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US expects to begin delivering Abrams tanks to Ukraine in September

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

U.S. Abrams tanks are likely to arrive on the Ukrainian battlefield in September, according to six people familiar with the planning, as Kyiv’s forces push to retake territory in a counteroffensive that is picking up steam.The plan is to send a handful of Abrams tanks to Germany in August, where they will undergo final refurbishments. Once that process is complete, the first batch of Abrams will be shipped to Ukraine the following month.The potential August and September deliveries mark the most specific time frame provided for when America’s main battle tank is expected to roll onto the battlefield. Pentagon officials have previously said the Abrams would be in Ukrainian hands sometime in the fall.The U.S. is sending older M1A1 models instead of the more modern A2 version, which would have taken a year to get to Ukraine.The six people — a Defense Department official, a U.S. official, an industry official, a congressional aide and two others familiar with the discussions —...

EU trade deals risk affordability of generic medicines for Global South

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

Ban Ki-Moon is the 8th U.N. secretary-general and Club de Madrid honorary member. Winnie Byanyima is the executive director of UNAIDS.India has long been known as the “pharmacy of the world,” producing generic medicines at prices that other developing countries and global institutions can afford. The country was the single largest supplier of pharmaceutical products to Africa in 2018, and accounted for a fifth of the continent’s pharmaceutical imports.However, as the European Union now negotiates free trade agreements with India and Indonesia — another major generics-producing nation — the bloc’s been proposing far stricter protection of intellectual property rights. And such protection could threaten the affordability of generic medicines these countries export to the Global South.It’s vital we remember the lessons of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. It was the influx of affordable generics from India that helped drive down the price of treatment from over $10,000 to unde...

Outcry in Poland after claims that prosecutors drained cesspit in abortion probe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

WARSAW — The political row over sexual and reproductive rights in Poland has reignited after local media reported Wednesday that a woman who miscarried had her house’s cesspit drained in search of the fetus on orders of a prosecutor seeking to find out if the miscarriage was in fact an abortion.The report is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents concerning Polish authorities’ heavy-handedness around abortion laws and has sparked public outcry ahead of the country’s general election in October.The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party — which implemented a near-total ban on abortion that took effect in 2021 — is looking to win an unprecedented third straight term in office.But reports of law enforcement going after women who lost their pregnancies or took abortion pills threaten the ruling party’s chances of winning. Polls show that nearly 84 percent of Poles want liberalization of the abortion law.A July poll for OKO.Press and TOK FM indicates that while 39 percent of m...

Twitter’s turn to X marks the spot for EU trademark trouble

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

BRUSSELS — Twitter turned into X this week, marking the spot for trademark lawyers to send off legal warnings to its billionaire owner Elon Musk.Rockers Metallica, software giant Microsoft, carmaker Honda and sportswear brand Adidas all own versions of X as a trademark.There are already 262 Xs registered as trademarks with the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office, according to an agency database. These give companies exclusive rights to use X in certain design formats, for certain purposes — such as clothing — or for certain industries, such as entertainment or financial services. Musk changed the name of the social media known as Twitter earlier this week, a rebrand that’s apparently part of a broad plan to turn it into an “everything app” to offer commercial services on a platform once central to online public debate.But there’s no sign of Twitter or Musk owning an EU trademark for X.“If one plans to change the name, certainly a well-kno...

EU has no easy options to help Ukraine shift its grain

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

Pressure is mounting on the EU to move even more of Ukraine’s stranded agricultural surplus after Moscow refused to rejoin a U.N.-backed deal to allow Kyiv to export grain across the Black Sea and unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukrainian seaports.Brussels says the EU is perfectly capable of exporting all of the grain and other agricultural products backed up in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s 17-month-old war of aggression and decision last week to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative.“We are ready to export by solidarity lanes almost everything that Ukraine needs to export,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels this week.Despite that confident statement, the EU’s solidarity lanes — overland corridors set up to facilitate transit by road, rail and inland waterway — are under strain. The bloc has struggled to boost their capacity and faces pushback from eastern member countries ...

