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Spanish judge hears allegations of Franco-era police torture in a case rights groups say is a 1st

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judge heard evidence Friday of alleged torture during the rule of the country’s late dictator Francisco Franco, in what rights groups said was the first case of its kind to be accepted for legal review.The hearing at a Madrid courthouse involved allegations against five former police officers. The lead witness, Julio Pacheco, told reporters outside that he had recounted to a judge how he was tortured by police in 1975, when he was a 19-year-old student. Pacheco said he hoped his testimony was a step toward “starting to break down the wall of silence and impunity” regarding abuses during Franco’s rule. His wife also testified.Previously, judges have refused to hear such cases because of a 1977 amnesty law that blocked the prosecution of Franco-era crimes. The law was part of Spain’s effort to put that period behind it and strengthen its fledgling democracy following Franco’s death two years earlier.With victims and human rights groups arguing that ...

Like his dad, retiring Mitt Romney embraced moderate conservatism. He fears the GOP has lost its way

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

Mitt Romney’s announcement this week that he will not seek another term in the U.S. Senate came with a distant echo of his father’s departure from politics five decades ago.Mitt and his father, George Romney, at one time were top Republican contenders for the presidency, but fell short of the White House. Both ended their careers in elected office with a sense their party had lost its bearings. And both called for a more humane party, one that prioritizes civility and principle over resentments and score-settling.In eras 50 years apart, George and Mitt Romney found themselves isolated in a GOP increasingly uninterested in their brand of genteel, country-club conservatism. In following a path forged by his father, sometimes with eerie similarities, Mitt Romney became the latest in a line of prominent establishment Republicans who pushed back against Donald Trump’s vision for the party, only to become isolated. Liz Cheney, who has declared it her mission to ensure Trump ne...

UNESCO puts two locations in war-ravaged Ukraine on its list of historic sites in danger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee on Friday placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger.The iconic Saint Sophia Cathedral in the capital, Kyiv, and the medieval center of the western city of Lviv, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites central to Ukraine’s culture and history. The decision Friday to put those two on the body’s list of sites “in danger” has no enforcement mechanism, but could help deter Russian attacks.Neither site has been directly targeted since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Lviv has largely been spared from the fighting. But Russia has unleashed waves of strikes on Kyiv and other cities, hitting residential areas and critical infrastructure with Iranian-made attack drones.The decision was taken at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is being held in Saudi Arabia. The committee maintains UNESCO’s World Heritage List and over...

Texas AG Ken Paxton returns for closing arguments as his impeachment trial races toward a verdict

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to his impeachment trial for closing arguments Friday as the historic proceedings raced toward a verdict that will determine whether the Republican is removed from office over charges of bribery and corruption.The trial is speeding to an end as Paxton, shadowed for years by scandal and criminal charges, faces a defining test of political durability after an impeachment driven by his fellow Republicans that has widened party fractures in America’s biggest red state. A verdict from the Texas Senate could arrive as soon as Friday.Paxton, who has not attended the trial since the morning of the opening day and skipped all of the testimony, arrived in the chamber and sat at the defense table minutes before the trial resumed. Seated in the front row of the public gallery were three of Paxton’s former deputies who reported him to the FBI in the 2020. Rusty Hardin, one of the attorneys for House impeachment managers,...

Workers strike at all 3 Detroit automakers in a battle for a bigger share of industry profits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — About 13,000 U.S. auto workers stopped making vehicles and went on strike Friday after their leaders couldn’t bridge a giant gap between union demands in contract talks and what Detroit’s three automakers are willing to pay. Members of the United Auto Workers union began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit; and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.It is the first time in the union’s 88-year history that all three companies were targeted simultaneously.The strikes will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.If the strikes drag on, shortages could push vehicle prices higher and strain an economy already bruised by inflation. Walkouts may even become a factor in next year’s presidential...

