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Iran releases Belgian aid worker in prisoner swap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Iran has released Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian humanitarian worker who has been detained in Iran for more than a year, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement Friday.“Olivier Vandecasteele is on his way to Belgium,” De Croo said. “If all goes as planned, he will be with us tonight.”A Belgian official confirmed to POLITICO that one individual was on his way to Iran as part of a prisoner swap. According to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF, the individual in question is an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an Antwerp court in 2021 for plotting a bomb attack against a rally organized by Iranian dissidents near Paris.Belgium and Iran have been negotiating for months over a controversial bilateral treaty which would allow Iranians convicted in Belgium to serve their sentence in Iran, and vice versa.The deal was approved by Belgium’s highest court in March, paving the way for the prisone...

Investigation underway after armed person fatally shot by police in Manchester, NH

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Authorities are investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, officials said.Officers responding to a report of a person armed with a firearm at 1143 Mammoth Road around 3:25 a.m. found the armed person outside of the home, according to the attorney general’s office. During the ensuing encounter, multiple Manchester police officers discharged their firearms.Life-saving measures were attempted, but the armed resident was shot and has died. The identity of that individual is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. An autopsy has been scheduled for later today.Pursuant to protocol, the names of the officers involved in the incident are being withheld pending the conclusion of formal interviews. The initial responding officers had body-worn cameras.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

New surveillance video shows sidewalk shootout in Roxbury as city leaders speak out about recent incidents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Boston city leaders spoke out Thursday after an uptick in violence that included three shootings in three days this week.On the same day that the family of a man killed in a recent shooting shared details about their loved one’s life, Commissioner Michael Cox and Mayor Michelle Wu also discussed efforts to curb the violence.“We’re here and we care,” Cox said. “From our perspective, people need to understand this is a safe city. We can be safer with the public’s help.”On Wednesday, surveillance video captured the moment shots rang out along a sidewalk close to a liquor store on Shawmut Avenue in Roxbury. In one angle, a man is seen walking up the street with his hands in his pockets. Video then shows the man pulling out a gun and opening fire into a crowd of people, narrowly missing one man. Another man is later seen coming out of a building and shooting back. A second angle shows people scrambling to safety, with one young girl at one point ducking behind a car as bullets fly.T...

Sunshine Settles In

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

What. A. Stretch! Sunny skies set up shop across New England through the Holiday weekend, providing a fantastic kick-off to the unofficial start of summer. With that said, it doesn’t quite feel like summer this morning as temps start off on the chilly side with many locations in the upper 30s and 40s. The bounce back is nice this afternoon though with highs in the low 70s inland and low 60s at the coast thanks to the sea breeze. The UV index is very high today, and stays that way through the weekend. It’ll be cool again tonight with lows falling into the 40s for many under a clear sky. Full on sunshine is with us again tomorrow and the warm-up is quick as highs head for near 80 and 65-70 at the beaches with sea breezes kicking in. Sunday, we’ll add another 5 degrees, pushing numbers in the mid 80s away from the coast and 65-75 at the beaches. A cold front does slide through Memorial Day, but it’s starved of moisture, so other than a few clouds and a wind cha...

Boston Memorial Day weekend: 37,369 flags honor heroes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Around Boston thousands of flags and displays are already up for Memorial Day, heralding a busy holiday weekend and explosion of travel heading into the start of the summer season.“As we head into Memorial Day weekend, there are events all across the city and in each one of our neighborhoods and lots of spaces where people are coming together,” said Mayor Michelle Wu, standing in front of hundreds of volunteers planting flags in the Boston Common this week.The planting of 37,369 flags — one for every fallen Massachusetts soldier since the Revolutionary War — around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Common and the following event honoring the families of the soldiers started off Boston’s Memorial Day activities.“We’re just thrilled to be able to gather again, do the traditions that folks come to know and love from Memorial Day,” said Diane Nealon, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund.Going into the holiday weekend, the city is set ...

