![The Wayland Police Department have issued a warning on the rise of scammers during the holiday season. “Hang up [the phone]. if you get a text and you do not know who it's from, just delete it. Don't click on any links, nothing,” Wayland police chief Edward Burman said. “Every single one of them is a scam.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_0954_720-e1734676255647.jpg)
![WHS’s Connect Program ran its annual holiday gift drive to fulfill the wishlist of children enrolled in the Dorchester based non-profit daycare organization, the Yawkey Center. This drive brought the town together and impacted both the students in Connect, as well as the greater Wayland community. “You could see how helpful the town was and how our community came together and wanted to help out a community that wasn't our own [and] kids who were less fortunate than we were,” senior and Connect Program member Jordynn Lee said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/screenshot_2024-12-20_at_12.21.24___pm_720-e1734734228474.png)
![The Boy Scouts will be selling trees on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays noon to 6 p.m. until they sell out.
“This event is one of the things that [the Boy Scouts] get to have a direct impact on the community,” freshman Alex Macleod said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-8.38.38 AM.png)
What you need to know:
On Friday, Feb. 16, Alexei Navalny, the previous presidential candidate of Russia, was killed in a prison known as the “Polar Wolf penal colony.” Navalny was a protester who fought against Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and inspired protesters like Nadya Tolokonnikova to create groups that fight against Putin’s dictatorship.
Navalny was arrested by Putin in 2012 and has been in and out of several prisons throughout the world on charges of fraud, extremism and more. There is some speculation regarding whether or not his arrests were because of his clear disagreements with Putin and the dictatorship in Russia. In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with novichok, which is a deadly poison that attacks the nervous system. Despite the lethality of this poison, Navalny was able to recover. After that initial act of violence, Navalny’s life was threatened, but he continued to criticize Putin until his death.
Why it matters:
Navalny is not the only Russian citizen who has protested against Putin’s regime. Some activists, like Alexei Gorinov who opposed Putin’s attack on Ukraine, have been detained and sent to prison for speaking out against Putin. Some believe that the attempted assassination on Navalny in 2020 demonstrates Putin and the Russian government’s tendency to resort to extreme measures when they feels that their power is threatened.
Some Russian citizens aren’t the only people who are enraged about what happened to Navalny. United States president Joe Biden has spoken about releasing 500 sanctions that accuse Putin of several different misconducts of governmental practices.
What are other sources to look at?
“A deal to free Navalny was in the works, and allies say his death was not coincidence” – NBC NEWS
“Alexi Navalny’s allies say Kremlin is trying to derail his burial” – NBC NEWS
“Western leaders point finger at Putin after Alexei Navalny’s death in jail” – The Guardian
![Join WSPN’s Marissa Mendoza, Edge Wheeler, Ainsley Jay, Bowen Morrison and Sofia Ciciarelli as they cover seniors’ involvement in the election and the viewpoint from a WHS educator. “[The election is] a really toxic environment,” WHS history teacher Katherine Bassen said. “It would be disingenuous for me to say, ‘oh, everything's going great.’ Obviously it's not, right?”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_0282-1-1200x800.jpg)
