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Rishi Sunak faces 13-year itch in first big electoral test

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

LONDON — “It’s like Basra after we bombed it.” That was the stark verdict of one dismayed Stoke-on-Trent resident this week as they rated the city’s roads ahead of crucial local elections.Voters head to the polls to choose councillors in more than 8,000 seats on 230 councils across England Tuesday. Local elections, typically, are more likely to be determined by voters’ takes on tarmac, trash, graffiti and street lighting rather than who should lead the country.Reading across from local polls to glean general elections insight is fraught with danger, as experts and activists try to remind Westminster at this time of year.Yet after 13 years of national Conservative rule, and with Keir Starmer’s Labour continuing to outpace Rishi Sunak’s governing party in the national opinion polls, the line between the local and the national is blurring.Between two wallsLabour and Conservative insiders are managing expectations ahead of the big day.Labour officials insist 400 gains ...

Ukraine’s rule of law battlefield

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

Mykhailo Zhernakov is a lawyer and co-founder of the DEJURE Foundation where he is chair of the board. Stepan Berko is a lawyer and the advocacy director for the DEJURE Foundation. Halyna Chyzhyk is an advocacy officer and judiciary reform expert at the Anticorruption Action Center.Ukraine has struggled with rule of law for a very long time.Courts are among the least trusted public institutions in the country, and out of several attempts at judicial reform, most have been unsuccessful. Nevertheless, one particular piece of the reform remains a distinct exception — the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).In 2022, judicial reform in Ukraine received new momentum when the European Union granted the country membership candidate status, conditioned on a number of institutional reforms — first and foremost, judicial. And the reformed process of the HACC’s formation, composition and first practice have been a great success, all due to the fact that the integrity check of its judges was made ...

A poisoned chalice awaits Turkey’s election winner: the economy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

Don’t envy whoever wins Turkey’s election this month. The victor could immediately be blown off course by strong economic headwinds. In the first decade of his 20-year rule, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rode an economic boom — driven in part by manufacturers and exporters from conservative Anatolian heartlands that supported his ruling AK Party — turning Turkey into one of the buzzing emerging markets to watch. Robust growth — averaging more than 7 percent between 2002 and 2007 — was once Erdoğan’s proudest boast.Over the second decade of his rule, the story was exactly the opposite, as the president took absolute control over monetary policy and insisted on his unorthodox theory that high interest rates cause inflation. Prices raged out of control and debates over the cost of staples, from onions to cucumbers, have figured prominently in the run-up to the May 14 election.The data paint a grim picture of turbulence. According to the Turkish Statistical ...

Tory donor blasts UK minister’s opposition to £1B energy proposal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

LONDON — A high-profile Conservative Party donor launched a stinging attack on Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt in an interview with POLITICO, saying her opposition to his £1.2 billion energy project is due to “baseless emotions.”Ukrainian-British businessman Alexander Temerko — who donated more than £1 million to the Tories and was formerly a junior minister in the Russian government — said Mordaunt will be “responsible for high prices of electricity in this country” if his U.K.-France electricity inter connector is blocked by the government in the coming weeks.Mordaunt, a MP for Portsmouth North and leader of the House of Commons under Rishi Sunak, has previously called on MPs and the Conservative Party headquarters to stop taking money from the Ukrainian tycoon, after he threatened to sue the senior Tory before backing down. Mordaunt shot back at Temerko, calling him “desperate” and his project a “threat to national security.”Mordaun...

Brown scores 25, Celtics spoil Embiid’s return in 121-87 win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 25 points and the Boston Celtics rolled past the Philadelphia 76ers 121-87 on Wednesday night, spoiling the return of reigning league MVP Joel Embiid.The Celtics tied the series at one game apiece as the Eastern Conference semifinals series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday.Malcolm Brogdon added 23 points, connecting on six of Boston’s 20 3-pointers. Derrick White and Marcus Smart added 15 points apiece. Jayson Tatum played most of the game in foul trouble and was held to seven points.Boston ratcheted up its defense and limited a 76ers team that hit 17 3-pointers in its Game 1 win to just 6 of 30 from beyond the arc on Wednesday. The Celtics led by as many as 36 points in the fourth quarter.Tobias Harris led the 76ers with 16 points. Embiid finished with 15 points, three rebounds and five blocks in his first game back from a sprained right knee that caused him to miss the final game of the 76ers’ first-round sweep of Brooklyn. He also sat ...

