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Jeremy Hunt’s plan to turn pension pots into startup funding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

LONDON — “A grand don’t come for free,” as the Streets famously sang. But if Chancellor Jeremy Hunt gets his way, young U.K. workers could earn an extra £1,000 a year when they retire, the Treasury claims.At London’s Mansion House this evening Hunt outlined plans to boost pension fund investment in U.K. tech companies, with the biggest funds committing to put 5 percent of schemes into unlisted shares.Detailing in the annual speech how he wants to create the “world’s next Silicon Valley,” Hunt said the U.K. was in a “perverse” situation where British investors were investing less in the country’s high-growth companies than international pensioners.To reverse that, he outlined the “Mansion House Compact” which commits nine of the biggest defined contribution schemes to invest at least 5 percent of their funds into unlisted equities by 2030.That could unlock £50 billion of investment into high-growth companies, the chancellor said.The Treasury claimed the package of reforms could help ...

Massachusetts mothers team up to create adaptive clothing company

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

Two mothers in Massachusetts are on a mission, starting their own adaptive clothing company, for people with disabilities and those recovering from injuries or surgeries. Called “befree,” the company is based in Swampscott. Co-founders Nikki Puzzo and Joane DiCamillo recently spoke to 7NEWS.“We like to say ‘Dress with less stress,’ because we want everyone to not be stressed about the basic tasks that people can take for granted when getting dressed,” DiCamillo said. Puzzo said the idea for the company came from the experience of trying to dress her youngest daughter, Stella. Stella was born with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy and underwent a double-hip surgery at the age of five. For three months, Stella had to wear casts on both her legs with a bar in between, making the process of putting on pants extremely difficult. “They were like ‘Well a lot of families just do dresses, t-shirts, and blankets,’” Puzzo said. That’s whe...

UPDATE: Boston police cancel missing person alert after 6-year-old boy located

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

UPDATE: Boston police have canceled a missing person alert after a 6-year-old boy reported missing in Roxbury was located.The Boston Police Department said Daniel Soto, who had previously last been seen around 9:30 a.m. earlier in the day, was found shortly after the department issued its alert.No other details were released. —Originally posted on Monday, July 10, at 4:38 p.m.The Boston Police Department is requesting the public’s help as they search for a 6-year-old boy with autism who was last seen Monday morning.The police department said Daniel Soto of Roxbury was last sighted around 9:30 a.m. in the area of Washington Street and Dimock Street.Boston PD described Daniel as being a Hispanic male with a thin build and wearing a blue shirt, gray pants, red sneakers. He is also believed to only speak Spanish and may also be holding a blue lunch bag.Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the police department’s District B-2 detectives at 617-...

Video shows officer’s gun fire during response to hoax threat at St. John’s Prep in Danvers in May

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

Newly released video shows the moments a police officer’s gun fired inside Saint John’s Preparatory School in Danvers while police were responding to a hoax call earlier this year. The video was released on Monday. The incident happened on May 22. Police said they initially received a report of an active shooter at St. John’s Prep. While police said officers were able to quickly determine that there didn’t seem to be a threat or active shooter, police said a responding officer’s gun misfired in the school’s Benjamin Hall. Law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies ultimately converged on the Saint John’s campus.Classes were canceled for the day after the incident. In an update on May 25, police said the gun went off when an officer began holstering it after clearing a bathroom.Danvers officials said the officer is an 11-year-veteran of the Danvers Police Department and he was up to date on his firearms certifications. Officials said the officer re...

2023 MLB draft, Day 2 tracker: Orioles continue run on college players, select three more pitchers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

After drafting Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the first round of the MLB draft Sunday night, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias detailed the confidence he has in the organization’s scouting of college players.“We pour a ton of data analysis resources into college statistics and college data,” Elias said, “so anytime we can take an elite college player, we feel good about the work that’s gone into that.”But Bradfield was just the beginning of the Orioles’ run on college players. Each of Baltimore’s first eight selections were college players, including North Carolina outfielder-third baseman Mac Horvath and Florida State right-hander Jackson Baumeister on Day 1 and five more on Day 2.Baumeister’s selection was somewhat of a surprise considering the Elias regime’s preference to pick position players early in drafts. At No. 63 overall, Baumeister became the first pitcher Baltimore h...

