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US believes Russians in Ukraine have suffered 100,000 casualties

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

The White House on Monday (1 May) estimated that Russia's military has suffered 100,000 casualties in the last five months in fighting in the Bakhmut region and other areas of Ukraine.White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the figure, based on US intelligence estimates, included more than 20,000 dead, half of them from the Wagner mercenary group, which includes convicts released from prison to join the fighting."Russia's attempt at a winter offensive in the Donbas largely through Bakhmut has failed," Kirby said."Last December, Russia initiated a broad offensive across multiple lines of advance, including toward Vuhledar, Avdiivka, Bakhmut, and Kreminna. Most of these efforts stalled and failed. Russia has been unable to seize any strategically significant territory."He said the Russians have made some incremental gains in Bakhmut but that this has come at a "terrible, terrible cost" and that Ukraine's defenses in the region remain strong."Russia has exh...

Explosion derails freight train in Russian border region

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

An explosion in a Russian bordering Ukraine region on Monday (1 May) derailed a freight train, according to a post made by the local governor. The governor added that there were no injuries.Social media pictures showed several tank wagons lying on their sides and dark gray smoke billowing in the air near the derailment site in the Bryansk area.Russian Railways, Russia's railway operator, confirmed that the incident took place at 10:17 Moscow Time (0717 GMT). The report said that the locomotive and seven wagons derailed, and the locomotive caught on fire.In a Telegram post, Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz stated that "an unidentified explosive went off at 136 kilometres on the Bryansk - Unecha railway line derailing a freight train."Russian authorities claim that the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has been the scene of multiple pro-Ukrainian attacks in the 14-month period since Russia invaded. The governor reported that four civilians were killed after Kyiv shelled an ...

Crews battling Cobble Fire in Riverside County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

Firefighters in Riverside County were battling a vegetation fire that broke out in the Santa Ana River bottom Tuesday night in Eastvale.  Crews with the Riverside County Fire Department responded to reports of the Cobble Fire, located 7700 block of Cobble Creek Drive, just before 9 p.m., authorities said.  Aerial footage from Sky5 showed heavy flames and smoke as the blaze burned through heavy thick brush.  Aerial footage from Sky5 shows flames burning through heavy vegetation in the Santa Ana River bed in Eastvale May 2, Aerial footage from Sky5 shows flames burning through heavy vegetation in the Santa Ana River bed in Eastvale May 2, 2023. (KTLA)Aerial footage from Sky5 shows flames burning through heavy vegetation in the Santa Ana River bed in Eastvale May 2, Riverside County Fire crews on the scene of the Cobble Fire in Eastvale May 2, 2023. (KTLA)Just after 10 p.m., authorities estimated that the fire had burned around five to seven acres. It is unclear if crews...

Single-use plastics now banned in parts of Los Angeles County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

Single-use plastics are now banned in restaurants throughout parts of Los Angeles County.The ordinance went into effect on May 1 and requires full-service restaurants in unincorporated L.A. County to provide only recyclable or compostable foodware. This applies to containers, cups, dishes, cutlery and more.The ordinance was passed by The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in April 2022 with aims to reduce waste and littering in communities and waterways, while increasing sustainability efforts.Main points of the ordinance include:-Requires full-service restaurants to use multiservice utensils (i.e., reusable foodware) for dine-in customers.-Prohibits food facilities such as restaurants, cafeterias, food trucks, etc. located in the unincorporated areas from providing single-use foodware accessories (e.g. straws, forks, condiment packets, napkins, etc.) to customers unless the customer requests them.-Requires online food-ordering businesses to include on their platforms a way for...

Presale Codes for Wizkid More Love, Less Ego Tour

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

“You don’t need no other body, only you fi hold my body” … ahem, hello, didn’t see you there. Well, Wizkid has announced the makeup dates to his much anticipated tour, and I can’t help myself. Dubbed the “More Love, Less Ego” tour in support of his 2022 album, the Nigerian superstar is hitting cities across Europe and North America. The North American leg will launch November 2 in Philadelphia, PA and wrap November 30 in Washington, D.C, with a stop here in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum on November 21 — see below for all dates. Passwords and presale codes for the Wizkid More Love, Less Ego Tour tickets are as follows:Presale codes for Wizkid More Love, Less Ego TourPresale tickets for the Wizkid More Love, Less Ego Tour go on sale today, May 3 and we’ve been told the following presale codes and passwords may work. Details are subject to change, and vary by event date:Live Nation website presale code or password: ICONICLive Nation mobile...

