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Trump co-defendant pleads guilty in Georgia election case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

A defendant charged alongside former President Donald Trump in Georgia has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, is the first person to reach a plea deal in the case, in which Trump and 18 others were charged with racketeering conspiracy for their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.Hall, 59, who was involved in a breach of election equipment, pleaded guilty Friday in Atlanta to five counts of conspiring to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties. The plea deal included an agreement to a sentence of five years of probation, a $5,000 fine and a letter of apology to the state.Part of the plea deal requires Hall to testify against others at future trials or hearings of “any co-defendants” in the election racketeering case. The felony charges against Hall were dropped as part of the agreement.Trump was not mentioned by name during Hall’s plea hearing, but a Fulton County prosecutor did men...

NATO bolsters forces in Kosovo as US urges Serbia to withdraw from border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

NATO said on Friday it is increasing its peacekeeping presence in northern Kosovo as a result of escalating tensions with neighboring Serbia, as the U.S. called on Serbia to withdraw a military buildup on the border with Kosovo.The heightening of tensions comes after about 30 heavily armed Serbs stormed the northern Kosovo village of Banjska last Sunday. A Kosovo policeman and three of the attackers were killed in gun battles.“We need NATO because the border with Serbia is very long and the Serbian army has been recently strengthening its capacities,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told the Associated Press. “They have a lot of military equipment from both the Russian Federation and China,” he said.“These people want to turn back time,” Kurti said. “They are in search of a time machine. They want to turn the clock back by 30 years. But that is not going to happen,” he said.Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade and Moscow have refu...

Four most important Patriots players in Week 4 matchup vs. Cowboys

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

The Patriots’ schedule doesn’t get any easier in Week 4 as they travel to Dallas for a game against the 2-1 Cowboys.The Patriots are seven-point underdogs in the matchup. Here are four players who need to step up for a Patriots upset.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Jabrill Peppers living up to first-round billing in second season with Patriots New England Patriots | Patriots extra points: Bill Belichick on ‘love’ for Terry Francona New England Patriots | The Patriots’ final practice before Cowboys game brings more good news New England Patriots | Pharaoh Brown recalls Bill O’Brien blocked his workout with Patriots years ago New England Patriots | Patriots mailbag: Could young receiver take snaps from JuJu Smith-Schuster? RB Rhamondre StevensonEzekiel Elliott’s return to Dallas is the better story (even if he claims he’s treating this like any other week), but the Patriots p...

Italy and Libya resume commercial flights after 10-year hiatus, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Italy and war-torn Libya on Saturday resumed commercial flights for the first time in a decade, authorities in the Libyan capital said.Flight MT522, operated by the Libyan carrier Medsky Airways, departed Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli for Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, according to Libyan airport authorities.A return flight was scheduled to land in Tripoli on Saturday afternoon, according to Mitiga International Airport. Going forward, there will be one round-trip flight between the Libyan and Italian capitals on both Saturdays and Wednesdays, according to the Mitiga airport announcement.The government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli lauded the resumed flights, posting photos on social media that showed passengers boarding the flight and officials celebrating.Italy and other western nations banned flights from Libya as the oil-rich nation in North Africa plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed long...

Borrowers are reassessing their budgets as student loan payments resume after pandemic pause

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of Americans must start repaying their federal student loans again in October, with monthly payments averaging hundreds of dollars a month. To get ready, borrowers are cutting expenses, taking on additional work, and looking for options to reduce their monthly payments. Megan McClelland, 38, said she has started asking for October shifts with a catering company and a winery to help supplement her income.McClelland’s main job is as a counselor at Petaluma High School in California. During the more than three years payments were suspended because of the pandemic, she paid off her car loan and was able to save for the first time. She’ll put the $235 she was spending on her car payment toward her student loan, but that still leaves another $270 or so she’ll have to reallocate or earn.“It had been a huge relief the past few years to not have that financial burden,” she said. “In the next months, I’m looking to see where I can scale back in...

Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian militant in the West Bank, saying he threw explosives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest death in a monthslong surge of violence in the occupied territory. The Israeli military said that soldiers late Friday shot two Palestinians who hurled Molotov cocktails at an army post near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian authority.The Palestinian Health Ministry said the soldiers killed Muhammad Rumaneh from the hardscrabble Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. The militant group Hamas claimed him as a member. Health officials did not identify Rumaneh’s age, saying that Israeli authorities were withholding his body.Israeli officials have suggested in the past that holding onto the bodies of Palestinians slain in security incidents can deter attacks and prevent the exaltation of assailants at funerals that often draw giant crowds of protesters.In lieu of a funeral, residents of Ramallah called for a general strike Saturday ...

‘I value vulnerability’: JP Saxe contemplates lost love in second studio album

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

TORONTO — You may assume Toronto singer-songwriter JP Saxe is as intensely acquainted with his innermost emotions as anyone could be. He insists you would be wrong.Despite his pandemic-era Top 40 hit “If the World Was Ending” introducing him as a deeply contemplative ballad writer, it only takes a few minutes into a morning chat to reveal Saxe is still on a quest to figure himself out.“People mistake the emotional transparency of my music for me having my emotions readily available,” the 30-year-old says as he sits on a couch in the offices of his record label.“I value vulnerability,” he adds. “But I don’t have that strength yet.”As he talks about shattered romantic relationships and picking himself up again, Saxe describes his sense of being successfully vulnerable as not having to spend months perfecting a song to convey his true emotions. He’s admittedly not there yet in his personal life, he notes.Last year, Saxe split with U.S. songwriter Julia Michaels, whom he met in a studio...

Mandatory security awareness training among changes since arrest of employee: RCMP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

OTTAWA — The RCMP says it has introduced mandatory security awareness training for employees, one of several changes prompted by the 2019 arrest of a senior civilian member for allegedly leaking classified information.The Mounties say they have also made it easier to report security vulnerabilities, boosted the internal profile of departmental security operations and made strides toward creating a program to reduce the risk of personnel spilling secrets.The moves follow a June 2020 RCMP review report that called for a fundamental shift in the security culture of the national police force, to be led at the highest levels. The report, released last year through the Access to Information Act, made 43 recommendations, including training updates, stricter adherence to federal security screening standards and the possible introduction of random physical searches.The review, led by a retired RCMP superintendent, began after the September 2019 arrest of Cameron Jay Ortis, who was then direc...

Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh’s people have left, Armenia’s government says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — An ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm, the Armenian government said Saturday. Nazeli Baghdasaryan, the press secretary to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said 100,417 people had arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, which had a population of around 120,000 before Azerbaijan reclaimed the region in a lightning offensive last week. A total of 21,043 vehicles had crossed the Hakari Bridge, which links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, since last week, Baghdasaryan said. Some lined up for days because the winding mountain road that is the only route to Armenia became jammed. The departure of more than 80% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population raises questions about Azerbaijan’s plans for the enclave that was internationally recognized as part of its territory. The region’s separatist ethnic Armenian government said Thursday it would...

It’s back to school for Apple Valley, Eagan, White Bear Lake, Ramsey County, Woodbury school resource officers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:06:10 GMT

It’s back to school for some school resource officers whose police departments paused their programs amid confusion over changes to state law.Apple Valley, Eagan, White Bear Lake and Ramsey County sheriff’s office have returned their officers or deputies to schools. Woodbury plans to Monday. The Mounds View police chief is still consulting with their city attorney, but he said it’s looking likely.Those departments say they were reassured by recently updated legal guidance from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the League of Minnesota Cities.But legal information this week from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty differs from Ellison’s, and “that kind of set us back to where we were a couple of weeks, at least with those chiefs in Hennepin County and potentially some others,” said Jeff Potts, Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association executive director.Since 2015, state law has said school district staff is prohibited from using prone re...