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‘Overreaction’: Kosovo leader blasts US response to violent unrest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

BRATISLAVA — The U.S. decision to penalize Kosovo following violent clashes that left NATO troops wounded is both surprising and an “overreaction,” Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti told POLITICO on Wednesday.The U.S. and its Western allies have sharply rebuked Pristina amid growing tensions in the region over Kosovo’s decision to forcibly install ethnic Albanian mayors in municipal buildings in majority-Serb areas, despite a turnout of under 4 percent in recent local elections. In response to the deepening crisis, Washington went as far as canceling Kosovo’s participation in a U.S.-led military exercise and declaring that it now has little enthusiasm to help Kosovo move toward EU and NATO membership. “We have a slight difference in approach — and I think that thinking of sanctions against Kosova seems out of proportion and unfair,” Kurti said in an interview on the sidelines of the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava. “I was surprised,” he added, characterizing the Am...

‘Brexit has failed’: Nigel Farage is the new poster boy for Remainer campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

LONDON — If you didn’t know about Nigel Farage’s complaint that Brexit has failed, you will do soon.A new national ad campaign in the U.K. will highlight the remark from the leading Eurosceptic, who told the BBC’s Newsnight program earlier May that Britain has not benefited economically from leaving the bloc.“Brexit has failed,” the former Brexit Party leader declared at the time. “We’ve not delivered on Brexit and the Tories have let us down very, very badly.”Those words are now set to adorn billboards across the U.K.Led By Donkeys, an anti-Brexit campaign group also responsible for a recent sting against several Conservative MPs, announced Wednesday that they have plastered Farage’s remarks at sites across the U.K., from Aberdeen to Yeovil.150 posters in total — each with a picture of Farage — have been placed in towns and cities across Britain.The publicity push comes amid continued woes for the U.K. economy, which has struggled to rebound following the tr...

Sunak and Biden to discuss AI after ‘extinction risk’ warning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

LONDON — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will discuss artificial intelligence, and the risks it poses, when he meets U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington next week. Sunak made the announcement after several leading figures from the AI industry published a letter on Tuesday that said the technology should be recognised as an “extinction risk” to humanity comparable to “pandemics and nuclear war.”“People will be concerned by the reports that AI poses an existential risk like pandemics or nuclear wars — I want them to be reassured that the government is looking very carefully at this,” said Sunak. Referencing his meeting with the heads of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic last week, as well as recent discussions on AI at the G7, Sunak said the U.K. “can play a leadership role because ultimately, we’re only going to grapple with this problem and solve it if we work together not just with the companies, but with countries around the world.”One government official c...

Crews work to put out 3-alarm fire in Brighton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

Firefighters have been working to put out flames burning at a multistory building in Brighton.The Boston Fire Department said its companies were called to an apartment building at 1980 Commonwealth Ave. on Wednesday morning.Image provided by the Boston Fire DepartmentThe department shared several images from the scene on Twitter, stating how a third alarm was struck during the response. In a later update, the department said it had been knocking on “all 52 unit doors” in the building to evacuate residents.Officials did not report any injuries and noted that several pets were rescued, as well as that a number of units were able to self-evacuate. https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1663906994305003528Image provided by the Boston Fire Department

Al Pacino, 83, and Noor Alfallah, 29, are expecting a baby

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

NEW YORK — Al Pacino, 83, and 29-year-old Noor Alfallah are expecting a baby, the actor’s representative confirmed Wednesday.Pacino’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, verified the news first published by TMZ, but said there would be no statement at this time. The baby would be Pacino’s fourth child. He has a 33-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, with acting coach Jan Tarrant and 22-year-old twins Anton and Olivia with actor Beverly D’Angelo.Pacino and Alfallah reportedly began dating last year. She describes herself as a “raconteur” on her Instagram page and her IMDB page notes that she’s a producer on two movies currently in post-production, including the Pacino-starrer “Billy Knight.”Pacino’s baby news follows close on the heels of longtime friend and collaborator Robert De Niro’s own. A representative for the 79-year-old actor confirmed earlier this month that De Niro had become a father for the seventh time, but few other...

