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Why Berlusconi’s death makes Meloni stronger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

When she arrives at Milan’s spectacular gothic Duomo cathedral for Silvio Berlusconi’s state funeral on Wednesday, Giorgia Meloni will be among the most prominent of the mourners. The very fact that Meloni is prime minister — Italy’s first woman to hold the post — owes a lot to Berlusconi’s own influence. He gave Meloni her first big break in frontline politics, making her the youngest government minister in Italian history at age 31 in 2008. Then last year, he was instrumental in triggering the downfall of Mario Draghi’s premiership, convening a meeting of right-wingers over lunch at his luxurious villa, at which they plotted to bring down the government. And again after Draghi’s demise, it was Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, now a moderate centre-right movement, that allied with Meloni’s far-right group in a coalition deal that put her in power. But aside from being Meloni’s useful partner in the business of gaining power, Berlusconi provided the templat...

Bus driver facing charges in crash that killed 10 wedding guests denied bail in Australian court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

CESSNOCK, Australia (AP) — A bus driver was driving too fast when the vehicle rolled on its side and hit a guard rail in heavy fog in an Australian wine region, killing 10 wedding guests and injuring 25 others, police alleged Tuesday.Brett Andrew Button, 58, was driving 35 passengers on a 20-minute journey from a wedding reception at the Wandin Estate Winery to the town of Singleton, both in the Hunter Valley wine region of New South Wales state, when the 2009 Volvo bus rolled at a roundabout late Sunday.Button had been in police custody but was released on bail when he appeared in the Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday charged with 10 counts of dangerous driving in relation to each death and one count of negligent driving.Earlier, acting Police Assistant Commissioner David Waddell alleged that Button “entered that roundabout driving in a manner that was inconsistent with the conditions.”“Obviously, the speed was too quick for him to negotiate that roundabout, causing the vehicle to fa...

Japan’s Toyota announces initiative for all-solid state battery as part of electric vehicles plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota plans to make an all solid-state battery as part of its ambitious plans for battery electric vehicles, the company said Tuesday, amid mounting criticism Japan’s top automaker needs to do more to fight climate change.Toyota Motor Corp. aims for a commercial solid-state battery as soon as 2027. Charging time, one of the main drawbacks of electric vehicles, will get shortened to 10 minutes or less, the company said in a statement. It plans to deliver 1.5 million EVs in 2026 by expanding its battery EV lineup and developing technology. “With the evolution of the vehicle’s operating system, the next-generation battery EV will also enable customization of the ‘driving feel,’ with a focus on acceleration, turning and stopping,” it said.EV owners usually have charging stations in their homes and keep their cars plugged in overnight to recharge. That’s one of the main reasons Toyota has long insisted that hybrids are a better solution. A hybrid recharges as the car runs, ...

Nuggets’ Bruce Brown on impending free agency: “I want to stay.”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

As champagne flowed and cigar smoke filled the Nuggets’ home locker room, Bruce Brown couldn’t help but revel and soak in the moment.“I want to stay,” he told The Denver Post.“Look at us,” he said. “Celebrating the Finals, winning the Finals. This is what you come to the NBA for, to win at the highest level.”Brown has a player option for next season worth $6.8 million. If he declines it, the most the Nuggets can offer is $7.7 million. Asked why he wanted to return, Brown was effusive about the culture Denver’s established.“It’s a perfect fit,” Brown said. “And money is not everything. The money will come. So I’m not worried about that right now.”Michael Porter Jr. raved about the teammate Brown was, hinting that he was due a significant payday.“Bruce has been huge for us all playoffs,” Porter said. “We’re excited for him because he’s going to get paid. He’s going to get paid. … We just kept telling him be aggressive, even though his fi...

UN nuclear watchdog concerned over water levels at Ukraine plant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

The UN atomic watchdog said on Sunday (11 June) that it needs wider access around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to check "a significant discrepancy" in water level data at the breached Kakhovka dam used for cooling the plant's reactors.International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, who is to visit the plant this week, said that measurements the agency received from the inlet of the plant showed that the dam's water levels were stable for about a day over the weekend."However, the height is reportedly continuing to fall elsewhere in the huge reservoir, causing a possible difference of about two metres," Grossi said in a statement."The height of the water level is a key parameter for the continued operability of the water pumps."The destruction of the Kakhovka hydropower dam in southern Ukraine last week has flooded towns downstream and forced thousands of people from their homes.Both the Kakhovka hydropower dam and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been occupied by Russia ...

