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What happened to Qatargate’s forgotten country, Mauritania? 

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

It’s not just Qatar-gate. While the super-rich Gulf kingdom has become a byword for the cash-for-influence scandal at the European Parliament, another rarely-mentioned country was also allegedly handing out thousands of illicit euros in the EU bubble — Mauritania. If it was, though, it didn’t get much for its money.Between 2019 and 2022, the country allegedly passed €200,000 to Pier Antonio Panzeri, an alleged bribery ringleader, and his right-hand man Francesco Giorgi, according to testimony Panzeri gave to authorities in February and seen by POLITICO.That’s more than Panzeri said he got from Morocco, another country swept up in the scandal. Yet while Morocco gets regular mentions in Qatargate coverage, Mauritania’s potential role has gone almost unnoticed.Mauritania’s goal, Panzeri said, was reputation rehab. The West African country, which receives millions from the EU to host fishing vessels each year, has long been criticized in Brussels for its human rights reco...

Disastrous police data blunder awakens ghosts of Northern Ireland’s past

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

DUBLIN — In normal societies, being publicly identified as a police officer is just part of the job. In Northern Ireland, despite a quarter century of relative peace, the disclosure could be a death sentence.For that reason thousands of police officers are today agonizing over their futures after a monumental data blunder saw the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) accidentally publish the names and professional details — including, most sensitively, the base, unit and duties — of every single officer and civilian employee in the force. The unprecedented breach — committed Tuesday, when the police force uploaded the wrong Excel spreadsheet to a Freedom of Information website — revealed details many officers had kept secret even from relatives and close friends. Under enormous pressure after the scale of the leak became clear, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne resisted calls to resign during a face-to-face grilling Thursday with the Policing Board, a cross-community panel that o...

Europe lost to China on solar — now it’s about to do the same with wind

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

Ann Mettler is vice-president, Europe, at Breakthrough Energy and a former director-general of the European Commission. She writes here in a personal capacity.While the loss of Europe’s solar industry to China is routinely bemoaned in the power circles of the European Union, there appears to be blissful ignorance regarding the fact that the wind sector is now firmly on the same trajectory.Much like solar, the wind industry also originated in Europe and it was painstakingly built up over decades, with research and development funds, generous subsidies and conducive policies. Today, five of the top 15 wind turbine manufacturers are European.So, with the energy transition in full swing — and even turbocharged by the war in Ukraine — one would anticipate these companies to be making brisk business. And yet, they’re all facing their worst crisis ever, suffering record losses and issuing repeated profit warnings.These are problems that have accumulated over years, and they are unlikely to...

James Paxton and 4 relievers combine for 7-hit shutout as Red Sox beat Royals 2-0

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — James Paxton worked 5 1/3 scoreless innings and five Boston pitchers combined for the seven-hit shutout as the Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0 on Thursday night.John Schreiber, Josh Winckowski and Chris Martin followed Paxton, and Kenley Jansen retired the side in order in the ninth inning for his 25th save as Boston moved five games over .500 at 60-55 and took three of four games from the Royals.Alex Verdugo hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to give Boston a 1-0 lead and Adam Duvall added an RBI double in the fifth.Trevor Story doubled to straightaway center in the fourth for his first hit in nine at-bats since returning from the injured list.In the fifth inning as rain fell at Fenway Park, Duvall’s hit was originally ruled a foul ball by third base umpire Emil Jimenez. But Boston manager Alex Cora’ decided to challenge the call and it was overturned following a review.Paxton (7-3), who allowed three homers in his previous start against Toronto, s...

Canton Little League loses to Maine 2-1

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

A tough game, delayed over an hour due to rain, sent the undefeated Canton Little League team home after losing to Maine 2-1.Many young fans were supporting the team here at home on Thursday night.“No matter win or lose, they won. Let’s be honest, they won,” a parent said.The team went to Connecticut for this year’s New England Regional Championship. The game was especially special for the three coaches who each had their sons playing on the field.

