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OBF: Jack Jones’ attorney comes out swinging, boxes Pats into a corner

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

It wasn’t the guns.Or the bullets.It was the Tweets.Jack Jones?Victim.The legal system?Rigged.Criticism of Jones’ alleged actions concerning those unregistered, loaded handguns that showed up at Logan Airport security Friday night in a bag with Jones’ name on it?Racist.Those who express criticism of his alleged actions?Bigots.That is the summation of the public defense offered by Jones’ attorney Rosemary Scapicchio Tuesday. “He had no intention of bringing any guns into Logan Airport that day,” she added of her client.Scapicchio’s defense of Sean Ellis, whose 1995 first-degree murder conviction was overturned after spending 22 years in prison, was featured in the Netflix “Trial 4” docuseries.She attended Suffolk Law School at the same time as Mrs. OBF.She’s good.Jones pleaded not guilty to several firearms-related charges Tuesday and remains free on $30,000 bail. Jones will be back in court on Aug. 18.If only Jones was a member of the Biden family.For now, the real crime here ...

Stock market today: World shares mixed after Wall Street retreat

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street benchmarks retreated following the S&P 500’s rise to its highest level since the spring of last year. London, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai declined while Tokyo and Frankfurt edged higher. U.S. futures and oil prices slipped. This week has few potentially market-moving events. Investors are awaiting congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week. Market players worry the the Fed may have to keep rates higher for longer, which would pressure the economy and potentially bring on a recession. The Bank of England will meet on interest-rate policy Thursday. Central banks around the world are heading in diverging directions as they battle inflation amid worries about a pressured global economy.Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher to 16,121.68 and the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.1% to 7,284.01. Britain’s FTSE 100 also fell 0.1%, to 7,562.54. The futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

Windrush scandal rumbles on 5 years after UK government’s apology

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

LONDON (AP) — When Thomas Tobierre’s wife, Caroline, died in 2021, he didn’t know how he was going to pay for her funeral. That’s because he had drained his savings while caught up in a U.K. immigration crackdown that improperly targeted legal residents largely from the Caribbean and other parts of the former British Empire. While a government compensation program eventually covered the cost of his wife’s funeral, Tobierre is still fighting for reimbursement of the 14,000-pound pension ($17,891) he cashed in to make ends meet when no one would hire him because of his disputed right to work. He isn’t alone. Five years after the U.K. government apologized and promised to compensate those who were affected in what became known as the Windrush scandal, thousands of people who had their lives upended are still battling for what they consider fair settlements.“They’ve got no compassion,” Tobierre told The Associated Press, referring to the slow-moving compensation claims...

Daughter of California man on death row in Iran files criminal complaint against Tehran in Germany

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The daughter of a California-based man sentenced to death in Iran has asked authorities in Germany to open criminal proceedings against members of the Iranian judiciary.The family of Jamshid Sharmahd, who is a German-Iranian citizen, says he was abducted by Iran while staying in Dubai three years ago. Iranian authorities accused him of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people and wounded over 200 others. He was sentenced to death earlier this year.German and European diplomats have condemned the verdict, which comes amid an increase in executions by Iran.Germany follows the principle of universal jurisdiction, under which authorities can investigate serious crimes committed elsewhere in the world.Sharmahd’s daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd , filed a criminal complaint with the German federal prosecutor’s office against eight high-ranking members of Iran’s judiciary and the intelligence service, alleging crimes against humanity.The Berlin-bas...

Israel beefs up troop presence in West Bank after Palestinian attack that killed 4 civilians

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military on Wednesday deployed additional forces across the occupied West Bank and prepared to demolish the homes of two Palestinian gunmen who killed four Israelis in one of the worst attacks in the past year of violence. The families laid to rest the victims in the deadly shooting in the West Bank settlement of Eli, in which two Palestinian militants opened fire at a gas station restaurant.Israeli media identified the four killed as Harel Masood, 21, Ofer Fayerman, 64, and Elisha Anteman, 18, Nahman-Shmuel Mordoff, 17. An Israeli civilian killed one assailant at the scene, while Israeli troops chased and killed the second shooter after he fled. The shooting came a day after seven Palestinians were killed in a daylong battle against Israeli troops in the militant stronghold of Jenin. The worsening violence has created a test for Israel’s far right government and prompted calls for a widespread military operation in the West Bank.The army said it was bee...

The Biden-Modi relationship is built around mutual admiration of scrappy pasts and pragmatic needs

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — No one would mistake them for best of friends.But U.S. President Joe Biden, the son of blue-collar Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who rose from tea seller’s son to premier, have developed a relationship based on mutual respect of their scrappy backgrounds and a pragmatism about the shared challenges their two countries face.Biden is hosting Modi for a state visit this week as he looks to tighten his relationship with the leader of a nation of 1.4 billion that the U.S. administration sees as a pivotal force in Asia for decades to come. The pomp-filled visit will mark the two leaders’ 10th in-person or virtual engagement since Biden became president in 2021. They’re expected to meet again in September in India at the Group of 20 summit.The U.S.-India relationship is complicated. There are deep differences over Russia’s war in Ukraine and India’s human rights record. But the frequent engagement between th...

UN expert urges a different approach to resolve the crisis in Myanmar

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An independent expert working with the United Nations on the issue of human rights in Myanmar urged the international community on Wednesday to find a different approach to resolve the crisis in the Southeast Asian country, saying the current course of action is not working.Tom Andrews, a special rapporteur working with the U.N. human rights office, told a news conference in Jakarta the world is looking to Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for leadership on the situation in Myanmar.“I came to Indonesia because the human rights situation in Myanmar is dire and getting worse, and because I believe that Indonesia is positioned to play a critical role in the resolution of this crisis,” Andrews said after meeting with Indonesian and ASEAN officials.Myanmar’s crisis began after its military in February 2021 seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover prompted widespread public protests, whose violent suppressi...

China says Biden comments calling leader Xi a dictator ‘extremely absurd and irresponsible’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday called comments by President Joe Biden describing Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator “extremely absurd and irresponsible.” The new clash of words comes just over a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing that sought to break the ice in a relationship that has hit a historical low. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Biden’s comments at a fundraiser in California “go totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China’s political dignity.” “It is a blatant political provocation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” Mao said at a daily briefing. “The U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible,” Mao said. Blinken’s visit, during which he met with Xi, was aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers but appeared not to have achieved any solid results. Biden, at the fundraiser on Tuesday night local time, said that Xi was em...

Poland’s conservative ruling party leader Kaczynski is joining the government as the deputy premier

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s powerful conservative ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is reentering the government on Wednesday as the only deputy prime minister in the Cabinet, a move that gives him an enhanced position as the country heads toward a general election this fall.Kaczynski is the head of Law and Justice, the party that has governed Poland since 2015. It is widely believed in Poland that he decides most of the government’s policies and appointments, guiding the country in his position as party leader.He has previously served as deputy prime minister with a focus on security issues. He announced exactly a year ago that he was resigning from that position.This time, he will become the only deputy prime minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the government spokesman Piotr Mueller told the Polish news agency PAP.So far, there had been four deputy prime ministers in the Cabinet.“The other deputy prime ministers have resigned from th...

Underwater noises heard in frantic search for missing submersible near Titanic

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:47:47 GMT

A Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises as a massive search continued early Wednesday in a remote part of the North Atlantic for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost abroad the Titan as estimates suggest as little as a day's worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.Meanwhile, questions remain about how teams could reach the lost submersible, which could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the historic ocean liner. Newly uncovered allegations also suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during its development.Lost aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a...