Lakers’ Anthony Davis shows why he, not LeBron, is Warriors’ toughest matchup

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO – Turns out, trying to contain LeBron James might not be the biggest challenge the Golden State Warriors face in their second-round playoff series with the Los Angeles Lakers.Anthony Davis had a playoff game for the ages Tuesday, etching his name alongside some of the storied franchise’s all-time greats, as he had 30 points, 23 rebounds and five assists to lead the Lakers to a 117-112 win over the Warriors in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal at Chase Center.“For us, it’s a treat for us to be able to have such a dynamic player that can not only go out and get you 30 and 20,” James said, “but also command the paint defensively.”Davis did just in the final two minutes in the game’s most crucial sequence.After the Warriors went on a 14-0 run over a four-plus minute span to tie the game at 112 with 1:38 to go, guard D’Angelo Russell responded with a driving layup to give the Lakers back the lead. Then on the Warriors’ ensuing possession, Davis blocked a short Cu...

Could France protest fury spill into next year’s Olympics?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Retired and with time to kill, Bernard Gauvain wants to be a volunteer at the 2024 Olympics — but a bad one.His intention is not to help out, but to gum up the Olympic machine by refusing to turn up for work. If others do likewise in sufficient numbers, he hopes they’ll sting the VVIP who stands to gain if the Paris Games run triumphantly like clockwork: French President Emmanuel Macron.The 68-year-old former agricultural consultant in southern France is part of an otherwise mostly hush-hush band of Olympic opponents who call themselves “un-volunteers.” Also anti-Macron — the president has ignited a months-long firestorm of French protest with unpopular pension reforms — the anti-Olympic Trojan horses are working to infiltrate and then disrupt next year’s Paris Games by signing up as volunteers, posing as willing-to-help superfans when they’re anything but.Their surreptitious operation, and other Olympic contestation that is picking up online and...

New reversal by Twitter after move sparked MTA withdrawal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

In an about-face, Twitter says it has restored free access to a key tool for verified government and “publicly owned” services so they can tweet weather, transit and other alerts after New York City’s transit agency said earlier this week it would no longer use the platform for its service advisories. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is among countless official and unofficial accounts that abruptly lost access to Twitter’s API, or application programming interface, to send out automated alerts about service changes and emergencies last week. By Thursday afternoon, senior executives agreed to cease publishing service alerts to the platform altogether.The decision put the country’s largest transportation network among a growing number of accounts, from National Public Radio to Elton John, who have reduced their Twitter presence or left the platform since its takeover by Elon Musk.Twitter had signaled that the days of private accounts disseminating troves of information ...

EE.UU. y México anuncian que México seguirá aceptando migrantes retornados por razones humanitarias

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

(CNN) — La Casa Blanca anunció este martes por la noche que EE.UU. y México acordaron una serie de medidas adicionales para hacer frente a la crisis migratoria, incluyendo que México continuará aceptando migrantes de Cuba, Haití, Nicaragua y Venezuela después del 11 de mayo, fecha en que se levanta el Título 42, por razones humanitarias.Estados Unidos también seguirá permitiendo que los migrantes de esas cuatro naciones busquen una vía para llegar a Estados Unidos, haciéndoles elegibles para la visa humanitaria, según un comunicado conjunto de los dos países.La Casa Blanca dijo que la asesora de Seguridad Nacional Liz Sherwood Randall se reunió este martes con el presidente mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador en la Ciudad de México para discutir la crisis humanitaria “causada por los flujos migratorios sin precedentes en nuestra frontera compartida y en la región”.El presidente de México habló de temas migratorios con enfoque humanitario con la enviada del preside...

Germany, Italy clamp down on Italian mob with raids, arrests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:51 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Police arrested suspects and raided homes early Wednesday across Germany and Italy in a massive effort to clamp down on members of the Italian ’ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.In Germany, more than 1,000 officers searched dozens of homes, offices and stores in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, prosecutors said in a joint statement.In Italy, carabinieri police backed by helicopters served arrest warrants on 108 people who were accused, among other things, of mafia association; possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons; and money laundering.European authorities have been waging a campaign against the Calabria-based ’ndrangheta, arguably the world’s richest organized crime group, in recent years. The group has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over decades to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.Over 30 ...