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A football star, caviar and a water show: Inside Saudi Arabia’s campaign to host the 2030 Expo

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

PARIS — Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been throwing everything into winning the race to host the glitzy 2030 World Exhibition event as a centerpiece of his sweeping reforms to overhaul the Kingdom’s reputation as a repressive oil exporter. For anyone strolling around Paris, it’s impossible not to run into giant billboards or buses and taxis plastered with advertisements for the Expo. After all, it is in the French capital that Riyadh will face off against Italy and South Korea in a vote on Tuesday. Far from being simply a belle époque legacy — the Eiffel tower was built for the Paris exposition of 1889 — Expos are still big-money opportunities to showcase nations, while generating cash, jobs and a global buzz. MBS’ goal is to convince the world he is pushing an absolute monarchy run by Islamic law in a more socially progressive direction, embracing cutting-edge sectors such as green technology and healthcare. Delegates from 182 countries ...

Israel’s trauma was compounded by talk of an existential threat

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. TEL AVIV — “Benjamin Netanyahu is not a brave leader,” says Tamir Pardo, a former director of the Mossad intelligence agency. “To make hard decisions for war or for peace, you have to be brave, and he isn’t, and he panics.”That’s how Pardo views his former boss’ reaction to October 7 — as fitting a pattern of behavior he observed first-hand from 2011 to 2016, when Pardo led Israel’s vaunted external intelligence agency.In the days after October 7, “Netanyahu was in a state of panic and heightened alarm by comparing the Hamas attack, however bestial, to the Holocaust,” Pardo says. He faults the Israeli PM for giving the false impression that the country’s very existence was at stake, when in fact it was not.Pardo also blames U.S. President Joe Biden for fueling apprehensions that Israel was facing an existential crisis. Biden did so, the former spy boss claims, by dispatching aircraft carriers to the region, and by tellin...

Germany chokes on its own austerity medicine

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

BERLIN — Germans gave the world schadenfreude for a reason. And southern Europe couldn’t be more pleased.For countries that spent years on the receiving end of Europe’s German-inspired fiscal Inquisition, there’s no sweeter sight than to see Germany splayed on the high altar of Teutonic parsimony. The irony is that Germany put itself there on purpose and has no clue how it will find redemption.Last week’s jaw-dropping constitutional court ruling that effectively rendered the core of the German government’s legislative agenda null and void has left the country in a collective shock. In order to circumvent Germany’s self-imposed deficit strictures, which give governments little room to spend more than they collect in taxes, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition relied on a network of “special funds” outside the main budget. Scholz was convinced the government could tap the money without violating the so-called debt brake. The court, in ...

Tories woo Middle East cash — just not for their beloved Telegraph

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

LONDON — Brexit Britain is open to the world — unless you’re a Dubai-backed fund trying to buy up the governing Tories’ favorite newspaper.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces an awkward dilemma Monday as his much-hyped Global Investment Summit coincides with mounting Conservative unease at the proposed acquisition of the Daily Telegraph — a staple of British conservatism for almost 200 years — to a fund backed by United Arab Emirates state money.Amid mounting calls for an official review of the deal and deep concerns about press freedom, senior Conservative MP David Davis warned “being open for business is not the same as being naive.”But Investment Minister Dominic Johnson told POLITICO on the eve of the summit that Britain needs to avoid being “sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets” — and signaled he’s relaxed about the deal if the right process is followed.It’s hardly the ideal backdrop as Sunak and other ministers spend the day in Hampton Court Palace, ...

Collision Course: What London’s mayor learned when he took on the cars

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

It looked like group therapy. One late summer day, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, sat with a group of faith leaders and clean-air campaigners in a small circle in the near-empty hall of a suburban church.The moment was meant to be one of celebration, for Khan and for London. He was marking the creation of the largest clean air zone in the Western world through the expansion of restrictions on polluting cars to cover the entire British capital, a city of 8.9 million people. Instead, the gathering was reminiscent of a group of conspirators meeting under siege. “I’m very moved to be here,” said Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, brow furrowed, tone hushed. He praised Khan’s “courage.”Sitting beside the mayor was Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, a 53-year-old teacher turned campaigner. She reflected on the tragedy that had turned her into an activist. Just over a decade ago, her daughter Ella died of severe asthma caused by the pollution from the busy road by their home. “She drowned in her ...

