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UK underestimated Prigozhin’s Wagner Group for years, inquiry finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

LONDON — The British government failed for years to adequately respond to the threats posed by Russia’s Wagner Group, according to a damning assessment by a parliamentary committee.In a report on ministers’ efforts to counter the private military contractor — whose future has been left in doubt after its leader rebelled against the Russian military in June — the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Wednesday said the government should now proscribe Wagner as a terrorist organization.And it warned Wagner still poses “serious national security threats” to the U.K. and its allies.“In the ten years since the Wagner Network’s formation, the U.K. government has lacked a coherent strategy and efforts to meaningfully tackle Wagner have been non-existent,” the committee’s chair Alicia Kearns said. “This has allowed the network to grow, spread its tentacles deep into Africa, and exploit countries on their knees due ...

Crews provide update on Sumner Tunnel work as two-month tunnel closure continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

MassDOT crews led a tour inside the Sumner Tunnel Tuesday, discussing progress being made as the tunnel’s two-month closure for a series of repairs continues. The tunnel shut down on July 5. Asked this week if there’s any chance they won’t make their deadline to reopen the tunnel on Aug 31, project managers said “no.”The tunnel is closed as part of a larger project involving repairs to the tunnel ceiling, roadway, walls and lightning. MassDOT District 6 Highway Director John McInerney said Tuesday that crews have been working on both sides of the tunnel, which connects East Boston to downtown Boston.“We have set work that needs to be completed by Aug. 31 to open up the tunnel for safety,” he said.Project managers said they have been installing 16 new arches per day throughout the tunnel as crews continue to work to meet the Aug. 31 deadline.Ultimately, 780 new arches will be put in place. “You’ll have better lines of sight within the tunnel,” one crew member said. “We...

Sumner Tunnel closure: About a third of this summer’s work completed, with 5 weeks to go

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

Three weeks into the eight-week long closure of the Sumner Tunnel, workers remain busy installing massive arches that will strengthen the structure’s worn out ceiling and enhance its ventilation.State transportation officials estimate a third of this summer’s work is done, with just over five weeks until the expected completion date of Aug. 31.Project officials from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation led a group of reporters through the tunnel on Tuesday, showing what has been done since the around-the-clock closure went into effect July 5, and what more needs to be done.“There is some extra work that the contractor’s dealing with, but I wouldn’t call it unforeseen,” MassDOT District 6 Highway Director John McInerney told reporters as the skies opened up near the tunnel’s entrance. “The work is pretty straightforward … it’s just the amount.”Workers started installing the precast concrete arches in the middle of the roughly mile-long tunnel, one of the four ro...

Yankees Notebook: Aaron Judge playing more sim games in Tampa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

After taking cuts in a simulated game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Aaron Judge is doing more of the same in Florida.The reigning MVP, recovering from a torn ligament in his right big toe, played five simulated innings in Tampa on Tuesday, according to Aaron Boone. Judge hit, ran the bases and played the field, though the manager said the slugger didn’t see any action on defense. Boone had yet to receive a final report on Judge’s day when he spoke to reporters Tuesday, but he assumed it went well and expected Judge to play in another sim game with “maybe a little more volume” on Wednesday.Boone added that he doesn’t know if Judge will require a rehab assignment once he’s ready for actual games. “Everything’s in play,” the skipper said before the start of the Subway Series, but the current focus is on getting Judge as many at-bats as possible while he remains on a “day-to-day” schedule.“I wouldn’t rule anyth...

‘Good morning’ attack lands alleged assailant locked up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

The man accused of punching a woman no less than seven times in the face because she did not tell him “Good morning” has been found dangerous and will be detained for 120 days.“When people say good morning to you, you should say ‘Hi,’ you crazy (expletive),” Ian Atkinson allegedly said to his alleged victim, a 59-year-old woman who at the time prosecutors say was watering her shrubs on Balsam Street in Dorchester after getting home from an overnight shift on July 13.Atkinson, 33, of Dorchester, appeared Tuesday morning in municipal court in Dorchester for a dangerousness hearing. Judge Maureen Flaherty ordered Atkinson detained for 120 days.Assistant District Attorney Michael Tomasini said Atkinson got out of his Mercedes sedan parked in the area of the alleged victim’s home, walked over and then, “unprovoked,” assaulted her as she was singing. The punches, according to a hospital report summarized by the prosecutor at the hearing, left her with a fractured nose, subconjunctival hem...

