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US, Europe officials: Prigozhin’s death leaves Putin stronger, for now

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

U.S. and European officials assessing the fallout from the death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin say it’s likely to strengthen Vladimir Putin’s short-term grip on Russia but weaken his standing over time.Outside governments are still trying to ascertain exactly what caused Prigozhin’s plane to crash in Russia on Wednesday, two months after he led a brief mutiny and clashed with Russian forces over grievances about the Kremlin’s approach to the war in Ukraine. Russia’s civil aviation agency said Wednesday that Prigozhin was one of 10 people killed when the flight crashed, and Putin spoke of him in the past tense Thursday.Western officials reached Thursday argued that Prigozhin’s death could temporarily strengthen Putin’s hand, or at the very least leave his level of power unchanged.“Putin has a pretty clear track record of at least operating within his own country with impunity,” a U.S. official familiar with Russia policy said. “I don’t get the sense t...

Crack cocaine floods Brussels as alarm sounds over safety in EU capital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

BRUSSELS — Around here, no one wants to work the night shift. Karim H’Didouane has been a receptionist at Park Inn by Radisson next to Brussels Midi railway station for two years. The area is changing, he said — and not for the better.“There’s an increase of drug dealers, vandalism, stealing,” H’Didouane said. “It’s not safe at any moment.”Park Inn sits across the road from one of Brussels Midi’s entrances, in an area of the city’s Saint-Gilles district which has garnered a reputation for violence and crime, particularly when darkness falls.H’Didouane isn’t the only one who feels unsafe. A few feet from Park Inn, Mostafa Abdelazim, receptionist at Euro Capital hotel, has had his wallet stolen five times in five years.“[It’s] not the best image for when international travelers arrive at the station,” he said. “Most of them arrive [at the hotel] already with a problem: ‘someone stole my bag’ … or ‘I’ve been attacked.’”On a warm summer afternoon, the station — Belgium’...

History as written by Vladimir Putin

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. The decade-long wait wasn’t worth it. It was inevitable that Russia’s new official history textbooks would just advance the Kremlin’s dreary weaponization of memory, that they would tighten its control over the historical narrative presented to the nation’s schoolchildren. We knew this would be the case.And, of course, the four new textbooks Russian high-schoolers will be cracking open at the start of the school year next month — covering the period from 1945 to the present day — are also focused on justifying the invasion of Ukraine, placing it in the context of “demilitarization” and “denazification,” while casting Russia as a victim of so-called Western aggression.How could it be otherwise when Russia’s pseudo-historian-in-chief, President Vladimir Putin, ordered the rewrite himself, and the drafting was overseen by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, the chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission on Historical Education...

Brexit Wars part II: Tories plot British exit from Europe’s human rights treaty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

LONDON — For years, U.K. Conservatives seeking right-wing support have floated idle threats to pull Britain out of Europe’s top human rights treaty. This time, they might actually mean it.As a steady stream of undocumented migrants continues to arrive on U.K. shores, British ministers are running out of ideas on how to deliver Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s totemic promise to “stop the boats” crossing the English Channel.And with Sunak’s flagship deterrence plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda still snarled up in the courts after a flurry of human rights claims, an increasing number of Conservatives want Britain to take a more radical step — leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) altogether. It would be a seismic decision. Britain was one of the driving forces behind the drafting of the ECHR in 1950, with Winston Churchill hailing its charter as “central to our movement.” Today, the only European nations that are not members are Russia — expelled last ye...

Inflation? This man holds the key

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

One man may be about to make the difference to how the globe’s central banks deal with inflation.As Jerome Powell, the chair of the U.S’s Federal Reserve, prepares to speak at its annual shindig at Jackson Hole on Friday, he could signal whether he’s ready to perform a major shift. The world is watching.After America’s worst inflation in 40 years, and similar patterns in Europe and the U.K., he may indicate that an intense period of raising interest rates to get price rises under control is over. Yet that’s difficult while it still isn’t as low as he’d like it to be. So the big question that Powell’s speech needs to address is really: how long can it afford to keep rates this high given increasing signs that they may be contributing to an economic slowdown? And if the answer is not very long, then will they just change their inflation targets?Finessing the approachTwo clear strands of thought have emerged in the days running up to the getaway in Wyoming. One says the Fed should keep...

