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Penny for their thoughts: MPs swoon over King Charles’ sword-wielding minister

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

LONDON — Want to be a hit in British politics? Just wield a massive ceremonial weapon in a fancy hat and you’ll do fine.MPs from across the political divide lined up Thursday to heap accolades on Penny Mordaunt, who turned heads at King Charles III’s coronation as she carried the sword of state in her role as lord president of the privy council.Mordaunt’s more prosaic day job — leader of the House of Commons — sees her face a weekly grilling from MPs as she reels off upcoming debates and trades barbs with the opposition.But Thursday’s session saw many MPs swap policy quibbles for fawning praise.Mordaunt’s opposite number, Labour’s Thangam Debonnaire, set the tone, praising “her royal meme-ness” as a “symbol of solemnity,” gushing about an “elegant outfit with nods to tradition [and] modernity,” and saying the Commons leader had “diligently carried out her duty with grace and poise.”This being politics, Debonairre couldn’t resist a few jabs, saying Mordaunt had done a particular...

EU industry chief: We need to switch to ‘war economy mode’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

Roll up your sleeves, Rosie the Riveter. The European Union “must now move into war economy mode,” its defense policy chief said Thursday, as the war in Ukraine forces Europe to ramp up its security and defense industries.Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton promised attendees at a European Defense Summit €1 billion from the European Peace Facility to continue replenishing member countries’ stocks after they send arms to Ukraine. “The recent war of aggression against Ukraine has radically changed the security environment in Europe,” Breton said via videolink. He added that the Commission was ready to speed up public procurement procedures, clear hurdles to the transfer of ammunition within the single market and lift “any regulatory barriers” on working time.The French commissioner repeated his call for Europe to increase its production capacity to 1 million rounds per year within a year, as part of a draft defense production bill call...

BoE lifts rates to 15-year high and keeps the door open to more

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

The Bank of England raised its key interest rates by a quarter point to 4.5 percent, as the fading threat of a recession allowed it to take tougher steps to bring down still-rampant inflation.The BoE said that the U.K. economy had performed more strongly than expected in the early part of the year, leading to a “materially stronger” outlook for demand going forward. Its new forecasts, published Thursday, expect the U.K. to avoid the economic contraction that it had forecast last year, and also put gross domestic product some 2.25 percent above its previous estimate on a two-year horizon. As such, it continued to warn that more interest rate hikes could still be needed to tame inflation, which it said may take longer than expected to return to its medium term target of 2 percent. The move, which was in line with market expectations, brings the Bank Rate to its highest since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. Financial markets, which were already positioned...

European Parliament takes aim at guilt-free flights

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

Companies relying on carbon offsets to make customers feel less guilty about unsustainable habits are in for a wake-up call. Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Thursday agreed to push for a ban on businesses saying their products are carbon neutral thanks to offsetting schemes — like planting trees to compensate for CO2 emissions — amid concerns that the programs are inefficient and lack transparency.The vote cements the Parliament’s position as it heads into negotiations with EU countries on the proposed legislation, which was put forward by the European Commission last year in a bid to rein in greenwashing.Although it is still non-binding, the Parliament’s position could spell trouble for a host of businesses that employ offsetting schemes to green their image. Airlines famously make use of them to help massage consumers’ green consciences: One Ryanair flight from Brussels to Liverpool, for example, offers passengers the chance to “compensate your estim...

Ukraine says it pushed Russia back in Bakhmut

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

KYIV — The Ukrainian army pushed Russian forces back in Bakhmut, the town in eastern Ukraine that has been the epicenter in recent months of the fiercest battles in Russia’s invasion of the country, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said.The offensives on Wednesday, which caused Moscow to bring up replacement forces in the area, came as Russia’s Wagner mercenary group controls a significant part of Bakhmut.“In some areas of the front, the enemy could not resist the onslaught of the Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to two kilometers,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said in a statement late Wednesday. Syrskyi said that Ukrainian tactics exhausted the Wagner forces and prompted the Russian command to replace them with less professional units of the Russian regular army on certain flanks. “The regular troops were defeated and left their positions,” Syrskyi said.Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner ...

