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Positive preliminary assessment of Slovenia's request for €541 million disbursement under the Recovery and Resilience Facility

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

The Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Slovenia's payment request for €231 million in grants and €310 million in loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). This is Slovenia's second payment request under the RRF. With their request, the Slovenian authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the satisfactory fulfilment of 41 milestones and three targets.On 15 September 2023, Slovenia submitted to the Commission a payment request based on the achievement of the 41 milestones and three targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision. These cover a set of transformative reforms related to flood management, energy efficiency, green and digital transition and education.The Slovenian national recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investments and reforms in17 thematic components. The plan will be supported by €1.61 billion in grants, and €1.07bn in loans. To date, Slovenia has received €231 million in pre-...

What is the reason for tensions in US-Azerbaijan relations?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. began to implement a consistent approach and strategy toward the South Caucasus countries. Such a strategy includes strengthening its geopolitical interest and facing up to any challenges from regional powers. To this end, the Republic of Azerbaijan played an important role in shaping of regional economic integration thanks to its geographical position and the availability of energy resources. It is not surprising that Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was U.S. National Security Adviser from 1977 to 1981, called Azerbaijan a “geopolitical pivot” which is very important for the U.S.’s security interest.It should be noted that the Second Garabagh War has changed the whole geopolitical landscape in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan ended the long-lasting Armenian occupation, which opened up new opportunities for sustainable peace and full regional economic integration. However, despite positive signals from Baku, Yerevan continued to support ille...

Harriette Cole: My two roommates are moving out, and I don’t believe their excuse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

DEAR HARRIETTE: I am a sophomore in college, and I have two roommates. We live together in a dorm and have had our disagreements, but we have gotten over them.Related ArticlesAdvice | Harriette Cole: My old friend is back in my life, and she has brought a lot of drama Advice | Harriette Cole: I’m on the brink of unloading on my husband about the car crash Advice | Harriette Cole: I can no longer be silent about this messed-up family Advice | Harriette Cole: She’s the restaurant patron from hell, and she needs to hear that Advice | Harriette Cole: How to reboot when Thanksgiving stress sets in They recently told me that they are going to move out together, which caught me off-guard, and I’m left feeling surprised and somewhat abandoned.It feels so weird to me that they wouldn’t tell me anything before now. I asked them why and they told me that they wanted to move to a dorm closer ...

Miss Manners: Did they really think it was OK to say this in an obituary?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: This morning I read the obituaries of three local women.Related ArticlesAdvice | Miss Manners: I get tactless comments about my literary name Advice | Miss Manners: How do I tell these people I don’t want their prayers? Advice | Miss Manners: My mother-in-law tried to ban me from wearing bright colors on vacation Advice | Miss Manners: Is this lowering of office chairs a common practice? Advice | Miss Manners: How can I rein in a greedy co-worker? The first spent just two sentences describing the deceased, followed by a list of 26 people who had predeceased her and 37 people who survived her, with no description of how they were related to the deceased. It was essentially just a long list of names.The second obituary listed the survivors of the deceased as including “a great-grandson expected in August,” which seems to stretch the definition of “survivor.”...

8-time French champion Nantes fires coach Pierre Aristouy after four-game winless run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

NANTES, France (AP) — Nantes coach Pierre Aristouy, who helped the eight-time French champion avoid relegation last season, was fired on Wednesday.The Ligue 1 team said in a statement that Aristouy was relieved of his duties, with his replacement to be announced later in the day.Sports daily L’Equipe reported that Nantes has reached an agreement in principle with former Lille coach Jocelyn Gourvennec.“Nantes would particularly like to thank Pierre Aristouy and his staff, who put all their human qualities and talent at the service of the club. Appreciated by all, they helped the club to maintain its position at the end of last season,” the club said.Nantes was in 17th place in the league, with four of the 20 clubs getting relegated last season, when Aristouy took over from Antoine Kombouaré with four league games left to play.This season, the club got off to a poor start but Aristouy had managed to put the team back on track before a four-match winless run — including three def...

