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US has been falling behind on life expectancy for decades, study shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

(CNN) — The Covid-19 pandemic set US life expectancy back by years, but new research shows that the country has been falling behind for decades.In 1950, the US had the 12th longest life expectancy among certain populous countries, with more than half a million residents, according to a study published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. There was a 3.5-year difference between the US and Norway, which had the longest life expectancy at the time.By 2019, the life expectancy gap between the US and the highest-performing nation – now Hong Kong – had grown to more than six years, putting the US in 40th place among populous countries.The Covid-19 pandemic widened that gap even more, as the US had more deaths from the virus than any other country and has been slower to recover. In 2020, the US ranked 46th and had a 7.8-year gapfrom the highest-performing nation, according to the study. Life expectancy was 77.4 years in the US that year, compared with 85.2 years in Hong Kong,...

Webb telescope detects organic molecules in distant galaxy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

(CNN) — Astronomers have detected the most distant known organic molecules in the universe using the James Webb Space Telescope. It’s the first time Webb has detected complex molecules in the distant universe.The complex molecules were found in a galaxy known as SPT0418-47, located more than 12 billion light-years away.The discovery sheds light on the chemical interactions that occurred within the earliest galaxies in the universe and how they relate to star formation.On Earth, the molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can be found in smoke, soot, smog, engine exhaust and forest fires.The base of the organic molecules is carbon, considered to be one of the building blocks of life because it’s a key element in amino acids, which form proteins.A study detailing the findings was published Monday in the journal Nature.The light from the dusty galaxy began traveling across the cosmos when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old, just 10% of its current age of 13.8 ...

Apple introduces new iPhone features with latest software update, including video voicemail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

Apple unveiled a slew of new updates coming to iOS 17 later this year, including new tools to make calling and messaging others more personalized and customized.iOS 17 will now get contact “posters,” allowing iPhone users to design a custom image to appear when you call someone or receive their call. iPhone users will be able to personalize their contact card “poster” with a photo or “memoji” of choice, as well as text.A new feature called Live Voicemail transcribes a caller’s message in real-time, so users can decide whether to ignore it or take the call. An upcoming check-in feature makes it easier to keep friends and family alerted to their safety. And a tool called NameDrop lets users share their contact information by holding two iPhones close together.

Russia is getting better at evading Western sanctions on electronics, US official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

Western exports of key microchips and electronics that Russia needs to fuel its war machine are back to pre-invasion levels, as Moscow has ramped up efforts to circumvent sanctions, a top official said Wednesday.“By the start of this year, Russia was able to reimport certain key categories of electronics at about pre-war levels,” Jim O’Brien, sanctions coordinator at the U.S. State Department, told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook at an ECFR event in Stockholm, referring to chips, processors and integrated circuits key to making modern weapons.The problem, O’Brien said, is that European companies are selling to other countries, which in turn resell the materials to Russia.Sanctions circumvention remains a “substantial problem,” O’Brien said, adding the U.S. has identified issues with five countries in particular: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia.The European Union is currently working on an 11th sanctions package against Russia, which cou...

Eurozone enters technical recession, latest data shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

The eurozone contracted for two consecutive quarters, data out Thursday shows, meaning it has entered a technical recession, signaling a loss of growth momentum in the single currency area buffeted by energy shocks, war, inflation, and monetary tightening.Eurozone GDP fell by 0.1 percent over the first three months of 2023 compared with the previous quarter, according to the figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency. GDP was also revised downward for the last quarter of 2022, to -0.1 percent from 0 percent previously forecast.Thursday’s data is a downward revision on previous flash estimates released in April that showed growth of 0.1 percent in the eurozone for first quarter of the year. These were corrected downward following German data showing the country contracted for a second consecutive quarter, slipping into a recession.Employment continued to increase in the eurozone, by 0.6 percent in the first quarter this year, up from 0.3 percent in the previous qua...

