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PMQs scorecard: Sunak and Starmer bicker about Boris as everyone melts

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from today’s session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through.What they sparred about: It’s Boris Johnson’s world — we just live in it. Tory rows over the former prime minister’s blocked list of rewards for allies took center stage at this week’s PMQs — with both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer trying to show that they care about more important issues than whether Nadine Dorries gets to sit in the House of Lords. They both managed to talk about it loads regardless. What Westminster is on about: Starmer opened with the — not entirely unreasonable — question: With rising bills, food prices and mortgage rates across the U.K., why is the Tory Party “arguing about who gets a peerage?” Sunak — also not entirely unreasonably — pointed out that resignation honors lists have a long precedent and that Labour had its fair share of honors...

Lance Lynn allows 2 HRs in the 1st inning of a 5-1 loss for the Chicago White Sox, who dropped to 5½ games out 1st in AL Central

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

Two pitches. Two swings. Four runs. That equation added up to a loss for the Chicago White Sox.Starter Lance Lynn allowed two two-run homers in the first inning in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in front of 45,561 on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.“It’s kind of how it’s going right now,” Lynn said. “Two pitches cost you four runs in the first inning, and then after that it’s just a battle. You put your team in a hole early. All and all, my stuff feels pretty good. I have to figure out how to have productive outings because this isn’t going to work.”It was the third straight loss for the Sox, who dropped back to 10 games under .500 (29-39) and 5 1/2 games out of first in the American League Central.Lynn allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks in five-plus innings.“I know he gave up those four runs in the first inning, but I really thought he threw the ball good,” Sox manager Pedro Grif...

4 things we learned at Chicago Bears minicamp, including injury issues for WR Chase Claypool and

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

Rain pushed the Chicago Bears inside the Walter Payton Center for their first day of minicamp Tuesday in Lake Forest. The team is wrapping up its offseason program with two more practices scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.As head coach Matt Eberflus continues shaping his team in advance of training camp, here are four things we learned Tuesday at Halas Hall.1. Receiver Chase Claypool is dealing with “a few things” health-wise that are preventing him from practicing, Eberflus said.Yes, you read that correctly. “A few things.” As in plural. Claypool has been off the practice field the past three weeks with what was originally described as an unspecified soft-tissue injury. Now, per Eberflus, there is more than one thing to keep an eye on. And Claypool’s missed practice time is significant as he tries to take a big leap forward in his first full season with the Bears, develop/ing timing and building rapport with quarterback Justin Fields.“Training cam...

Anthony Volpe’s stance change followed trip down memory lane with Yankees prospect Austin Wells

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

With Anthony Volpe struggling at the plate, the Yankees’ rookie shortstop decided to spend Monday’s off day surrounded by friendly faces in a familiar setting.Volpe invited some of his 2022 minor league teammates, including catching prospect Austin Wells, over to his home in New Jersey. There, they hung out, dined on chicken parm and reminisced while going over old at-bats.“Kind of like old times,” a smiling Volpe said Tuesday night after he helped the Yankees beat the Mets, 7-6.But that hangout resulted in more than just a nice night. As Volpe and Wells viewed old home run clips on an iPad, the duo “noticed some things.”“Kind of a little stuff with my stance and how I set up to hit,” Volpe said. “It was so small, but we both kind of noticed it and started talking about it. I think we both took a lot away from it.”Volpe told that story after showing up to Citi Field with a new stance on Wednesday.With a more closed-off setu...

At least 78 migrants dead and dozens feared missing after fishing vessel sinks off Greece

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — At least 78 people have died and dozens are feared missing off the coast of southern Greece after a fishing boat carrying migrants capsized and sank, authorities said Wednesday.A large search and rescue operation was launched in the area. Authorities said 104 people have been rescued so far following the nighttime incident some 75 kilometers (46 miles) southwest of Greece’s southern Peloponnese region. Four of the survivors were hospitalized with symptoms of hypothermia. It was unclear how many passengers might remain missing at sea after the Greek coast guard reported 78 dead.Six coast guard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, an air force helicopter, several private vessels and a drone from the European Union border protection agency, Frontex, were taking part in the ongoing search.The Italy-bound boat is believed to have sailed from the Tobruk area in eastern Libya. The Italian coast guard first alerted Greek authorities and Frontex about th...

Inflationary pressures continue to ease, producer prices drop 0.3% from April to May

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices in the United States dropped 0.3% from April to May, another sign that inflationary pressures continue to ease in the face of repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.The Labor Department’s producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 1.1% last month from May 2022, it said Wednesday, the smallest year-over-year gain since December 2020.On a month-to-month basis, overall producer prices have now dropped three of the last four months. In May, wholesale inflation was pulled down by a 13.8% drop in gasoline prices. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation was up 0.2% last from April and 2.8% from a year earlier, the mildest gain since February 2021.Unleashed by an unexpectedly strong economic recovery from 2020’s COVID-19 recession, inflation began to rise in 2021 and last year reached levels not seen since the early 1980s. In response, the Fed has raised ...

Management group walks away from Canaccord Genuity buyout offer

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

TORONTO — Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. says a proposed management buyout of the firm will not go ahead after key conditions of the offer, including required regulatory approvals, were not received by the offer’s expiry time.The financial services firm says the management group decided not to extend the offer beyond a June 13 deadline.The company says as a result no shares were acquired under the offer.The Canaccord board of directors recommended last week that shareholders reject the proposal as the conditions of the bid were not expected to be satisfied at or before the deadline.The company warned last month that a regulatory issue with one of its foreign subsidiaries could hold up the deal and that it was unlikely to receive approval for the buyout in time.The management group included chief executive Daniel Daviau and chairman David Kassie as well as all the members of the company’s global operating committee and additional senior and tenured employees from across its...

Blinken heads to China this weekend on mission to salvage sinking ties and keep communications open

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this weekend as part of the Biden administration’s push to repair deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing and keep lines of communication open, the State Department said Wednesday. Blinken will be the most senior U.S. official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office. His visit had initially been planned for earlier this year but was postponed indefinitely after the discovery and shootdown of what the U.S. said was a Chinese spy balloon over the United States.Since then, however, there have been lower-level engagements between the U.S. and China despite ongoing hostility and recriminations over both sides’ actions in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.The State Department said Blinken had spok...

Weapons expert in Alec Baldwin case was hungover on set, prosecutors say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The weapons supervisor on the film set where Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer was drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the filming of “Rust,” prosecutors are alleging, saying she was likely hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver that the actor used. They leveled the accusations Friday in response to a motion filed last month by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys that seeks to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter charge. The prosecutors accused her of having a history of reckless conduct and argued that it would be in the public interest for her to “finally be held accountable.”Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, said Tuesday that the prosecution has mishandled the case.“The case is so weak that they now have chosen to resort to character assassination claims about Hannah,” Bowles told The Associated Press. “The prosecution has abandoned the idea of doing justice and getting to the actual truth apparently.”...

Klimt portrait ‘Lady with a Fan’ up for sale with $80M estimate

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:28:25 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt could become the most expensive painting ever sold in Europe when it is auctioned later this month.Auctioneer Sotheby’s said on Wednesday that “Dame mit Fächer” — Lady with a Fan — will go up for sale June 27 in London, with an estimated price of 65 million pounds ($80 million).The last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918, the painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms.It was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6 million at an auction in New York.Sotheby’s head of impressionist and modern art department, Helena Newman, said the portrait was “a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty.”Famed for his bold, daring art nouveau paintings, Klimt was a key figure in artistic modernism at the start of the 20th century. His work has fetched some of the highest prices fo...