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French lawmakers to challenge Olympics surveillance before top court

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

PARIS — French left-leaning lawmakers are preparing to challenge the controversial bill allowing AI-powered cameras at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics before the country’s top constitutional court, Greens MP Sandra Regol told POLITICO. “We hope to obtain something [from the Constitutional Council] because the Council of State had many questions to begin with,” Regol said Thursday. “This is a rider law, which touches upon about everything but the Olympic Games.” The French government wants to experiment with large-scale, real-time camera systems supported by algorithms to spot suspicious behavior, including unsupervised luggage and crowd movements like stampedes, for the mega-sports event next year. The plan was adopted by the National Assembly last week and by the Senate in January, despite pushback from digital rights NGOs, including France’s La Quadrature du Net, and MEPs. Members of both chambers will gather on Monday to shepherd a common ve...

‘Deplorable’: Olympics boss slams effort to ban Russia from Paris 2024

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach went on the attack Thursday, blasting European governments over their effort to have Russia and Belarus excluded from the 2024 Paris Olympics. “It cannot be up to the governments to decide which athletes can participate in which competition,” Bach said in blunt remarks at a press conference Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland.“This would be the end of world sport as we know it today,” he added.Bach called European governments “deplorable” for demanding Russians be banned from international competitions and hit out at their “double standards.”“We have not seen a single comment about their attitudes toward the participation of athletes whose countries are involved in the other 70 wars and armed conflicts in the world,” he said. Bach added that because neither Ukraine nor Russia were happy with the IOC’s recommendations on Russian and Belarusian athletes it could indicate the governing body had actually m...

Mass. baby sitter gets 25 years for sexually exploiting children

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A baby sitter who sexually abused two children she was supposed to be caring for, produced videos and images of the abuse that she then shared with another person, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.Nichole Cyr, 27, of Fall River, was also sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Boston to five years of probation, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement.“The crimes committed by Ms. Cyr are unconscionable and every parent’s nightmare,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement. “While a trusted babysitter, she sexually exploited two defenseless children who were 2 and 7 years old at the time. Specifically, she sexually abused the toddler on multiple occasions, documented it, and distributed that documentation.”Cyr was arrested in July 2020 after images and video of the abuse were found on her cellphones, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, the crimes were committed between November 2019 and J...

Gov. Maura Healey announces funding for 450 new affordable housing units across Mass.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey announced funding for 450 new affordable housing units across Massachusetts on Wednesday as part of this year’s Permanent Supportive Housing Grant Awards.The awards total more than $62 million and will support 12 affordable projects that offer specialized services to residents, including one on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain. Nearly all the new housing units will be reserved for low-income households, including 317 allocated for very low-income residents. “Our administration is committed to ensuring that Massachusetts residents have access to safe, secure and affordable housing,” Healey said in a statement. “We’re proud to support projects in every region of our state that are providing permanent supportive housing for families, seniors, veterans, young people and people experiencing homelessness. This is the type of housing production that we want to drive in communities across the state to lower costs and address our housing crisis.” Wednesday’s a...

Suspect facing attempted murder charge after victim kicked into pit at State Street Station

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

A 23 year old from Whitman was arrested for attempted murder after police say a victim was kicked into a pit at an MBTA station.MBTA Transit Police say Kedrian Perry Marshall was arrested after a male “violently kicked an unsuspecting individual” into a pit at State Street Station on Tuesday.In an announcement posted to Twitter, Transit Police also shared an image showing someone about to be kicked by an individual wearing a backpack at the station, and another featuring the individual himself.Image provided by the MBTA Transit Police DepartmentOfficials said Marshall was arrested Wednesday after an intense investigation involving Transit police detectives. They also noted the victim was not injured at the time of the incident and declined medical services.https://twitter.com/MBTATransitPD/status/1641438251281170432

Mike Lupica: It’s time for the Yankees to play the young kids and become fun again

