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The King and I: Joe Biden and Charles III to bond over tea and eco-activism at Windsor Castle

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

LONDON — What does a British king have in common with the son of a car salesman from Scranton, Pennsylvania? Quite a lot, it turns out.When U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Windsor Castle on Monday he will renew an acquaintance with King Charles III which stretches back decades.Biden has made a point of stopping off in Britain on his way to this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania to fulfill a first bilateral reception with Charles since he ascended the throne, alongside talks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street. The president missed the king’s coronation in May, where the U.S. was represented by First Lady Jill Biden, and chose not to visit Great Britain during his trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland in April.Biden and Charles come from wildly different backgrounds but are of a similar generation — the king is six years Biden’s junior — and share a strong commitment to tackling climate change, as well as a deeply-held love of Ireland and Irish culture. Les...

How will Europe bring back solar manufacturing?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

Industry policy is the new kid in school. Looking at Brussels’ jumbled debate around the EU Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), it’s clear there’s a learning curve. Some confuse industrial policy with decarbonization of industries, others see a rerun of the EU sustainability taxonomy, many want to invoke the EU’s famous ‘technology-neutrality’ — diluting the focus and opening the door to any and all technology. Growing pains.The solar sector is painfully aware of what industrial policy is. The experience of the 2010s is tattooed onto the sector’s DNA. Europe started the decade as a solar PV powerhouse. Then, the EU reacted to ramped-up Chinese industrial policy with import tariffs on solar panels. It didn’t help Europe’s solar manufacturers, and it contributed to a steep decline of European solar deployment. China’s strategy to scale up its solar supply chains was anything but technology-neutral. Europe’s defensive response was at best ineffective, at worse counterproductive. Lesson...

What happens when HIV becomes a crime

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

LONDON — James’ life was irrevocably changed the day his name, photo, address and place of work were plastered on a news website beneath the accusation that he was being charged with infecting his former partner with HIV. It wasn’t the start of the living nightmare he found himself in — that had begun two years earlier when the police in England interviewed James following an allegation being made against him by his former partner. Nor was it the end. It would take another three years before James’ case was dropped in 2018. But the news that the case was no longer being pursued didn’t bring him much relief. He was angry. “There is no way I would recover my reputation … My life had been suspended for five years,” James, whom we’ve granted anonymity to speak openly about his case, told EU Confidential’s In Focus mini-series podcast. “So when I heard the news, it made me more angry actually, and say, ‘Why did this not come earlier? Why did they wait so long to...

Transforming everyday health, one app at a time

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

Patients, even those with serious conditions, can be empowered to have more control over their health through a combination of monitoring, awareness and diagnosis along with education, treatment and prevention.“With our digital solutions, we are able to help improve health outcomes for patients,” says Timothy Broke-Smith, vice-president of global pharma partnerships at Huma. “We accelerate the optimization of treatment choices and the switching of treatments so that you end up getting the right products to the right patients at the right time.”Huma, a digital health care company delivering remote patient-monitoring solutions, employs its technology on the digital devices that surround us — such as mobile phones and smartwatches — to provide near real-time data that report novel digital biomarkers of change in disease.These solutions offer personalized and adaptive direction on treatment interventions. They use processed input data, which include novel AI-driven algorithms that emplo...

Airline boss wants you to take the train

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

Dutch airline KLM would love to fly far fewer people on the short hop between Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and Brussels — it’s even buying them train tickets. “If there are connections, if the connections are good, if they arrive at Schiphol, if they run also in the weekends, we are more than willing to stop flying to Brussels,” CEO Marjan Rintel told POLITICO, adding: “We are moving our customers from plane to train.” She is acting because airlines are under fierce pressure to cut their carbon footprints — and first in the firing line are short flights that could be replaced by much cleaner rail. KLM faces the additional problem that Schiphol is hitting its maximum capacity for flights, and the government is trying to limit the number of takeoffs and landings to reduce noise pollution.“It’s scandalous that in a time of the climate emergency we still have these extra routes,” said Victor Thévenet, from green group Transport &...

