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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried seeks dismissal of indictment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sought a dismissal of criminal charges against him in a court filing late Monday, saying prosecutors have improperly made federal crimes out of civil and regulatory issues that resulted from an industrywide collapse of cryptocurrency markets dubbed the “crypto winter.”Lawyers for the onetime head of a multibillion dollar cryptocurrency exchange said in papers in Manhattan federal court that the U.S. government had a “dramatic — and troubling” response to a broad market crash in cryptocurrency last year that affected every corner of the market.They said Bankman-Fried’s non-U.S. FTX company lasted far longer than others in the industry before it entered bankruptcy in November when the global exchange ran out of money after the equivalent of a bank run. A trial is tentatively set for the fall.Prosecutors alleged in December that Bankman-Fried cheated investors and looted customer deposits on FTX to make lavish real estate purchases, donate ...

Wagner chief to Putin: Don’t trust your top generals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday questioned the Russian state’s ability to protect the country from a Ukrainian counteroffensive, amid an escalating rift between the paramilitary group and the Kremlin’s security establishment.The Russian state is “unable to defend the country,” Prigozhin said in a video posted on Telegram, adding that Russian generals were trying to “deceive” Putin.“Today one of the units of the defense ministry ran away from one of our flanks … exposing the front,” the head of Wagner said, arguing the event should be recognized as “treason against the motherland.”In the latest episode of an ongoing quarrel with Moscow’s military leaders, including Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, Prigozhin also repeated a pledge to pull out Wagner troops from the battlefield if they did not receive enough ammunition from...

Olaf Scholz calls for migration deal as EU lawmakers take German leadership to task

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday urged EU partners to work “with all our strength” on completing a reform of the bloc’s migration rules before next year’s European election, while also calling for a swift conclusion of new trade deals.Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the occasion of Europe Day on May 9, Scholz lauded a recent agreement that lawmakers had reached, which revises the EU’s asylum and migration pact. He “urgently” advocated that all EU institutions now reach a joint agreement before the European Parliament’s election in spring next year. This would also open up economic opportunities for EU countries, Germany’s chancellor added.“We can take advantage of one thing even more than before: In many parts of Europe, we now urgently need workers, also from third countries,” Scholz said. Scholz’s remarks come against the backdrop of a growing influx of irregular migrants into the ...

Demolition to begin at site of Newburyport chemical plant explosion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

Crews are expected to demolish part of a chemical plant in Newburyport that exploded last week, killing one person, officials said on Monday. Emergency crews were first called to the Seqens plant on Opportunity Way around 12:45 a.m. Thursday, where officials said firefighters spent roughly one hour battling heavy fire conditions after the blast. Five workers were in the building at the time of the explosion. Of them, four were taken to a local hospital and released after treatment, according to local officials. The body of the fifth worker, identified as 62-year-old Jack O’Keefe, was found hours later.Surveillance video from nearby cameras captured the explosion, showing a massive, bright fireball that launched flames and debris high into the air. SKY7-HD later flew over the scene, revealing a torn apart complex with pieces of roof materiel, pipes and metal scraps piled on one another.RELATED: OSHA cited company for violations before Newburyport explosion, officials sayCrews ha...

Iconic Christmas Tree Shops store at Sagamore Bridge to close as part of bankruptcy filings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

The iconic Christmas Tree Shops store at the Sagamore Bridge on Route 6 will close as part of bankruptcy filings.The store, known for its windmill out front, is one of two Massachusetts locations that will close, including the Falmouth store. The Middleborough-based company filed for Chapter 11 on Friday. The company started as a holiday shop on Cape Cod in the 1950s. At the time of its filing, Christmas Tree Shops had 82 locations nationwide.

Seven people remain hospitalized after fatal crash outside Texas migrant shelter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

(CNN) — Seven people remain hospitalized in Brownsville, Texas, as a candlelight vigil is planned Tuesday in another Texas border town for the eight others who were killed when a vehicle plowed into a group of people at a bus stop over the weekend.While the victims have not yet been publicly identified, authorities say several immigrants were among those killed when a Land Rover hit the group in Brownsville on Sunday, across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, a non-profit homeless shelter helping to house migrants in the border town, authorities say.The director of the Ozanam Center, Victor Maldonado, described those killed and injured as asylum seekers.“They came seeking refuge. They were staying at our shelter because they arrived in this country with very little,” he said.During the Tuesday evening vigil in El Paso, advocates and community members are expected to mourn the lives lost and call “for the humanization of...

Luis Severino hopes to spend ‘rest of my life’ with Yankees despite rehab frustrations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

Luis Severino has never been shy about how he feels.The Yankees’ oft-injured starter often mixes a direct approach and dry sense of humor when answering questions, especially when they’re about his rehab timelines. That blunt honesty makes Severino a strong quote — and believable when he states that he wants to spend his entire career in pinstripes.“This is the only team that I know,” Severino, an impending free agent, told the Daily News. “I would love to be here the rest of my life.”The right-hander said that Monday, a day after he expressed frustration over how, in his opinion, the Yankees have slow-played his recovery from a low-grade lat strain suffered at the end of spring training. He hoped the injury would only cause him to miss three or four starts.On Sunday, Severino said it was “unnecessary” for him to throw a simulated game last Friday before beginning a rehab assignment this week, and he made several one-liners that ...

Myanmar violence, sea feud are tough challenges for ASEAN

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (AP) — Alarm over Myanmar’s still-unfolding deadly civil strife, including an armed attack on an aid convoy, and China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea are expected to challenge Southeast Asian leaders’ commitments to non-interference and consensus decision-making as they meet in Indonesia this week.Top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations convened Tuesday in the resort town of Labuan Bajo to finalize the agenda ahead of the two-day summit of the 10-nation bloc’s heads of state.The United States and China are not part of the twice-yearly summit, but their escalating rivalry looms large over the high-profile Asian gathering. Beijing has warned that U.S. efforts to strengthen security alliances and intensify combat-readiness drills with Asian allies would endanger regional stability.Founded during the Cold War in 1967, ASEAN has avoided getting entangled in major-power competition as a bloc. But its diverse members ar...

Rights group accuses Myanmar of using fuel-air explosive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military used an “enhanced-blast” munition known as a fuel-air explosive in an airstrike that killed more than 160 people, including many children, at a ceremony held last month by opponents of army rule, a major human rights monitoring group charged in a report Tuesday.Human Rights Watch accused the military of dropping the weapon, also known as a thermobaric or vacuum bomb, on a crowd that had gathered for the opening of a local office of the country’s resistance movement outside Pazigyi village in Myanmar’s central Sagaing Region on the morning of April 11. The area is about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.The attack caused “indiscriminate and disproportionate civilian casualties in violation of international humanitarian law, and was an apparent war crime,” said the New York-based group.Thermobaric weapons consist of a fuel container and two separate explosive charges, with the first detonating t...

Sudan’s death toll rises as warring sides continue talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:55 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — The death toll from the ongoing clashes in Sudan has risen to 604 people, including civilians, the U.N. health agency said on Tuesday. The new figures come as representatives of the warring parties are holding talks in Saudi Arabia.More than 5,100 people were also wounded in connection with the fighting, World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters. On Monday, the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks only civilian casualties, said that the fatalities had reached 487.The conflict started on April 15, after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting has turned urban areas into battlefields and displaced nearly 700,000 people on top of the 3.7 million who had already been internally displaced within the country before the conflict began, according to the U.N. migration agency.On...