Person struck and killed by Amtrak train in Andover

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

An investigation got underway Thursday after a person was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Andover, the Essex County District Attorney’s office said. The DA’s office said authorities were notified of the incident near the intersection of Railroad and Essex streets around 4:30 p.m.“Upon further investigation, they learned the person – traveling on foot – had apparently waited for a southbound train to pass before being struck by a northbound Amtrak Downeaster train that was passing through Andover immediately after the southbound train cleared the intersection,” the DA’s office said. The DA’s office said crossing lights and gates in the area appeared to be working and in their downward position when the person was hit. An Amtrak spokesperson, in a separate statement, said the train involved was traveling from Boston to Brunswick. The spokesperson said there were no injuries reported among the train’s passengers or crew. “Amtrak is working with lo...

Lightning strikes chimney in Boston’s South End, sending bricks onto sidewalk and parked car

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

Lightning struck a chimney at an apartment building in Boston’s South End Thursday, sending pieces of the chimney crashing onto the street below as storms made their way through the region. Video captured the moment the strike rocked the building on Massachusetts Avenue near Tremont Street. Inside, Caitlin Murphy said she heard a “giant boom.” “I look out my window and I see bricks that are, like, sparking falling onto Massachusetts Avenue,” Murphy said. Murphy said soot fell into her fireplace. Photos from the roof of the building that got hit showed bricks scattered across the area. A skylight was also damaged.Bricks littered the sidewalk on Massachusetts Avenue and caved in the hood of one vehicle. A metal fence was left lying on the sidewalk. Officials said no one was hit by the flying debris and there were no reported injuries. “It’s lucky given the situation,” Murphy said. Boston Fire Department District Chief Robert Counihan said crews arriv...

Brush fire near border prompts evacuation warning

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A brush fire burning Thursday in the Potrero area has prompted an evacuation warning, authorities said.The blaze, dubbed as the "Border 21 Fire," is in the southeastern part of the county off of Grapevine Truck Trail and Tecate Truck Trail, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department tweeted at 7:33 p.m. The shaded area shown in the map below is under an evacuation warning:An evacuation warning is in effect for the shaded area on this map. (San Diego County Sheriff's Department)Authorities advise that an evacuation warning means there's impending danger to your life or property. New affordable housing opens in North County "If a warning is given, you must assume an evacuation order will follow. Start gathering important items for your family and pets. If you feel you're in danger, don't wait. Go!" the sheriff's department said.Steele Canyon High School, located at 12440 Campo Road in Spring Valley, is being set up as a temporary evacuation point, according to law enfor...

Australian prime minister is confident the US will deliver nuclear-powered submarines

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he was confident of securing bipartisan political support in the United States for a deal to provide his country with submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.The so-called AUKUS partnership — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — is being discussed by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in meetings with Albanese and other Australian officials in Brisbane on Friday and Saturday.Under the deal, Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden that warned the deal would “unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet” without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.Albanese said he remained “very confident” that the Unit...

Animals visit, lift the spirits of young patients stuck in the hospital for summer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:12 GMT

CHICAGO — At a summer camp program at Lurie Children's Hospital, instead of the kids going away, the camp comes to the kids. And it included some Shedd Aquarium favorites traveling from the lakefront to Lurie to add a little adventure even inside hospital walls.For patients stuck in the hospital for the summer, who can’t make it to camp or other summer activities, the outside comes to them.“I heard it in my room. My nurse let me know and I said, ‘I gotta go see the animals!’” patient Alyssa Woodworth said. “It’s a taste of nature, especially when you are stuck in the building.”Lizards, snakes and big red the tortoise mingled with patients and their families as part of the 8-week-long explorers camp. ‘Be nice to each other:’ 7 residents of a suburban senior living home offer advice on living 100 years Katie Vautier is Lurie Children’s School Services Coordinator.“We’ve had a STEM week and we’ve done an engineering challenge,” she said.RJ Hall has been at Lurie for nearly a week. Th...