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WATCH: New video shows smoking Red Line train that led to service disruptions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

New video shows smoke pouring out of a disabled Red Line train at the Charles/MGH MBTA station on Thursday.T officials said the operator of the train had noticed smoke and a possible fire under his train as it crossed the Longfellow Bridge into Boston. Fire crews responding to a reported fire underneath a train around 5:45 a.m. found that all passengers had already self-evacuated and there were no injuries.Power was turned off to the third rail so that firefighters could investigate what was causing the fire, the MBTA said in a statement.Deputy Fire Chief James Greene said a broken water pipe in the station initially hindered crews ability to fight the fire but it was quickly extinguished.In an update, officials said the smoke under the train had come from an air compressor control box.Responding to the scene, MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng told reporters the incident was a problem linked to the aging infrastructure he is trying to restore, along with trying to restore rider confi...

Driver in crash that killed off-duty Randolph police officer to appear in court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

The driver involved in a crash in Hingham last year that claimed the life of an off-duty Randolph police officer is set to appear in court on Friday.Kaleigh Davidson, 36, is set to face charges related to the May 2022 crash that left longtime officer Michael Beal, 61, dead.Prosecutors say she was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana and was going 100 mph at the time of the crash.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Police investigating violent motorcycle crash in Brockton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Police are investigating a serious motorcycle crash in Brockton overnight.Officers responding to a reported crash on Route 24 shut down several lanes while they investigated the cause of the crash on the northbound side of the road.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

After retiring from baseball, Ryan Ripken embracing new career path in sports media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

For Ryan Ripken, conviction has replaced uncertainty.Such a statement might seem strange for the son of Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. who turned stardom at Gilman into seven seasons in the minor league system of the Washington Nationals and Orioles. But that link to his famous father raised the bar to seemingly impossible heights for Ripken, who is in the early stages of carving out a career in sports media.“It’s weird. Maybe for the longest time playing, I was used to constantly realizing that I was not going to meet certain people’s expectations,” he said. “I had self doubt. With this, I don’t doubt myself. I have confidence that I can be really good at this.”Less than a year after retiring from baseball, Ripken, who turns 30 on July 26, is all-in as an analyst. His contractual obligations include being part of a rotation for the Baltimore Baseball Tonight pregame show on 105.7 The FAN, appearing as an analyst for Fox 45 and participating ...

Blinken meets Wang Yi in Indonesia. But the region remains wary of the US-China rivalry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China’s top diplomat Friday to discuss thorny issues as part of efforts to nurture talks on the sidelines of regional diplomatic meetings in Indonesia, whose president called on rival powers to avoid turning the region into a “competition arena.”Blinken stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and raised concerns by Washington and its allies over China’s actions in his late-Thursday meeting with Wang Yi, who heads the ruling Communist Party’s Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, U.S. officials said.“The meeting was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication to clarify U.S. interests across a wide range of issues and to responsibly manage competition by reducing the risk of misperception and miscalculation,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.“This is what the wo...

Hundreds of thousands face disruption at London’s Gatwick Airport this summer after strike vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of British vacationers face potential disruption to their travel plans at the start of the school summer holidays, after almost 1,000 workers at London’s Gatwick Airport voted to strike in a dispute over pay.The Unite union said Friday that members, including baggage handlers and check-in staff, who are employed by four private contractors will walk out for four days from July 28 and again for a subsequent four-day stretch from Aug. 4.The union said the action will “inevitably” cause disruption to flights at the height of the summer holiday season after the school year has ended. The airlines affected are British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, TUI, WestJet and Wizz Air.Gatwick, which is just south of the U.K. capital, is London’s second-busiest airport behind Heathrow, with a particular focus during the summer to Europe’s beach resorts in the Mediterranean.A total of 4,410 flights are scheduled to depart Gatwick across all the strike...

South Africa deploys army over burning of trucks, braces for unrest over ex-president’s court case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa deployed the army in four of its provinces Friday after at least 21 trucks carrying goods were set on fire in various parts of the country over the past week. The move came amid concerns of more unrest over a court decision that could send former president Jacob Zuma back to jail, although authorities have denied they are connected.The deployment of soldiers to support police in some parts of the country came a day after South Africa’s apex Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma’s release on medical parole in 2021 was invalid. The Department of Corrections has not said if it will order Zuma back to jail to serve the remainder of a 15-month prison sentence, but his initial jailing two years ago sparked a week of violent protests that left more than 350 people dead in some of the worst violence South Africa had experienced in 30 years.Police said they had no evidence that the torching of trucks was connected to the 2021 unrest or Z...

Dutch court convicts a man who fatally shot 3 people of murder, sentences him to life imprisonment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court on Friday convicted a man of killing two people at an activity farm for people with mental and psychological disabilities and earlier fatally shooting a man to test his weapon. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders and two attempted murders.The defendant, identified only as John S. under Dutch privacy rules, fatally shot a female worker and a 16-year-old girl at the farm in Alblasserdam near the port city of Rotterdam on May 6, 2022. He shot and seriously wounded two other people at the farm.The man had once been thrown out of the farm after he had a relationship with a person there. He also was convicted of threatening the person, who wasn’t identified by the court.Two days earlier, he fatally shot a man at a shoe repair shop in the nearby town of Vlissingen to test the Glock pistol he had bought, prosecutors said.“The violence and cold-bloodedness are terrifying,” Rotterdam District Court said in a written verdict. ...

Weekend need to know: Honda Indy, BIG on Bloor, Caribbean Carnival events

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Major events are back in Toronto this weekend, like the Honda Indy, BIG on Bloor, and more cultural festivals taking over different parts of the city.The Blue Jays return to action following the All-Star break with a weekend homestand at Rogers Centre, and there will be concerts each night at Budweiser Stage.There is a scheduled subway closure on a part of Line 1.Road closures are in place for the Honda Indy, alongside an emergency closure on the Dufferin Street Bridge. Scroll below for those details.Here’s what’s on this weekend:Top eventsHonda Indy TorontoRacing returns to Exhibition Place this weekend for the Honda Indy.There will be 12 races taking the green flag over three days, with the big race happening on Sunday.The weekend-long event features world-class racing, international food, beer gardens, live entertainment, and family-friendly activities.Races run from Friday to Sunday on the streets surrounding Exhibition Place.WATCH CityNews reporter Brandon Rowe chat...

German leader confident that surging far-right party will shrink again before next election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed optimism Friday that support for a far-right party which has been surging in the polls lately will shrink to previous levels again by the time of the next national election in 2025.The far-right Alternative for Germany party received 10.3% of the vote in the last national election in 2021 — a slight decline from 2017, when it got 12.6% in the wake of the European migration crisis. Recent polls have shown support for the party, known by its German acronym AfD, at around 20% and ahead of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats. “I’m quite confident that AfD won’t perform much differently at the next federal election than it did at the last,” Scholz told reporters at his annual summer news conference in Berlin.The 65-year-old said his strategy to achieve this is to pursue policies “that give citizens enough reasons to believe in a good future” — including by showing that the country is in control of its borders...