DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Queens Park Ladies Joined a Boys’ League. Then They Went Undefeated.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With about four games left in the season, it became mathematically clear to the players and coaches of the Queens Park Ladies, an under-12 girls’ soccer team in Bournemouth, England, that they would win their league. But rather than resting on their laurels and enjoying their guaranteed victory, they decided to take it a step further: What if they not only won their league, but also did so without losing a match? If that wasn’t enough, they would be pulling it off as the only girls’ team in a boys’ league. The Queens Park Ladies did not lose any of their 22 matches, earning them the elusive nickname “Invincibles,” one that conjures the memory of Arsenal’s undefeated 2003-04 Premier League season under Arsène Wenger. “I just thought it was incredible that we’ve gone so far to beat some boys that are probably more physical than us,” Millie Ray, 11, a midfielder, said.

Persons: Arsène Wenger, “, Millie Ray, ” Organizations: Queens Park Ladies, soccer, Queens Park, Premier League Locations: Bournemouth, England

☆ Amsterdam’s Latest Effort to Fight Excessive Tourism: No New Hotels
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Amsterdam has been searching for any way to rein in the number of tourists that visit the city every year. The city has also long tried to control the crowds in its red-light district, where rowdy groups of tourists often cause disruptions to local residents. It has added stricter rules about smoking marijuana. It has banned new tourist shops. And still, the people keep coming.

Persons: ”, — Locations: Amsterdam

☆ Bishop Is Stabbed During Live Streamed Service in Sydney
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A police operation was underway after 7:10 p.m. local time on Monday, the New South Wales Police Force said in a statement. The police said that “a number of people were stabbed,” but that none of them had suffered life-threatening injuries. The Australian news media reported that there were four victims, including a religious leader. Cries and screams can be heard from others in the church. “A large police response is underway, and the public is urged to avoid the area,” the police said.

Persons: Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, “ Organizations: New South Wales Police Force, Good Shepherd, Bishop Locations: Sydney, Australia, Wakeley, “

The military said that only the booster was activated, not the engine that takes over after launch, and not the warhead, so the missile could not travel far and the warhead could not detonate. The missile test on Thursday was conducted aboard a frigate, the Niels Juel, in the port of Korsør, which sits beside the Great Belt. The Great Belt is the strait between Denmark’s two largest islands, Zealand and Funen, and is part of the main shipping route between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. “From those I have spoken to in the Navy, they are taking it very calmly,” said Søren Nørby, an assistant professor at the Norwegian Defense Academy. If it goes off, there is about 52 kilograms of metal object flying and falling down.”

Persons: Flemming Lentfer, Niels Juel, ”, Søren Nørby Organizations: Navy, Norwegian Defense Academy, “ Locations: U.S, Yemen, Korsør, Zealand, Funen, Baltic

The scene is as spectacular as it is dangerous: flowing rivers of shimmering lava and a dramatic plume of toxic gas. That image has been the reality for much of the past four months in the Reykjanes Peninsula in southern Iceland, which the country’s tourism website has called a “geological wonder where lighthouses outnumber villages.”A series of volcano eruptions began in December after hundreds of earthquakes shook the peninsula, cracking open a fissure that sent lava spewing into a residential neighborhood for the first time in more than four decades. The volcanic system has erupted several more times since then.

Locations: Iceland

☆ The Dali was just starting a 27-day voyage.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Dali was less than 30 minutes into its planned 27-day journey when the ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday. The Dali, which is nearly 1,000 feet long, left the Baltimore port around 1 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday. The ship had two pilots onboard, according to a statement by its owners, Grace Ocean Investment. Before heading off on its voyage, the Dali had returned to the United States from Panama on March 19, harboring in New York. The Dali sustained damage at the time, but no one was injured.

Persons: Dali, Francis Scott Key Organizations: Grace Ocean Investment, South, Hyundai Heavy Industries Locations: Sri Lanka, Baltimore, United States, Panama, New York, South Korea, Antwerp

☆ Geert Wilders Says He Will Forgo Becoming Dutch Prime Minister
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Geert Wilders, the hard-right politician who won a shocking victory in the last Dutch elections, said on Wednesday that he was willing to forgo becoming the prime minister of the Netherlands — for now — in an effort to increase the chances of forming a right-wing coalition. Long an anathema to mainstream politicians, Mr. Wilders has been at the center of coalition negotiations in the months since his decisive election victory in November. While it is now highly unlikely that he will be the next prime minister, other parties have broken a taboo that was in place since 2012: They will have to find a way to govern with Mr. Wilders’s Party for Freedom in some form. “I can only become prime minister if ALL parties in the coalition support it. He added that he wanted a right-wing cabinet and less immigration.

