Associated Press – July 13, 2023 Kamala Harris, who made history as the first woman or person of color to serve as vice president, made history again Wednesday as she matched the record for most tiebreaking votes in the U.S. Senate. The vote, her 31st, advanced the nomination of Kalpana Kotagal to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The only other vice president to cast so many was John C. Calhoun, who served as vice president from 1825 to 1832. “It is a moment and I think that there’s still so much left that we have yet to do,” Harris told…
Author: LMD International
CONNECT NOOSA Peter Kuruvita ‘Deep and long’ roots A celebrated chef and restaurateur with a resume that includes the roles of TV presenter, author, industry speaker, tour guide, and food and beverage consultant, Peter Kuruvita has a passion for food and cooking that is rooted in his grandmother’s kitchen – in his ancestral home in Greater Colombo. Born to a Sri Lankan father and Austrian mother, Peter spent the first four years of his life in England before his family relocated to Sri Lanka in 1967 and thereafter, Australia. Throughout his culinary career – a journey that spans more than…
Sri Lanka cut its key interest rates for the second straight month on Thursday as inflation eased after last year’s devastating economic crisis and the focus returned to reviving growth following a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“When you go to Sri Lanka, you cry twice – once when you arrive and the other when you leave.” – Italy’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Rita Giuliana Mannella
ICC Cricket – 11 July, 2023 Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has topped off an excellent month to claim the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for June 2023. Hasaranga beat out strong opposition from Australia batter Travis Head and Zimbabwe opener Sean Williams for the coveted award on the back of his superb performances for the island nation at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier. “I am extremely happy with this award, and it comes at an important moment for Sri Lanka Cricket, after we made it to the Cricket World Cup in India. I am privileged…
Reuters – July 6, 2023 Investors bet on Thursday that stubborn inflation will force the Bank of England to raise interest rates to a 25-year high of 6.5% by December, pushing the yield on 10-year gilts to its most elevated since 2008. Amid trading that some analysts called chaotic, rate futures showed a 55% chance that the BoE will have to raise rates from 5% now to 6.5% by the end of the year, with the odds rising to around 80% by March 2024. Previously, financial markets had expected the peak to be 6.25%. Longer maturities were hit just as…
TechCrunch – July 7, 2023 OpenAI today announced the general availability of GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, through its API. Starting this afternoon, all existing OpenAI API developers “with a history of successful payments” can access GPT-4. The company plans to open up access to new developers by the end of this month, and then start raising availability limits after that “depending on compute availability.” “Millions of developers have requested access to the GPT-4 API since March, and the range of innovative products leveraging GPT-4 is growing every day,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “We envision a future where…
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka had a solid platform in challenging conditions, courtesy of a decent opening stand between Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama, who was promoted up the order
A year after angry Sri Lankans stormed the president’s residence and forced his ouster during a meltdown of the economy
The Netherlands is set to hand back hundreds of precious artefacts taken from Indonesia and Sri Lanka during its colonial period