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Putin meets with African leaders as Russia confirms nukes in Belarus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting Saturday with a delegation of African leaders on a peace mission led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The meeting in St. Petersburg comes hours after Putin confirmed that Moscow has started moving nuclear weapons into Belarus.The African delegation — which also includes leaders of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia and the Comoros — met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday, when the Ukrainian capital was hit by Russian airstrikes.After Friday’s session in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said he could not see any outcome from a meeting between the African delegation and Putin, repeating that peace talks would be possible only after Russia withdraws from Ukrainian territory.Ties between the South African government — which leads the delegation — and Moscow have raised criticisms, especially among American officials, with the U.S. ambassador to South Africa accusing Pretoria of supplying weapons to Moscow.Last month, South Afri...

Wet weather for the weekend

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

7Weather- Good morning! It’s another weekend that we’re talking about unsettled weather. Showers and storms are around today. A few showers linger tomorrow. Looking ahead to next week, temperatures will feel like summer!Grab the rain gear and let’s time out our Saturday. Rain fills in late morning/midday. Scattered rain showers continue off and on this afternoon and evening. Downpours at times. Isolated thunderstorms are possible. The widespread wet weather is still around tonight. Temperatures started off in the upper 50s/low 60s this morning. Thanks to abundant cloud cover, we’ll stay in the 60s today. Certainly feeling much cooler after the warm past couple of days!Here’s our weather setup for Sunday. The low pressure touching off the wet weather today is a slow mover. It won’t be too far out of our area tomorrow, still hanging out in the Gulf of Maine. For that reason, we’ll still keep clouds around and a chance for isolated showers. Tom...

King Charles III rides on horseback in first official birthday parade

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

London (CNN) — King Charles III revived a royal tradition by riding on horseback in the first Trooping the Colour of his reign, which marks the British sovereign’s official birthday.The traditional military spectacle on Saturday is a parade like no other with all the pomp and pageantry expected of royal occasions, and draws massive crowds to central London. Charles’ actual birthday is in November and is typically celebrated privately.He joined 1,500 soldiers, 300 horses and hundreds of musicians as they filed the short distance from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade in St James’s Park for the ceremony watched by members of the royal family.It was a sight not seen for nearly 40 years. The last time a reigning monarch rode in the procession was Queen Elizabeth II in 1986.King Charles donned a Welsh Guard uniform, with leek emblem on the collar and green and white plum on his bearskin, for the occasion.He was followed on horseback by several royal colonels including Pr...

Bling-friendly Dolce & Gabbana presents quiet luxury during Milan Fashion Week menswear shows

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Menswear is looking for post-pandemic footing during Milan Fashion Week, landing somewhere between resort, adventurer and tailoring.Dolce & Gabbana offered quiet luxury as only the designing duo can, reinventing masculine silhouettes with feminine detailing. MSGM, for its part, offered adventure with an off-road collection inspired by African travels.On the tailoring side, Ralph Lauren showed its high-end Purple line in its patrician Milan villa, focusing on made-in-Italy detailing for everyday luxury, including burnished footwear, unconstructed cotton-linen blend jackets, and chunky Fair Isle knitwear. Margherita Maccapani Missoni chose the menswear shows to unveil her new brand, using her paternal Maccapani family name instead of the more familiar Missoni from mother Angela. Her women-focused Maccapani brand features easy to wear, form fitting clothes meant to accompany women throughout their day — a twist on the knitwear that made the Missoni family brand a house...

Sudan officials say airstrike kills 17, including 5 children, in capital Khartoum

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country.The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.It was not clear whether the attack was by aircraft or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops and the RSF has reportedly used drones and anti-aircraft weapons against the military.The conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April, capping months of increasing tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF.Saturday’s strike hit the Yormouk neighborhood in southern Khartoum, where clashes have centered in recent weeks, according to Sudan’s Ministry of Health. The area houses a military facility controlled by the army. At least 25 houses were des...

