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Spending bill targets Kerry’s office, global climate spending

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

WASHINGTON — House Republican appropriators want to eliminate funding for John Kerry’s position as President Joe Biden’s special envoy and for other international climate efforts.The House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee advanced its fiscal 2024 spending bill on June 23, including a prohibition on funding for envoys not authorized by Congress or confirmed by the Senate.“Over the last several years, we have witnessed a boondoggle of climate change spending, and our bill provides a much-needed course correction in several key areas,” said Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, Democratic nominee for president and secretary of State, serves as special presidential envoy for climate issues and represents the U.S. at international climate summits. His office was established by Biden on Jan. 20, 2021. He is one of 33 special envoys or representatives the State-Foreign Operations bill would eliminate.The Herald has an open...

Lawmakers push Hub rent control bill off until fall

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

When it comes to rent control, the Massachusetts Legislature is testing Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s patience.It’s been nearly four months since the Boston City Council approved Wu’s proposal to revive local rent control, and it’ll be several more months before lawmakers even begin their formal review of the idea that Wu made a hallmark of her 2021 campaign.The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing is in no rush to consider Boston’s plan, which aims to tackle a housing affordability crisis that is afflicting cities and towns throughout the state.House and Senate Democrats did not include the measure on the docket of a June 26 hearing that featured several other home rule petitions. They also left it and several broader rent control bills off the agenda for a July 11 hearing focused on legislation about housing “affordability.”“Although there are a few exceptions, the vast majority of home rule petitions are slated to be heard by...

German lawmakers fail to agree on new rules regulating assisted suicide

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Lawmakers in Germany failed to agree Thursday on new rules regulating assisted suicide, rejecting two cross-party proposals drawn up after the country’s highest court ruled that legislation banning the practice when conducted on a “business” basis was unconstitutional.The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2020 that the ban, which was introduced five years earlier, violated the rights of citizens to determine the circumstances of their own deaths by restricting their ability to seek assistance from a third party.Active assistance — physically taking a patient’s life for them — is banned in Germany, but passive help, such as providing deadly medication for them to take themselves, has been a legal gray area.Cross-party groups of lawmakers put forward two competing proposals for new rules. One option would have allowed for doctors to prescribe lethal medication between three and 12 weeks after an adult underwent obligatory counseling. The other option took...

Austria approves law allowing authorities to confiscate extreme speeders’ cars

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s parliament has approved legislation that would allow authorities to confiscate the cars of people who are caught driving far above the speed limit.Lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill that calls for the cars of people who exceed the speed limit by more than 60 kilometers per hour (37 mph) in developed areas or 70 kph (43 mph) outside town limits temporarily confiscated. Repeat offenders could have their vehicles permanently confiscated and auctioned off.Drivers who exceed the speed limit by more than 80 kph (50 mph) in built-up areas or 90 kph (56 mph) in unincorporated areas could have their cars permanently confiscated after a first offense. The measure is expected to take effect in March 2024.Leonore Gewessler, the Austrian minister for climate and transport, said last month that “there is a speed above which the car becomes a weapon.”“We are now putting an end to this and ensuring that perpetrators have the weapon taken out of their hands im...

UK Conservative lawmaker faces ejection from Parliament for groping strangers at a London club

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker accused of drunkenly groping two men at a private members’ club should be suspended from Parliament for eight weeks for “completely unacceptable” conduct, a standards watchdog said Thursday.The ruling will likely result in Chris Pincher being ejected from the House of Commons by his constituents, triggering a special election for his seat. It’s one of a handful of unwelcome byelections that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government faces as it grapples with a stuttering economy and sinking popularity.Pincher resigned as Conservative Party deputy chief whip almost a year ago over allegations he had assaulted two strangers at a London club. The allegations helped topple then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who faced questions about whether he knew about misconduct claims when he gave Pincher a job as a whip responsible for enforcing party discipline.The scandal was a final straw that prompted a string of ministers to resign from Johnson’...

Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine city of Lviv kills 4 people and injures dozens

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired cruise missiles Thursday at a western Ukraine city far from the front line of the war, killing at least four people in an apartment building in what officials said was the heaviest attack on civilian areas of Lviv since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year.The nighttime attack destroyed the roof and the top two floors of a residential building, injuring 34 people. Emergency crews with search dogs went through the rubble.The youngest victim was 21 years old and the oldest was 95, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Regional Military Administration.“This woman survived the Second World War but, unfortunately, she didn’t survive” Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kozytskyi said.Debris and wrecked parked cars lined the street outside the building, which overlooks a small neighborhood park with swings and climbing frames amid trees.Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the area of strike were damaged.U.S. ...

Sweden convicts a Kurdish man with attempting to extort money for a group that’s outlawed in Turkey

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Turkish man was found guilty Thursday of attempted aggravated extortion, weapons possession and attempted terrorist financing, saying he was acting on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.The Stockholm District Court sentenced Yahya Güngör to a total of 4.5 years in prison for the crimes, after which he would be expelled from Sweden and banned from returning to the Scandinavian country.It was the first time that a Swedish court sentenced someone for terrorist financing of the party, Judge Mans Wigen said. Also known as PKK, it has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.In May, Sweden tightened its anti-terrorism laws — a move expected to help gain approval for the Nordic nation’s request to join NATO. Swedish lawmakers included a prison term of up to four years for individuals convicted of participating in an extremist organization in a way that is...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing on Thursday for meetings with Chinese leaders as part of efforts to revive relations that are strained by disputes about security, technology and other irritants.Yellen planned to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging Chinese support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, Treasury officials in Washington told reporters ahead of the trip.The secretary was due to meet with Chinese officials, American businesspeople and members of the public, according to Treasury officials. They gave no details, but said Yellen wouldn’t meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Yellen follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi last month in the highest-level U.S. visit to Beijing in five years. The two agreed to stabilize relations but failed to agree on improving communications between their militaries.Yellen earlier warned against economic decoupling, or disconnecting U.S. and Chinese industry and markets. Busines...

UAE pledges $15 million to help rebuild occupied West Bank camp hard hit by Israeli offensive

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The United Arab Emirates pledged Thursday to give $15 million to help rebuild the Jenin refugee camp after the most intense Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades.The funding promise comes after the two-day offensive destroyed the camp’s narrow roads and alleyways. The operation, meant to crack down on Palestinian militants after a series of recent attacks on Israelis, sent thousands of people fleeing their homes. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the fighting. The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported that the money would be granted to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, to rebuild damaged homes and businesses and for the agency’s services. UNRWA has struggled recently to raise the funding it needs to keep its day-to-day operations helping millions of people across the Middle East.Israel’s fierce incursion this week saw bulldozers tearing through streets t...

Glitches in Japan’s unpopular MyNumber digital ID cards draw a flood of complaints

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:14 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The minister charged with an overhaul of Japan’s digitized system to assign a number to everyone living in the country has apologized, as doctors protested glitches with health insurance and local governments begged Thursday for clarity on how to handle the problems. The MyNumber, or “MaiNa” for short, system has clearly gone afoul.The government has ordered a total rechecking of MyNumber data, one by one, “mechanically,” as the digital agency put it. The goal is to complete it by the fall, which could be anytime from September to November.Local governments have to deal with much of the checking work. Officials have met with Digital Minister Taro Kono demanding help. Costs for the review have not been announced, but are expected to total trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars). Under MyNumber, launched in 2016, people get a card with a photo and embedded IC chip. Officials already are talking about issuing totally new cards in 2026, apparently to start afre...