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Putin admits Kremlin gave Wagner nearly $1 billion in the past year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

The Wagner Group is fully funded by the Kremlin and received tens of billions of rubles in public money over the past year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, days after the paramilitary group’s aborted attempt at a coup.“I want to point out and I want everyone to know about it: The maintenance of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided for by the state,” Putin said at a meeting with officials from the Russian defense ministry, according to state-owned newswires TASS and Ria Novosti. “From the Ministry of Defense, from the state budget, we fully financed this group.”From May 2022 to May 2023, the Russian state paid more than 86 billion rubles (approximately $940 million) to the Wagner Group, Putin said. POLITICO was not able to independently verify that claim.This is the first time the Russian president has acknowledged publicly the group was funded by the Russian state.The Wagner paramilitary group, created in 2014 by the oligarch...

Canadian wildfire smoke clouds European skies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

The smoke from Canada’s devastating wildfires has reached Europe, but the Continent’s skies are unlikely to turn orange as happened in North America.The bloc’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said Tuesday that as the fires in Quebec and Ontario have intensified further, they sent a large plume across the Atlantic. The smoke arrived in Portugal and Spain on Monday and is expected to sweep across Western Europe and the British Isles until at least Thursday. But scientists said Europeans won’t see their skies turn a dramatic orange — as happened earlier this month in New York and other North American cities — or have to worry about choking on smoke. “It is important to note that long-range transport of smoke, such as this episode, tend to occur at higher altitudes where the atmospheric lifetime of air pollutants is longer, which means they are manifested more as hazy skies with red/orange sunsets,” CAMS said in an email...

Putin remains strong despite Wagner rebellion, Hungary’s Orbán says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

Paul Ronzheimer is the deputy editor-in-chief of BILD and a senior journalist reporting for Axel Springer, the parent company of POLITICO. BUDAPEST — Vladimir Putin’s handling of a mercenary mutiny shows the Russian president remains firmly in control, Viktor Orbán said in an interview — putting the Hungarian leader, once again, at odds with his Western partners. “When it is managed in 24 hours, it’s a signal of being strong,” Orbán told Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company. Referring to the Wagner paramilitary group’s recent rebellion, which put troops and armored vehicles dangerously close to Moscow, the Hungarian prime minister said he did not “see any major importance to that event,” separating him from numerous Western officials who, while remaining cautious, have said the uprising exposed weaknesses for Putin.“Putin is the president of Russia,” said Orbán, who has cultivated a close personal relationship...

Jeffrey Epstein suicide blamed on jail guard negligence and misconduct: Justice Department watchdog

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday that a “combination of negligence and misconduct” enabled financier Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life at a federal jail in New York City while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.Inspector General Michael Horowitz cited the federal Bureau of Prisons’ failure to assign Epstein a cellmate after his previous one left and problems with surveillance cameras as factors in Epstein’s death.Horowitz also said that Epstein was left in his cell with too many bed linens, which are a security issue and were used in his suicide.The inspector general issued a report detailing findings of his investigation into Epstein’s August 2019 death, the last of several official inquiries into the matter. He reiterated the findings of other investigations that there was no indication of foul play, rebutting conspiracy theories surrounding the high-profile death.Horowitz echoed previous findings t...

What’s next for the Chicago Cubs after their exit from London? Blister watch, Kyle Schwarber and the quest for .500.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

The Chicago Cubs’ Brexit went smoothly after splitting their two-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals in London.The team arrived back in Chicago late Sunday night, then had Monday off to try and shake the jet lag as they prepared for Tuesday’s start of a six-game homestand against the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Guardians.The Athletic called the London Series a “smashing success,” though it was hard to understand how anyone came to that conclusion from watching the games on Fox Sports and ESPN.Both the Cubs and Cardinals were sub-.500 teams who looked the part. Neither game was particularly competitive, and the fielding was lackluster. ESPN botched the names of Cubs players and never corrected themselves. An ESPN pregame show even mispronounced the name of Bruce Sutter, a Hall of Famer who played for both teams during his career.There also was no instant classic moment, like Tim Anderson depositing a walk-off home run into a cornfield in the 20...

