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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm moved Wednesday to jump-start plans for the 27-nation bloc to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, proposing a nearly 300 billion-euro ($315 billion) package that includes more efficient use of fuels and faster rollout of renewable power. The European Commission’s investment initiative is meant to help the 27 EU countries start weaning themselves off Russian fossil fuels this year. The goal is to deprive Russia, the EU’s main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal, of tens of billions in revenue and strengthen EU climate policies. “We are taking our ambition to yet another level to make sure that we become independent from Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels when announcing the package, dubbed REPowerEU. With no end in sight to Russia’s war in Ukraine and European energy security shaken, the EU is rushing to align its geopolitical … [Read more...] about EU rushes out $300 billion roadmap to ditch Russian energy

The hotel name Zoetry (in Zoetry Montego Bay Jamaica) has an umlaut mark over the letter “e.” For some travelers, all-inclusive hotels conjure up images of flavorless food served under a heat lamp in lush and vibrant destinations where guests never actually leave the resort grounds. Lower-tier liquor flows freely (the good stuff will cost you more), as the few overindulgers put a damper on the trip. That image is changing, as hotel companies expand their offerings, while redefining what all-inclusive means. HOTELS ARE GROWING THEIR ALL-INCLUSIVE BRANDS Many hotel companies are rapidly adding all-inclusive resorts to their portfolio. Hyatt’s acquisition of Apple Leisure Group in November 2021 made it one of the largest owners of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world. That acquisition included the luxury-focused AMR Collection, which has beachfront properties in Mexico and Central America. That means there are now more than 100 new resorts for visitors (and where World of … [Read more...] about 2022 is the year of all-inclusive travel, and here’s why

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Four European Union countries plan to build North Sea wind farms capable of producing at least 150 gigawatts of energy by 2050 to help cut carbon emissions that cause climate change, Danish media reported Wednesday. Under the plan, wind turbines would be raised off the coasts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, daily Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said. The project would mean a tenfold increase in the EU's current offshore wind capacity. “The North Sea can do a lot," Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen told the newspaper, adding the close cooperation between the four EU nations "must start now.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo are scheduled to attend a North Sea Summit on Wednesday in Esbjerg, 260 … [Read more...] about Reports: 4 European nations to build North Sea wind farms

When a shooter attacked a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend, its security guard tried to stop him. At least one of his shots hit the gunman, but it didn’t stop the deadly rampage because the gunman was wearing body armor. Ten Black people died in the racist massacre, including security guard Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer hailed as a hero. It’s the latest mass shooting in which the gunman apparently came prepared for anyone trying to stop him with a gun. At least 21 mass shooters over the last four decades have worn some kind of body armor — and the majority of those were within the last 10 years, according to a database maintained by The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks gun violence. Among them: A massacre that killed 12 people and injured dozens more at a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, and another in nearby Boulder that left 10 people dead at a supermarket last year. The shooter in Texas’s deadliest … [Read more...] about Buffalo is latest mass shooting by gunman wearing body armor

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 17 OVID, Colo. (AP) — Shortly after daybreak on the high plains of northeastern Colorado, Don Schneider tinkers with seed-dispensing gear on a mammoth corn planter. The day’s task: Carefully sowing hundreds of acres of seed between long rows of last year’s desiccated stalks to ensure the irrigation water he's collected over the winter will last until harvest time. A two-hour’s drive eastward, Steve Hanson, a fifth-generation Nebraska cattle breeder who also produces corn and other crops, is preparing to seed, having stored winter water to help ensure his products make it to market. Like Schneider and countless others in this semi-arid region, he wants his children and grandchildren to be able to work the rich soil homesteaded by their ancestors in the 1800s. Schneider and Hanson find themselves on … [Read more...] about Colorado, Nebraska jostle over water rights amid drought

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 8 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A 21-year-old Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since Moscow invaded Ukraine pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing an unarmed civilian. Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for shooting a a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28, four days into the invasion. Shishimarin, a captured member of a Russian tank unit, was prosecuted under a section of the Ukrainian criminal code that addresses the laws and customs of war. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offenses that included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting. It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects are in Ukrainian hands and how many would be … [Read more...] about Russian soldier pleads guilty at Ukraine war crimes trial

The U.S. Soccer Federation reached milestone agreements to pay its men's and women's teams equally, making the American national governing body the first in the sport to promise both sexes matching money. The federation announced separate collective bargaining agreements through December 2028 with the unions for both national teams on Wednesday, ending years of often acrimonious negotiations. The men have been playing under the terms of a CBA that expired in December 2018. The women's CBA expired at the end of March, but talks continued after the federation and the players agreed to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by some of the players in 2019. The settlement was contingent on the federation reaching labor contracts that equalized pay and bonuses between the two teams. Led by Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, American women long have pressed for gender equity. “I feel a lot of pride for the girls who are going to see this growing up, and recognize their value … [Read more...] about US Soccer equalizes pay in milestone with women, men

Another day, another allegation of serious sexual assault committed by a parliamentarian. More than that, another Conservative. It’s becoming a bit of a habit. How odd that a party led by a notorious philanderer should be secretly hosting so many dangerous misogynists. This morning, an unnamed Tory MP, aged in his 50s, was bailed by police following arrest on suspicion of sexual offences dating back the mid 2000s, including rape, sexual assult, abuse of a position of trust and misconduct in public office. Though the whips have allowed him to retain his membership of the parliamentary party pending a conclusion to criminal proceedings (innocent until proven guilty, of course), he has been requested to stay away from Westminster . What a way to kick off canvassing in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, both constituencies holding a by-election on 23 June due to the sitting MP departing after allegations of sexual misconduct. In Yorkshire, Imran Ahmad Khan is … [Read more...] about Porn, sexual assault, rape – Westminster’s dangerous underbelly is finally exposed

After inflation hit a 40-year high of 9 per cent today, Conservative MPs, including some ministers, are again pointing the finger of blame at the Bank of England and its governor Andrew Bailey for raising interest rates too slowly. Worryingly, some senior Tories are even raising the question of whether the Bank should lose its operational independence on monetary policy,  threatening the 25-year consensus since Gordon Brown ceded the politicians’ control of interest rates to the Bank. Liam Fox, the former cabinet minister, argues the Bank should stick to its “day job” of hitting the government’s 2 per cent inflation target, rather than worrying about political matters such as climate change (though Rishi Sunak added that to the Bank’s mandate last year). Fox said : “There is a distinct feeling that those who should be protecting us from the debasement of our currency, the erosion of our earnings and the devaluation of our savings, have had their minds too much … [Read more...] about Giving the government control over interest rates would be a disaster

At present, I’m rehearsing my new autobiographical play, We Started To Sing . In order to do so I drive across London each morning at dawn to reach the Arcola Theatre, where the play is going on. All along the route, ageing white men with slight stoops stare down at me from electric billboards, advertising what they call freedom of speech, though what they’re actually advertising is a range of privately-owned talk show platforms . In the deserted early morning, they look like Easter Island statues, and they make me wonder: how would I feel if this world ended now, and this was what was left behind to stand for us all? Then I get to the Arcola and rehearse a play about my grandparents, whose generation gave their youths (and often their lives) to resist the fascist right, and built the welfare state ; who bequeathed to us this country we’re in the process of selling off at present . And I think, if all this ended, I’d feel such shame at being represented by those … [Read more...] about Yes, we need to ‘reclaim England’ – from the political right