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MP Margaret Ferrier suspended over lockdown breach — but some Tories try to save her skin

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

LONDON — MPs voted Tuesday to suspend former Scottish National Party representative Margaret Ferrier from parliament after she breached the U.K.’s lockdown at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. But the embattled MP had some unlikely defendants.Ferrier has already been kicked out of the SNP and sentenced to 270 hours of community service for the 2020 rule breach. She traveled from parliament in London to her home in Glasgow on a train even after learning she had tested positive for the virus.The 30-day suspension was recommend by the Commons’ standards committee, which polices MP behavior — and 185 MPs voted to endorse its recommendations on Tuesday.But, in a curious twist, 40 MPs — the vast majority from the governing Conservatives — voted against the suspension.Some Tory MPs are known to be uneasy about the recommended suspension because former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is locked in his own fight with the Commons privileges committee as it investigates whether h...

Fewer than half of Europeans know when next EU election will be, survey shows

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

BRUSSELS — The majority of Europeans are not aware that European election is taking place next year, newly released polling data shows.Asked when they thought the next EU election would take place, only 45 percent of Europeans were able to answer correctly that it will take place in 2024, according to the latest Eurobarometer poll released Tuesday. European elections occur in the EU’s 27 member countries every five years; the dates of June 6 to 9, 2024, have been set for the next ballot. Results decide not only the composition of the European Parliament, but also key posts across other EU institutions, such as president of the European Commission.During the official presentation of the survey’s results, European officials touted the figure as a success, as it is up 9 percentage points from 2018, a year ahead of the 2019 election.For the upcoming vote, 56 percent of respondents said they were interested in the election — up 6 percentage points from five years ago — while ...

France warns against killing a European ChatGPT

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

PARIS — France has a message: Don’t kneecap a potential future European ChatGPT with too much regulation. The European Parliament’s position on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act — a piece of legislation currently under negotiation — is too stringent and risks doing just that, France’s Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told POLITICO in an interview Monday. As an example, he pointed to Google’s decision not to launch its chatbot Bard in the EU: “The objective is not to see non-European dialogue systems set up in Europe, but rather to see European ones develop. However, we must take these signs into account and avoid taking Europe out of the technology history.”When it comes to Big Tech, France previously has been on the heavy-handed side of regulation, seeking to impose new rules on U.S. cloud giants before the EU, for example, and coming up with a flurry of content-regulation laws. On so-called generative AI — referring to tools that can crea...

Victim identified in Maine hotel fire that remains under investigation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

KITTERY, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Maine said Monday they have identified a man who died in a hotel fire that remains under investigation.The May fire destroyed the Days Inn in Kittery, along the state’s border with New Hampshire. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the victim as 57-year-old Daniel Clarke of Manassas, Virginia.The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined yet, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety said.The building was declared a total loss after the fire, which required a large response from surrounding departments.

19 states have laws restricting gender-affirming care, some with the possibility of a felony charge

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

(CNN) — This year has been record shattering for anti-LGBTQ legislation, with particular scrutiny on gender-affirming health care access for transgender children and teenagers. Nineteen states have passed laws restricting it — but not all bans are the same.While some states have enacted laws that can punish health care professionals who provide gender-affirming treatment to minors with prison time, others have built in limited exceptions for minors to continue medication-based or nonsurgical forms of care, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for LGBTQ rights. These wide-ranging restrictions have created a complicated legal landscape for trans people to maneuver. Several of the bans face legal challenges from health care providers and civil rights organizations.Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a pers...

Orioles minor league report: Heston Kjerstad to take his ‘sick ability’ to Norfolk after dominating Double-A

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

In late April, Bowie Baysox manager Kyle Moore spoke about how easy the Double-A level was looking to Heston Kjerstad.“I haven’t really seen him struggle. I’m sure he will. Everybody struggles a little bit,” Moore said about the second-highest level in the minor leagues. “I’m looking forward to the day where he has to make a little bit more of an adjustment.”That day never came as Kjerstad, the No. 2 overall pick in 2020, was promoted to Triple-A Norfolk on Monday after hitting .310 with a .960 OPS with the Baysox.“He’s the only hitter I’ve seen this year that’s pretty much ready to hit in the big leagues,” Moore said. “Right now, he’s physically better than everybody in the league, and he’s showing that.”Kjerstad’s journey from first-round draft pick to a prospect one call away from a big league call-up didn’t come easy. He didn’t play a professional game for two years ...

Astrud Gilberto, singer of ‘The Girl from Ipanema,’ dead at 83

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer, songwriter and entertainer whose off-hand, English-language cameo on “The Girl from Ipanema” made her a worldwide voice of bossa nova, has died at age 83.Musician Paul Ricci, a family friend, confirmed that she died Monday. He did not provide additional details. Born in Salvador, Bahia and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Gilberto became an overnight, unexpected superstar in 1964, thanks to knowing just enough English to be recruited by the makers of “Getz/Gilberto,” the classic bossa nova album featuring saxophonist Stan Getz and her then-husband, singer-songwriter-guitarist Joao Gilberto. “The Girl from Ipanema,” the wistful ballad written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, was already a hit in South America. But “Getz/Gilberto” producer Creed Taylor and others thought they could expand the record’s appeal by including both Portuguese and English language vocals. In a 2002 interview with friends posted on her web site ww...

US, Japanese, Philippine coast guard ships stage law enforcement drills near South China Sea

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

ABOARD BRP CABRA, Philippines (AP) — U.S., Japanese and Philippine coast guard ships staged law enforcement drills in waters near the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday as Washington presses efforts to reinforce alliances in Asia amid an increasingly tense rivalry with China.Witnessed by journalists onboard a Philippine coast guard patrol boat, the BRP Cabra, the drills focused on a scenario involving the interdiction and boarding of a vessel suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction off the Bataan Peninsula, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo said.Shots rang out as heavily armed coast guard personnel rapidly boarded the vessel from a speedboat and herded the crew members toward the stern. A helicopter hovered as U.S. and Japanese coast guard ships helped rescue crew members who jumped off the target vessel during the mock assault.“We are not just all display,” Philippine coast guard deputy spokesperson John Ybanez said. “All these exercises that we...

Man arrested for threats towards daycare centres in Toronto’s east end

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

Toronto police have charged a man for allegedly threatening multiple daycare centres in the city’s east end.On Monday, investigators were notified of menacing calls in the Queen Street East and Coxwell Avenue area.Police said a man allegedly made threats to two daycares in the neighbourhood.It’s unclear what the threats entailed. No injuries were reported.On Tuesday, police said 46-year-old Reen Gordon of no fixed address was arrested and charged with two counts of uttering threats.The accused is expected to appear in court at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Polish Supreme Court overturns presidential pardon of top officials, going against ruling party

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:43 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a contentious presidential pardon of a top government official and three subordinates and ordered a retrial of their case.The surprise ruling in the years-long legal dispute surrounding the pardon went against the interests of the governing nationalist party. As such, it was a rare act of independence from a top court after years of efforts by the Law and Justice party and President Andrzej Duda to establish greater control over the judiciary.An aide to Duda criticized the court’s ruling, arguing that it didn’t have the right to reverse his pardon. A governing party spokesman, Rafal Bochenek, slammed the court ruling as “anti-democratic.”Opposition politicians who accuse government authorities of eroding democratic norms welcomed the court’s ruling in the case of Mariusz Kaminski, who is currently the interior minister and head of the secret services.It was the latest blow to Law and Justice in rece...