Author: Press Room

Since its creation in 1985 in a small Luxembourgish town, the Schengen Area has become one of most emblematic and tangible results of European integration: entire generations have grown used to travelling across borders without the need to carry a passport or cross border controls.While Schengen was initially established in parallel to the European Union, it was eventually incorporated into the bloc’s law and now acts as a central pillar propping up the single market.The zone now covers 26 nations, including 22 EU countries, and almost 420 million citizens.But a handful of EU countries have yet to enjoy the benefits of…

Good morning and welcome to Fox News’ morning newsletter, Fox News First. Subscribe now to get Fox News First in your email. And here’s what you need to know to start your day …ALLEGED WAR CRIMES – Iran’s assistance to Russian war effort in Ukraine could make the country an enemy combatant, experts say. Continue reading …VALOR AND LEADERSHIP – The Army is scrapping Fort Hood – meet the late war hero behind the military base’s new name. Continue reading …UNIMAGINABLE TIME – Former ‘America’s Got Talent’ finalist dead at 44. Continue reading …FOUND – Michigan family of four that mysteriously disappeared one week ago…

WASHINGTON — The Covid-19 pandemic spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for America’s children, erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provide the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis.Across the country, math scores saw their largest decreases ever. Reading scores dropped to 1992 levels. Nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts. Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores, with some simply treading water at best.Those are the findings from the National…

Sky News host Paul Murray says the Albanese government has “admitted inflation will get worse”.“Which means their decisions will make inflation worse – which leads to more interest rate rises,” Mr Murray said. “Their decisions will push up power prices, which again feeds back into inflation, which makes interest rates worse.” Source: Sky News

UK economic activity contracted at its fastest pace in almost two years in October, suggesting the country has fallen into a recession during a period of political uncertainty and high energy and borrowing costs.The S&P Global/Cips flash UK composite output index, a measure of activity in the private sector, dropped to a 21-month low of 47.1 in October from 49.1 in September.October’s was the third consecutive reading under 50, which indicates a majority of businesses reporting a contraction in activity, and was below the 48.1 forecast by economists polled by Reuters.The gloomy outlook comes amid domestic political uncertainty, with Rishi…

CNN  —  Elon Musk said Sunday that SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink, which provides crucial telecommunication services in Ukraine, would not be shut off regardless of whether the company receives funding from the US Defense Department. “Before [the Department of Defense] even came back with an answer, I told @FedorovMykhailo that SpaceX would not turn off Starlink even if DoD refused to provide funding,” Musk tweeted Sunday evening, referencing talks with Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation. Fedorov has previously praised SpaceX and Starlink, calling Musk “among the world’s top private donors supporting Ukraine.” The…

Sky News host Gary Hardgrave says Chris Bowen is leading us down a “garden path of renewables” that is going to “cost us more in our power bills”. According to government sources, the federal government has been warned by the Australian Energy Regulator that power prices will rise by up to 50 per cent next year.“This is a monumental hit – we’ve all got to get used to the idea that the next couple of years are going to get tougher and government decisions about electricity generation are actually making it tougher,” Mr Hardgrave said. “Chris Bowen, I think, frankly,…

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s food and drugs agency on Monday (Oct 24) said it may pursue criminal action against two pharmaceutical firms that made products linked to acute kidney injury (AKI), amid a spike in cases and deaths among children this year. Indonesian authorities have temporarily banned sales of some syrup-based medications and identified the presence in some products of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol as possible factors in the deaths of 141 children, most of which were under five. BPOM chief Penny K Lukito said the agency would work with police to investigate the two firms with a view to criminal…

CNN  —  A recent move by Texas school districts to provide families with child identification and DNA kits has sparked anxiety amid the horrifying backdrop that genetic material was needed by authorities to identify the fourth-grade victims killed this year in a shooting at a Uvalde elementary school. The kits, however, are not intended for that purpose, say organizers of the program to distribute them, which passed the state legislature in 2021 – long before the massacre at Robb Elementary. And while the kits could be used after a mass casualty incident, those responsible insist the fingerprint and DNA kits,…

The Biden administration wants to spark an American offshore wind power boom, growing the industry from less than 1 gigawatt today to 30GW by the end of the decade — enough to serve 10mn homes. But executives are increasingly concerned that a myriad of challenges facing the sector are pushing that target beyond reach: permitting is too slow, leases are too expensive, equipment is in short supply and inflation is soaring, they say. The mix of trepidation and excitement was on show at the ACP Offshore Windpower conference in Providence, Rhode Island, in the past week, where 2,000 delegates gathered…