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Biden agrees to send US long-range missiles to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

U.S. President Joe Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the United States will soon provide Kyiv with a small number of long-range missiles to help its war with Russia, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.Biden made the pledge to Zelenskyy during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the White House on Thursday, fulfilling a long-held wish by Kyiv, according to the officials who like others for this story were granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.The Army Tactical Missile Systems will likely be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks. The White House declined to comment on the matterThe news is a major win for Zelenskyy and officials in Kyiv, who have long sought the missiles. ATACMS have a range of 45 to 190 miles and Ukrainians have long argued that they are crucial to striking deep behind entrenched Russian positions along a 600-mile front line.NBC first reported the news that the missiles had been approve...

A Nebraska mother who provided an illegal abortion for her daughter and helped dispose of the fetus gets 2 years in prison, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

(CNN) — A Nebraska mother who was accused of helping her 17-year-old daughter have an illegal abortion and disposing of the fetus was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday, the Norfolk Daily News reported.The sentence comes after Jessica Burgess, 42, pleaded guilty in July to two felonies – removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body, and performing an abortion beyond 20 weeks – and a misdemeanor charge of false reporting.CNN has reached out to Burgess’s attorney, the Madison County attorney and the Madison County District Court for comment.Burgess’s daughter, Celeste Burgess, now 19, was sentenced in July to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to a felony charge of removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body.Norfolk police began investigating the women in April 2022 following concerns Celeste Burgess had delivered a stillborn fetus, according to court documents.Authorities alleged Celeste Burgess had a ...

Massachusetts East-West Rail vision gets $108M federal boost

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has secured $108 million in federal funding to begin the process of implementing an East-West passenger rail service, by improving connections between Springfield, Worcester and Boston.The grant, awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration and announced on Friday, will go toward the total project cost of approximately $135 million. MassDOT and Amtrak plan to cover the remaining amount, at $18 million and $9 million, respectively.The two entities, with the support of CSX, applied for the grant last December.“I am thrilled we were able to secure this critical funding for central and western Massachusetts, which will lay the foundation for West-East Rail,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.Healey credited the Biden administration for making the investment, and the federal delegation for helping to secure the funds.The funding will add two new daily round trips on the Amtrak Inland Route, to improve connections between Boston, Worces...

Howie Carr: When Rupert Murdoch saved Boston media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

Thank you, Rupert Murdoch, for saving this newspaper so many years ago.He kept Boston a two-newspaper town, back in those long-gone days when newspapers actually mattered.If you’re depressed about how everything has been going steadily downhill in Massachusetts for decades now, all I can tell you is that if the Boston Globe had been allowed to have a monopoly on public discourse since 1982, the situation would be even more dire.Any city with two newspapers, no matter how bad, is better served than any city with one newspaper, no matter how good.Herald archiveThe cover of the Dec. 4, 1982, edition of the Boston Herald American declaring “You Bet We’re Alive! Murdoch, unions make the deal.” (Herald archive)Rupert Murdoch “stepped aside” the other day from his role running Fox or News Corp. or whatever it’s called now. He’s 92.He’s not what he used to be, and neither is his empire, full of careerists, time servers, clerks and Democrat party apparatchiks — just like ev...

California bill to have humans drivers ride in autonomous trucks is vetoed by governor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks, a measure that union leaders and truck drivers said would save hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state.The legislation vetoed Friday night would have banned self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) — ranging from UPS delivery vans to massive big rigs — from operating on public roads unless a human driver is on board. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, said driverless trucks are dangerous and called Newsom’s veto shocking. She estimates that removing drivers would cost a quarter million jobs in the state. “We will not sit by as bureaucrats side with tech companies, trading our safety and jobs for increased corporate profits. We will continue to fight to make sure that robots do not replace human drivers and that technology is not used to destroy good jobs,” Fletcher said in a statement la...

Lots of dignitaries but no real fireworks as the Asian Games open

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — The opening ceremony of the Asian Games on Saturday in China offered all the staples of a major international sports event.Dignitaries greeted General Secretary Xi Jinping, fans packed the 80,000-seat Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou to capacity, and many of the 12,417 participants from 45 nations and territories paraded to officially open the two-week show.By comparison, next year’s Paris Olympics will field about 10,500 competitors.One big thing, however, was missing: real fireworks, the exploding kind that smell of power and burnt fuses. Instead, the high-tech games — billed of course as “green games” — offered electronic flash, three-D animations, and a virtual torchbearer.Xi was greeted by wild cheers when he appeared, and fans were handed LED star lights, adding sparkle to the stands when the lights dimmed and eight well-polished soldiers arrived carrying the national flag above their heads.The loudest cheers were for the Chinese delegatio...

Speaker McCarthy gives in to hard-line conservatives in hopes of solving government funding impasse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a fast-approaching government shutdown that threatens to disrupt life for millions of Americans, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has turned to a strategy that so far has preserved his tenuous hold on House leadership but also marked it by chaos: giving hard-right lawmakers what they want.In his eight months running the House, McCarthy has lived by the upbeat personal mantra of “never give up” as he dodges threats to his speakership and tries to portray Republicans as capable stewards of the U.S. government. He has long chided Washington for underestimating him. But with the House GOP majority in turmoil, all but certain to hurl the country into a shutdown, McCarthy has set aside the more traditional tools of the gavel to keep rebels in line. Instead, he has acceded to a small band led by those instigating his ouster, even if that means closing federal offices.It’s an untested strategy that has left McCarthy deeply frustrated, his allies rushing to his sid...

A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. Now his family is suing Texas officials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — The family of a Black high school student in Texas who was suspended over his dreadlocks filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Saturday against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles. Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31. Officials with the Houston-area school say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code. George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the state’s CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1. The lawsuit also alleges that Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, i...

In Milan, Ferragamo’s Maximilian Davis woos the red carpet with hard-soft mix and fetish detailing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

Every look in Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis’ latest collection, shown Saturday on the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week, offered a little mystery to unravel, some detail to marvel.At just 26, Davis is taking the fashion world by storm. His third collection marked an evolution, with a focus on fluidity while also adding sculptural details, playing with prints and incorporating hardware elements.Davis has taken Renaissance inspiration from Florence, Ferragamo’s home. This season, he playfully mixed in fetish details, which he claims as part of his DNA: leather chokers that flow into a pleated chiffon dress, thick ankle straps on stiletto heels and horsetail fringe that caresses the leg through deep slits in long dresses.The collection mixed the hard and soft. Viscose dresses have organic shapes that cling to the body, quietly ruched for movement. Long kaftans are anchored by thick hardware incorporated as jewelry, with oversized prints of a Venus flytrap. Super-wide belt...

Researchers discover attempt to infect leading Egyptian opposition politician with Predator spyware

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:24 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A leading Egyptian opposition politician was targeted with spyware after announcing a presidential bid, security researchers reported Friday. They said Egyptian authorities were likely behind the attempted hack. Discovery of the attempt last week by researchers at Citizen Lab and Google’s Threat Analysis Group prompted Apple to rush out operating system updates for iPhones, iPads, Mac computers and Apple Watches to patch the associated vulnerabilities.Citizen Lab said in a blog post that recent attempts to hack former Egyptian lawmaker Ahmed Altantawy involved configuring his connection to the Vodaphone Egypt mobile network to automatically infect his devices with the Predator spyware if he visited certain websites not using the secure HTTPS protocol. Bill Marczak, the researcher involved at the University of Toronto-based internet watchdog, declined to provide more detail on how he and Google researcher Maddie Stone discovered the spyware exploit chain, which he said ...