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Mounting discontent augurs badly for EU Green Deal

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

Rasmus Grand Berthelsen is director for the Nordics at Rasmussen Global.As the 2024 European election approaches, a notable shift is occurring across major countries in the European Union: Voters are turning away from Green parties amid a rising tide of right-wing populism and anti-EU sentiment.Opinion polls consistently indicate substantial gains for hard-right parties in countries like Germany and Italy, coinciding with losses for centrist factions. And a significant portion of this shift can be attributed to voter dissatisfaction with the EU’s climate transition policies.Since 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has presided over the greenest Commission in history, and her commitment to the Green Deal has been unwavering. However, as she now aims to secure another term, von der Leyen may encounter a different political landscape while navigating the more contentious final pieces of the Green Deal, as well as its Fit-for-55 legislative package.Earlier th...

‘We know we aren’t going back’: Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians face up to a life in exile

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

GORIS, Armenia — In the hotel lobby, children grip plastic bags full of snacks, while the elderly gather around a man pulling medicines one by one out of a box, calling out names and passing over the pills. On a sofa in the corner, an elderly deaf couple sign to each other while, outside, half a dozen open-topped trucks rumble by, the passengers in the back sheltering from the rain under plastic sheeting. The crowd of a few dozen refugees has packed into the Hotel Goris, a Soviet-era pile that is one of the first stops for people fleeing into Armenia from the war-torn region of Nagorno-Karabakh, but such scenes are rapidly becoming ever more common across the border area with Azerbaijan as the exodus gathers apace. On Tuesday last week, Azerbaijan launched a lightning attack into the ethnic Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies entirely within its borders, forcing the surrender of the de facto administration there within a day. One week on, people are running away in i...

Polish government whips up hate campaign against director over film on migrants

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

WARSAW — Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has launched a vitriolic campaign against acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland for making a harrowing film that centers on how Poland handles — and maltreats — migrants trying to cross its border with Belarus.In a febrile pre-election atmosphere, Holland has faced such an onslaught of invective from PiS leader (and Poland’s de-facto ruler) Jarosław Kaczyński, the president, the prime minister, justice minister and other top officials that she’s paying a security company to protect her. In one of the more caustic attacks, President Andrzej Duda described her film as “anti-Polish.” He then went on to quote a protesting border guard union that denounced people attending the movie by using a World War II resistance slogan leveled against Poles who went to see Nazi propaganda films: “Only pigs sit in theaters.”“I’m not afraid but I’m not stupid, either,” Holland told POLITICO, referring to her need f...

The impossible dream: Feijóo launches doomed bid to lead Spain

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

More than 400 years after Miguel de Cervantes created the character of Don Quixote, Alberto Núñez Feijóo is poised to redefine what it means to be a Spaniard on an impossible quest.On Tuesday, Feijóo, leader of Spain’s Popular Party, will begin a two-day debate in parliament, arguing that he should be the country’s next prime minister. He’s all but certain to have his candidacy bluntly rejected.While his party won the most votes in July’s national elections, it fell short of a majority, securing only 137 of the 350 seats in parliament. Even with the support of the far-right Vox party and some regional groups, Feijóo only has the backing of 172 MPs, four short of the number he needs to form a government.Although it was clear that Feijóo’s bid to be prime minister was not viable within days of the election, that didn’t stop the Popular Party leader from meeting with King Felipe VI in mid-August and arguing that he should make his case to fellow lawmakers. ...

Britain’s anti-Brexit Lib Dems are back … But don’t mention the EU

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

BOURNEMOUTH, England — After years in the political wilderness, Britain’s Liberal Democrats might just be relevant again.The centrist, pro-European Lib Dems have spent a decade in the electoral doldrums following a coalition with the right-wing Conservatives. But, as the party gathers for its conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth, things are looking up.Some in the party now dream of playing a serious role in Britain’s next government if a general election, expected in 2024, ends up closer than polls suggest. Just don’t expect any noisy campaigning to reverse Brexit on the way there.Buoyed by a series of audacious by-election victories over the last few years, Lib Dem party officials are hopeful they can at least double the number of parliamentary seats they won in 2019’s election, when they struggled to make gains and their short-lived leader, Jo Swinson, spectacularly lost her seat.“For the first time since 2015, things feel stabilized, there’s a cle...

