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Top Boris Johnson aide turned on disappearing WhatsApps weeks before COVID inquiry unveiled

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

LONDON — A senior U.K. civil servant who worked closely with Boris Johnson turned on WhatsApp’s controversial disappearing messages function in a group used by government figures, weeks before the then-prime minister announced a public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic. Testimony revealed in Britain’s COVID-19 inquiry Monday showed that Martin Reynolds — who served as Johnson’s principal private secretary — turned on the function on April 15, 2021 in a WhatsApp group containing senior figures including Johnson and other top No. 10 Downing Street advisers and civil servants.Johnson announced the public inquiry into coronavirus on May 12, 2021. The independent inquiry was set up to learn lessons from the pandemic, and demanded the mass disclosure of messages from the encrypted app. In public evidence sessions, the inquiry is grilling senior figures involved with the U.K.’s response to COVID-19. In an evidence session with Reynolds Monday, the former civil s...

Facebook and Instagram to offer paid subscriptions in Europe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

Meta announced Monday that it would start offering paid-for subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram, its popular digital services, within the European Union from next month.Those forking out for a monthly subscription will not have their personal information used to target them with advertising, while those who do not pay will still have their data collected to power Meta’s lucrative advertising model. People will be able to pay between €9.99 and €12.99 a month, depending on whether they want to access the subscriptions via either the web or their smartphones. The fees will allow users to access both Facebook and Instagram. A company spokesman declined to comment when the subscription offering would become available in November.The move comes as Meta has faced a backlash from the 27-country bloc’s regulators, lawmakers and courts on how it has handled people’s data to service up personalized advertising. The EU’s privacy regime has made it increasingly diffi...

‘Dismay, disgust.’ French government condemns Marseille football violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

The French government on Monday condemned violence by Marseille football fans on Sunday, during which the visiting Lyon team’s bus was pelted with stones and beer bottles, and Lyon coach Fabio Grosso was injured by shards of glass.“Dismay, revolt, disgust. Then, obviously, a feeling of empathy, enormous thoughts for the coach, for the team, for the assistant coach, for the supporters,” said French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on television channel France2.Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on French channel BFMTV demanded an end to violent scenes at football stadiums and said nine arrests have been made so far. Oudéa-Castéra added that “what we saw in this stadium [is] almost all of what we do not want to see: homophobic remarks, racist signs.”The French sports minister added that “all the perpetrators of these unacceptable actions will have to be very severely punished.”French football has been repeatedly rocked by violence in recent years, with several incidents ...

Column: Dropped passes. Missed tackles. Bad penalties. Costly turnovers. Chicago Bears fall flat in another prime-time blowout.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

Over the next several days, the Chicago Bears will spend significant time looking for answers, trying to better explain and interpret all that went haywire Sunday at SoFi Stadium. They will study film, engage in meetings and push for as many corrections and fixes as possible. But in the process, they will also look in the mirror and see what the rest of the football world witnessed on the “Sunday Night Football” stage in Week 8, which is an inconsistent and error-prone team that couldn’t stay competitive and was throttled from start to finish by the Los Angeles Chargers.Sunday’s final score was 30-13. But it really wasn’t that close with the Chargers taking the lead for good midway through the first quarter, extending their advantage to 17 points by halftime and coasting through the second half.Inside a glum visitor’s locker room, the Bears were again left to process their disappointment. It wasn’t just that they suffered their sixth loss in...

Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 31-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

The Ravens made life more difficult than it needed to be but came away from Arizona with an unsightly 31-24 win thanks to red zone efficiency, a pair of interceptions and a dominant performance by nose tackle Michael Pierce.Here are five things we learned from the game.The Ravens reverted to sloppier ways, but they’re in the top tier of a messy leagueThe Ravens began their day with an illegal contact penalty that kept the Cardinals moving toward an opening touchdown. They ended it with their guts churning thanks to Nelson Agholor’s unsuccessful effort to pull in an onside kick.In between those anxious moments, they did plenty to nurture a 1-6 foe’s hopes for an upset. An offense that moved freely a week earlier in demolishing the Detroit Lions, 38-6, spent much of the afternoon driving tentatively.It would be overstating to say the Ravens courted disaster. Their defense — well, Pierce the one-man wall to be more precise — smothered the Cardinals on a pa...