Defense teams rest in trial of two former DCFS workers connected to the 2019 death of 5-year-old AJ Freund

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

MCHENRY COUNTY, Ill. — The trial for two former Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) workers accused of child endangerment entered its fifth day Friday after the prosecution rested their case Thursday afternoon.Court was only in session for approximately 30 minutes as both defendants chose not to testify, and their respective attorneys then rested their cases without calling any witnesses. Judge George Strickland then scheduled a Tuesday virtual meeting to set the deadline for any remaining submissions of evidence and the date to hearing closing arguments. He stated he expected that date to be within the first two weeks of October.Charges were filed against the pair in Sept. 2020, stemming from the April 2019 death of five-year-old Andrew “AJ” Freund of Crystal Lake. Andrew Polovin and Carlos Acosta are accused of having known the child’s life was in danger four months earlier, yet not taking the right steps to ensure the situation didn’t worsen. PREVIOUS COVERAG...

Man fatally shot after altercation in Loop apartment complex, man in custody

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

CHICAGO -- A 32-year-old man succumbed to his injuries after he was shot during an altercation with another individual in a residential complex in the Loop. An individual is in custody. The Sun-Times reported that the victim was the assistant principal of culture at Intrinsic School in the Loop. Police responded to the incident near the 100 block of East Monroe Street Thursday night around 7:38 p.m. Police: 3 shot while driving on South Side Officers found the unidentified man with multiple gunshot wounds to the body in a hallway. He was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was listed in critical condition and later pronounced dead. After a search warrant ensued, a 45-year-old man was located and placed into custody. No charges have been announced yet. WGN is actively investigating the incident and will update as more information is received.

'Ring of fire' solar eclipse in October: When and where to see it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

NEW YORK (WPIX) – A "ring of fire" solar eclipse will be visible in parts of the United States and Mexico next month, according to NASA.On Oct. 14, the annular solar eclipse will be visible in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, as well as some parts of California, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona, NASA predicted. During the eclipse, the sun appears as a “ring of fire” in the sky. Everything you need to know about the NYC's 2023 Halloween Parade The stunning event occurs when the moon passes between the sun and Earth while it's at its farthest point from the planet, causing a black circle and red fiery rim, according to NASA.The annular eclipse will continue on to Central America before ending off the coast of Natal, Brazil, in the Atlantic Ocean.Next year, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024. That eclipse will pass through the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey areas.During a total solar eclipse, the sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.

TikTok fined $368M over mishandling children's privacy in EU 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

(The Hill) -- The video-sharing app TikTok was fined 345 million euros, or roughly $368 million, on Friday by a European regulator that said the platform failed to protect children’s privacy. The Irish Data Protection Commission said its investigation into TikTok found its policies were inadequate in a number of ways, including setting children’s accounts to public by default and failing to provide sufficient transparency about rules to users. The commission also identified TikTok’s “Family Pairing” setting as not strict enough. The setting allowed a non-child user, who could not be verified as the parent or guardian, paired to the account of the child to enable direct messages for children users over the age of 16, according to the commission. The regulator also said that TikTok was “nudging users towards choosing more privacy-intrusive options during the registration process.”  Google settles with California for $93M over location privacy allegations In respons...

Starbucks wants to overhaul its iconic cup, citing sustainability. Will customers go along?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:51 GMT

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Bethany Patton steps up to the counter and places her pink mug into a shoebox-sized dishwasher. It spins. It whirs. Water splashes inside. After 90 seconds, the door opens and steam emerges. A barista grabs the mug, dries it and prepares Patton’s order — a 16-ounce Starbucks double espresso on ice.For bringing her own cup, Patton gets $1 off her drink.“Saving the environment is important and all, but I probably come here more in knowing that I’m going to get a dollar off,” says Patton, 27, a cancer researcher at Arizona State University. Two friends who came on the afternoon coffee run nod as they hold the cups that they, too, brought along. Johnson & Johnson is ditching its script logo for all-new design after 136 years Just as noteworthy as what they're carrying is what they are not: the disposable Starbucks cup, an icon in a world where the word is overused.For a generation and more, it has been a cornerstone of consumer society, first in the United Stat...