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Tories take kicking in 2 UK by-elections — but hold on in Boris Johnson’s old seat

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives suffered hefty defeats in two parliamentary by-elections — but the U.K. prime minister can breath a sigh of relief after clinging on to Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.Conservatives woke up Friday having seen healthy majorities wiped out in the constituencies of Selby and Ainsty, where they ceded a House of Commons seat to Labour, and in Somerton and Frome, where they took a kicking from the Liberal Democrats. But the Conservatives, who are languishing in the national polls and had been braced for a clean sweep of defeats, were given something to cheer in the outer London seat of Uxbridge, Johnson’s former turf.Localized anger over the planned expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone under the city’s Labour mayor helped the Tories hold on to the seat by just 495 votes, despite an increase in the Labour vote. It’s a disappointment for Labour leader Keir Starmer.But Sunak will face ...

US second gentleman Emhoff meets New Zealand’s Ardern to discuss online hate as World Cup begins

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Doug Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, met with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Friday to discuss ways to combat online hate and extremism. Emhoff was in Auckland to lead a delegation to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and meet with officials. He told a meeting of the Christchurch Call the world was witnessing a “global epidemic of hate.”Emhoff, who is Jewish, said he was “working against this scourge of anti-Semitism and this epidemic of hate in general. So this work is very, very personal to me.” “But my work is not just about Jews. It’s about all of us. It’s about combating hate in all of its forms,” he said.The group is named after the New Zealand city where a gunman in 2019 shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques while streaming his attack online. Ardern thanked Emhoff for his work and for sharing in the “joyous occasion” of the World Cup. She launched the Christchurch Call with French President...

Cambodian leader’s son, a West Point grad, set to take reins of power – but will he bring change?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China.With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon. But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who heads the country’s army.Tens of thousands of supporters packed a central square in the capital before daybreak on Friday to hear the 45-year-old’s 7 a.m. kick-off to the CPP’s final day of campaigning before the vote. With a warm smile and soft tone, a stark contrast to his father’s stern look and military-like cadence, Hun Manet said the CPP had brought peace, stability and p...

Spain conservatives entrust Feijóo, the boring guy who wins every election by a landslide

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative politician who polls suggest is poised to become Spain’s next prime minister, likes to recall that at heart, he is just a mild-mannered “village boy” from the country’s rural northwest. A humble, forthright, even boring guy, as he likes to describe himself. The conservative Popular Party candidate for Sunday’s general election is mostly unknown outside Spain, but he has been the country’s most solid regional leader so far this century and has never lost an election. Feijóo was a political steamroller during the 13 years in which he governed Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, the homeland of 20th-century dictator Francisco Franco and former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who ran Spain from 2011-2018 as PP’s leader.Feijóo took power as Galicia’s regional president in 2009 and accumulated four absolute majorities until 2022, when he resigned to head for Madrid with the mission to save his party from...

After decades of struggle for a place in Israel, dozens of Black Hebrews face threat of deportation

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

DIMONA, Israel (AP) — For two years, Toveet Israel and dozens of other residents of the Village of Peace have lived in fear.Dimona, a city on the edge of the nation of Israel’s Negev Desert, has been her home for 24 years. Her eight children were born here and know no other country. Now, she and 44 other undocumented members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem face deportation.Receiving the order to leave two years ago was a “moment of disbelief” for Israel, 53. “I feel like the government has been merciless to me and my children,” she said.The Black Hebrews, as the spiritual community’s members are commonly known, first made their way to Israel from the United States in the 1960s. While members do not consider themselves Jewish, they claim an ancestral connection to Israel.Around 3,000 Black Hebrews live in remote, hardscrabble towns in southern Israel. The Village of Peace, a cluster of low-slung buildings surrounded by vegetable patches and immaculate gardens in D...

