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Michelle O’Neill was never supposed to be here. When the Northern Ireland Assembly was established following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed known as “The Troubles,” it established a delicate system of power sharing. Traditionally Protestant British unionists, who want to preserve Northern Ireland’s status within the U.

Hong Kong made its first acquittals under the national security law while finding 14 opposition figures guilty in a landmark case, ending a conviction streak that fueled doubts over the city’s judicial independence. Judges in the once-freewheeling finance hub found 14 out of 16 defendants guilty of subversion charges under a 2020 national security law imposed by Beijing.

WASHINGTON — An international law enforcement team has arrested a Chinese national and disrupted a major botnet that officials said he ran for nearly a decade, amassing at least $99 million in profits by reselling access to criminals who used it for identity theft, child exploitation, and financial fraud, including pandemic relief scams. The U.

A Texas Democratic lawmaker who broke with her party by supporting a ban on gender-affirming care for minors was ousted in a primary runoff that galvanized LGBTQ+ groups nationwide who then campaigned for her opponent in the race for the south Houston seat. Rep. Shawn Thierry’s defeat followed four terms in which the Houston lawmaker typically joined her fellow Democrats on major issues, including voting against aggressive immigration measures demanded by Republican Gov.

McDonald’s is fighting back against viral tweets and media reports that it says have exaggerated its price increases. In a post on the company’s website Wednesday, McDonald’s U. S. President Joe Erlinger said reports suggesting the price of the average Big Mac has doubled since 2019 were false. McDonald’s said the average U.

Grindavik, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing red lava that once again threatened the coastal town of Grindavik and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. The eruption began in the early afternoon following a series of earthquakes north of the town of 3,800 people that was largely evacuated in December when the volcano came to life after centuries of dormancy and put on an impressive show of nature’s power. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Although activity began to calm down by early evening, initial estimates found the eruption was the most vigorous in the area so far, as lava shot 50 meters (165 feet) into the sky from a fissure that grew to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in length, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. [video id=ogHf0h2W autostart="viewable" vertical] Barriers built to protect Grindavik deflected the flowing lava that cut off two of the three roads leading to town and was close to reaching the third. “It’s a much larger volume that’s on the move right now headed for town,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.