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Death in Istanbul: The untold story behind Syria’s White Helmets

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

A tale of love, war and Russian disinformation.By SHANNON VAN SANTIllustrations by Zé Otavio for POLITICOAMSTERDAM — I first met James Le Mesurier in Istanbul. He greeted me at his office, a three-story building in the trendy district of Beyoğlu, along the shores of the Bosphorus Strait. I had traveled to Turkey to meet him, a renowned humanitarian and one of the founders of the White Helmets rescue group in Syria. James had the dignified bearing of a former soldier in the British military, but I sensed a fragility. For years, he had been the target of disinformation from the Russian government, which accused him of being a pawn of Western intelligence, and of financial impropriety. The assaults on his character were taking a toll.Soon after meeting James in the summer of 2019, I developed a feeling of urgency I found inexplicable at the time. One day, I climbed the stairs from his office to his living quarters on the third floor, where James sat hunched over a wooden dining table, ...

Suspect ordered held without bail in connection with double stabbing at Clark University in Worcester

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

A suspect was ordered held without bail Wednesday in connection with a reported stabbing at a Clark University gym Tuesday, officials said. Police said officers responded around 6:30 p.m. to a basketball court inside the gym in the area of Downing Street. Once on scene, police said officers found two male stabbing victims with serious injuries. They were taken to an area hospital.Police said neither the people who were stabbed nor the person who was arrested appeared to be Clark students. Clark University shared a separate statement around 7:30 p.m., saying its police department and Worcester police were responding to “an active situation at the Kneller Athletic Complex involving a group fight in which two individuals were injured by knife.”7NEWS spoke with a graduate student who said he is friends with student athletes who were working out in the gym at the time of this incident. The student, Quinn Berube, said his friends saw a pickup basketball game being played and bel...

Tyre Nichols’ family files federal civil lawsuit against Memphis and police officers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

(CNN) — The family of Tyre Nichols filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Memphis, its police department and the officers involved in the fatal beating of the 29-year-old Black man after a traffic stop in January.Nichols was repeatedly punched and kicked by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop and brief foot chase January 7. He was hospitalized and died three days later.The lawsuit said the fatal beating was the “direct and foreseeable product of the unconstitutional policies, practices, customs, and deliberate indifference of the City of Memphis” and its police chief.The suit compared Nichols’ beating to the 1955 killing of Emmitt Till, adding that — like Till — Nichols suffered a beating “endured at hands of a modern-day lynch mob.”Five police officers, who are also Black, were fired following an internal investigation and were indicted on criminal charges January 26.The five charged officers were part of the departm...

MBTA’s Eng Mapping Out Slow-Zone Eliminations

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

The MBTA is targeting November to finish lifting speed restrictions on the Blue Line, and plans are still in development for similar issues affecting the rest of the subway system, new General Manager Phil Eng said Wednesday. Eng outlined an initial sketch of the work ahead and steps required to resume full-speed operations on the Blue Line, one of the four major subway lines hamstrung by widespread slow zones that today blanket nearly a quarter of the system. In the coming weeks, Eng told the T’s Board of Directors, crews will aim to replace 1,950 feet of rail, 465 rail ties, and tamp 3,300 feet of track between Bowdoin and Aquarium stations, likely using an evening shutdown of subway service. That will allow the T to shave the percent of the line subject to slow zones from 43 percent to 28 percent, he estimated, speeding up travel and allowing the agency to run trains more frequently. Eng said the T is aiming to lift all Blue Line speed restrictions “no later than Nove...

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launches 2024 presidential bid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

(CNN) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, launched his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Boston.The 69-year-old Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former US attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.He will join self-help guru Marianne Williamson in a presidential primary that President Joe Biden is soon expected to enter as the overwhelming favorite.One hurdle likely facing Kennedy as he attempts to win over Democratic voters: his own family. Some Kennedy family members have denounced his views on vaccines. He has also clashed with his mother and siblings over his support for the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot and killed his father in a moment that changed US history.Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic. He has promoted discredited claims linking vaccines and autism and founded the anti-vaccine organization Chil...

