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Thailand sets May 14 election, populist party tops polls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s general election will take place on May 14, the country’s election regulator said Tuesday, one day after the dissolution of Parliament initiated by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is seeking a fresh term. The Election Commission said registration of candidates would begin April 3.The election will pit the popular opposition Pheu Thai party, backed by billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, against parties representing the conservative establishment and closely linked to the military, which has staged two coups in the last two decades. Other parties are likely to win enough seats to be wooed to join a coalition government.Prayuth dissolved Parliament just ahead of the end of the four-year term of the House of Representatives. Early dissolution allows candidates for the lower house to switch party affiliations just 30 days before the election, instead of the usual 90 days. Parties led and backed by Thaksin have won the most seats in every election sinc...

Reborn Ringling Bros. circus to leap on tour — minus animals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus has been reimagined and reborn without animals as a high-octane family event with highwire tricks, soaring trapeze artists and bicycles leaping on trampolines.Feld Entertainment, which owns the “Greatest Show on Earth,” revealed to The Associated Press what audiences can expect during the show’s upcoming 2023 North American tour kicking off this fall.The 75 performers from 18 countries will include performers on a triangular high wire 25 feet off the ground, crisscrossing flying trapeze artists, a spinning double wheel powered by acrobats and BMX trail bikes, unicycle riders and skateboarders doing flips and tricks.The tour kicks off in Bossier City, Louisiana, from Sept 29-Oct. 1 and then goes to Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and ends the year in Oklahoma. It restarts in 2024 in Florida, home to Feld Entertainment.The show is a complete rethink of a modern ...

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Hamburg attack survivors out of danger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The Jehovah’s Witnesses say all of the survivors of a shooting at one of its halls in Hamburg earlier this month are out of danger.A 35-year-old German shot dead six people during a service on March 9. Nine people were wounded, including a woman who lost her unborn child. He then killed himself as police arrived. “We are happy to say that meanwhile all are out of danger of death,” the church in Germany said in a statement late Monday, adding that four people remain hospitalized.“All feel a strong need to spend time together, be it in person or by videoconference,” it added. “Sharing what they have experienced obviously helps them to process it.”Some of the survivors are “severely traumatized,” it said. “Their recovery will realistically be a long road.”The gunman, identified by German authorities only as Philipp F. due to privacy rules, was a former member who left the church two years ago. Investigators have said his departure from the church was “apparently not...

When is it legal to drive in passing lane in Colorado?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Picture this: you're cruising down the highway and someone passes you. After that, they hang out in the left lane, while keeping others from getting around.That scenario can be very frustrating for many drivers. But is it illegal? In certain situations, yes. Can you turn left at a red light in Colorado? Left lane lawColorado has a left lane law, which is used to help ease congestion and improve traffic flow, especially during peak travel periods.“A person shall not drive a motor vehicle in the passing lane of a highway if thespeed limit is sixty-five miles per hour or more unless such person is passing othermotor vehicles that are in a non-passing lane or turning left, or unless the volumeof traffic does not permit the motor vehicle to safely merge into a non-passing lane," Colorado law states. Should you slow down if a car is merging into your lane? In short, that means that if you're on a highway with a speed limit of 65 mph or more, the left lane law applies,...

Inflation is even taking a bite out of Coloradans' Big Macs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — This one hurts. With inflation still running rampant across a fiscally exhausted U.S., there are few breaks to catch. There is some small reprieve as rents and housing prices have ceased their upward march early in 2023, but the pandemic has still raised costs of living across the board faster in the last two years than at any point in the last 40 years. McDonald's famed Big Mac isn't immune. Denver metro 4th in nation for inflation since 2020 Global financial magazine The Economist has analyzed worldwide Big Mac prices since 1986 as a gauge for consumer buying power. This year has seen the iconic double-pattie bite of Americana rise in price faster than any of the last 10 years. The average price of a Big Mac in the United States was $5.36 as of December 2022, the highest it's ever been. In 2000, the burger cost less than half the current price - $2.24. Between December 2021 and December 2022, the Big Mac rose 6.35% in price. The last time it jumped that much in ...

