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Putin turns on the pandas! Russia bans WWF amid civil society crackdown

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

Moscow has barred the world’s largest wildlife conservation organization from operating in Russia over claims it is working to undermine the economy as it steps up its campaign against civil society organizations.In a statement issued Wednesday, the prosecutor general’s office declared the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to be “undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.” The decision bars the nature protection NGO from working in the country under the terms of a 2015 law used to shut down dozens of groups since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.According to Russian officials, “WWF’s initiatives are aimed at large enterprises engaged in the energy, oil and gas industries, as well as those involved in the development of mineral deposits and precious metals.”The ruling reads: “WWF is carrying out activities to prevent industrial development of the Arctic and harnessing of natural resources in the Arctic territories,”...

Qatargate-linked MEP Cozzolino released from house arrest

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

Belgian judges released Italian MEP and Qatargate suspect Andrea Cozzolino from house arrest under certain conditions on Wednesday, a prosecution spokesperson confirmed.The Socialist MEP is a key suspect in the European Parliament’s cash-for-influence scandal known as Qatargate, and is facing charges of corruption, criminal organization and money laundering. Belgian prosecutors are investigating whether he accepted bribes from Morocco in exchange for favoring the country’s interests in Brussels, but he denies any wrongdoing.Cozzolino was released from house arrest on the understanding he should give a one-week notice for any travel and should not make contact with other suspects, his lawyer Vincenzo Domenico Ferraro told POLITICO.Cozzolino’s release was the first major decision by Aurélie Dejaiffe, the Belgian judge who took over the European Parliament corruption probe after her predecessor Michel Claise stepped down on Monday amid allegations of a conflict of interest.She co...

UK ‘very supportive’ of fast-track NATO plan for Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. would be “very supportive” of a fast-tracked accession to NATO for Ukraine, the British foreign secretary said.Speaking at a press conference at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, James Cleverly said Britain would support proposals to allow Kyiv to skip a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP) in order to join NATO.The alliance launched the MAP in 1999 to help aspiring countries meet NATO standards and prepare for future membership. During that phase, aspiring members receive advice, assistance and practical support to make military and democratic reforms, but participation in the MAP does not guarantee they will be accepted into NATO.Dropping the MAP would ease Ukraine’s access to the transatlantic alliance, and act as a compromise between Eastern European allies, who want the war-torn country to be given immediate membership, and other Western countries, which fear accepting Ukraine into NATO would worsen tensions with Russia and believe Kyiv still needs ...

FTC accuses Amazon of enrolling consumers into Prime without consent and making it hard to cancel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Wednesday for what it called a years-long effort to enroll consumers without consent into its Prime program and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns,” to deceive consumers into enrolling in the program. It said the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult in many cases. It also said that consumers were sometimes presented with a button to complete their transactions — and the button didn’t clearly state it was also enrolling them into Prime.The regulatory agency, which is led by Big Tech critic Chair Lina Khan, also alleged the company’s leadership slowed or rejected changes that made canceling the subscription easier.It said those patterns were in violation of the FTC Act and another law cal...

2 former OceanGate employees voiced safety concerns years ago about the hull of the now-missing vessel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

(CNN) — Two former OceanGate employees separately voiced similar safety concerns about the thickness of the now-missing Titan submersible’s hull when they were employed by the company years ago, and a statement from a research lab appears to show conflicting information about the engineering and testing that went into the development of the vessel.David Lochridge, the company’s former director of marine operations, claimed in a court filing he was wrongfully terminated in 2018 for raising concerns about the safety and testing of the Titan, which vanished Sunday with five people on board during a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic.Details about Lochridge and another former employee’s concerns come as officials scour a swath of ocean about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, racing to locate the submersible and rescue the crew inside. If the vessel is intact, they have a dwindling supply of oxygen, with perhaps less than a day of breathable air as of e...

