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Why Ukraine’s spring offensive still hasn’t begun — with summer just weeks away

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, Western allies have shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons systems and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the supplies to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Now summer is just weeks away. While Russia and Ukraine are focused on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has yet to begin. Last week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it’s been delayed because his country lacks enough Western weapons to succeed without suffering too many casualties. Weather and training are playing a role too, officials and defense experts say. Officials insist the counteroffensive is coming. Preliminary moves by Ukraine to set the conditions it wants for an attack have already begun, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.A look at the factors delaying the counteroffensive and the preparations both sides are making in anticipation of it starting soon.WEATHERA ...

Police investigate shootings across DC, Maryland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

Police in the District and Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties in Maryland have started multiple shooting investigations.The latest shooting occurred at the Wheaton Metro Station just before 6 p.m.Metro Transit Police, in coordination with the Montgomery County Police Department, said an 18-year-old male was shot after a dispute moved from the station escalator to the platform. Shiera Goff, the director of public information from Montgomery County police, said the fight may have sparked the gunfire.“The victim was part of that confrontation,” Goff told reporters at a press conference.Joint investigations for MTP and MCPD limited Metrorail service along the Red Line between Forest Glen and Glenmont.Roughly 20 minutes before, at around 5:40 p.m., police in Prince George’s County said a teenage girl was hospitalized after a shooting in Riverdale, Maryland.That shooting in the 6800 block of Riverdale Road struck a young female outside an apartment complex par...

Today in History: May 19, Anne Boleyn beheaded

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

Today in History Today is Friday, May 19, the 139th day of 2023. There are 226 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England’s King Henry VIII, was beheaded after being convicted of adultery. On this date: In 1780, a mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early afternoon.In 1913, California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law prohibiting “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning farm land, a measure targeting Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese. In 1920, ten people were killed in a gun battle between coal miners, who were led by a local police chief, and a group of private security guards hired to evict them for joining a union in Matewan, a small “company town” in West Virginia. In 1921, Congress passed, and President Warren G. Harding signed, the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants. In 1943, in his second wartime address to the ...

Murray's big 4th quarter propels Nuggets past Lakers for 2-0 lead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Jamal Murray scored 23 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter, propelling the Denver Nuggets to a 108-103 come-from-behind win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.Nikola Jokic had his 13th playoff triple-double with 23 points, 17 rebounds and a dozen assists for the Nuggets, who have never been this close to reaching the NBA Finals in their history. Tickets on sale for Nuggets watch parties at Ball Arena Game 3 is Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, where LeBron James and the Lakers are 8-0 in the playoffs.Murray missed 12 of his 17 shots through three quarters but found his touch in the fourth, going 6 for 7, including four 3-pointers and fueling a 15-1 run that gave Denver a 96-84 lead.Just like in Game 1, the Lakers didn't go down easily. They pulled to three points on Austin Reaves' jumper before Murray sank two free throws with 12 seconds left and Bruce Brown stole the ball from James, then dribbled out t...

7.7 magnitude earthquake in far Pacific creates small tsunami off Vanuatu

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A 7.7 magnitude earthquake Friday in the far Pacific created small tsunami waves in Vanuatu.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves less than half a meter (1.5 feet) were measured off Lenakel, a port town in the island nation. Smaller waves were measured elsewhere off Vanuatu and off New Caledonia.Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office advised people to evacuate from coastal areas to higher grounds. The office said people should listen to their radios for updates and take other precautionary measures.New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said it expected coastal areas would experience strong and unusual currents, with unpredictable surges at the shoreline.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also said small waves were possible for Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Guam and other Pacific islands.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was near the Loyalty Islands, southwest of Fiji, north of New Zealand ...

WestJet, pilots reach 11th-hour deal as strike averted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

CALGARY — WestJet and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike ahead of the May long weekend.A statement from the Air Line Pilots Association says union leaders voted to approve an agreement-in-principle, with a membership vote to begin in the coming days.The airline had grounded the bulk of its fleet Thursday, including for its Swoop subsidiary, parking their 130 planes at airports from Vancouver to Halifax and leaving thousands of travellers in limbo across the country.The shutdown affected dozens of routes within Canada and to the U.S. and overseas, while flights at the WestJet Encore regional service and the WestJet-owned Sunwing Airlines were unaffected.Some 1,800 pilots at WestJet and Swoop had been poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. mountain time after the ALPA served a strike notice Monday.Bernard Lewall, who heads the union’s WestJet contingent, had said the workers’ issues revolved around pay, job security and scheduling...

WestJet pilots, airline reach ‘agreement-in-principle’ ahead of strike

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

The union representing WestJet pilots and the airline have agreed “in-principle” on a new pilot contract.The agreement comes at the 11th hour, with members of the Air Line Pilots Association in a position to begin strike action as of 3 a.m. MT Friday.The ALPA says the deal with WestJet followed “more than 9 months of negotiations on a new pilot contract.”Members are expected to vote on the agreement in the coming days.More to come

Detroit enclave city built on auto industry struggles under $20M water debt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (AP) — Kevin Houston scanned the Michigan street where his fixer-upper and older homes bridge gaps between the vacant, overgrown lots and abandoned, ramshackle houses, boarded-up businesses and potholed streets of Highland Park.But no one would confuse the neighborhood for a park.“It’s not a bad place to live,” Houston said. “It’s not the best.”The community, just under 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers) and nearly surrounded by Detroit, is a shell of its auto baron past, when manufacturing boomed and money flowed. Over 50,000 people lived there in 1930. Homes — elegant and spacious — rivaled some of those built in Detroit. Fewer than 9,000 now call it home. The auto companies are long gone, leaving strip malls and retail shops to bolster the city’s dwindling business tax base.And, owing about $20 million to a regional water service, Highland Park is considering municipal bankruptcy — a strategy that a decade ago allowed Detroit to erase or restructure...

China’s Xi meets Central Asian leaders, calls for trade, energy development

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised to build more railway and other trade links with Central Asia and proposed jointly developing oil and gas sources at a meeting Friday with the region’s leaders that highlighted Beijing’s growing influence.The two-day China-Central Asia Summit in the western city of Xi’an came as President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven major economies met in Japan. It reflected Beijing’s efforts to develop trade and security centered on China, which resents U.S. domination of global affairs.China is making economic inroads into Central Asia, including with its Belt and Road Initiative to build railways and other trade-related infrastructure. That has rattled Russia, which sees the former Soviet republics as its sphere of influence, but their governments look to the world’s second-largest economy as an important market and a source of investment.“We need to expand economic and trade ties,” Xi said in a speech to leaders ...

New Zealand police lower hostel fire death toll to 5; man held in jail on arson charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:40 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand police on Friday lowered the confirmed death toll from a Wellington hostel fire from six people to five, although they said they still haven’t finished searching the dangerous four-story building.And in another development, a man charged with two counts of arson in connection with the fire made his first court appearance. He was not required to enter a plea and was ordered held in jail until his next court appearance on June 19.If found guilty, the man faces a maximum 14 years in prison on the charges. Police said they’re treating the case as a homicide investigation and could add more serious charges later.Police Inspector Dion Bennett did not offer an explanation for why authorities had downgraded the death toll after they had put it at six since Tuesday, hours after the fire ripped through Loafers Lodge.But he did say police have still not been able to search all areas of the building after parts of a roof and a floor collaps...