AI pioneer quits Google to warn about the technology’s ‘dangers’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

(CNN) — Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called the ‘Godfather of AI,’ confirmed Monday that he left his role at Google last week to speak out about the “dangers” of the technology he helped to develop.Hinton’s pioneering work on neural networks shaped artificial intelligence systems powering many of today’s products. He worked part-time at Google for a decade on the tech giant’s AI development efforts, but he has since come to have concerns about the technology and his role in advancing it.“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton told the New York Times, which was first to report his decision.In a tweet Monday, Hinton said he left Google so he could speak freely about the risks of AI, rather than because of a desire to criticize Google specifically.“I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google,” Hi...

Jose Trevino hits pinch-hit walk-off single after more Yankee players go down with injuries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

Prior to the Yankees’ rubber game against the Guardians, Brian Cashman discussed his team’s last place standing and the injuries that have decimated the roster he assembled.“Obviously, it’s not the team that we put together,” Cashman said Wednesday during a wide-ranging scrum that lasted nearly 30 minutes. “We’ve got a lot of injuries, so we had to turn our attention to some alternative choices. Obviously, we’re not playing our best baseball with what we currently have.”Ironically, a few alternative choices helped the Yankees win a wild series finale, 4-3, after Aaron Boone made a questionable choice of his own.The Bombers’ first two runs came courtesy of solo shots from Willie Calhoun and Jake Bauers in the fifth inning. Both were non-roster invitees in spring training and didn’t start the season in the majors.Guardians ace Shane Bieber gave up both homers.Calhoun’s longball was his second in as many days after...

Celtics send a message in Game 2, even series with 121-87 victory over 76ers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

After a stunning loss in Game 1, the Celtics wanted to send a message in Game 2. They needed to after their worst flaws were exposed. They knew they couldn’t afford another performance like that and fall into a deeper series hole.“They came in here and they got one on us on our home court,” Marcus Smart said, just about an hour before Wednesday’s tip. “We definitely want to send a message going back to Philly.”Consider the message sent.The Celtics have taken pride all season in being a resilient team, one that picks itself off the mat after bad losses with regularity. Wednesday marked possibly their best response yet, and once again offered a strong reminder of why they’re the championship favorite when they’re locked in and want to be.And they didn’t even need Jayson Tatum.The Celtics’ superstar was limited to just seven points because of foul trouble. He only played 19 minutes. It didn’t matter. Neither did the highly-anticipated return of Joel Embiid. The Celtics eviscerated the ...

Young girl dies after being struck by vehicle in Burlington school parking lot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

Halton police say a young girl has died after being fatally struck by the driver of a vehicle outside of a high school in Burlington.Authorities were called to Burlington Central Secondary School just after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday for reports that a pedestrian had been struck in the parking lot.A young girl was assessed by paramedics and rushed to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, where she was pronounced dead.Police said a 21-year-old male driver fled the scene but was arrested a short time later at his home in the area.The driver will be charged with failure to remain and could face additional offences.Halton police are crediting witnesses that were able to track down the driver’s licence plate, leading to his arrest.

North Carolina House OKs bill tightening abortion limits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:00 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina House on Wednesday approved a Republican package of abortion restrictions that would tighten the state’s ban on the procedure from after 20 weeks to after 12 weeks, while creating new exceptions but also more requirements for pregnant women and physicians.The fast-tracked legislation, which emerged the previous day after months of private negotiations among House and Senate GOP members, was scheduled to receive a final vote in the Senate on Thursday morning and could reach the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper later that day. Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter, vowed to fight the measure.“I will veto this extreme ban and need everyone’s help to hold it,” Cooper said in a tweet. But Republicans now hold veto-proof majorities in both General Assembly chambers after a House Democrat switched to the Republican Party last month. That advantage was reflected in the House’s 71-46 vote for the measure Wednesday night after an hour...