Chris Christie planning to launch GOP presidential campaign next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

NEW YORK — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire.Christie, who also ran in 2016, is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie’s plans.The timing, which was first reported by Axios, comes after several longtime Christie advisers started a super political action committee to support his expected candidacy.The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.”Christie has cast himself as the only potential candidate willing to aggressively take on former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, but broke with Trump over his refusal to ...

Germany orders Russia to close 4 out of its 5 consulates in tit-for-tat move

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

By FRANK JORDANS (Associated Press)BERLIN (AP) — The German government said Wednesday that it has told Russia to close four out of its five consulates general in Germany in a tit-for-tat move after Moscow set a limit for the number of staff at the German Embassy and related bodies in Russia.Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christofer Burger told reporters in Berlin that the measure was intended to create a “parity of personnel and structures” between the two countries.Russia has consulates in Bonn, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich, with Moscow deciding which four they will close and which one they will keep open.The Russian government recently said that an upper limit of 350 German government officials, including those working in cultural bodies and schools, can remain in Russia. Burger said that this means Germany will have to shut its consulates in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Kaliningrad by November. Only the embassy in Moscow and the consulate in St. Peter...

Aaron Boone, Nestor Cortes see silver lining in pitcher’s latest fifth-inning jam

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

SEATTLE — Nestor Cortes pitched well overall Tuesday night, but he ran into trouble in the fifth inning again.Cortes began his evening with four scoreless innings in Seattle, but the Mariners were able to plate their first two runs after he took the mound in the fifth at 73 pitches. Cortes allowed two walks — including a four-pitch pass to lead off the inning — and RBI doubles to Ty France and Teoscar Hernandez in what ended up being his final frame of the night.Despite the hiccups, Cortes completed the inning when he got Eugenio Suarez to whiff on a fastball.“I thought Nestor was good again,” Aaron Boone said after the Yankees’ 10-2 win. “Ran into some trouble there in the fifth, but made a big pitch to get out of it, which I was happy to see him do that after the walk to the leadoff hitter on four pitches. That kind of put him in a bad spot in that inning, but he was able to right himself and really make a big pitch when he needed to make ...

Crime Briefs: Miniature ninja knives not allowed on plane, ‘lewd’ man on MBTA bus and woman found floating in Saugus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

The Memorial Day weekend started with an interesting find by security in Boston Logan International Airport.“On Saturday @BostonLogan, @TSA officers detected this Naruto ninja knife set in a passenger’s carry-on bag. Knives should always be placed in checked bags only! #travelfail,” tweeted Transportation Security Administration’s New England spokesman Dan Velez on Tuesday.Naruto is a popular Japanese comic — known as “manga” — character.The TSA image appears to match that of a product marketed on Amazon as “Ninja Tools Weapon Metal Kunai Prop Leaf Village Shinobi 7 Pcs Toy Necklace.”Not only is it described as a “toy necklace” in the product name, but customer images show the knives are smaller than an average hand’s palm, though quite large for necklace pieces.Traveling predatorThe MBTA Transit Police is once again on the lookout for a man suspected of committing “a lewd act” on public transportation, though this time on a bus.The department says that the man first committed...

Federal lawsuit in Massachusetts raises thorny questions about taking children from parents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:24 GMT

By STEVE LeBLANC (Associated Press)BOSTON (AP) — When child welfare workers and police knocked on Sarah Perkins’ and Joshua Sabey’s front door well past midnight one weekend last summer, the parents were shocked to learn the state of Massachusetts had come to take their two young sons.It’s the kind of harrowing scene that plays out daily across the country as social workers motivated by a desire to protect children run up against confused and concerned parents.What followed was emotional anguish, a bureaucratic battle, vindication for the parents and a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a legal advocacy group. The couple hopes for a favorable ruling that will increase oversight of child removals nationwide.The children were taken in Massachusetts because of a child abuse report stemming from a hospital visit. On July 13, 2022, Perkins whisked their 3-month-old son Cal to an emergency room. He had a 103-degree fever.An X-ray checking for pneumonia found a rib fracture the couple had...