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No sex please, we’re British tourists in Amsterdam

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.Terrible news for the summer holiday plans of the Friends of Boris Johnson Association … Amsterdam no longer wants rowdy British tourists.The authorities in the Dutch city, famous for its easy access to drugs and sex and absolutely nothing else (the Rijksmuseum? Never heard of it!), have had enough of badly behaved groups and launched a campaign to encourage them to go somewhere else instead. People who Google terms such as “stag party Amsterdam,” “cheap hotel Amsterdam” or “pub crawl Amsterdam” ahead of a visit to the Dutch city will have to sit through short videos stressing “the risks and consequences of nuisance and excessive alcohol and drug use,” the city of Amsterdam said in a statement. “Cheap hotel Amsterdam” seems a particularly harsh search term to target seeing as the average price of an overnight stay in the city is one signed Vermeer. “Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night + getting trashed = €140 fine + c...

UK Tory MPs accused of plotting ‘chicken runs’ to safer seats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

LONDON — In his 2019 election victory speech, Boris Johnson thanked first-time Tory voters for putting their “sacred trust” in the Conservative Party.“Your hand may have quivered over the ballot paper before you put your cross in the Conservative box,” Johnson told voters in former Labour strongholds. “I am humbled that you have put your trust in me and you have put your trust in us. I, and we, will never take your support for granted.”Three years later, senior Tories are concerned that with polling showing the opposition Labour Party on course for a landslide victory, MPs in those landmark but now vulnerable Red Wall seats are considering fleeing to safer ground.Changes to the U.K. constituency map mean politicians of all stripes are scrambling to claim and reclaim territories ahead of an election due by the end of 2024. A few MPs are forced to hunt for new seats because the boundaries of their current ones are being substantially redrawn. But half a dozen or more are using minor c...

There ought to be no hiding place for Putin

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

Aarif Abraham is a British barrister and a member of Garden Court North Chambers and Accountability Unit in London.The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime of unlawfully deporting children to Russia is a historic moment for intentional criminal justice. It is only the third time the ICC has issued indicative charges against a serving head of state, and the first time against that of a U.N. Security Council member.The warrant starts a process that runs in parallel with another first — the initiative to create a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression as allegedly being committed in Ukraine. It would be the first aggression-focused tribunal since Nuremberg and Tokyo, which prosecuted axis-power leaders after World War II. If created, such a tribunal could prosecute senior military and political leaders for what the 1946 Nuremberg judgment called the “supreme international crime.” Why? Because had the manife...

Republic of Radev: Bulgaria’s impasse empowers its elusive president

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

SOFIA — Bulgaria’s fifth general election in two years on Sunday is unlikely to break the country’s long-running political deadlock, meaning that the enigmatic president, Rumen Radev, is once again likely to be the main winner on the night. Bulgarian presidents usually only play a largely ceremonial role, but the utter disarray among parliamentary parties in the past two years means the former MiG-29 pilot and head of the air force now plays an outsize role in appointing technocratic caretaker administrations — with major repercussions for the NATO country’s foreign policy during the Ukraine war. But what’s his agenda? Anti-corruption fighter, or pro-Russian stooge? He’s a slippery, versatile personality to pin down, but no one doubts the 59-year-old’s ambition to stick around and pull the strings. He was little known before he burst onto the scene and won the presidential election in 2016, nominated by the Socialists, the successors of the former...

Inside the deal: How Britain joined CPTPP

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

LONDON — It was all meant to happen in early March.Negotiators from the 11 nations that make up the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) gathered on the palm-lined Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc with their U.K. counterparts, led by Britain’s chief negotiator Graham Zebedee, for a week-long summit. After 18 months of talks, the U.K. was on the verge of becoming the trade bloc’s first new member since its formation in 2018.CPTPP nations had watched with concern the long-running dispute between the U.K. and the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol on post-Brexit trading arrangements. But with the replacement Windsor Framework unveiled amid much fanfare on February 27 — just in time for the first day of talks — everything was falling into place for an agreement in principle on U.K. accession.But at the 11th hour, an issue that had lingered throughout the negotiations burst to the fore.Britain had already agreed to liberalize tariffs on beef and s...