Robert Downey Jr. weaves introspection and vulnerability into a show about cars

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Downey Jr. knows he has amassed an impressive collection of classic cars — one he self-deprecatingly refers to as artifacts of his success.Despite his expectations of what the “accouterments are supposed to be” when one reaches a certain level of fame and wealth, trophies, it turns out for the actor, are not all they are cracked up to be. It’s that dissatisfaction that helped to inspire “Downey’s Dream Cars,” his latest project debuting Thursday on Max.“The cash and prizes, it’s never been what motivated me. So, I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s still not,” Downey said at the show’s premiere, held last week at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.While “Downey’s Dream Cars” is very much a show for gearheads, it isn’t restricted to that audience. Downey experiments with genre in a kind of eco-friendly “Pimp My Ride” that is also part memoir and a documentary about the latest advancements in clean technology. “That was certainly th...

Nearly a third of workers fear being fired over job-related mental health issue: poll

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

Over one-third or 35 per cent of workers fear they could be fired for reporting a job-related mental health injury, a new survey has found.The poll from Maru Public Opinion found 45 per cent of workers believe there is a regular risk of an on-the-job mental health injury. That percentage went up to 57 per cent among the youngest employees aged 18-34.It was also more likely that lower-income employees felt this way when compared to higher-income employees.Legally, employers in Canada can’t discriminate against mental health by law, but half of the youngest employees aged 18-34 surveyed still feared they could be fired for reporting mental health issues related to a job.“What’s astonishing is not just that one-third of workers believe they’re at risk of a mental health injury, but that just as many fear of being fired if they reveal such a condition,” Maru executive vice-president John Wright said.“It’s even more concerning that half of the youngest employees would k...

EU migration chief says deadly shipwreck highlights surge in migrant crossings from eastern Libya

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The shipwreck last week off Greece that is feared to have killed hundreds of people may be the “worst ever tragedy” of its kind in the Mediterranean Sea, the European Union’s migration chief said Wednesday. The tragedy comes as migrant crossings from eastern Libya to Europe have surged, said Ylva Johansson, the EU’s migration and home affairs commissioner. As many as 750 people may have been on board the migrant ship that sank in the Mediterranean a week ago, and just over 100 people survived the shipwreck. So far, 82 bodies have been recovered and hundreds of people are missing.“We saw this new modus operandi starting in the beginning of this year. We’ve seen an increase with 600% along this route from the eastern part of Libya towards EU or mainly towards Italy,” Johansson told a news conference in Stockholm. She said it appears the vessel was “an empty fishing boat leaving from Egypt, going to the eastern part of Libya, picking up maybe 750 migrants,&...

Coast Guard suspends search for ship’s crew member reported overboard off Southern California

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Searchers were unable to find a crew member who fell off a cargo ship in the ocean off Southern California, the Coast Guard said.The search lasted nearly 15 hours before it was suspended Tuesday evening, the Coast Guard said in a statement.A bulk cargo carrier reported the sailor overboard around 5 a.m. about 14 miles (23 kilometers) southwest of Point Conception as the vessel was transiting the Santa Barbara Channel en route to the Port of Long Beach, the Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard broadcast an alert to vessels in the area and sent a helicopter, a small boat and a cutter to conduct the search. “The decision to suspend an active search is never easy and is only made after exhaustive efforts to find the missing person,” said Chief Warrant Officer John Rose, the search coordinator at Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach. The Associated Press

Modi flexes India’s cultural reach with backbends and cobras in a yoga session on the UN lawn

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:11:29 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Praising yoga as “truly universal,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi practiced it Wednesday with a multinational crowd at the United Nations, performing backbends and corpse poses as he kicked off the public portion of his U.S. visit by calmly flexing India’s cultural reach.With a checkerboard of made-in-India yoga mats covering the U.N. headquarters’ spacious north lawn, Modi stopped and bowed at a statue of the assassinated Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Then, in brief remarks, Modi turned to the topic at hand, portraying yoga as an all-ages, portable practice accessible to all faiths and cultures.“When we do yoga, we feel physically fit, mentally calm and emotionally content. But it is not just about doing exercise on a mat,” Modi said. “Yoga is a way of life.” Then the leader of the world’s most populous nation took his spot on a mat amid the throng of hundreds. Over the next 35 minutes, he joined in breathing exercises, meditation, bac...