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Chevron agrees to buy Hess for $53 billion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

New York (CNN) — Chevron announced Monday that it has agreed to buy rival Hess in yet another oil industry consolidation deal.Cash-rich oil giants are taking advantage of high prices and surging profits to snap up assets and boost returns for shareholders even as pressure builds for them to invest more in renewable energy.The deal, worth $53 billion plus debt, would give Chevron even greater access to US shale production in Texas’ Permian Basin, a part of the industry where Chevron (CVX) has been a leader for years. Hess (HES) also has large oil assets in Guyana, which Chevron said would help grow its production over the next decade.“This combination positions Chevron to strengthen our long-term performance and further enhance our advantaged portfolio by adding world-class assets,” said Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth.Wirth said Chevron and Hess will be able to merge seamlessly, sharing “similar values and cultures,” including a commitment to “lowering carbon,” although env...

Pink reveals she almost died of a drug overdose as a teenager

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

(CNN) — Pink is opening up about her past in a new interview with “60 Minutes,” revealing she nearly died of a drug overdose in the ’90s.“I grew up in a house where every day my parents were screaming at each other, throwing things. They hated each other,” Pink told Cecilia Vega.Describing herself as “a punk” at the time, Pink said she eventually started using and selling drugs, got kicked out of her house and dropped out of high school. “I was off the rails,” she said.On Thanksgiving day in 1995, “I was at a rave and I overdosed,” she said, adding that she had taken “ecstasy, angel dust, crystal – all kinds of things” that night.She told Vega the combination almost killed her.That was the last time she used “hard drugs,” according to the report. Weeks later, Pink (whose name is Alecia Moore) scored her first record deal with an all-girls R&B group. She eventually launched a solo career using the “teenage nickname” she’s now known for.“I keep demanding m...

Larry Hogan latest to pull back from Harvard over student groups’ letter blaming Israel for Hamas attacks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

(CNN) — Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday became the latest notable figure to pull back from Harvard after student groups there signed a statement blaming Israel for the deadly attacks by Hamas earlier this month.In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Republican shared a letter he sent to Harvard notifying the school he would be pulling out of fellowships with its Kennedy School of Government and Chan School of Public Health.Hogan said that while he was “looking forward to sharing leadership lessons with the next generation of leaders at Harvard next month,” he “cannot condone the dangerous anti-Semitism that has taken root on your campus, especially by more than 30 Harvard student organizations attempting to justify and celebrate Hamas’ terrorism against innocent Israeli and American civilians.”The backlash against Harvard began October 7 after the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, a coalition of student groups, released a statem...

China’s top diplomat to visit Washington this week

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

(CNN) — China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Washington, DC, later this week, senior administration officials said Monday ahead of a potential meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in California next month.Wang will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security Adviser Jake Sullivan during his trip to the US capital October 26-28, the officials said.They would not say if Wang will meet with Biden. However, Blinken met with Xi while in Beijing and one of the officials described Wang’s trip as “a reciprocal visit after Secretary Blinken’s trip to Beijing in June.”Tensions between the two countries have been high but the Biden administration has been making an effort to push dialog with Beijing. Wang’s trip comes as the US is looking to prevent the Israel-Hamas war escalating into a wider conflict in the Middle East and as the Ukraine-Russia war continues.“This visit by Wang Yi is part of ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of c...

North Atlantic right whale population levels off, but they’re still ‘swimming along the cliff of extinction’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

The North Atlantic right whale population might be leveling off after years of decline, but the critically endangered species still faces significant threats as the whales keep “swimming along the cliff of extinction,” according to advocates.A new estimate from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium has found that the North Atlantic right whale population was around 356 whales last year.In 2021, their population estimate was around 364 animals North Atlantic right whales, primarily due to the recent cataloging of 18 calves born that year.“While certainly more encouraging than a continued decline, the ‘flattening’ of the population estimate indicates that human activities are killing as many whales as are being born into the population, creating an untenable burden on the species,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.There have been two detected deaths of right whales ...

