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Battenfeld: Michelle Wu follows familiar playbook in blaming others for problems

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

First, ignore. Then deny and dismiss. Then blame others.This is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s playbook for responding to a crisis or controversy.After taking an international drubbing over her holiday party excluding white elected officials, Wu is now blaming her political enemies for leaking the exclusive party invitation – ignoring the real issues the party brought up.“I’ve now been part of several news cycles where those with a particular motive will sort of cast the facts as they see them, sometimes that is a little further from the truth than it actually is,” she said in an interview on WBUR’s Radio Boston.The mayor’s defense rings as hollow as Hunter Biden blaming MAGA Republicans for his legal problems.She’s been down this road before, like in the car accident involving her police driver.But none of those issues went global to the point of TMZ picking it up.Wu was clearly floored by the reaction and condemnation she received.“I think the email situation (where the email invitati...

An earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 127 people and is the deadliest in 9 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A strong overnight earthquake rattled a mountainous region of northwestern China, authorities said Tuesday, destroying homes, leaving residents out in a below-freezing winter night and killing 127 people in the nation’s deadliest quake in nine years.The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, injuring more than 700 people, damaging roads and knocking out power and communication lines in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, officials and Chinese media reports said.As emergency workers searched for the missing in collapsed buildings and at least one landslide, people who lost their homes were preparing to spend a cold winter night in tents at hastily erected evacuation sites.“I just feel anxious, what other feelings could there be?” said Ma Dongdong, who said in a phone interview that three bedrooms in his house had been destroyed and a part of his milk tea shop was cracked wide open.Afraid to return home because of aftershocks, he spent the night in a f...

School buses cancelled for parts of Durham Region due to winter weather

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

The GTA wasn’t walloped with as much snow as was predicted but most residents are still waking up to a couple centimetres on Tuesday morning.Despite the lack of snow on the roads, a sharp drop in the temperature coupled with Monday’s wet weather means a slippery drive and some school buses have been cancelled in areas north and northeast of Toronto.Most school buses are running across the GTA but the Durham District School Board and Durham Catholic District School Board say buses have been cancelled for Zones 1, 2 & 3. All schools in the region remain open and buses are still running in Zone 4.School buses have also been cancelled for parts of Simcoe County. More details can be found here.Here are Tuesday’s school bus cancellations across the GTA:Durham Region:Durham District School Board: Buses cancelled for zones 1, 2 & 3. Buses are running in zone 4 and all schools remain open in all zones.Durham Catholic District School Board: Buses cancelled for zones ...

The UK and France reiterate that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must end in failure as US aid falters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Britain and France reiterated their determination Tuesday that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine ends in failure, with the U.K. foreign minister saying that Ukraine’s allies must better leverage their economic might to vastly outmatch Moscow’s war machine. The renewed insistence from U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and French counterpart Catherine Colonna that Russia can’t be rewarded for its aggression comes as wartime aid from Ukraine’s biggest single military backer — the United States — is faltering. Cameron, speaking after talks with Colonna in Paris, said that if the economies of Ukraine’s Western partners are calculated together, “we outmatch the Russian economy by 25 to one or more.”“What we have to do is make that economic strength and that commitment pay,” he said. “If we can, I have no doubt that we can make sure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin loses and it’s essential that he does lose.”Neither Cam...

Militants with ties to the Islamic State group kill 10 people in Uganda’s western district

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — At least 10 people have been killed by militants with ties to the Islamic State group during an attack in Uganda’s western district of Kamwenge, the East African nation’s military said Tuesday.The Allied Democratic Forces militants attacked the village early Tuesday morning, said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, without providing further details. It’s the latest in a series of attacks this year blamed on the ADF, a group established in the early 1990s by Ugandan Muslims who said they were sidelined by the policies of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986. The ADF militants who attacked Kamwenge district had crossed from the neighboring Congo last month and were being hunted by the military, Brig. Kulaigye said. “These ADF attackers are remnants of the group that is scavenging for food,” he said.Despite airstrikes and joint security operations by the militaries of Uganda and Congo, the militants ...

