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Commission launches investigation on subsidised electric cars from China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

The European Commission has formally launched an anti-subsidy investigation into the imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from China. The investigation will first determine whether BEV value chains in China benefit from illegal subsidisation and whether this subsidisation causes or threatens to cause economic injury to EU BEV producers. Should both prove true, the investigation will examine the likely consequences and impact of measures on importers, users and consumers of battery electric vehicles in the EU.Based on the investigation's findings, the Commission will establish whether it is in the EU's interest to remedy the effects of the unfair trade practices found by imposing anti-subsidy duties on imports of battery electric vehicles from China.The investigation, announced by Ursula von der Leyen on 13 September in the State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech, will follow strict legal procedures in line with EU and WTO rules, allowing all parties concerned, including the...

Harriette Cole: It’s hard to resist getting even with my no-show friend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

DEAR HARRIETTE: I asked a close friend for help moving a few months ago, and she promised me that she would be there to assist me. Unfortunately, when the day came, she bailed on me without any warning.Related ArticlesAdvice | Harriette Cole: It seems like my co-workers are avoiding me. Is it because of how I got hired? Advice | Harriette Cole: When she acted puzzled about my marriage, it got me thinking Advice | Harriette Cole: I’m wondering if his new wife is the reason he won’t see me Advice | Harriette Cole: People say I’m clairvoyant, but in this case it didn’t help me Advice | Harriette Cole: Why should my boss care that I’m bad at parties? Now, she’s come to me asking for help with something that’s far less important, and I feel resentful about the whole situation.On one hand, I don’t want to be petty, but on the other hand, it feels unfair that she ...

Miss Manners: My wife insists this is a rule about children’s birthday parties

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: A while ago, we had a reception after our daughter’s baptism. As sometimes happens, the guest list spiraled out of control due to the “if we invite them, then we have to invite so-and-so” principle.Related ArticlesAdvice | Miss Manners: I’m stunned by my father’s request for the wedding dinner Advice | Miss Manners: My husband doesn’t like my strategy for dealing with his vexatious relatives Advice | Miss Manners: Don’t they know it’s an insulting thing to say to the bride? Advice | Miss Manners: At what age should one start picking up the tab? Advice | Miss Manners: Am I out of line in asking people not to hide during video meetings? My wife did a magnificent job planning and hosting this event but exhausted herself by making sure that for every day that any guests were in town, she cooked a full meal for them.Now, our daughter is about ...

Dear Abby: The holiday dinner came with an unpleasant surprise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

DEAR ABBY: One of my family members is a loner. I’m the closest relative to them.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: This family constantly breaks the rules of our potluck Advice | Dear Abby: After this emotional blow, I feel I can’t trust my friends Advice | Dear Abby: I worry people are still judging me for the wedding dance bungle Advice | Dear Abby: After this awkward encounter, my neighbor posted notes about me in the building Advice | Dear Abby: I believed my dad’s version of why he got fired. Then I was blindsided by the truth. They invite my children and me over for holiday dinners, but the house is dirty with roaches galore. The bugs even crawl on you during the day on the couch. I don’t want to go there for this reason.I’m also cautious about inviting them to visit here because I once asked them to housesit for me for four days, and I came home to roaches in my ho...

Estos nuevos compartimentos superiores podrían cambiar radicamente los viajes en avión

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

(CNN) — En esta era no tan dorada del transporte aéreo nacional, facturar una maleta gratis es un lujo reservado para pocos. Y los que facturan sus maletas a menudo se encuentran estresados durante todo el viaje, preguntándose si su equipaje llegará realmente a destino con ellos.Como resultado, más viajeros que nunca optan por meter sus pertenencias en una maleta de mano, muchas de ellas voluminosas y con ruedas.¿Cuál es el resultado? Una batalla campal a la hora de embarcar, en la que los nerviosos pasajeros rondan la puerta de embarque con la esperanza de ser de los primeros en subir al avión, todo ello para asegurarse un pequeño espacio en el compartimento superior cerca de su asiento.Por desgracia, esos codiciados compartimentos no se diseñaron pensando en la maleta de mano normal. Deben colocarse en posición horizontal, dejando un pequeño espacio sobre ellas que apenas sirve para nada y que ocupa una buena parte del espacio de los compartimentos.Entonces entran en la hist...

