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130 US lawmakers urge EU to designate Iran’s IRGC as a terrorist organization

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

The IRGC was formed after Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 and has become a major military economic force in the country, also controlling Tehran’s nuclear and ballistics programme and funding terrorist operations  and assassination plots elsewhere in the region and in the world. The lawmakers cite a study from the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, showing that in the past five years, the Revolutionary Guard Corps has instigated at least 33 plots against EU citizens, writes Yossi Lempkowicz.A bipartisan group of 130 US lawmakers on Monday (10 April) sent a letter urging the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.The letter, addressed to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, points out that the IRGC “has freely and openly carried out plots targeting citizens across the EU”.The legislators were led by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), Thomas Kean (R-N.J.) and Bill Keating (D...

Astana hosts opening ceremony of 2023 FIDE World Chess Championship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

The opening ceremony of the 2023 FIDE World Chess Championship Match featuring art performances and AI technology took place at the Astana Ballet theater on 7 April, write Karina Abdimominova, Zhanna Shayakhmetova in Astana, Editor’s Picks, Sports. The three-week championship will run through 1 May. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Culture and Sports, Askhat Oralov, congratulated on the opening of the match and read out a letter from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev addressed to the players and the audience.“This is a significant event for all chess followers,” Tokayev wrote in his letter. “Chess is a unique sport that develops cognitive skills. We pay special attention to this sport in our country. All the conditions have been created especially for young people who play chess. We have nearly 700 schools and clubs involved in chess. The players promote our country worldwide. This competition in Astana will contribute to the further development of chess.”Ding Liren (L) and Timur Turlov. Phot...

Newark: Police fatally shoot man, injure another during traffic stop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

NEWARK — At least two officers fatally shot a man and injured another during what police called a high-risk traffic stop of a vehicle Thursday sought in connection with a carjacking, authorities said.In a statement Thursday night, police said officers responded to a community surveillance-camera alert around 3:20 p.m. about the suspect vehicle entering the city along Mowry Avenue. Soon after, officers found the vehicle in the 39000 block of Cedar Boulevard.After Fremont police and Southern Alameda County Major Crimes Task Force officers were called, officers tried to stop the vehicle. During that stop, officers with the Fremont and Newark police departments fired their service weapons, hitting two men. Police did not immediately disclose exactly what circumstances led to the shooting.Officers then summoned first responders to the scene at Chase Suite Hotel, 39150 Cedar St., shortly before 4:50 p.m., and provided aid to two injured men until Alameda County Fire Department firef...

Vongtaveelap, Sung share LPGA Tour lead at windy Hoakalei

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Natthakritta Vongtaveelap shot a 2-under 70 at windy Hoakalei Country Club to hold onto a share of the lead Thursday in the LOTTE Championship.Making her second LPGA Tour start, the 20-year-old Thai player had four birdies and two bogeys in the second round to match sponsor invite Yu Jin Sung at 8-under 136.“Except windy,” Vongtaveelap said. “Wind, I learn from here a lot.” In February, Vongtaveelap won her first two events as pro on the Thai LPGA Tour, then was second behind Lilia Vu in the LPGA Thailand. She opened with a bogey-free 66 on Wednesday to share the first-round lead with Frida Kinhult.Sung had her second straight 68. The South Korean player had five birdies and a bogey. The winner of the 2022 LOTTE Open on the Korean LPGA, she’s competing in her third LPGA Tour event.“It was really windy today and then just physical condition-wise, I’m still getting used to the jet lag, so it was tough,” Sung said. “Fortunately, the wind direction was the same as ...

Red Cross: Yemen rebels, Saudi coalition begin prisoner swap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An exchange of more than 800 prisoners from Yemen’s war held by the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition battling them began Friday, the International Committee for the Red Cross said. The United Nations-brokered deal, in the works for months, comes amid concerted diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict.The three-day exchange will see flights transport prisoners between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, long held by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, said Majed Fadail, a deputy minister for human rights for Yemen’s internationally recognized government.Other flights will bring prisoners between Sanaa and other Yemeni cities controlled by the internationally recognized government, he said. The Red Cross said that on Friday, there would be two rounds of simultaneous flights between Aden and Sanaa to transfer prisoners.The three-day operation is the most significant prisoner exchange in Yemen since both sides freed more than 1,0...

