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Social media riot shutdowns possible under EU content law, top official says

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

Social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat will face possible shutdowns when they don’t crack down on problematic content during riots under the European Union’s content law, Internal Commissioner Thierry Breton said Monday. Breton, a French politician, was responding in a French radio interview to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron that floated closing down some social media to clamp down on riots. Some critics likened this to measures seen in authoritarian states like China and Iran.“When there is hateful content, content that calls – for example – for revolt, that also calls for killing and burning of cars, they will be required to delete [the content] immediately,” Breton said in the interview on France Info, citing the Digital Services Act which will impose new requirements on large platforms from August 25. “If they fail to do so, they will be immediately sanctioned. We have teams who can intervene immediately,” he said. ̶...

‘Heartbreaking’: Frantic search continues for missing 7-year-old Lowell girl

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and Lowell police are turning to the public for help as emergency crews continue to search for a missing 7-year-old girl who is living with autism.Anna, who is autistic and nonverbal, was last seen between 2 and 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon in the area of East Merrimack Street in the Belvidere section of the city and may be riding on a bicycle. She is described as being a Black girl who is 4 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 70 pounds. She was last seen wearing black shorts, a white vest, and a purple hair tie.Even before Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan used a Sunday evening news conference to urge area residents to come outside and assist in the search, dozens of neighbors could be seen fanning out across the area and calling out Anna’s name in the hopes of locating her.Officers on ATVs, bikes, boats, a helicopter, and others using a drone could be seen searching the Merrimack River and surrounding area late into the night....

Lengthy traffic delays expected as Sumner Tunnel closure enters second week

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is warning drivers heading into Boston to be prepared for even more slowdowns as the two-month shutdown of the Sumner Tunnel enters its second week.Although the first week of the shutdown created some longer drive times for motorists in and around the city, MassDOT officials are reminding drivers that the levels were lower than usual because it was a holiday week. Commuters are being urged to use public transportation whenever possible.“People are going to be back from the holiday, that’s when you’re going to see most of your heaviest impacts,” MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Glover said.The nearly 90-year-old tunnel is undergoing a $160 million project to repair its ceiling, pavement and lighting. Drivers are being diverted while the construction project continues through August.“We’re hoping that people don’t look at the traffic impacts this week and think well it’s not so bad I’m gonna jump on the road next week it’s gonna be ...

Teachers union looks into ballot question nixing MCAS graduation requirement

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

The MCAS graduation requirement debate may be coming up as a 2024 ballot question, the Massachusetts Teachers Association indicated, releasing poll results showing significant support for the idea.“We are exploring two questions — one eliminating the graduation requirement on MCAS and replacing it with a much better assessment system,” MTA President Max Page hold the Herald  Sunday.  “There’s a deadline for submitting proposals for 2024 ballot initiatives this August, and so we’ll be making our final decision whether to move forward on gathering signatures, which is the first big step.”The union released results from a Echo Cove Research poll of 800 registered voters aged 21 and older at the end of June showing 73% support for eliminating the MCAS as a graduation requirement.The potential ballot initiative effort would join the union and many legislators’ efforts to remove the graduation requirement through the proposed Thrive Act, whi...

Four men injured after vehicle flips while trying to flee police

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

Four men are in hospital with serious injuries after an overnight single-vehicle crash in Brampton.Officers responded to the area of Torbram Road and Sandalwood Parkway East around 2:50 a.m. Monday for reports of a suspicious vehicle.Police tell CityNews the vehicle took off and flipped over once officers attended the area.The four men inside the vehicle were injured and taken to hospital with serious injuries. Police said all four were conscious and breathing.There is no word yet on any charges.Torbram is closed in both directions north of Sandalwood for the investigation.COLLISION:– Torbram Road north of Sandalwood Parkway East #Brampton– A vehicle has flipped over– 4 males have been taken to a local hospital -males are conscious and breathing– N/B and S/B Torbram road are closed– Please use alternate routes– C/R at 2:50am– PR23-0222346— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) July 10, 2023With files from CityNews reporter Carl Hanstke

Swedish foreign minister optimistic Turkey will drop objections to NATO membership

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Sweden’s foreign minister expressed optimism on Monday that Turkey will drop its objections to Swedish NATO membership, saying the Nordic’s country’s accession is a question of when, not if.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson were expected to meet later Monday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, ahead of a two-day NATO summit.Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told public broadcaster SVT that he expects Turkey will eventually signal that it will let Sweden join the alliance, though he couldn’t say whether that would happen at the annual summit.“What we are counting on, of course, is to reach a point where we get a message back from President Erdogan that there will be what you might call a green light … a message that the ratification process in the Turkish Parliament can start,” Billström said.Turkey has stalled Sweden’s NATO accession, saying it needs to do more to crack do...

A Russian airstrike during an aid distribution at a southern Ukraine school kills 4

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian airstrike on a school in southern Ukraine killed four adults as people gathered to receive humanitarian aid, the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Monday, branding the incident “a war crime.” Three women and a man, all in their 40s, died in Sunday’s attack in the town of Orikhiv, Gov. Yuriy Malashko said. A guided aerial bomb caused an explosion at the school, Malashko said, without providing evidence. Eleven other people were wounded in the attack, he said.Overall, Russia fired on 10 settlements in the province over the course of a day, he said.Moscow denies it targets civilian locations. Russia has been accused numerous times of doing so and committing other war crimes since its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of ch...

Investigation finds Clarence Thomas accepted more undisclosed gifts from wealthy friends through elite association

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

(The Hill) - A New York Times investigation revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was brought access to the wealthy through relationships he built with members of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.The Times reported that just months after Thomas joined the bench in 1991, he was welcomed into the Horatio Alger Association, a nonprofit scholarship organization, where he forged relationships with a select group of largely wealthy conservatives. This organization granted him access to wealthy friends who gifted Thomas with vacation retreats and V.I.P. tickets to sporting events, as well as invited him to parties, according to The Times.The Times’s investigation discovered that Thomas received benefits from the members of the association and large donors to conservative causes. Among many of the contacts he made through the group was David Sokol, an investor and former executive at Berkshire Hathaway, who hosted Thomas and his wife Ginny at their ranc...

Sunak says UK part of a convention that discourages use of cluster munitions

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

Britain is signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Saturday after the United States said it was planning to supply Ukraine with them."We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion," Sunak told reporters.

Brussels resto scores top marks – for equality as well as food

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:02:44 GMT

One Brussels-based businesswoman is flying the flag for gender equality - as well as food quality.Katia Nguyen is a firm believer in equality but the “gender policy” she employs in her successful restaurant business is also a definite nod to culinary traditions in her native Vietnam.In Vietnam, it is quite typical to find women, rather than men, beavering away in the kitchen so a (mostly) “all-female team” at her Brussels restaurant - L’Orchidee Blanche – in a way continues a long-standing Vietnamese tradition.That is not to say there are no males working here – there are but they are usually in the actual kitchen with the wonderfully-clothed females looking after thing front of house. There can be few customers, surely, who are not taken aback by the sheer delight of being served by staff in such gear.The female staff are turned out in stunningly beautiful traditional South Vietnamese tunics, each specially brought to Belgium from Vietnam, often when one of them retu...