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On the night watch

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

It’s an hour before dawn breaks over the North Sea. Aboard the KV Bergen, the officer of the watch is wide awake. The 93-meter long Norwegian Navy Coast Guard vessel is on patrol, 50 miles out to sea. The sky is dark, the sea darker. But off the starboard bow, bright lights gleam through the rain and mist. Something huge and incongruous is looming out of the water, lit like a Christmas display.  “Troll A,” says Torgeir Standal, 49, the ship’s second in command, who is taking the watch on this bleak March morning. It’s a gas platform — a big one.  When it was transported out to this desolate spot nearly 30 years ago, Troll A — stretching 472 meters from its seabed foundations to the tip of its drilling rig — became the tallest structure ever moved by people across the surface of the Earth. Last year, Troll, the gas field it taps into, provided 10 percent of the EU’s total supply of natural gas — heating homes, lighting streets, fueling ind...

Secret Service investigating how an intruder entered national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s home undetected

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

(CNN) — The US Secret Service is investigating how an intruder entered US national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s home last month without being detected by Secret Service agents guarding his home.Sullivan, who has 24/7 Secret Service protection, was unharmed in the incident, according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who said the agency takes the matter seriously.Sullivan encountered the person inside his Washington, DC, home in the early morning hours one day in late April, according to a source familiar with the matter, and he told investigators he believed the person was intoxicated.There was no threat made, the source said, and the person left Sullivan’s home without the Secret Service detail noticing.The Washington Post first reported the incident.Guglielmi said in a statement that the “Secret Service is examining a security incident that took place at a protectee site. While the protectee was unharmed, we are taking this matter seriously and have open...

Referees, umpires rally for stricter penalties for attacking or threatening sports officials

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

Referees and umpires called for change on Tuesday, asking for stronger protections from parents upset over their children’s games during a rally held outside the Massachusetts State House. The rally came on the same day that a hearing was held on the same topic. Referees and umpires said the issue has been ongoing for several years, with parents and players alike disrespecting and sometimes physically attacking officials. The animosity, in turn, has led to a major shortage of officials. “We want people to understand that we want to be protected and we feel, as an official, that we need safety features as well,” said Mark Rully of the Massachusetts Baseball Umpires Association. Rully has been officiating youth sports for more than 30 years. Speaking this week, he said threats and even physical attacks against officials are on the rise. “As an umpire, I train new umpires and we used to have questions about calling balls and strikes and now those questions...

Mets Notes: David Peterson optioned to Triple-A

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

The Mets acted swiftly and decisively Tuesday by optioning left-hander David Peterson to Triple-A Syracuse.Peterson, who was so valuable for the Mets last season as a starter and later in the season as a reliever, has gotten off to an awful start this season, going 1-6 with an 8.08 ERA. With Carlos Carrasco set to return, the Mets have opted to go back to a five-man rotation and let Peterson go to Triple-A to figure out the root cause of his struggles.Having seen what he’s capable of when he’s at his best, the Mets are confident the 27-year-old can return to his 2022 form.“I told him today that it’s good that I’ve seen him really good,” manager Buck Showalter said on Tuesday at Citi Field before the Mets opened a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.Peterson didn’t allow an earned run in spring training and beat out Tylor Megill for the final rotation spot. Walks were an issue but he effectively limited those this season, but he made...

Blue Jays bring Judge, coaching suspicions to MLB, but Yankees not expecting investigation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

TORONTO — A night after Aaron Judge’s wandering eyes drew suspicions from Blue Jays broadcasters and manager John Schneider, Major League Baseball is aware of Toronto’s concerns.Schneider said Toronto talked to the league about Yankees coaches being out of place — such as first base coach Travis Chapman being well outside the box to the side of first base so that he could relay pitches — in Monday’s series opener. This happened after broadcasters Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez noticed Judge looking away from the mound before clobbering a 462-foot home run in the Yankees’ Monday win.Judge and Aaron Boone claimed that the slugger looked toward the Yankees’ dugout because peers were still “chirping” at home plate umpire Clint Vondrak after Boone was ejected, which annoyed Judge as he tried to focus on his at-bat.“I’m kind of looking like, ‘Who’s still talking?’ It’s 6-0,” Judge said Mon...

