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Mask and air filter sales spike on Amazon as Northeast still lives with smoke

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

New York (CNN) — Some of the worst air quality levels on record on the East Coast are impacting consumer shopping patterns and driving air purifier stocks higher.People are rushing to buy air filters, humidifiers and high-quality masks on Amazon amid Canadian wildfires that have smothered large swaths of the United States in a thick plume of toxic smoke, leading to orange skies, a burnt taste in the air and advisories to stay inside.Fine particles from the smoke can make their way indoors. Air purifiers can be helpful with filtering out the pollution.As of Thursday morning, air filters were the top gainers in sales for tools and home improvement products on Amazon over the past 24 hours. A Levoit humidifier was the third biggest sales gainer. N95 and KN95 masks also spiked in Amazon sales rankings.Searches on Google for air purifiers have increased 16 fold since Monday, according to Google trends. It’s still unclear when the smoke will dissipate over the United States overall, as pr...

FDA advisers endorse antibody to protect against RSV in infants and some young toddlers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

(CNN) — Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday to endorse a monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants and some young toddlers from RSV.Members of the agency’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 21-0 that the benefit-risk profile of nirsevimab was favorable in infants and 19-2 that it was favorable in children up to 24 months who are vulnerable to severe respiratory syncytial virus.Next, the FDA will consider the advice of the advisers and decide whether to approve the treatment.The monoclonal antibody, nirsevimab, was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. It’s designed to be given to infants in a single shot at birth or just before the start of a baby’s first RSV season, or as a larger dose in a second RSV season in children who are highly vulnerable.If approved, it will be the first single-dose preventative treatment for all infants against RSV. Unlike with a vaccine, with which the body builds up its immunity in reaction over time, a monoclon...

The Huawei phone call that ‘appalled’ Thierry Breton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

BRUSSELS — It was the kind of screwup that went straight to the C-suite of Chinese technology giant Huawei. The firm, under heavy fire across the European Union over security concerns that it was subject to Chinese state control, was fighting tooth and nail in 2020 to avoid all-out bans on its 5G telecommunications equipment when it secured a coveted meeting with powerful Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. On December 3, 2020, its Rotating Chairman Ken Hu met with the Frenchman on a video call to plead the firm’s case. But shortly after the meeting, what felt like a PR victory turned into a calamity. A senior lobbyist for Huawei who arranged the meeting called Commissioner Breton on his personal mobile number in a state of euphoria that same day, three people with direct knowledge of the incident told POLITICO. The lobbyist, who works in Huawei’s EU public affairs office, was “screaming down the phone and celebrating” that the tête-à-tête had taken place, one o...

Paris needs to learn to live with rats, mayor concedes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has a message for the rats overrunning the City of Light: Why can’t we be friends?After years spent battling vermin, this week Hidalgo’s administration announced it intends to take a different approach and attempt to achieve a more peaceful state of coexistence with the rodents.“With guidance from the mayor, we have decided to form a committee on the question of cohabitation,” announced Anne Souyris, the city’s deputy mayor for public health, during Thursday’s meeting of the Council of Paris. She added that the group would be tasked with finding the method of dealing with the rats that proved to be both “effective” and “not unbearable” for Parisians.The announcement implies a departure from the city’s 2017 anti-rat plan, a €1.7 million strategy that involved the installation of airtight trash bins throughout the city and extensive use of rat poison in thousands of aggressive extermination oper...

Mission on the Bay in Swampscott to reopen after closure due to sea wall collapse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

Mission on the Bay in Swampscott is reopening Friday after a sea wall collapse prompted officials to close the restaurantPatrons were dining inside the restaurant when the collapse occurred earlier this year. The grand reopening will include a party to celebrate the return to business.

