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Oh, Mr President … Biden gets his titles mixed up during Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first White House visit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — First he renamed the British prime minister “Rashee Sanook.” Now Joe Biden has bestowed Rishi Sunak with a whole new job title which doesn’t actually exist in the U.K.Welcoming the British premier to the White House for the first time Thursday, Biden immediately mixed up his honorifics, wrongly addressing Sunak as “Mr president.” The British PM smiled politely as Biden was swiftly forced to correct himself. “Mr president?” Biden went on. “I’m just promoting you! Mr prime minister, it’s great to have you back.”British constitutional experts are likely to take umbrage at the correction as much as the gaffe itself, given prime ministers are not considered to be the junior of presidents. Britain’s leader is, historically, the “prime,” or first and most important of the king’s ministers, also known as the first among equals. Despite Biden’s misstep, the two men seemed relaxed in one an...

5 ways EU’s ethics body just might work — or not

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European Commission says it has a plan to create a serious ethics watchdog.Critics say it’s nothing but a “toothless bulldog.”  A plan to create an independent ethics body that would align ethical standards and approaches to enforcement among EU institutions long predates Qatargate. Yet the six-month-old European Parliament bribery scandal created fresh urgency — and highlighted the limits of current self-enforcement.Transparency advocates inside and outside of the Parliament wanted to see the Commission create an external ethics cop that would investigate accusations of corrupt conduct and dole out punishment.Věra Jourová, who is Commission vice president for values and transparency and responsible for creating the ethics body, has consistently ruled out using this type of power for an ethics body. At an unveiling event on Thursday, she described “a very strong legal reason” for leaving decisions on individual cases to each institution. “The institutions ha...

Sunak and Biden reach for critical minerals deal in show of unity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have committed to a cooperation deal on defense and critical minerals as the U.K. prime minister moves away from a post-Brexit vision of unfettered free trade in favor of mutual protection.The Atlantic Declaration, announced as the two men met in the White House, includes pledges to ease certain trade barriers, strengthen defense industry ties and strike a data protection deal in the face of China’s growing influence.The two nations have vowed to immediately start negotiating an agreement to mitigate the impact of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which prevents nations without a U.S. trade deal from accessing the law’s tax credits and subsidies.Sunak hailed “a new standard for economic cooperation” after abandoning the full-fat free trade agreement promised in the wake of Brexit, with U.K. officials lauding the new approach as a better response to the challenges posed by Beijing and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Biden has pledged to ...

Florida woman arrested in the shooting death of a Black mother who knocked on her door will have bond hearing Friday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

(CNN) — The Florida woman charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of her neighbor, a Black mother who confronted her during a dispute over children playing outside, will have a bond hearing Friday.Susan Louise Lorincz was arrested Tuesday, four days after investigators say she fatally shot Ajike “AJ” Owens through the front door of Lorincz’s home near Ocala, Florida, as Owens repeatedly knocked on her door, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.Owens was demanding that Lorincz come out of her apartment after the 58-year-old White woman had yelled at Owens’ children and thrown a roller skate at her 10-year-old son, hitting him, the sheriff’s office said.In addition to manslaughter with a firearm, Lorincz is facing charges of culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault, the sheriff’s office said early Wednesday.Lorincz, who made an initial court appearance via video call on Thursday, is being held without bond and will have a bond hearing Friday morning,...

Astronauts’ brains take a hit during long spaceflights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

(CNN) — Spaceflights lasting six months or longer take a toll on the brains of astronauts, and crew members may need to wait at least three years before returning to space, according to new research.Scientists compared the brain scans of 30 astronauts taken before spaceflights lasting two weeks, six months or a year with scans taken after they returned to Earth. The scans revealed that the ventricles, or cavities within the brain that are filled with cerebrospinal fluid, expanded significantly within the brains of astronauts who went to the International Space Station on missions lasting at least six months.The findings have implications for future longer-term missions as NASA and its international partners aim to establish a sustained human presence on the moon with the Artemis program, with the eventual goal of sending humans to deep-space destinations such as Mars. A study detailing the findings was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.Cer...

