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Everything the chief of MI6 told us about Russia, China and AI today

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

On the 55th anniversary of the Prague Spring, the head of Britain’s secret intelligence service sat down with POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy — a journalist with deep experience reporting from behind the Iron Curtain — to talk about Russia, Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, China and AI in spycraft.In the rare exclusive interview, Richard Moore issued a thinly-veiled recruitment call to Russians who’ve become disillusioned with their leadership while assessing that President Vladimir Putin was “under pressure” internally after a mutiny by mercenaries exposed his weakness.“Join hands with us — our door is always open,” Moore — known as “C” inside the agency — said in a speech at a POLITICO event hosted by the British embassy in Prague.The MI6 chief, who rose to lead the agency in 2020 after a career in diplomacy, repeatedly referred to Prague’s history as a center of resistance against Russian dominance as a parallel to current times. While the...

Reliever Evan Phillips ‘wasn’t quite ready’ for the Orioles’ land of opportunity. He’s seized it with the Dodgers.

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

Evan Phillips walked into the manager’s office at Triple-A Norfolk’s Harbor Park in the summer of 2021, knowing one of two outcomes awaited him.He allowed himself to be hopeful, to think that his boyhood team, the Orioles, needed him again and he was getting called back up. Phillips’ numbers with Norfolk weren’t ideal, but he felt he had thrown better of late and believed he could contribute something to a team heading to the bottom of the major league standings for the second time in four years.Instead, that early August meeting was to inform Phillips of his release, his time with Baltimore ending just after his three-year anniversary of joining the organization he had rooted for since being born on the Eastern Shore.Nearly two years later, he’s made it back to Camden Yards, returning this week as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ closer and one of the best relievers in baseball.“Baltimore will always be special to me,” Phillips said from the ...

B.C. port strike returns, docs show nuke plans getting updated: In The News for today

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today.Strike resumes, shutting down B.C. ports againBritish Columbia’s ports are facing an uncertain future after the longshore workers union rejected a tentative mediated deal and resumed strike action that had been put to a temporary halt only last week.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada says in Tuesday’s decision to go back to picket lines that “employers have not addressed the cost of living issues” faced by workers in the last few years.The union representing about 7,400 workers who were previously on strike from July 1 to 13 says its priority has always been to protect its jurisdiction, and that position “has not changed.”A late-night joint statement was released by the Minister of Labour, Seamus O’Regan, and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, confirming the employers’ association agreed to the terms ...

Stock market today: Wall Street mixed with a big slate of corporate earnings on tap

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

BANGKOK — Wall Street shifted between small gains and losses Wednesday as earnings season kicks into high gear.Futures for the S&P 500 and for the Dow Jones Industrial Average each inched up less than 0.1% before the opening bell. Carvana shares jumped more than 24% in premarket trading after the online car dealer said it secured a deal to refinance its debt. It also reported that its profit per car nearly doubled from a year ago and it issued an optimistic forecast. Tesla, Netflix and United Airlines report quarterly results after the bell. The financial performance of some of the country’s biggest corporations has been surprisingly strong, though the bar was lowered heading into the second quarter with expectations that the slowing economy would squeeze margins and profits. Whether or not a recession is imminent is still up for debate, but on Tuesday Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during an interview with Bloomberg TV in India during a meeting of Group of 20 financ...

Revolving Door: DEA’s No.2 quits amid reports of previous consulting work for Big Pharma

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s second-in-command has quietly stepped down amid reporting by The Associated Press that he once consulted for a pharmaceutical distributor sanctioned for a deluge of suspicious painkiller shipments and did similar work for the drugmaker that became the face of the opioid epidemic: Purdue Pharma. Louis Milione’s four years of consulting for Big Pharma preceded his 2021 return to the DEA to serve as Administrator Anne Milgram’s top deputy, renewing concerns in the agency and beyond about the revolving door between government and industry and its potential impact on the DEA’s mission to police drug companies blamed for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths. “Working for Purdue Pharma should not help you get a higher job in government,” said Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a watchdog for corporate influence in the federal government. “Too much collegiality is a problem. It’s hard to vi...

