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Spanish court halts probe into Israeli spyware hacking of Pedro Sánchez’s phone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

Spain’s National Court announced Monday that the investigation into the phone hacking which targeted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been put on hold, due to Israel’s failure to provide information on the case. Pegasus, a spyware product from the Israeli company NSO, was used to hack into Sanchez’s phone between 2020 and 2021. The phones belonging to Spain’s ministers of defense, interior and agriculture were also spied on. Around three gigabytes of information were allegedly stolen from Sánchez’s phone.José Luis Calama, a judge at Spain’s National Court, said that “the very security of the state has been put in jeopardy,” during the spyware hacks, as reported by local media Monday.The Spanish court asked Israel to provide information on the matter more than a year ago — but never received an answer. “This silence clearly shows an absolute lack of legal cooperation on the part of the government of Israel. This leads us to presum...

Mistrial declared in case of man accused of murdering Weymouth police sergeant, bystander

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a man accused of killing both a Weymouth police sergeant and a bystander in 2018.After days of deliberations, the jury seated for the trial of Emmanuel Lopes was dismissed at Norfolk Superior Court on Monday.The 12-member jury deliberated throughout the previous week, but was unable to reach a unanimous decision after hearing testimony over the last month. Lopes, 25, was facing 11 counts that included charges related to the deaths of Sgt. Michael Chesna and another victim, 77-year-old Vera Adams.Prosecutors say the then-20 year old had been wanted in connection with a crash in Weymouth the morning of July 15, 2018, when Sgt. Chesna confronted him. The prosecution detailed how Lopes hit Chesna with a rock and then murdered him with his own service firearm.Other officers started chasing Lopes when he fired three more rounds – one of which fatally struck Adams while she was sitting in her sun porch.Lopes’ legal team admitted he pulled the ...

Vermont faces a rare high risk for flooding. Here’s why these days are so deadly and devastating

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

(CNN) — A dire and potentially catastrophic situation is unfolding across parts of New England and New York, where continuous rounds of heavy rain parked over the region are triggering flash flooding of epic proportions.This system has already proven impressive and deadly. Nearly 8 inches of rain fell in just six hours in Orange County, New York, on Sunday at the US Military Academy at West Point. That was a 1-in-1000-year rainfall event for the location – one that is so intense, it usually only occurs once every 1,000 years.The surge of floodwaters there swept away and killed a woman Sunday night and forced dozens of high water rescues.More devastating scenes were already unfolding Monday morning in Vermont, where the Weather Prediction Center issued a rare Level 4 out of 4 “high risk” of excessive rainfall. It’s the first time a high risk has been issued for the area, according to the WPC.It’s hard to overstate how big of a deal these high risks are. They are i...

Erdogan urges Europe to revive Turkish EU membership talks in exchange for Swedish NATO accession

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

By KARL RITTER and SUZAN FRASER (Associated Press)VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday introduced a new condition for approving Sweden’s membership in NATO, calling on European countries to “open the way” for Turkey to join the European Union.The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing for a NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital added new uncertainty to Sweden’s bid to become the alliance’s 32nd member, which Turkey initially blocked by saying Sweden was too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers security threats.It was the first time that Erdogan linked his country’s ambition to join the EU with Sweden’s efforts to become a NATO member.“Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. “I am m...

Judge declares mistrial in Emanuel Lopes double murder case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

Following weeks of jury deliberations, a Norfolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Monday morning in the case of a Weymouth man accused of killing a police officer and bystander nearly 5 years ago.“Jurors, I’m in receipt of your note. Your services are complete. I’m declaring a mistrial,” Judge Beverly Cannone in courtroom video Monday morning, to audible gasps and the apparent sound of crying from the courtroom.Emanuel Lopes, 25, is accused of shooting Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, and bystander Vera Adams, 77, in the early hours of July 15, 2018. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.Jury deliberations began on June 28 after closing arguments and restarted again when one juror was replaced on July 5.During the trial lawyers and witnesses laid out the day of the crimes in vivid detail. During July 14 and 15, witnesses testified, Lopes mood and actions took an abrupt turn...