CTE risk increases with longer rugby careers: Boston University study

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

A rugby player’s risk for developing CTE increases the longer their career lasts, according to a new landmark study involving Boston University researchers.Scientists from BU, the University of Glasgow and University of Sydney have found new evidence that links playing rugby union — either at the amateur or elite level — with developing the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy.Much of the focus around CTE has involved American football players, and their exposure to repeated head impacts and concussion head injuries. Researchers are only able to diagnose CTE in those who have died.This latest study looked at the results of postmortem brain examinations of 31 former amateur and elite rugby union players whose brains were donated for research purposes in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Australia. CTE was found in 68% of the brains examined, and in both amateur and elite players.The risk for developing CTE was tied with the length of a player...

Robbins: Biden stands firm against Hamas cheerleaders

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

The narrative that President Biden is too old to be president isn’t holding up all that well, taking more than a few hits in recent months. Biden’s arduous secret trip to Kiev to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine while it fends off Vladimir Putin’s barbarism didn’t exactly advance the narrative. His visit to Israel while it is besieged by thousands of Hamas rockets, landing on Air Force One at an airport easily reached by the Iranian proxy’s missiles, set the narrative back even further. If this is what it means to be too old to lead the free world, one wonders whether there is anything a younger president could do to make Americans prouder.Biden’s personal courage was accompanied by wisdom, all displayed with the knowledge that his immediate, resolute commitment to Israel would unleash rage from the predictable quarters. The leaders of Arab countries that American taxpayers help sustain nonetheless refused to meet with Biden on his Mideast trip, fearful of being toppled by the sp...

Boston City Council to vote on amended Mass and Cass tent ban Wednesday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

Ricardo Arroyo will ask his City Council colleagues to vote Wednesday on an amended anti-encampment ordinance he’s filed, saying that the changes strengthen the legality of what the mayor proposed in late August for the Mass and Cass zone.The amendments would eliminate a monetary, or $25, penalty for people who refuse tent removal, and directly involve the Boston Public Health Commission in cases where shelter space is unavailable, but the city must place restrictions on outdoor encampment activity for public health and safety reasons.City officials would also be required to track available shelter space on a daily basis, per the changes, and provide notice of tent removal in a variety of languages, Arroyo wrote in a letter to councilors.“The chair of the committee does not support this ordinance,” Arroyo wrote, referring to himself. “These amendments, however, clarify implementation of this ordinance for city departments and city employees, and also make efforts to strengthen the l...

Trump speaks to packed house in New Hampshire after filing nomination papers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

DERRY, N.H. — While former President Donald Trump was in Concord filing his nomination paperwork with the New Hampshire Secretary of State, thousands of his supporters began to line up at the New England Sports Center to await his arrival.The room where Trump would speak, a gymnasium covered in folding chairs, filled to capacity with “MAGA” bedecked voters well before the 45th president took the stage around 3 p.m. on Monday. Some chanted and danced in the aisles as they waited for the former president.“Vote for Trump and solve your problems,” Trump told an audience of more than 2,500.The former president seemed full of energy as he delivered a wide-ranging, nearly two-hour address that brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions. Trump more than once took specific aim at President Biden, who Trump said was left with a roaring economy that the current president has not maintained.“I will end Joe Biden’s inflation disaster and we will quickly rebuild the greatest economy...

Boston-area dentist who ripped down posters of Israeli hostages has been fired: ‘It’s appalling. It’s cold-hearted. It’s evil’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:50:57 GMT

A woman who was caught on camera ripping down posters of Israeli hostages at a Chestnut Hill shopping center has been fired from a local dental office.The video of the Boston-area dentist went viral over the weekend after she was seen at The Street shopping area taking down posters of Israelis, who have been kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.After the organization StopAntisemitism identified the woman as a local endodontist, the group reached out to her employer and she was fired soon after.“It’s appalling. It’s cold-hearted. It’s evil,” StopAntisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez told the Herald on Monday.“I’m not sure what sort of depraved human being would look at posters of kidnapped babies and think the appropriate course of action would be to tear them down,” Rez added. “Tearing down any attempt to bring awareness to that campaign is very frightening.”The Herald reached out to the Boston-area dentist, but she could not ...