Author: i2wtc

NASSAU COUNTY (WABC) — Nassau County Mayor Bruce Blakeman is expected to introduce a controversial bill today that would ban transgender athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams at county-owned facilities.The governor initially introduced the ban as an executive order, but the Nassau County Superior Court struck it down last month.Judge Francis Ricigliano ruled that Blakeman did not have the authority to issue a February executive order denying park permits to women’s and girls’ teams, leagues or organizations that would allow female transgender athletes to participate.In his 13-page ruling, the judge wrote that Blakeman’s order was intended to prevent transgender…

The man charged in the Gilgo Beach serial killers may have started preying on young women earlier than initially thought — and not just on Long Island’s south shore.Rex Heuerman was 29 years old and three years away from becoming a licensed architect when the body of Sandra Costilla, one of two women he was charged with killing Thursday, was discovered in 1993 in a wooded area near Fish Cove Road in Southampton, on the eastern end of Long Island.The bodies of the five other women Heuerman is charged with killing were all discovered since about 2010 in and around…

Have you heard the story about the luxury handbag designer who was a member of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and served as Trump’s ambassador to South Africa? Though born in South Africa, Lana Marks had no diplomatic experience.What about Kelly Craft, the Republican donor and President Trump’s ambassador to Canada, who was reportedly called an “absentee ambassador” because she was away from work so often?Or how about the story about the bipartisan political fundraiser that President Barack Obama nominated to be US ambassador to Norway, George Tunis, who had never been to Norway and displayed astonishing ignorance about the country…

Rakibul Hussain of the Indian National Congress was one of 13 candidates who contested the Lok Sabha elections from Dhubri constituency in Assam and won by the largest margin in the country. The 59-year-old Hussain polled 1,471,885 votes and won by a margin of 1,012,476 votes. His nearest rival for the seat was perfume magnate and former Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal, who secured 459,409 votes. Prior to contesting the state elections, Hussain represented Samaguri parliamentary constituency in the Assam Assembly from 2021. He also served as Minister of State for Prisons, Home Guard and Border Areas Development during…

Thursday’s “biggest win in U.S. cricket history” also included a standout performance from Auburn-born bowler Nostash Kensige.The United States recorded a Super Over victory over Pakistan in the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup at Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas. The United States defeated Pakistan 18-13 in the Super Over, a tiebreaker format with six extra balls for each team, to win by five runs.Pakistan was runner-up to England in the last ICC T20 World Cup, held in Australia in 2022. The country entered the tournament ranked sixth in the world. The United States is ranked…

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s exports grew at the fastest pace in more than a year in May despite trade tensions, but imports fell short of analysts’ expectations, customs data released Friday showed.Exports rose 7.6% in May from a year earlier to $302.35 billion, the fastest growth since April 2023. Imports rose 1.8% to $219.73 billion, below expectations of an increase of about 4%.The increase in exports comes in part from a lower base compared to the same period last year, when exports fell 7.5%.Meanwhile, exports in April increased 1.5% compared to the same month last year, while imports increased…

This article is an onsite edition of the FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up for the Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to receive the newsletter every weekday morning. See all newsletters here.Good morning. Mike Lynch, once one of the UK’s leading technology entrepreneurs, was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco yesterday, bringing to an end a 12-year legal battle that began in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest fraud cases.The former Autonomy CEO was accused of falsely inflating the company’s revenue before it was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. The verdict marked a vindication…

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping Chinese state media said a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry met with Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif in Beijing on Friday, days before Pakistan is due to submit its annual budget and apply for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund.Pakistan is of strategic importance to China because of its location in the Arabian Sea, providing a land route to the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, allowing Chinese ships to avoid potential chokepoints in the Straits of Malacca.Sharif’s government is expected to seek at least $6 billion in aid under…

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan protested to Beijing on Friday after four Chinese armed coast guard vessels entered what it considers to be Japanese territorial waters.Japan’s government said it was the first time that four Chinese vessels equipped with what appeared to be artillery cannons had entered Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea surrounding the disputed islands that Tokyo calls the Senkakus and Beijing calls the Diaoyus.”I am not in a position to comment on China’s intentions, but the intrusion of vessels belonging to the China Coast Guard into our territory is a violation of international law,” he said.…

During his nearly 30-year corporate career, Jeff Oker has been deeply involved in public service, most recently serving as a key member of the state’s Workforce Development Council, whose mission is to match jobs with industries that will drive Connecticut’s future economic growth.Now Oker is looking to move into the public sector.Hartford Mayor Arunand Arulampalam this week appointed Oker as director of the City Development Services Agency, responsible for developing the city’s economic development strategy and the new mayoral administration, now in its sixth month.Oker, most recently an executive at downtown Hartford tech giant Infosys, joins City Hall at a…