Latest news with #Conlon
The Hill
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Judge weighs reality of Trump ‘ideological' deportation policy as activists crackdown trial ends
A federal judge on Monday questioned the true nature of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists during closing arguments of a bench trial over the controversial arrests. U.S. District Judge William Young, an appointee of former President Reagan, must determine whether the so-called 'ideological deportation policy' exists, such that the administration singled out campus activists critical of Israel's war in Gaza unlawfully. The plaintiffs, who make up several university associations, argued that the administration's policy is to revoke the visas and green cards of noncitizens based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy in aim of chilling speech. 'It is stifling dissent, your honor,' said Alexandra Conlon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. 'That's the goal.' But the Justice Department called the suggestion 'silly,' contending that the trial evidence demonstrated no such policy exists. 'This policy is a product of the imagination and creative conjuring of the plaintiffs,' said DOJ lawyer William Kanellis. The arguments cap a roughly two-week trial over the crackdown, namely the arrests of and efforts to deport foreign-born students and faculty members linked to campus demonstrations. It was the first major trial of President Trump's second administration. Across several days, green card-holding professors at U.S. universities took the stand to testify that the high-profile arrests of outspoken students, like former Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, made them fearful and stifled their speech. On Monday, Conlon argued that was the administration's goal. She referenced statements made by Trump and other officials lauding the arrests and said they were 'designed to terrorize' those who share the views of those who were arrested. She also pointed to testimony from a senior Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), official that 'most' names his team was directed to investigate in March came from Canary Mission, a pro-Israel online blacklist that is anonymously run. The site has been accused of doxxing people protesting Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas but describes its mission as documenting individuals and organizations 'that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.' Conlon called the group 'extremist.' 'The fact that's the pool of people the government started with shows you what the point of this policy was,' she said. Young questioned whether the trial evidence showed Canary Mission is 'extremist' and said it seems 'perfectly appropriate' for the government to take leads from any source, noting that leads frequently come from a 'wrongdoer' or 'rival gang.' But Conlon said those leads relate to alleged lawbreaking, where here, the leads amount only to criticism of Israel or the U.S. 'That's how you end up with someone like Ms. Ozturk being described as pro-Hamas,' she added, a reference to the student's arrest being publicly linked only to an op-ed urging her university's divestment from Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio deemed several of the campus demonstrators threats to the nation's foreign policy, invoking a statute that makes deportable any noncitizen whose 'presence and activities in the United States' is thought to have 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.' In a memo explaining the apparent threat posed by Khalil, Rubio cited the student's beliefs as justification for his deportation. Young later expressed having 'trouble' with the apparent policy. Without making any formal findings, he said it seems to him that the new administration is implementing new foreign policy within the existing legal framework – efforts that fall squarely within executive powers. The Justice Department argued that's exactly right. Ethan Kanter, another DOJ lawyer, said that noncitizens do not have equivalent rights under the First Amendment. The nature of those rights are 'context dependent' and tied to 'competing government interests in play.' 'That is what these cases demonstrate,' Kanter said, though noting that the judge does not have to rule on that matter to decide the case in the government's favor. Young zeroed in on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s use of masks as a cause of concern, saying he's not aware of any other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. that allow the practice. He signaled disbelief in the government's contention that the agents were protecting their identities, instead suggesting that the 'common sense' interpretation might be that their objective is to 'spread fear.' 'Perhaps they're afraid what they're being called upon to do is of concern,' the judge said. Kanter rejected that notion, asserting that those decisions came down to the 'judgment, experience and operational needs' of individual agents. Kanellis, the other DOJ lawyer, compared the plaintiffs' case to the fictional Don Quixote's fight with windmills. In the story, Quixote sees windmills and believes they are giants. He's flung off his horse while riding to 'fight' them and does not believe his squire who notes they are windmills, not giants, insisting they were changed. 'Plaintiffs in this case imagine lawful standards amount to some grand government conspiracy,' Kanellis said, adding the challengers have been 'knocked off their horse.' But Young said another historical reference better befits the case. He described King Henry II of England asking his court to rid him of a 'troublesome priest.' Two knights went out to 'hack down' the bishop. The president, Young said, has likewise raised various concerns about campus protests. 'He doesn't have errant knights, but he's got Stephen Miller,' the judge said, referencing the top White House adviser. Young said he will issue a written ruling deciding the case but gave no indication of when it can be expected.