Thousands rally on Las Vegas Strip in support of food service workers demanding better pay, benefits

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Thousands of hospitality workers rallied Thursday evening beneath the glittery lights of the Las Vegas Strip to call attention to ongoing union contract negotiations for higher pay and better benefits for food service workers at one of the largest arenas on the famed tourist corridor.The Culinary Workers Union, a political powerhouse in Nevada, said in a statement ahead of the rally that servers, dishwashers, cooks and bartenders who work at T-Mobile Arena have been locked in contract negotiations for nearly a year with their employer, Levy Premium Food Service. The workers say they want a fair contract that will ensure “one job is enough to provide for their families.”Union members packed the walkways near the arena on Thursday, with the crowd mostly dressed in red spilling onto Las Vegas Boulevard.The union represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including 200 Levy employees who work at the arena, the home stadium of the Vegas Golden Knights.T...

Two rival robotaxi services win approval to operate throughout San Francisco despite safety concerns

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators on Thursday approved an expansion that will allow two rival robotaxi services to operate throughout San Francisco at all hours, despite safety worries spurred by recurring problems with unexpected stops and other erratic behavior that resulted in unmanned vehicles blocking traffic, including emergency vehicles. The state’s Public Utilities Commission voted to approve rival services from Cruise and Waymo to operate around-the-clock service. It will make San Francisco first major U.S. city with two fleets of driverless vehicles competing for passengers against ride-hailing and taxi services dependent on humans to operate the cars.It is a distinction that San Francisco officials didn’t want, largely because of the headaches that Cruise and Waymo have been causing in the city while testing their robotaxis on a restricted basis during the past year.But it ended in a major victory for Cruise — a subsidiary of General Motors — and Waymo — a ...

After pounding South Korea with rains and winds, storm Khanun weakens as it blows into North Korea

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Flights and trains resumed and power was mostly restored Friday after a tropical storm blew through South Korea, which was preparing a pop concert for 40,000 Scouts whose global Jamboree was disrupted by the weather.Much of Khanun’s damage was concentrated in the country’s southern and eastern regions, where several cities and towns saw 30 to 40 centimeters (12 to 16 inches) of rain. Dozens of houses and buildings were damaged, roads were closed and at least one death was reported.Khanun had weakened by the time it arrived in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area Thursday night, and it blew into North Korea early Friday as a tropical depression.South Korean officials lifted a nationwide alert over the storm and were channeling much of their administrative resources into throwing a K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium Friday evening as the closing event of the World Scout Jamboree.The event had been held at a coastal campsite before Khanun forced ...

North Carolina roller coaster reopens after a large crack launched a state investigation

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A towering North Carolina roller coaster that shut down in June due to a large crack in its support column reopened Thursday after a month of repairs and testing, the park announced on its website.Carowinds amusement park, which straddles the North Carolina and South Carolina line, came under investigation by the North Carolina Department of Labor after a video surfaced online of an operational roller coaster with a large crack in one of its columns. The footage of Fury 325, known as a “giga coaster” due to its dramatic height of 325 feet (99 meters), showed a support beam bending with the top visibly detached as cars packed with unsuspecting passengers whirled by at speeds of up to 95 mph (150 kph). Park staff closed Fury 325 on June 30 after a visitor reported the crack. North Carolina Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson told The Associated Press last month that the crack had been visible for at least a week before the ride was shut down. The Department of Labor’...

Movie Review: Gal Gadot turns superspy in ‘Heart of Stone’

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:18:53 GMT

It’s turning out to be quite a summer for superspies and supercomputers. A month after the action feast of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part I,” in which Tom Cruise faced off with an AI supervillain called “the Entity,” comes a very “MI”-like international espionage thriller with an equally fancy and powerful machine. “Heart of Stone” stars Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, an agent for an elite and clandestine intelligence agency called the Charter. Like “Mission: Impossible,” “Heart of Stone” hits glamorous global destinations (the Italian Alps, Lisbon, Senegal, Iceland) and features lengthy actions sequence including a wingsuit skydive.Whereas “Dead Reckoning” pushed old-school filmmaking to extremes for a gripping theatrical experience, “Heart of Stone” revels in its digital wizardry, feels vaguely algorithm-y in its conception and was made for Netflix. Both films, interestingly, are products of the same production company, Skydance. “Mission: Impossible” was born ...