Why Britain’s Pacific trade deal is about more than just trade

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

LONDON — The U.K.’s accession to an 11-strong Pacific trade pact is about much more than just whisky tariffs and beef imports. It’s about post-Brexit Britain’s place in a 21st century dominated by the rise of China.Formally announced in the early hours of Friday morning, Britain’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is being touted as the U.K.’s biggest trade achievement since leaving the EU in January 2020.But experts and government officials say the diplomatic benefits of U.K. membership are likely to far outweigh the economic upsides of joining the £9 trillion GDP Pacific trading bloc. London already has free-trade deals with nine of its 11 members, and the U.K. government’s own studies state CPTPP membership will not compensate for the post-Brexit fall in trade with its closest neighbor, the EU.Indeed, the move can be seen as just the latest piece in Britain’s 21st century foreign policy jigsaw, as set out in the go...

Tatum, Brown help Celtics demolish NBA-leading Bucks 140-99

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 40 points, Jaylen Brown added 30 and the Boston Celtics steamrolled the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks 140-99 on Thursday night.The Celtics (53-24) shot 22 of 43 from 3-point range and moved within two games of the Bucks (55-22) in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics won the season series with the Bucks 2-1, which would give Boston the tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record.Boston’s performance in those three games with Milwaukee should give the Celtics plenty of confidence they could knock out the Bucks again if they meet in the postseason. The Celtics beat the Bucks in seven games in last season’s East semifinals.The Celtics beat the Bucks 139-118 in Boston on Christmas Day and lost 131-125 in overtime on Feb. 14. The Celtics didn’t play Brown, Tatum, Marcus Smart or Al Horford in that overtime loss.Milwaukee took a hit on the floor as well as in the standings. Bucks forward Khris Middleton left the game...

Bruins wrap up Presidents’ Trophy with win over Blue Jackets

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — David Pastrnak scored his 53rd goal of the season 41 seconds into overtime and the Boston Bruins wrapped up the Presidents’ Trophy with their franchise-record 58th victory, 2-1 over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night,Hampus Lindholm sent a pass to Pastrnak for the backhand winner.The Presidents’ Trophy goes to the NHL regular-season points leader. Boston broke a tie with the 1970-71 team for the franchise victory mark and moved four away from tying the NHL record of 62 set by Detroit in 1995-96 and matched by Tampa Bay in 2018-19.Tyler Bertuzzi had a tying power-play goal in the second and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves to help the Bruins win for the eighth time in nine games.Jack Roslovic scored for Columbus and Michael Hutchinson stopped 29 shots. The Blue Jackets have lost six of eight.Boston tied it when Bertuzzi redirected Pavel Zacha’s pass between Hutchinson’s pads.Roslovic tipped Liam Foudy’s pass just past Ullmark’s outstretched left skate at 8:08 of the...

After volunteering to do so, Orioles CEO John Angelos indicates he will not be sharing club’s finances after all

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

John Angelos is “as transparent as transparent gets,” he said Thursday. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be fulfilling his promise to share the Orioles’ books.Angelos, the Orioles’ chairman and CEO, had twice this year told reporters that he would reveal details of the Orioles’ financial situation. However, when asked Thursday in an interview on 105.7 The Fan if and when he’d be following through on his word, Angelos indicated that he would not be. He responded to the radio hosts’ question by criticizing The Baltimore Sun, alluding to a recent Sun article on the topic.“It’s an interesting concept and I saw that my good friends at The Baltimore Sun wanted to weigh in on that today. When the hedge fund that owns The Baltimore Sun, based in New York City, wants to open their books, I guess we’ll take a look at that. It’s difficult for me to understand what that fascination is,” Angelos said in th...

Chicago White Sox give Pedro Grifol a victory in his managerial debut, rallying for a 3-2 win against the Houston Astros in the season opener

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:44 GMT

The Chicago White Sox stood on the third-base line after both teams were introduced and watched as the Houston Astros held their 2022 championship ceremony before Thursday’s game at Minute Maid Park.Every major-league team is striving for the type of celebration that was on display.The party was followed by strong pitching and late offense in a 3-2 Sox victory in manager Pedro Grifol’s debut in front of a sellout crowd of 43,032.The Astros scored on a wild pitch in the seventh, and the Sox tied the game in the eighth with a two-out homer from Yasmani Grandal. Andrew Vaughn gave the Sox the lead with a two-run double in the ninth.Sox starter Dylan Cease and Astros starter Framber Valdez showed why they finished in the top five in the American League Cy Young Award voting last season.Cease, the Cy Young runner-up, struck out seven of the first 10 batters he faced and finished with 10 strikeouts, matching Jack McDowell (1991) for the most by a Sox pitcher on opening day. Ce...