Scoop
13-07-2025
- Scoop
War Veteran's Grandson Reunited With Medals
War medals stolen from the mailbox of a veteran's grandson in Wellsford earlier this month have been found and returned to their rightful owner. On 9 July, Patrick Conlon made a report to Police after a valuable parcel was allegedly stolen from his mailbox. Mr Conlon was understandably very upset by the theft – the parcel contained World War I medals that had been awarded to his grandfather, Elmer James Conlon. Police established that the parcel had been delivered on 1 July, but had then gone missing before Mr Conlon could collect it. Police appealed to the public for any information that could help locate the medals, or for any locals to report if they'd seen any suspicious activity in the area on the date of the theft. Thankfully, yesterday, Police were contacted by the Wellsford War memorial museum staff advising that the medals had been located in their returns bin. Senior Sergeant Damian Lawn says it appears someone had dropped them off overnight. 'We're pleased that whoever took these medals did the right thing and returned them – obviously they are hugely significant to Mr Conlon and we are glad to be able to reunite him with them. 'We have fingerprinted the medals before returning them and we are continuing with our enquiries.' Anyone who has any further information about the theft or those involved is asked to get in touch through our 105 service, using reference number 250709/8286.
Belfast Telegraph
06-06-2025
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
FD Technologies: the story of a Newry tech giant
The journey of FD Technologies, from a bedroom in Conlon's family home to become one of Northern Ireland's biggest technology companies – via an old converted corn warehouse next to the canal in Newry – is remarkable. The software specialist business – which provided products and consulting services to large global financial, technology and energy institutions – evolved from that bedroom to the stock markets of London and Amsterdam. Now another chapter in FD's 30-year journey has been written. In May, 2025, the company, which is headed by Seamus Keating, accepted a takeover bid from a private equity investor from Boston which valued the business at £550m. Donna Troy, chairwoman of FD, said the board unanimously thought the deal, based on an offer for £24.50 per share, 'delivers appropriate value to shareholders'. Over the last 30 years, FD (one of a handful of listed companies from Northern Ireland), grew from its Newry home across the Americas, Europe and Asia. And it has come a long way to get here. Brian Conlon was born in 1966 in Newry. He studied accountancy in Queen's University while playing gaelic football for his native Down. In 1987 he sustained a knee injury during a match for Queen's, forcing early retirement from the sport. He then turned his attention to the capital markets sector where he trained with a major accountancy firm. 'I spent the first year counting concrete and pick-up trucks and wanted something more challenging,' he told the Sunday Independent in an interview in 2008. Like many of his generation, Conlon migrated to London where he joined the risk management team in Morgan Stanley. From there he worked as a capital markets consultant in SunGard, a global derivatives software house. Rather than settle in England, he opted to return home and bring his experience with him. There was a gap in the market, he realised, for software consultancy. 'Most of the software firms were focused on selling the licences and not on services. There was an opening to help banks write financial models and help them with quantitative analysis,' Conlon said in 2008. He established First Derivatives in 1996 in the spare bedroom of his mother's home in Newry, using a £5,000 loan from the Newry Credit Union to help him get started. Years of organic growth followed. In the autumn of 1998, a few months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Brian Conlon took his fledgling team on a trade mission to California's Silicon Valley alongside a handful of other local software companies, including Kainos. California was receptive. The following year Kx Systems, a software company from Paolo Alto which specialsed in financial modelling and data analyses, sold its marketing rights to FD and the two businesses would prove a perfect couple over the following decades. By 2002, First Derivatives had just 26 employees and a £2m turnover, but Conlon decided to float his business on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the London Stock Exchange (LSE), initially offering four million shares at a price of 50p per share. 'FD at the start was small of scale but the vision attracted investors,' Ryan Preston, the company's chief financial officer, told Ulster Business in 2022. 'You have to follow up and deliver the vision. When we first floated on the LSE we attracted an investor base that was primarily driven by revenue growth and dividends. We delivered on that very successfully over many years.' Annual reports over the next decade reported consistent profit growth. The company steadily increased its stake in Kx Systems and added more strings to its bow, including the acquisition in 2008 of Market Resource Partners (MRP), a Philadelphia-based business which employed data analytics for software and technology firms. By now Conlon's operations spanned the globe – from Singapore to Sydney, Vienna to Vancouver, London to Los Angeles. The company even purchased residential for its staff. 'We have up to 60 people working in London and 25 in New York so we decided that rather than pay rents we would buy apartments,' Conlon said in 2008. 'It worked because we only bought in nice places like Mayfair and Kensington in London and around Chelsea or the Village in New York.' The world was its stage but Newry remained home for First Derivatives. 'Brian spotted global opportunity where no one else did,' said Justin McNulty, an SDLP MLA who worked at the business. 