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The new Wagner? Russian mercenary group recruits Prigozhin’s ex-fighters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

Russian private military company Redut is recruiting mercenaries including former fighters from the Wagner Group under the guise of “volunteers,” U.K. defense intelligence said in an update released Monday.The memo said Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU, likely finances and supervises the group’s activities and added that Redut has been involved in combat in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Luhansk regions since the start of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.“It is a realistic possibility that the Russian ministry of defense’s practice of recruiting through ‘volunteer’ units has contributed to Russia avoiding further unpopular mobilization,” the British update said.Redut was established in 2008 by Putin-linked oligarch and former KGB agent Gennady Timchenko to safeguard his gas empire, according to a former senior Russian army officer and Wagner operative in evidence submitted to the U.K. House of Commons ...

Killing of French teacher inflames tensions over security, immigration

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

PARIS — Just three days after an Islamist stabbed a French teacher to death, an already fierce discussion on immigration in France has become a lot more heated.The killing last Friday of Dominique Bernard, a high school teacher in Arras, has emotionally charged an ongoing polemic about security and migration as the country gears up to vote on a long-awaited immigration bill. The attacker, a Russian national of Chechen origin named Mohamed Mogouchkov, is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack. His family narrowly avoided being returned to their native Ingushetia, a region near Chechnya, in 2014. The father of the family was deported some years later for links to Islamist extremism, while the eldest son is imprisoned in France for being involved in terrorist attack preparation.France’s right and the far right are leading calls for the government to toughen rules since Friday’s attack at a school, which killed one and wounded two others.France’s Interio...

Erdoğan warns Sunak: Don’t stoke Israel-Hamas crisis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday that Western countries should avoid taking “provocative steps” that could escalate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.The two leaders spoke about the ongoing conflict during a phone call Monday, discussing ways to establish peace in the region and to solve the “severe humanitarian crisis,” according to Ankara’s readout of the call.During the call, Erdoğan invited the West to “effectively object to the human rights violations in Gaza” and to “remember and fulfill the promises made to Palestine over the years.” Islamist ideology has underpinned Erdoğan’s two-decade rule in Turkey.A spokesperson for Sunak’s office made no reference to the warning, saying that the pair had “shared their concerns about the risk of violence spreading in the region and agreed to work together to mitigate against further escalation.” The two leaders had, No.10 Downing Street adde...

Welcome back, Donald: EU sighs in relief over Poland election results

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

BERLIN — Politicians across Europe cheered Sunday’s projected victory by Polish opposition forces — especially in Germany, the favorite target of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party.  “I expect that Poland will become a constructive partner and that the change in government will strengthen its standing in Europe,” Terry Reintke, a German MEP who is co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, told German radio. “Poland is an extremely relevant democracy for Europe.“German-Polish relations have suffered in recent years amid persistent demands from Law and Justice (PiS) leaders that Germany pay more than €1 trillion in war reparations.Anti-German sentiment also fueled the party’s election campaign, including regular accusations that Donald Tusk, the leader of the opposition Civic Coalition and likely next prime minister, was a “German agent.”  German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sought to improve relations last year, traveling to Warsaw on Germany’s natio...

Rishi Sunak calls Hamas attacks a ‘pogrom’ as he confirms 10 Brits killed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak confirmed that six British citizens have been killed following Hamas’ “pogrom” in Israel, with a further 10 still missing.Updating the House of Commons on Monday, Sunak said Hamas’ deadly attacks — which killed more than 1,300 Israelis and prompted fierce retaliation by Israel — had “shocked the world.”But he invoked U.S. President Joe Biden as he said the U.K. would “as a friend” urge Israel to limit civilian casualties in its response.“We should call it by its name: it was a pogrom,” Sunak said of Hamas’ attacks, using the term for violent attacks targeting Jews.As the families of some of those missing from Israel looked on from the public gallery of the House of Commons, Sunak called for the “immediate release of all hostages” taken by Hamas and stressed: “We stand with Israel.”“The murdered and the missing come from over 30 countries, including the United Kin...