‘We’ve got to be more accountable to our at-bats.’ Finding the right offensive balance is proving to be elusive for Chicago Cubs.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

Plate patience and an approach that yields walks can be an indicator of a healthy offense.For the Chicago Cubs, it’s been a frustrating trend of putting runners on base at a high rate who are then consistently stranded. Finding a balance between working counts and seeking out moments to go into a more aggressive swing mode is a work in progress for an offense that has too often been a weakness.Two days after president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer expressed the need for the team to not only win series but produce some series sweeps, the Los Angeles Angels completed the sweep with the Cubs’ 3-1 loss Thursday.The Cubs (26-36) begin the final leg of the 10-game West Coast trip in San Francisco Friday night with the sixth-worst winning percentage in Major League Baseball. Only four teams have more losses than the Cubs: St. Louis Cardinals (37), Colorado Rockies (38), Kansas City Royals (44) and Oakland A’s (50).“As a whole, we’ve got to be more accountab...

Chicago White Sox split a doubleheader with the New York Yankees — and Eloy Jiménez exits Game 2 with a leg injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

The sky cleared up enough for the Chicago White Sox to resume their series with the New York Yankees.Instead of the haze the smoke from Canadian wildfires created, there were plenty of longballs during Game 1 of the doubleheader Thursday at Yankee Stadium.The Sox hit four home runs on their way to their fifth straight win, beating the Yankees 6-5.The season-high winning streak came to an end with the Yankees taking the nightcap 3-0.Gleyber Torres hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Billy McKinney had a solo homer the next inning against Sox starter Mike Clevinger, who allowed three runs on six hits with two strikeouts and a walk in 5⅔ innings.The Sox had two hits, singles from Eloy Jiménez and Gavin Sheets. With the split, the Sox (28-36) are 3½ games out of first place in the American League Central. They are in third place in the division for the first time since April 17.Trainers checked on Jiménez after he ran slowly while grounding into a fielder’s ...

Dutch Supreme Court orders museum artifacts borrowed from Crimea returned to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Supreme Court of the Netherlands on Friday ordered that a Dutch museum’s trove of historical treasures from Crimea be sent to Ukraine, upholding a lower court ruling that the 300 artifacts are part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. The collection of archaeological objects, some more than 2,000 years old, was on display at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, sparking a dispute over the repatriation of the borrowed pieces. Both the Ukrainian government in Kyiv and the four Crimean museums that had loaned bronze swords, golden helmets, precious gems and other artifacts to the Allard Pierson demanded the objects back. The Amsterdam museum instead opted to store the items until a court could decide their fate. The legal tug-of-war has now ended with the Hague-based Supreme Court ordering the collection to be returned to Ukraine. Judges cited the lack of national recognition for the Ru...

Unemployment rate ticks higher in May for first time in nine months: StatCan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.Overall employment was little changed last month as the economy lost a modest 17,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported Friday.The job report comes one day after the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing it to 4.75 per cent, the highest it’s been since 2001.The decision was prompted by a string of hot economic data, including a surprisingly resilient labour market. The central bank said the resilience of the Canadian economy suggests getting inflation back to two per cent may be harder than it had previously expected.Canada’s unemployment rate was previously hovering at five per cent for five consecutive months, just above the all-time low of 4.9 per cent reached last summer.However, the federal agency noted in the report that job growth has moderat...

Chow still front-runner as Bailão, Saunders gain ground: Toronto mayoral polls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:23 GMT

Campaigning continues in the race to become Toronto’s next mayor as we enter the second day of advanced voting.Two new polls courtesy of Mainstreet Research and Viewpoints show Olivia Chow is still the frontrunner in the race but are at odds as to whether support for the former Member of Parliament is growing or shrinking.The Viewpoints survey shows Chow has 37 per cent of support among decided voters, with her closest competitor, ex-Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, at 15.4 per cent.Other candidates are hovering at or below 10 per cent, with Josh Matlow at 10.3 per cent, Ana Bailão at 10 per cent, Brad Bradford at 9.5 per cent, Anthony Furey at 9 per cent, and Mitzie Hunter at 6 per cent, respectively.RELATED: ‘I’m the only one’: Mark Saunders bills himself as only alternative to Olivia Chow“This data reveals that Chow’s lead has grown and widened. She has momentum as undecided voters start to firm up their choice,” said James Valcke of V...