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UK to swerve recession this year as Jeremy Hunt unveils budget

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. will duck a recession this year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said as he delivered the U.K. budget Wednesday.Introducing the “budget for growth” — the first full-fat fiscal event under prime minister Rishi Sunak — in the House of Commons, Hunt said the U.K. economy had “proved the doubters wrong.”“Today, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that because of changing international factors and the measures I take, the U.K. will not now enter a technical recession this year,” Hunt told the Commons, citing figures from the U.K.’s independent fiscal watchdog.The OBR predicted in November that the U.K. economy would enter a recession in 2022, and contract by 1.4 percent in 2023.“But today the OBR forecast we will not enter a recession at all this year with a contraction of just 0.2 percent,” Hunt said.The OBR is also predicting that inflation will fall from 10.7 percent in the final quarter of last year to 2.9 perc...

Serbia’s far right seizes on Putin’s war to push retaking Kosovo

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

BELGRADE — Serbia’s ultra-nationalists are using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to galvanize their campaign against Kosovo’s independence — and anti-war activists are getting caught in the crossfire.Politicians on Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s right flank have sniffed out an opportunity to tie Russia’s war on Ukraine to their desire to swallow up Kosovo, even as Vučić engages in EU-brokered negotiations to partially normalize relations with Kosovo, the independence of which neither Belgrade nor Moscow recognize.A victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is a stepping stone to Serbia regaining Kosovo, according to Miša Vacić, the leader of the highly nationalistic, pro-Kremlin Serbian Right political party. “We must be patient and must wait to finish in Ukraine, and after that we will have enough time,” he told POLITICO.More than 200,000 Russians have arrived in Serbia since the beginning of the invasion. As one of just a handfu...

Dog saved by MIT students after being thrown from stolen car in Cambridge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

A dog was saved by a group of MIT students after being thrown from a stolen car in Cambridge.The students saw the incident happen on Saturday and were hit by the same car when they tried to help.Police say the car had been stolen with the dog inside. The dog, whose name is Millie, was reunited with her family. Her owners say they are grateful for the students’ heroism. Police say no arrests have been made.

Cactus League report: Cubs’ Julian Merryweather gets comfortable with new slider — and Leury García’s hustle impresses White Sox manager Pedro Grifol

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

Crunch time is approaching with about two weeks left on the Cactus League schedule.Coming off Monday’s day off, Cubs manager David Ross said his conversations with the front office haven’t become too serious yet as roster decisions loom. But his messaging to the team is taking on a different tone.“We’ve talked to a couple guys already that the bats will get a little more focused, signs will start to be put on and start to implement a lot of that stuff fundamentally,” Ross said before Tuesday’s night game against the Colorado Rockies.White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease bounced back Tuesday against the Oakland Athletics at Camelback Ranch. The right-hander allowed one earned run on three hits and struck out four in 3⅓ innings of a 5-4 Sox victory.Cease allowed 11 earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in his previous start March 8 against the Kansas City Royals.“Definitely very much a positive step in the right direction,” Cease said.Chi...

Mobile sports betting launch triggers more than 400,000 accounts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

More than 400,000 mobile sports betting accounts were active during the first three days the activity was available in Massachusetts and more than 8 million transactions took place, making Massachusetts the fifth busiest mobile betting state in the country last weekend.GeoComply, a vendor that provides the Gaming Commission with geolocation and fraud detection services, said Tuesday that it recorded 406,437 unique player accounts and 8.1 million “geolocation transactions” last weekend across the six mobile operators that went live in the Bay State on Friday.In-person betting began at the end of January, but mobile betting is expected to quickly become the dominant method of sports wagering here.The company said it also prevented more than 5,000 transactions from “devices or accounts with a known history of fraud, saving its customers tens of thousands of dollars.”“Today, one of the biggest challenges facing operators is onboarding genuine players and ke...

