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Ukraine counteroffensive: Kyiv claims gains in Bakhmut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

Ukrainian forces advanced between 200 meters and 1.1 kilometers in various areas around the key battleground city of Bakhmut and are now on the offensive, according to military reports.“In the direction of Bakhmut, our troops switched from defense to offensive,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a post on Telegram. “Over the past day, we have advanced from 200 to 1,100 meters in various sections of the Bakhmut direction.”The news comes as multiple media outlets reported Thursday that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive had begun, with Kyiv’s forces battling to retake territory occupied by Russia.In its daily Ukraine intelligence update on Thursday, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said: “Amidst a highly complex operational picture, heavy fighting continues along multiple sectors of the front.”It added: “In most areas Ukraine holds the initiative.”Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei ...

LIV Golf Returns in Valderrama July 1st

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

Cuba gives China permission to build spying facility on island, US intel says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

(CNN) — Cuba has agreed to allow China to build a spying facility on the island that could allow the Chinese to eavesdrop on electronic communications across the southeastern US, a source familiar with the intelligence told CNN.The US learned about the plan in the last several weeks, the source said, and it is unclear whether China has already begun building the surveillance facility.It would not be the first time China has attempted to spy on the US’ electronic communications, known as signals intelligence. A suspected Chinese spy balloon that transited the US in February was capable of gathering signals intelligence and is believed to have transmitted back to Beijing in near-real time, sources told CNN at the time.In that case, the US took steps to protect sensitive sites and censor intelligence signals before shooting down the balloon. But it is unclear what the US can do to stop the construction of a Chinese spying facility in Cuba.The Wall Street Journa...

Supreme Court rules in favor of Black Alabama voters in unexpected defense of Voting Rights Act

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case from Alabama, with two conservative justices joining liberals in rejecting a Republican-led effort to weaken a landmark voting rights law.Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven congressional districts in a state where more than one in four residents is Black. The state now will have to draw a new map for next year’s elections. The decision was closely watched for its potential effect on control of the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives. Because of the ruling, Republican-led legislatures in Alabama and Louisiana will have to redraw maps so that they could increase Black repr...

Wakefield man charged in alleged terrorist financing scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

A Wakefield man has been charged with allegedly providing support to terrorism in the form of a string of gift cards to a supposed ISIS agent for resale on the dark web, according to federal authorities.Mateo Ventura, 18, was charged with one count of concealing terrorist financing by the US. Attorney’s office in Boston.Ventura is due to appear in federal court in Worcester.According to the charging documents Ventura provided  “multiple gift cards to an individual he believed was an ISIS supporter.”In reality, he was communicating with an undercover FBI agent, according to federal documents.According to the FBI, Ventura allegedly stated that he wanted the proceeds to go to ISIS “for war on kuffar,” (disbelievers).”According to court documents, Ventura provided a total of $1,670 in gift cards to the agent: $965 as a juvenile and $705 after his 18th birthday. The gift cards ranged from Google Play cards to Gamestop, to Amazon. He even provided a gift card to Dick’s Sportin...

GOP set to encourage early voting, mail balloting after years of opposite messaging to its voters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — After years of criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting as ripe for fraud, Republicans at the top of the party want to change course.They are poised to launch aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns for 2024 that employ just those strategies, attempting to match the emphasis on early voting Democrats have used for years to lock in many of their supporters well ahead of Election Day. The goal is to to persuade voters who support GOP candidates that early voting techniques are secure and to make sure they are able to return their ballots in time to be counted, thus putting less pressure on Election Day turnout efforts. It marks a notable shift from the party’s rhetoric since 2020, when then-President Donald Trump was routinely sowing doubt about mail voting and encouraging his voters to wait and vote in-person on Election Day. As recently as last year, Republican activists peddling the stolen election narrative were telling GOP voters who received mai...

As Blinken visits, top Saudi diplomat says kingdom seeks US nuclear aid but ‘others’ also bidding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said after meeting with the visiting U.S. secretary of state on Thursday that while the kingdom would welcome U.S. aid in building its civilian nuclear program, “there are others that are bidding.”Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan was responding to a question about recent news reports that Saudi Arabia is asking for U.S. aid in building its own nuclear program in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.“It’s no secret that we are developing our domestic civilian nuclear program and we would very much prefer to be able to have the U.S. as one of the bidders,” he said. “Obviously we would like to build our program with the best technology in the world.”Prince Faisal went on to say that normalization with Israel would have “limited benefits” without “finding a pathway to peace for the Palestinian people.” He did not say whether the nuclear issue is linked to normalization.The exchange ca...

Sheriff: White Florida woman claims Black neighbor she shot and killed threatened her first

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A white Florida woman accused of shooting and killing her Black neighbor told investigators she had been threatened by the victim in the months before the slaying, according an arrest report released Thursday.The report from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office came out as Susan Louise Lorincz made her initial appearance in court Thursday. She appeared via video hookup wearing a dark protective vest. It was not immediately clear if she had a lawyer to represent her.In a statement to investigators after the shooting of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four, Lorincz was quoted as saying she had problems for two years with children in the neighborhood not respecting her — including the victim’s children, who range in age from 3 to 12 years old.“Lorincz advised that the children of (Owens) have told her in the past they would kill her,” the report says.The day of the shooting, Lorincz told investigators she had a headache and that “neighbo...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts as investors await inflation data, Fed; GameStop tumbles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting in mixed trading Thursday, continuing this week’s lull as Wall Street waits for several big events next week.The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher, and it hasn’t moved by more than 0.4% in any day this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 89 points, or 0.3%, at 33,754, as of 11:25 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 and across Wall Street were falling, though, after a report showed the highest number of workers applied for unemployment benefits since October 2021. Until now, the job market has remained remarkably solid and helped keep the economy out of a recession. GameStop was one of the bigger movers, falling 19.4% after ousting its CEO who was brought in to turn around the struggling video game retailer. The company, whose stock became a sensation in 2021 during the meme-stock craze, also reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than expected.On the winning side was ...

Shooting connected to Palestinian criminal groups in northern Israel kills 5

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:36:02 GMT

Five people were killed in a shooting Thursday in an Arab town in northern Israel, police said, the latest in a wave of criminal violence tearing through the country’s Palestinian communities. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said a gunman arrived at a car wash in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, near the city of Nazareth, and opened fire. It quoted police as saying they believe the shooting was connected to a dispute between organized crime families.Shortly afterward, a shooting in a nearby Arab town left a 30-year-old man and 3-year-old girl seriously wounded, police said. The circumstances of that shooting and the identities of the two wounded were not immediately known.Israel’s Palestinian sector has long suffered from poverty, discrimination, crime and neglect by the national government.Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, promised to crack down on crime in Israel’s Palestinian sector when he took office late last year. But the v...