Beyhive about to swarm box office for ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

Last month, Taylor Swift blazed a new trail by self-releasing “Taylor Swift: The Era’s Tour” in theaters with the highest-grossing opening weekend for a concert film at $96 million. Its domestic total of $178 million ranks No. 11 for the year ahead of franchises like “Indiana Jones,” “Mission Impossible,” “Transformers” and “Creed.”Now, Beyoncé is following suit by releasing her own concert film “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” in AMC Theatres nationwide this Friday, following the chrome-carpeted world premiere on Nov. 25 in Los Angeles.While Taylor’s blockbuster was filmed over three nights at SoFi Stadium Los Angeles in August, Beyoncé’s film features footage from across her 56-show tour that ran from May 10, 2023, to Oct. 1, 2023. That means you will sometimes see Queen Bey wearing different costumes from different locations during highlights of the same song.The record-breaking concert tour...

Sweden says Turkey pledges to ratify its NATO bid ‘within weeks’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

BRUSSELS — Turkey has promised Sweden it will ratify its bid to join NATO “within weeks,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said Wednesday.Referring to his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, with whom he spoke on Tuesday, Billström said: “He told me that he expected the ratification to take place within weeks. And of course, we don’t take anything for granted from the side of Sweden, but we look forward to this being completed.”The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission recently abruptly postponed a session to vote on Sweden’s accession bid. According to Billström, the top Turkish envoy didn’t put forward any new conditions in the conversation. “There were no new demands from the Turkish government, so we look [at] our part as being fulfilled,” he told reporters at the NATO foreign ministerial meeting.Apart from Turkey, Hungary has also not ratified Sweden’s membership status in the alliance.

At least one dead as US Osprey aircraft crashes off coast of Japan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

Tokyo (CNN) — At least one person was killed Wednesday after a US military Osprey aircraft crashed off the coast of Japan’s Yakushima Island in southern Kagoshima prefecture, according to a spokesperson from the Japan Coast Guard.The spokesperson added that no further information was available on the other seven individuals on board and the reason behind the crash.The Coast Guard received information about the crash around 2:47 p.m. local time (12:47 a.m. ET), said the spokesperson, adding the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters has dispatched a patrol boat and aircraft to the crash area.The Yakushima Airport Management Office in Kagoshima Prefecture received a call from the US military Wednesday afternoon requesting an emergency landing at Kagoshima Airport, a Kagoshima prefectural official told CNN.The Kagoshima prefectural official did not specify if the request came from the US Marines or Air Force.It is the latest crash to involve an Osprey military aircraft, with ...

Howie Carr: Latest lefty media darling busted

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

It never fails.Whenever the cackling hens of Boston’s state-run media start slobbering over some left-wing female, it’s only a matter of time until their latest crush gets jammed up.Monica Cannon-Grant.Rachael Rollins.Dianne Wilkerson.Kendra Lara.And now it’s happened again, right on schedule. This time it’s that terrorist teenybopper from Cambridge by the name of Calla Mairead Walsh.At age 19, Comrade Calla has had gushing profiles written about her in all the usual Democrat religious tracts – the Boston Globe, the New York Times and Boston Magazine.Now the red-diaper doper baby is charged with riot, sabotage, criminal mischief and trespass and disorderly conduct after trashing a building owned by an Israeli company in Merrimack, N.H.She was arrested with two other homely young ladies, and her bail was set at $20,000.The building’s windows were smashed, and spray-painted on the walls was “Free Gaza” and “Genocide Profiteers.” Cops found an “incendiary device.”It was Walsh’s second ...

Ski Wednesday: Spreading joy of the sport

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:24 GMT

A Massachusetts-raised, Jackson, New Hampshire-based lifelong skier who also happens to be a high school music director has secured a prestigious Share Winter Foundation (https://sharewinterfoundation.org/) grant to introduce dozens of the inner city high school students she works with to the mountain sports life.Danielle Trial Lucini, Music Director at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, was awarded a grant to bring as many as 50 students, many of them transplants from spots like the Dominican Republic and other non-snow climates, and put them on skis and in the proper winter attire, in ski school and best of all, she says, experiencing first hand the beauty of the winter sport.The grant is a next step – a big one, she says – in a project she started when she and another school staffer who loves to ski were on a chairlift and had a brainstorm: Let’s get these kids out here.Lucini pulled it together with a bit of wing and prayer. She reached out to ski areas for discount passe...