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Boris Johnson lands ‘six-figure’ Daily Mail column. Good luck getting him to file on time

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson has a new journalism job — but spare a thought for his new editors.The former British prime minister — and now ex-MP — will return to his journalism roots and write a weekly column for the right-leaning Daily Mail newspaper. Three separate figures told POLITICO London Playbook that a trail for a mystery “erudite new columnist” on the Mail’s Friday front page referred to Johnson. According to the trailer, the new columnist will start Saturday — and will be “required reading in Westminster.”Johnson will earn a “very-high six-figure sum” to write the column, according to one figure.The gig will give Johnson — the subject of a damning report by a parliamentary committee this week which accused him of misleading parliament — a platform to critique current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, his bitter rival.The Mail column will be Johnson’s first regular journalism gig since he gave up his Daily Telegraph slot in 2019. Editor...

No injuries reported after fire breaks out at multifamily home in Malden 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Authorities say everyone at a multifamily house in Malden was able to evacuate after a fire broke out overnight.The Malden Fire Department said residents of the home on Newhall Street evacuated themselves as crews were called in around 2 a.m.According to the assistant fire chief, firefighters arrived to find heavy flames in the rear of the building. The official noted that, on top of burning through the walls and attic, the fire also caused the home’s back roof to collapse.

Relatives searching for loved ones after Greek migrant boat disaster, as hundreds more feared dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Kalamata, Greece (CNN) — Kassem Abozeed had arrived in Kalamata to try to find his wife and brother-in-law, as relatives poured into the Greek port city on Thursday, searching for their loved ones missing after a migrant boat sank off the coast, killing dozens of people.The 34-year-old refugee fled from the Syrian civil war to Hamburg, Germany, in 2016. He told reporters that his 21-year-old partner, Ezma, and her 19-year-old sibling, Abdullah, were two of the passengers caught up in one of the largest-scale migrant vessel disasters in southern Europe this year.“I tried to get my wife to come to Germany but it was very difficult to do so in a legal way. So we tried through Libya,” Abozeed said.“The last time we spoke was eight days ago and she told me she was ready to get on the boat. She paid $5,000.”He reflected on his relationship with his wife. “It was a love story.”Family members gathering at the port in southern Greece, as hopes for survivors fade and the scale of th...

Smiles, sweat and excitement fill Southie’s Curley Community Center as renovated facility opens

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Southie resident Tadas Jalinskas had just gotten done with his first workout at the Curley Community Center in over three years, but the 28-year-old said he couldn’t wait to spend more time in the weight and cardio rooms.At long last, a $31.2 million renovation of the popular facility in Southie, along L Street Beach, has concluded, and members are back in gym mode.“This is a significant upgrade from a facilities perspective, the equipment,” Jalinskas told the Herald, with sweat dripping from his face. “I’m looking forward to coming here for the foreseeable future.”Thursday marked the first time members could workout on their own at the Curley Center in three years. The facility closed in March 2020, when the world shut down due to the pandemic, before construction started months later that October.Walk through the main entrance of the community staple, and you’ll see large windows looking out at JFK Library, the Harbor Islands and Dorchester Bay. New fitness, yoga and dance studios...

Howie Carr: RMV on collision course

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

How would you, as a resident of Massachusetts, rate the service of your state Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) for the legal citizens of the Commonwealth?Have you found it easy to schedule an appointment to obtain one of those coveted REAL ID’s?Was it easy, or difficult, to schedule a test for your 16-year-old to get his or her learner’s permit?Finally, though, the Registry is getting serious about making it easier to get a driver’s license.Starting next month, they’re expanding the hours they’re open on weekdays! They’re hiring more than 200 new workers! They’re even going to start opening seven of their sites on Saturdays!After basically taking the closest thing imaginable to an agency-wide vacation since the Panic was ginned up in 2020, the Registry is going to respond to the public’s needs.Of course this isn’t a response to the needs of the citizens, you understand. What must be met are the needs of the illegal immigrants who will be eligible to get drivers’ licenses here starti...

