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Top US diplomat visits Kyiv amid deadly airstrike in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Wednesday amid a flurry of Russian airstrikes, including one that killed at least 16 civilians.That airstrike hit a market in Kostyantynivka, an eastern city near the frontlines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post. Overnight, Moscow fired cruise missiles at Kyiv in the first aerial attack on the capital in almost a week, according to Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration.Blinken touched down early Wednesday, with plans to meet Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to show “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and democracy” as its counteroffensive against Russian troops continues, the State Department said in a statement.The counteroffensive has progressed slowly in recent months, drawing concerns from the international community about Ukraine’s ability to pierce Russia’s fo...

EU enlargement chief backs 2030 deadline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

BRUSSELS — The EU’s enlargement chief backed European Council President Charles Michel’s 2030 timeline for letting in candidate countries over the official stance of his own boss Ursula von der Leyen.  Hungarian Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi disagreed with the European Commission’s stance that there should be no target date for EU enlargement, raising questions over the EU executive’s internal unity on this key file.Referring to an enlargement timeline proposed by Michel, Várhelyi said on Wednesday the Commission should be ready to let in new members by 2030.“On our side we have been working tirelessly to that end — so I’m very happy to see finally, the member states are also starting to move and mobilize politically, and ready to invest politically to have new members of the EU by 2030,” Várhelyi said during a press conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.This is a departure from the Commission’s official line that EU enlargement is a “merit-based process...

Authorities identify 18-year-old who died while swimming at Westford quarry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

Authorities have identified a man who died while swimming at a quarry in Westford on Monday as a 18-year-old from Methuen, state police announced. Emergency crews responded to Merrill’s Quarry Monday afternoon. In an update on Wednesday, state police said investigators determined Chester Rodriguez had been swimming with friends shortly before 5 p.m. when he began struggling and went underwater. Westford officials said divers later recovered the body of the victim, now identified as Rodriguez, in about 40 feet of water around 5:30 p.m.State police on Wednesday said there is no evidence of foul play in this incident and noted several “private property” and “no trespassing” signs posted at Merrill’s Quarry.There was a visible emergency presence around the quarry for several hours on Monday as authorities from multiple area communities joined Westford police, Westford firefighters and Massachusetts State Police personnel at the scene.One Tyngsboro firefighter received minor injurie...

Russian strike on a market in an eastern Ukrainian city kills 17 and wounds dozens, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

By SAMYA KULLAB (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile struck an outdoor market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The deadly attack came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv and was expected to announce more than $1 billion in new American funding for Ukraine in the 18-month-old war.Associated Press journalists at the site of the attack in the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region saw covered bodies on the ground and emergency workers extinguishing fires at market stalls, with blackened and mangled cars nearby. Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said 17 people were killed, and another 32 were wounded. The Defense Ministry said the market was hit by a ballistic missile.Firefighters extinguished blazes that burned about 30 pavilions at the market, he added.Twenty shops, power lines, an administrative building and the floor of an apartment building were damaged, according t...

Questions on MCAS repeal, rent control clear hurdle for ballot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

Attorney General Andrea Campbell gave the green light to two ballot questions nixing the MCAS as a graduating requirement for students and peeling back Massachusetts’ ban on rent control.Wednesday’s certification of the questions represents the first major hurdle supporters had to clear to land the issues on the ballot. The AG reviewed the questions to determine if their language met constitutional muster. Supporters who want to pursue their proposals must now collect more than 75,000 signatures in roughly three months to place the issues before voters in the fall of 2024.The rent control question, backed by state Rep. Mike Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat, would reverse a voter-approved 1994 statewide ban on rent control.The proposed law would allow municipalities to regulate residential evictions, rents and fees, brokers fees, and the removal of of housing units from the rental market.Connolly collected the legal paperwork from the Attorney General’s office around 11 a.m. Wedn...

Judge rules Trump in 2019 defamed writer who has already won a sex abuse and libel suit against him

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Four months after a jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that still more of the ex-president’s comments about her were libelous. The decision means that an upcoming second civil trial will concern only how much more he has to pay her.The ruling stands to streamline significantly the second trial, set for January. It concerns remarks that Trump made in 2019, after Carroll first publicly claimed that Trump sexually attacked her in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s, which he denies.The first trial, this spring, concerned the sexual assault allegation itself and whether more recent Trump comments were defamatory. Jurors awarded Carroll $5 million, finding that she was sexually abused but rejecting her allegation that she was raped.“The jury considered and decided issues that are common to both cases — includi...

Cirque du Soleil returns to San Diego with seven-show stint

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A charming contemporary circus performance is coming to Pechanga Arena this week to wow San Diegans.Entertainment company Cirque du Soleil is bringing its "Corteo" production to America's Finest City in a seven-show stint between Sept. 6-10. Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, "Corteo" first premiered in Montreal in April 2005. Since then, the show has been performed for over 10 million spectators in 20 countries. First-ever Del Mar Wine & Food Festival set to take over parts of San Diego County According to Cirque du Soleil, "Corteo" is "a festive parade imagined by a clown." While describing the production further, the company says "the show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth."Cirque du Soleil is coming to Pechanga Arena. (Photo: MajaPrgomet; Costumes: Dominique Lemieux; Courtesy of ...

More post-secondary students rely on parents, stay home to finish school: RBC poll

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

TORONTO — Inflation is driving more post-secondary students to stay home with their parents as they complete their studies — a shift from more than a decade ago, a poll published by RBC on Wednesday shows.Almost half of respondents aged 18-29, or 47 per cent, said they plan to live with their parents this school year, compared to 36 per cent of students in 2013, the online survey reported.The survey, which was conducted by Ipsos and surveyed 1,000 Canadian post-secondary students between June 29 and July 12, found 43 per cent of respondents assumed their parents would be taking care of their financial needs, compared to 29 per cent in 2013.The poll shed light on how post-secondary students are fighting to keep up with the cost of living despite staying home with their parents. About half of them said they plan to take up part-time work as they attend school full-time, cut back on non-essential spending, stick to a prepared budget and regularly monitor their expenses.Almost all...

Feds award $15 million contract to Sun Life to lay groundwork for dental care program

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government has awarded a contract worth up to $15 million to lay the groundwork for a new national dental insurance plan.Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Health Minister Mark Holland announced today the contract was awarded to Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. The federal government says this interim agreement will allow for the “timely launch and successful operation” of the plan, while details of the main contract are finalized.The federal government is working to set up the new insurance plan to replace an interim benefit system that launched last year.A national dental care program is a cornerstone of the supply-and-confidence agreement between the NDP and Liberals.The spring budget promised $13 billion over the next five years to implement the national dental care plan, which the federal government says will insure up to nine million Canadians.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2023. The Canadian Press

Third Democrat launches bid for western Wisconsin swing congressional district

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A third Democratic candidate has announced that she’s running for a western Wisconsin congressional seat held by freshman Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden in one of the presidential battleground state’s swing districts.Former La Crosse County Board Chair Tara Johnson on Wednesday joined former small-business owner Rebecca Cooke, who ran for the seat and lost last year in the primary, and Aaron Nytes, a Harvard Law School student, in seeking to represent the Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, which is comprised of parts of central, southwestern and western Wisconsin, including moderate exurbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities.Johnson, 61, said she was running to fight for working families, rural communities, abortion rights, affordable health care and prescription drugs, and protecting Social Security and Medicare. She spent 20 years on the La Crosse County Board before stepping down in 2020.In an statement, Johnson said Van Orden, who flipped t...