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Boris Johnson ‘not dragging feet’ on WhatsApp disclosures after forgetting iPhone passcode

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson’s team are pushing back at claims he’s “dragging his feet” in handing over messages to the U.K.’s official coronavirus inquiry as the former prime minister battles to … remember his iPhone passcode.The Times reported Thursday that the ex-PM doesn’t remember with “100 percent confidence” the code to access his former device, which he stopped using in May 2021 amid security concerns.There are concerns the device — held by Johnson’s lawyers — will automatically disable and potentially erase its contents if the wrong code is entered.The U.K.’s COVID inquiry has requested all of Johnson’s pandemic WhatsApps and diaries.The British government was given until 4 p.m. last Monday to hand over all material to the inquiry. But much of the material relevant to Johnson is on his old, currently inaccessible, mobile, which is being held by his lawyers.Former Labour communications director Alastair Campbell said Thursday that Johnson s...

Water Worries Continue

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

No doubt by now you’ve seen or heard about the flooding in Vermont and part of New York, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts. Unfortunately we have more rain in the forecast today which will continue to dump heavy rain in areas that are in desperate need of dry weather. For that reason, we have a flood watch in effect for the day today. Where a few back to back to back storms or downpours move through, we could see up to 3″ of rain! But these will be scattered — some towns may only see a half inch.Temperatures will still be mild today, but cooler than the last two. We’ll top out near 80° this afternoon but we also have another very humid day on tap which always makes it feel warmer.We’ll get a little break from the storms Saturday, but unfortunately not a complete break. We’ll really back our rain chances down, but they won’t be zero. A few isolated storms will be possible on Saturday. Sunday looks to be the wetter of the two weekend da...

Michelle Wu administration admits it sent a list of vocal critics to police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

The Wu administration has acknowledged it has compiled a list of Mayor Michelle Wu’s most vocal critics and sent it to the Boston Police Department, claiming security concerns.“The list was made in response to a request from the Boston Police Department after the Mayor had been harassed and physically intimidated by individuals for several months outside her home, at city functions such as the annual neighborhood parks coffee hours, and at other public events,” Wu spokesman Ricardo Patron said in a statement to the Herald.This is the first time the Wu administration has admitted it compiled such a list, which was uncovered in an email by a group of Wu opponents through a public records request.It shows the Wu administration taking the offensive against her opponents, coming on the heels of passing an ordinance prohibiting protests outside the mayor’s Roslindale home during certain hours.But the unusual action raises questions about whether it crosses the line into using Nixonian tac...

Howie Carr: John Kerry on the grill very rare

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

Boy, did the United States dodge a bullet in 2004 when John Forbes Kerry was not elected president.That’s my takeaway from the testimony yesterday of the “climate czar” under oath in front of a Congressional committee.As disastrous as George W. Bush’s second term was, Kerry’s presidency would have been a catastrophe. This isn’t a new revelation, but every time he steps out in public, Kerry just reminds us how lucky we are, or were, since obviously under Biden we have now run out of luck.First of all, what’s up with his face? (And no jokes about long faces, please.)He’s going to be 80 in December. But no wrinkles. What’s his secret? I have my suspicions but, like the Secret Service in its now-finished White House cocaine probe, I have “no leads.”Still, what was that line of desiccated skin under both his eyes, running across the bridge of his nose? Is there a botoxologist in the house who can provide a clinical diagnosis?And what about the private jets? That’s what those bourgeois Re...

China accuses US of militarizing space following protest over Navy plane’s Taiwan Strait transit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Amid a freeze in military-to-military contacts, China is accusing the United States of militarizing outer space, a day after it protested the passage of a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft through the Taiwan Strait. Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Tan Kefei said on Friday that U.S. actions, including the establishment of the Space Force in 2019 as the newest branch of the military, have “had a great negative impact on space security and global strategic stability.” “In recent years, the United States has accelerated the militarization of space,” Tan said. “I would like to reiterate here that China adheres to the peaceful use of space, firmly opposes the weaponization and the making of space into a battlefield, and opposes any form of arms race in space.” The ministry said Tan was responding to recent concerns expressed by Space Force leaders over China’s rising capabilities, calling that “classic cognitive dissonance.” China’...

Biden making $20 billion available from ‘green bank’ for clean energy projects

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is making available $20 billion from a federal “green bank” for clean energy projects such as residential heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations and community cooling centers. Two programs, worth $14 billion and $6 billion, respectively, will offer competitive grants to states, tribes and nonprofits to invest in clean energy projects, with a focus on disadvantaged communities, the White House says.Vice President Kamala Harris, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and other officials will announce the grant competitions Friday at a historically black university in Baltimore.Congress created the green bank, formally known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, in last year’s climate law. The grant competitions follow a $7 billion Solar for All program launched last month for residential and community solar projects in low-income communities. All three programs will be overseen by the green bank, with grant awards...

India launches a lander and rover to explore the moon’s south pole

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

SRIHARIKOTA, India (AP) — An Indian spacecraft blazed its way to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, the country’s space agency said.Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, took off from a launch pad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India’s emerging space technology. The spacecraft is set to embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon’s surface later in August.Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space Center, where the Indian Space Research Organization’s engineers and scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft. Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control center and waved the national flag as they watched the spacecraft rise into the sky.“Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towa...

Putin says he offered Wagner mercenaries the option to keep operating as a single unit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he offered mercenaries from the Wagner private military company the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under the same officer when he met with them five days after the group’s abortive revolt last month that posed the most serious threat to his 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine.In remarks to the business daily Kommersant published Friday, Putin described a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including the group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29. He said that he talked to them about their actions in Ukraine, their mutiny — which he denounced as an act of treason in a televised address to the nation — and offered them various alternatives for future service.Putin told Kommersant that one option would see Wagner keep serving under the same commander who goes by the call name Gray Hair, a man who has led the military company’s operations in Ukraine for the past 16 months. “All of them could have gathe...

IRS says it collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income tax delinquents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is showcasing its new capability to aggressively audit high-income tax dodgers as it makes the case for sustained funding and tries to avert budget cuts sought by Republicans who want to gut the agency. IRS leaders said they collected $38 million in delinquent taxes from more than 175 high-income taxpayers in the past few months.In one case, an individual had used money owed to the government to buy a Maserati and a Bentley, and roughly 100 high-income individuals attempted to get favorable tax treatment through Puerto Rico without meeting certain tax requirements. Many of those cases are expected to face criminal investigation.“It just shows you how much money is out there in delinquent taxes, and there are so many more cases for us to tackle,” said new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, just four months into the job. “There’s just a significant opportunity there.”The agency did not provide figures for how those high-dollar tax collections compared with...

Russian lawmakers pass a bill outlawing gender-affirming procedures to protect ‘traditional values’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:40:29 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers on Friday adopted a bill outlawing gender-affirming procedures amid the Kremlin’s crusade to protect what it views as the country’s “traditional values.” The toughened version of the bill was passed unanimously in its third and final reading in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma.The bill bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records.The only exception will be medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies.In its second reading on Thursday, clauses were added that annul marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bar transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents.The bill must be passed by the Federation Council, Russia’s Kremlin-controlled upper chamber that generally rubber-stamps legislation that the Duma has approved, before being signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin.It has rattled the countr...