In the span of 24 hours, the war raging for more than two years in Ukraine has intensified significantly.

After a massive barrage of drone and rocket attacks struck their territory overnight into Sunday, and as missiles continued to fall the following evening, U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Ukrainian armed forces to use American weaponry against targets deep into Russia, according to sources reported by the Associated Press.

The Biden Administration’s change in policy comes after what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a “massive combined attack” that “targeted all regions of Ukraine,” killing several people and leaving parts of the country without power.

“This morning began with one of the largest Russian strikes on Ukraine. 210 missiles and drones, including aeroballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as dozens of Shahed drones, were launched. All of them targeted civilian infrastructure — critical facilities like power plants and transformers,” Zelenskyy shared via social media.

“This evening, a Russian missile hit a nine-story residential building. There are confirmed fatalities, including children. Many people are wounded. Emergency services are on the scene, doing everything to save lives. But what is still missing — and desperately needed — is the principled reaction of the world to this evil,” he said.

Biden’s decision, attributed by the Associated Press to “a U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter,” would represent a stark change in the U.S. stance on Ukrainian use of American arms in Russian territory, which before had been restricted to short range use and mostly aimed at retaking occupied parts of Ukraine.

It also comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has engaged the aid of North Korea in his unlawful war of territorial expansion, and reportedly deployed tens of thousands those troops against Ukraine’s northern defenses.

“The entire world needs them not to turn a blind eye to Russia’s continued terror. Only when the world reacts decisively can the situation change. Russia has involved North Korea in its war—and the reaction has been weak. Russia has continued its terror for nearly 1,000 days—and the world’s decisions are still delayed,” Zelenskyy said Sunday.

According to reporting, Ukraine will be allowed to fire the U.S. made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a vehicle mounted weapons system capable of firing missiles close to 200 miles, at targets inside of Russia. That’s not enough to threaten Putin in Moscow, but more than enough range for Ukraine to defend their northern border now that North Korean troops are apparently amassing near Kursk.

Russia has been attacking its fellow former Soviet state for a decade, since 2014 when Putin illegally annexed Crimea. The conflict, which continued in a pair of separatist regions during the following eight years, exploded into full-scale war in February of 2022, when the Russian military further invaded the country on three fronts.

Moscow apparently had planned for just days of military actions, but Russian forces have mostly been stalled in their advances by Ukrainian troops and civilian volunteers armed and trained by a global coalition of nations. According to the U.N., the war has displaced more than 10 million Ukrainian civilians and left half again as many in need of humanitarian assistance.

According to a “confidential” Ukrainian estimate of war dead reported by the Wall Street Journal in mid-September, more than 1 million people have died as a result of the war.

In the years that have followed Russia’s invasion of their democratic neighbor, according to the Department of Defense the U.S. has “committed approximately $56.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine through both presidential drawdown authority and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in September that use of U.S. long range precision weapons against Russia would be considered an escalation akin to an attack by all of NATO.

“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the United States, and European countries, in the war in Ukraine,” Putin said.

The U.S. policy shift comes as Biden closes out a trip to South America for a climate summit and bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, when the outgoing president apparently called for China to put more pressure on North Korea to stay out of the conflict in Europe.

National Security Advisory Jake Sullivan said that Biden used the meeting to reiterate “his grave concern over the fact that the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) has deployed a significant number of troops to western Russia to participate in the battle against Ukraine, in the war against Ukraine.”

“President Biden really underscored his view that this is a deeply dangerous development, both in the European view, the introduction of a foreign army, and on the Korean Peninsula, with deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK likely to enhance the possibility of provocative behavior by the DPRK,” Sullivan said.

Zelenskyy, during a radio interview on Friday, told his people that the war will “end faster with the policy of this team that will now lead the White House,” referring to the reelection of former President Donald Trump.

Another dry afternoon ahead with an Elevated Fire Risk as we continue to deal with moderate to severe drought conditions across the region.  Fall of 2024 will certainly be remembered for its lack of precipitation and the unprecedented number of brush/wildfires. 

However, we are now in uncharted waters (no pun intended) as we take the number 1 spot, thus far for driest Fall seasons in Boston with only 2.34” of H20 being recorded since September 1^st.  Take it into consideration that we normally see several inches of precipitation in September, October, and November and this period is traditionally our wettest period of the year.  Not all is lost though, there is some rain in the forecast later this week and some signs we may be going into a wetter pattern beyond, we’ll have to wait and see if that pans out.

Plenty of sunshine this afternoon as high-pressure crests over New England delivering us lighter winds and mild temperatures.  It’ll be a very dry day with dewpoints remaining in the teens and 20s, so you may need to reach for a couple extra glasses of water.  Highs reach the low to mid 60s south, 50s north.

Chilly overnight tonight with clouds on the increase as a frontal boundary approaches from the west which may kick off a rain/snow showers across the higher elevation north, a sprinkle to the south late tonight into the early Monday morning hours, but most stay dry.  Lows in the 30s and 40s.

Monday will feature some morning clouds with increasing afternoon sunshine, a stray shower/sprinkle north early.  We’ll deal with a gusty wind developing during the day as well which may help ‘fan’ any brush fires that crop up.  Highs around 60 south, 50s north. 

We remain dry with close to seasonable temperatures in the 50s both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Low pressure moves into the region from the west Wednesday night and Thursday bringing some much-needed rain and perhaps some snow across the higher elevations north and west.