State’s Shelter Guarantee Could Lapse At Month’s End, Governor Healey Says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

While it’s right-to-shelter law will remain in place, Massachusetts may not be able to guarantee shelter for immigrant families as soon as the end of this month as the state’s shelter system reaches capacity, Gov. Maura Healey said Monday.The governor appointed a new emergency assistance director to lead operations “in this new phase” of the ongoing emergency shelter crisis. Lt. General Leon Scott Rice, former director of the Air National Guard and adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, will take the job to “work across our incident command structure in a close collaboration with local officials and stakeholders.”There are close to 7,000 families (close to 23,000 people) enrolled in the state’s emergency shelter system, Healey said Monday — over double the number of individuals enrolled at this time last year, and even up significantly from the 5,600 families being housed when Healey declared a state of emergency in Augu...

Rite Aid files for bankruptcy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

New York (CNN) — Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday, a casualty of a miserable environment for drug stores, exacerbated by its runner-up status to bigger chains and expensive legal battles for allegedly filling unlawful opioid prescriptions.The bankruptcy was not a surprise. Its bigger rivals, CVS and Walgreens, are also facing many of the same problems. They, too, are closing stores as Amazon and big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco serve as more customer-friendly alternatives to nationwide pharmacy chains.But Rite Aid is in much worse financial shape than its competitors and unable to weather the storm that has been beating down on the industry. On Thursday, it filed a notice to the US Securities and Exchange Commission saying it would be unable to file its latest quarterly financial report because it was looking at “strategic alternatives,” which is Wall Street speak for “considering bankruptcy.”In that filing, the company sai...

Documentary recounts early years of Patrick Henry High

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A documentary on the unique history of San Diego's Patrick Henry High School premiered this weekend."Give Me Liberty: The Early Years of Patrick Henry High" tells the story of when the school participated in the Model Schools Program, which was designed to inspire students to think independently and take on more responsibility. An open campus, flexible electives and enhanced tutoring were hallmarks of the program.The school's current students served as the location crew, camera and sound operators end editors for the film, and composed and performed its soundtrack. California will give some Mexican residents near the border in-state community college tuition FOX 5 spoke with students from the school's class of 1971 about the film."I was part of the very first class that went all the way through Patrick Henry, beginning from 1968 through '71," said seven-time Emmy award-winner David Plaut, who produced and directed the film. "Our high school was brand new and it was a ...

Judge weighing gag order on Trump in 2020 election case says prosecutors’ proposal may be too broad

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election interference case forcefully pushed back against the defense’s claims that a proposed gag order would unfairly censor the Republican’s political speech, but she also suggested on Monday she believed prosecutors’ request could be too broad. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is considering a request to impose the narrow gag order aimed at reining in Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about potential witnesses, prosecutors and others involved in the case. In seeking the order, special counsel Jack Smith’s team has accused the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner of using online attacks to try to undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool. Trump’s lawyer John Lauro accused prosecutors of “seeking to censor a political candidate in the middle of a campaign.” But the judge shot back that Trump “does not have a right to say and do exactly as he pleases.” “Y...

Natasha from ‘Natasha’s Kitchen’ makes waves in the food world with a simple approach to dishes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It started with a simple salad. Natasha Kravchuk began building a cooking mini-empire by combining cucumber, tomato and avocado. When a TV anchor shared the recipe on Facebook in 2015, the dish went viral. “I think that was the recipe that kind of gave us the first lift,” says Kravchuk, whose online hub Natasha’s Kitchen has grown to some 13 million followers across social media. “I think that’s trademark for what you can find on Natasha’s Kitchen.”Kravchuk’s philosophy is indeed mixed into that salad — flavorful food that doesn’t take a long time, uses regular ingredients and doesn’t hurt the pocketbook.“It’s turning humble and just simple ingredients into something really delicious,” she says. “That just has always carried through with me. I don’t think you need saffron to make something taste incredible, you know?”This fall, Kravchuk has put her expertise into her debut cookbook, “Natasha’s Kitchen: 100+ Easy Family-Favorite Rec...