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Kyiv dismisses claims Russia repelled Ukrainian counteroffensive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

KYIV — Ukraine dismissed claims that Russia has repelled its counteroffensive on Monday, insisting that its long-awaited assault has not yet begun.The Russian defense ministry on Monday reported that Kyiv’s forces had attempted to storm several Russian positions in parts of the southern Donetsk front on Sunday. According to Moscow, Russia repelled what it called Ukraine’s counteroffensive, pushing Kyiv’s troops back to their original positions on Monday and imposing significant losses in manpower and equipment.Kyiv, meanwhile, dismissed the report as untrue. “Moscow is already actively involved in repelling … a global offensive that ‘does not yet exist,'” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Ukrainian military officials declined to officially comment on what they called “Russian disinformation,” saying they did not want to legitimize it. A press officer for one o...

Man charged in connection with series of rapes in Charlestown appears in court, lawyer prods at how DNA evidence was obtained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

A man charged in connection with a series of rapes in Charlestown went before a judge on Monday, where prosecutors laid out how they connected him with sexual assaults that took place nearly 15 years ago.Matthew Nilo, 35, pleaded not guilty in a Boston courtroom as he was arraigned on charges stemming from four sexual assaults that took place in Boston in 2007 and 2008. The charges include aggravated rape, kidnapping, and sexual assault and battery.During the proceedings, the prosecution stated how they used DNA linked to the cases to track the lawyer down through genetic genealogy.“… he was placed under surveillance in early 2023 while living in New Jersey and working at a New York City law firm,” a prosecutor told the court. “FBI agents were able to obtain various utensils and drinking glasses they watched the defendant use at a corporate event. From one of the glasses, the Boston Police crime lab was able to obtain a male DNA profile, which [was] found to match ...

New Hampshire Gov. Sununu rules out 2024 presidential bid, citing already crowded GOP field

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday that he will not seek the presidency in 2024.The 48-year-old Republican governor, a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, made the announcement on CNN and followed up with a post on social media.“I will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024,” Sununu tweeted. “The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen.”Sununu was among a small group of Republican officials still openly contemplating a presidential bid. Even with his decision, the 2024 GOP White House field will be large.Earlier Monday, former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork declaring his campaign for president. He joined a field that includes Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen Tim Scott of South Carolina, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutch...

Trump lawyers meet with Justice Dept. officials as charging decision nears in Mar-a-Lago case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

By ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump met with Justice Department officials on Monday as a decision nears on whether to bring charges over the handling of classified documents at the former president’s Florida estate.The Trump lawyers two weeks ago requested a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to raise concerns about what they alleged was prosecutorial misconduct and overreach by the team led by special counsel Jack Smith. But a defense attorney meeting with Justice Department officials is also often used as an opportunity to try to persuade them against bringing criminal charges.A trio of Trump attorneys — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — exited the Justice Department building in Washington on Monday morning after more than an hour inside. They got into a black sport utility vehicle and did not respond to reporters’ questions.It was not immediately clear who from the Justice Department a...

No survivors found after plane that flew over DC, led to fighter jets scramble crashes in Virginia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ASHLEY THOMAS (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A wayward and unresponsive business plane that flew over the nation’s capital Sunday afternoon caused the military to scramble fighter jets before the plane crashed in Virginia, officials said. The fighter jets caused a loud sonic boom that was heard across the capital region.Hours later, police said rescuers had reached the site of the plane crash in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley and that no survivors were found. The Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, on Sunday and was headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Inexplicably, the plane turned around over New York’s Long Island and flew a straight path down over D.C. before it crashed over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia, around 3:30 p.m.It was not immediately clear why the plane and pilot did not respond to radio transmissions, why it crashed or how many ...

Lawyer accused in series of alleged cold case rape and assaults, held on $500K cash bail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Monday ordered Matthew Nilo, accused in a series of alleged rapes and assaults dating back to 2007 and 2008, held on $5 million bail during an arraignment Monday.Nilo pleaded not guilty to the charges this morning. He can be released if he posts $500,000 cash.Nilo is charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault — attempted rape and one count of indecent assault and battery. The charges stem from alleged incidents in the Terminal Street area of Charlestown on Aug. 18, 2007; Nov. 22, 2007; Aug. 5, 2008; and Dec. 23, 2008, according to information provided by BPD Commissioner Michael Cox last week.An attorney now practicing in New Jersey, Nilo, 35, was arrested last Tuesday at his home in Weehawken, N.J., and agreed to waive extradition during a court appearance there last week.The charges against Nilo were filed after Boston Police, working with the FBI, turned to genetic analysis of evidence that ...

It will take days to collect debris from plane that flew over Washington, crashed in rural Virginia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four were killed when an unresponsive plane that flew over the nation’s capital crashed in Virginia, leaving behind “highly fragmented” wreckage in a mountainous area that will take days to gather and sort, federal authorities said Monday. A day after the plane prompted the military to scramble fighter jets, the Federal Aviation Authority said in a brief update that the pilot and three passengers were killed and that the plane was “destroyed” in the crash. Their identities weren’t immediately released.NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt told reporters it will take investigators a while to reach the remote crash scene about two to three miles north of Montebello in mountainous terrain. They expect to be on the scene at least three to four days.Attention on the crash and its cause was heightened by its unusual flight path over Washington and a sonic boom caused by military aircraft heard across Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia. Speaking at a brie...

Wildfire risk remains well above average across Canada this month

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

OTTAWA — An area of land 11 times bigger than the city of Toronto burned from wildfires in the last four days — Canada’s worst spring wildfire season to date.Another 389 fires were recorded since June 1, and as of Monday morning there were 413 active fires underway, with the risk having spread to more provinces over the weekend.Nearly 250 of those were out of control in nine provinces and two territories.Mike Norton, the director general of the Northern Forestry Centre at the Department of Natural Resources, said having this many fires from coast to coast at this time of year is not normal. And the outlook for the rest of the season remains dire.In June the risk is well above average in every province and territory except Newfoundland and Labrador, where the risk is a little lower but still above average.Statistics compiled by the Canada Interagency Forest Fire Centre show more than 7,300 square kilometres of land burned in the last four days.That is nearly three times the ave...

SEC says crypto firm Binance mishandled funds, violated securities laws

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao are accused of misusing investor funds, operating as an unregistered exchange and violating a slew of U.S. securities laws in a lawsuit filed by the SEC. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit on Monday lists thirteen charges against the firm — including commingling and divert customer assets to an entity Zhao owned called Sigma Chain. Binance is a Cayman Islands limited liability company founded by Zhao. The lawsuit lays out the extent to which the firms owners knew of the alleged legal violations: “Binance’s CCO bluntly admitted to another Binance compliance officer in December 2018, “we are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.” SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a written statement that Zhao and Binance “engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of d...

Book Review: Isabel Allende’s ‘The Wind Knows My Name’ explores lives of 2 children adrift alone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:42 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — “The Wind Knows My Name” by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books) Prolific Latin American-born author Isabel Allende skillfully braids the traumatic stories of two young children separated from each other by decades and thousands of miles in her latest novel, “The Wind Knows My Name.”It’s a kind of homage to parents who make unthinkable decisions to save their little ones, and to kids who survive some of the toughest challenges imaginable. One fictional child featured in the book is 5-year-old Samuel Adler, whose father disappeared after the 1938 pogrom in Vienna known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. The other is 7-year-old Anita Diaz, who fled her native El Salvador with her mother only for the pair to be separated in 2019 at the Arizona-Mexico border. In both cases, the children are traveling by train and are ultimately left alone, torn from their families by war or immigration as we witness the dramatic sacrifices parents sometimes mus...