'But on top of that he combined pride in his home town of Newry with his knowledge that the people of the North have the education and drive to excel.' The business leader was keen to spread some of his knowledge and in 2012 established The First Derivatives Trading Room, NI's first financial trading facility, at Queen's. In June 2019, First Derivatives announced it had taken entire ownership of Kx Systems for $53.8m (£39.9m) in cash. This was an important milestone, Conlon said at the time: 'Since we acquired a controlling stake in Kx in October 2014 we have invested heavily to deliver the performance advantages of our combined solutions, branded as Kx technology, to a range of end-markets.' Sadly, this was his final deal. The following month, July 2019, Brian Conlon died in Newry not long after being diagnosed with cancer. But his baby First Derivatives – which changed its name in 2021 to FD Technologies (to incorporate its three operations, First Derivative, Kx and MRP) – had grown wings of its own. The company was by now a technology powerhouse, providing software and services to major banks and servicing marketing technology and the automotive industry. In 2020 the company 'recognised there was a huge opportunity in Kx, our software business, and we came back to market with an accelerated growth strategy,' said Ryan Preston. FD ultimately decided to restructure the business to focus on Kx, which uses an approach to data analysis that helps companies predict and respond to market conditions in real time. In early 2024, it merged MRP, its marketing technology division, with Contentgine, a US firm. FD retained 49% of this merged entity. Late in 2024 it sold its consulting wing First Derivative to EPAM Systems, a US software company for a reported £205m. Since then, the company has focused on growing subscription sales of Kx products. Following its sale to TA Associates, an investment firm with reported assets under management of over $60bn, will FD have to part ways with Newry? Not necessarily. TA Associates said it intends to keep headquarters in Newry. Some jobs could be subject to 'reorganisation, reduction or redeployment but the deal will 'create greater employment opportunities for existing and future employees over the long term'. FD has come a long way to get here – and it looks as though the journey is not over yet.
Los Angeles Times
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. Opera names rising star Domingo Hindoyan as music director
When Domingo Hindoyan, the Venezuelan chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, made his debut with L.A. Opera last November with 'Roméo et Juliette,' Times classical music critic Mark Swed called it 'a coup for the company.' Swed also wondered if it was a 'signal that he is a candidate to succeed Music Director James Conlon, who steps down in 2026?' It turns out Swed was right. On Friday, L.A. Opera announced that Hindoyan has been named the company's Richard Seaver Music Director. He will succeed Conlon, the longtime music director who joined the company in 2006 and announced last year that he will step down at the end of the 2026 season. Conlon will take on the newly created role of conductor laureate. In a statement, Hindoyan said he was deeply honored to become only the third music director in the company's nearly 40-year history. 'From the first rehearsal, I felt a strong connection to the extraordinary musicians, staff, and spirit of this company,' he said. 'It is a privilege to follow Maestro James Conlon, whose legacy has shaped L.A. Opera into what it is today — a dynamic and ambitious institution.' After considering 'dozens' of candidates from around the world, L.A. Opera President and CEO Christopher Koelsch said he was 'struck by the fluidity of his technique and the clarity and command of his musical ideas' after seeing Hindoyan at the Berlin State Opera in 2016. 'His deeply collaborative nature and generous spirit in rehearsal make him a favorite among singers, who are inspired by the space he creates for musical risk-taking and expressive freedom.' Koelsch also praised Hindoyan's 'deep rapport with musicians and audiences alike.' Hindoyan, 45, is originally from Caracas, Venezuela, and began his career as a violinist. Like departing Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, he attended Venezuela's renowned public music education program known as El Sistema. In addition to his role as chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, a role he has held since 2021, Hindoyan has served as principal guest conductor for the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra; he has conducted opera productions at New York City's Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Dresden Semperoper, Madrid's Teatro Real and Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. In a statement, Conlon said he was happy to pass the baton to someone who shares his passion for opera. 'Domingo is an artist of exceptional depth and imagination, and I know the company will welcome him warmly,' Conlon said. Hindoyan's five-year contract will begin July 1, 2026, and continue through the 2031 season. According to a Facebook post from Hindoyan, the new role in L.A. will run concurrently with his position with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Hindoyan, son of Venezuelan violinist Domingo Garcia, a former president of the Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, is married to the soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who's singing at the Metropolitan Opera in Tchaikovsky's 'The Queen of Spades.' (Performances are scheduled on Wednesday and Saturday.) The couple has two children and lives in Switzerland. In late April, the album 'Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence & Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique,'' from Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, was released.