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

The Yankees will be good again this season. Why? Because they’re always good, even if it’s been a long time — 2009? 1909? — since they were good enough.They will hit a lot of home runs because they always hit a lot of home runs, and that doesn’t just mean Aaron Judge. Sometimes they even lead the league in home runs.And they’ll have pitchers hurt because they always have pitchers hurt, another area where they always seem to lead the league. Maybe they’ll even have a big closer again in Clay Holmes, unless he is another Yankee pitcher who gets hurt. Seriously: Are you surprised that Carlos Rodon has already felt something in his pitching elbow? I’m not.But you know what we really want from the 2023 Yankees? We want them to be fun again.We want them to be a show. We want them to be something more than Judge because, let’s face it, other than Judge, who were you really buying a ticket to watch play last season?The Yankees were fun w...

Breaking down Heat seeding scenarios: Postseason math getting tricky

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

There was a point when the Miami Heat controlled their destiny when it came to a direct ticket to the best-of-seven opening round of the NBA playoffs.Then came Saturday night’s troubling 129-100 home loss to the Brooklyn Nets.Then came Tuesday night’s 106-92 loss in Toronto and Wednesday night’s 101-92 loss in New York.Now the Heat control only a single element of their destiny: With their next win or the Washington Wizards’ next loss, the Heat will be guaranteed of no worse than a berth in the play-in tournament that will decide the final two playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference.In the play-in, the No. 7 seed hosts the No. 8 seed in a single game, with the winner securing the No. 7 playoff seed, playing the conference’s No. 2 seed in the first round. The loser of that Nos. 7-8 game hosts the winner of the game between the Nos. 9-10 seeds, playing for the No. 8 seed and a first-round series against No. 1 in the East.The Heat stand No. 7 in the East, ...

House to take up tax relief, free college, Speaker tells Greater Boston Chamber

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

The House will take up some version of the governor’s tax cuts and carry through with her plan to give Massachusetts adults free community college, House Speaker Ron Mariano told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.“I have been clear; if revenue predictions indicate that there is an opportunity to responsibly provide tax relief, the House will do so,” he said Thursday morning, according to prepared remarks provided by his staff.“After countless informative conversations with colleagues, months of internal research, and consensus revenue and tax relief hearings, I’m proud to announce today that the House will soon release a comprehensive tax reform package aimed at providing responsible, permanent financial relief to all residents of the Commonwealth, regardless of income status,” he said.Mariano also addressed the Chamber during one of their regular Government Affairs Forums in May of last year, when the state was considering a different tax cut proposal, that time put forw...

Covering over well at Indian temple collapses, killing 8

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — A structure built over an old temple well in India collapsed Thursday as a large crowd of devotees prayed at a festival for Rama, one of the most widely worshipped Hindu deities, killing at least eight people, police said.Up to 35 people fell into the well in the temple complex in Indore in central Madhya Pradesh state when the structure collapsed and were covered by falling debris, police Commissioner Makrand Deoskar said. At least eight were killed.The structure apparently caved in because it could not handle the weight of the large crowd. The state’s top elected official, Shivraj Chauhan, ordered an investigation.Local news reports said temple authorities had stopped using the well years ago and covered it with the structure.Witnesses said a large crowd of devotees had thronged the temple to perform a fire ritual and celebrate the Hindu festival.Building collapses are common in India because of poor construction and a failure to observe regulations.In Octob...

Vatican rejects Doctrine of Discovery, a move Indigenous people have long urged

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:24:18 GMT

The Vatican has rejected the Doctrine of Discovery a year after Pope Francis met with Indigenous groups from Canada and delivered his first apology for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools.  A statement from the Vatican says the papal bulls, or decrees, “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.”The 15th-century doctrine was connected to the idea that lands being colonized were empty, when in fact Indigenous people had long called them home. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says in a statement it is grateful for the move Indigenous organizations had been urging.A year ago First Nations, Métis and Inuit groups went to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and many told him the doctrine must be rejected.  The pontiff travelled to Canada in July for a six-day tour, during which he apologized repeatedly but was criticized for not addressing the papal bulls.  This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, ...