US intelligence assessment says Iran not currently developing nuclear weapons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

By MATTHEW LEE (AP Diplomatic Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. intelligence assessment says Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons at the moment but has ramped up activities that could help it develop them.The assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released Monday says Iran has moved to increase its capacity to produce an atomic bomb since 2020 but has stopped short of that so far.The findings corresponded with previous U.S. assessments about Iran’s nuclear program, although many in Congress and elsewhere have been skeptical of those.The Biden administration has been defending its desire to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, since it first took office. That effort has been complicated in recent months by the suspension of its chief negotiator, Rob Malley, who was placed on unpaid leave last month pending an investigation into claims he mishandled classified information.“Iran...

‘We are all heartbroken’: Missing Lowell girl’s body found in river

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

LOWELL — Officials announced Monday afternoon that the remains of the missing 7-year-old Lowell girl, Anna Mburu, were discovered in the Merrimack River after nearly a full 24 hours of searching.“We are all heartbroken to be here this afternoon to report that it appears that the end of the search has come with the recovery of a body of a young child, preliminarily identified as 7-year-old Anna Mburu,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters at a Monday afternoon press conference at the Lowell Police Department.Ryan said Anna’s remains were discovered by Massachusetts Environmental Police in the Merrimack River in Tewksbury near the Trull Brook Golf Course shortly after the search resumed for the day at 7 a.m.The search for Anna, who had autism and was nonverbal, was conducted in conjunction with a number of different local police departments and law enforcement agencies, Ryan said, and it involved the use of drones, K-9 units, the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing, ...

Brothers found dead inside East County home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Two brothers were found dead Sunday inside a home in East County, authorities said.Around 5:15 p.m., authorities received a call about a death in the 15500 block of Creek Hills Road in unincorporated El Cajon, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. When deputies arrived, they found 84-year-old Wilburn Burchette and 76-year-old Kenneth Burchette, who both appeared to have been dead "for some time." Two injured in plane crash near La Mesa church parking lot Homicide investigators are working to find the circumstances of the deaths, and say there is no threat to the community. The Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of deaths.Anyone with information about the deaths is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 858-285-6330.

Webb Space Telescope spots most distant black hole yet. More may be lurking

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole yet using the Webb Space Telescope, but that record isn’t expected to last. The black hole is at the center of a galaxy dating to within a mere 570 million years of the Big Bang. That’s 100 million years closer to the beginning of the cosmos than a black hole identified in 2021 by a Chinese team using a telescope in Chile. Webb already has spotted other black holes that appear to be even closer to the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago, but those findings are still under review, said University of Texas at Austin astronomer Steven Finkelstein, one of the lead researchers. The finding has been accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal Letters.Because the signals from this particular black hole are weak, more observations are needed, according to the Texas-led team. There are untold numbers of dormant black holes, some even more distant than this one. But without any glowing gas, th...

S&P/TSX composite ticks lower as telecom and utility stocks pull back, U.S. stocks up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:54 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index ticked lower Monday, weighed down by losses in telecom and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets rose.It was a generally quiet day on the markets as investors gear up for a big Wednesday that will see U.S. inflation data released as well as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision, said Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist with Edward Jones.“There’s some big news ahead of us,” she said. The S&P/TSX composite index was down 8.59 points at 19,822.45.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 209.52 points at 33,944.40. The S&P 500 index was up 10.58 points at 4,409.53, while the Nasdaq composite was up 24.77 points at 13,685.48.Economic data released in recent weeks has continued to be better than expected, helping support hope for a soft landing, said Mahajan.This hope may be helping buoy the recent broadening in market strength following a narrow, tech-stock-fuelled rally, she said.“I think we’re seeing a ...