Clinic in works to help migrants with work authorizations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

State officials next month plan to host a clinic to help migrants living in emergency shelters to obtain work authorizations.In a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration plans to host the work authorization clinic for migrants during the week of Nov. 13.The administration announced Monday morning that the state plans to organize appointments and provide transportation from shelter sites to the clinic, which will take place somewhere in Middlesex County.“We are glad that the Biden-Harris Administration is hosting this clinic with us, which will help process work authorizations as efficiently as possible. Many shelter residents want to work but face significant barriers to getting their work authorizations,” Gov. Healey said in a statement.“This clinic will be critical for building on the work that our administration has already been leading to connect more migrants with work opportunities, which will help t...

Bill Belichick would like to see equal protection for Patriots players

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

There were many reasons why the Patriots lost to the Dolphins on Sunday in Miami, but imbalanced officiating did seem to play a factor in the game.One missed call came with 6:26 left in the third quarter on second-and-10 when Patriots wide receiver DeVante Parker was hit helmet-to-helmet by Dolphins safety DeShonn Elliott, jarring the ball loose on an incompletion. Elliott made helmet-to-helmet contact with Parker again when they landed on the turf. Officials did not throw a flag on the play. Parker left the game and was quickly ruled out with a head injury.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Callahan: Robert Kraft should command Patriots to sell at NFL trade deadline New England Patriots | How JuJu Smith-Schuster’s hard hit caused Patriots-Dolphins scuffle New England Patriots | Bill Belichick comments on JuJu Smith-Schuster’s demotion in Patriots-Dolphins game New England Patriots | Patriots’ latest lo...

A Japan court says North Korea is responsible for the abuses of people lured there by false promises

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese high court on Monday said the North Korean government was responsible for the human rights abuses of plaintiffs who said they were lured to the North by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in “paradise on Earth,” a decision praised as a victory by survivors and their supporters.“The ruling showed that a Japanese court can rule on North Korea’s human rights violations, one that could have a significant impact,” said a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Kenji Fukuda.The four plaintiffs, including ethnic Koreans and Japanese, moved to North Korea with thousands of others under a 1959-1984 program in which the North promised free health care, education, jobs and other benefits. But they said none of that was available and they were mostly assigned manual work at mines, forests or farms and forced to live in harsh conditions.Originally, five plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2018 with the Tokyo District Court seeking 100 million yen ($900,000) each in compensation for “illega...

Canada desperately needs more family doctors. Why are we making it harder to be one?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, depending on where you live in this country, there’s a between one-in-three and one-in-six chance that you don’t have a family doctor. And the number of Canadians without one is rising rapidly. Now, at a time when older doctors are leaving the profession, the College of Family Physicians of Canada has announced plans to increase the time would-be family doctors are required to train from two years to three. Even if it’s well-intentioned, the move has sparked opposition from experts and health ministers, who say we’re in a crisis and desperately need new doctors.Dr. Cathy Risdon, a family doctor and Chair of Family Medicine at McMaster University, says the added benefits of increasing the length of training for family doctors may outweigh any potential costs.“By continuing to support trainees in a third year, in settings which offer them a chance to practice comprehensive medicine, we actually may come out ahead,” says Risdo...

General Motors, the lone holdout among Detroit Three, faces rising pressure and risks from strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:03 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Pressure is rising on General Motors as the lone holdout in a strike targeting all three big Detroit automakers after a tentative contract agreement with Jeep maker Stellantis was reached with the United Auto Workers union over the weekend. The UAW reached a tentative agreement last week with Ford and it wasted no time in hitting GM where it hurts financially as the strike enters its seventh week. Nearly 4,000 unionized workers on Saturday walked out of GM’s largest North American plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, hours after the deal with Stellantis was announced. They join about 14,000 GM workers already striking at factories in Texas, Michigan and Missouri. Spring Hill produces the engines for vehicles assembled at nine plants as far afield as Mexico, including Silverado and Sierra pickups. It’s a big money maker for GM that amplifies the company’s financial pain after workers walked off the job last week in Arlington, Texas, where full-size SUVs i...