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How Westminster became Pestminster

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

LONDON — Is the seat of British democracy really such a pit?Given all the recent reports of bad behavior among its members, you might be forgiven for concluding that it is.Take the case of Geraint Davies, a long-serving Labour MP whose inappropriate conduct was well known in the halls of Westminster long before POLITICO reported last summer that the 63-year-old had been accused of sexually harassing junior female colleagues during his decades in parliament.Davies is currently suspended from the Labour Party while he is investigated over claims of sexual harassment, which he denies.“I vividly remember him galloping along the corridor as I went into my hotel room,” is how a former clerk recalled one of several alleged close encounters with Davies, whom she met when she was working in parliament in the early 2000s when she was in her early 20s. “I got in and shut the door behind me, but I knew he was lingering, hovering just outside,” she said.The former clerk is one of three wome...

Europe is spending millions to trap carbon. Where will it go?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

Tomaž Vuk has the carbon. Now he just needs somewhere to send it. Since 2020, Vuk, who sits on the board of the Salonit cement factory in Slovenia, has been plotting to get in on the ground floor of an industry poised to boom in the coming years: carbon capture. It’s one of the ways carbon-spewing factories like the one Vuk helps run are supposed to keep operating in a greener future. There’s just one problem: Vuk has nowhere to store any carbon he traps at the plant.Salonit sits roughly 50 kilometers off the Gulf of Trieste, an Italian port nestled near the Adriatic Sea’s highest point. From there, Salonit can technically ship the carbon anywhere. But for now, it seems the only options are way up in the North Sea — a protracted (and, most notably, expensive) trip around the Continent. Vuk said he’s willing to send the carbon wherever, but would of course prefer spots along the nearby Mediterranean and the Black Seas. For now, that’s not likely. So the North Sea ...

Poland’s media revolution turns into a political battle

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

WARSAW — Poland’s new pro-EU government has taken sweeping steps to free state media from the political stranglehold imposed by eight years of Law and Justice (PiS) rule — but that’s set off a political war with the old ruling party.The fight over who controls the media has drawn in President Andrzej Duda against Prime Minister Donald Tusk. There are also duelling chiefs of public television; one, Tomasz Sygut, was appointed last week after Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz sacked his PiS-loyalist predecessor, while the sidelined media board appointed former PiS MP Maciej Łopiński to the same post. On Tuesday, a third boss, Michał Adamczyk, was also nominated by yet another body.Sygut’s people are actually putting out broadcasts, but the other chiefs are claiming that’s invalid.The clash, and the way the new government has rammed home the changes at lightning speed, are also raising concerns that, like its predecessor, it may be overstepping the law to ...

Russia uses POWs as a political weapon against Kyiv

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

KYIV — The last time Valentyna Tkachenko, a 35-year-old mother of two from Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, saw her husband Serhii was just before Russia invaded her country.Serhii, a National Guard soldier, was captured on February 24 of last year, the day Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine. His unit was guarding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant when it was attacked by the Russians. When the Russian military retreated from Chernobyl and the rest of the Kyiv region at the end of March, they took Serhii and 167 other POWs with them.Since then, the wives of the captured soldiers have only heard from them once — a short handwritten note: “I am alive, everything is OK,” sent more than six months after they were taken prisoner.Like thousands of other relatives of Ukrainian POWs, Tkachenko has contacted Ukrainian authorities and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and had written four letters, but heard nothing back until November 29. That’s the day she got a...

POLITICO’s most-read stories of 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

Well, here we are folks, at the end of another turbulent year.When we put this list together at the end of 2022, its contents largely covered something many of us thought we would not see again in our lifetime: a major war in Europe. Now, we are grappling with two wars in our immediate neighborhood, as the slaughter drags on in Ukraine, and conflict rages between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In Ukraine, the long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, which began in June, has not been as swift and successful as the West hoped. While across the Mediterranean, Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7 marked the beginning of a highly divisive war that is threatening to turn into a regional conflict and has fueled antisemitism and Islamophobia the world over. Neither of these conflicts have an end in sight.Beyond the battlefields, 2023 saw many other surprise twists and turns.A submarine that went missing on its way to visit the Titanic shipwreck captivated people across the globe, Eng...

