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EU pharma reform: Winners and losers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

If you want to understand the EU’s revision of its pharmaceutical rules, you could do worse than listen to Bono. “Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live or die,” said the Irish frontman — a line repeated by Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides at the unveiling of the legislative package on Wednesday.  The first major overhaul of the bloc’s medicines regulations in 20 years aims to make access to medicines more secure and affordable, encourage innovation and reduce red tape. It touches on everything from medicines access to drug shortages, and the bloc’s pharma regulator.The ink hasn’t even dried and it’s already provoking strong reactions, with the pharmaceutical industry lobby slating it, and patient activists giving it a cautious cheer. The battle lines seem set for the next stage of the process — heated discussions between lawmakers in the European Parliament and between EU countries in the Council. They’ll be racing against looming Europea...

Fox agrees to give more Murdoch docs to Smartmatic in its defamation case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

(CNN) — Fox News has agreed to give voting technology company Smartmatic additional documents about Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other senior corporate executives. Smartmatic is suing the right-wing network for $2.7 billion over its airing of 2020 election lies.The agreement was announced Wednesday at a court hearing in Manhattan. New York Supreme Court Judge David Cohen scheduled the hearing after Smartmatic raised concerns about whether Fox was complying with its pretrial obligations to turn over relevant evidence.“We will produce the materials as quickly as we are able to,” Fox lawyer Winn Allen said.Fox also will give Smartmatic documents related to Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch, who is the CEO of Fox Corp., as well as relevant materials about Chief Legal Officer Viet Dinh and Raj Shah, a former Trump administration official who is now a vice president at Fox Corp.These materials will include deposition transcripts and exhibits, ...

Josh Hart is compiling clutch playoff moments as big payday awaits

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

CLEVELAND — When the temperature and pressure rise, Josh Hart is built to run into the smoke.“The fourth quarter, and especially the last 6 minutes, that’s winning time,” Hart said before New York’s potential closeout Game 5 on Wednesday. “In my mind, there’s no such thing as fatigue, no such thing as being tired, no such thing as being hurt. If I’m out there, that’s the time where I gotta raise my attention to detail, raise my intensity, raise my energy even more. And that’s something that I’ve always been wired to do. So for me, it’s once that time hits, it’s totally different. In my eyes, it’s 0-0 and you’ve got to go win it.”Other than Jalen Brunson, there’s no greater success story to this Knicks campaign than Hart. His acquisition in February immediately shifted the team’s trajectory, and the positive impact has only increased in the playoffs.It’s been the perfect ...

Asa Hutchinson formally launches 2024 campaign in Arkansas

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

By ANDREW DeMILLO and MICHELLE L. PRICE (Associated Press)BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson formally launched his Republican presidential campaign Wednesday, pledging to “bring out the best of America” and aiming to draw contrasts with other GOP hopefuls on top issues, including how best to reform federal law enforcement agencies.Hutchinson kicked off his 2024 bid in his hometown of Bentonville, on the same steps where he launched an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign 30 years ago.“I ran as a conservative Republican when being a Republican was like having a career-ending handicap,” Hutchinson said, adding, “And now, I bring that same vigor to fight another battle, and that battle is for the future of our country and the soul of our party.”The stalwart conservative, who announced in a television interview earlier this month that he intended to run, has been a rare figure among announced or expected GOP presidential h...

Heather Walker, longtime Celtics executive, dies after battling rare brain cancer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

Heather Walker, a longtime Celtics executive and the team’s vice president of public relations, died on Wednesday following a nearly two-year battle with cancer. She was 52 years old.“Heather Walker was a boundlessly charismatic, giving, and selfless soul,” the Celtics said in a statement. “Every room she entered was brighter for her presence. As anyone who knew her could attest, her abundant positive energy and kindness should not be mistaken for any lack of fortitude or determination when such qualities were required. “She thrived in chaos, always able to recognize the humor that the adventures of her life brought her. Each of these attributes were on display through the best days of her life, and remained intact, sharpened even, when she encountered her cruel diagnosis.”Walker, who had worked with the Celtics since 2006, was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in July 2021. Since then, she had been working relentlessly to raise awareness and money to research the rare and aggress...

