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Study reveals top romance scams to watch for on social media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Shocking new numbers show the biggest increase in romance scams in five years.The study was conducted by The Social Catfish, a reverse search technology company.Findings reveal Americans lost a record $1.3 billion to romance scams in 2022, an increase of more than 130% in one year alone.FOX31 spoke to one victim who explains why many elderly women fall for the schemes.“I was just tired of being alone and I needed somebody,” she said.One former scammer from Nigeria is embarking on a press tour in an effort to warn potential victims after seeing his own mother targeted. Westminster family searching for 15-year-old son “Let me tell you this, I used to do a scam, I used to talk to a woman, I would call her from 12 a.m. midnight until five in the morning,” he said.Colorado ranks 16th in the nation for romance scam cases with 362 victims losing $14.1 billion in 2022 mostly through bank wires and by sending gift cards.Losses in New Mexico jumped nearly 300% in one year, ...

Man bitten by shark while spearfishing off Islamorada shares ordeal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

A young man is on the road to recovery days after an encounter with a shark off the Florida Keys sent him to the hospital with a painful bite.Speaking with 7News on Sunday, 22-year-old Ethan Wilder shared his account of coming face-to-face with the marine predator, Friday afternoon.“Me and my buddy were out spearfishing, and I just speared a fish, and I swam back up to the surface with them,” he said, “and I had it in my left hand, and I was about to swim back to the boat, and then a shark came from behind me and got my leg.”The shark strike happened near Davis Reef, off Islamorada.Wilder said his fishing partner was watching from a distance.“Well, he was watching from the boat, and he thought that the shark had just bit the fish,” said Wilder. “He didn’t realize he got me until I got to the boat.”Wilder said his immediate reaction was not extreme.“We were pretty cool. I told him to pull the anchor, and he went up there and...

How to stop Putin getting away with murder in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. KYIV — “Murder, torture, illegal detentions and the persecution of people based on their ethnicity,” intoned Gyunduz Mamedov.He was listing the investigations he oversaw into Russia’s atrocities from 2016 to 2021, when working as a Ukrainian prosecutor, initially focused on Crimea after Moscow’s annexation and, subsequently, on the Donbas. And the dismal litany of the inhumanity could easily continue for many more paragraphs.Mamedov, a 48-year-old Azerbaijani-born Ukrainian lawyer, and his war-crimes team opened 30,000 criminal cases against Russians before he stepped down as the country’s deputy prosecutor general, when his department was abruptly handed over.Mamedov is silent when asked whether this was punishment for his participation in an audacious sting operation to entrap mercenaries of the paramilitary Wagner group — a secret operation that Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top aide, had frowned upon and d...

Latest Ukraine satellite images reveal devastation of Russian invasion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

OPTICSLatest Ukraine satellite images reveal devastation of Russian invasionThe consequences of war, seen from the sky.Images via Google Earth and Maxar. Above, streets in Mariupol.At the end of April, Google partially updated its map of Ukraine. Even though the latest images probably date from March 2022, the scale of destruction in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion is clear.The latest map lays bare the aftermath of the historic battles for Kyiv, and shows the destroyed iconic cargo plane Mriya at Hostomel Airport. It also shows a bridge in Irpin and a dam in Kozarovychi Village that Ukrainian forces had to blow up to stop the Russian offensive on Kyiv last year. Satellite cameras have also captured Bakhmut fields peppered with shell holes and people standing in line for humanitarian aid in the doomed port city of Mariupol.   POLITICO gathered satellite pictures from nine locations in Ukraine to show what they looked like before and after Russia invaded.Hostomel ...

Reality of war rains on Russia’s Victory Day parade

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

Moscow took 12 hours to respond after an explosion lit up the dome of the Kremlin complex last Wednesday.According to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the security services needed time to investigate the incident. But the Kremlin’s spin doctors worked extra hours too, no doubt. On the eve of Victory Day — which traditionally celebrates the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, but which has become emblematic of Russia’s current war against Ukraine — the Kremlin’s line at home is that the country is battling an enemy as powerful as it is evil. That narrative is meant to account for the absence of success on the battlefront after 14 months of fighting, while offering Russians a sense of security that for them life will continue as usual.But a series of mysterious incidents  — including Wednesday’s early-morning blast — is revealing cracks in Russia’s facade of strength. The cancellation of some of the Vic...

All hail Queen Ursula!

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

Move over, King Charles III.The European Union is getting ready to crown its own monarch: Ursula von der Leyen. But there’s nothing symbolic about the power she wields.As president of the bloc’s executive arm, von der Leyen is due to serve until 2024, when the EU will elect a new European Parliament. The vote is meant to help determine, at least in theory, who gets to succeed her in the powerful role.But with the election more than a year away, stars are already aligning around a second term for von der Leyen — who has yet to confirm she’s even interested in continuing the job. The center-right European People’s Party, which controls the largest faction in the European Parliament, has thrown its weight behind the German politician, as have Germany’s conservative parties. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition in Berlin is sending positive signals. And while French President Emmanuel Macron has yet to say publicly whether he backs von der Leyen for a second t...

Investigation underway after at least 2 people shot in Mattapan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

Boston police are investigating a shooting that sent at least two people to the hospital on Sunday night.Officers responding to a reported shooting on Wildwood Street found two victims, one of whom was suffering from life-threatening injuries, according to Boston police.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Not live, MTV Movie & TV Awards rely on plenty of old clips

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A host-less, pre-taped and muted MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday became the first big awards show to air during the screenwriters’ strike, offering a commercial-heavy broadcast featuring lots of past recycled live clips.“Scream VI” won the trophy for best movie, holding back competition from “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis,” “Nope,” “Smile” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” In a pre-taped response, the killer Ghostface was humble: “To all the fans that voted, you finally answered my question: What’s your favorite scary movie?”“The Last of Us” was crowned best TV show, beating the likes of “Stranger Things,” “The White Lotus,” “Wednesday” and “Yellowjackets.” Pedro Pascal accepted the award and said he and the cast and creators were standing in solidarity with the striking writers.Tom Cruise took home the best performance in a movie for “Top Gun: Maverick,” beating Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Michael B. Jordan and Keke Palmer. I...

Conervatives prevail in key vote for new Chile constitution

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A far-right party led in the vote count Sunday night after Chileans cast ballots for a 50-member commission that is to draft a new coonstitution after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed charter last year that was considered one of the world’s most progressive.It was a major defeat for Chile’s center-left president, Gabriel Boric, with the vote also widely viewed as a referendum on his government, which currently has an approval rating of around 30%.With 91% of polling stations reporting, the Republican Party, led by far-right José Antonio Kast, who lost the presidential runoff to Boric in 2021, led with 35% of the vote. The Republican Party has long opposed changing the constitution that was imposed by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.A coalition of left-leaning parties allied with Boric, Unity for Chile was in second place with 28% of the vote. A center-right alliance, Safe Chile, was in third with 21%. Null or blank votes made up 21% of the t...

Boat capsizes in southern India, at least 20 people dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:33 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Twenty people, including women and children, died after a boat carrying more than 30 passengers capsized on Sunday night near a beach in India’s southern state of Kerala, local media reported. “The boat is being hauled ashore and more bodies are expected to be recovered from inside,” Sports Minister V Abdurahiman told the Press Trust of India news agency, adding that four people in critical condition were admitted to a hospital. Rescuers had reached Tanur, a coastal town in the state’s Malappuram district, where the capsizing occurred near Thoovaltheeram beach. It’s not clear what caused the boat to overturn.The Associated Press