Irish Examiner
31-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Meath and Roscommon forced to settle for draw after thrilling affair
All-Ireland SFC: Roscommon 2-15 (2-5-5) Meath 0-21 (0-5-11) Cork are facing a do-or-die shootout with Davy Burke's Roscommon after the Connacht side posted their first group stage point in the All-Ireland series with a draw against Meath at Dr. Hyde Park Meath had won the previous four championship meetings between the teams, but Enda Smith helped the Rossies get back on level terms in the fifth instalment by kicking three second-half two-pointers after his side trailed by five points at the break. Both sides kicked five two-pointers apiece, and Smith missed a second-half penalty in a game of fluctuating fortunes. Meath, with Ruairí Kinsella, James Conlon and Mathew Costello prominent, always managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Kinsella's 64th minute point left the sides level, but both sides spurned chances to win it coming down the stretch. Kinsella raised his side's first orange flag with the outside of his right boot in the fifth minute before Eoghan Frayne opened up a three-point gap after the visitors capitalised on a Roscommon turnover as Meath enjoyed a healthy wind advantage in the opening 35 minutes. But Roscommon wiped out that deficit when Senan Lambe set up Diarmuid Murtagh for a well-taken goal after seven minutes. Dylan Ruane nudged his side in front after Roscommon worked the ball upfield from goalkeeper Conor Carroll but the excellent James Conlon — who scored 0-5 from play during a productive opening 35 minutes — got off the mark to bring the sides level. In the 15th minute, Roscommon struck for a second goal when Shane Cunnane found Ben O'Carroll raiding in behind the Meath rearguard, and the St. Brigid's forward produced an assured finish past Billy Hogan. Meath began to win the midfield battle, and Roscommon's cause wasn't helped by the loss of Niall Higgins to injury. Conlon added a couple of rapid-fire points before Daire Cregg replied for the Rossies after Lambe grabbed primary possession in the middle of the park. But Meath began to flex their muscles, mostly off Roscommon turnovers and their dominance around the middle. Conlon and Conor Duke sent over a couple of two-pointers in jig time, while Jordan Morris also found the range to open up a 0-12 to 2-3 gap. Menton arced over the Royals' fourth two-pointer of the half, and Conlon soon added to his tally to stretch his side's buffer to six points. Cregg grabbed a much-needed score for Roscommon before Morris and Ciaráin Murtagh — a free on the hooter — left it 0-16 to 2-5 in favour of Meath at the change of ends. The second half was laden with drama as Smith put a missed 41st-minute penalty behind him to spearhead his side's recovery. Billy Hogan's 46th minute two-point free from 45 metres, following earlier points from Seán Coffey and Frayne, left Meath 0-20 to 2-9 ahead but Robbie Brennan's side would only trouble the scoreboard once more. Diarmuid Murtagh kicked a couple of two-pointers, while Smith added another to leave the Rossies ahead by the bare minimum with nine minutes remaining. Kinsella restored parity, although both sides will rue missed chances in the final five minutes. Mathew Costello fisted against the crossbar after a surging run, with substitute Conor Gray unable to force the rebound home, while Meath full-back Seán Rafferty produced a brilliant tackle at the death to deny Ben O'Carroll when he looked certain to score the winner. Scorers for Roscommon: D Murtagh (1-4, 2 tp), E Smith (0-6, 3 tp), B O'Carroll (1-0), D Cregg (0-2), D Ruane (0-1), S Lambe (0-1), C Murtagh (0-1, 1f) each. Meath: J Conlon (0-6, 1 tp), R Kinsella (0-3, 1 tp), E Frayne (0-2), C Duke (0-2, 1 tp), B Menton (0-2, 1 tp), J Morris (0-2), B Hogan (0-2, 1 tpf), M Costello (0-1, 1f), S Coffey (0-1). Roscommon: C Carroll; N Higgins, C Neary, D Murray; R Daly, B Stack, S Lambe; E Nolan, S Cunnane; D Ruane, C Murtagh, E Smith, D Murtagh, D Cregg, B O'Carroll. Subs: P Frost for Higgins (14), D Smith for C Murtagh (49), C McKeon for Ruane (49), K Doyle for Nolan (57), R Fallon for Lambe (64). Meath: B Hogan; S Lavin, S Rafferty, B O'Halloran; D Keogan, S Coffey, C Caulfield; A O'Neill, B Menton; C Duke, R Kinsella, M Costello; J Morris, J Conlon, E Frayne. Subs: C Hickey for Duke (55), K Curtis for Frayne (59), C Gray for Menton (64), J McEntee for Lavin (65), E Harkin for O'Neill (67). Referee: P Faloon (Down).