Did migrants reject help before deadly Greek wreck, or beg for it? Coast guard, activists disagree

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

This much is clear: On June 9, an old steel fishing trawler left eastern Libya for Italy, carrying far too many people.As many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan were on board, fleeing hopelessness in their home countries and trying to reach relatives in Europe.Five days later, the trawler sank off the coast of Greece in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea. Only 104 people, all men, survived. The remains of 78 people were recovered.There are still more questions than answers about what led up to one of the worst shipwrecks in recent Mediterranean history.Activists, migration experts and opposition politicians have criticized Greek authorities for not acting earlier to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the trawler for hours and watched helplessly as it sank.Below is a timeline of events based on reports from Greek authorities, a commercial ship, and activists who said they were in touch with passengers. ...

Enbridge to pay Bad River band $5.1M in Line 5 profits, move pipeline by 2026: judge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge has ordered Enbridge Inc. to pay an Indigenous band in Wisconsin US$5.1 million and to remove the Line 5 pipeline from its property within three years. The decision late Friday by district court Judge William Conley stops short of immediately shutting down the controversial cross-border oil and gas line.Conley says a rupture of Line 5 on territory that belongs to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa would clearly constitute a public nuisance under federal law. And he affirms that Enbridge has been trespassing on Bad River land since 2013 when certain permits for the 70-year-old pipeline were allowed to lapse. Enbridge has already agreed to relocate the line, an essential energy conduit for much of the U.S. Midwest as well as Ontario and Quebec. But a spokesperson says the company will appeal Conley’s three-year timeline, calling it a “legally flawed” decision that would still require the very shutdown the judge wants to avoid. ...

Participants at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally push false election claims in Virginia legislative campaigns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Most Republican candidates running for the Virginia legislature this year are centering their pitches to voters on issues such as education, the cost of living and gun rights.But for a small segment of contenders, former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a rigged 2020 election have remained an important campaign selling point heading into Tuesday’s primary.“There’s still an underlying distrust of the election process by Republicans,” said state Sen. Amanda Chase, who is in a three-way primary for a GOP-leaning seat in suburban Richmond.Chase has persistently repeated Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, once called for martial law to overturn the results and was censured by the state Senate for telling falsehoods and voicing support for those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.She is one of at least six Republican candidates for the General Assembly who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally or the subsequent march ...

Indigenous-led protest not backing down to save trees from Metrolinx construction

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

A sacred fire has continued to burn for the last five months in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood as an Indigenous-led coalition continues to protest the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown West LRT. A plan to elevate a 1.5-kilometre portion of the transit line between Jane Street and Scarlett Road would see almost 1,500 trees cut down. A protest that began on a bitterly cold day back in January has now stretched into June and those fighting to save the trees say they are not about to back down. “It’s been good, there’s been rain and snow and sun but for the most part we are trying to be optimistic here,” said Jamie-Lee Mcquaig, one of those tending the sacred fire at Pearen Park. One by one every tree in jeopardy is being honoured and wrapped in ribbon while tipis have also been erected in strategic locations in an effort to block construction. “I think it has delayed the construction,” Neiland Brissenden of the Stop The Trains in our Parks coalition group t...

Chicago Police memorial run returns for 19th year, remembering slain officers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:41 GMT

CHICAGO -- Thousands of people gathered for 19th annual Chicago Police memorial run at the Gold Star Families Memorial to support family members and remember officers who have been lost. Around 3,500 officers will participate in the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Saturday morning.For the last 17 years, the foundation has given the families of officers killed or injured, more than $16 million to help pay for education costs of officers' children. Chicago cop found not guilty of pinning down teen in front of Park Ridge Starbucks Runners and walkers will make their way around Museum Campus with the official starter of the race will be Milena Estepa, wife of slain officer, Andres Vasquez Lasso, who was killed in domestic incident in Gage Park in March. Slain officer Areanah Preston will also be remembered. Officer Preston was killed during an armed robbery attempt outside her Avalon Park home in May. She had been on the police force for just...