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Owner of Boston-area pizza chain to appear in court on federal charge of forced labor

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

The owner of a pizza chain with multiple Boston-area locations is set to appear in court Monday on a federal forced labor charge amid accusations that he abused an employee and threatened to report the employee’s immigration status, according to the the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.Stavros Papantoniadis, 47, of Westwood owns Stash’s Pizza with locations in Dorchester and Roslindale. Homeland Security investigators said Papantoniadis targeted employees who lacked immigration status.Officials said one unnamed victim, who worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the restaurant in Dorchester was afraid of Papantoniadis and once cried when he was kicked in the groin.Investigators said Papantoniadis also knocked the man’s teeth out.“Victim 1 missed a day of work. The next day, Papantoniadis pushed him and caused him to fall to the floor. Papantoniadis then called Victim 1 an ‘[Expletive] Muslim,’” court paperwork said of one incident.While Papanto...

Bank failures, Fed oversight and response sends Elizabeth Warren on TV tirade

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

The Bay State’s senior senator made the full Sunday talk show rounds this weekend, telling every news station that would listen how fed up she is with the leadership of the nation’s central bank amid the collapse of several financial institutions.“What happened is exactly what we should have predicted,” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CBS’s Margaret Brennan.“This whole tranche of banks has been under regulated for five years now,” she said.Warren was speaking about 10 days after it became apparent that California based Silicon Valley Bank would fail amid a modern day, social media driven banking run. A second lender, New York based Signature Bank, would fail days later.The collapse of both institutions represent, according to Reuters, the second and third largest banking failures in U.S. history, behind only the 2008 folding of Washington Mutual.Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, is proposing that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s $250,000 worth of account p...

Lucas: ‘Dispute’ or war? DeSantis should go to Ukraine and find out

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

Ron DeSantis should go to Ukraine.That way he could meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and determine if the terrible war between Russia and Ukraine was indeed “a territorial dispute” not vital to U.S interests, or an outright brutal war of aggression by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.Everybody else has gone to Ukraine, from President Joe Biden to actor Ben Stiller. So why not DeSantis?And Zelenskyy, in the name of equity, fairness and drama, could turn on the Kiev air raid sirens the way he did during Biden’s recent visit.DeSantis, the popular GOP alternative to Donald Trump, caused a stir among GOP supporters of continued military aid to Ukraine, when he said the U.S. had more important issues to deal with.He said, “While the U.S. has many vital national interests—securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Par...

French gov’t fights to survive with 2 no-confidence motions

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s government is fighting for its survival Monday against no-confidence motions filed by lawmakers who are furious that President Emmanuel Macron used special constitutional powers to force through an unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without giving them a vote.National Assembly lawmakers are set to vote in the afternoon on two no-confidence motions, one from the far-right National Rally and the other, more threatening one from a small group that has gathered support across the left.The Senate, dominated by conservatives who back the retirement plan, passed the legislation last week.The no-confidence motions each need the backing of 287 lawmakers in the National Assembly, the lower chamber, to pass.Although the motions appear unlikely to succeed, the climate of protest that Macron’s pension reforms has sparked in parliament and on the streets means the outcome of voting in the National Assembly is not guaranteed. No such motion has succeeded ...

Pakistani police arrest scores more Imran Khan supporters

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police on Monday arrested scores more supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for attacking officers over the weekend outside an Islamabad court where the ousted premier was to appear on graft charges, officials said. The arrests were the latest amid legal cases facing Khan, now opposition leader, since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament last April. The standoff between the 70-year-old former cricket player turned Islamist politician, and the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, has turned increasingly violent. Monday’s arrests bring the total number of Khan’s followers detained in Islamabad to 198 since Saturday, when 59 were arrested in the Pakistani capital. Khan’s followers threw fire bombs and hurled rocks at the officers as riot police wielded batons and fired tear gas. More than than 50 officers were injured and a police checkpoint, several cars and motorcycles were torched. Also on Saturday, p...