Persons: Geert Wilders, Long, Wilders, ”, “, ” Mr, Wilders’s Organizations: Wilders’s Party for Freedom Locations: Netherlands

☆ A Dutch Quandary Offers a Glimpse of a Deepening Problem for Europe
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Just months ago, Geert Wilders was an anathema to most Dutch political parties. A disruptive and divisive force on the far right for two decades, Mr. Wilders has said he wants to end immigration from Muslim countries, tax head scarves and ban the Quran. But then Mr. Wilders won national elections convincingly in November. Since then, Mr. Wilders has become an unavoidable political force. “He is the biggest,” said Janka Stoker, a professor of leadership and organizational change at the University of Groningen, of Mr. Wilders.

Persons: Geert Wilders, Wilders, ”, Janka Stoker, “ Organizations: Party, Freedom, European Union, University of Groningen

☆ With a New Holocaust Museum, the Netherlands Faces Its Past
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three faces stare blankly from sepia-toned passport photos, haphazardly pasted onto a card to an unknown recipient. Under their pictures are the handwritten words: “Don’t forget us!”It’s unclear when this card was sent. But its plea has helped shape the permanent collection at the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, which opens to the public next week. “I think it’s a remnant of a long-felt discomfort in the Netherlands with taking ownership of what happened,” said Emile Schrijver, the general director of the National Holocaust Museum. While other museums in the Netherlands cover aspects of the history of the Holocaust — such as the Anne Frank House, or museums that focus on World War II more broadly — the National Holocaust Museum is the first institution devoted to telling the full story of the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands.

Persons: we’ll, hesitance, ”, Emile Schrijver, Anne Frank House Organizations: National Holocaust Museum Locations: Amsterdam, Netherlands

☆ London Bids Farewell, for Now, to a Beloved, Overstuffed Walrus
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Southeast London has temporarily lost one of its most famous residents: a giant taxidermy walrus that has been on display for more than a century. For most of the past 120 years, the walrus has sat in the middle of the Natural History Gallery at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. The museum displays the collection of Frederick Horniman, a wealthy tea trader who lived in Victorian England. The collection will include more context about how Mr. Horniman came to own the walrus. The museum’s website notes that Mr. Horniman’s wealth was “reliant on the exploitation of people living in the British Empire.”

Persons: Frederick Horniman, —, Louis Buckley, Horniman, ” Organizations: Horniman, Gardens Locations: London, Victorian England, British

☆ This Small Island Has a Dark History
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Look closely at this tiny, idyllic island: Victorian-era fortifications dot the windswept coastline. A concrete anti-tank wall disrupts a quiet beach. This is Alderney, where the 2,100 people who call the island home do not lock their cars. Where the streets are quiet and the pubs (nine of them) are lively, and the roads don’t have traffic lights. And where reminders of World War II hide behind most corners.

Locations: Alderney, France, Britain

☆ A Rebrand for London’s ‘Spaghetti of Orange’ Overground Train System
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Claire Moses | Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

London’s public transportation system may soon become a bit easier to navigate. The train lines on London’s Overground, a rail system that largely serves people in neighborhoods outside of central London beyond the reach of the city’s Underground system, will be renamed. The lines on the map will also receive new colors, replacing a system that is currently marked entirely with orange lines on maps. While the Overground is technically a different system than the Underground, popularly known as the tube, the same payment method applies to both, and multiple stations connect the two systems. The new names are: Lioness, named after the English women’s soccer team; Mildmay, honoring a small East London hospital with a pivotal role caring for patients during the AIDS crisis; Windrush, after the ship that brought some of the first migrants from the Caribbean to Britain; Weaver, which travels through an area once known for its textile trade; Suffragette, after the movement that fought for women’s right to vote; and Liberty, which references the historical independence of the people of the Havering borough.

Persons: Mildmay, Weaver Locations: London, East London, Caribbean, Britain, Havering

☆ Dries van Agt, Former Dutch Prime Minister, Dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Dries van Agt, a Dutch politician and former prime minister of the Netherlands who became a pro-Palestinian activist later in life, died on Feb. 5 in his hometown, Nijmegen. He died “hand in hand” with his wife, Eugenie, also 93, in a joint act of euthanasia, according to The Rights Forum, an organization he founded that is dedicated to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The announcement of the couple’s euthanasia was a surprise to many people who knew Mr. van Agt as well as to Dutch society as a whole, said Gerard Jonkman, the director of the Rights Forum. In 2019, Mr. van Agt had a stroke, which caused him to lose some of his faculties, Mr. Jonkman said. “He was in a bad physical condition toward the end,” he added.

Persons: Eugenie, van Agt, Gerard Jonkman, Jonkman, “, ” Organizations: Rights Locations: Dutch, Netherlands, Nijmegen

Nearly half of all flash flood deaths are vehicle-related, experts say, which is why you should never drive into a flooded street. Here’s what to do in advance — and in the moment — to get through a flash flood safely. A “flash flood warning” means a flash flood is imminent or already occurring, and you should immediately move to higher ground if you’re outside or in a basement apartment. The most dire alert is a “flash flood emergency,” which indicates that not only is flooding occurring, but it’s posing a severe threat to human life. “People need to realize that most people who lose their footing in a flash flood don’t get out,” she said.

