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☆ France-U.K. Summit Seeks to Thaw Tensions Between Two Nations
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Max Colchester | Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron is rolling out the red carpet Friday for U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak , as Europe’s two biggest military powers look to end years of bad blood and present a united front against Russia. Mr. Sunak, accompanied by several senior members of his cabinet, will meet with the French president in Paris to discuss issues including defense cooperation, energy security and plans to tackle illegal migration. The aim of the fanfare at the Élysée Palace is to show how the two countries have moved on from years of bickering after Britain’s messy divorce from the European Union.

☆ France-U.K. Summit Rekindles ‘Le Bromance’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Max Colchester | Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron is rolling out the red carpet Friday for U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak , as Europe’s two biggest military powers look to end years of bad blood and present a united front against Russia. Mr. Sunak, accompanied by several senior members of his cabinet, is meeting with the French president in Paris to discuss issues including defense cooperation, energy security and plans to tackle illegal migration. The aim of the fanfare at the Élysée Palace is to show how the two countries have moved on from years of bickering after Britain’s messy divorce from the European Union.

☆ Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Battles Neighbor Robbie Williams Over a Basement Man Cave
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON— Jimmy Page shot to fame in the 1960s playing earsplitting concerts as the lead guitarist in the band Led Zeppelin. But in the past decade, the ponytailed 79-year-old Brit has pined for the quiet life. Page has said he doesn’t hold raucous house parties at his 19th-century manor the Tower House in west London. Instead, he has thrown himself into restoring the frescos and stained-glass windows that adorn the interior of the historic building.

☆ U.K. to Bar All Asylum Seekers Who Cross Channel on Boats
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Max Colchester | David Luhnow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The number of migrants arriving to England from France on small boats has soared. LONDON—The U.K. government is to introduce a law on Tuesday which bans asylum seekers who arrive on small boats across the English Channel from claiming British citizenship, the latest attempt by the ruling Conservative Party to fix Britain’s overwhelmed asylum system and bring under control a hot button issue that has damaged its standings in the polls. The new laws aims to deter and more quickly process tens of thousands of asylum seekers who make the sometimes perilous journey to the U.K. in small boats from France, a government spokesman said Monday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made tackling the issue a key pledge ahead of an election expected next year.

☆ How HBO's content chief plans to grow the audience for Warner Bros. Discovery's new mega-streamer with DC and Warner Bros. shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

HBO's Casey Bloys revealed his content strategy on "The Watch" podcast and in a talk with Parrot Analytics. Bloys also shared what's ahead for HBO Max once it combines with Warner Bros. Despite economic pressures on streaming, he's not worried that HBO content will suffer. "Euphoria" is second only to "Game of Thrones" in most-viewed HBO shows, but Bloys was hesitant at first to develop its hit 2022 prequel "House of the Dragon," he told "The Watch." And he pointed to more Batman spinoffs like "The Penguin" that's coming to HBO Max and will star Colin Farrell.

☆ U.K. Leader Touts His Revamped Brexit Deal in Northern Ireland
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Belfast to sell his Northern Ireland deal on Tuesday, amid tentative signs the pact could allow the U.K., and his Conservative party, to begin to move on from a Brexit saga that has dragged on for years. Mr. Sunak met in Belfast with major political parties in the province in a bid to win their backing of the deal, which reshapes the terms of the U.K.’s 2019 divorce from the European Union when it comes to Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. but shares the same island with the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.

☆ U.K., EU Reach Deal to Resolve Northern Ireland Trade Issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Max Colchester | Laurence Norman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Windsor, England, on Monday. WINDSOR, England—The U.K. and European Union agreed Monday on a new trading arrangement for Northern Ireland, a move aimed at ending years of friction caused by Brexit and allowing greater cooperation between both sides at a time of mounting geopolitical risk to Europe from Russia’s war in Ukraine. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met in Windsor, near the royal castle there, to shake hands on a compromise that proposes to reduce trade issues between the British mainland and the province of Northern Ireland, which in practice remains in the EU single market for goods following Brexit.

☆ U.K., EU Reach Deal in Bid to Resolve Northern Ireland Trade Issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Max Colchester | Laurence Norman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WINDSOR, England—The U.K. and European Union agreed Monday on a new trading arrangement for Northern Ireland, a move aimed at ending years of friction caused by Brexit and allowing greater cooperation between both sides at a time of mounting geopolitical risk to Europe from Russia’s war in Ukraine. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met in Windsor, near the royal castle there, to shake hands on a compromise that proposes to reduce trade issues between the British mainland and the province of Northern Ireland, which in practice remains in the EU single market for goods following Brexit.