Attention turns to Mega Millions after California store sells winning Powerball ticket

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

Lottery dreamers are setting their sights on the growing Mega Millions jackpot drawing on Friday after a ticket worth more than $1 billion was sold for the Powerball lottery. Here’s a look at how this drawing compares to other jackpots and why these winnings have become so high.HOW DOES THIS LATEST MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT STACK UP?The new jackpot for the Mega Millions drawing has reached an estimated $720 million, making it the game’s fifth highest. It hasn’t yet broken into the top 10 highest lottery jackpots in U.S. history, though. If someone picks all five numbers, plus the gold Mega Ball, they will have the option of taking the prize in yearly increments paid over 29 years or a $369.6 million lump sum before taxes. The last time a Mega Millions player hit the top prize was April 18. The jackpot will continue growing until someone wins.POWERBALL WINNING TICKETMost of the attention had been on Powerball until a winning ticket was drawn this week. Sold at a tiny neighbor...

Lake Tahoe officials tackle overtourism with focus on management, not marketing; new fees may loom

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

SAND HARBOR, Nev. (AP) — Lake Tahoe tourism officials were surprised, and a bit miffed, when a respected international travel guide put the iconic alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada line on its list of places to stay away from this year because of the harmful ecological effects of overtourism. But with an influx of visitors and new full-time residents due to the COVID-19 pandemic already forcing local leaders to revisit the decades-old conversation about overcrowding, “Fodor’s No List 2023” may have served as a wake-up call that some sort of change is necessary. “I can’t go to my own beaches anymore,” said Susan Daniels, 70, a lifelong resident of Kings Beach, California, whose parents met at a Tahoe-area ski resort in 1952. That includes her favorite, Sand Harbor, which lies just across the Nevada border and is known for its turquoise water and rock formations. “I cannot go to Sand Harbor, where I grew up, unless I get in line at 7 in the morning.” Since Fodor’...

France's Macron slams hire of US economist for EU antitrust role

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured) on Tuesday (18 July) criticized EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's decision to hire a US economist over a European to help oversee Big Tech, adding her previous work could lead to conflicts of interest.Leaders of the main political groups at the European Parliament have also chided Vestager for picking Fiona Scott Morton, 56, the former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Justice during former President Barack Obama's tenure."It implies we have a very serious problem with all the academic systems in Europe," said Macron, as he expressed his astonishment at the fact that a European Union national could not have been found for the job.Macron added he was "attached to reciprocity", and noted that the US and China would not have appointed an overseas national in such a role.Scott Morton will advise the European Commission on its investigations into Big Tech and its enforcement of a series of landmark rules to rein in tech giants.Mac...

U.S. second gentleman Emhoff meets New Zealand’s Ardern to discuss online hate as World Cup begins

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Doug Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, met with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Friday to discuss ways to combat online hate and extremism. Emhoff was in Auckland to lead a delegation to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and meet with officials. He told a meeting of the Christchurch Call the world was witnessing a “global epidemic of hate.”Emhoff, who is Jewish, said he was “working against this scourge of anti-Semitism and this epidemic of hate in general. So this work is very, very personal to me.” “But my work is not just about Jews. It’s about all of us. It’s about combating hate in all of its forms,” he said.The group is named after the New Zealand city where a gunman in 2019 shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques while streaming his attack online. Ardern thanked Emhoff for his work and for sharing in the “joyous occasion” of the World Cup. She launched the Christchurch Call with French President...

Odds stacked against Vietnam in Women’s World Cup in opening match against United States

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:10:41 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Huynh Nhu started playing soccer with a coconut-like fruit for a ball as a child. Now a member of Vietnam’s national team, she will captain her squad in a daunting opening match against the United States in the Women’s World Cup.The match will mark a milestone for Vietnam soccer, which is making its World Cup debut. A Vietnamese national team has never played in the men’s or women’s tournament.Just making the field was an accomplishment. But now Vietnam, the 32nd-ranked women’s team in the world, faces the two-time defending tournament champions in its debut. On paper, it seems like an incredible mismatch. Even so, Vietnamese coach Mai Duc Chung is determined to show what Vietnam can do on the global stage.“We came here not just for tourism. We are here to play,” Mai said Friday. “The U.S. is a very, very strong team. It is like a mountain, but it doesn’t mean that we will give up. We will have very suitable tactics so that we can...