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Voters no longer see Sunak as asset to UK Tories

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

LONDON — So much for the “President Rishi” strategy.Brits no longer think Rishi Sunak is a plus for his governing Conservative Party, according to a new poll shared with POLITICO.The fresh survey by campaign group More in Common found only 29 percent of voters now agree that the British prime minister — who took on the job after the tumultuous tenure of Liz Truss — is an “asset” to his party, compared to 41 percent who disagree.When the same question was asked back in May, Sunak was viewed as an asset by 36 percent of those polled, compared to 30 percent who disagreed with that assessment.Sunak’s Conservatives face a mountain to climb ahead of an expected general election next year, with the opposition Labour Party consistently ahead in polling. More in Common’s research found that Labour, led by Keir Starmer, has a 15-point lead on the Tories (44 percent to 29 percent) in voting intention.Less rosy for the opposition party, however, is the findin...

More than 5 million people have been displaced by a monthslong conflict in Sudan, UN agency says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — More than 5 million people have been displaced by the monthslong fighting in Sudan, the United Nations’ migration agency said Wednesday as clashes between the country’s military and a rival paramilitary force show no sign of easing. According to the International Organization for Migration, over 4 million people have been internally displaced since the conflicted erupted in mid-April while another 1.1 million have fled to neighboring countries. More than 750,000 have traveled to either Egypt or Chad, the agency said. International efforts to mediate the conflict have so far failed. There have been at least nine cease-fire agreements since the outbreak and all have broken down. Sudan was plunged into chaos almost five months ago when long-simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, escalated into open warfare.The fighting has reduced Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to an urban batt...

Hungary’s transportation minister gets sharp criticism for comments praising Nazi-allied WWII leader

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A senior government official in Hungary came under sharp criticism Wednesday for praising the country’s World War II-era leader, an ally of Nazi Germany who is believed to have imposed Europe’s first anti-Jewish laws of the 20th century, as an exceptional head of state and a hero.Minister of Construction and Transportation Janos Lazar made the comments Sunday during a ceremony held on the 30th anniversary of the reburial of Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s regent during most of World War II. A self-described antisemite, Horthy forged an alliance with Adolf Hitler and implemented laws that resulted in the deportation and deaths of thousands of Hungarian Jews.A video of the commemoration held in Kenderes, Horthy’s hometown, features Lazar, a Cabinet member in the nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, heaping praise on the wartime leader while speaking at the ceremony in Horthy’s hometown of Kenderes. “It is my conviction that a remem...

Carmakers are failing the privacy test. Owners have little or no control of the data they hand over

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Cars are getting an “F” in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order. The proliferation of sensors in automobiles — from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs.But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Wednesday in their latest “Privacy Not Included” survey Security standards are also vague, a big concern given automakers’ track record of susceptibility to hacking. “Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I’m really hoping that we can help remedy that because they are truly awful,” said Jen Caltrider, the study’s research lead. “Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations in them. Cars have camer...

Interpol at 100: A mixed legacy of hunting fugitives and merging police data from 195 countries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

LYON, France (AP) — Interpol is turning 100 with a mixed legacy — as a misconstrued crime-fighting organization, a network that merges police data from authoritarian states and democracies, and a global adviser on how to handle criminal trends.Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, a German who took office in 2014, has said he believes all police officers ultimately have the same goal: stopping criminals. The challenge, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, is that Interpol brings 195 very different countries into a network of databases of crimes and wanted fugitives.Interpol has no police force of its own, no weapons stockpile, and certainly no fleet of helicopters to swoop in and pluck criminals off rooftops. Its power rests almost entirely in information shared by member nations.Critics, even those who praise Stock’s tenure as one of a new openness for Interpol, say that’s exactly the problem. They accuse many countries, notably Russia and China, of abusing the red notice s...