Guardsman Teixeira, secrets leak defendant, briefly in court

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with leaking highly classified military documents made a brief court appearance Wednesday, as a hearing to determine whether he should remain jailed while awaiting trial was delayed to give the defense more time to prepare.Jack Teixeira, 21, had been scheduled for a detention hearing in Boston’s federal court, but the judge canceled it after Teixeira’s lawyer filed a motion requesting that it be delayed for about two weeks. The defense said it “requires more time to address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention.” A new date has not yet been set. On Wednesday morning, Teixeira was brought to the courtroom in handcuffs and orange jail garb as he waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He said nothing beyond answering yes and no to questions about whether he understood his rights and the proceeding.Teixe...

Heat’s Spoelstra takes umbrage with referees in wake of Tyler Herro injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

Erik Spoelstra appreciates the rationale. Fans certainly have the right to an unobstructed view.But where Spoelstra takes issue with the NBA’s crackdown on bench decorum is when common sense is removed from the equation.That, the Miami Heat coach said, is what made one particular moment particularly confounding in his team’s Game 1 victory Sunday over the Milwaukee Bucks in this best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series.As Sunday’s halftime buzzer sounded, the Heat were hit with a delay-of-game warning for bench decorum.There was no denial from Spoelstra about his players standing as play had continued to the end of that second period. But the reason why, Spoelstra said, should have canceled out any sanction, as Heat guard Tyler Herro played on after breaking his right hand.Later, in the third quarter, when it was a nine-point game, the Heat then were hit with their second delay warning, which meant a technical foul and Milwaukee free throw.In a...

Bruins notebook: Patrice Bergeron out for Game 2

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

Patrice Bergeron is making progress, but not enough to be ready for Wednesday’s Game 2 against the Florida Panthers.Coach Jim Montgomery confirmed that after Bergeron skated with skating and skills consultant John McLean prior to the team portion of the morning skate. After his workout, Bergeron did not join the group. Montgomery went with the same forward lines and defense pairings as Game 1.Montgomery also confirmed that it is indeed an injury and not an illness that is keeping him out of the lineup. That much became rather obvious on Monday night when Bergeron was seen at the Garden and among his teammates. Bergeron left the last regular season game in Montreal after the first period with what the club termed as an upper body injury.“He’s progressing well, so he’s day-by-day, but he’s a no for (Wednesday),” said Montgomery in the morning.Just when he’ll be able to return is not yet clear, but Montgomery said different factors will go into that.“Every...

From the Archives: Scandal circa 1855 when a state rep hit on a nun

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

If you’re going to throw someone out of the Legislature, as happened down in Tennessee, you should make sure it is for something serious, like breaking the rules or personal misconduct, or both.The removal ouster is rare. In the long history of the Massachusetts Legislature, for instance, only a handful of legislators have been stripped of their duties and expelled from the House or the Senate.The most recent was the 2014 ouster of state Rep. Carlos Henriques of Dorchester over a domestic violence conviction. Before that Rep. Harry Foster was removed from the House in 2016 over taking money to file legislation.In the Senate, the late Alan Sisitsky was removed from the state Senate in 1981 for unruly behavior. He was later reinstated.But the most interesting ouster from the House was over a “sex scandal” that took place in 1855.That was when, following an extensive committee investigation, the House voted to oust state Rep. Joseph Hiss of Boston, granting him the dubious honor of bec...

Massachusetts Guardsman Jack Teixeira’s intelligence unit has lost its mission after alleged Pentagon leak

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:29 GMT

The military intelligence unit on Cape Cod where Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira worked has lost its intelligence mission in the wake of Teixeira allegedly leaking highly classified Pentagon information, according to the U.S. Air Force.The Air Force’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, at Otis Air National Guard Base is no longer performing its assigned intelligence mission, an Air Force spokesperson has confirmed.“The mission has been temporarily reassigned to other organizations within the Air Force,” the spokesperson added.This change at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod comes after Teixeira was arrested by federal agents at his North Dighton home last week.The 21-year-old is facing charges in connection with allegedly leaking highly classified national security information about the Ukraine war and other sensitive matters.The Secretary of the Air Force has ordered the Department of the Air Force Inspector...