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Bush's Iraq War Lies Served as a Blueprint For Donald Trump

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

President George W. Bush addresses the nation about U.S. attacks on Iraq from the Oval Office on March 19, 2003.Photo: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesPaul Wolfowitz walked among the tombstones of the Iraq war dead.It was April 9, 2009, and Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense in the Bush administration and one of the chief architects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, had come to Arlington National Cemetery to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.He came to Section 60, the portion of Arlington where American soldiers who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan lay buried, as the most prominent guest at a small ceremony to mark the day six years earlier when the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdos Square had been pulled down. Wolfowitz and other Iraq war hawks had decided that April 9 should be commemorated as “Iraq Liberation Day.”The 2009 celebration was organized and hosted by Viola Drath, a former journalist, longtime socialite, and, at 89, a tireless networker...

Police investigation underway in Nubian Square in Roxbury

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

A police investigation is underway in Boston’s Nubian Square early Sunday morning. Officers could be seen scouring a taped-off area where a series of evidence markers had been left on the sidewalk. No additional information was immediately released.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Mass. launch ‘Juniors Who Build’ Patch Program with Suffolk Construction

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts has announced its newest STEM curriculum for Girl Scouts between the ages of 9 and 11 in partnership with Suffolk Construction in an effort to promote gender equality in the construction industry.The patch-earning curriculum is part of Suffolk’s 10-year partnership with GSEMA. “Rebuild the Ratio” aims to bring 10 percent of all Girl Scouts in eastern Massachusetts through the curriculum and increase the number of women in Suffolk’s workforce from 28 percent to 38 percent in the next 10 years. The first 41 Girl Scouts to earn this new patch took a tour of Suffolk’s national headquarters in Boston on Saturday.“Our partnership with GSEMA and our Suffolk Rebuild the Ratio initiative demonstrate our commitment to closing the gender gap in construction and STEM careers,” said John Fish, Chairman and CEO of Suffolk. “We believe it is our responsibility, as an organization and as an industry, to provide the resources a...

Netanyahu urges military chief to contain reservist protest

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the military’s chief of staff on Sunday to contain a wave of protest from within the ranks over a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary.Netanyahu’s remarks come as Israel is embroiled in a major crisis that has sent tens of thousands of people into the streets protesting every week for the last two months. The divide over Netanyahu’s plans to change the legal system has not spared the country’s military, its most trusted institution, where many reservists have pledged not to show up for duty under what they see as impending regime change.Starting Sunday, more than 700 elite officers from the Air Force, special forces, and Mossad said they would stop volunteering for duty. The typically taboo talk of refusal to serve in a military that is compulsory for most Jews and is highly respected by the Jewish majority underlines how deeply the overhaul plan has divided Israel.Netany...

Syria’s Assad in UAE to mark ongoing thaw in relations

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, his first visit to the wealthy Gulf country since the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last month.Assad, who arrived with his wife, Asma, and a delegation of Syrian officials, was received by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a statement from Assad’s office.Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement on Twitter that the two “held constructive talks aimed at developing relations between our two countries.”The visit marks a continuation in the ongoing thaw of relations between Syria and other Arab countries, more than a decade after the 22-member Arab League suspended Damascus’ membership over Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters and later on civilians during the war.International sympathy following the quake appears to have sped up the regional rapprochement that had been brewing for years. Before the tragedy, the UAE had already reestablished ti...

In Chicago mayor’s race, 2 hopefuls reflect Democrats’ split

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Before they were rivals to be Chicago’s next mayor, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson both worked in education, though their career paths — like their views on the city’s future — were very different. Vallas was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, appointed by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley after Illinois lawmakers in the 1990s gave control of the troubled district to City Hall. Vallas came to be known as a turnaround expert in Chicago and in other U.S. school districts, supporting charter schools and voucher programs.Johnson taught middle and high schoolers before becoming an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, mobilizing thousands during a historic 2012 strike and in actions since that focused on strengthening public schools and the communities around them. It is just one example, but a significant one, of the contrasts between the two men now vying to lead the heavily Democratic city.Johnson is a progressive county commissioner who last month advanced to an April...

One dead after collision in Dundas Street West and Nottingham Drive area

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

One person has died after a collision in the Dundas Street West and Nottingham Drive area.COLLISION:Dundas St W & Nottingham Dr 4:38am– 2 veh collision– 1 veh hit tree, 2nd veh rolled over– 1 person deceased at scene– 1 trans to hospital with serious but non-life-thr injuries – 1 in custody– Dundas St W closed between Old Oak Dr & Briarly Ln#GO609960^se— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) March 19, 2023 Police responded to reports at approximately 4:38am of a two vehicle collision. One vehicle hit a tree and the second vehicle rolled over.One person was pronounced dead at the scene, one person was transported to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and one person is in custody.Dundas Street West remains closed between Old Oak Drive and Briarly Lane.

Vandals attack French politician’s office over pensions row

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Protesters have vandalized the Nice office of the president of the Republicans party in an apparent threat to get his right-wing party to vote to block President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.Eric Ciotti tweeted a photo of his office in the French Riviera city with shattered windows, after a paving stone was thrown at it overnight into Sunday. The vandals also scrawled the words “the motion or the stone” — in reference to the motions of censure against the pension reform that will be voted on Monday in the National Assembly in Paris. Amid weeks of mass protests over Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, Macron last week ordered Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to invoke a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the lower chamber of parliament. In response, lawmakers at both ends of the political spectrum filed no-confidence motions against her Cabinet on Friday.Ciotti had announced his party would not vote for either of the two motions ...

Man stabbed to death on a carousel at a German funfair

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Officials shut down a large funfair in western Germany on Sunday after a man was stabbed to death on a carousel.Police said the 31-year-old victim and another man got into a fight while riding a carousel at the fair in Münster, a city of around 300,000, on Saturday evening. During the altercation, the suspect stabbed the victim with a knife. Despite attempts to resuscitate him, the victim died on the scene.According to police, the two men did not know each other beforehand.Police are still searching for the suspect and another man who was with him at the time of the attack, both of whom fled.Sunday was slated to be the final day of the fair, but city officials chose to end it early “out of respect for the victim,” Markus Lewe, Münster’s mayor, said in a statement.The fair, known as the Send, is held three times a year in Münster. According to the organizers’ website, it draws up to a million visitors annually. The Associated Press

Alex Jones transferring assets to family and friends, evading payments to Sandy Hook families: NYT

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:00:53 GMT

Infowars host Alex Jones has transferred millions of dollars’ worth of assets to family and friends, potentially shielding his wealth from the nearly $1.5 billion in legal damages he owes to the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, according to The New York Times.Jones was ordered last fall to pay more than $1.4 billion in damages to the families of eight victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which left 20 young children and six adults dead. He was also ordered to pay another $50 million to the parents of a Sandy Hook victim in a separate Texas case.The Infowars host was hit with multiple defamation lawsuits after he repeatedly suggested that the school shooting in Newton, Conn., was a “false flag” operation staged by the U.S. government. The families of the victims, who he accused of being actors, were threatened and harassed by his followers.He filed for both personal and business bankruptcy within the last year as the damages piled up — a move that the Sand...