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Biden calls for up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, disappointing all sides

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday proposed up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico but none in Alaska as it tries to navigate between energy companies seeking greater oil and gas production and environmental activists who want Biden to shut down new offshore drilling in the fight against climate change.The five-year plan includes proposed sales in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation’s primary offshore source of oil and gas, in 2025, 2027 and 2029. The three lease sales are the minimum number the Democratic administration could legally offer if it wants to continue expanding offshore wind development. Under the terms of a 2022 climate law, the government must offer at least 60 million acres of offshore oil and gas leases in any one-year period before it can offer offshore wind leases. The provision tying offshore wind to oil and gas production was added by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a top recipient of oil and gas do...

More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population has fled as separatist government plans to dissolve

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s original population has fled to Armenia, authorities said, as the region’s separatist government said it would dissolve itself, and the unrecognized republic inside Azerbaijan would cease to exist by year’s end after a three-decade bid for independence.Armenian officials said that 84,770 people had left Nagorno-Karabakh by Friday morning, continuing a mass exodus from the region of ethnic Armenians that began Sunday. The region’s population was around 120,000 before the exodus began.The moves came after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive last week to reclaim full control over the breakaway region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh disarm and the separatist government disband.A decree signed by the region’s separatist president, Samvel Shakhramanyan, cited a Sept. 20 agreement to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of ...

Higher gas prices lift Fed’s preferred inflation gauge but underlying price pressures remain mild

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve accelerated in August, boosted mainly by higher gas prices. But measures of underlying inflation slowed in the latest sign that overall price pressures are still moderating.Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 0.4% from July to August, up from just 0.2% the previous month.Compared with a year earlier, prices rose 3.5% in August, up from 3.4% year-over-year increase in July. It was the second straight rise in the year-over-year figure, which has tumbled from its 7% peak in June 2022 but still exceeds the Fed’s 2% inflation target. A sharp increase in gas costs drove the August price increase, just as it did in the more widely followed consumer price inflation figures that the government issued earlier this month. But excluding the volatile food and gas categories, “core” inflation remained comparatively tame in August, evidence that it’s continuing to cool, though m...

Toronto Blue Jays on cusp of locking down playoff berth

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

It’s time to put the champagne on ice at Rogers Centre. The Toronto Blue Jays are on the cusp of locking up a playoff berth.The Blue Jays can clinch a playoff berth if they beat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays tonight and the Seattle Mariners lose to the Texas Rangers.Toronto shut out the New York Yankees 6-0 on Thursday to remain in sole possession of the second American League wild-card spot.Toronto is one game ahead of the Houston Astros, who hold the third wild-card spot. The Blue Jays are two games ahead of the Mariners.Will Blue Jays fans be floating tonight like these balloons and celebrating a post-season berth or will their dreams be popped once again? Jays magic number is 2:Win 2 this wknd & they’re in playoffs. Or win 1 and Houston or Seattle lose 1 and they’re still likely in.GO JAYS GO! pic.twitter.com/95c483lXcz— carl hanstke (@carlCityNews) September 29, 2023The Rays have secured the first wild-card spot.After their three-game series in Toronto, they will...

The leader of Spain’s conservatives fails in his second attempt in parliament to become premier

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The leader of Spain’s conservatives on Friday failed for the second time in three days to get parliamentary support for his bid to become prime minister following his party’s victory in a national election.In a vote in the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, the Spanish parliament’s lower chamber, Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo collected again 173 lawmakers’ votes in his favor to 177 against him — roughly the same that he received two days earlier. The Popular Party holds 137 seats in the Congress of Deputies, the most of any party, following the July election. But even with backing from the far-right Vox party’s 33 lawmakers and two from small conservative rivals, it was not enough for Feijóo.His defeat opened a door for center-left Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, whose Socialists placed second in the election, to possibly return to power if he can persuade smaller parties to back him. Sánchez has been Spain’s prime minister for the past five years...

A bus carrying dozens of schoolchildren overturns in northwest England, seriously injuring 1 person

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A bus carrying dozens of schoolchildren overturned on a highway near Liverpool on Friday, seriously injuring one person and causing a local hospital to declare a major incident as doctors treated dozens of passengers.The bus was transporting students from Calday Grange Grammar School and West Kirby Grammar School for girls on the Wirral Peninsula, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. Traffic on the M53 motorway was blocked as police and other emergency services responded to the incident, which was reported shortly after 8 a.m. local time.The North West Ambulance Service said it dispatched ambulances, advanced paramedics, a hazardous area response team and a helicopter emergency medical service doctor to the scene.“So far, one female patient has been taken to the hospital, suffering major trauma-related injuries,” the ambulance service said. “There are also nearly 50 other patients being assessed at the scene.”Alder Hey Children’s Hospital dec...

Why we’re all paying different prices online

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, you and a friend might be given two different prices by the same website for the same item. You might be given two different prices yourself depending on where you are when you’re browsing the site. It’s a phenomenon that began as dynamic pricing — a computer balancing supply and demand to ensure everything was sold at a price the market was prepared to pay — but it’s now gone well beyond that.Colin Horgan wrote about personalized pricing in The Walrus. He says the concern here is the opacity of the pricing systems and the data they use.“There’s very little transparency about what information they’re gathering about you, that is the real crux of this issue,” he says.As algorithms become smarter and more advanced, and as we voluntarily offer our devices and the companies we do business with more of our information, the prices you see may take into account everything a machine could possibly deduce about you and your shopping habits.Is t...

Thursday Forecast: Patchy fog with temps in mid 70s

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

CHICAGO — Patchy dense fog with mostly sunny conditions Friday and cooler lakeside. Winds: E 5-10. High: 75/72. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storms here Dense Fog Advisory until 9 a.m. for: McHenry, Kane, DuPage, DeKalb, LaSalle, Kendall, Grundy, Will, Kankakee, Jasper counties.Mostly clear tonight with calm conditions. Winds: E 0-5. Low: 59.Saturday Forecast: Mostly sunny, cooler lakeside, SSE 0-5. High: 82/77.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

What to know as fall vaccinations against COVID, flu and RSV get underway

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Updated COVID-19 vaccines may be getting a little easier for adults to find but they’re still frustratingly scarce for young children. Health officials said Thursday the kid shots have started shipping — and reminded most everyone to get a fall flu shot too.About 2 million Americans have gotten the new COVID-19 shot in the two weeks since its approval despite early barriers from insurance companies and other glitches, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.For the first time, the U.S. has vaccines to fight a trio of viruses that cause fall and winter misery. But health officials worry that shot fatigue and hassles in getting them will leave too many people needlessly unprotected.“We need to use them,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. “Right now is the right time.”A flu vaccination and that updated COVID-19 shot are urged for just about everyone, starting with babies as young as 6 months.Al...

Dean's Weekender: War, Mike Toomey and more

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:44 GMT

Check out Dean's Weekender for the latest events coming to the Chicagoland area this weekend.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!