☆ ‘South Park’ lawsuit: Warner Bros. Discovery sues Paramount for $500 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Discovery filed a lawsuit against Paramount Friday, claiming the rival media company breached its half-billion-dollar exclusivity contract with HBO Max by airing “South Park” on its own streaming platform, Paramount+. Nearly all “South Park” episodes air first on Paramount-owned Comedy Central. Then came the pandemic, and WarnerMedia was told that the new production of “South Park” would be halted, according to the complaint. In March 2021, Paramount launched Paramount+, and Warner Bros. Warner Bros.

☆ Warner Bros. Discovery sues Paramount over 'South Park' streaming rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Warner Bros. Discovery sued Paramount Global looking to enforce the streaming rights of "South Park," setting the stage for a legal battle between two media behemoths as the streaming wars intensify. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Paramount, South Park Digital Studios and MTV Entertainment seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for what it believes was a breach of contract. During the bidding process for the "South Park" rights, the filing said, Paramount allegedly asked whether Warner Bros. Discovery plans to launch a combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service this spring.

☆ Ex-producer Harvey Weinstein faces sentencing for Los Angeles rape conviction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Harvey Weinstein, the onetime Hollywood titan who came to epitomize a culture of pervasive sexual misconduct by powerful men that ignited the #MeToo movement, is to be sentenced on Thursday for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles. Whatever sentence is pronounced should be served once the former movie producer and Miramax co-founder has completed the 23-year sentence imposed for a sexual misconduct conviction in New York, prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench declared a mistrial on the deadlocked charges. The producer of "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love" was convicted of sexual misconduct in New York in February 2020, and extradited from New York to a Los Angeles prison in July 2021. In New York, Weinstein is appealing his conviction and prison sentence.

☆ Roald Dahl’s Children’s Books Changed to Make Them More Inclusive
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( David Luhnow | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Cloud Men in Roald Dahl’s book ‘James and the Giant Peach’ were changed to Cloud People in the latest edition. LONDON—The British publisher of Roald Dahl ’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and other children’s books has made hundreds of changes to their texts—altering passages that refer to body weight, race and gender—in an effort to make them more acceptable to contemporary readers. The modifications drew criticism from Britain’s Conservative government as well as some high-profile authors and free-speech advocates. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s spokesman said Monday that “you should not gobblefunk around with words,” using a word coined by Mr. Dahl and used in his book “BFG” that means roughly “to tinker.”

☆ HBO's content chief reveals plans to build audiences for HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery's new mega-streamer with DC and Warner Bros. shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

HBO's Casey Bloys revealed his content strategy on "The Watch" podcast and in a talk with Parrot Analytics. Bloys also shared what's ahead for HBO Max once it combines with Warner Bros. Despite economic pressures on streaming, he's not worried that HBO content will suffer. And even after Bloys took on oversight of HBO Max Originals in 2020, "The idea is to do things that are not necessarily for HBO," he told "The Watch." And he pointed to more Batman spinoffs like "The Penguin" that's coming to HBO Max and will star Colin Farrell.

☆ The Crisis at the NHS, in Eight Charts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Max Colchester | Rosie Ettenheim | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The wait times start as soon as someone calls 999, the equivalent of 911. Patients in England wait far longer than the NHS targets, from getting a call answered to the handover from ambulance to hospital staff.

☆ Coca-Cola partners with Rosalia on new drink
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Coca-Cola is releasing a new limited-edition flavor, Coca-Cola Move, in collaboration with Grammy-award winning singer Rosalía. As with its other high-concept flavors, Coca-Cola isn’t sharing what Move is actually supposed to taste like. Coca-Cola partners with Rosalía on a new drink, "Coca-Cola Move". The Coca-Cola CompanyFor Coca-Cola, the limited-edition items are a way to build buzz around its core product, Coke. In June, it co-created a Coke drink with Marshmello, a masked celebrity DJ and electronic music producer.