Orioles finish Day 1 of MLB draft by selecting UNC outfielder Mac Horvath, Florida State pitcher Jackson Baumeister

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

The Orioles’ first two picks in the 2023 MLB draft Sunday night weren’t surprising. The third was.After taking Vanderbilt center fielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. No. 17 overall, the Orioles selected North Carolina’s Mac Horvath with the 53rd pick in the second round, continuing the organization’s prioritization of position players over pitchers in the draft since executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias took over in November 2018.But with their third pick, the Orioles bucked that trend, choosing Florida State right-handed pitcher Jackson Baumeister. At No. 63 overall in the Competitive Balance Round B, Baumeister is the highest Baltimore has taken a pitcher since selecting Grayson Rodriguez in the first round of the 2018 draft, before Elias took over.In 96 1/3 innings at Florida State in 2022 and 2023, Baumeister, who turns 21 Monday, posted a 5.23 ERA and 1.464 WHIP. But the 6-foot-4, 224-pound righty struck out 31.4% of the batters he faced and ...

Shaw, White go in MLB Draft

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

Matthew Shaw’s professional baseball dreams are now a reality.On Sunday night, Shaw was selected No. 13 overall by the Chicago Cubs in the first round of the 2023 Major League Baseball amateur draft. A Springfield native, Shaw played his high school baseball for Worcester Academy before most recently starring at the University of Maryland.The slot for Shaw’s selection is valued at $4.85 million. Shaw impressed evaluators throughout the year as he showcased power to all fields coupled with a high walk rate and low strikeout percentage. He is the highest Terrapin ever taken in the draft.“He is relentless in terms of his work ethic. He lives baseball,” director of Nokona Baseball Dan Sullivan said. “Everything he does is geared towards getting better. That is what has elevated him above kids of equal talent putting in whatever it takes to make himself better.”Shaw played for Nokona for nine seasons on the club circuit before heading to Maryland.Thoma...

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele nominated for re-election despite constitutional questions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — President Nayib Bukele was officially nominated by his New Ideas party Sunday to run for reelection next year, brushing aside objections from legal experts and opposition figures who say El Salvador’s constitution prohibits his candidacy. New Ideas also announced that current Vice President Felix Ulloa would run for reelection in the ballot scheduled for Feb. 4, 2024. Bukele is highly popular among Salvadorans because of his harsh crackdown on street gangs, but he is considered controversial internationally. He announced in September that he planned to seek a second five-year term. That came after the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, handpicked by his supporters in Congress, ruled in 2021 that his candidacy for reelection was permitted and ordered the electoral court to allow it.Constitutional lawyers maintain that Bukele’s candidacy would violate at least four articles of the constitution, including Article 154, which states: “The presid...

Blue Jays make Arjun Nimmala highest-drafted Indian American

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

The Toronto Blue Jays selected 17-year-old shortstop Arjan Nimmala with the 20th overall pick in the first round of Sunday’s MLB Draft.One of the best stories in the 2023 Draft, Nimmala became the highest-selected first-generation Indian American and is looking to become the first player of Indian descent to play Major League Baseball.Nimmala was one of the highest-touted high school hitters in the draft, coming off a 2022-23 season in which he won the Gatorade Florida Baseball Player of the Year while playing at Strawberry Crest High School in Dover, Fla. He was also an Under Armour All-American and first-team All-Conference selection.The @BlueJays select Arjun Nimmala with the 20th pick! We sat down with the standout high school shortstop and his family leading up to the @MLBDraft to discuss his baseball journey. pic.twitter.com/bX9H8mvZPl— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 10, 2023In one of the deepest drafts in recent memory, the Blue Jays were able to add MLB Pipeline’s No. ...

Sunday Night Forecast: Partly cloudy, low of 63

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:46:21 GMT

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy. WSW 3-15 mph. Low 63Monday: Sunny, hot & more humid. Cooler lakeside. SW 10-15 mph. High near 90 Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Extended outlook calls for hot and humid weather again on Tuesday with highs likely in the mid to upper 80s—though a few spots could hit 90. Chance of showers/thunderstorms and some of those in the afternoon and evening could be strong to severe. Wednesday looks like on off showers and thunderstorms with highs in the upper 70s.