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Former Liam Byrne staff win payouts over bungled Commons bullying probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

LONDON — Former aides of newly-elected Commons committee chair Liam Byrne have received thousands of pounds of compensation from the taxpayer following a bungled inquiry into allegations he bullied a member of staff. At least four of Byrne’s former employees received payoffs this month after parliament’s independent complaints system — the ICGS — breached their anonymity while investigating bullying claims. A complaint against him was upheld.Labour MP Byrne narrowly won a contest to chair the business and trade committee this week. Five people who previously worked for him, including three who received compensation, told POLITICO they are dismayed by the development. The ICGS revealed witnesses’ identities to Byrne during its probe into claims he bullied a member of staff, despite assurances they would remain anonymous. Subsequently, he messaged and called a number of them. In response, the former aides took legal action against the ICGS and each received four figure payoffs for fro...

Biden’s Middle East challenge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and host of the weekly podcast “World Review with Ivo Daalder.”When United States President Joe Biden decided to travel to Israel this week, his immediate objective was to express solidarity with Israel, to avoid escalating the war beyond Gaza and to ask tough questions about the strategy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet were pursuing. But even before Air Force One could take off, the fallout from the horrific bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza late Tuesday night had called all three of these goals into question.The bombing killed nearly 500 and wounded hundreds more, signaling that concerns about a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza were now displacing the shared anger and grief that had followed the previous week’s brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians.Fury on the Arab streets has now made the prospect of escalation more likely. Jordan...

Waffles and lasagne: The complicated politics of food

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.We now have an answer to the biggest food question Belgium has ever faced (and no, the question is not ‘What’s the deal with chicory?’). The real question is which are better, Liège waffles or Brussels waffles? It’s the former. Not my words, the words of the most decorated gymnast in history, Simone Biles. The owner of seven Olympic medals, Biles wrote on the artist formerly known as Twitter: “still dreaming about the waffles from belgium” (Americans no longer use capital letters on social media to compensate for all those years of Donald Trump abusing the caps lock key).Asked which type of waffle she prefers, Biles simply wrote “Liege” and three drooling face emojis.Belgian politicians do of course like to use culinary terms to describe their ridiculously complicated ways of doing things. There’s “waffle-iron politics,” whereby for every euro (or franc, for older readers...

Welcome back, Donald: Seismic shift in Poland after general election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Acast Amazon Music In this episode, we analyze what Poland’s recent election means for its political future and EU relations — in conversation with journalist and historian Anne Applebaum. We also shed light on a troubling terrorist attack this week in Brussels.With a record turnout of over...

After Brussels attack, Swedes fear becoming a target for terrorists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

STOCKHOLM — Outside Sweden’s national sports arena, two framed football shirts sit beneath a flag at half-mast, a memorial to the two fans killed by a terrorist in Brussels on Monday night, and a reminder to passers-by to be vigilant for follow-up attacks. “I hope this is the last time this kind of thing happens,” said Kent Åberg, a 62-year-old airport worker who had come to pay his respects. “But I’m looking over my shoulder.”Stockholm is on edge after the shooting deaths of two fans ahead of an international football match in Brussels between Sweden and Belgium. The Tunisian asylum seeker who pulled the trigger said in a social media post he had targeted Swedes as “revenge in the name of Muslims.” The shooter was later killed by police. The attack followed months of rising anger toward Sweden after copies of the Quran were burned by far-right activist Rasmus Paludan and then later in the year by Iraqi protester Salwan Momika. At the same time, a long-running online disin...

Ukraine’s top prosecutor vows to meet key EU membership conditions within months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

Ukraine is accelerating its drive to clean up its politics and will meet all the EU’s anti-corruption requirements within months, in what would be a major boost to its bid to join the 27-member bloc, the country’s top prosecutor told POLITICO.“I am fully sure that all the elements of the anti-corruption and law enforcement reforms [required by the EU] will be completed in coming months,” Andrii Kostyn said in an interview at Ukraine’s mission to the EU in Brussels. “I am absolutely sure.”But the prosecutor also warned that high-profile cases such as the detention of Ukraine’s former Supreme Court chief were being used by some who want to stop the country joining the EU. Earlier this month, former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview that Ukraine was “totally corrupt.”In addition to Juncker’s comments, a leaked report from the U.S. State Department, obtained by POLITICO, showed that Washington was more concerned about corruption in Ukraine ...

Army private who fled to North Korea charged with desertion, held by US military, officials tells AP

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States earlier this month has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday night, and is facing charges including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.The eight counts against Pvt. Travis King are detailed in a charging document seen by The Associated Press. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the charges have not been publicly announced.King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said in a statement that her son should be “afforded the presumption of innocence.” She said, “A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed.”Desertion is a very serious charge and can result in imprisonment for as much as three years.King, 23, ran across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.H...

7 Investigates: Without Warning

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

A train roaring down the tracks has one sure way to warn those ahead — a steady blast of its horn.But that’s not happening in some Massachusetts communities and the results have been deadly.   Former train engineer Mark Lyman has never forgotten one fateful October night 24 years ago. Lyman was pulling into the Beverly Depot when, out of nowhere, a 17-year-old tried to cross the tracks. “He came from behind another train and walked right in front of me,” Lyman said. Lyman’s train hit and killed the teen.“I have my own kids,” Lyman recently said. “If something like that happened to them, I don’t know how I would — I live with that to this day.”The Beverly Depot is one of 25 state-recognized “quiet zones” where train engineers are not allowed to sound the train horn. “I firmly believe to this day, if there was a horned crossing, he would have known there was a train coming in,” Lyman said.Any city or town can petition the Federal Railroa...

Bishop Feehan outlasts Bishop Fenwick in triple overtime

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

PEABODY — All season, Bryan Pinabell had been itching for a litmus test. A unique chance to see exactly where his Bishop Feehan football group stood late in the fall.Despite some challenges Thursday night, he and the Shamrocks now have to be feeling pretty good about how things are shaping up. Rising quarterback Owen Mordas finished with 130 yards passing, and fired a game-clinching touchdown strike to Jack Higgins as Bishop Feehan registered its defining win with a 29-26 triple overtime victory against Bishop Fenwick.“I said to my guys in the huddle that we needed a game like this,” said Pinabell. “We’re about to go into the guantlet of the Division 2 playoffs, and we are going to be in games like this. It isn’t easy to play in a game like this. There’s adversity.”The game was billed as a clash between two of the top offenses in the Catholic Central League. For the majority of the opening quarter, Bishop Fenwick (5-2) lived up to its reputation, as senior Luke Connolly scampered ri...

Boston city councilor slammed for ‘antisemitic’ remarks on Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:24 GMT

A Boston city councilor is being slammed for making “antisemitic” statements that perpetuate a “dangerous myth” about “excessive Jewish power and influence” in global affairs, two Jewish groups say.The Anti-Defamation League of New England and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston both released statements Thursday criticizing the “troubling” remarks made by Tania Fernandes Anderson at this week’s City Council meeting.“Drawing on the oldest tropes about Jewish power and influence to make a political statement is not just unacceptable, it is antisemitic,” Rabbi Dr. Jonah Steinberg, ADL New England regional director, said in a statement.“Excessive Jewish power and influence controlling global affairs is a dangerous myth where Jews are cast as manipulative schemers who use money and influence to advance an evil agenda,” he added.“Words matter,” Steinberg said, saying that while the ADL welcomes a conversation, the “community deserves an apology” from the councilor.Whe...