Air Canada apologizes for booting passengers who complained about vomit-smeared seats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

Air Canada says it has apologized to two passengers who were escorted off a plane by security after protesting that their seats were smeared in vomit.The airline said Tuesday that the passengers “clearly did not receive the standard of care to which they were entitled.”The incident during boarding for an Aug. 26 flight from Las Vegas to Montreal was described in graphic detail by another passenger, Susan Benson of New Brunswick, who said she was in the row behind two women and a man.“There was a bit of a foul smell but we didn’t know at first what the problem was,” Benson wrote on Facebook three days later. “Air Canada attempted a quick cleanup before boarding but clearly wasn’t able to do a thorough clean.”Benson said workers sprayed the area with perfume to hide the smell. The passengers assigned to those seats told a flight attendant that the seat and seatbelt were wet and they could still see vomit. The attendant and a supervisor told them that the flight was full, and they woul...

The death toll from fierce storms and flooding in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria rises to 11

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria increased to 11 Wednesday after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered four more bodies.A flash flood at a campsite in northwestern Turkey near the border with Bulgaria killed at least four people — with two found dead Wednesday — and carried away bungalow homes. Rescuers were still searching for two people reported missing at the campsite.Another two people died in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, where Tuesday’s storms inundated hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods.The victims in Istanbul included a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped inside his basement apartment in the low-income Kucukcekmece district, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The other was a 57-year-old woman who died after being swept away by the floods in another neighborhood, the private DHA news agency reported.The surging flood waters affected m...

France boosts security at Rugby World Cup. The hosts don’t want another failure before Olympics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

With no room for mistakes ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics, French authorities pledged Wednesday to mobilize a record number of police officers to guarantee a smooth Rugby World Cup in the wake of the chaos outside the stadium that marred the 2022 Champions League final.The tournament starts Friday at the same Stade de France where the security fiasco last year drew worldwide attention to heavy-handed policing, raising questions about how France manages security at big events.Speaking at a news conference in Paris, French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said more than 5,100 police officers will be mobilized every match day during the tournament, and up to 7,500 at peak times, including Friday’s opening match between France and New Zealand and the final on Oct. 28.“It’s unprecedented for a sporting event,” Darmanin said.He added the mobile forces deployed Friday will be used at the stadium and to monitor tourist areas and public transport, as well as fan zones....

Kim Jong Un’s possible trip to Russia could be like his 2019 journey. 20 hours on his armored train

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Reports that Kim Jong Un may travel to Russia soon have drawn attention to the traditional method of travel for North Korean leaders: luxury, armored trains that have long been a part of the dynasty’s lore and are symbols of its deep isolation.In what would be his first foreign travel since the start of the pandemic, Kim may visit Russia this month for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a U.S. official has said, possibly to discuss North Korean arms sales to refill Russian reserves drained by its war on Ukraine.According to U.S. reports, the two leaders could meet in the eastern city of Vladivostok, the site of their first get-together in April 2019, when Kim took his green-and-yellow train. Putin is expected in the city for the annual Eastern Economic Forum that runs from Sunday to Wednesday.The reports come at a time when the leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their deepening, separate confrontations with the United S...

King Charles III’s visit to France will include a state dinner at Versailles and a stop in Bordeaux

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III will travel to France later this month for a state visit that was postponed in March due to fears that protesters demonstrating against President Emanuel Macron’s economic policies would disrupt the pageantry.Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Paris and Bordeaux from Sept. 20-22, Buckingham Palace announced Wednesday. The visit underscores Britain’s aim to bolster ties with its closest European neighbor after years of sometimes prickly relations strained by Brexit and disagreements over the growing number of migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats.“The state visit will celebrate Britain’s relationship with France, marking our shared histories, culture and values,’’ said Chris Fitzgerald, deputy private secretary to the king. While Britain’s royal family long ago ceded political power to the country’s elected leaders, they remain the U.K.’s pre-eminent ambassadors as presidents and prime ministers jockey to bask in the glamor and pageantr...