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Flaming cocktails and an MEP getting punched: EU Parliament hits the town

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

STRASBOURG — When the European Parliament goes out, it goes hard.A night that began clinking cocktails among MEPs and diplomats in a classy speakeasy ended at 4 a.m. with a wasted Parliament official punching an MEP outside a nightclub.A huge entourage of EU politicians and staffers descend on the Alsatian city for four days per month for a frenetic blur of policy work, negotiations and knife-edge voting.On Wednesday nights MEPs and their assistants venture out to a handful of favorite bars where the usual institutional stuffiness and hierarchies melt away. These boozy school-trip style soirées are a crucial breathing space for the Parliament, fostering friendships across political divides and providing an escape valve for all that pent-up parliamentary stress.But according to stories that abound, they’re also when some MEPs behave inappropriately toward staffers on the dancefloors of grotty clubs.Strasbourg by night bristles with stories threatening to come out.Flaming ZombiePushin...

Facing Europe’s nuclear necessities

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

Maximilian Terhalle is a visiting professor of strategic studies at the London School of Economics (LSE IDEAS). Kees Klompenhouwer is a former Ambassador of the Netherlands.The euphoria in NATO surrounding Finland’s new membership demonstrates a grim reality: Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has searingly exposed Europe’s strategic vulnerability.It is clear now that the West’s war efforts thus far would have been inconceivable without the United States, and Russia’s shrill nuclear rhetoric has been slowly degrading the Continent’s long-standing political unwillingness to address the nuclear elephant in the room.With only a handful of strategic thinkers engaged with the nuclear problem, for years this issue has gone largely unnoticed, and curiously, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s departure from power has faded his threats to leave NATO from European memory. As the 2024 U.S. presidential election may once again result in an isolationist Republican victor, however, doubts rega...

Cyprus president predicts revival of reunification talks after Turkish election

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

Cyprus’ president is looking to revive the island’s stalled reunification talks after next month’s elections in Turkey and is calling for the EU to play a more active role. Nikos Christodoulides was elected in February on a promise to break deadlock in talks over the ethnically divided island, but one key element is out of his hands. “The time horizon is the elections in Turkey,” he told POLITICO in an interview, referring to the May 14 polls in which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces a nail-biting race against a united opposition under Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The Mediterranean island has been divided into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south since Turkey invaded in 1974, responding to a coup backed by Greece. Ankara does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state that is otherwise recognized internationally as the sole sovereign authority over the whole island. Several attempts to find a compromise settlement over the years have failed, most r...

Investigation underway after explosion decimates home in Truro, sending shockwaves felt miles away

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

An investigation was underway Friday after a massive overnight explosion reduced a home in Truro to its foundation, officials said. No injuries were reported, though the structure was leveled, sending debris across the property and creating shockwaves that locals felt miles away. “Tremendous explosion, big flash of light – we weren’t sure what it was,” said Rich Roberts, who witnessed the event and described a secondary explosion that created a massive fireball. “We both got out of bed and looked around and, I thought it was lightening (that) hit, but of course it was a completely clear night. My wife thought it was an earthquake.”Neighbors said the couple who lived at the home had been sleeping next door Thursday night, and that the building was going to be prepped for summer rentals.“It was just luck that they weren’t in that house,” said Kristin Perry, who woke up to the explosion. “Boom, the house blew up and I was like...

Young scores 32, Hawks beat Celtics 130-122 to close to 2-1

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Trae Young scored 32 points in his best game of the playoffs and the Atlanta Hawks gave themselves a glimmer of hope, beating the Boston Celtics 130-122 Friday night to close the gap to 2-1 in the opening-round series.Young hit a step-back 3-pointer from the corner with 2:21 left and knocked down another huge basket on a floater in the lane with 45 seconds remaining after Jaylen Brown missed a 3-pointer that would’ve tied it for the Celtics.The seventh-seeded Hawks will try to even the series against the second-seeded Celtics in Game 4 on Sunday night at State Farm Arena.Jayson Tatum scored 29 points to lead Boston, which was barely challenged in the first two games of the series.Young was under fire after making just 14 of 40 shots in Beantown. He was much better in Game 3, connecting on 12 of 22 attempts and doling out nine assists.Dejounte Murray had another big game for the Hawks, scoring 25 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:40 remaining that helped ...

