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EU balks at US, Israeli pressure for new Hamas sanctions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Israel and the United States are piling pressure onto the EU to impose new sanctions on Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel in which some 1,400 people were killed.Some EU countries are pushing back, with Portugal’s foreign minister telling POLITICO that new sanctions were a “diversionary tactic” compared to the larger question of statehood for Palestinians.“This is not a central problem,” João Gomes Cravinho said of the proposed sanctions. “We all agreed that Hamas is a terrorist organization [and that] Hamas has committed absolute atrocities.”“The bigger question of developing a Middle East in which Hamas no longer exists, it will not be achieved through a combination of military strikes and sanctions,” he added. “It has to come about through the development of a settlement that provides the Palestinians with their own state and with all the characteristics of a state recognized by the international communi...

Belgium deputy PM wants Israel sanctioned over Gaza war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Petra De Sutter, Belgium’s deputy prime minister from the Greens, called on the country’s government to sanction Israel on Wednesday. “It is time for sanctions against Israel. The bombing is inhumane,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter. “While war crimes are being committed in Gaza, Israel ignores the international demand for a cease-fire.”De Sutter called for an “immediate” suspension of the association agreement between the EU and Israel, and proposed that Belgium allocate extra funds for the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes by Israel and Hamas, she said in a press release.De Sutter also stressed people and companies who supply Hamas with money must be sanctioned, while violent settlers, politicians and military figures responsible for war crimes should face an entry ban.“Israel’s bombing increases the Palestinians’ total hopelessness. Without a real solution, the violence will continue to repeat itself. That is wh...

Cate Blanchett urges EU to treat asylum crisis with ‘humanity’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Actress Cate Blanchett, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR), on Wednesday called on the European Union to focus on protecting displaced refugees while rejecting “dangerous myths” about migration.“I am not denying that this is complex,” Blanchett said, while addressing the European Parliament. “But this is the European Union. And addressing the challenges of forced displacement and mixed movements requires unity, international cooperation, resources and patient, compassionate work.”Earlier this week, UNHCR called for “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” in Gaza, where conflict “has claimed and is still claiming thousands of innocent lives,” Blanchett said. War has been raging in the region since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 and triggering a deadly retaliation from Israel, which in turned has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.But this is “far from the only v...

Breast implants play crucial role in innovative procedure to save life of man with severe lung damage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

(CNN) — When 34-year-old Davey Bauer’s lungs stopped working, doctors turned to an unusual tool to help keep him alive: large breast implants.Experts say it was an innovative solution to give Bauer’s body time to fight off a nasty infection so it could accept a lifesaving double lung transplant. It may be the first instance of a potential transplant practice that could save people with infectious disease who probably would not have survived just years ago.Bauer’s case started in April, when he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath. The avid snow- and skateboarder had always been healthy. He kept in good shape and maintained a healthy weight working in landscaping in De Soto, Missouri. But he had long been a smoker, starting a pack-a-day cigarette habit when he was 21. He switched to vaping in 2014.“I thought it was the healthier alternative,” Bauer said. ”But, in all honesty, I found it more addicting than cigarettes.”When people smoke or vape, it can leave lun...

FDA approves Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro for obesity under new name, Zepbound

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration approved the type 2 diabetes drug tirzepatide for use in chronic weight management Wednesday, making official the use of a medicine already widely prescribed off-label for weight loss.The drug, called Mounjaro for diabetes, will be called Zepbound for weight loss, according to a news release from the FDA. Made by Eli Lilly, it’s part of a new class of drugs that includes semaglutide, known as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, which have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years.Zepbound was shown in clinical trials to yield more than 20% average weight loss on higher doses over 72 weeks, stronger results than seen with other approved medicines. The FDA cleared it for people with obesity or those characterized as overweight with at least one weight-related health condition, such as high blood pressure or heart disease, the same indication as for Wegovy. Like similar drugs, it’s taken as a shot patient...