‘The game is still the same’: Young Orioles get advice for baseball playoff debuts from psychologists, veterans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

It was only about a month into his big league tenure when Orioles rookie Jordan Westburg got a memorable piece of advice from 10-year veteran Aaron Hicks.Westburg had just rocketed a pitch down the third base line in the ninth inning, with the Orioles trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-3 on July 18. For a moment, after his feet crossed the bag at first, he contemplated sprinting for second. But he thought better of it, and stayed put.With the Orioles so far behind, the play would prove virtually meaningless. The O’s lost by that same score just a few batters later. But the play meant something to Hicks.“After the game, Aaron Hicks came up to me and he was like, ‘Hey, man, our style of baseball is aggressive here. I think you should have gone for it,’ Westburg said.For an Orioles team packed with young big leaguers, those tidbits of guidance will perhaps become even more important — particularly when they come from the few current Orioles with post...

Icy flood that killed at least 41 in India’s northeast had been feared for years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake overflowed and burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan north, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years.The flood began in the early hours of Wednesday, when water overflowed a mountain lake. It smashed through a major hydroelectric dam downstream and then poured into the valley below, where it killed at least 41 people and forced thousands to flee their homes. Police said that 22 of the dead were found kilometers (miles) downriver in West Bengal state, while 100 people are still missing. The disaster underscores a climate dilemma that’s pitted local environmental activists who say the dams are too dangerous against authorities pursuing a national green energy agenda for years.It wasn’t clear what triggered the deadly flood, the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Experts poin...

Kosovo-Serbia tension threatens the Balkan path to EU integration, the German foreign minister warns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister on Friday expressed the European Union’s deep concerns following the recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region. Annalena Baerbock was in Tirana, Albania at a meeting of foreign ministers ahead of the Oct. 16 summit on the Berlin Process, an initiative from Germany and France to encourage six Western Balkans countries to keep working toward membership of the bloc. The foreign ministers of the six countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are meeting with Baerbock, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi and other senior officials from the bloc. “The foundation for mobility in the region is security and safety,” said Baerbock before the start of the meeting, adding, “The tensions within the last days between Serbia and Kosovo are also endangering this Berlin Process.”On Sept. 24, around 30 heavily armed Se...

Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting women’s oppression

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi, who has campaigned for women’s rights, democracy and against the death penalty in Iran for years, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.Mohammadi, 51, has done her work despite facing numerous arrests and spending years behind bars for her activism.“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo. “The impact of the prize is not for the Nobel committee to decide upon. We hope that it is an encouragement to continue the work in whichever form this movement finds to be fitting.”Mohammadi’s most recent incarceration began when she was detained in 2021 after she attended a memorial for a person killed in nationwide 2019 protests sparked by an increase in gasoline prices. She’s been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Pr...

Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan, goes modern with breakdancing, esports and 3×3 basketball

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:49 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — There’s a minor sports revolution going on in Mongolia, the giant landlocked Asian country most associated with Genghis Khan and famous for its “three manly sports” of archery, horse racing and, the most prestigious, wrestling.The two-week Asian Games offer a glimpse at a changing Mongolia, a vast nation sandwiched between China and Russia with only 3.3 million people. Its ancient history is slowly giving way to the modern, including a growing passion for youth sports with breakdancing at the forefront.Yes, breakdancing.“There’s a huge potential in Mongolia to showcase that we are a powerhouse in breaking,” 25-year-old Khandjar Myagmarjav, the only woman on the four-person Mongolia breaking team at the Asian Games, told The Associated Press.Breaking is included in next year’s Paris Olympics, so that’s the next big stage for Mongolia to show off its moves.Despite its roots in street dance in urban America, the sport has surprisingly deep connections in Mo...