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Ivanova officially appointed as European innovation commissioner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

Bulgarian economist Iliana Ivanova has cleared the last hurdle to become the country’s newest European commissioner. Ivanova was appointed by the Council of the EU as Bulgaria’s new commissioner, in a joint decision with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — who picked Ivanova in June and assigned her the portfolio of innovation, research, education, culture and youth. For little over a year, until the end of the Commission’s mandate on October 31, 2024, Ivanova will take over from her compatriot Mariya Gabriel, who resigned in May to become the country’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Ivanova easily passed the confirmation procedure in Parliament, with an uneventful hearing and approval in plenary by a wide margin.

Regular service to resume on Fitchburg Line after repairs following catastrophic flooding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

Regular service will resume on the MBTA Commuter Rail’s Fitchburg line after repairs due to catastrophic flooding last week.Service between Wachusett and Shirley will resume at 11:30 a.m. Fitchburg Train 411 (10:30 a.m. from North Station) will be the first to operate through Wachusett, the agency said in a post on X. https://twitter.com/MBTA_CR/status/1704104634946621452

Here’s how to buy Orioles playoffs tickets, with a deadline today, and when they may play

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

While the Orioles have clinched a postseason berth, it’s not yet clear when they’ll play at Camden Yards during the playoffs, or who they’ll be playing.Currently, you’ll have to either be a season ticket holder or commit to becoming one by the end of Tuesday to get tickets to the playoffs.Those with 2023 season ticket packages should have already received information on how to get their postseason passes. Diamond and black-level ticket holders had to either pay for their membership in full or make a partial payment by Sept. 15 to get access.Those with the more budget-friendly season ticket packages, Reserved Orange and Flex Birdland Members, should be getting an email early this week with a date and time for purchasing single-game postseason tickets. Orange members will get one game per series, as will Rookie and Pro Flex members. Veteran and Gold Glove members will get up to two games, while All-Star and MVP Flex members can get tickets to any possible home ...

Hong Kong to scrutinize cryptocurrency regulation after arrests linked to JPEX exchange

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday that the territory will scrutinize the regulation of digital assets after police arrested eight people over allegations of fraud at an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange that impacted more than 1,600 investors and over $150 million in assets.Those arrested include social media influencers who promoted the JPEX currency exchange and JPEX employees, police said. “This incident highlights the importance that when investors want to invest in virtual assets, then they must invest on platforms that are licensed,” Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said at a regular news conference. “The SFC will monitor the situation very closely and ensure that investors are sufficiently protected.”He said the government will step up education so investors will better understand the risks involved and how platforms are regulated.Police Senior Superintendent Kung Hing-fun said the investors were mostly inexperienced and had fallen for promises of high yield...

Bagels and lox, kugel, babka. To break the Yom Kippur fast, think made-ahead food, and lots of it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which begins this year on Sunday evening (Sept. 25), is a solemn 25 hours of fasting and atonement.But when it’s over, fast turns to feast.The spread at a “break fast” gathering (not to be confused with breakfast) traditionally consists of foods that are made ahead, served either at room temperature or reheated right before serving. Observant Jews don’t cook on Yom Kippur, and even if you’re less observant, it’s pretty hard to stand in the kitchen cooking while you’re fasting.BAGELS, LOX, THE FIXINGSPerhaps the most common foods used to break the fast are bagels and lox (or smoked salmon) with all the fixings. Those typically involve dairy and fish dishes, such as smoked fish, whitefish salad, flavored cream cheeses (“schmears” or “shmears”), pickled herring, capers and cucumber salad.The break fast meal is usually meat-free, since meat and dairy don’t mix in kosher foods.I always include a noodle kugel in my break fast menu,...

Pennsylvania wants to make it easier to register to vote when drivers get or renew a license

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said starting Tuesday it is making it easier for someone to register to vote when they are getting or renewing a driver’s license in Pennsylvania.Under the new format, prompts on the computer screens in driver’s license centers will take the user to a template to register to vote. That leaves it up to them to choose not to register. Previously, prompts on the computer screen first asked the user whether they wanted to register to vote.Twenty-three other states and Washington, D.C., already have varying models of what is called “automatic voter registration,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.The Shapiro administration said it does not need legislation or regulation to make the change at driver’s license centers.There are currently 8.6 million registered voters in Pennsylvania, according to information from the state Department of State. More than 10 million Pennsylvanians out of 13 million...

Iraq’s president will summon the Turkish ambassador over airstrikes in Iraq’s Kurdish region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi president announced Tuesday that he will summon Turkey’s ambassador and hand him a formal letter of protest over recent Turkish airstrikes on Iraqi territory.The official protest came a day after an airstrike on a military airport in Arbat, southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Three members of the region’s counterterrorism force died and three of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces were wounded, according to local officials.“Day after day, systematic military attacks on Iraqi territory, specifically in (the Kurdish) region, are escalating without military or security justification,” Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid said in a statement.The “aggression targeted innocent civilians and military and security headquarters,” he said. Rashid belongs to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, which has its main seat of power in Sulaymaniyah.There was no immediate comment from Turkey.The targeted airport had recentl...

Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

ESSEN, Germany (AP) — For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports. Jobs were plentiful, the government’s financial coffers grew as other European countries drowned in debt, and books were written about what other countries could learn from Germany. No longer. Now, Germany is the world’s worst-performing major developed economy, with both the International Monetary Fund and European Union expecting it to shrink this year.It follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the loss of Moscow’s cheap natural gas — an unprecedented shock to Germany’s energy-intensive industries, long the manufacturing powerhouse of Europe.The sudden underperformance by Europe’s largest economy has set off a wave of criticism, handwringing and debate about the way forward.Germany risks “...

Stock market today: Wall Street in wait-and-see mode as Federal Reserve meets to talk interest rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

TOKYO — Wall Street pointed modestly higher in cautious trading Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on interest rates.Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were essentially flat, up less than 0.1% before the bell.The Fed is gathering Tuesday for a two-day meeting before it announces its decision on where interest rates are going. In all likelihood, the Fed’s benchmark rate will be left where it is. Japan’s central bank will meet Thursday and Friday amid speculation it might gradually begin to adjust its longstanding negative interest rate policy. Stocks have been see-sawing since early August on uncertainty about whether the Fed will finally end its hikes to interest rates. Higher rates have helped cool inflation from its peak last summer, but they also hurt prices for stocks and other investments while slowing the economy.The Fed is expected to keep rates steady at its meeting this week. Attention will mainly focus on fore...

How a rural Alabama school system outdid the country with gains in math

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:59 GMT

PIEDMONT, Ala. (AP) — While the rest of the country’s schools were losing ground in math during the COVID pandemic, student performance in a rural Alabama school district was soaring. Piedmont City schools notched significant improvement in math, landing in the top spot among school districts across the country in a comparison of scores from before and during the pandemic. Nationwide, students on average fell half a year behind in math, researchers say.Piedmont, a 1,100-student district where seven out of 10 qualify for free or reduced-prince lunch, has stuck with an approach it adopted before the pandemic: It gave teachers more time to dig into data on students’ scores and lengthened classes to help them focus on specific skills.“We made a total transformation about five years ago,” Superintendent Mike Hayes said. “We decided that we were going to let data make every decision.”In other words, Piedmont teachers use test scores to see where kids are struggling and then target t...