China says no weapons exports to parties in Ukraine conflict

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister on Friday said the country would not sell weapons to parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine and would regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use. Qin Gang was responding to concerns from the U.S. and others that China was considering providing military assistance to Russia, which Beijing has backed politically and rhetorically in the conflict while formally saying it remains neutral.Qin reiterated China’s willingness to help facilitate negotiations to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict and said all parties should remain “objective and calm.” Speaking at a news conference with his visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, Qin also blamed Taiwan’s government for heightened regional tensions after Beijing held large-scale military drills in an attempt to intimidate the island it claims as its own territory. On both Ukraine and Taiwan, Qin articulated well-worn defenses of Chinese policies that undersc...

German town bids farewell to nuclear, eyes hydrogen future

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

LINGEN, Germany (AP) — For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater.Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels and nuclear power over concerns that neither is a sustainable source of energy. The final countdown Saturday — delayed for several months over feared energy shortages because of the Ukraine war — is seen with relief by Germans who have campaigned against nuclear power.Yet with energy prices stubbornly high and climate change a growing concern, some in the country and abroad are branding the move reckless. As Germany closes nuclear stations, other governments in Europe have announced plans to build new ones or have backtracked on commitments to shut down existing plants.“The Emsland nuclear power plant has indeed...

Volcano erupts in Russian far east, followed by an earthquake

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

One of Russia's most active volcanoes erupted on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula on Tuesday (11 April), shooting a vast cloud of ash far into the sky that smothered villages in drifts of grey volcanic dust and triggered an aviation warning.According to the Kamchatka Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences' Geophysical survey, the Shiveluch volcano erupted shortly after midnight. It reached a crescendo six hours later.Lava flows erupted from the volcano melting snow, prompting a warning about mud flows along a nearby road. Villages were covered in grey ash drifts as deep as 8.5 cm (3.5 inches), which was the deepest in 60-years.Pictures captured the cloud billowing above the forests and rivers in the Far East and villages that were covered with ash."The ash rose to 20 kms in height, the cloud moved westward, and there was a strong fall of ash on nearby villages," stated Danila Chebrov (director of the Kamchatka branch) of the Geophysical Survey.Chebrov stated that the volcano had b...

Why do we need more Europe, and experts, in health care? Register now: CAN.HEAL Event, Rome, 26-27 April

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

Another day and a further EAPM despatch for your delight and delectation…and a reminder regarding the registration for our CAN.HEAL event taking place in Roma which ECPC and EAPM are organizing, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director, Denis Horgan.But before all that, here is a shout out and a link to our recent academic publication that discusses the European Health Data Space which is entitled ‘Clouds across the new dawn for clinical, diagnostic and biological data: accelerating the development, delivery and uptake of personalized medicine’.The article argues that while health data is enjoying a new recognition with strong promises of a revolution in care – but crucial gaps must urgently be filled before any of the promises can become a reality. Above all, it is necessary to bring greater precision to the heady discussions about healthcare policy now sweeping across Europe, complementing rhetoric with clearer awareness of the mechanics of expl...

Political and civil society leaders joining forces to counter Big Tobacco lobbying

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:58:58 GMT

Against a backdrop of increasing scrutiny of influence in the European institutions post-Qatargate and Europe’s enduring struggle to clamp down on the booming illicit tobacco trade, a European Parliament working group on the revision of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive is holding a round table on 19 April to address the Brussels-based lobbying efforts of Big Tobacco – an industry that has long fuelled the black market and undermined attempts to rein it in.Hosted by French MEPs Michèle Rivasi and Anne-Sophie Pelletier, the event, entitled “Tobacco lobby influence strategies within European institutions,” is expected to feature representatives from leading tobacco control NGO coalitions as well as researchers from the University of Bath’s renowned Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG). Participants will discuss the various lobbying and “soft power” tools in the industry’s arsenal of influence that it has aggressively wielded in recent years.EU lobbying offensives exposedIn 2020, th...