Several tires slashed in Roxbury after liquor store customer lashes out, witnesses say 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

Several tires were left slashed on and around Dudley Street in Roxbury Monday afternoon after witnesses said an angry customer at a local liquor store lashed out. At least a dozen tires were slashed. Later speaking with 7NEWS, witnesses said the incident started outside Fernandez Brothers Liquors on Dudley Street.Some witnesses said a man in a wheelchair got angry with the liquor store and, after scratching at the store’s window, slashed the tires of cars parked in front of the store. Witnesses said the man went on to slash more tires around the corner on Albion Street.Those who got their tires cut ultimately had no other choice but to change their tires in the rain or get their car towed on Monday. Boston police said a person was taken into custody close to the tire slashings shortly after this incident. The incident remained under investigation as of Monday night.

School board votes to keep suspension in place for Londonderry, NH varsity cheer team while investigation into alleged toxic culture continues

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

Members of the school board in Londonderry, New Hampshire on Monday voted to keep a suspension in place for the town’s high school varsity cheer team for the time being after allegations surfaced about a toxic culture in the cheerleading program.The allegations came to light two weeks ago, detailing what school administrators called “a toxic and pervasive culture of bullying, harassment and discrimination.” In a letter to families, administrators said the culture encompassed the entire cheerleading program, including the coaching staff, student athletes and parents.Weeks later, tempers flared this week as the situation came up for discussion at a school board meeting and as parents shared their thoughts.“This is a disgrace to this district,” one person said. “To put out a press release like that before you even started an investigation and put these girls into harm’s way is ridiculous,” one other person said. “They were cyberbullied like nobody’s business.”School administr...

California governor signs law barring schoolbook bans based on racial, gender teachings

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday to ban school boards from rejecting textbooks based on their teachings about the contributions of people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities. Newsom called the measure “long overdue.” “From Temecula to Tallahassee, fringe ideologues across the country are attempting to whitewash history and ban books from schools,” Newsom said in a statement. “With this new law, we’re cementing California’s role as the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them.”The bill takes effect immediately.The topic of banning and censoring books has become a U.S. political flashpoint, cropping up in statesaround the country. Many of the new restrictions enacted by conservative-dominated school boards have been over textbook representations of sexuality and LGBTQ+ history.The California bill garnered heightened attention...

Container shipments plummet at Port of Vancouver in step with falling consumer demand

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

The number of shipping containers passing through Canada’s largest port fell sharply in the first half of the year, driven down by weaker consumer demand and a sputtering economy.Container volumes at the Port of Vancouver fell 14 per cent in the first six months of 2023 compared with the same period a year earlier, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority said Monday.In a phone interview, interim CEO Victor Pang said the figures reflected a stalling economy, which contracted slightly in the second quarter.“There’s some economic softness, overall and for Canada. And you’re seeing that through our container numbers,” Pang said, noting that the decline was not unique to Canadian ports.Consumer goods volumes fell 12 per cent year over year, a decrease driven mainly by lower demand but also overstocked inventories, he added.Shipments of construction materials and auto parts also slumped, while movement of finished vehicles revved up as supply chain kinks smoothed...

You’re behind on rent and your landlord wants you out. Now what?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:30 GMT

As per Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), if a tenant doesn’t pay rent, it follows that a landlord has the right to evict them.But there are steps a tenant can take to avoid losing their home and the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) can exercise its discretion when considering the case.Monica Moran-Venegas, staff lawyer at Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Services says the first step is to keep communications lines with the landlord open and work at setting up a payment plan if possible.“Make a realistic payment plan, something that you can actually complete. If your income is $2,000 a month and your rent is $1200 — no, you can’t afford to pay an extra $500 over the next two months,” she says.“You have to eat, you [may] have kids — whatever it is. And longer payment plans with smaller payments are way better than just feeling like, ‘oh, I’m going to get this done really quickly.'”Moran-Venegas says even if the landlord...