‘I really feel good’: Yoán Moncada returns from the injured list and the Chicago White Sox move Jake Burger to 2B

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

There were times that manager Pedro Grifol wasn’t sure if Chicago White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada would return this season from lower back inflammation.“It was day to day,” Grifol said Tuesday afternoon. “He’d come in and say, ‘I feel good,’ and I would be optimistic that he would be back. And at times he would say, ‘I’m not feeling good.’”The last couple of weeks had Grifol believing Moncada was heading in the right direction. Tuesday, the Sox reinstated Moncada from the 10-day injured list and he was in the lineup for the City Series against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field.“I feel good,” Moncada said through an interpreter. “After all I’ve been dealing with, this is the first time I really feel good.”Back issues have limited Moncada this season.He went on the IL on June 14 with the lower back inflammation, his second back-related stint. He was on the IL from April 11 to May1...

Crews battle fire near MCAS Miramar

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A fire caused by a military explosion broke out on Tuesday near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, according to officials.The fire occurred in East Miramar around 2:34 p.m. and has now spread at least 50 acres, MCAS Miramar tweeted at 4:38 p.m.MCAS Miramar says the fire was caused by an Explosive Ordnance Disposal detonation during training.Multiple agencies are at the scene working to put out the fire. Two helicopters and two Type 3 Strike Teams from San Diego Fire-Rescue are also on site to assist in containing it.No injuries or structural damage has been reported at this time, officials said.Check back for updates on this developing story.

500-year-old manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés returned to Mexico

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A nearly 500-year-old manuscript signed by the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés in 1527 has been returned to the Archivo General de la Nación de México – Mexico’s national archives in Mexico City, U.S. officials said Tuesday.The manuscript is a payment order signed by Cortés on April 27, 1527, authorizing the purchase of rose sugar for the pharmacy in exchange for 12 gold pesos.It is believed to be one of several pieces unlawfully removed from a collection of documents concerning a Spanish expedition to Central America in 1527 that is housed in Mexico’s national archives.Last week officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the FBI participated in a formal repatriation ceremony at Mexico’s national archives, where the manuscript is believed to have been unlawfully removed sometime before 1993.It is a violation of federal law to transport or receive stolen goods valued at more than $5,000 that have traveled in foreign or interstat...

West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year resulting in nearly 4,600 deaths with dire humanitarian consequences, and a top regional official said Tuesday that’s just “a snippet of the horrendous impact of insecurity.”Omar Touray told the U.N. Security Council that half a million people in the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States known as ECOWAS are refugees and nearly 6.2 million are internally displaced. If there isn’t an adequate international response to the 30 million people ECOWAS assesses need food right now, he said, the number of people in need will increase to 42 million by the end of next month.Touray, who is president of the ECOWAS Commission, singled out the following drivers of insecurity in the region: terrorism, armed rebellion, organized crime, unconstitutional changes of government, illegal maritime activities, environmental crises and fake news.He said the region is worried about the re...

Anchorage mayor wants to give homeless people a one-way ticket to warm climates before Alaska winter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:21 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An unfunded proposal by Anchorage’s mayor to pay for plane tickets to warmer climates for homeless people who would otherwise be forced to winter outside in the bitter cold has caused a stir in Alaska’s biggest city.Last year, eight people — a record for the city — died of exposure in Anchorage and the closure of a large arena earlier this year that served as a makeshift city shelter is sure to exacerbate the crisis in a place where winter temperatures regularly dip below zero.“When people approach us and want to go to someplace warm or they want to go to some town where they have family or friends that can take care of them, if they choose to go there, we’ll support that,” Mayor Dave Bronson said at a Tuesday news conference.If the program moves forward, people can choose to relocate to the Lower 48 or somewhere else in Alaska where it might be warmer or where they have relatives.With the pandemic, officials configured the roughly 6,000-seat Sullivan Arena ...