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6 months of misery: How the Scottish National Party fell off a cliff

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

LONDON — As half years go, the Scottish National Party have had better ones. Six months ago the SNP faithful were excited to return to the party’s first in-person conference for three years. Today, SNP activists anxiously wait for further developments and the political fallout which will follow Wednesday’s arrest of Peter Murrell, the party’s ex-chief executive and husband of former leader Nicola Sturgeon. Murrell was released without charge pending further investigation Wednesday night.Here’s POLITICO’s first draft of the historic six months that toppled the Sturgeon regime — and may ultimately result in the end of the SNP itself.October 8 2022: The SNP’s first in-person party conference since the pandemic begins in Aberdeen. Worried lawmakers and activists exchange whispers about Nicola Sturgeon’s risky strategy for gaining independence — involving a Supreme Court bid and the use of a general election as a so-called de-facto referendum. Mu...

Fight at the museum: Brussels art hall cancels police boxing match due to threats

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

BRUSSELS — An art museum in Brussels canceled plans to stage a boxing match between police and local athletes on Thursday evening, saying it received threats on social media. The MIMA contemporary art museum in Molenbeek had planned to host a sparring session between around 20 amateur boxers from the Ixelles branch of the Brussels police and two local boxing clubs in an on-site boxing ring.But the museum canceled at the last minute, citing “tensions on social media,” in a post on its website which added that it took this decision for the safety of the museum and its artistic directors, after receiving threats. On Facebook, some had argued that the event presented police as citizens’ natural adversaries, while others complained that it made the police look good and ignored victims of police violence.The museum had framed the event as “a festive encounter, giving a thrashing to the prejudices that can exist between police and citizens.”“Many comment...

Suspect turns self in following fatal West Bridgewater hit-and-run crash

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

A 33-year-old man from Brockton turned himself in following a deadly crash in West Bridgewater, authorities announced.Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said Juan Leonardo Parra Altamirano surrendered at the MSP Middleborough Barracks Thursday morning, and has been charged in connection with a crash on Route 24 that killed a 46-year-old woman from Raynham Monday night.Erpharo Gilbert had been driving in West Bridgewater around 10:30 p.m. when the driver of a Toyota Scion changed lanes and made contact with her Honda Accord.According to state police, the impact pushed her vehicle into a median where it struck a concrete barrier. Authorities said while the Scion drove away, a Ford Maverick pickup then struck the Accord, causing it to become fully engulfed in flames.Gilbert was pronounced dead at the site of the crash while the driver of the Ford was uninjured.Procopio said Altamirano turned himself in days later and now faces charges that include:Leaving the scene of ...

Delta pilot mistakenly detained by federal agents at Boston hotel during botched training exercise

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

Federal agents went to the wrong room and detained the wrong person during a Department of Defense training exercise in a Boston hotel on Tuesday, the FBI confirmed.In a statement, the FBI said the incident happened around 10 p.m. while the FBI’s Boston Division was aiding the Department of Defense in an exercise “to simulate a situation their personnel might encounter in a deployed environment.”“Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player,” the FBI said.A Boston police report said the incident happened at the Revere Hotel. 7NEWS sources said the person who was mistakenly detained is a pilot for Delta Air Lines.Nobody was injured in the incident, according to the FBI. The FBI said Boston police were called to confirm the situation was a training exercise.The Boston Police Department’s report filed after the incident described the response. It said officers responded to the...

$35 political contribution to Democrats raises fresh scrutiny of Judge Merchan

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

(CNN) — Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case in New York, donated $35 in political contributions to Democrats in 2020, including a $15 contribution to the campaign of Trump’s opponent, President Joe Biden.The political donations are undoubtedly small, but they nevertheless raise questions about Merchan’s impartiality as he has come under attack by the former president as a “Trump-hating judge.”“While the amounts here are minimal, it’s surprising that a sitting judge would make political donations of any size to a partisan candidate or cause,” said Elie Honig, a senior CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.According to federal election records, Merchan made the three donations in July 2020 through ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and causes.Merchan contributed $15 earmarked for the Biden campaign, and made two $10 contributions, one earmarked to the P...