Canadian wildfires hit Indigenous communities hard, threatening their land and culture

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

EAST PRAIRIE METIS SETTLEMENT, Alberta (AP) — Carrol Johnston counted her blessings as she stood on the barren site where her home was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire that forced her to flee her northern Alberta community two months ago. Her family escaped unharmed, though her beloved cat, Missy, didn’t make it out before a “fireball” dropped on the house in early May. But peony bushes passed down from her late mother survived and the blackened May Day tree planted in memory of her longtime partner is sending up new shoots — hopeful signs as she prepares to start over in the East Prairie Métis Settlement, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) northwest of Edmonton.“I just can’t leave,” said Johnston, 72, who shared a home with her son and daughter-in-law. “Why would I want to leave such beautiful memories?”The worst wildfire season in Canadian history is displacing Indigenous communities from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, blanketing them in thick smoke, destroying homes and ...

European Union rushes firefighters to Greece as grueling Mediterranean heat wave takes toll

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Fire planes and ground crews from several European countries are heading to Greece where wildfires have intensified as relentless heat wave conditions are keeping much of southern Europe above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Three firefighting teams from Poland, Romania and Slovakia are due in Greece on Thursday, while Israel has pledged two firefighting aircraft, adding to the four planes from Italy and France already operating outside Athens. New evacuations were ordered on Wednesday as wildfires raged near the Greek capital. A second heat wave hit the Mediterranean country from the west following days of record-high temperatures that baked southern Europe.In a round-the-clock battle to preserve forests, industrial facilities, and vacation homes, evacuations continued for a third day along a highway connecting Athens to the southern city of Corinth. Temperatures in southern Greece are expected to reach 44 C (111 F) by the end of the week, in the ...

Israeli doctors hold ‘warning strike,’ caution that judicial overhaul threatens healthcare system

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Doctors in Israel held a two-hour strike Wednesday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.The doctors say the plan will endanger public health by granting Netanyahu and his allies greater control over the country’s healthcare system. Wearing scrubs and holding signs saying, “We are the wall shielding democracy,” doctors gathered outside Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv. Medical leaders warned they will take more severe measures if Netanyahu’s government — the most right-wing in Israel’s 75-year history — moves forward with a bill to limit the judiciary’s oversight powers which could become law as soon as next week. In a letter to Netanyahu on Tuesday, Dr. Zion Hagay, chairman of Israel’s Medical Association, said the bill would lessen the judiciary’s ability to strike down inappropriate appointments to the healthcare system. “As someone who once served as health minister, you are ...

Sri Lanka’s Parliament approves new anti-corruption law as part of an IMF economic bailout plan

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Wednesday approved an anti-corruption legislation as the island nation attempts to overcome an unprecedented economic crisis.The legislation is part of the prerequisites of an International Monterey Fund bailout package approved in March, under which nearly $3 billion in government budgetary support will be disbursed in stages to the bankrupt nation. The bailout is due for its first review in September.The bill was passed without opposition in the 225-member parliament.The IMF — which described Sri Lanka’s debt as unsustainable — has stressed that anti-corruption and governance reforms are imperative in order to enable the Sri Lankans to benefit from the current economic reforms.The development lender had said previously it was conducting — for the first time in an Asian country — an “in-depth governance diagnostic exercise” to assess corruption and vulnerabilities and “provide prioritized and sequenced recommendations.”The I...

UK Prime Minister Sunak apologizes for ban on LGBTQ+ people in the military

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:30:22 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized Wednesday for the treatment of gay veterans, saying a previous ban on LGBTQ+ people serving in the U.K. military was “an appalling failure of the British state.”The apology came after an independent review published Wednesday estimated that hundreds of veterans were dismissed or suffered under an official ban on homosexuality in the British armed forces that was enforced until 2000.“As today’s report makes clear, in that period many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment, all while bravely serving this country,” Sunak told Parliament. “Today, on behalf of the British state, I apologize.”The report, which was carried out by a retired senior judge, compiled evidence from more than 1,000 veterans. It documented the effects of what it called “an incomprehensible policy of homophobic bigotry in our armed forces.” Some of the victims have taken their own lives, while ot...