Travel: What it’s like to surf in Waco, Texas, where machine-made waves create the stoke

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

The woman in the Austin airport gave us a perplexed look.“What ya’ll got in those big bags?” she asked in her thick Southern accent.Surfboards, of course.Texas isn’t known as a surfing hotspot, though there are a few coastal towns that can get fun, yet fickle, waves. But my husband Jon and I weren’t headed to the beach — instead, we were taking a surf safari inland to Waco, a small town hours away from the ocean.For many people, Waco is known for Magnolia Farms, a quaint-and-cute tourist destination for home-renovation enthusiasts enthralled with Chip and Joanna Gaines, who helped popularize rustic-yet-chic designs for their reality show “Fixer Upper.”Reporter Laylan Connelly checks out the sites in Waco, Texas at Magnolia Farms, created by Chip and Joanna Gaines and made popular for their television show Fixer Upper. It’s a must-see stop en route to Waco Surf. (Photo courtesy of Jon Perino)Reporter Laylan Connelly checks out the sites in Waco, Texas at Magnolia Farms, created...

Pope drinks liquids, makes brief call after surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue, repair hernia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

By NICOLE WINFIELD (Associated Press)ROME (AP) — Pope Francis drank liquids, received the Eucharist and even made a brief phone call Thursday on his first full day recovering from a three-hour operation to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall, the Vatican said.The 86-year-old Francis rested “extensively” overnight and continued resting Thursday at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where his condition was stable and his post-operative recovery deemed to be regular, the Vatican said in a statement. He was on a liquid diet but received the Eucharist.Among the well-wishes Francis received was a poster from the Peruvian family whose infant Francis baptized March 31 at Gemelli during his last hospital stay, while he was recovering from bronchitis. Francis called the mother briefly to thank her, the Vatican said.The poster featured a widely seen photo of the pope caressing the cheek of baby Miguel Angel after the baptism as his mother looke...

Yankees expect to play doubleheader vs. White Sox despite poor air quality from Canadian wildfires, Aaron Boone says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

The Yankees expect to play both games of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, manager Aaron Boone said, despite poor air quality from Canadian wildfires continuing to linger.“Had a call with Major League Baseball and said we are a go, so here we go,” Boone said at his pregame press conference. “We’re expecting to play and that’s how we are going forward now. We’ve got two games to play.”The Bronx sky appeared clearer Thursday afternoon than it did Wednesday evening, when a red haze hovered above Yankee Stadium before the game was postponed by a day.The air quality index remained at an “unhealthy” level of 173, however, shortly after Boone’s update Thursday afternoon. The Environmental Protection Agency agency considers an index between 0-50 to be good and between 51 to 100 to be moderate.The first game is scheduled to begin at 4:05 p.m. That’s only a few hours after Major League Baseball postponed...

Biden and Sunak hold White House talks on daunting challenges to Ukraine and world economy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

By AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN KIM (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched wide-ranging talks at the White House on Thursday by vowing that they would work in lockstep as the globe tries to adapt to a period of rapid economic, political and technological change.The leaders’ Oval Office talks were expected to cover the war in Ukraine, China, economic security, international cooperation on regulating the growing field of artificial intelligence, and more. Biden and Sunak have already had four face-to-face meetings since Sunak became prime minister in October, but the talks in Washington will offer the two leaders a chance for their most sustained interaction to date.“We will put our values front and center,” Biden said.Sunak reflected on the significant conversations that their respective predecessors have had over the years in the Oval Office and acknowledged that both he and Biden were facing the...

Update your beach read: 52 books for summer 2023, with some themes in mind

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:10 GMT

Christopher Borrelli | Chicago Tribune (TNS)Let’s try something new this summer.Rather than burdening yourself with postcard dreams of a beach towel and a book, instead of picturing yourself inside a portrait of lazy mornings with a hammock and a Stephen King, toss out the bougie old summer reading mirage. Has it ever been attainable for more than an hour or two? Replace it — as I do, to the detriment of family, TV and sleep — with a small project. But not a project project. More like a personal dare.Pick a theme for your summer reading and dive into it until Labor Day: Read only books banned in Florida. Or only Nordic noir, or only Asian sci-fi. Alternate novellas with epics. Or stick to novellas. Make a list so long you never finish it, but show up every day for it: Give yourself a minor degree in true crime or octopuses. Spend your summer scaling just the mountain of great Chicago-centric books so far this year — Jonathan Eig’s “King,” Catherine Lacey’s “Biography of X,” Aleksand...