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Secrecy around von der Leyen’s vaccine texts hurting EU reputation, say campaigners

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

It’s the story that just won’t go away.The European Commission’s refusal to engage openly about text messages that may have been exchanged between its president and the Pfizer CEO as part of EU vaccine contract negotiations came under fire from transparency activists Thursday, who said that the secrecy is “slowly chipping away at public trust.”Rachel Hanna, deputy director of NGO Access Info Europe, said the way the Commission had handled a request by Alexander Fanta, a journalist for German news site Netzpolitik, to access text messages allegedly exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, goes against the EU’s own regulations, which aims to give citizens the widest possible access to documents.The refusal to share the text messages, said Hanna, “denies the public its fundamental right.”The Commission has never confirmed the existence of the messages, which were first disclosed in a New York Times interview with Ursula v...

China seeking to spy on the US from a base in Cuba

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

China is in talks with Cuba to establish a foothold there to spy on the United States, two senior U.S. officials said, a provocative move that already has lawmakers warning about parallels to the Cold War.The officials, granted anonymity to discuss an extremely sensitive intelligence matter, said that China was in direct conversations with Cuba to set up a base on the island nation just 100 miles from the U.S. It would allow Beijing to collect signals intelligence on southeastern portions of America, home to many military facilities and major industries. Evidence of the negotiations came to light in recent weeks, they said.Such a base would threaten to derail the Biden administration’s efforts to “thaw” out frosty relations with Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly planning to visit China in the coming weeks, a trip that was postponed already after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon traversing the U.S. Diplomacy with China continues mainly at the econo...

DOJ: Wakefield man arrested for allegedly trying to aid ISIS via gift card reselling scheme

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

An 18-year-old man from Wakefield, Mass., was arrested for allegedly trying to provide support for ISIS via a plot to sell gift cards on the dark web, according to law officials.Mateo Ventura was charged on Thursday with one count of “knowingly concealing the source of material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization,” according to a news release from the office of acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Joshua Levy.Citing charging documents, Levy’s office described how Ventura allegedly provided gift cards to an individual he thought was a supporter of ISIS, with the intention of the cards being sold on the dark web and profits being used to support the terrorist organization.“Ventura allegedly stated that he wanted the proceeds to go to ISIS ‘for war on kuffar,’ (disbelievers),” the release stated. “In total, it is alleged that between January and May 2023, Ventura donated $705 intended to support ISI...

Giants cancel Thurday, Friday practices due to poor air quality in New Jersey practice facility due to Canadian wildfires

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

The Giants have canceled Thursday’s and Friday’s practices in New Jersey — and Thursday’s player media availability — due to the air quality inside their indoor practice facility, where they had planned to move practice due to the conditions outside.Head coach Brian Daboll said some Giants players said something to the medical staff about the hazy air in the practice bubble while holding meetings in a tent at one corner of an end zone.Doctors and Daboll and GM Joe Schoen huddled up and determined they will cancel practice until next week’s minicamp.Developing story, check back for details ()

Smoke from Canadian wildfires now forecast to reach Norway

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norwegian officials said the smoke from Canadian wildfires that has enveloped parts of the U.S. and Canada in a thick haze is expected to pour into Norway on Thursday.Atmosphere and climate scientists with the Norwegian Climate and Environmental Research Institute used a forecast model to predict how the smoke would travel through the atmosphere.The smoke has moved over Greenland and Iceland since June 1, and observations in southern Norway have recorded increasing concentrations of aerosolized particles, the independent research institution said.“We may be able to see some haze or smell smoke,” Nikolaos Evangeliou, a senior NILU researcher, said. “However, we do not believe that the number of particles in the air here in Norway will be large enough to be harmful to our health.”Kjetil Tørseth, research director with NILU, said that with “the increasing temperatures due to climate change, forest fires are likely to be more common and of a larger magnitude.“...

Supreme Court, in surprise, rules for Black voters in Alabama in congressional redistricting case

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court, in surprise, rules for Black voters in Alabama in congressional redistricting case.

Lawyer wraps up Prince Harry’s phone hacking case by grilling ex-tabloid reporter

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

By JILL LAWLESS (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — A lawyer for Prince Harry finished setting out the royal’s case against a newspaper publisher on Thursday, quizzing a former tabloid reporter about information inserted into stories by then-editor Piers Morgan.On the final day of evidence, attorney David Sherborne grilled former Daily Mirror royal correspondent Jane Kerr, whose byline appears on several of the 33 articles cited by Harry as examples of unlawful intrusion by publisher Mirror Group Newspapers.The lawyer suggested to Kerr that some of the information in her stories came from phone hacking.“It absolutely didn’t,” Kerr said with a touch of anger.“I’ve never intercepted a voicemail. I wouldn’t even know how,” Kerr added. She also denied knowing about lawbreaking by any freelance journalists or private investigators employed by the newspaper.Kerr acknowledged in her written witness statement that Morgan, who edited the Dail...

Prosecution rests in rape trial of former prosecutor Gary Zerola

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

The prosecution has rested its case on day three of the rape trial of former prosecutor and one-time “most eligible bachelor” Gary Zerola.Prosecutors rested their case at the opening of Thursday’s session immediately after the jury was seated.Zerola, 51, who served as a prosecutor in both Essex and Suffolk counties before becoming a defense attorney, has pleaded not guilty to accusations that he raped a 23-year-old woman in 2016.On the first day of the trial at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, which began on Tuesday, prosecutors first called Jacqueline Hurley, a bartender at the former Four Winds in Boston, who testified that she had served drinks to the party of four the night of Nov. 9, 2016.That party included Zerola; Colleen Daley, the esthetician he had once represented in court and later began a “sexual relationship” with; a man named Jonathan Plaut, Zerola’s friend who he was at a concert with before they came to the Four Winds together and the owner of the...

Life-saving fentanyl test strips still illegal in some states under ’70s-era war on drugs law

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At Cleveland’s Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”Owner Waverly Willis has given out strips for years at his barbershop, hoping to protect others from unwittingly being exposed to the highly potent synthetic opioid ravaging the U.S. and often secretly laced into other illegal drugs.“When I put them out, they just fly out the door,” said Willis, who proudly hands out about 30 strips a week as part of The Urban Barber Association, a Cleveland organization that provides health education to the community via local barbershops.Nearly 18 years into his own sobriety from drugs, Willis isn’t shy about making the strips available. He figures he’d be dead if fentanyl were so widely prevalent when he was using. Fentanyl has driven overdose deaths in the U.S. since...

Main suspect in 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway departs Peru on extradition flight to US

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:46 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. student Natalee Holloway was handed over to U.S. custody and departed Peru on a flight to the United States on Thursday, roughly a month after both countries agreed on his extradition.Joran van der Sloot is wanted in the U.S. on one count each of extortion and wire fraud, the only charges to have ever linked the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba. His extradition moved forward after a Peruvian judge on Tuesday affirmed the government’s decision to temporarily transfer custody to U.S. authorities.Video and photos released by Peruvian authorities Thursday show him wearing jeans and a black puffer jacket, shaking his shoulders and grimacing as officers adjusted his handcuffs and removed an Interpol-marked vest. Footage and images also show law enforcement officers from Peru, FBI and Interpol as well as one health care professional in a conference room with van der Sl...