Justice Clarence Thomas accepted several luxury trips paid for by GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

(CNN) — Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, have gone on several luxury trips involving travel subsidized by and stays at properties owned by a GOP megadonor, according to a new bombshell ProPublica report published Thursday.The hospitality was not disclosed on Thomas’ public financial filings with the Supreme Court, ProPublica said.The report of the connection between Thomas and conservative businessman Harlan Crow is already adding to calls that Congress investigate potential ethical lapses. Key Senate Democrats were previously mulling using this year’s funding legislation for the Supreme Court to pressure the justices to adopt some sort of ethics code.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a statement the ProPublica report was “a call to action” and that “the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.”The new ProPublica report describes Thomas...

BC Eagles gearing up toward spring football game

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

Boston College has made the hard pivot in spring football from fundamentals and positional coaching towards scrimmages and situational game prep.The Eagles have two sessions remaining to fine-tune the particulars in preparation for the annual Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Football game at 11 a.m. on April 15 at Alumni Stadium.“All third down is in and we have started two minute and now we are just kind getting everybody on the field playing football,” said BC head coach Jeff Hafley.“Every day now is more of a scrimmage than with coaches on the field telling guys where to line up and having a script. It is trying to make the coaches think down and distance so they have to call it and not plan it and it’s the same with the players.“They are learning to play the game now. We will have two practices with a more scrimmage-like mentality and more physical before we taper off for the spring game a little bit.”Hafley made a significant makeover of his coaching staff after the Eagles’ d...

Eloy Jiménez feels ‘pretty normal’ as the Chicago White Sox OF/DH recovers from low-grade hamstring strain

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

Eloy Jiménez’s workout before Thursday’s game at Guaranteed Rate Field included some running, and the Chicago White Sox outfielder/designated hitter said he feels “pretty normal” as he recovers from a low-grade left hamstring strain.Jiménez suffered the injury while running from first to third in the seventh inning Monday and was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Tuesday.“I felt something and I tried to finish the game, but it was hurting a little bit,” Jiménez said. “But in the next two days, I’ve been feeling way better.”The Sox said Wednesday that Jiménez will miss an estimated two to three weeks.“I feel good,” Jiménez said. “I don’t want anything like this to happen, but this is baseball and it is what it is.”Sox manager Pedro Grifol is taking the glass-half-full view of the situation.“I look at it, the work that he put in in the offseason put him in ...

Whitney Houston’s posthumous gospel collection debuts at No. 2 on Billboard chart

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

Karu F. Daniels | New York Daily NewsWhitney Houston’s musical legacy continues to reach the upper echelons of the Billboard charts.Her recently released gospel compilation, “I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston,” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. It marks only her second-ever entry on the chart. Her first, the soundtrack to the film “The Preacher’s Wife,” debuted at No. 1 in 1996.“I Go to the Rock’’ features 14 tracks — six previously unreleased live and studio faith-based tracks, alongside popular songs recorded for soundtracks to the movies “The Bodyguard,” “The Preachers Wife” and “Sparkle.” Three of the songs were recorded when Houston was just 17 years old.“You heard the innocence of her voice,” the late singer’s sister-in-law and estate manager Pat Houston told the Associated Press. “You could see where she started and how she ended up with all her hits throughout her career. Any song is a great song of Whitney Houston’s. You heard he...

R&B superstar Bruno Mars to headline Preakness Live in Baltimore

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:11 GMT

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman | Baltimore Sun Baltimore is bringing that uptown funk to Pimlico for this year’s Preakness 148 celebration.Superstar R&B performer and Grammy-winning artist Bruno Mars will headline Preakness Live on May 20 in a concert set to take place immediately following the day’s races.It will be a return appearance for Mars, who first headlined Preakness in 2011.The inaugural Preakness Live event in 2022 took place on the Friday prior to the signature horse race. However, this year the entertainment, arts and culture festival will take over the Infield Fest on the same day as the Preakness Stakes, according to a news release from Baltimore 1/ST and The Stronach Group on Wednesday.The stage for the performance is also being relocated from the center of the infield to “provide an unparalleled view of one of the most exciting moments in horse racing — the view of the final stretch,” according to the news release.The “re-imagined” infield layout will also include a sp...