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Moldova’s President Sandu: Prigozhin wanted to overthrow me

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu says now-deceased Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin planned a coup against her earlier this year as part of a wider strategy to destabilize the country.“The information that we have is that it was a plan prepared by [Prigozhin’s] team,” Sandu said in an interview with the Financial Times, adding that Wagner’s groups wanted to spark “violent” anti-government protests.“The situation is really dramatic and we have to protect ourselves,” she added. Prigozhin, who staged a failed coup against the Kremlin in June, died in a plane crash two months later.In February, Sandu told reporters of a planned coup d’état by Russia in Moldova. At the time, she increased security measures amid fears of violent attacks on government buildings.In March, Moldova thwarted Russian-linked attempts to topple Sandu’s government shortly after the U.S. issued a warning that the Kremlin might try to weaken the Moldovan government. Seven peo...

Second suspect held without bail in connection with Holyoke shooting that injured pregnant woman, killed her unborn child

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

A second suspect charged in connection with a shooting in Holyoke that injured a pregnant woman and killed her unborn child was held without bail Friday, the Hampden County District Attorney’s office announced. Johnluis Sanchez, 30, was arraigned two days after the shooting on Wednesday. His arraignment, in turn, came after another suspect, Alejandro Ramos, 22, was arraigned and held without bail on Thursday. Both Sanchez and Ramos have been charged with murder. The shooting happened in the 100 block of Sargeant Street around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. In its latest statement, the DA’s office said investigators believe three male suspects had been involved in an altercation. The DA’s office said shots rang out during the altercation, sending one bullet into a public bus. The pregnant woman was seated inside the bus and was hit by the shot, according to local authorities. She was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition. The DA’s office said the woman’s infant ...

Amazon to launch first internet satellites in bid to compete with SpaceX

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

(CNN) — Amazon is aiming to join the race to build massive constellations of satellites that can blanket the globe in internet connectivity — a move that will officially put the tech company in direct competition with SpaceX and its Starlink system.The first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s network, called Project Kuiper, are set to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, during a two-hour window that opens at 2 p.m. ET Friday.“We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing,” said Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper’s vice president of technology, in a statement. “This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount regardless of how the mission unfolds.”If successful, the mission could queue up Amazon to begin adding hundreds more of the satellites into orbit, eventually ...

Santa Ana winds continue, heat advisories issued

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- This week marked record highs for some San Diego County areas, and warmer temperatures are expected to continue into the weekend.The National Weather Service says Ramona hit 98 degrees Thursday, which tied the originally set record from this same time in 2020.Additionally, Montgomery Field had its highest maximum temperature so far in 2023 at 95 degrees Thursday, weather officials confirmed. This beat the 94 degree readings in August and September. Man pulled from burning home in El Cajon According to NWS, San Diego International Airport missed beating the record high by 2 degrees and Carlsbad by 1 degree Thursday. Light Santa Ana winds are keeping the air warm and mixed near Mt. Woodson as of Friday morning, while calm winds near the airport yield temperatures nearly 25 degrees colder, NWS explained.These Santa Ana winds are expected to continue through Friday.As for the western valleys, weather officials say it will continue to be very warm through Saturday with hi...

2 charged with second-degree murder in quadruple Cabbagetown shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

Toronto police have charged two Brampton men with second-degree murder in connection to a fatal shooting in Cabbagetown in September that also injured three other people.Police responded to the area of Dundas Street East and Sherbourne Street around 2:45 a.m. on Sept. 16 for the sounds of gunshots.Police say the suspects approached a group of people and started shooting at them.Two people in the group were taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, while two others were listed in critical condition.One of the victims has since died in hospital. Police have identified him as 33-year-old Kyle Provo (pictured below).Richard Baker, 48; and Nathan Bell, 37; have been charged with second-degree murder. They were scheduled to appear in court at the end of September.The relationship between the suspects and victims are not yet known.Kyle Provo, 33, was shot and killed near Dundas Street East and Sherbourne Street on Sept. 16, 2023. HANDOUT/Toronto Police Service