14-year-old boy shot in the face in Fall River

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

A 14-year-old boy was taken to an area hospital Thursday night with an apparent gunshot wound to the face, Fall River police said. Detective Sergeant Moses Pereira in a statement said officers first responded to the Maple Gardens Housing Development around 8 p.m. for a report of shots fired. Pereira said officers found the injured teen on scene. The teen was then rushed to HASBRO Children’s Hospital with what Pereira described as “potentially life-threatening injuries.”“The investigation is extremely fluid at this time as investigators attempt to determine the circumstances surrounding the injury,” Pereira said. “Early indications suggest that this incident likely did not occur in the manner in which it was initially reported to police.”Investigators were spotted in the area with crime tape in place for several hours after this incident. No further information was immediately available. This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest ...

Kyle Gibson’s eight innings, Cedric Mullins’ tool set lead Orioles to series-clinching 5-3 win over Blue Jays

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

This is why the Orioles signed Kyle Gibson.With their rotation in flux, the Orioles called upon Gibson, temporarily their lone veteran starter, once again, a day earlier than expected. He delivered Baltimore’s lengthiest start of the season Thursday, going eight innings in a series-clinching 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.The outing, supported by home runs from Anthony Santander and Cedric Mullins, kept the Orioles’ lead on the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East at two games. Baltimore (79-48) ends the season with a 10-3 record against Toronto, leading the Blue Jays — at 70-58 the best team in the AL not in playoff position — by 9 1/2 games.Gibson, signed to a one-year, $10 million contract this offseason, has often provided dependability in the Orioles’ rotation, even as his surface-level numbers have been less than stellar. After Thursday’s eight innings of three-run ball, Gibson has a 5.84 ERA in his past 14 starts, but nine of ...

Mug shot of Donald Trump shows scowling former president during speedy booking at Atlanta jail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

By ERIC TUCKER, KATE BRUMBACK and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — A scowling Donald Trump posed for a mug shot Thursday as he surrendered inside a jail in Atlanta on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, creating a historic and humbling visual underscoring the former president’s escalating legal troubles.The booking photo instantly becomes part of the former president’s legacy as he confronts criminal charges in four American cities while seeking to reclaim the White House. His aides swiftly seized on the image, fundraising off the first mug shot in American history of a former president as representative of the persecution they contend Trump is encountering. His opponents, meanwhile, are likely to use it to remind voters of dangers in electing a president facing dozens of felony charges. Trump was released on $200,000 bond and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey, flashing a thumbs-u...

Boston’s South End under siege as mayor floats 4th shelter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

South End residents are saying enough is enough to the city’s response to the misery of Mass and Cass, and in particular a plan to add 30 shelter beds at a building under an overpass at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street.“It’s a Band-Aid. And the medicine is worse than the disease,” said new state Rep. John Moran, who represents much of the South End, including this troubled area, as well as Lower Roxbury, of the proposal.“It creates a fourth shelter in the south end, which we do not need. We’ve been promised to have decentralization here,” he said.Moran and Boston City Council President Ed Flynn met with the president and vice president of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association at the corner of East Concord and Albany streets at 7 a.m. Thursday to survey and discuss a city plan to open a new shelter in the 700-block of Albany Street that Mayor Michelle Wu is scheduled to unveil at 10 a.m. Friday.It was still some 30 minutes until AHOPE — wh...

Trump returns to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, shortly after surrendering in Georgia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has returned to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, firing off his first message in 2 1/2 years shortly after he surrendered at an Atlanta jail on charges he conspired to overturn his election loss.He posted a photo of his mug shot and the words, “Election interference. Never surrender!” along with a link to his website, which directs to a fundraising site.It was Trump's first post since Jan. 8, 2021, when Twitter suspended his account indefinitely, citing fears he would incite additional violence following the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol building. His account was reinstated last November shortly after Elon Musk took over the company, but Trump had refrained from tweeting, insisting that he was happier on his own Truth Social site, which he launched during the ban.The message marks a homecoming of sorts for Trump to one of his most important megaphones — one he used to dominate his rivals in the 2016 primary and t...