Massachusetts National Guard changes linked to leak case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Top brass at the Massachusetts National Guard said the military outfit is holding off on making changes before findings are released from an investigation into how a 21-year-old airman leaked highly sensitive government documents.Officials there suspended some security clearances after the Department of Justice brought charges against Jack Teixeira for posting classified national defense information to a social media application designed for video game enthusiasts.Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Wing, lost its intelligence mission and two commanding officers were suspended. The head of the Air Force this week gave military leaders 30 days to review access protocols for classified information. The inspector general is also investigating the matter.Major General Gary Keefe, the head of the Massachusetts National Guard, said he will implement changes that the Department of Defense and Air Force “want us to put in place.”“We’ve made the initial changes of suspending some s...

Howie Carr: Why worry? Biden has you covered

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

Is anyone really worried about the “debt ceiling?”Fill in your own doomsday headline or chyron here — Deadline nears… Default looms… Wall Street Chaos… Taking Hostages….If people were concerned, cable news ratings would be going up, rather than down.And do you know why nobody is sweating over state-run media’s latest sky-is-falling walls-are-closing-in narrative? It’s because Dementia Joe Biden is in charge, and as he told us recently:“I know more than the vast majority of people.”Obviously. That’s why everyone is just going on about their normal Memorial Day preparations, shopping for steaks for the barbecue and boycotting Bud Light. Because Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Sixpack understand that Brandon has a firm grasp on not just the federal budget, but on everything else.For this month’s Weekend at Brandon’s column, we begin with the budget impasse. As usual all dialogue guaranteed verbatim. Here he is, bragging about his mastery of the debt, er deficit, er whatever.“Unlike the last...

Professional athletes to lend hand, and Shofield name, to Orland Park artificial turf sports fields

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

With a name already deeply linked to Orland Park, NFL player Michael Schofield III will see his name on a scoreboard at a village park where future football players will hone their skills.Schofield and his wife, Kendall Coyne Schofield, an Olympic gold medalist, have bought naming rights for a portion of a redevelopment of Schussler Park in Orland Park, with the couple also agreeing to raise funds for an all-inclusive playground at the park.The installation of two artificial turf playing fields are part of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Schussler. The 21-acre park, 14609 Poplar Road, has baseball and soccer fields along with a playground, tennis courts and sledding hill.The park will be the home of Orland Park Pioneer Football, and Michael Schofield, who most recently played with the Bears, is a product of the Pioneer football organization.He has played nine seasons in the NFL, and graduated from Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park in 2009. He won a Super Bowl with the Den...

Texas’ extraordinary move to impeach scandal-plagued GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives has moved toward an impeachment vote that could quickly throw him from office.The extraordinary and rarely-used maneuver comes in the final days of the state’s legislative session and sets up a bruising political fight. It pits Paxton, who has aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump and the state’s hard-right conservatives, against House Republican leadership, who appear to have suddenly had enough of the allegations of wrongdoing that have long dogged Texas’ top lawyer.Paxton has said the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.”Here is how the impeachment process works in Texas, and how the 60-year-old Republican came to face the prospect of becoming just the third official to be impeached in the state’s nearly 200-year history:THE PROCESSUnder the Texas ...

Unexploded WWII bomb forces evacuation of 2,500 residents in Poland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:32 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A large unexploded bomb from World War II discovered in the Polish city of Wroclaw forced the evacuation of 2,500 residents on Friday.The bomb weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds) was found near a railway overpass in the city in southwestern Poland during construction work. Poland’s armed forces said it was a German SC-250 aerial bomb from the war.The city organized buses to take the evacuated residents to a safe area while bomb removal experts worked at the scene. Train traffic also had to be halted until the bomb was removed, according to Polish media reports.Police spokesperson Aleksandra Freus told broadcaster TVN24 that not all residents agreed to leave their homes and that authorities could not force them to do so. Police issued a public call to evacuate, citing “the threat to human health and life caused by unexploded ordnance.”During World War II, Wroclaw was the German city of Breslau. It saw heavy fighting and widespread destruction, coming under...