Yankees Notebook: With offense reeling, Jake Bauers strong start at Triple-A has Bombers’ attention

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees could use some offense right now, and Jake Bauers has produced plenty of it at Triple-A.The lefty swinger has been raking for the RailRiders, tallying four doubles, one triple, nine home runs, 20 RBI and a .333/.481/.883 slash line over his first 19 games. With the Yankees struggling to score, Aaron Boone has noticed Bauer’s early-season surge.“He’s definitely caught our eye,” the manager said Wednesday morning. “Certainly got a lot of us paying attention to that. We’ll see what happens.”Bauers has 328 games of big league experience with Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Seattle. He totaled 23 home runs over 213 games from 2018-2019, but he hasn’t played in the majors since 2021.The 27-year-old played for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season and hit well this past spring. Bauers has split his time fairly evenly between first base, designated hitter and the corner outfield spots this year.Bauers is not on the Yankees...

Bruins notebook: Taylor Hall’s game clicking for various reasons

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

In the overall scheme of the Bruins’ Game 2 loss to the Florida Panthers, Taylor Hall’s goal was the ultimate nothing burger. The B’s were getting blown out by the Cats and Hall’s goal that made it 6-3 only made the final score look more respectable than it deserved to be.Hall originally thought so, too. But in hindsight, it might have been just the thing to get the speedy winger going. Riding a four-point day in Game 4, Hall went into Wednesday’s Game 5 at the Garden as the B’s leading scoring in this playoff run with 4-3-7 totals in the first four games.Before he scored that late goal, Hall had not gotten on the scoreboard in the first playoff game nor did he notch a point in the final three games of the regular season when he came back from the injury that knocked him out of the lineup on February 25.“It was a nothing goal, for sure. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but maybe that did allow me to (think) ‘OK, at least I’...

Oklahoma board denies clemency for death row inmate Glossip

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s state parole board voted Wednesday not to recommend clemency for death row inmate Richard Glossip, even though the state attorney general said he doesn’t think the condemned man whose case has drawn interest from Kim Kardashian and others received a fair trial.The board voted 2-2 to not recommend that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt grant clemency to Glossip, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 18. One board member recused himself because his spouse is a prosecutor who had previous involvement in Glossip’s case.There is no way to appeal the board’s decision, and Stitt would have needed the board’s recommendation in order to grant clemency, according to the board’s website.The vote came despite the state’s new Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, taking the unusual step of arguing on behalf of granting clemency — his office typically asks the board to allow executions to proceed. Drummond said that although ...

Striking federal workers want Trudeau to step in on negotiations

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

The president of Canada’s largest federal public service union says the government isn’t budging on a contract offer that would grant striking federal workers a nine per cent wage increase over three years.Public Service Alliance of Canada National President Chris Aylward says the government told the union by email Tuesday night that it would not move from its latest offer, signalling a stalemate in the negotiations.He’s calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step in.“If the prime minister can turn his back on these striking members, he will turn his back on every single worker in this country,” Aylward said Wednesday.More than 150,000 public servants walked off the job on April 19 to back their demands for higher wages and work-from-home provisions, among other things.PSAC head Chris Aylward at a rally on Parliament Hill today. Negotiations between the federal government and striking federal workers seem to be hitting a snag. Listen to @CityNewsTO...

Ultrasound technician accused of sexually assaulting woman at Oshawa clinic

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:22 GMT

Durham Regional Police have charged an ultrasound technician with sexual assault after investigators said a woman came forward alleging she was touched in an inappropriate sexual manner during a medical procedure.The alleged incident took place in May 2022 at an ultrasound and X-ray clinic in Oshawa.Fifty-eight-year-old Igor Ivanov, of Thornhill, is facing a single count of sexual assault and has been released on an undertaking.Police say Ivanov has worked at numerous clinics throughout the Greater Toronto Area.