life is that she was J. Robert Oppenheimer’s troubled mistress. She also may have been his “truest love,” but her activism in the Bay Area Communist Party in the 1930s threatened his career, both when he was the science director at the top-secret laboratory in Los Alamos, and in the 1950s, when anti-Communist fervor was at its heights and he endured a humiliating grilling by the Atomic Energy Commission and loss of his security clearance.Tatlock, a Stanford-trained psychiatrist, died tragically by suicide at the age of 29 – some seven months after Oppenheimer drew the alarm of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover by flying back to San Francisco in June 1943 to meet her and spend one final night with her in her Te...

Want to garden but don’t have a lot of space? We asked the experts for help

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

Gardening may generally be easier for people who have a large backyard space because it allows them the flexibility to grow. But apartment dwellers aren’t shut out of the gardening game. In fact, experts say there are a wide variety of options for things that can be grown on a postage-sized patio or a sunny window, including herbs, tomatoes and leafy greens, and the options don’t stop there. Darren Butler, a Los Angeles-area consulting arborist, landscape expert and co-founder of gardening help website GardenZeus, said that there are lots of options from fruiting plants to even trees. Here’s a look at some of the varieties recommended from experts and how to grow them:Let’s get litWhether growing indoors or outdoors, space can be negotiable, but light is definitely not. Justin McKeever, a plant specialist at H&H Nursery in Lakewood, said that most fruiting plants need about 6 hours of light whereas some broad-leaf herbs can do with 3-4 hours so it’s important that gardeners make...

Tiny downtown LA store near Skid Row sells winning Powerball jackpot ticket worth over $1 billion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

By MARCIO SANCHEZ (Associated Press)LOS ANGELES (AP) — A tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles sold the winning ticket for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game.The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24. The winner can choose either the total jackpot paid out in yearly increments or a $558.1 million lump sum before taxes. Winners don’t have to come forward publicly but their names and the disposition of the money are public records, according to the California Lottery.The state lottery said via Twitter that the winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market, which will receive a $1 million bonus from the lottery. Located in the city’s Fashion District, it’s a few blocks from Skid Row’s scenes of homelessness and distress where thousands of people live in makeshift shant...

Recipes: Spinach is good for you; these dishes make it tasty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:20 GMT

I feel so darn good when I eat spinach. Those emerald-green leaves elevate my energy level and brighten my mood. When producers started packaging pre-washed baby leaves in cellophane bags a few years ago, I made a vow to eat it more frequently.There are loads of good things in spinach, so I’m not sure which of its many attributes gives me a boost. It could be its abundance of antioxidants (beta carotene and lutein). Or perhaps it’s folic acid and vitamins (C, K, and thiamine). Maybe the minerals are magic: iron, calcium, potassium, and zinc.Eat it raw in salads and sandwiches, substituting it for less-interesting lettuce. Or cook up a bagful of those spade-shaped baby leaves, then toss with a little extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.Cooking it is quick and easy, once you get over the somewhat disappointing fact that you start out with a mountain and end up with a hill. Never mind, just feed it into a Dutch oven a handful at a time, and let it wilt down sligh...