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North Korea has decided to ‘expel’ US soldier Travis King, state media reports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

(CNN) — North Korea has decided “to expel” US Army Private Travis King, who had crossed into the North from South Korea during a tour of the joint security area in July, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.“The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic,” KCNA said.The report said the investigation into King “has been finished.”North Korea claimed that King has “confessed that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.”CNN cannot verify whether these are King’s own words. It is unclear from KCNA’s report where, when and how King would be expelled.This is a breaking story, more to follow…

Chilly Start, Mild Finish

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

Feeling the chill this morning? Yeh, certainly it is a bit on the cool side with temps reaching the upper 30s for some! Even in Boston, the sub 50 degree reading was the first since early June. With a lot of sunshine, temps bounce back into the mid to upper 60s for this afternoon. The combination of light winds, brighter skies and low humidity, will allow for a great afternoon from the playgrounds to ball fields to golf courses to apple orchards. Enjoy! Tomorrow, we’ll pretty much do it again. Friday afternoon, into Saturday morning… We’ll watch to see how close an area of low pressure with rain gets to our coast. The highest risk for some rain is across Southeast Mass, especially near the south coast. If the storms far enough south, then all of us will stay dry. Sunday, into early next week looks great. 70s in the afternoon, 50s at night. We’ll have a bit of patchy fog in the mornings, but the pattern is a nice one to kick off October. That includes for the ...

Over 100 masked teens ransack Philadelphia stores and arrests are made, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Groups of teenagers swarmed into stores in Philadelphia’s Center City, stuffing plastic bags with merchandise and fleeing, although police made several arrests, authorities and witnesses said.An Apple Store was hit at around 8 p.m. Tuesday and police chased fleeing teenagers, recovering dropped iPhones and a “pile of iPads” at one spot, a police statement said.More than 100 people who appeared to be teenagers stole from a Lululemon store, NBC10 Philadelphia reported, citing a police officer.Video posted on social media showed masked people in hoodies running out of Lululemon and police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.No injuries were immediately reported but CBS Philadelphia said a security guard was assaulted at the Foot Locker.The flash mob-style ransacking followed an earlier peaceful protest over a judge’s Tuesday decision to dismiss murder and other charges&n...

Howie Carr: How low can Bob Menendez go?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

In his unfolding corruption case, Sen. Bob Menendez asks for no special favors.He merely asks to be treated like Hunter Biden.The “embattled” senior senator from New Jersey has already won an earlier photo finish with a jury, in Newark. He was tried by a jury of his Democrat peers, one of whom asked in court, “What is a senator?”The new indictment runs 39 pages. Naturally state-run media is giving it a good leaving alone because… professional courtesy.However, despite what some deplorables are claiming, there are great differences between the Biden and Menendez cases.Of course, Menendez is, or was until last week, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Joe Biden used to be chairman of that same committee, which is apparently a golden goose when it comes to, uh, whatever.But beyond that, there is no connection between the Biden and Menendez scandals.For example, Menendez is accused of shaking down Egypt. The Bidens, on the other hand, are accused of taking payoffs from s...

North Korea says it will expel the US soldier who crossed into the country in July

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday that it will expel a U.S. soldier who crossed into the country through the heavily armed border between the Koreas in July.The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that authorities have finished their questioning of Pvt. Travis King. It said that he confessed to illegally entering the North because he harbored “ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” within the U.S. Army and was “disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.”Verifying the authenticity of the comments attributed to King is impossible.The agency did not say when authorities plan to expel King or to where.King, who had served in South Korea, sprinted into North Korea while on a civilian tour of a border village on July 18, becoming the first American confirmed to be detained in the North in nearly five years.At the time he joined the civilian tour and crossed the border, he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, follo...