☆ Ukraine’s Zelensky to Visit U.K. as Britain Steps Up Training, Military Aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to visit the U.K. to address Parliament on Wednesday, his second known overseas trip as he seeks to build Western support for greater military aid to his country amid signs of an impending Russian offensive. The U.K. government has proved a firm ally and vocal advocate of military aid to Ukraine ever since Russia’s attack on the country last February. Successive U.K. leaders have urged allies in The North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be more forward leaning in boosting support for Ukraine by providing more lethal weaponry and funds, to try to tip the war decisively in Ukraine’s favor.

☆ David Carrick, Former London Police Officer, Gets At Least 30 Years in Prison for Rape
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Max Colchester | David Luhnow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Protesters gathered earlier this week outside Southwark Crown Court in London during the sentencing of former police officer David Carrick. LONDON—Former British police officer David Carrick on Tuesday was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail after he was found guilty of committing a series of rapes over the last two decades as an active policeman, raising difficult questions over how London’s Metropolitan Police force vets its officers. Mr. Carrick pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to 12 victims between 2003 and 2020. The admissions made him one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders. Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said during sentencing that Mr. Carrick, 48, felt untouchable because of his job and had caused “irretrievable devastation” in the lives of the women he raped and abused.

☆ The U.K.’s Government-Run Healthcare Service Is in Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( David Luhnow | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For more than a decade, the British government has run its National Health Service, the world’s largest government-run healthcare system, on a tight budget. The NHS prided itself on being one of the leanest healthcare systems in the developed world, spending less per head on average than its large European neighbors—and far less than the U.S.Now the state-funded service is falling apart. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than 1½ hours on average for an ambulance. A record 7.1 million people in England—more than one in 10 people—are stuck on waiting lists for nonemergency hospital treatment like hip replacements. The NHS on Monday faced the biggest strike in its history, with thousands of paramedics and nurses walking out over pay.

☆ The U.K.’s Healthcare Crisis Sounds an Alarm for Aging Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( David Luhnow | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is Apple's priciest and most premium iPhone, so it pays to protect it. The best cases for the iPhone 14 Pro Max combine style, safety, and MagSafe compatibility. But protection isn't the only measure of a good iPhone case — after all, you don't want to cover your fancy smartphone with an ugly chunk of plastic. We've gathered the best iPhone 14 Pro Max cases that go above and beyond. These include cases from well-known brands like Apple and Otterbox, and lesser known favorites like Raptic and Caudabe.

☆ U.K. Prime Minister Fires Top Official Over Tax Probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday fired Nadhim Zahawi as chairman of the U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party, after an internal probe concluded Mr. Zahawi failed to disclose an investigation into his tax affairs last year, the latest in a series of controversies to wash over the government. Mr. Sunak dismissed the former businessman after the government’s ethics adviser concluded on Sunday that not disclosing the tax probe was a serious failure.

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☆ U.K. to Toughen New Social-Media Law, Threatening CEOs With Jail Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Sam Schechner | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.K.’s Online Safety Bill aims to better protect adults and children from viewing certain online content. LONDON—British legislators are set to approve a draft of a extensive new social-media bill that could see the chief executives of major tech firms held criminally liable if they don’t protect children from certain content online. As the U.K. moves closer toward enacting new legislation that technology companies say is too restrictive, its Online Safety Bill aims to better protect adults and children from viewing certain online content, including fraud, revenge porn and sexual abuse.

☆ Scottish Law on Gender Recognition Blocked by U.K. Government
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Max Colchester | David Luhnow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack said the law ‘would have a significant impact’ on equalities rules in other parts of the U.K. The U.K. government on Monday blocked a law voted by Scotland’s parliament on gender recognition, the first time that the London-based government has stopped a Scottish law from passing, in a move that will deepen divisions between Scottish nationalists and the U.K. The controversial Scottish law, passed in November, makes it easier for transgender people to get official government recognition of their acquired gender by removing any need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and lowering the age from 18 to 16.

☆ I performed magic tricks for Elon Musk at a PayPal reunion party. Here's what went down.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Chan performed tricks for PayPal's 20th IPO anniversary last year, with Elon Musk also attending. Two decades later, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to perform magic tricks for my old company at PayPal's 20th IPO anniversary party in August. The invitation said it would be a "tricked-out PayPal reunion party" and I was very excited in the build-up. Daniel ChanMost of the PayPal founders, known as the "PayPal Mafia," were there, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sacks, and Max Levchin. I fooled Elon Musk.

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