Did the co-pilot die before your flight? You can be compensated, EU’s top court rules

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

Airlines should be forced to pay compensation for a canceled flight when a co-pilot dies, the EU’s top court ruled Thursday.The death of a co-pilot is “like any unexpected illness which may affect a crew member whose presence is essential,” and is “inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the airline,” according to the Court of Justice of the EU. Under EU rules, airlines can refuse to pay compensation to travelers if a flight was canceled due to “extraordinary circumstances.” What counts as “extraordinary” is not defined within the rules, although it’s generally considered to be events outside of the airline’s control, such as a terrorist attack.The case, which was sent to EU judges from Stuttgart’s regional court, involves a 2019 flight to Lisbon put on by Portuguese airline TAP, which was due to take off at 6:05 a.m. from Stuttgart.At 4:15 a.m. that morning, the co-pilot was found dead in his hotel bed. The flight was canceled after the shoc...

Facial-recognition ban gets lawmakers’ backing in AI Act vote

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

BRUSSELS — Europe got closer to a full-on ban on facial recognition in public spaces and reining in ChatGPT after lawmakers adopted a strengthened version of the EU’s artificial intelligence rulebook on Thursday. Members of the European Parliament in the internal market and civil liberties committees passed their compromise text for the Artificial Intelligence Act, first floated by the European Commission in April 2021. The text was backed by an 84-7 vote, with 12 abstentions.MEPs agreed on a blanket ban on remote biometric identification — AI-aided techniques, such as facial recognition, to recognize individuals from pictures or footage — in public venues, both in real-time and after the fact, in a departure from both the Commission’s original proposal and the position backed in Council by EU member countries. The issue was hotly debated among leading lawmakers thrashing out the text, with the center-right Christian Democrats fiercely opposing the ban. Eventually, the l...

Fire crews respond to ‘underground explosion’ that shattered windows, damaged roadway in Somerville

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

An early morning underground explosion in Somerville damaged a roadway and left windows on nearby buildings shattered but didn’t result in any injuries, officials said.Somerville firefighters responding to a reported explosion in the area of Cross Street in East Somerville around 4:15 a.m. determined an underground explosion in an electrical manhole resulted in significant damage to the street and also shattered several windows at 152 Cross St, fire officials said.The multi-unit building was occupied at the time but there were no injuries and the building did not suffer any structural damage. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

80s, isolated t-storm next few days

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

7Weather- We’re waking up to a wide range of temperatures in the 40s and 50s. From here, we’re headed for the upper 70s/low 80s. The warmth will stay with us through the first half of the weekend. Late-day isolated thunderstorms are also possible today and tomorrow. We’ll have a lot of sunshine through the morning. A west/northwest wind will be strong enough to push the mild air all the way to the coastline today. The exception will be the Cape and Islands, with a breeze coming off the cool ocean water. A couple waves of energy will drop out of Canada/Great Lakes region today and tomorrow. This will bring a 20% chance for a shower or storm mid to late afternoon/early evening.Overnight, we’ll have some clouds around. That’ll keep temperatures in the 50s to start tomorrow morning. A few light showers slide southeast across the region through the morning. Tomorrow is our warmest day of the next few in the low 80s. There’s still a chance for a late da...

‘Sexist’ ball girl outfits, silencing the women’s finalists and small birthday cakes: Madrid Open causes controversy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:17:29 GMT

 (CNN) — One of the most prestigious tennis tournaments outside of the four grand slams, the Madrid Open attracts the biggest names in the sport.However, this year’s edition has drawn as much attention for off-court controversy as it has for the action on the clay surface.During the Masters 1000 event — which ended over the weekend with Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka being crowned men’s and women’s singles champions — organizers were criticized for dressing the ball girls on the main court in crop tops and short skirts.Following the backlash, the skirts were swapped for long shorts in Sunday’s final, but the crop tops remained.“It’s a feminized way of treating girls versus guys who don’t dress like that,” Pilar Calvo, spokesperson for The Association for Women in Professional Sports, told Spanish outlet Público.“In the end, it is a form of sexist violence that is so widespr...