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Kemi Badenoch woos Tory members with culture war attacks on Labour

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

MANCHESTER, England — Britain is the best country in the world to be Black, Conservative rising star Kemi Badenoch claimed Monday — as she aimed culture war jabs directly at the opposition Labour Party.Speaking at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, Business and Trade Secretary Badenoch — seen as a potential future leader of the Tories — accused Labour of trying to “bend the knee” before an “altar of intolerance” and of peddling a “narrative of hopelessness” among ethnic minority communities.Badenoch also serves as Minister for Women and Equalities, and has styled herself as an “anti-woke” politician, earning admirers on her party’s right flank. In her speech to the Tory faithful, Badenoch argued that Labour wants to stoke racial divisions in the U.K. and said she tells her children the U.K. “is the best country in the world to be Black — because it’s a country that sees people, not labels....

California Gov. Newsom will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s Senate seat

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

(CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint Laphonza Butler, the president of EMILY’s List, to fill the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat, his office confirmed Sunday evening.Butler will become the first lesbian Black woman to join Congress in US history, according to Newsom. She will also be the sole Black female senator serving in Congress and only the third in US history. Feinstein, the longest-serving female US senator in history, died last week at 90.The selection of Butler, first reported by Politico, comes as Democrats hold a narrow Senate majority and uncertainty looms over New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s political future amid outcry from his Democratic colleagues over his federal indictment.Butler has been the president of EMILY’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, since the group’s board of directors appointed her in 2021, when she became the first woman of color to lead the organiza...

The New York trial accusing Trump of lying about his wealth opens as he denounces it as a ‘scam’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — The fraud lawsuit that could cost former President Donald Trump control of some of his most prized properties went to trial Monday, with New York state lawyers vowing to hold him accountable while he denounced the case as a politically motivated “scam.”The civil case, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accuses the business-mogul-turned-politician and his company of deceiving banks, insurers and others by habitually misstating his wealth in financial statements.“They were lying year after year after year,” Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in James’ office, said in an opening statement as Trump sat at the defense table. He looked straight ahead, arms crossed, facing away from the screen that showed details of Wallace’s presentation. Defense lawyer Christopher Kise, in his opening, said that the financial statements were true, and he suggested the proof was i...

Raptors president Masai Ujiri on Knicks lawsuit: ‘Go figure’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri is dismissive of a lawsuit brought against his team by the rival New York Knicks.The Knicks filed suit against the Raptors, their new head coach Darko Rajakovic and a former Knicks scouting employee in late August, saying the defendants conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets over the past few weeks.New York is seeking unspecified damages and a ban on the further spread of the Knicks’ trade secrets.The lawsuit claims that secrets including scouting and play frequency reports, along with a prep book and a link to valuable software, had been downloaded thousands of times by Raptors employees.Ujiri was asked about the lawsuit at a news conference in downtown Toronto this morning.“There has been one time a team has sued a team in the NBA. One time. Go figure,” said a terse Ujiri.Raptors cultural reset begins at training campUjiri said the Raptors needed a cultural reset after firing former head coach Nick ...

Coldplay brings empathy – and Selena Gomez – to the band’s 2023 North American tour finale

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — In 2023, a Coldplay concert opens like a triumphant finale — LED wristbands flashing, confetti canons on overdrive, a singalong of 68,000 voices repeating “You’ve got a higher power,” to match frontman Chris Martin’s energy. Flags representing attendees from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, South Korea and Brazil were raised; children and the elderly sang along to familiar radio hits. Live music isn’t church, but for two hours on Sunday night, the British band got close.A short film on the conservation efforts of Coldplay’s global stadium tour for their 2021 album “Music of the Spheres” previewed the band’s North American tour closer at the Rose Bowl, just outside of Los Angeles. Then: an explosion of rainbow lighting effects, tie-dye orbs, and wholesome bits — for “Paradise,” Martin asked the audience to engage in the “quietest singalong ever,” chanting the title in a whisper.In one moment, he partic...

Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour is over. But it’s coming to movie theaters soon

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A documentary chronicling Beyoncé’s just-concluded 39-city Renaissance World Tour will premiere in North American theaters Dec. 1, AMC Theaters announced Monday. The film adds a second blockbuster from a music superstar to a fall slate of movies that’s been slightly thinned out by the ongoing screen actors’ strike. Like “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which debuts Oct. 13, “Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé” is being released directly by AMC, the movie theater chain, without studio involvement. Tickets will start at $22 plus tax. The film will run for a minimum of four weeks, AMC said. Beyoncé’s previous films include the acclaimed 2019 Netflix film “Homecoming,” which captured her Coachella performance in 2018. In the deals with AMC, Beyoncé and Swift are both reported to be receiving at least 50% of ticket sales. The film charts Beyoncé’s tour on behalf of her 2022 Grammy-winning album “Renaissance.” It mixes concert footage and elem...

Britain’s Treasury chief raises the minimum wage but angers some colleagues by ruling out tax cuts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Britain’s Treasury chief announced a hike in the national minimum wage on Monday, as the governing Conservative Party tries to persuade voters it is on the side of those who are struggling financially.But Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt ruled out tax cuts, saying they would fuel inflation.“I do want us to have lower taxes,” Hunt told Sky News before his speech. But he said “it’s very difficult to see” it happening this year.That message was not what many Conservatives at the party’s annual conference wanted to hear. Hundreds of them packed a room to applaud as former Prime Minister Liz Truss — whose seven weeks in office last year plunged Britain’s economy into crisis — demanded Hunt slash taxes in his fall budget next month.Hunt told conference delegates that the hourly rate for workers 23 or older will rise in April from 10.42 pounds ($12.70) to at least 11 pounds ($13.40). The exact amount will be set after a recommendation by the Lo...

S&P/TSX composite down more than 200 points, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading as losses in the utility and energy stocks helped lead the way lower, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 243.18 points at 19,298.09.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.17 points at 33,473.33. The S&P 500 index was up 8.74 points at 4,296.79,while the Nasdaq composite was up 138.39 points at 13,357.71.The Canadian dollar traded for 73.66 cents US compared with 73.96 cents US on Friday.The November crude oil contract was down US$1.61 at US$89.18 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down six cents at US$2.86 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down US$21.60 at US$1,844.50 an ounce and the December copper contract was down 10 cents at US$3.64 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian Press

A man suspected of fatally shooting 3 people is shot and killed by police officers in Philadelphia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police officers on Monday shot and killed a man suspected in a quadruple shooting hours earlier that left three people dead, authorities said.The quadruple shooting took place shortly before 5 a.m. in the Lawncrest section of northeast Philadelphia. The police department’s interim commissioner, John Stanford, said police responding to a home found three people dead and one person wounded who was taken to a hospital in critical but stable condition.Three hours later, in the East Mount Airy section of northwest Philadelphia, officers tried to pull over a vehicle reported fleeing the shooting location, Stanford said. The man in the vehicle, believed to be responsible for the shooting, fired at least one round at police, and officers returned fire, hitting him, Stanford said. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead a little more than an hour later. One officer had minor injuries to a hand from broken glass. The name...

All Oneboard electric skateboards are under recall after 4 deaths and serious injury reports

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — All models of Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards are under recall after at least four deaths and multiple injuries were reported in recent years, federal regulators said last week.The 300,000 now-recalled skateboards, manufactured by the California-based Future Motion, can stop balancing a rider if the boards’ limits are exceeded — which risks serious crashes, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.Future Motion has received dozens of incident reports involving these skateboards, the CPSC said Friday — including four deaths between 2019 and 2021 and serious injuries like paralysis, traumatic brain injury, fractures and ligament damage.The deaths resulted from head trauma, the CPSC added. In at least three of the reports, the riders were not wearing helmets.People who own an impacted Onewheel skateboard should stop using it immediately, regulators said. The recall impacts all Onewheel electric skateboards — including Onewheel, Onewheel+, Onew...