Miami Dolphins officially exercise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s fifth-year option

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

(CNN) — The Miami Dolphins officially exercised quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s fifth-year option on his rookie contract on Monday.The 24-year-old is now contracted with the team through the 2024 season. He will be guaranteed $23.2 million for the 2024 season, according to the NFL.Tagovailoa was the NFL’s highest-rated passer last season with a 105.5 rating, becoming the youngest player to lead the league in passer rating since former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino did so in 1984.However, despite showing flashes of the promise the Dolphins saw in him coming out of Alabama, Tagovailoa had a tumultuous season last year, particularly down to his battles with head injuries.Tagovailoa suffered three concussions throughout the year, raising scrutiny about the NFL’s concussion protocols.His health scares started September 25 in a game against the Buffalo Bills, when Tagovailoa stumbled backward and fell during a play, hitting his head on the turf. Though he initially ...

Inspired by a trip to Indonesia, Snoop Dogg launches new coffee line

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

(CNN) — Rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg is expanding his business empire yet again, this time branching out into a line of premium coffee products with beans sourced locally from Indonesia.He has partnered with Indonesian coffee entrepreneur Michael Riady to launch INDOxyz: “a premium lifestyle coffee brand created for and inspired by the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators,” according to a press release sent to CNN.“My relationship with coffee goes way back,” Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, said in the statement. “The many long nights in the studio making hit after hit, coffee provided the fuel which kept us going. Today marks the launch of a new company I created along with my partner Michael, who introduced me to the best tasting Indonesian coffee,” he said. “All it took was one sip and Snoop was hooked.”Snoop added: “Indo is going to change the industry, I can promise you that,” refer...

Politics gets a bad rap: Orbán aide tangles with MEP via ChatGPT

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

ChatGPT is at it again.This time the responsive artificial intelligence has angered the Hungarian government.Asked by Green MEP Daniel Freund on Monday to “write a rap song about Orbán’s corruption,” the popular chatbot slammed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.While it’s unlikely to win a Grammy, the chatbot touched a nerve in Budapest with its verses:He’s been stacking the courts, packing the pressMaking sure his critics are silenced, no lessUsing public funds to line his own pockets(…) From football clubs to luxury castlesOrbán’s empire is built on scams and hustles.The chatbot’s attack prompted an angry response from Orbán’s government’s spokesperson.Zoltán Kovács fired back, saying the chatbot was “nothing more than a bullshit generator” — and went on to ask the AI software to create a rap song about Freund.But the chatbot actually praised the German MEP, labeling him a “fighter for democracy,R...

Beyond TikTok, Dutch tell government staff to uninstall Chinese, Russian apps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

The Dutch government has issued new guidance Tuesday for its officials to uninstall apps from countries that wage a “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The move is a response to questions by Dutch lawmakers about whether the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok should be banned from work phones. Government officials were told already in November not to use TikTok for government work, but formal restrictions on the app — like the ban that EU institutions issued in February — was not in place yet. In their new guidance the Dutch are going beyond TikTok. “The first step is to immediately dissuade officials of the national government to install or use apps on mobile work devices from companies originating from countries with an offensive cyber program against the Netherlands and/or against Dutch interests,” Minister of Digitization Alexandra van Huffelen wrote in a letter to lawmakers, seen by POLITI...

London’s Met Police facing ‘long road to recovery’ after damning report on its culture

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:11:24 GMT

LONDON — The Metropolitan Police is riddled with “institutional” racism, misogyny and homophobia, a blistering report on the U.K.’s largest police force concluded.The official review — conducted over twelve months by former top civil servant Louise Casey in the wake of a host of high-profile crimes involving Met officers — warns that the London force has lost the faith of the British public.The findings come in the wake of serving Met officer Wayne Couzens’ conviction for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Just last month, former Met officer David Carrick — similarly trusted to guard parliament and diplomatic sites as part of an elite team — was sentenced to life in jail for abusing multiple women while on the force.The review identifies a number of cases where female, gay or minority ethnic officers were mistreated or abused by colleagues, and derides a bullying “boys’ club” culture in which predators had “too many places to hide.”Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesd...