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Energy Bill extravaganza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

Presented by SSE By CHARLIE COOPER and ABBY WALLACE PRESENTED BY View in your browser or listen to audio— The Energy Bill faces its last day of committee scrutiny — and time is tight to get it over the line before recess.— More fallout from Wednesday’s mammoth Climate Change Committee (CCC) report, with reaction from across the U.K. energy landscape.— Eyes turn to former PM Theresa May, who is giving a speech about net zero in London this afternoon.Good Thursday morning and welcome to POLITICO Pro Morning Energy and Climate UK. We’re nearly at the end of another week. Here’s an dazzling update to keep you going in until we get there. As always, please get in touch with your thoughts, tips and critique at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Or reach us on Twitter: @hargraver; @charliecooper8; @abby_wallace3. If you are not already a Pro subscriber and would like a free trial of this newsl...

Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán throws perfect game against Oakland. It’s the 24th in MLB history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

By MICHAEL WAGAMAN (Associated Press)OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Since arriving in the big leagues six years ago, Domingo Germán has been anything but perfect.Until now.The New York Yankees right-hander pitched the 24th perfect game in major league history Wednesday night, retiring every Oakland batter in an 11-0 victory over the Athletics.It was the first perfect game since Seattle Mariners ace Félix Hernández threw one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 15, 2012. There were three that season — but none since until Germán finished off the first no-hitter in the majors this year. He joined Don Larsen (1956), David Wells (1998) and David Cone (1999) as Yankees to pitch perfect games. Larsen’s gem came in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.“So exciting,” Germán said through a translator. “When you think about something very unique in baseball, not many people have an opportunity to pitch a perfect game. ...

Deadly e-bike crash prompts safety concerns in Encinitas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

ENCINITAS, Calif. -- A tragedy is pushing the city to move more urgently to address the growing problems with e-bike safety. A fatal e-bike collision on El Camino Real killed a high schooler from San Dieguito Academy Thursday. Now, the grieving parents are calling for new regulations for students riding e-bikes and new infrastructure safety measures dividing cars and bikes.  “Our sweet little town of Encinitas is no longer that. We are going at an unsustainable rate. We have had such a large influx in the last couple of years and we need change. I know you will do it,” said Troy Kingman, the father of the victim who died while riding to his school. Brodee Champlain Kingman was killed while turning on to El Camino Real from a quieter side street and now Encinitas is reacting to the devastating incident. Hundreds gather for candlelight vigil after Encinitas teen dies in e-bike crash “This tragedy is the fault of all of us and none of us. We were born into a car culture. This city w...

Police arrest 150 as unrest spreads to multiple towns after 17-year-old driver killed by police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

NANTERRE, France (AP) — Protesters angry after police fatally shot a 17-year-old boy set cars and public buildings ablaze in Paris suburbs and unrest spread to some other French cities and towns, despite increased security efforts and the president’s calls for calm.The killing of 17-year-old Nael during a traffic check Tuesday, captured on video, shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between young people and police in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods around France. Nael’s surname has not been released by authorities or by his family. Clashes first erupted Tuesday night in and around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where Nael was killed, and the government deployed 2,000 police to maintain order Wednesday. But violence resumed after dusk.Police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes through the night that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings, according to a spokesper...

Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed after central bankers say interest rates must stay high

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday after leaders of major central banks said they need to keep interest rates high to fight persistent inflation despite fears that might tip the global economy into recession.Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul retreated while Tokyo and Sydney advanced. Oil prices declined.U.S., European and Japanese central bankers meeting Wednesday in Portugal said with hiring still strong, they have yet to extinguish upward pressure on prices. “Policy hasn’t been restrictive enough for long enough,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.“The end of hiking interest rates is not in sight yet,” Carl B. Weinberg of High-Frequency Economics said in a report.The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 3,185.83 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.4% to 33,308.65. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 1.4% to 18,906.91. The Kospi in Seoul gave up 0.2% to 2,558.98 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 advanced less than 0.1% to 7,197.60.New Zealand and Bangkok a...

Israeli killing of 15-year-old Palestinian girl in West Bank casts light on civilian casualties

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — At the funeral for Sadeel Naghniyeh, 15, her closest friends hoisted her dead body over their shoulders. Wearing their school uniforms — tight black hijabs and oversized striped shirts — they staggered through the Palestinian refugee camp, crying and choking out the Islamic funeral prayers. Sadeel was killed by suspected Israeli fire when a raid into the northern Jenin refugee camp last week ignited the fiercest Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the occupied West Bank in years. Typically in Palestinian funerals, older men — relatives and friends — parade the flag-draped body through the streets. At Sadeel’s funeral, her eighth-grade classmates wrapped her in the uniform she would no longer wear. “She was only a child. She had ambitions to become a nurse and save lives,” her father, Ghassan Naghniyeh, 46, said from his vine-covered driveway where Sadeel was shot. “They killed my daughter and they killed her dreams.”Witness accounts and surveil...

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon is stepping down. He’s not happy about how it happened

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Until Monday, only two politicians had lasted at least seven years as speaker of the California Assembly: A U.S. Navy veteran who was so powerful that people called him “Big daddy;” and a lawyer who was so confident he nicknamed himself the “Ayatollah.”Now, joining Jesse Unruh and Willie Brown is Anthony Rendon, a man with no nickname who online search engines often confuse with the third baseman for the Los Angeles Angels. This week, Rendon quietly surpassed Unruh’s record and became the second-longest serving speaker in state history — just in time for him to step down on Friday.He’s not happy about how it happened.For much of last year, with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom coasting to re-election, Rendon’s status was the source of much of the political drama in California. Over the summer, Robert Rivas — at the time a mostly unknown chair of the Assembly’s agriculture committee — told Rendon he had enough votes to replace him as spea...

How’s the weather up there? It’ll be harder for Alaska to tell as longtime program goes off air

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Before Morris Nashoanak heads out for days in search of bearded seals, beluga whales or salmon, he catches the weather on TV.But it’s not the weather segment from a local TV station — there isn’t one. Instead, it’s a program designed for those living in rural and largely roadless Alaska, with separate forecasts for mariners, aviators and residents to help decide whether they can safely hunt, fish or fly.“Alaska Weather” has been must-see TV for 47 years in a state where extreme weather dictates everyday life. But the daily program, the only weather show produced by the National Weather Service, will have its last on-air broadcast Friday, with business considerations ending its distribution to public television stations in Juneau and Fairbanks.From then on, it will be available only on YouTube. That’s prompted fears that some of the state’s most vulnerable residents — those in far-flung Indigenous communities where internet servi...

Digital euro will complement cash, not replace it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

“If we want the digital Euro to become a success, we need a clear and convincing narrative of why we need it in the first place. People need to see the benefits of a digital Euro in their day-to-day lives. The European Central Bank and the European Commission have yet to make a compelling case of why we need the digital Euro and what added value it will deliver,” explained Markus Ferber MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman in the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. His comment comes as the Commission was expected to present its Single Currency Package, including a legal framework for the digital euro on 28 June.“There are no obvious gaps in the EU’s payment landscapes. If we are just duplicating the existing payment infrastructure with the digital Euro, that is not a good enough business case,” said Ferber.Markus Ferber sees no danger that cash could be abolished: “While payments are going more and more digital, for many people cash remains king. The digital Euro ...

2 environmental scientists team up to find Kristin Smart's remains

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:27:00 GMT

A pair of scientists, along with a former analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have joined forces to find the missing remains of Kristin Smart, 27 years after her disappearance and murder.  While Smart’s body has never been located, the case has gained renewed interest from the true crime podcast, “Your Own Backyard.” Now, in a mission dubbed “Project Homecoming,” two scientists believe the soil in a backyard may be the key to finding the missing Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student’s remains.  Dr. Steve Hoyt is a Cal Poly graduate and an environmental scientist whose business tests soil samples. Timothy Neligan, an environmental engineer who also attended Cal Poly, had an actual run-in with 19-year-old Smart.  “She came knocking at our door a week before she went missing to use the telephone to call somebody,” Neligan explained. “We followed the case ever since and wanted to help the family.” Paul Flores, the last person to see Smart alive, is serving 25 years to life f...