Massive chemical plant fire near Houston forces school to evacuate and residents to shelter in place

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

(CNN) — Thick plumes of opaque black smoke billowed into the Texas sky Wednesday after a Houston-area chemical plant caught fire – forcing nearby students to evacuate and residents to shelter in place.The inferno was burning Wednesday morning at the Sound Resource Solutions plant in Shepherd, about 60 miles northeast of Houston, a dispatcher from the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said.The facility focuses on recycling and distributing chemicals, including acids and solvents, the company’s website says.It was not immediately clear what started the fire or whether anyone was injured. A private school on the same road as the plant was safely evacuated, the San Jacinto County Office of Emergency Management said.By late Wednesday morning, the area under a shelter-in-lace order had been reduced to a 1-mile radius from a 5-mile radius, the emergency management office said.Thick black smoke shot up from the plant as the flames kept burning ...

Man convicted in Pelham, NH wedding shooting plays his rap music as part of insanity defense

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A man convicted of shooting and wounding a New Hampshire bishop and assaulting the bride and groom in 2019 played his own rap music for the jury Wednesday as part of his insanity defense, saying he wanted to show how he was dealing with demons and hearing voices.The jury in Nashua had found Dale Holloway guilty on Tuesday on one of two attempted murder charges, and several assault charges. Holloway, 41, who is acting as his own attorney, had pleaded innocent. The panel, in considering a sentence, is now listening to him present evidence that he had suffered from a mental disease or defect when the crimes were committed.Holloway told jurors Wednesday that one of the voices he heard was Satan’s.“Maybe I did some things that I didn’t want to do that I feel as if Satan made me do,” he said in describing one of his songs.The October 2019 shootings happened at New England Pentecostal Ministries in Pelham nearly two weeks after Holloway’s stepfath...

A tuberculosis case was diagnosed at UMass Boston, dozens identified as possible close contacts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

A person on UMass Boston’s campus has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and dozens were identified as possible close contacts, according to the university.The Boston Public Health Commission recently alerted UMass Boston’s University Health Services of an active TB case on campus.The diagnosed person is now receiving treatment, and the individual might have been infected with TB many years before developing the active TB infection.About 39 people on campus have been identified as possibly having close contact with the person who has active TB.The Boston Public Health Commission has been working with the university and Massachusetts Department of Public Health to conduct contact tracing and inform close contacts about their possible exposure.“Although TB is a serious disease caused by a germ that is spread through the air, it is important to note that the general UMass Boston community is not at increased risk for getting a TB infection as a result of this case,R...

Bruins notebook: Danton Heinen making himself useful

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Danton Heinen will never be a bruiser. At 6-foot-1 and 188 pounds, he’s average height for an NHLer, and a tad on the slim side.But if a player is smart and attentive, he can not only learn how to win little battles in the NHL, he will come to understand the significance of them.It looks like Heinen is smart and attentive.With four games under his belt in his second tour of duty with the Bruins, it’s becoming clear that he’s added a layer of of responsibility and tenacity on the puck that can make him a valuable utility man for coach Jim Montgomery, especially now after it was learned that Morgan Geekie will be out week-to-week with an upper body injury.“I think as you get more years in the league, you realize that those things are really important because there’s a lot of good players out there and there’s not a whole lot of difference,” said Heinen after Wednesday’s practice. “And the small stuff is not something everyone sees. But as you get ol...

Children who survive shootings endure huge health obstacles and costs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Liz Szabo | (TNS) KFF Health NewsOronde McClain was struck by a stray bullet on a Philadelphia street corner when he was 10.The bullet shattered the back of his skull, splintering it into 36 pieces. McClain’s heart stopped, and he was technically dead for two minutes and 17 seconds.Although a hospital team shocked him back to life, McClain never fully recovered. Doctors removed half his skull, replacing it with a gel plate, but shrapnel remains.The shooting left him in a coma for seven weeks and in a wheelchair for nearly two years. School bullies magnified his pain, laughing at his speech and the helmet he wore to protect his brain. McClain said he repeatedly attempted suicide as a teenager. He remains partly paralyzed on his right side and endures seizures and post-traumatic stress disorder.“People who die, they get funerals and balloon releases,” said McClain, now 33. “Survivors don’t get anything.”Yet the ongoing medical needs of gun violence survivors and their families are vas...