Still some details to work out in the timing and intensity of the precipitation, but confidence is growing that we’ll see a widespread precipitation event.  In terms of rain, anywhere between .50” to 1.50” of rain is possible as it looks not, but still too early to hammer down who gets what.  Unsettled and cool conditions stick around Friday and Saturday with scattered rain showers and higher elevation snow showers from time to time as low pressure pulls away from New England. 

Have a great afternoon!

A student at Berklee College of Music who reconnected with his biological sex after identifying as transgender says he and Congressman Seth Moulton “poked the same beehive” after the school canceled a presentation on his lived experience.

Simon Amaya Price, a 20-year-old Bostonian set to graduate from Berklee in December, looked to share his “Born in the Right Body: Desister and Detransitioner Awareness” presentation on campus last month before officials postponed it indefinitely.

Amaya Price told the Herald that the decision came as a shock, especially after he secured funding through the school’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion and permission to use the office’s logo in advertisements.

Amaya Price, who identified as transgender from age 14 until age 17, received an email from the college’s vice president and executive director, Ron Savage, stating: “Congratulations on your upcoming event. What a tremendous leadership step in organizing this Event.”

Classmates and people from outside the school blasted Amaya Price when he made an initial post about the talk scheduled for Oct. 20, just days before. They also slammed Berklee officials for approving the presentation.

“When I talk about this topic with most people, they tell me they’ve never even heard of desisters and detransitioners,” Amaya Price wrote in his post. “As a desister myself, I find this worrying and I have decided to organize an event this Sunday to raise awareness about this community.”

A desister is “someone who previously identified as transgender but later re-identified with their biological sex before undergoing medical intervention,” while a detransitioner is “someone who was once transgender but no longer identifies as such.”

Backlash

When he woke up the next morning around 400 “overwhelmingly negative” comments greeted him on his Instagram post, “many of them threatening, many of them hateful,” Amaya Price told the Herald on Friday.

One commenter told Amaya Price that he should be “TERRIFIED” and another threatened to “throw expired groceries” at him. Dozens referenced how they felt he was “transphobic.”

A student-led online petition collected 1,998 signatures urging officials to shut down the event, which organizers claimed would “harm the mental well-being of individuals in the transgender community.”

Amaya Price and his father, Gareth Amaya Price, met with Savage on Oct. 17, with the student accepting a recommendation to postpone the Oct. 20 presentation due to safety reasons amid the turmoil.

Just days later, the student and father met with Savage again about plans to find another date and venue for the talk, but the vice president called it off “indefinitely,” Simon Amaya Price said.

“For events on campus, our first priority is always safety,” a college spokesperson told the Herald on Saturday. “The event you reference was postponed due to safety and other logistical concerns shared by both the student responsible for planning the event and the institution.”

New avenue

Through networking and advocacy, Amaya Price will be hosting his presentation, which he said is a project for a “Songwriting and Social Change” course, at MIT on Nov. 24.

He said he worked with MIT Open Discourse Society, an independent group, and received support from Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender in getting it moved and rescheduled.

“Talking to a lot of people who will engage with me in good faith,” Amaya Price said, “their issue is with the existence and legitimacy of desisters and detransitioners.”

“My experience at Berklee is not the exception,” he added. “At our elite institutions, people with dissenting views are really afraid to speak up. … We can do better as a society and we should do better. This is a real problem.”

Amaya Price said he “completely” supports Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton’s post-election comments that Dems were “out of touch with the American people,” especially on transgender issues, which drew a sharp rebuke from critics.

Moulton, telling the New York Times that he doesn’t want his daughters getting “run over on the playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,” has blamed his party for the Republican red wave and Donald Trump’s victory.

“This gender ideology is right in our schools. It should not be compulsory in the way that it is,” Amaya Price said. “We should embrace diversity of thought.”

His father, who identified himself as a Democrat, also agreed with Moulton’s comments, saying that he worries about the party’s future if it continues to reject differing viewpoints.

“What surprised me is that the administration would just fold in the face of this pressure,” he said. “That they would show no backbone, no support for alternate points of view and diversity of opinion that is already present at this school.”

Slides on Amaya Price’s initial post about his presentation stated: “What happens when you realize you were wrong about being trans?” and “Minors can’t consent to a tattoo but can consent to elective, life-altering surgeries.”

Commenters called the student out for spreading “misinformation.”

Per Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, minors have the right to “access gender-affirming health care” with permission from a parent or legal guardian.

In some instances, though, parental consent is unnecessary if a “doctor believes you are mature enough to give informed consent to the treatment, and it is in your best interest not to notify your parents,” Campbell’s office states.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national nonprofit that defends free speech, has advocated for Amaya Price. Earlier this month, the organization wrote a letter to Berklee Interim President David Bogen urging him to rescind the postponement.

“Critics of the event argue that offensive speech should be silenced because it could, ironically, undermine their own voices,” FIRE wrote in a blog post. “However, in doing so, they fail to recognize what true silencing looks like.”

Amaya Price, who lives with his parents in Boston, said he was diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” in high school while he felt “out of touch” with his body and started questioning whether he was truly transgender or not.

After a year at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a liberal arts school in Great Barrington, where he met “lots of other transgenders,” Amaya Price said he withdrew because he felt he didn’t in well.

That’s also when he said he started to detransition. Over the past few years, he admitted he’s grown comfortable with himself.

“We’re failing a lot of young people who suffer from gender dysphoria medically right now because they are not getting the help that they need,” Amaya Price said, “and the help that we’re often giving them is exactly the opposite of what would be good for them.