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Harry Styles tickets and dinner at Davos: Big Tech and gambling firms shower gifts on UK Labour

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

LONDON — Keir Starmer and his staff accepted tickets to attend concerts, football matches and horse-racing gifted by Big Tech companies and racecourse operators as lobbyists target potential players in the next U.K. government.The Labour leader, whose party is leading in the opinion polls ahead of a possible 2024 election, received football tickets worth more than £12,000 since May last year from a range of sources including football clubs, the Football Association and grocery delivery firm Getir. He also accepted the hospitality of Arena Racing and Google Ireland, which paid for a meal for two worth £380 at the elite Davos summit in Switzerland this year. Eight members of his staff received gifts ranging from tickets to a Harry Styles concert, the BRITs music awards and Doncaster Races from Google UK, YouTube, Arena Racing, the Premier League and several music industry lobbying outfits, according to the register of interests of MPs’ staff. Shadow Culture Secretary Lu...

Rishi Sunak is no tech bro

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak has drunk the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid, but the British prime minister is still an investor at heart.Since shooting to political prominence as Britain’s chief finance minister in February 2020 Sunak has been labeled Britain’s first tech-bro politician.He is often photographed sporting hi-tech gadgets, including his £180 smart mug, and was a devotee of the Peloton bike, whose streamed workouts gained a cult following during the COVID-19 lockdown.A stint studying at Stanford University — the elite Californian institution which counts Google co-founder Larry Page and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings among its alumni — changed his life, he once boasted. Stanford “teaches you to think bigger,” he told The Twenty Minute VC podcast in 2021. He met his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of the founder of Indian multinational IT company Infosys, there too.Sunak’s budgets have been packed with innovation-friendly fiscal policies from tax breaks for cloud computing to m...

‘Party soldier’ Mariya Gabriel returns to Bulgaria with EU baggage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

BRUSSELS — Mariya Gabriel is hoping to take charge of a country that hardly knows her, leaving a town that knows her all too well.The European Commissioner for research and innovation was picked last week to become Bulgaria’s next prime minister by the leader of her party Boyko Borissov, aiming to break a political deadlock after five consecutive elections in two years failed to produce a stable coalition.If she can form a government, the 43-year-old will be departing the town that made her career to become the newest face at the European Council table.She will leave behind a mixed reputation as a young, dynamic commissioner with a genuine passion for technological progress, but one who lacked the gravitas to advance her agenda and who would push her staff to breaking point. She has lost 19 staffers, roughly the number of an entire commission cabinet, since 2019, with one official referring to her team as the “swing door cabinet.” Former staffers told POLITICO she would ...

Arenado, Cardinals complete 3-game sweep with 9-1 rout of Red Sox

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Nolan Arenado and Andrew Knizner each hit a two-run homer, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox 9-1 on Sunday night to complete a three-game sweep.Paul DeJong added a solo shot and Arenado drove in four runs for the Cardinals, who won for the sixth time in seven games since an eight-game losing streak. Their previous two wins came on ninth-inning rallies against closer Kenley Jansen at Fenway Park.Lars Nootbaar had three hits and scored three times for St. Louis, and Paul Goldschmidt added two hits and an RBI. Miles Mikolas (2-1) pitched six innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits with two walks.Rafael Devers had an RBI single for Boston, which lost for the fifth time in six games.It was the first series sweep this season for St. Louis (16-25), which owns the NL’s worst record. Arenado homered over the Green Monster once in each game of the series.Red Sox starter Corey Kluber (2-5) gave up five runs on seven hits — two homers — with three walks and f...

Red Sox swept by Cardinals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

For the 16th time in their last 18 games, a Red Sox starter lasted at least five innings.That’s the good news from Sunday night’s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals.The bad news is pretty much everything else: the starter, a shaky bullpen, a quiet lineup, and a series loss turned into a series sweep with a 9-1 drubbing.Corey Kluber took the mound for his eighth start of the season, and continued proving he’s no longer the formidable two-time Cy Young pitcher he was in the mid-2010s.Over five innings, he allowed four earned runs on seven hits, including a pair of absolutely clobbered home runs, each of which traveled at least 425 feet.“Poor fastball command” was the culprit, he told reporters postgame. “I’m making too many mistakes.”His manager agreed. “Command was off today,” Alex Cora said, but added, “He battled… He gave us five.”While it was the 37-year-old right-hander’s fifth consecut...

