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EU fraud buster pushes — again — to enter Parliament offices

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

The EU’s anti-fraud agency is not letting go of its campaign to get onto European Parliament property in the wake of the cash-for-influence Qatargate scandal. OLAF, the EU agency charged with investigating corrupt uses of EU funds, re-upped its plea on Tuesday for Parliament to give it full access. The existing rules often bar OLAF investigators from searching Parliament offices or seizing IT equipment — restrictions that have faced scrutiny in the wake of the Qatargate corruption probe, which involved alleged bribes of European parliamentarians by non-EU countries like Qatar and Morocco.Ville Itälä, head of the European Anti-Fraud Office, at a press conference on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with a recent European Parliament vote to provide OLAF with access to EU lawmakers’ offices and recognize the OLAF code of conduct. “It’s a huge step forward, but it’s not enough yet … It needs to be implemented,” he added.Itälä, a former Finnish MEP, has long lobbied agains...

‘A beautiful, glamorous deal’: Trump celebrates LIV Golf, PGA Tour merger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

In a titanic shock to the golf world, the upstart Saudi-financed league LIV Golf is merging with the decades-old PGA Tour, the organizations announced Tuesday, bringing years of bitter legal fights between the rival groups to an end.The deal also involves the DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour.Despite its storied history, PGA Tour has chafed at the competition posed by the two-year-old LIV Golf tour, which has poached some top players and developed ties with a number of prominent political figures, most notably former President Donald Trump. The league held events at his golf clubs, including a recent one in May that the former president attended, intertwining its brand with the Trump business.In wake of the announcement, Trump posted on Truth Social celebrating the deal.“A BIG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GLAMOUROUS DEAL FOR THE WORLD OF GOLF, CONGRATS TO ALL!!!” Trump wrote. He had predicted such a deal on Truth Social about a year ago, amid his own business deal...

Person dies after being struck by tractor-trailer on Mass. Pike in Framingham

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

A person died Tuesday after being struck by a tractor-trailer on the eastbound side of Mass Pike in Framingham, according to state police. Police first said units were on scene as of around 11:30 a.m., warning motorists to expect delays. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation separately said the left two lanes on the eastbound side of the highway were closed in the area as of 11:30 a.m.SKY7-HD showed police still on scene at 12 p.m. as traffic inched by.In an update around 1:30 p.m., state police said the person suffered fatal injuries, adding that lanes remained closed.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Revere Beach double shooting investigation leads to charges for 17-year-old: Massachusetts State Police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

A juvenile has been charged in connection to the double shooting at Revere Beach from Memorial Day Weekend when chaos erupted at the popular local beach.Police responded to two shootings at Revere Beach on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, and three people were reportedly shot in the incidents as several fights broke out amid an eruption of chaos in the area.In one of the shootings near a bathhouse on Revere Beach Boulevard, a 51-year-old woman suffered gunshot wounds to her legs and was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. She was not the intended victim in the shooting, according to police.Also, a 17-year-old male was grazed by a gunshot in that shooting. He declined to be transported to a hospital.As part of the investigation into that double shooting, troopers from the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit for Suffolk County recently obtained an arrest warrant — charging a 17-year-old male with firearm possession offenses,...

Gary Zerola, one-time ‘most eligible bachelor,’ in court for alleged rape trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

Charged with allegedly raping a woman in 2016, former prosecutor and one time ‘most eligible bachelor’ Gary Zerola faced his accuser in court Tuesday as she took the stand still shaking from what she said happened to her seven years ago.Testifying just before lunch, the victim was describing how the apartment of Zerola’s friend, “Johnathan,” who she testified she had never met, looked on the night of Nov. 9, 2016.That night, she and her close friend went out for drinks following work as estheticians at a spot on Newbury Street. They were going to meet up with Zerola, who was in, as the victim described it, a “sexual relationship” with her friend.After having several drinks out, she testified, they all took and Uber rideshare over to Johnathan’s apartment.What allegedly happened after she fell asleep on the short section of the L-shaped couch was detailed in prosecutor Tom Brant’s opening arguments earlier.“On the morning of Nov. 10, 2016, at a little before 7 a.m. [the v...