Wu speaks about crash, says there was no emergency as driver drove with lights and sirens

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu spoke on Wednesday one day after she was a passenger in one of two vehicles involved in a car crash in Hyde Park. Officials said no one was seriously hurt in the crash. But questions have remained surrounding what caused the incident. The crash happened Tuesday morning at the intersection of Blakemore Street and Hyde Park Avenue.The mayor’s police driver said she had her lights and sirens on as she drove through a red light immediately before the crash. Speaking on Wednesday, though, Wu told 7NEWS there was no emergency. Wu continued, saying she didn’t know the lights and sirens were on. “I was on my phone and not really seeing what was happening as the lights were turned on in that intersection,” she said. “I know my team and the officers who are on our detail team are of the utmost professionalism and training. I have full faith in the care and diligence with which they do their job.” A woman and child who were in the other car were bot...

With new team and beard, Aaron Hicks off to hot start with Orioles: ‘It allows me to be myself’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

Aaron Hicks looked different when he arrived in Baltimore.The Orioles saw plenty of Hicks for the eight years he played for the New York Yankees, but after he signed with Baltimore last week, he showed up to his new clubhouse with a new look.No longer having to abide by the Yankees’ strict no facial hair policy, Hicks has let his stubble grow out into a trimmed beard. But the change in appearance isn’t the only thing different with the veteran outfielder.The new-look Hicks is off to a torrid start in Baltimore, hitting .368 with a 1.087 OPS in his first six games as the fill-in for the injured Cedric Mullins.“If I keep hitting, I guess I gotta keep it,” Hicks said with a laugh.His facial hair isn’t the only thing that’s more relaxed. Hicks was released by the Yankees on May 26 after persistent struggles that date to 2021, but now he feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.“I can just go play,” Hicks said. “I’v...

EU launches legal action against Poland over new Russian influence law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday launched legal action against member country Poland over a contentious new law that the nationalist government claims is meant to combat Russian influence but which critics say could be used to persecute opposition politicians.The European Commission said it believes that the new law “unduly interferes with the democratic process,” and that it “violates the principle of democracy,” and “rights to effective judicial protection.” The EU’s executive branch supervises respect of the bloc’s laws.The law was passed in May, ahead of expected general elections in autumn, and allows for the creation of a committee to investigate Russian influence in Poland. Critics argue that it would have unconstitutional powers, including the capacity to exclude officials from public life for a decade.It appears to have galvanized public support for the opposition. Over the weekend, around 500,000 people took part in a huge anti-government protest, according t...

No homecoming for Messi as Barcelona again fails to do enough to lure him back

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Once again, Barcelona couldn’t do enough to entice Lionel Messi.Nearly two years after the club was forced to let Messi go against his will because of its financial struggles, Barcelona again missed out on a chance to bring the World Cup winner back.The 35-year-old Messi announced Wednesday he would not return to Spain and instead said he was going to join Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.There had been hopes of a reunion between the Argentina great and the Spanish club where he thrived for nearly two decades before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain, but in the end there was only more disappointment for both sides.Again, Barcelona’s finances kept the club from luring Messi back.The Argentine apparently wanted to return but didn’t want to go through the ordeal of not knowing whether the Catalan club would be able to sign him. He said he was told the club would have to either sell other players or lower salaries, and he didn’t want that to happen.“I reall...

Russia says top UN court should dismiss Ukraine’s case over Crimea and terrorism funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:15 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Russia urged judges at the United Nations’ highest court on Thursday to throw out a case brought by Ukraine against Moscow over the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the arming of rebels in eastern Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.“We appear before you today in order to demonstrate that Ukraine’s application must be dismissed because it is without any legal foundation. Nor does it have any factual evidence to back it,” Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin told judges at the International Court of Justice.Lawyers for Ukraine said as hearings in the case opened Tuesday that Russia bankrolled a “campaign of intimidation and terror” by rebels in eastern Ukraine starting in 2014 and sought to replace Crimea’s multiethnic community with “discriminatory Russian nationalism.”Ukraine filed the case in 2017, asking the world court to order Moscow to pay reparations for attacks and crimes such as the ...