BREAKING: Supreme Court upholds North Carolina ruling that congressional districts violated state law

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that North Carolina’s top court did not overstep its bounds in striking down a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan under state law.The justices by a 6-3 vote rejected the broadest view of a case that could have transformed elections for Congress and president.North Carolina Republicans had asked the court to leave state legislatures virtually unchecked by their state courts when dealing with federal elections.But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that “state courts retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislatures act under the power conferred upon them by the Elections Clause. But federal courts must not abandon their own duty to exercise judicial review.”The high court did, though, suggest there could be limits on state court efforts to police elections for Congress and president.The practical effect of the decision is minimal in that...

Man robs Del Cerro gas station at gunpoint

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

SAN DIEGO — An armed man robbed a gas station in the Del Cerro neighborhood Monday night, the San Diego Police Department said.According to police, shortly after 11:30 p.m. the suspect walked into a Chevron gas station located at 6300 Del Cerro Boulevard and pointed a handgun at the clerk, demanding money from the register.The employee complied with the demands and the suspect left the gas station with an undetermined amount of money and fled the location. 3 Camp Pendleton Marines among 4 dead in I-5 crash in LA County There were no injuries reported related to the incident, SDPD said.The suspect was wearing a black motorcycle helmet, so the employee was not able to provide an age or description of what they looked like.The incident is still under investigation by SDPD robbery detectives.

City of San Diego Parks After Dark summer program returns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego is bringing back the Parks After Dark program, hosting summer activities for families at several local parks. City officials held a news conference Monday at Memorial Park in Logan Heights, one of four city parks where the program will take place. Parks After Dark bring aims to bring neighbors together, as well as help to reduce crime in the surrounding areas, city leaders said.The city launched the Parks After Dark program in 2022 with the idea of transforming several neighborhood parks into community festivals. There will be music, movies, arts and crafts, games, sports clinics, resources from community-based organizations and of course, free food, said Mayor Todd Gloria. The goal of the program is to use public spaces to help reduce crime and create a safe and positive social atmosphere.“Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from July 6 through August 26, these events will be happening at four parks in our neighborhoods across San Di...

No evidence of political interference in McKinsey contracts: Treasury Board report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

OTTAWA — The Treasury Board said Tuesday it has found no evidence of political interference in federal contracts with consulting firm McKinsey & Company.Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek were tasked with reviewing the contracts awarded to McKinsey after media reports detailed the rapid growth in their value since the Liberals came to power in 2015.Departmental audits found no evidence of political interference and no evidence that the integrity of the procurement process was not maintained, the final report said.But the audits did find some administrative requirements and procedures were not consistently followed, which reaffirms preliminary findings published in March.“For example, some procurement files had insufficient or missing documentation and there were errors in the reporting of contracts according to the requirements for proactive publication,” the report said. The contracts came under particular scrutiny because o...

Paul McCartney’s rediscovered photos show Beatlemania from the inside

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Is there really a new way to look at The Beatles, one of the most filmed and photographed bands in history?Yes, says Britain’s National Portrait Gallery, which is providing a fresh perspective with an exhibition of band’s-eye-view images that Paul McCartney captured as the group shot to global fame.Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan said the exhibit, subtitled “Eyes of the Storm,” is a chance “to see, for the very first time, Beatlemania from the inside out.”The seed for the exhibit was sown in 2020, that year of lockdown projects, when McCartney dug out 1,000 forgotten photos he’d taken in 1963 and 1964, as the Fab Four went from emerging British celebrities to world megastars. He and his team asked if the National Portrait Gallery was interested in displaying them.“I think you can probably guess our response,” Cullinan said as he introduced the exhibition to journalists in London on Tuesday.The show includes 250 photos taken in England, France and the United States t...