Persons: there’s, ”, Bonnie Schneider, Schneider, it’s, Hurricane Ida, You’ll, Ready.gov, David Markenson, ‘ It’s, Sabine Marx, I’m, Julie Munger, Munger, “, Dr, Markenson, you’re, don’t, they’re, Ms, Lynn Burttschell, Burttschell, Eugene Resnick, ’, ” Susan Shain Organizations: National Weather Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cross Training Services, Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Sierra Rescue, FEMA, Wimberley, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York Times Locations: United States, New York City, New York, Madison, Wis

☆ Many Schools in Southern California Will Remain Open Despite Floods
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Most school districts in Southern California, including Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest in the country, were planning to keep most classrooms open on Monday, officials said, even as the state battled heavy rain, flooding and mudslides. Many students depend on schools for basic nutrition, the Los Angeles superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, said at a news conference on Sunday, explaining why he had decided not to close most of the district. The impact of the wind and rain will also vary greatly by neighborhood, he said, meaning that many schools will not be as badly affected. On Monday morning, Los Angeles Unified said that winds were forecast to diminish in the morning, citing it as a reason to keep schools open. Los Angeles Unified has more than 400,000 students in more than 700 schools across the district.

Persons: Alberto Carvalho Organizations: Los Angeles Unified, Los, Vinedale College Preparatory Academy Locations: Southern California, Los Angeles, Sun Valley

☆ Man Is Charged With Killing His Father After Posting Grisly YouTube Video
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Claire Moses | Orlando Mayorquin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lt. Stephen Forman, a detective with the Middletown Township Police Department, said the man, Justin Mohn, was arrested Tuesday night. The police also confirmed that it was Mr. Mohn in the YouTube video, in which he promoted conspiratorial and anti-government views and briefly showed what he claimed was his father’s head wrapped in plastic. The video, which has since been removed, appeared to have been filmed during the daytime and was online for about five hours, Lieutenant Forman said. During the time the video was available Mr. Mohn’s subscriber count increased to eight from four, the detective said. “From the way he was talking, you’d think he had a whole militia with thousands or hundreds of thousands of people,” Lieutenant Forman said, referring to Mr. Mohn’s small following on YouTube.

Persons: Stephen Forman, Justin Mohn, Mohn, Forman, “, you’d Organizations: YouTube, Middletown Township Police Department Locations: Pennsylvania, Middletown Township

☆ Minute-Long Soap Operas Are Here. Is America Ready?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Albee Zhang received an offer to produce cheesy short-form features made for phones last spring, she was skeptical, and so, she declined. Finally, Ms. Zhang, who has been a producer for 12 years, realized it could be a profitable new way of storytelling and said yes. Since last summer, she has produced two short-form features and is working on four more for several apps that are creating cookie-cutter content aimed at women. Think: Lifetime movie cut up into TikTok videos. Think: soap opera, but for the short attention span of the internet age.

Persons: Albee Zhang, Zhang

☆ Arsonist Sentenced to Death for Killing 36 People in 2019 Kyoto Studio Fire
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Japanese judge sentenced to death a man who killed 36 people in an arson attack at an anime studio in Kyoto in 2019, one of the country’s deadliest attacks in decades, after he was found guilty of murder on Thursday. Shinji Aoba, the defendant, was charged with murder in 2020, a year after setting fire to the studio of Kyoto Animation. Mr. Aoba had a history of mental illness. In July 2019, Mr. Aoba barged into the studio with gasoline, sprayed it with force and set it on fire with a gas lighter, the judge said Thursday, according to local reports. Mr. Aoba did so, the judge added, because of a grudge — he was convinced that the studio had stolen a novel from him.

Persons: Shinji Aoba, Aoba, Aoba barged Organizations: Kyoto Animation, Associated Press Locations: Kyoto

☆ An English Mystery: What Killed 7 Giant Tortoises Found in the Forest?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

And they weren’t your usual victims. The police in Devon and Cornwall are investigating how seven giant tortoises ended up dead this month in Ashclyst Forest, northeast of Exeter, England. Two tortoises were found on Jan. 8, and five more on Jan. 12, the police said. The police have asked members of the public to come forward with information if they have it. It’s unclear who found the tortoises, but the police said “a member of the public” reported the dead animals.