Powerful Cyclone Mocha floods streets, cuts communications in western Myanmar, at least 3 killed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A powerful tropical cyclone flooded streets, blew off roofs and severed communications in western Myanmar on Sunday after thousands of people had crammed into monasteries, schools and other sturdy shelters in one of Asia’s least developed countries. At least three deaths were reported in Myanmar, and several injuries were reported in neighboring Bangladesh, which was spared the predicted direct hit.Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Myanmar’s Rakhine state near Sittwe township in the afternoon with winds blowing up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said. By Monday morning, it was downgraded from its severe status and was steadily weakening over land, according to the India Meteorological Department.The extent of the damage was not immediately clear. High winds crumpled cell phone towers during the day, cutting off communications. And independent information is hard to gather under Myanmar’s military-run gover...

A decade before his election, Brandon Johnson foreshadowed his own rise to power

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

CHICAGO — Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will be sworn in as Chicago’s 57th mayor Monday morning during a ceremony at the University of Illinois-Chicago.When Johnson, 47, takes the oath of office, he will complete a plan set in motion with the teacher’s union strike more than a decade ago.At a panel discussion, held a decade prior to his victory, he foreshadowed his unlikely rise to the summit of city politics. “We will rise out of the dust, as we continue to organize and candidates will emerge,” Johnson told a crowd gathered at the Haymarket Pub in Chicago. “Who knows? Those candidates might just be in this room.”He, of course, was in the room. It was a discussion about progressive politics in the era of centrist mayor Rahm Emanuel, in which author Kari Lydersen discussed her book, “Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%." Lydersen appeared on the panel with Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader, Amisha Patel of the Grassroots Collaborative, and Johnson, who was then repres...

Group in grey Hyundai Elantra commit 10 robberies in 30 minutes on Northwest Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department sent out a community alert Sunday evening alerting the Northwest Side of a string of ten robberies connected to a single vehicle that happened in less than an hour.According to police, in each instance, a group of four Black males from the ages of 18-25 years old, wearing dark clothes and ski masks, exited a grey Hyundai Elantra displaying handguns before approaching victims on the sidewalk or who are parking vehicles.After demanding and taking personal property, they then fled in the Elantra.Times and Locations:3900 Block of West North Avenue on May 14, 2023 at 7:20 a.m.3900 Block of West Lemoyne Avenue on May 14, 2023 at 7:30 a.m.1800 Block of North Kedvale Avenue on May 14, 2023 at 7:32 a.m.4100 Block of West Wabansia Avenue on May 14, 2023 at 7:34 a.m.4400 Block of West Palmer Street on May 14, 2023 at 7:35 a.m.4400 Block of West Palmer Street on May 14, 2023 at 7:37 a.m.4300 Block of West Dickens Street on May 14, 2023 at 7:38 a.m.2200 Bl...

'We need every drop': Central Texas farmers hopeful after storms amid drought

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

WIMBERLEY, Texas (KXAN) - Farmers in Central Texas are rejoicing over all the rain the area has been getting recently. They said the wet weather is desperately needed as they've been battling a drought. In Wimberley, owner of EIEIO Organic Farm Kathleen Mooney said the rain helped bring her crops back to life. Mooney said she's had more green beans than usual since recent rain hit her area. (KXAN: Sarah Al-Shaikh)"Green beans, usually I pick them every other day. With these rains we've been having, I went out yesterday morning for two hours and picked a bunch of green beans," Mooney said. "And then I had to get back out there last night and pick for another two hours."She said it brought some hope to both farmers and others living in the area. "A lot of us are dancing in the rain out here. We're so excited," Mooney said. Not too far away, Dirt Candy Farm owner Mitch Cutler said recent storms impacted their farmland as well. Cutler said this is the amount of water that's been collect...

Flash flood risk returns for Monday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Overnight clouds thicken back up with a continued very low rain chance. Lows tonight drop into the upper 60s with some areas of fog by morning. CENTRAL TEXAS RAINFALL TOTALS A few spotty showers or storms are possible Monday morning, but our best chances for rain return during the afternoon and evening with 60% coverage. The flash flooding risk has increased to a 2 out of 4 for all of the area. Flash flood risk MondayRainfall amounts will range from very little to 1-3" in isolated spots on Monday. Flash flooding will be possible in spots during the second half of the day. This is somewhat more concerning than what we had over the weekend given more drivers on the road during the time of heaviest potential rain. Remember, "turn around, don't drown" if you encounter a flooded road. ‘Potentially significant’ El Niño to begin by summer Our last "decent" chance for rain and storms comes on Tuesday before we get a break from the rain.A 1 out of 4 flash flooding risk i...