New York Times to axe sports department, Athletic steps into batter’s box for coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

The New York Times has announced they are disbanding their sports department, containing more than 35 journalists and editors.The Gray Lady said it will be leaning on The Athletic, purchased by the Times in January 2022 for $550 million, for its coverage of teams and sporting events. An email from The Times’ Executive Director Joe Kahn and Deputy Managing Editor Monica Drake told the Times newsroom that they would “scale back the newsroom’s coverage of games, players, teams and leagues,” an announcement states.The company’s current sports desk staffers, according to The Times, will shift to other newsroom roles and no layoffs are anticipated. A business desk group will focus on the financial and power aspects of the sporting world, The Times said.A letter from The Times’ sports department, signed by 28 members, was published in the company’s Sunday paper and asked for clarity about the rumored elimination of the department.“We have watched the company buy a competitor with hundreds ...

Novak Djokovic shows his experience at Wimbledon. Russian teen Mirra Andreeva shows her inexperience

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Novak Djokovic’s experience was on display at Wimbledon on Monday. And so was Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva’s inexperience.Djokovic, a seven-time champion at the All England Club who is looking for his 24th Grand Slam title overall, reached the quarterfinals at the grass-court major for the 14th time by beating Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 in a match that started Sunday on Centre Court.Djokovic saved three set points in the first set and then was two points from losing the second set. Play was then suspended because of the late hour. On Monday, Hurkacz finally managed to pick up a set, using his strong serve to near perfection.“Honestly, I don’t recall the last time I felt this miserable in returning games … due to his incredibly accurate and powerful serve,” Djokovic said on court. “He’s got one of the best serves in the world and it’s so difficult to read it.”Hurkacz had held his serve for all 67 games at Wimbledon this ye...

Israel asks Lebanon to remove militant Hezbollah tent from tense border area

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed on the tense Lebanon-Israel border relayed Monday an Israeli request to remove a tent set up by the militant Hezbollah group in a disputed area.The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, met Monday in Beirut with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib said Lebanese leaders told the U.N. commander that Israel should withdraw its troops from the Lebanese part of the town of Ghajar that was captured by Israeli troops in 2006.Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations in June claiming that Hezbollah had set up tents several dozen meters (yards) inside of Israeli territory. It’s unclear what was inside the tents or what they were for. The area where the tents were erected in Chebaa Farms and the Kfar Chouba hills were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and are part of...

Book Review: A fast-paced, tension-laden plot at heart of Reed Farrel Coleman’s ‘Sleepless City’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

“Sleepless City,” by Reed Farrel Coleman (Blackstone)Nick Ryan, the protagonist in a new series by veteran crime novelist Reed Farrel Coleman, begins his fictional life with a lot of baggage.Nick’s fellow New York City cops don’t trust him because his father once testified against a cabal of corrupt officers. Nick’s brother, a fellow cop, is on an alcohol-fueled path of self-destruction. And an old girlfriend Nick had never gotten over suddenly pops up in his life again, married now but raising a toddler that looks a lot like Nick. As if that weren’t enough, Nick’s mentor in the department is dead by his own hand, shooting himself after getting caught planting evidence on a pedophile who was about escape justice. Like his late mentor, Nick is willing to taking the law into his own hands when thinks the situation requires it. We learn this right off when he sets out to kill the pedophile.Meanwhile, a crooked financier has looted the police union pension fund, and a string of police s...

United Nations humanitarian chief says Sudan appears to be in a civil war ‘of the most brutal kind’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:20 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Sudan appears to be in a civil war “of the most brutal kind” and the world needs a new forum for talks in pursuit of a cease-fire, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press on Monday.Martin Griffiths spoke as regional leaders met in neighboring Ethiopia following the breakdown of peace talks in Saudi Arabia in June. Egypt says it will host leaders from Sudan’s neighbors on Thursday in search of peace, with few details.“We don’t have a place, a forum, where the two parties are present … where we can broker the kind of basic agreements that we need to move supplies and people,” Griffiths said. He called Sudan the toughest place in the world for humanitarian workers in terms of access and warned that the crisis will only worsen as the fighting spreads to new areas.“We have to re-create the architecture that we had for a little while in Jeddah,” he said of the Saudi- and U.S.-mediated talks. He criticized those discussions as “very clunk...