The giant invasive Joro spiders, which may spread up the East Coast, aren’t scary: Researchers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

Those massive yellow and blue-black spiders that are spreading across the Southeast and could eventually head up the East Coast are actually not scary, according to researchers in a new study who call the spiders gentle giants.The Joro spider may be the shyest spider ever documented, the University of Georgia arachnid scientists found in the study.“One of the ways that people think this spider could be affecting other species is that it’s aggressive and out-competing all the other native spiders,” said Andy Davis, lead author of the study and a research scientist in UGA’s Odum School of Ecology.“So we wanted to get to know the personality of these spiders and see if they’re capable of being that aggressive,” Davis added. “It turns out they’re not.”The researchers compared more than 450 spiders’ responses to a brief and harmless disturbance across 10 different species.While most spiders froze for less than a minute bef...

Debt limit progress as Biden, McCarthy name top negotiators to avert national default

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

By LISA MASCARO and SEUNG MIN KIM (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Debt-limit talks shifted into an encouraging new phase Tuesday as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy named top emissaries to negotiate a deal to avert an unprecedented national default. Biden cut short an upcoming overseas trip in hopes of closing an agreement before a June 1 deadline.The fresh set of negotiators means discussions are now largely narrowed to what the White House and McCarthy will accept in order to allow lawmakers to raise the debt limit in the coming days. The speaker said after a meeting with Biden and congressional leaders that a deal was “possible” by week’s end, even as — in McCarthy’s view — the two sides remained far apart for the moment.Biden was publicly upbeat after a roughly hourlong meeting in the Oval Office, despite having to cancel the Australia and Papua New Guinea portions of his overseas trip that begins Wednesday. Biden...

Red Sox notebook: More aggressive approach paying off for Triston Casas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

Triston Casas knows he has a reputation for being a patient hitter. He’s always had a good eye for the strike zone and throughout his professional career has had a knack for laying off close pitches and drawing walks.Those traits are some of his biggest assets as a player, but sometimes when you’re facing big league pitching, patience only gets you so far.Mired in a terrible slump through the season’s first month, the Red Sox rookie first baseman has adopted a more aggressive approach in recent days. Rather than try to draw out at bats, he says he’s now looking to do damage earlier if presented the opportunity.That change in mindset, more than any sort of mechanical adjustment, has helped Casas climb out of his early season funk and fuel his recent turnaround.“I can’t say I’ve made an adjustment physically or even mentally, I’ve been trying to stay as aggressive as possible when the opportunity is given,” Casas said prior to Tues...

Wu, Markey, Warren stand behind Rachael Rollins amid resignation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’ decision to step down amid an ethics investigation shocked the city’s mayor and the two senators who recommended her for the post.“I’m surprised at the news,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said at an unrelated press event on Tuesday, hours after an attorney for Rollins announced she would be submitting her letter of resignation to President Biden by the end of the week.Wu and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren continued to stand firmly behind the state’s top prosecutor — despite the anticipated Wednesday release of the results of an ethics probe into her appearance at a DNC fundraiser attended by First Lady Jill Biden last year.“Rachael Rollins has for years dedicated herself to the people of Massachusetts and equal justice under the law,” Markey and Warren said in a joint statement. “We will respect her decision.”Biden nominated Rollins for U.S. Attorney of Massachusetts two years ago, based on a recommendation from Markey and Warren. The nod was a ...

Rachael Rollins used ‘poor judgment’ when she attended DNC fundraiser; Senator proposes Hatch Act enforcement legislation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:04 GMT

U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’ surprising decision to attend a political fundraiser last year was a mistake and showed “poor judgment” but it was not a capital offense, a constitutional expert told the Herald on Tuesday after news broke that Rollins is stepping down.Meanwhile, a U.S. senator on Tuesday proposed a bill to increase enforcement of the Hatch Act — the act that Rollins possibly violated when she attended the Democratic National Committee fundraiser with First Lady Jill Biden in Andover.The Hatch Act is meant to ensure that federal officials remain non-political, but federal officials are still committing violations, New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Lujan said when announcing the legislation.Senate-confirmed Department of Justice appointees are allowed to engage in political activity, but they have to abide by certain guidelines under the Hatch Act.“All prosecutors are told that they should not be involved in any partisan activities,” attorney H...