Germany and EU face a new trilemma

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

Miguel Otero-Iglesias a senior analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid.Faced with a choice between successfully completing the green transition, effectively achieving economic security and aiming for fiscal discipline, the European Union is confronted with a new trilemma — and it cannot accomplish all three.But while Germany — with its debt brake, designed to limit budget deficits, and the November ruling from its Constitutional Court, jeopardizing its green transition funding — appears to be tightly embracing the latter option of fiscal discipline, this is a strategic mistake.The green transition and economic security are complimentary phenomena that can create a positive feedback loop. And Europe needs to realize this.The green transition is an absolute necessity — both at the European and global level. And given available scientific evidence, the acceleration of its pace is totally justified. It is absolutely imperative we reach 2050 with net-zero carbon emissions if we w...

Three people seriously hurt in shooting in Lynn

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

Three people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries after a shooting in Lynn Tuesday night, police said. Lynn police in a statement said officers first responded to the area of 39 State Street around 8:30 p.m. Police said emergency crews soon located, treated and transported the victims. Lynn police said their investigation was active and ongoing as of around 10 p.m. and asked anyone with information to contact investigators at 781-595-2000. Police did not share any additional information. A large police presence continued in the area past 10 p.m., though, with roughly 12 police cruisers seen in the Lynn Marketplace. Debris was visible on the ground outside a Pizza Hut location in the plaza with the listed address of 39 State Street. The store’s windows were also shattered. Police had the area taped off and were spotted taking pictures of the scene.Investigators appeared to also be interested in a Lexus SUV parked in the area, with officers seen shining...

Chicago White Sox sign 37-year-old catcher Martín Maldonado — a veteran of the last 6 postseasons — to a 1-year deal

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

Martín Maldonado has a strong reputation for working with pitching staffs.The Chicago White Sox signed the 37-year-old catcher to a one-year deal Tuesday, a source confirmed to the Tribune.Terms have not been disclosed. According to the New York Post and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who first reported the signing, the deal includes an option year.Maldonado has a career .207/.282/.349 slash line with 111 home runs and 361 RBIs in 1,118 games during 13 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers (2011-16), Los Angeles Angels (2017-18), Houston Astros (2018, 2019-23), Kansas City Royals (2019) and Chicago Cubs (2019).He hit .191 with 15 homers and 36 RBIs in 116 games for the Astros in 2023. He has appeared in each of the last six postseasons with the Astros, winning a World Series championship in 2022.Maldonado is the second catcher the Sox have added this offseason. They acquired Max Stassi in a trade from the Atlanta Braves on Dec. 9.Catchers Korey Lee and Carlos Pérez are also ...

'I felt violated': Pacific Beach juice bar target of recent burglary

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The Mad Beet in Pacific Beach has been a staple on Garnet Ave. for nearly nine years.Last Monday, owner Daniel Hack said the juice bar was the victim of a burglary after money was stolen from their safe. Security footage shows two suspects enter the store and run directly to the back. Another camera caught them in the office where they looked around before they found the safe and opened it.“We thought there was insider information." said Hack. "So what happened is they (the suspects) actually came in and went to where the safe used to be. We replaced it with lockers recently. Then what happened is we see them mess around with this. We’re not sure if they had the ability to break into it or they somehow had the code (to the safe).” Suspected burglary leads to police pursuit; four arrested after tracked down by K-9 Hack says the thieves ran off with just under $3,000 in cash. "I felt violated. As a small business, a local business, we don’t have the kind of money to be ...

Actor Lee Sun-kyun of Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite’ dies

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:10:45 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Actor Lee Sun-kyun of the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” has died, South Korea’s emergency office said Wednesday.Lee was found dead at a car in a central Seoul park on Wednesday, it said.Police earlier said an unconscious Lee was discovered at an unidentified Seoul location.South Korean media outlets including Yonhap news agency reported that police had been searching for Lee after his family reported he left home after writing a message similar to a suicide note earlier Wednesday.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:Actor Lee Sun-kyun of the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” has been found unconscious, South Korean police said Wednesday.Police officers discovered an unconscious Lee at an unidentified Seoul location on Wednesday but gave no further details, police said.South Korean media including Yonhap news agency reported that Lee was found dead in a car at a Seoul park. Yonhap cited police as saying they had been searching for ...