A Russian ransomware gang breaches the Energy Department and other federal agencies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

By FRANK BAJAK (AP Technology Writer)The Department of Energy and several other federal agencies were compromised in a Russian cyber-extortion gang’s global hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations and governments, but the impact was not expected to be great, Homeland Security officials said Thursday.But for others among what could be hundreds of victims from industry to higher education — including patrons of at least two state motor vehicle agencies — the hack was beginning to show some serious impacts. Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters that unlike the meticulous, stealthy SolarWinds hacking campaign attributed to state-backed Russian intelligence agents that was months in the making, this campaign was short, relatively superficial and caught quickly. “Based on discussions we have had with industry partners … these intrusions are not being leveraged to gain broader access, t...

Mac Jones, a breakout defender and 4 takeaways from Patriots minicamp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Two practices.That’s all the Patriots decided they needed from their mandatory minicamp, a scheduled three-day stretch they capped with a surprise paintball outing Wednesday before sending players into their summer break. Before then, more than 80 players reported for practices on Monday and Tuesday, the most competitive and intense sessions of the spring. Mac Jones led the offense for all but one period of team drills, while the defense predictably had the upper hand.What else did we learn from that practice and Monday’s session? Here were the top four takeaways from Foxboro:1. Mac Jones is in commandIf it’s a quarterback controversy you’re looking for, sit tight. The Patriots offense still belongs to Mac Jones.Jones looked comfortable at the controls of Bill O’Brien’s system, a hybrid of the old Patriots playbook and the offense he ran at Alabama. Jones feathered a few pinpoint downfield throws to tightly covered receivers, made checks at the li...

How Trump and Johnson, divisive populists with many similarities, ended up on different paths

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

At first blush, they seem so alike — two pugnacious, ideologically flexible politicians who latched onto the 2016 global explosion of populism to lead their respective countries before falling from power.But Boris Johnson and Donald Trump appear headed down different paths this week as they navigate the fallout from their conduct now that they’ve left higher office — a reflection of the varying political cultures and systems in the nations they once led.On Thursday, a committee of the House of Commons released a scathing report about how Johnson lied to Parliament and intimidated those investigating lockdown-flouting parties in his administration during the pandemic. The committee said Johnson’s conduct was so flagrant that it warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament, although that recommendation was largely symbolic because he resigned from the House of Commons last week. He was ousted as prime minister almost a year ago, partly due to the “partygate” scandal.Two d...

Poverty, climate, regional stability on agenda for Saudi crown prince visit with Macron in France

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron Friday in Paris as part of an official visit, during which he will also participate in a global financing summit aimed at fighting poverty and climate change.Macron and the prince are expected to have a one-to-one working lunch at the Elysee presidential palace.The French presidency said the talks are to focus on bilateral relations between the two countries and on regional stability issues, especially after long-time rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties earlier this year.France is a major weapons and defense supplier to Gulf nations.The leaders also are preparing for a global summit next week “aimed at bringing together private and public funding” to fight poverty, support climate transition and protect biodiversity, the French presidency said. The event is expect to gather over 50 heads of states and governments as well as many NGOs and prominent climate activists....

Relatives fear worst with four men and a boy missing after Mediterranean ship disaster

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Seeking to find lives better than they had in their war-scarred town in northeast Syria, four men and a 14-year-old boy from the Sheikhi family set out for Europe.Ignoring an older relative’s warnings, the group boarded a fishing boat from Libya to Italy, where they hoped to start crossing Europe on land and get to Germany. Instead of docking in Italy, the trawler capsized and sank Wednesday in thousands of feet of seawater, 75 kilometers (45 miles) off Greece. The trawler may have carried as many as 750 passengers. Hundreds remained missing early Friday, on the third and final day of search operations. It would be one of the worst Mediterranean shipwrecks in recent history if officials confirm relatives’ worst fears, as expected.Five members of one family were aboard the trawler, including Ali Sheikhi, 29. The father of three boys, he left behind his wife, and boys — ages 6, 5 and 2 — hoping to one day reunite in Europe and offer the children the good educ...