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EU chief unveils new Western Balkans support plan

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

BRATISLAVA — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday announced a new plan to bring the Western Balkans closer to the EU. Speaking at the GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum, the EU’s top executive said the bloc needs to do more to reach out to aspiring members in the region, unveiling a four-point blueprint to boost local growth. The Western Balkans has long been a potential expansion area for the EU, but accession efforts have become drawn out and stalled in many cases.“We finally realize that it is not enough to just wait for our friends outside the Union to move closer to us,” von der Leyen told a crowd of officials and think tankers from across the Continent. “We must also take responsibility to bring the aspiring members of our Union much closer to us.” The plan, according to von der Leyen, would include efforts to further align the Western Balkans with the EU’s single market, deepen regional economic integration, accelerate judicial ...

‘Very militant’: France slams Novak Djokovic over Kosovo comment

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s controversial message at the French Open, in which he said Kosovo was the “heart of Serbia,” is “clearly not appropriate,” France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said Wednesday.“It’s a very militant message, very political,” Oudéa-Castéra said in an interview with French public broadcaster France 2.“We really shouldn’t go down that road, especially given the circumstances,” the minister added, referring to recent clashes.One of the most successful athletes in tennis history with 22 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic caused an outcry on Monday after his first-round win at Roland-Garros. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence,” Djokovic wrote in Serbian on a TV camera screen. Long-standing tensions between Serbia and Kosovo — which declared its independence in 2008 but is not recognized by Belgrade — have resurfaced in recent days, after clashes between p...

WATCH: Video shows moment shots fired during shooting near Revere Beach

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

As police continue to investigate two separate shootings at Revere Beach that left three people wounded, new cellphone video shows the moment shots were fired during one of the incidents.Video obtained from 7NEWS sources shows what police confirmed to be the first of two shootings that happened on Sunday, May 28, occurring around the corner from the Revere Beach MBTA stop on Centennial Avenue, a couple blocks from the beachfront.In one video, a large crowd of young people can be seen taking part in some sort of scuffle when a man wearing a white tank top and gray shorts and sneakers pulls out a handgun.Raising the gun over another individual in front of him, the man is seen firing multiple rounds into a group of people out of view of the camera.Another video from a different angle shows people running away as the gunman raises his arms and begins shooting.Police said a 17-year-old girl suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her lower body and was later treated at Mass Gene...

Firefighter, worker injured in blaze at Charlestown recycling plant

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

A firefighter and a worker suffered minor injuries in a fire that broke out in a recycling plant in Dorchester late Tuesday night.Crews responding to heavy black smoke coming from the recycling plant at 24 Bunker Hill Industrial Park ordered a second alarm and began cutting holes in the building and roof to access the flames, according to the Boston Fire Department.The two people who were injured were taken to the hospital by ambulance.Crews will remain on scene today to monitor the area for hot spots and assist in clearing debris.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1663748899276718080https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1663753030892761088https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1663755348153446400https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1663802282389938178This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Driver slams into home in Marlboro

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

Police are investigating a crash in Marlboro on Tuesday night that left a home seriously damaged.Officers responding to a reported crash on Ash Street found a car against the home. Video from the scene showed damage to the side of the house.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

May has tested the Orioles’ ability. The next few weeks will test their resolve. | ANALYSIS

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

In their first game without Cedric Mullins, the Orioles played well enough that his absence was at its most apparent with two outs in the ninth inning.As Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez came up against closer Félix Bautista, outfielders Ryan McKenna and Austin Hays ran past each other. The Orioles’ typical left fielder, Hays had played center for the game’s first 26 outs, getting the first shot at the position after Mullins landed on the 10-day injured list with a right groin strain before the game. McKenna had entered as a defensive replacement for left fielder Terrin Vavra before the inning, but as the lights flashed and the music blared for Bautista’s signature entrance at Camden Yards and the pitch clock ticked down, there was miscommunication between the outfielders and Baltimore’s bench over who would man center.There often is no question.“We’re so used to having Mullins in center field,” manager Brandon H...

Jaylen Brown’s long-term future looms large as Celtics enter important summer

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

Jaylen Brown needed some more time. The Celtics star, understandably, was processing a lot.Moments after the Celtics’ sudden season-ending loss in Game 7 on Monday night, the biggest question of this summer was raised. About Brown’s future with the Celtics. About what he’s looking for. About his expectations for how extension talks will play out.This summer, the Celtics can offer Brown a supermax extension worth $295 million that would keep him in Boston long-term. Brown, who had just come off the floor after one of the most disappointing performances of his career, shrugged off the first question about his future.“I expected to win today and move on,” Brown said. “That’s what my focus was on and that’s what my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. It’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”When the topic was raised again minutes later, Brown struggled to come up with an answer when asked about...

‘A sport of cruelty’: Ex- conservation officers against Ontario hunting dog expansion

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

Two former Ontario conservation officers are imploring the province to reverse plans to expand a sport that allows dogs to track down captive coyotes, foxes and rabbits in massive fenced-in pens.Rick Maw and Wayne Lintack say the dog sport, often referred to as training and trialing, is cruel to the captive prey and well-meaning regulations are impossible to enforce.Natural Resources Minister Graydon Smith says the sport is safe for both dogs and prey since it doesn’t call for contact between the animals.But coyotes have been hurt and killed by dogs in the pens, Maw and Lintack say. The training component sees hunting dogs let loose in these areas, which are often hundreds of hectares in size, but fenced in around the perimeter. The dogs learn to hunt animals like coyotes, which are caught in the wild and re-homed to these areas.The trialing portion involves competitions with judges who score the dogs on their hunting skills. Points are awarded and champions are crowned.But th...

Sweden close to becoming first ‘smoke free’ country in Europe as daily use of cigarettes dwindles

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Summer is in the air, cigarette smoke is not, in Sweden’s outdoor bars and restaurants.As the World Health Organization marks “World No Tobacco Day” on Wednesday, Sweden, which has the lowest rate of smoking in the Europe Union, is close to declaring itself “smoke free” — defined as having fewer than 5% daily smokers in the population.Many experts give credit to decades of anti-smoking campaigns and legislation, while others point to the prevalence of “snus,” a smokeless tobacco product that is banned elsewhere in the EU but is marketed in Sweden as an alternative to cigarettes.Whatever the reason, the 5% milestone is now within reach. Only 6.4% of Swedes over 15 were daily smokers in 2019, the lowest in the EU and far below the average of 18.5% across the 27-nation bloc, according to the Eurostat statistics agency.Figures from the Public Health Agency of Sweden show the smoking rate has continued to fall since then, reaching 5.6% last year.“We like a healthy ...

Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo gather in northern town after clashes with NATO-led peacekeepers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:37 GMT

ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — Hundreds of ethnic Serbs on Wednesday gathered in a town in northern Kosovo, days after clashes that injured 30 soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force and over 50 Serbs, provoking fears of a renewal of the region’s bloody conflicts and prompting the Western military alliance to send in additional troops.The Serbs reiterated that they want the Kosovo special police and ethnic Albanian officials they call “fake” mayors to withdraw from northern Kosovo. The crowd then spread a huge Serbian flag.Wednesday’s protest outside the city hall in Zvecan, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital, Pristina, was peaceful as of late morning. On Monday, ethnic Serbs tried to storm municipal offices and fought with both Kosovo police and the peacekeepers. Serbs are a minority in Kosovo, but a majority in parts of the country’s north bordering Serbia. Many reject the Albanian-majority territory’s claim of independence from Serbia. A former provi...