A look at recent deadly earthquakes in China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — An earthquake that killed more than 120 people in China this week was the country’s deadliest in nearly a decade. Earthquakes happen most frequently in western China on the Tibetan Plateau or its fringes. Sichuan province in the southwest has had several large quakes including by far the deadliest one in recent years in 2008, which killed nearly 90,000 people. The collapse of schools and other buildings led to a yearslong effort to rebuild using more quake-resistant materials.Other deadly earthquakes have struck in Yunnan province to the south of Sichuan and in Qinghai and Gansu provinces. Here’s a list of major recent earthquakes: — May 2008: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake leaves nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in Sichuan province. — April 2010: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake kills 2,698 people in Qinghai province.— April 2013: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake kills 196 people in Sichuan.— July 2013: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake kills 95 people in ...

Meta’s initial decisions to remove 2 videos of Israel-Hamas war is reversed by Oversight Board

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — A quasi-independent review board is recommending that Facebook parent company Meta overturn two decisions it made this fall to remove posts “informing the world about human suffering on both sides” of the Israel-Hamas war. In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. This means the company isn’t obligated to do anything about the board’s decision. That said, the board also said it disagrees with Meta’s decision to bar the posts in question from being recommended by Facebook and Instagram, “even in cases where it had determined posts intended to raise awareness.” And it said Meta’s use of automated tools to remove “potentially harmful” content increased the likelihood of taking down “valuable posts” that not only raise awareness about the conflict but may contain evidence of human...

Germany’s top court orders a repeat of the 2021 national election in parts of Berlin due to glitches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court on Tuesday ordered the 2021 national election to be partially repeated in Berlin because of severe glitches at many polling stations in the capital. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the election must be repeated in 455 of 2,256 precincts in the city. It largely upheld a decision by the parliament, which decided last year on a limited rerun with the votes of Chancellor OIaf Scholz’s three-party coalition, though it slightly widened the scope of the new vote.The issue landed at the court after Germany’s main conservative opposition bloc complained, seeking a much more extensive rerun. Berlin’s top election official, Stephan Bröchler, said that the new vote would be held on Feb. 11.Although opinion polls now paint a very different picture from the results of the 2021 election, with two of three parties in the unpopular governing coalition far below their level in that vote, the rerun ordered Tuesday is much too limited ...

Good news, late holiday shoppers: Retailers are improving delivery speeds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Haven’t ordered any of your holiday gifts yet?Well, you might find solace in discovering some of America’s biggest retailers are working to increase their shipping speeds to please shoppers expecting faster and faster deliveries.Walmart, Target and Amazon are all-in on the shipping wars, a move retail experts say will help them maintain a competitive edge against low-cost Chinese retailers Shein and Temu. For Walmart and Target, their investments are also aimed at narrowing the gap in delivery speed with Amazon, which has set the standard for fast shipping and remains the king of speed.Amazon packages have been arriving at the doors of Prime customers even faster this year under the company’s new distribution model, which divides the country into eight regions and predominantly ships items from warehouses in those areas. The idea, according to Amazon, is to get shipments to travel shorter distances with fewer touchpoints, which helps the company not only speed up del...

Children get to 'shop with a cop' Tuesday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:52:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A group of Austin elementary school children will spend Tuesday morning shopping with local law enforcement.Amigos en Azul and Austin Police will host the second of their two “Shop with a Cop” events Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Target at Southpark Meadows. 2021: Amigos en Azul hosts "Shop with a Cop" event The first event was at the Target at Capital Plaza on Dec. 15.Officers with Amigos en Azul (Friends in Blue) take a group of disadvantaged children on a shopping spree every year.Amigos en Azul will host 300 students from ten schools this year, APD said. The students will be paired with an officer and each student will spend approximately $150, according to APD.According to the department, Amigos en Azul was founded in 1982 to better bridge the gap between the Hispanic community and APD. Every year, it awards scholarships to area high school students.