Activists demand EU halts ‘green’ funds for Spain ski resort

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spanish environmental groups on Monday called on the European Union to open an inquiry into the approval of 26.4 million euros ($28.1 million) of “green” economic recovery funds to join two ski resorts in the rapidly warming Pyrenees mountain range. Five Spanish groups sent a delegation to Brussels for meetings this week with European Union lawmakers and officials to urge greater scrutiny of a project they say will cause irreversible damage to the glacial valley of Canal Roya in the Aragon region.The EU’s 724 billion-euro ($763-billion) COVID-19 recovery program is supposed to support member states to “build a greener, more digital and more resilient future,” with stringent rules on impacting biodiversity, water use and carbon emissions.The activists argue the union of the resorts of Astún-Candanchú and Formigal with an 8-kilometer-long cable car link violates these conditions. The plan was approved by Spain’s tourism ministry in December.“This is a space of enor...

Arrests as Kenya opposition leads anti-government protests

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — At least three Kenyan legislators and several protesters have been arrested in protests in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, organized by the opposition demanding the resignation of President William Ruto. Hundreds of demonstrators spread across the city have not managed to reach the designated meeting point in the central business district as police dispersed them with teargas through the morning.The opposition called for protests against Ruto who they say was not validly elected in the August 2022 elections. They are also blaming Ruto’s administration for the rising cost of living.Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said those arrested in the protests would be released after paying cash bail.Bungei had over the weekend said police had denied the opposition permission to hold their protests and that any congregation would be illegal.Opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday insisted that protests would proceed as planned and demonstrators would march to State Hous...

Man arrested after windows smashed at Indian mission in UK

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Windows at India’s High Commission in London were smashed and two security guards were slightly injured during a demonstration by Sikh protesters, police said Monday.London’s Metropolitan Police force said a man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder outside the diplomatic mission on Sunday afternoon.Footage posted on social media showed a man detach the Indian flag from a balcony of the building while a crowd of people below waving bright yellow “Khalistan” banners appeared to encourage him.They are believed to be supporters of a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create a new homeland or breakaway state.Police said officers were called but protesters had largely dispersed by the time they arrived.“An investigation was launched, and one male was arrested nearby a short time later on suspicion of violent disorder. Inquiries continue,” the force said.The Indian government said it had summoned British Deputy High Commissioner Christina Scott in New Delhi to...

Digital literacy: Can the republic ‘survive an algorithm’?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st century driver’s education, an essential for modern life.Lee has tried to bring that kind of education into his classroom, with lessons about the need to double-check online sources, to diversify newsfeeds and to bring critical thinking to the web. He’s also created an organization for other teachers to share resources.“This technology is so new that no one taught us how to use it,” Lee said. “People are like, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ and they throw their hands in the air. I disagree with that. I would like to think the republic can survive an algorithm.”Lee’s efforts are part of a growing movement of educators and misinformation researchers working to offset an explosion of online misinformation about everything from presidential politics to pandemics. So far, the U.S. lags many other democracies in waging this battle, and the ...

Avalanche: 2nd body found of Swedish skiers near Mont Blanc

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:52:56 GMT

ROME (AP) — Rescue crews recovered a second body Monday in a search for two Swedish skiers who were caught in an avalanche near Mont Blanc on Italy’s northern border with France, authorities said.Two people who were part of the group of four off-piste skiers survived Sunday’s avalanche in the Val Veny, above Courmayeur, and had sounded the alarm. Due to bad weather Sunday, rescue crews weren’t able to use helicopters to reach the site but had to get there with snowmobiles. By Monday the skies had cleared and a helicopter identified the body of the second missing skier after the first one had been found Sunday.The city of Courmayeur confirmed that the victims were two Swedish women in their 20s, city spokesman Moreno Vignolini said in an email.Both bodies were brought to Courmayeur for identification purposes, the Val D’Aosta Alpine Rescue service said in a text message.The avalanche risk Sunday for the area was a level three — “considerable” danger on a scale of five. The Asso...