Milton firefighter who served in Marines holding clothing drive for homeless veterans

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

A Milton Marine veteran and firefighter is hoping to help others who have served stay warm this winter by collecting clothing donations for veterans who are homeless.Matt Clifford is collecting clothing for homeless veterans at locations across Milton after he said he saw a great need in the veteran community.“There’s a growing epidemic of homelessness, especially in the veteran community,” he said. “I believe that any little bit helps.” There are drop-off locations across Milton, including at the fire stations, Quincy College, and Ulin Memorial Rink.“If I can give back to a community that I care so much about, especially the ones who are in need, that’s what matters most to me,” he added.The drive is especially looking for men’s and women’s hats, coats, gloves, blankets, scarves, hand/feet warmers, and winter pants.

The Chicago Bulls need Coby White to heat up. Is the guard finally back into his shooting form?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

When Coby White is having a hot night, there isn’t much a defender can do to stop him.That’s what makes the guard such a lethal shooter. White’s release is a quick twitch. He’s equally comfortable pulling up off the dribble and firing off a sprayout. And his high-arcing shot is a balm to the Bulls offense, which often struggles to create 3-pointers.But even White isn’t immune to the shooting slump that has gripped the entire Bulls roster.Individually, every Bulls player except for Alex Caruso opened this season shooting well below their career average. White followed that pattern through the first 15 games, shooting 29-for-89 (32.6%) from behind the arc — a 5-/percentage-point drop from last season.White went scoreless behind the arc in a pair of games and finished 25% or worse from 3-point range in six others. Despite this dip, he’s remained a top 3-pointer producer for the Bulls, trailing Zach LaVine as the only two players on the roster t...

Ravens WR Zay Flowers misses Thursday’s practice with hip injury; WR Rashod Bateman, LT Ronnie Stanley full participants

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

Ravens rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers missed Thursday’s practice with a hip injury, casting doubt on his availability for Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.Flowers, a first-round draft pick out of Boston College, is the Ravens’ leading receiver with 53 catches for 588 yards this season. He and tight end Mark Andrews, who’s likely out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury he suffered in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals last Thursday night, have been quarterback Lamar Jackson’s favorite targets.Meanwhile, wide receiver Rashod Bateman, who appeared to injure his foot when he tumbled to the ground during Wednesday’s practice but said he expects to play Sunday, was a full participant. So was left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who missed last week’s game with a knee injury and was limited Wednesday. Cornerback Arthur Maulet also practiced fully after missing Wednesday’s session because of an illness.Cornerback Marlon...

Court document claims Meta knowingly designed its platforms to hook kids, reports say

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

SAN FRANCISO (AP) — Facebook parent Meta Platforms deliberately engineered its social platforms to hook kids and knew — but never disclosed — that it had received millions of complaints about underage users on Instagram but only disabled a fraction of those accounts, according to a newly unsealed legal complaint described in reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The complaint, originally made public in redacted form, was the opening salvo in a lawsuit filed in late October by the attorneys general of 33 states. According to the reports, Meta said in a statement that the complaint misrepresents its work over the past decade to make the online experience safe for teens and said it doesn’t design its products to be addictive to younger users. Meta didn’t immediately provide a comment on the unredacted complaint following a request from The Associated Press.Company documents cited in the complaint described several Meta officials acknowledging that the company des...

Darkest nights: Austin's earliest sunset has arrived

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:13:02 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Winter hasn't even started yet, but we're already experiencing the earliest sunsets of the year in Central Texas.5:30 p.m. is the earliest the sun sets each year in Austin. This year, Nov. 25 was the first time the sun set at 5:30 p.m. and it will continue to set at 5:30 p.m. through Dec. 10.Austin sunsetsOn Dec. 11 the sun sets in Austin at 5:31 p.m. and sunset will continue getting later until late June or early July when we reach the latest sunset of the year at 8:36 p.m.Unfortunately, while our sunsets will soon start to get later, our sunrises will continue getting later as well. We don’t experience our latest sunrises of standard time until Jan. 4-16 when the sun doesn’t rise until 7:28 a.m.Austin sunrisesThis, however, is not our latest sunrise of the whole year. Our latest sunrise of the whole year happens the day before we end Daylight Saving Time. On Nov. 4 the sun rose at 7:47 a.m., the latest sunrise of the year.Why doesn’t the latest sunset occur on the ...