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MPs pass key part of Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

LONDON — A key part of Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit deal has sailed through the House of Commons despite a Conservative rebellion.The House of Commons voted 515 to 29 in favor of the plan, after the opposition Labour, Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats also voted to support the so-called Stormont Brake — a part of the U.K.-EU Windsor Framework that aims to fix issues with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol.The Stormont Brake is a intended to allow the currently-deadlocked Northern Ireland Assembly to object to new EU regulations set to apply in the region — a key concern for Northern Irish unionists who do not want to be separated further from the rest of the U.K.However, the eight MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) voted against the brake Wednesday and are maintaining their opposition to Sunak’s wider deal — known as the Windsor Framework — for now.Ex-prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss also refused to back Sun...

Boris Johnson: I did not lie to the House of Commons over Partygate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson denied lying to the House of Commons over the Partygate scandal as a marathon grilling on the former prime minister’s conduct got underway Wednesday.The cross-party privileges committee, chaired by Labour grandee Harriet Harman, is examining whether the ex-prime minister knowingly misled parliament about COVID rule-breaking parties in Downing Street when he made statements about the gatherings — later the subject of police fines — to the House of Commons.After swearing an oath on the King James Bible at the start of an expected four-hour session, Johnson told the committee: “I am here to say to you, hand on heart, that I did not lie to the house.”And he added: “When those statements were made they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I knew and believed at the time.”The privileges committee has said Johnson — who could face a temporary Commons ban or be forced to apologize to MPs — may have misled the House multiple times with a s...

2 people taken to hospital, 8 displaced after fire in senior housing complex in Maynard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

At least two people were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a fire broke out in a senior public housing complex in Maynard.Officials said eight residents were also displaced.The fire started at the complex on Powder Mill Road around 6:30 a.m., according to a statement from Maynard Fire Chief Angela Lawless.Lawless said crews soon arrived at the scene to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the second floor of the complex. The fire eventually grew to three alarms, prompting mutual aid from multiple area emergency departments.Firefighters were able to confine the fire to one side of the building, Lawless said, before bringing it under control around 7:40 a.m.Police initially asked drivers to avoid nearby Powder Mill Road. Police later announced the road had reopened just after 9 a.m.Lawless said one resident was taken to an area hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. A Maynard firefighter was also taken to the hospital, according to Lawless, also with non...

Pizza shop owner accused of abusing workers denied bail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston pizza shop owner accused by federal authorities of abusing employees who were not legally in the U.S. has been ordered held without bail by a magistrate judge who cited the defendant’s “history of violence and threats.”“At this juncture, the evidence against him appears strong,” Magistrate Judge Judith Dein wrote in Stavros Papantoniadis’ detention order Tuesday. “The government has met its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assume the safety of any other person and the community.”Papantoniadis, 47, who also goes by Steve, faces one charge of forced labor but allegedly victimized at least seven employees, according to court documents.He currently owns two Stash’s Pizza locations in Boston, but previously owned several other pizza parlors in suburban communities.Prosecutors allege he hired people in the U.S. illegally, made them work l...

TikTok CEO to tell lawmakers its parent company is ‘not an agent of China’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

(CNN) — TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to tell US lawmakers that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, does not work for the Chinese government as he seeks to avert a US ban and reassure policymakers TikTok poses no national security threat.The remarks, which include broad promises to protect US user data, to keep teens safe and to remain free from any government influence, mark the company’s most visible attempt yet to shake off concerns about the potential for foreign spying that have spooked governments worldwide.“Let me state this unequivocally,” Chew will say, according to a copy of his remarks released by a key House panel. “ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”Chew is scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday, in what will be his first public testimony to Congress as TikTok’s chief executive. More than 150 million Americans use TikTok every month, Chew will say...

After bank failures, Elizabeth Warren demands Fed crackdown on large regional banks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

(CNN) — Senator Elizabeth Warren is cranking up the pressure on the Federal Reserve following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.In a new letter shared exclusively with CNN, Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and ten other senators are calling for the Fed to crack down on large regional banks with assets between $100 billion and $250 billion.Both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fit into that asset threshold when they failed earlier this month. The bipartisan 2018 rollback of Dodd-Frank freed large regional banks in that range of assets from the toughest oversight.“The fall of both SVB and Signature, the near-crash of First Republic, and the struggles of other regional banks shed new light on the systemic important of banks with assets totaling between $100 billion and $250 billion,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Michael Barr, the vice chair for supervision at the Fed.The dozen lawmakers note that the same 2018...

Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

(CNN) — As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter.Through the course of the past year, it’s become increasingly clear to him that people in the area are struggling under the weight of inflation and economic uncertainty.Practically the entirety of the daily call volume consists of requests to rehome pets. The shelter’s “surrender queue” is full, awaiting adoptions to free up space in the main shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare.But perhaps the most heartbreaking indicator is something this particular shelter never had to track before 2022. Last year, 166 pets were found abandoned at the shelter’s front gate.“A number of animals are being abandoned that have serious medical issues,” Labriola told CNN. “The only thing we can guess is that...

Iran hostages bitter that former Texas Gov. Connally may have stalled their release to help Reagan win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

For 444 days, Iranian militants held 52 Americans hostage in Tehran, leaving emotional scars for them and their loved ones — and dooming Jimmy Carter’s presidency.The revelation that five months before their release, former Texas Gov. John Connally encouraged Iran to prolong the ordeal left hostages bitter.“444 days,” Rocky Sickmann, a 22-year-old Marine guard when the U.S. Embassy fell, said Monday. “I will never regain those lost days. … Each day you didn’t know if you were going to live or die.”Ben Barnes, a protégé of Connally who served beside him as lieutenant governor, told The New York Times about a three-week trip they took to Middle East capitals during the crisis.Connally, angling to impress Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in hopes he’d be named secretary of state or defense, asked leaders to send word to Iran not to release hostages before Election Day.With Carter, 98, receiving end-of-life hospice care, Barnes told The Ti...

Have a job and a side gig? Watch for these missteps

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

At the beginning of the year, many people have their eyes set on goals. Some of these goals may include increasing your income, starting a dream business, or both if you’re reaching for the stars. Before you get your hands dirty in the sometimes chaotic combination of formal employment and entrepreneurship, here are a few pitfalls to avoid.Not having a plan for your side hustle incomePeople get side hustles for different reasons. It could be to help make ends meet, save toward a dream vacation or grow your business to a point where you can quit your job. Catching up on my retirement savings is one reason I decided to start a side hustle.But you need a plan for that motivation to help make your side gig worthwhile. Think about having goals for your income and a strategy in place to help you achieve those goals.For instance, you could divert funds from your side hustle into retirement savings accounts like an IRA. This is a way to put away more for retirement, and you could reduce you...

Pioneer of gospel music rediscovered in Pittsburgh archives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:08 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Scattered in crates, dirty and difficult to read, the gospel music of composer Charles Henry Pace sat packed away, unorganized — and unrealized — for more than 20 years.Frances Pace Barnes, the pioneering music publisher’s daughter who remembers how he could turn a hum into a song, knew the crates held pieces of her family’s past. But she was not expecting those decaying printing plates and papers to reveal an important part of gospel music history. “I didn’t know it was going to be a legacy,” said Pace Barnes. As it turns out, her father was one of the first African American gospel music composers in the United States, and the owner of one of the country’s first independent, Black gospel music publishing companies. Today, the University of Pittsburgh is restoring his work from the 1920s to the 1950s and cementing his place in the genre’s history. It was the curiosity of music historian Christopher Lynch that set the Charles Henry Pace preservation project into mot...