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Battenfeld: Healey’s Ireland junket puts Kim Driscoll in the Corner Office, sort of

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

Don’t look now but our acting governor this week is Kim Driscoll, the understudy who was supposed to be a key part of Gov. Maura Healey’s administration.Driscoll so far has turned out to be an adequate functionary and stand-in the way most lieutenant governors are destined to be. Not a powerhouse.Don’t expect Driscoll, the former Salem mayor, to go rogue this week while Healey is out of the country on a junket to Ireland. No surprise vetoes or late-night budget maneuvers.She will be quiet and do what Healey wants her to do, which is not much.Despite the hype about Driscoll when she was hand-picked by Healey, she has no statewide elective experience. Running a small city like Salem and keeping order during Halloween is not the same.She’s not ready for prime time so she shouldn’t touch anything major. Don’t get too used to that Corner Office.Stick to signing proclamations or running the Governor’s Council meetings.The fact is that nobody elected Driscoll to be governor, and she should...

Embattled Tennessee bishop resigns after priest complaints, abuse-related lawsuits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned under pressure Tuesday following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations and several of his priests complained about his leadership and behavior, sparking a Vatican investigation.Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation, according to a one-line statement from the Vatican. At 65, Stika is still 10 years below the normal retirement age for bishops. The Vatican didn’t identify a replacement in its statement, but the U.S. conference of Catholic bishops said the archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, was named temporary administrator to run the diocese until a new bishop is installed.Stika’s departure, after 14 years as bishop of Knoxville, closes a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests, who accused Stika of abusing his authority and protecting a seminarian accused of sexual misconduct. T...

3-year probe into encrypted phones led to seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, prosecutors say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Investigations triggered by the cracking of encrypted phones three years ago have so far led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, French, Dutch and European Union prosecutors said Tuesday.The announcement underscored the staggering scale of criminality — mainly drugs and arms smuggling and money laundering — that was uncovered as a result of police and prosecutors effectively listening in to criminals using encrypted EncroChat phones.“It helped to prevent violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption and large-scale drug transports, as well as obtain large-scale information on organised crime,” European Union police and judicial cooperation agencies Europol and Eurojust said in a statement.The French and Dutch investigation gained access to more than 115 million encrypted communications between some 60,000 criminals via servers in the northern French town of Roubaix, prosecutors said at a news conference in...

The women’s tennis tour plans for its players to earn the same as men at more events

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

It took more than three decades after the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association for all four Grand Slam tournaments to agree to give the same prize money to female and male players. Now the women’s tour is pledging to make sure its athletes also get identical paychecks at some other top-tier events in the coming years.The St. Petersburg, Florida-based WTA announced Tuesday that it is revising its season calendar and rules about which players must enter certain tournaments, while also setting up what it called a “pathway to equal prize money.”The plan is to have matching payouts across all rounds of singles at the joint WTA-ATP 1000 and 500 events — the two levels right below the four Slams — by 2027, and to make sure that single-week WTA-only 1000 and 500 events that are being played at the same time, but at different sites, as their ATP-only 1000 and 500 equivalents are offering the same money as those counterparts by 2033.All changes will need to be approved by the WTA Board ...

New York City drivers will pay extra tolls as part of the effort to reduce congestion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York has received a critical federal approval for its first-in-the-nation plan to charge big tolls to drive into the most visited parts of Manhattan, part of an effort to reduce traffic, improve air quality and raise funds for the city’s public transit system.The program could begin as soon as the spring of 2024, bringing New York City into line with places like London, Singapore, and Stockholm that have implemented similar tolling programs for highly congested business districts.Under one of several tolling scenarios under consideration, drivers could be charged as much as $23 a day to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, with the exact amount still to be decided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is overseeing the long-stalled plan.The congestion pricing plan cleared its final federal hurdle after getting approved by the Federal Highway Administration, a spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday.“With the green light fro...

Audio emerges with new details of Trump’s 2021 conversation about classified documents

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An audio recording that includes new details from a 2021 meeting at which former President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify has been released.The recording, from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort for people working on the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information. The recording first aired Monday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance at the meeting with Trump — a writer, a publisher and two of Trump’s staff members — were shown classified information about a Pentagon plan of attack on an unspecified foreign country.“These are the papers,” Trump said in a moment that seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran. “This was done by the military, given to me.”T...

Thomson Reuters buying legal AI technology firm Casetext for US$650 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

TORONTO — Thomson Reuters Corp. has signed a deal to buy Casetext, which uses advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to build technology for lawyers.It is paying US$650 million in cash for the California-based company.Casetext’s key products include CoCounsel, an AI legal assistant that launched earlier this year that is powered by GPT-4.Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker says the acquisition of Casetext is another step in the company’s “build, partner and buy” strategy to bring generative AI solutions to its customers.The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.It is expected to close in the second half of this year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TRI)The Canadian Press

‘Hajj is not Mecca’: Why prayers at Mount Arafat are the spiritual peak of Islamic pilgrimage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (AP) — They came in the dark of night, in the thousands, to clamber up the rocky hill called Mount Arafat. The mound southeast of Mecca is little-known outside Islam. For non-Muslims, the circling of the Kaaba — the black, cube-shaped structure in the holy city — is the most arresting visual moment associated with the annual Hajj pilgrimage.But for Muslims, it was Tuesday’s rite of praying at Arafat that represented the sum and substance of the Hajj.The hill and the Day of Arafat, as the second day of the annual pilgrimage is called, hold immense significance in Islam. Arafat is mentioned in the Quran and it is where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have given his last sermon on his final Hajj. According to traditional sayings of the prophet, the Day of Arafat is the most sacred day of the year, when God draws near to the faithful and forgives their sins. The moment of closeness to God makes it the most personally resonant part of the pilgrimage for many.By 4 a.m...

Ex-Audi boss convicted of fraud in automaker’s diesel emissions scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was convicted of fraud Tuesday in connection with the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal, making him the highest-ranking executive found guilty over cars that cheated on emissions tests with the help of illegal software. A German court handed Stadler a suspended prison sentence of 21 months and ordered him to pay a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million), some of which will go to charitable groups. The sentence resulted from an agreement between his lawyers, the judge and prosecutors after he pleaded guilty last month.The former head of Volkswagen’s luxury division admitted wrongdoing and regret for his failure to keep rigged cars off the market even after the scandal had become public knowledge.The Munich regional court also sentenced the former head of engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, and a former Audi engineer, identified only as Giovanni P. for privacy reasons, to suspended prison sentences and fines. They were accused of ...

4 dead, 900 evacuated after landslides triggered by flash floods in southwest China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:50 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Four people died and three others were missing after landslides hit a county in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Tuesday, leading authorities to evacuate more than 900 people.The landslides, triggered by flash floods, occurred in Miansi and Weizhou townships in Wenchuan county, according to the county’s emergency management bureau.More than 400 rescuers searched for missing people after the landslides hit early Tuesday, state media said. Four people, including a couple from Miansi township, were found dead later on Tuesday, while three others remained missing, according to official broadcaster CCTV.More than 900 people in the area were evacuated, Xinhua news agency reported.Wenchuan county was the site of a devastating earthquake in 2008 that claimed at least 69,000 lives, according to the Chinese government.China is experiencing extreme weather patterns, with heavy rainfall in southern regions and record-breaking temperatures in the north including in ...