Persons: “ Locations: England, Devon, Cornwall, Ashclyst Forest, Exeter

☆ Scottish Country Music Venue Ends Display of Confederate Flag
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A country and western music venue in Scotland, nearly 4,000 miles and 150 years removed from the Civil War, voted this week to end its controversial display of the Confederate flag. Until recently, a night of live music at the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow, a members’ club that holds public events, would end with what it described as a salute to the war’s dead and a ceremonial folding of the Confederate battle flag, which to many in the United States and abroad is a symbol of white supremacy. After years of rising tension, the club’s leadership announced last month that it would ban the flag’s display, a move that exploded into a rift among the organization’s 200 or so members, most of whom are white and Scottish. During an emergency meeting on Monday, they voted, narrowly and by secret ballot, to uphold the decision banning the flag, 50-48.

Organizations: Confederate, Grand Ole Opry Locations: Scotland, Glasgow, United States

☆ Eurostar to Suspend Amsterdam to London Service for 6 Months
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Direct train service from Amsterdam to London on the Eurostar, the sleek, fast train that connects Britain to northwestern Europe, will be suspended for six months next year, the train company said. The closing, which will begin in June, is a result of renovations at Amsterdam Centraal Station, from which the Eurostar to London departs. “It’s a shame,” she said, adding that the train company has worked to entice people to take trains instead of planes for short distances. A flight from Amsterdam to London takes less than an hour. The train trip from Amsterdam to London takes about four hours, with stops in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, Brussels and Lille, France.

Persons: Carola Belderbos, Belderbos, “, ” Organizations: Eurostar, Dutch Locations: Amsterdam, London, Britain, Europe, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Brussels, Lille, France

☆ Long a Bastion of Liberalism, the Netherlands Takes a Sharp Right Turn
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Netherlands, long regarded as one of Europe’s most socially liberal countries, woke up to a drastically changed political landscape on Thursday after a far-right party swept national elections in a result that has reverberated throughout Europe. Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, which advocates banning the Quran, closing Islamic schools and entirely halting the acceptance of asylum seekers, won 37 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, making it by far the biggest party, in a clear rebuke of the country’s political establishment. The results, tabulated overnight after Wednesday’s voting, give Mr. Wilders enough support to try to form a governing coalition. Centrist and center-right parties long wary of the firebrand have left the door ajar to a possible partnership, giving Mr. Wilders a chance to become the Netherlands’ first far-right prime minister. While people across the political spectrum expressed surprise at the election outcome, and the Dutch reputation of liberalism persists, experts say that Mr. Wilders succeeded by tapping into a discontent with government that dates back at least two decades.

Persons: Geert Wilders, Wilders Organizations: Party for Freedom Locations: Netherlands, Europe

☆ This Season, Holiday Movies Are Falling for Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

And, according to an increasing number of holiday movies, it’s in Europe. In Notting Hill. A jolly good Christmas. A merry Scottish Christmas and even a merry Swissmas. Europe, with its cobblestoned streets (a nightmare in heels), old buildings (no central heating) and Christmas markets (those can be as good as they look onscreen), provides the perfect setting for a magical holiday adventure.

Persons: Noel, ”, Ali Liebert Organizations: Hallmark Locations: Europe, Rome, Vienna, Switzerland, Scotland, Notting Hill, Belgian, Heidelberg, France

☆ Far-Right Icon Predicted to Win Dutch Elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Netherlands on Wednesday took a startling turn in national elections with the potential to ripple through Europe, as Dutch voters threw most support behind the party of a far-right icon with an incendiary reputation who had campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform. Geert Wilders, a political provocateur long known for his anti-Islam and anti-Europe stances, appeared poised to come out significantly ahead with the most parliamentary seats, according to some early results and exit polls, which were expected to be dependable, especially given the margin of victory they indicated. “The Dutch voter has spoken,” Mr. Wilders said in a speech on Wednesday night, declaring himself the winner. “The voter has said, ‘We are fed up.’” He added that he wanted to return “the Netherlands to the Dutch.”If the preliminary results hold up, the Netherlands will be at the threshold of uncertain new political terrain after 13 years of stewardship by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a stalwart of Dutch politics and a dependable presence on the E.U.

Persons: Geert Wilders, Mr, Wilders, “, ‘, Mark Rutte Organizations: Wednesday Locations: Netherlands

☆ The Man Looking to Upend an Unpredictable Dutch Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Claire Moses | More About Claire Moses | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yet it is one that does not pit the elite against the common man in the way populist parties often do, political analysts said. The Dutch election is shaping up as one of the most significant and competitive in years. Mr. Rutte, who is serving as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, was considered a mainstay of Dutch politics. Mr. Rutte was also a strong voice for fiscal restraint inside the European Union, especially after the British exit, allowing the Netherlands to punch above its weight on E.U. Those are big political shoes to fill, and the race remains unpredictable, analysts said, with three or four parties closely jockeying near the top of polls in the homestretch.

Persons: Rutte, ” Organizations: European Union Locations: Groningen, Netherlands

Search resuls for: "Claire Moses"

25 mentions found