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More Borgen, less Sherlock: Europe cracks down on British TV

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

It’s a question worthy of a great TV detective: can streamers like Netflix still guarantee a certain proportion of European content if the goalposts are suddenly moved to exclude hits like Sherlock and Doctor Who?They may soon have to, as the European Commission is considering removing the U.K. from the list of countries recognized as providing “European” content, according to a policy paper seen by POLITICO. That would put broadcasters and streaming platforms in a tight spot, as the U.K. is among the biggest contributors to their European catalogs.“The need to re-define the concept of European works has been raised in the context of Brexit. It is arguable that, since the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU, works originating in the U.K. should no longer be considered as European,” said the paper. It also raised the idea of cutting Switzerland from the scope of European works.Under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, television and streaming must include a share of R...

Immanuel Quickley scores career-high 40 points in blowout victory over lowly Rockets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

Three days rest and the lowly Houston Rockets did the trick.The Knicks got off the schneid by pummeling the Rockets with points in Monday’s 137-115 runaway victory, snapping their three-game losing streak behind Immanuel Quickley’s career evening.Quickley, playing in the place of the injured Jalen Brunson, finished with a personal-best 40 points, carrying the Knicks through a third-quarter run that forged the cakewalk.The Knicks stepped on the gas in the final period, and the Rockets — young, disorganized and generally awful — offered little resistance.“Winning definitely solves a lot of things,” Quickley said.The victory was important for two reasons: it reestablished positive vibes by killing the losing streak; and it gave the Knicks a 2 ½ game lead for fifth in the East ahead of the Nets and Heat.Miami is the next opponent at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, and there were concerns the Knicks might fall victim to a trap game against the...

Manchester United vs. Wrexham AFC: Snapdragon Stadium to host soccer match

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Manchester United and Wrexham AFC have announced a match to be played at Snapdragon Stadium on July 25. The friendly game is a preseason match showing off one of the most famous teams in the world in Man United, and Wrexham, who have gained international attention after actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club and made a show out of their sporting adventure.  On hand to discuss the match was McElenney.  “They leave it all out there on the pitch, and I think that anybody who loves sport, anybody who loves storytelling, I think can find themselves in these players,” McElhenney said. Petco Park named best MLB ballpark by USA Today The television show Welcome to Wrexham has garnered the club a huge audience and new found fanbase as the team attempts to promote the club into professional relevance. Manchester United, a constant competitor sitting at the top of the Premier League, creates quite a mismatch, but that is what a friendly is supposed to be. Ticke...

Indonesia’s stance on Israel overshadows world soccer event

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Uncertainty over the timing and location of the Under-20 World Cup continues two days after Indonesian authorities postponed the official draw for the May 20-June 11 tournament because of protests over Israel’s qualification.The draw, scheduled to held in Bali on Friday, was delayed indefinitely by Indonesia’s soccer federation amid backlash from conservative Islamic groups.Doubt had already been cast on the draw ceremony when the governor of Bali, Wayan Koster, called for a ban on Israel playing there because of Indonesia’s diplomatic support for the Palestinian cause.FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, has not commented on Indonesia’s status as host or a reported offer from Argentina to stage the event, with the trade-off of having an Argentine team in the tournament. Pressure on Indonesia’s soccer association, the PSSI, and its chairman Erick Thohir is mounting because if local authorities fail to resolve the hosting issues over Israel, the country r...

House GOP to subpoena Blinken over Afghanistan dissent cable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans plan to deliver a subpoena to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday for classified cables related to the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rep. Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press on Monday that he had spoken with Blinken earlier in the day when he was notified the agency would not be turning over a so-called dissent cable written by diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul shortly before the August 2021 withdrawal. “We have made multiple good faith attempts to find common ground so we could see this critical piece of information,” McCaul, R-Texas, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Secretary Blinken has refused to provide the Dissent Cable and his response to the cable, forcing me to issue my first subpoena as chairman of this committee.”The July 2021 communication warned Blinken about the potential fall of Kabul via a special “dissent channel,” which allows State Depart...