Troopers who fatally shot a ‘Cop City’ activist near Atlanta won’t be charged, prosecutor says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia state troopers who shot and killed an environmental activist at the site of a planned police and firefighter training center near Atlanta will not be charged, a prosecutor announced Friday, saying he found that their use of deadly force was “objectively reasonable.”Opponents of the center, who derisively refer to it as “Cop City,” had camped out at an 85-acre (34-hectare) tract of forest that is being developed for the massive facility. It is there that Manuel Paez Terán, 26, was killed.Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Christian announced his decision not to pursue charges in a news release and released a 31-page report detailing his analysis. State troopers were part of what authorities described as an “enforcement operation” at the site when they encountered Paez Terán, who was known as Tortuguita. When the activist refused to come out of a tent, the troopers fired a pepper ball launcher and Paez Terán responded by firing a handgun fo...

EU summit points to reforms the bloc needs in order to welcome Ukraine and others as new members

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

GRANADA, Spain (AP) — European Union leaders acknowledged Friday that just as aspiring members must meet exacting criteria to join the bloc, the 27 member nations also must work hard to reform the EU to make sure it can work smoothly with 30-plus nations. Although Ukraine was hoping for a swift timetable for joining, the 27 leaders declined to adopt a target date of 2030 for Kyiv’s membership as had been proposed by EU Council President Charles Michel.The group pledged unwavering support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, but the summit ended by saying that any aspiring member must complete the EU’s long and tortuous merit-based process that can last years or decades. Shortcuts for geopolitical reasons were ruled out.“Aspiring members need to step up their reform efforts, notably in the area of rule of law, in line with the merit-based nature of the accession process,” said the joint declaration of the leaders. “In parallel, the Union needs to lay th...

Online News Act not perfect but necessary: Heritage Minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

TORONTO — Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge says that while the Online News Act isn’t perfect, the media landscape is changing too fast for the government to wait any longer.“We need to put our foot in the door and start doing it,” St-Onge said Friday while speaking at the MINDS international news agency conference in Toronto.“Even though it’s not perfect, even though some are not pleased with what we’re doing, but this new challenge is coming so fast that we need to address it as quickly as possible.” St-Onge says that part of the challenge is that the government waited too long to regulate digital platforms, so it’s starting with this law and can adapt it over time.The act, meant to help a struggling news industry, will force tech companies to compensate news publishers for work that is shared or otherwise repurposed on their platformsThe act doesn’t come into force until December, but Facebook started removing news for Canadians this past...

A judge rules against a Republican challenge of a congressional redistricting map in New Mexico

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico state judge ruled against a Republican Party challenge of new congressional boundaries approved by Democrats that divvied up a politically conservative oil-producing region, in an order published Friday.Judge Fred Van Soelen wrote that the redistricting plan enacted by Democratic state lawmakers in 2021 succeeded in substantially diluting votes of their political opponents, but that the congressional redistricting changes fell short of “egregious” gerrymandering.“Because ‘entrenchment’ is the touchstone of an egregious partisan gerrymander which the New Mexico Constitution prohibits, the court finds that the congressional redistricting map enacted under Senate Bill 1 does not violate the plaintiff’s equal protection rights,” the judge wrote.The order can be appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court. A final decision will have a major influence on which party represents a congressional swing district along the U.S. border with Mexico where part...

Louisiana Republicans are in court to fight efforts to establish new Black congressional district

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:44 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal appeals court judges in New Orleans closely questioned voting rights advocates and attorneys for Louisiana Republican officials Friday on whether Louisiana must follow Alabama’s court-ordered path in drawing a new mostly Black congressional district — and how quickly that could and should be done ahead of next year’s elections.Louisiana is among multiple states still wrangling over congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act when its Republican legislature failed to create a second Black-majority congressional district when it redrew the state’s congressional map after the 2020 census. At issue Friday was an injunction by a federal judge that Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Landry, both Republicans, are fighting. The injunction in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick found that a congressional map drawn up by the Republican-dominated Legislature that year likely violat...