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Nigel Farage: ‘Brexit has failed’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

LONDON — Nigel Farage, one of the biggest advocates of Britain’s departure from the European Union, reckons Brexit has failed. Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight program Monday night, the former Brexit Party leader — one of the most famous figureheads of the Brexit cause — admitted the U.K. had not benefited economically from leaving the bloc.“What Brexit has proved, I’m afraid, is that our politicians are about as useless as the commissioners in Brussels. We’ve mismanaged this totally,” Farage said, responding to a raft of data suggesting there had been a negative economic impact of Brexit. “Brexit has failed,” he added. “We’ve not delivered on Brexit and the Tories have let us down very, very badly.”Asked if the U.K. would have been better off remaining in the EU Farage insisted he didn’t “think that for a moment.”The U.K. economy has struggled to rebound following the triple shocks of the pandemic, ...

Person leaps from window to escape Brockton blaze that displaced 8

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

A person was forced to make a desperate leap from a second-floor window to escape a fast-moving blaze in Brockton late Monday night that left a building seriously damaged and eight people without a home.Crews responding to a reported structure fire at a multi-use building with a convenience store on Warren Avenue around 11 p.m. found heavy smoke and flames coming from the three-story building, according to Brockton fire officials.Firefighters used ladder trucks to contain the flames, which have since been brought under control.One person was taken to the hospital with undisclosed injuries.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Crash damages light pole, front of phone store in Dorchester

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

Police are investigating a crash in Dorchester overnight that left a light pole damaged and a window at a phone store smashed.A taped off section of sidewalk could be seen in front of the business on Blue Hill Avenue.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

As NBA’s security chief, Baltimore native Leon Newsome will guard the pingpong balls that determine Victor Wembanyama’s home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

The 19-year-old Frenchman has whetted NBA appetites like no prospect since LeBron James.As such, the draft lottery that determines a professional destination for Victor Wembanyama, a 7-foot-2 wonder who sinks step-back 3s as readily as he swats opponents’ shots, will be among the most scrutinized in league history.When ESPN’s broadcast of the lottery commences Tuesday evening, on one side of the picture, you’ll see an Ernst & Young accountant handling the envelope that will tell the world where Wembanyama is headed. On the other, you’ll see a taller, sturdier man with a sharp suit and a stern countenance.That’s Leon Newsome, the NBA’s chief security officer.Before he guarded these sacred pingpong balls, Newsome was the second-ranking officer in the U.S. Secret Service, a special agent who had been responsible for protecting Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Laura Bush. Before that, he was a hotly recruited football standout who spurned a...

Celtics can’t take Heat lightly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

Sunday afternoon as Jayson Tatum shut down the doubters — and I’m one of them — a thought crept across the minds of many Celtics fans.Beat LA.Naturally it’s a little bit premature. Not only do the Lakers have to get through the Western Conference’s best team in the Denver Nuggets, but the Celtics better not be looking ahead either. Wednesday night’s NBA Eastern Conference final foe, the Miami Heat, could spoil this party.There’s no question the Celtics are better than Miami. Yes, “Playoff” Jimmy Butler is amazing, he’s averaging 31.1 in the playoffs. Bam Adebayo is a force. And Erik Spoelstra is far and away the best coach remaining in these playoffs.But Victor Oladipo was lost for the season with a playoff knee injury. And last year’s best sixth man/eccentric sharpshooter Tyler Herro, who averaged more than 20 ppg this season, broke his right hand 19 minutes into the playoffs and is extremely unlikely to be ready at any point in...

Russia launches ‘exceptional’ air attack on Kyiv as Europe, China look to exert influence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian air defenses thwarted an intense Russian air attack on Kyiv early Tuesday, shooting down all 18 missiles aimed at the capital, as European leaders sought new ways to punish Russia for the war and a Chinese envoy sought traction for Beijing’s peace proposal.Loud explosions boomed over Kyiv as the nighttime attack combined Russian missiles launched from the air, sea and land in an apparent attempt to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses. No casualties were reported as Western-supplied weapons helped fend off the assault.Russia’s latest attack on Kyiv was “exceptional in its density — the maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time,” said Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration. Valentyna Myronets, a 64-year-old Kyiv resident, said she felt “pain, fear, nervousness, restlessness” amid the assaults. “God, we are waiting for victory and when all this is over,” she said.The British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda S...

Trudeau in South Korea to talk global and energy security, youth mobility program

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for his first official visit to South Korea as both countries try to build closer economic and cultural ties and work together on global security concerns.“I don’t think there was a time when Korea and Canada were so close as now, and I don’t think we’ve had any period where our two leaders have met so frequently,” Lim Woongsoon, South Korea’s ambassador to Canada, said last week in an interview in Ottawa.The visit by Trudeau, who is expected to remain in the country until Thursday before he heads to the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, Japan, follows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s trip to Ottawa last fall.Since then, both countries have released their Indo-Pacific strategies. They provide a road map for strengthening military and economic relationships in the region to counterbalance the influence of China.Tina Park, a lecturer at the Univers...

Returning to the Arab fold, Syria’s president invited to UAE-hosted COP28 climate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad received an invitation to attend the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this year, even as the yearslong war in his country over his rule grinds on. Assad’s invite, late Monday, to the climate talks comes as the Syrian president already is scheduled to attend the Arab League summit this Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, years after being frozen out of regional politics. A brutal crackdown by Assad’s government on demonstrators in a 2011 Arab Spring uprising challenging his rule descended into a civil war and consequently became a regional conflict.The war has killed half a million people and displaced half of its population. Assad’s invitation came in a letter from Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported. The agency published images of Assad reading the letter alongside an Emirati diplomat in Damascus. The UAE simila...

Germany: 5 sentenced to prison for 100-million-euro jewelry heist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Tuesday convicted five men over the theft of 18th-century jewels worth more than 100 million euros from a Dresden museum in 2019. They were sentenced to prison sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.The Dresden state court ruled that the five men — aged 24 to 29 — were responsible for the break-in at the eastern German city’s Green Vault Museum on Nov. 25, 2019, and the theft of 21 pieces of jewelry containing more than 4,300 diamonds, with a total insured value of at least 113.8 million euros ($129 million). Officials said at the time that the items taken included a large diamond brooch and a diamond epaulette. They were convicted of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson.The men laid a fire just before the break-in to cut the power supply to street light...

Biden to mark Jewish American Heritage Month with Broadway stars, speak out on antisemitism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:12:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will mark Jewish American Heritage Month on Tuesday by highlighting his administration’s efforts to combat rising antisemitism when he speaks at a White House reception that will feature performances from the stars of the Broadway revival of “Parade.” While Biden plans to use his comments to celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans, he also will reflect on how his decision to run for the White House in 2020 was shaped by a 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to a White House official who previewed the president’s speech on condition of anonymity. The president, who just weeks ago announced he would run for reelection, spoke frequently during the 2020 campaign about the “Unite the Right” rally led by white nationalists bearing torches. Clashes between that group and a large gathering of counterprotesters led to the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer when a white nationalist drove his car into the cr...