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Tory feud deepens as Rishi Sunak slaps down Boris Johnson

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hit back Monday at his successor-but-one Boris Johnson amid a bitter Conservative Party row over Johnson’s bid to put his allies in the House of Lords.Sunak told an audience at London Tech Week that Johnson “asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right” — a reference to clearing a list of names Johnson had hoped to elevate to the unelected second chamber.Johnson dramatically quit as an MP on Friday, taking aim at a parliamentary probe into his conduct in the Partygate affair and blasting Sunak’s leadership of the Conservative Party. The pair have plenty of bad blood between them, with Sunak dealing a mortal blow to Johnson’s government last year by quitting as his top finance minister.The latest feud centers on Johnson’s resignation honors list, which allows a departing prime minister to appoint people to the second chamber and gift them titles. So...

Chicago baseball report: Seiya Suzuki’s balancing act for Cubs — and why White Sox aren’t looking at AL Central standings

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

The Chicago Cubs can at least find some joy in that they won’t have any more three-city trips the rest of the year.Their 10-day West Coast trip to San Diego, Anaheim and San Francisco — culminating with a 13-3 loss to the Giants for a 4-6 record on the swing — did not yield the momentum needed as they claw their way back into the division.As for the White Sox, it was a tough week injury-wise. Eloy Jiménez left the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees with left lower leg discomfort. The initial prognosis was the outfielder could miss four to five games. Sunday, the Sox placed reliever Liam Hendriks on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. An update on his status is likely by Tuesday.Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.Seiya Suzuki’s balancing act with plate patience and called strikesSei...

Trump and his allies escalate attacks on criminal case as history-making court appearance approaches

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his allies are escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him and drum up protests as the former president braces for a history-making federal court appearance this week on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified information.Trump’s Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second time in as many months facing a judge on criminal charges. But unlike a New York case some legal analysts derided as relatively trivial, the Justice Department’s first prosecution of a former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say jeopardized national security and that involves Espionage Act charges carrying the threat of a significant prison sentence in the event of conviction.Ahead of his arraignment, Trump ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling Jack Smith “deranged” and his team of prosecutors “thugs” as he repeated with...

No script at Tony Awards, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history-making wins

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — No script? No problem!There was plenty of uncertainty in the run-up to this year’s Tony Awards, which at one point seemed unlikely to happen at all due to the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.But the ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday night. The event was scriptless, to honor a compromise with striking writers, but chock full of high-spirited Broadway performances drawing raucous cheers from an audience clearly thrilled to be there at all. It was a night of triumph for the small-scale but huge-hearted musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager with a rare aging disease, but also a night notable for inclusion: Two non-binary performers made history by winning their acting categories. The ceremony also touched on the specter of anti-Semitism in very different places: World War II Europe, with best play winner “Leopoldstadt,” and early 20th-century America, with “Parade,” winner for best musical revival.In the end, the lack of scripted banter didn’...

Glencore makes offer for the steelmaking coal business of Teck Resources

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

VANCOUVER — Swiss company Glencore it has made an offer to buy the steelmaking coal business of Teck Resources Ltd.The company said in a statement Monday it would pay cash for the assets, but did not say how much publicly.Glencore said it remains willing to pursue its offer for all of Teck, but that it has made an alternative offer for the coal operations that it would combine with its own thermal coal assets.The company said it is “fully committed” to ensuring an acquisition of the coal business would benefit Canada and that it is open to working with Teck “to identify a comprehensive suite of commitments for the benefit of all relevant stakeholders.” Teck, which rejected Glencore’s earlier offer for the entire company, said it’s reviewing the latest proposal along with a number of other potential transactions involving its steelmaking coal business.“The high degree of interest expressed by a wide range of parties underscores the value of T...