9/11 group slams PGA-LIV Golf merger as a betrayal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

The 9/11 families group suing the Saudis over alleged links to the terror attacks is blasting the PGA’s merger with LIV Golf calling it an epic betrayal.They are specifically calling out PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan for flip-flopping.“PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed,” said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower.“Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money – it was never to honor the great game of golf,” she added.Her stinging pushback comes just hours after the PGA and LIV Golf announced a blockbuster marriage and the end of lawsuits. The Associated Press reports linking the two will create a powerful commercial entity.The governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund joins the PGA Tour board of directors and leads the new...

Beyond the binary: Reclaiming gender-fluid Indigenous history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

Five centuries ago, people who might today describe themselves as “gender-fluid” held leadership and mediation roles in their Indigenous communities.That was before European colonizers limited Indigenous cultures to binary male and female genders.Now they are sometimes called “two-spirits,” but these people were targets for colonizers, since eliminating these “knowledge keepers” splintered communities and made it easier to conquer their resources and land.That pattern is forming again today as tribes attempt to reclaim and decolonize their histories, according to ethnohistorian Gregory Smithers.This is just one of the narratives explored in his newest book, “Reclaiming Two-Spirits,” winner of the 2023 Prose Award in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology. It was also a finalist for the 2023 Publishing Triangle Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction. The Virginia Commonwealth University professor gave a talk at the Hampton History Museum on Monday.“This evokes a very dark and violent his...

Federal court halts Florida’s transgender care ban for families who sued

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

A federal court on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction allowing three transgender youths to receive puberty blockers despite Florida Boards of Medicine’s rules and new law, SB 254, banning gender-affirming care for transgender people under 18.“Gender identity is real,” writes U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle in his ruling. “… I find that the plaintiffs’ motivation is love for their children and the desire to achieve the best possible treatment for them. This is not the State’s motivation.”This ruling was made as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by seven Florida parents of transgender children against Florida, arguing that the state’s ban on treatment with puberty blockers, testosterone and estrogen violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Three of the seven parents successfully requested and received this preliminary injunction.In his ruling, Hinkle indicated that these parents will likely succeed in their claims that SB 254 and the Boards...

Prince Harry testifies tabloids destroyed his childhood but fails to recall specific stories

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

By BRIAN MELLEY and JILL LAWLESS (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s historic showdown Tuesday with the publisher of a British tabloid exposed his deep suspicions of the press but offered little concrete evidence to support accusations of phone hacking that he said caused so much anguish in his life.The Duke of Sussex became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in more than a century as he held a Bible in his right hand and, in a soft voice, swore to tell the “whole truth and nothing but the truth” in the High Court in London.Harry accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an “industrial scale” to score front-page scoops on his life. Dressed in a dark suit and tie as he sat in the witness box, Harry told Mirror Group Newspapers attorney Andrew Green that he had “experienced hostility from the press since I was born.” The prince accused the tabloids of playing “a destruc...

‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ has little animal magnetism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:29:02 GMT

We live during a time in which the biggest movies in the world involve heroes with supernatural abilities wearing colorful costumes as they fight to save the world from the forces of evil.Often, these men, women, phrase-repeating trees, etc., are trying to save the whole galaxy — or, increasingly, a multiverse populated with near-infinite versions of themselves and their enemies.And yet none of this nonsense seems nearly as silly as what goes on in a live-action “Transformers” movie.Take, for instance, the action-packed-but-poorly written seventh entry in the nearly 16-year-old franchise, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” hitting theaters this week.In its opening moments, we are introduced to a proud race of giant intelligent robots who resemble animals from Earth but who are living centuries ago in a distant galaxy. These aren’t the Autobots, Decepticons or other Transformers clans we’ve already met in the movies, which date back to director Michael Bay’s 2007 hit, “Transformers....