Video shows car drive on sidewalk, nearly hit pedestrian while fleeing from Boston police

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

Video recently released by the Boston Police Department shows a driver veering onto a sidewalk, nearly hitting a pedestrian walking nearby earlier this month. A police report said the incident happened in the area of Herald Street and Washington Street shortly before 5 p.m. on April 6. Video of the scene shows the driver jump the curb to get around traffic and away from police, who were trying to conduct a traffic stop, according to the police report.As the driver speeds down the sidewalk, a pedestrian can be seen pressing themselves against a wall to avoid the car. Video then shows the driver getting back onto the road. Police were stuck behind several cars. Though one officer ran down the street as the rogue driver turned onto Washington Street, the car and its driver were able to get away.Police said they did not chase the car after it turned onto Washington Street because it was going too fast. In their report, police explained they initially queried a licens...

Mets Notebook: Why John Curtiss was demoted to Triple-A

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO —  John Curtiss came into spring training excited about the changeup he developed while he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He hasn’t been able to utilize the pitch much so far this season, but maybe the one silver lining of his demotion to Triple-A is that he can work on that pitch.The Mets optioned Curtiss to Triple-A Syracuse on Friday afternoon, needing to make room for left-hander Joey Lucchesi on the roster. Lucchesi was needed to start in place of the injured Carlos Carrasco on Friday night in San Francisco, but the decision to send down Curtiss was somewhat strange since he has pitched well for the Mets so far this season and the Mets have other pitchers with options in the bullpen.But the Mets landed on Curtiss and they’d like to see him work on the changeup in Syracuse.“He had options,” manager Buck Showalter said Friday at Oracle Park. “We’re operating with 12 pitchers. We’ve probably got some other ...

Undermanned Bruins regain series lead with 4-2 win over Panthers

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Bruins didn’t look much like the team that won 65 games in the first two games of this playoff series. But that dominant team showed up on on Friday night at Florida Live Arena, even though two players who’ve been pillars of the success were not in uniform.The B’s were without Patrice Bergeron for the third straight game and then David Krejci was a late scratch (upper body), but the B’s dispatched the Florida Panthers with machine-like efficiency (until some late mistakes), beating the Cats, 4-2, to take a 2-1 series lead.Linus Ullmark, who did not participate in the morning skate, was a game-time decision but he got the start and did the job.Perhaps the hockey gods looked at all that and decided to shine some good fortune on the B’s just 2:26 into the game. That’s when Alex Lyon gave the B’s the mother of all soft goals. Taylor Hall gained the offensive zone on the right side, cut to his left and, from the top of the cir...

Sculptures, artifacts returned to Peru in LA ceremony

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The United States on Friday returned several Peruvian antiquities, including the intricate knotwork artifacts known as khipus, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles consulate.The brief event came amid a push in recent years to have museums, universities and governments worldwide return cultural pieces to their home countries and tribal nations. Indigenous and African communities, in particular, have pressed institutions to reckon with their colonialist pasts and repatriate stolen or looted antiquities.The items returned to the Peruvian consul general included two khipus, intricately knotted and colored sets of cords that experts believe were used by the Incas to count and keep records.The repatriated khipus were turned over to federal investigators two years ago by a private art gallery. They may have been donated to the gallery or abandoned there sometime between 2005 and 2012, authorities said.Also repatriated were several sculptures that Los Angeles-based agents fro...

Tennessee Legislature wraps up; will reconvene on gun reform

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:59:41 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature finished its annual session Friday without taking action on a gun control plan offered by the GOP governor in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Christian school in Nashville. Hours later Gov. Bill Lee announced that he would call lawmakers back for a special session to work “to protect Tennessee communities and preserve constitutional rights.” Lee’s office promised more details soon, including timing and and the session’s parameters.“There is broad agreement that dangerous, unstable individuals who intend to harm themselves or others should not have access to weapons,” Lee said. “We also share a strong commitment to preserving Second Amendment rights, ensuring due process and addressing the heart of the problem with strengthened mental health resources.”Earlier in the day, Republican lawmakers focused on putting final touches on bills ranging from restrictions on Nashville’s local powers, to an e...