Giant panda Fan Xing leaves a Dutch zoo for her home country China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

RHENEN, Netherlands (AP) — Giant panda Fan Xing began a long journey home on Wednesday — to a country she has never visited.The 3-year-old was given a ceremonial send off Wednesday from Ouwehands Zoo in the Netherlands, where she was born, for the first leg of her journey to China, where she will join a breeding program that is helping preserve the vulnerable species.Wouter Jurgens, director Asia and Oceania at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said he hoped the panda would be an ambassador for relations between the Netherlands and China.Those links have been strained in recent months by the Dutch decision to limit sales of advanced semiconductor processor chips. The government called the move “country neutral,” but it was seen as part of a U.S. policy aiming at restricting China’s access to materials used to make such chips, which can be used in military technology.Jurgens said Fan Xing represented “a sign of the special relationship between the Netherlands and China in the fi...

Christian Thielemann chosen to succeed Daniel Barenboim as music director of Berlin’s Staatsoper

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Christian Thielemann has been chosen as the new general music director of Berlin’s Staatsoper, months after Daniel Barenboim ended his three-decade reign, the city government said Wednesday.The 64-year-old German conductor will take the job at the Staatsoper, or State Opera, next year, Berlin state culture minister Joe Chialo announced. “With him, we are ensuring the highest musical excellence for our city,” he said.Thielemann trained as an assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Barenboim, worked in smaller German houses and was music director of Nuremberg’s State Theater from 1988–1992.He moved on to serve as music director of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper from 1997-2004 and of the Munich Philharmonic from 2004-11. He has been chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden since 2012-13, a role that already was scheduled to end after the 2023-24 season.Thielemann also has conducted over 150 Vienna Philharmonic concerts and led more than 180 performances at the ...

Russia accuses Ukraine’s Western allies of helping attack its Black Sea Fleet headquarters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and conduct last week’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in annexed Crimea.“There is no doubt that the attack had been planned in advance using Western intelligence means, NATO satellite assets and reconnaissance planes and was implemented upon of the advice of American and British security agencies and in close coordination with them,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.Moscow has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. and its NATO allies have effectively become involved in the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine and providing it with intelligence information and helping plan attacks on Russian facilities.The accusation came the day after video appeared to show the fleet’s commander, Adm. Viktor Sokolov, was still alive despite Ukraine’s claims — without providing supporting evidence — that he was among 34 officers killed in F...

Race to replace Sen. Mitt Romney heats up as Republican Utah House speaker gets ready to enter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

Republican Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson is poised to formally announce at a Wednesday night rally that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney, who recently announced he won’t run for reelection.Romney announced earlier this month that he won’t seek a second term, saying younger people needed to step forward. In so doing, he threw open a wider door for those seeking to enter the race and led to speculation about whether Utah voters will choose a politically moderate successor similar to him or a farther-right figure such as Utah’s other U.S. senator, Mike Lee, a Donald Trump supporter. Wilson would likely fall somewhere between Romney and Lee in that regard, said Damon Cann, head of Utah State University’s political science department.“I think most people are expecting Brad Wilson would govern somewhat more conservatively. I think he would be toward the political center from where Mike Lee’s at but I think he would be more conservative...

McIlroy says LIV defectors miss Ryder Cup more than Team Europe misses them

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:40 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — LIV Golf defections have cut off European stalwarts from the Ryder Cup, some of them for the first time in three decades. Rory McIlroy said Wednesday they are missing the Ryder Cup more than Team Europe is missing them.Nowhere to be found at Marco Simone are Lee Westwood, who has been part of every Ryder Cup since his debut in 1997. Sergio Garcia, who began his seamless Ryder Cup career in 1999, made a made a last-ditch attempt to make good with the European tour and get to Rome.Ian Poulter and his passion. Graeme McDowell and his heroics. All are with Saudi-funded LIV Golf, all of them ineligible to take any role in this Ryder Cup. That includes Henrik Stenson, appointed European captain for this team until choosing to sign with LIV last summer.“It’s certainly a little strange not having them around,” McIlroy said. “But I think this week of all weeks, it’s going to hit home with them that they are not here. I think they are going to mis...