Landslide in Ecuador kills at least 7, with dozens missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

ALAUSI, Ecuador (AP) — A huge landslide swept over an Andean community in central Ecuador, burying dozens of homes, killing at least seven people and sending rescuers on a frantic search for survivors, authorities said Monday.Earlier in the day, officials had reported 16 deaths, but President Guillermo Lasso put the confirmed toll at seven as he arrived Monday night at the scene of the disaster in Alausí, about 137 miles south of the capital, Quito. Officials also raised the number of people reported missing to 62.Lasso lamented the tragedy and promised people in the town that “we will continue working” on the search effort.Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat said more than 30 people were rescued after the mountainside collapsed around 10 p.m. Sunday. It said 23 people were injured.“My mother is buried” under the mud, said Luis Ángel González, 58, who also lost other family members Sunday. “I am so sad, devastated. There is nothing here, no houses, no anything. W...

Do Adani’s woes matter for India’s clean energy transition?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

BENGALURU, India (AP) — When the bidders for India’s multibillion-dollar incentive to make solar components were announced in early March, the absence of corporate behemoth Adani Group was conspicuous.The group — which set up a gigantic factory to make solar equipment in 2016, more than tripled its capacity to make solar panels since 2017 and have begun making silicon materials needed to convert the sun rays to electricity — was expected to “bid in a large way,” said Chiranjeev Saluja, the managing director of Premier Energies, an Indian solar components manufacturer.The absence is another indication of the holding pattern the group has been in since U.S. short-selling firm Hindenburg Research alleged in late January that the businesses had engaged in fraud and stock price manipulation. Spooked investors dumped tens of billions of dollars in shares, while the company’s purported proximity to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dominated politics in past weeks.The gro...

Kim wants N. Korea to make more nuclear material for bombs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of weapons.The report in state media Tuesday followed a series of missile launches — seven launch events in this month alone — and rising threats to use the weapons against his enemies. North Korea’s weapons tests and U.S.-South Korea military exercises have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle, underscoring heightened tensions in the region. Officials say North Korea could further up the ante in coming weeks or months with more provocative displays of its military nuclear program, possibly including its first test detonation of a nuclear device since September 2017. The Korean Central News Agency said Kim during a meeting on Monday with officials and scientists at a state nuclear weapons institute stressed the need to ramp up bomb fuel production to meet his goals to expand his nuclear arsenal “ex...

2 dead, 1 critical after car flips over embankment on Stevenson Expressway, ejecting passengers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Two people are dead and one is critical in the hospital after a vehicle flipped over an embankment, ejecting its passengers on the Stevenson Expressway Monday evening.According to the Chicago Fire Department, the one car crash happened around 8:05 p.m. on the Stevenson Expressway when a single car crashed into an inbound embankment and flipped, ejecting three passengers from the vehicle.When CFD arrived on scene, one of the men, a 30-year-old, was dead on arrival. Another man, 26, was taken to St. Anthony Hospital where he was also later pronounced dead.A 42-year-old man was taken from the scene in critical condition with multiple injuries to Mt. Sinai Hospital. Man shot and killed during domestic incident in Joliet, 1 in custody It is unclear what lead to the car flipping over the embankment.No other information is available at this time.

WGN at 75: Rick Sutcliffe & the 1984 Cubs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

CHICAGO - He wasn't even there at the beginning of the season, but it's hard to believe the Cubs would have finished how they did in that campaign 39 years ago if the pitcher didn't show up.Certainly September 24, 1984, one of the most celebrated moments in team history, would have looked different if Rick Sutcliffe hadn't arrived in a mid-season trade from Cleveland.But the starting pitcher was on the mound at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh that evening to pitch a complete game in a 4-1 victory over the Pirates. His strikeout of Joe Orsulak gave the Cubs their 93rd victory of the season to clinch the Eastern Division championship.It put the team in the playoffs for the first time since 1945, setting off a celebration for fans across the world, many of whom fell in love with the Cubs thanks to WGN-TV. Sutcliffe had a lot to do with it since he went 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA after arriving with the team in mid-June, winning the National League's Cy Young Award. He even started the fir...