UK parliamentary committee to conclude Boris Johnson ‘partygate’ inquiry

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A U.K. parliamentary committee is meeting Monday to conclude its inquiry into whether former Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled lawmakers over parties at his Downing Street office that breached COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Members of Parliament’s Privileges Committee have pledged to continue with the investigation into Johnson’s conduct after he unexpectedly quit as a lawmaker on Friday and angrily accused political opponents of driving him out in a “witch hunt.”The committee is expected to finalize its highly-anticipated report Monday. British media report that the findings could be published in the coming days.Johnson, 58, said the Privileges Committee told him he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament over “partygate,” a series of boozy parties and gatherings in his office that broke strict pandemic restrictions that his government had imposed on the country. He accused the committee, which has members from both government and opposition parties, of ...

Polish authorities rule rights of pregnant woman who died were violated amid abortion law debate

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish health authorities said Monday that there was a violation of patient rights in the case of a woman who died of sepsis in the fifth month of pregnancy last month, a case that has gained scrutiny after a tightening of Poland’s already restrictive abortion law.Poland’s health minister, Adam Niedzielski, also stressed that every woman whose life or health is threatened by her pregnancy has the right to an abortion.He announced that he was appointing a team to examine the country’s guidelines on the termination of pregnancy, saying its members would include women.“In Poland, every woman in the event of threat to health or life threat has the right to terminate a pregnancy,” Niedzielski said.Dorota Lalik, 33, died on May 24 in the John Paul II hospital in Nowy Targ, a town in the conservative region of southern Poland. She arrived at the hospital after her waters broke and was told to lie with her legs up. She died of sepsis there three days ...

2 killed, 2 wounded in Sweden shooting believed to be gang-related

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A shooting outside Stockholm left two people dead and two others wounded, police said Monday, in what appears to be a feud between criminal gangs.An unidentified foreign man and a teenager were killed in the shooting in Farsta, a suburb south of Sweden’s capital. Two men in their 20s were later arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.A man with an automatic weapon opened fire at around 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) Saturday outside the entrance to a subway station and struck four people. A 15-year-old boy died shortly after of his wounds, with the second victim, a 43-year-old man, dying later. Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said Sunday that police believe that a total of 21 shots had been fired and described the shooting as “domestic terrorism.”One of those wounded was a woman in her 60s who was unlocking her bicycle. She told Swedish public radio that she heard about five shots. “Oh, I’ve been shot in the knee,” she told SR and added that she was bleeding,...

Liz Weston: You’ll probably live longer than you think

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

Women often don’t score as well as men in surveys of financial literacy. One area where we seem to do better is “longevity literacy,” or understanding how long we’re likely to live.Longevity literacy is essential to smart retirement planning. Overestimate your longevity, and you could retire too late or scrimp too much. Underestimate it and you could run short of money.In a recent TIAA Institute study, 43% of women correctly estimated the life expectancy of 60-year-old women in the U.S. (The right answer was 85.) Only 32% of men chose the correct answer for the life expectancy for 60-year-old men, which was 82. Men also were far more likely than women to underestimate life expectancy — and that’s a huge potential problem for both sexes.A man who expects to die in his 70s might draw too much from retirement funds or start Social Security too early. That could leave him — and the spouse who may outlive him — with too little income later on.“A lot of people do OK in their first 10 year...

Man charged after double fatal car crash that killed teen couple in Hoffman Estates

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:52:27 GMT

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — An Elgin man was charged Sunday, one day after a car crash in Hoffman Estates that killed a teen couple who had just graduated from Schaumburg High School.Deni Rubi, 32, from Elgin, Ill. (Courtesy: Hoffman Estates PD)Deni Rubio, a 32-year-old Elgin resident, was charged with five felony counts, according to the Cook County State's Attorneys Office. Rubio was charged with two counts of aggravated DUI resulting in the death of another person, two counts of reckless homicide, and one count of trying to disarm a peace officer.On Saturday, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office identified the teen couple as 18-year-olds Amelia Mazeikis and D’Shaun “DJ” Tudela, who had graduated from Schaumburg High School in May.Amelia Mazeikis and D'Shaun Tudela at their high school graduation in May.According to family, the two had been dating for three years and Amelia was driving D'Shaun to work at the time of the crash. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Cook County ME ID’s teen couple ...