Kherson's unending nightmare: Occupation, shelling and floods

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

For Kherson resident Iryna Radetska, the catastrophic flooding of her city after the giant Kakhovka dam was destroyed is the latest chapter in more than a year of wartime suffering."They say a new love kills the old one. Maybe it's the same with tragedy," said 52-year-old Radetska, who is deputy head of a school in the southern Ukrainian city.Few places have felt the extent of suffering that Kherson has since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Few people bore the brunt of it harder than Radetska, who said she has survived imprisonment, beatings and rockets.The city, which had a peacetime population of 280,000, was occupied by Russian forces on March 2, 2022. It was liberated by Ukrainian troops in early November, but since then has been regularly shelled by Russian forces from the east side of the Dnipro River.In the latest setback, large areas of Kherson and villages nearby were submerged last week after the Kakhovka dam, 55 km (35 miles) upstream, was destroyed. Kyiv an...

UK unemployment rate edges down unexpectedly as number in work hits record high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that Britain’s unemployment rate has fallen unexpectedly as the number of people in work hit a record high and rose past its pre-pandemic level for the first time.The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday that the jobless rate fell to 3.8% in the three months to April, from 3.9% in the previous quarter. Most economists were expecting the rate to edge up to 4%.As the unemployment rate fell, the agency said, the country’s employment rate rose to 76% from 75.9%, with the number of people in work at an all-time high of 33.1 million.Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the agency, said the “biggest driver” in recent jobs growth is health and social care, followed by hospitality.The agency also found that wages rose sharply, a development that may cause concern at the Bank of England, which is widely expected to raise interest rates once again next week. Source

2023 NCAA College World Series Glance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

At Charles Schwab FieldOmaha, Neb.All Times EDT(Double Elimination; x-if necessary)Bracket 1Friday, June 16Game 1 – TCU (42-22) vs. Oral Roberts (51-12), 2 p.m.Game 2 – Florida (50-15) vs. Virginia (50-13, 7 p.m.Sunday, June 18Game 3 – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2 p.m.Game 4 – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.Tuesday, June 20Game 5 – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, TBD (loser eliminated)Wednesday, June 21Game 6 – Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, TBD (winner advances unless Game 7 needed)Thursday, June 22x-Game 7 – Game 3 vs. Game 4 winner, TBD (winner advances)Bracket 2Saturday, June 17Game 1 – Wake Forest (52-10) vs. Stanford (42-18), 2 p.m.Game 2 – LSU (48-15) vs. Tennessee (42-20), 7 p.m.Monday, June 19Game 3 – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2 p.m.Game 4 – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.Tuesday, June 20Game 5 – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, TBD (loser eliminated)Wednesday, June 21Game 6 &#...

Turkey turns to quest for hosting soccer’s Euros after Champions League final

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Turkey’s quest to host the men’s European Championship is among the great unfulfilled goals in world soccer.Having newly re-elected state President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sit next to UEFA leader Aleksander Čeferin at the Champions League final in Istanbul on Saturday should only help before Turkey’s next two tournament bids are put to votes on Oct. 10.Turkey is up against the joint U.K.-Ireland bid to host Euro 2028 and is in a Euro 2032 duel with Italy. The 2032 edition is the likely target with a widespread belief 2028 is going to the British and Irish who switched from trying to be UEFA’s preferred candidate in the 2030 World Cup race.Voters for hosting the 24-team Euros tournaments will be members of the 20-strong UEFA executive committee who also sat with Erdoğan in the VIP section to see Manchester City beat Inter Milan on Saturday.“We absolutely would like to win the bid because we see that our country is always capable of organizing such big-scale events su...

El presidente de Irán se reúne con Maduro y acuerdan impulsar el comercio hasta los US$ 20.000 millones

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:36:49 GMT

(CNN) — El presidente de Irán, Ebrahim Raisi, llegó este lunes a Caracas, Venezuela, en la primera etapa de una gira por tres países de América Latina, donde se reunió con el presidente Nicolás Maduro en el Palacio de Miraflores, según mostraron imágenes en directo de la televisión estatal venezolana.Tras una reunión privada, los dos líderes anunciaron en una rueda de prensa televisada que habían firmado una serie de acuerdos bilaterales para ampliar la cooperación entre los países, así como la intención de aumentar el comercio bilateral hasta alcanzar los US$ 20.000 millones.Presidente de Irán realizará gira por Venezuela, Cuba y Nicaragua“El volumen de los intercambios comerciales entre Irán y Venezuela se incrementará a US$ 10.000 millones en la primera etapa, que puede elevarse a US$ 20.000 millones en la segunda fase”, dijo el presidente iraní Raisi en la rueda de prensa conjunta con Maduro.Más temprano este lunes, la agencia estatal de noticias iraní IRNA dij...