Musk brought internet to Brazil’s Amazon. Criminals love it.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian federal agents aboard three helicopters descended on an illegal mining site on Tuesday in the Amazon rainforest. They were met with gunfire, and the shooters escaped, leaving behind an increasingly familiar find for authorities: Starlink internet units. Starlink, a division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has almost 4,000 low-orbit satellites lined up across the skies, connecting people in remote corners of the Amazon and providing a crucial advantage to Ukranian forces on the battlefield. The lightweight, high-speed internet system has also proved a new and valuable tool for Brazil’s illegal miners, with reliable service for coordinating logistics, receiving advance warning of law enforcement raids and making payments without flying back to the city.Agents from the Brazilian environment agency’s special inspection group and the federal highway police rapid response group on Tuesday found one Starlink terminal up and running next to a pit, an officer...

Turkey floods kill 10 in earthquake-affected provinces

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Floods caused by torrential rains hit two provinces that were devastated by last month’s earthquake, killing at least 10 people and increasing the misery for thousands who were left homeless, officials and media reports said Wednesday. At least five other people were reported missing.One person was killed in the town of Tut in southeastern Adiyaman province, where surging waters swept away a container home sheltering a family of earthquake survivors, Gov. Numan Hatipoglu said. The governor of neighboring Sanliurfa province, Salih Ayhan told HaberTurk television that four people were killed by the floods in his region. Later, rescuers found the bodies of five Syrian nationals inside a flooded basement apartment in Sanliurfa, the private DHA news agency reported. Television footage from Sanliurfa showed flood waters surging along a street and sweeping away cars as well as a man being rescued from an underpass.Several people were evacuated from a drenched campsite...

After clashes, Pakistani police pause siege at ex-PM’s home

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — After clashing with supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan outside his home for a second day Wednesday, police paused their efforts to arrest the ousted premier for failing to appear in court last week on graft charges.Police had besieged the 70-year-old opposition leader’s house in the eastern city of Lahore since Tuesday as his supporters hurled rocks and bricks, and swung batons snatched from officers. Police fired tear gas and clashes went on into the afternoon Wednesday before subsiding. Violence was also reported between Khan’s supporters and police in other major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan. The government sent additional police to Lahore’s upscale area of Zaman Park, where Khan lives. Earlier Wednesday, Khan had emerged from his house to meet with supporters, who had faced tear gas and police batons through the night to defend him from a...

US futures fall as bank anxiety hits global markets

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

BEIJING — U.S. futures tumbled Wednesday and bank stocks around the world slumped as anxiety over the health of the global banking system surfaced again with new potential troubles arising at Europe’s Credit Suisse. Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 slid 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6% before the bell.Large and mid-size banks in Europe and the U.S. sank sharply before U.S markets opened, particularly in Europe. Major European banks fell between 5% and 10%, though Switzerland’s Credit Suisse skidded nearly 25% to all-time lows. That decline comes after media reports that Saudi National Bank representatives said they could not shore up their investments in Credit Suisse, citing regulatory concerns. Confidence in the banking system has eroded in just a matter of days following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday and Signature Bank on Sunday. Most of the premarket decliners in the S&P 500 early Wednesday were regional banks, with Zion Ba...

Beloved and debated, French bulldog becomes top US dog breed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in three decades, the U.S. has a new favorite dog breed, according to the American Kennel Club. Adorable in some eyes, deplorable in others, the sturdy, push-faced, perky-eared, world-weary-looking and distinctively droll French bulldog became the nation’s most prevalent purebred dog last year, the club announced Wednesday. Frenchies ousted Labrador retrievers from the top spot after a record 31 years.Why? “They’re comical, friendly, loving little dogs,” says French Bull Dog Club of America spokesperson Patty Sosa. City-friendly, with modest grooming and exercise needs, she says, “they offer a lot in a small package.” Yet the Frenchie’s dizzying rise — it wasn’t even a top-75 breed a quarter-century ago — worries its fans, to say nothing of its critics. The buzzy little bulldogs have been targeted in thefts, including last month’s fatal shooting of a 76-year-old South Carolina breeder and the 2021 shooting of a California do...