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US to provide Ukraine $1.2 billion in long-term security aid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will provide $1.2 billion more in long-term military aid to Ukraine to further bolster its air defenses as Russia continues to pound Ukraine with drones, rockets and surface-to-air missiles, U.S. officials said Monday.The aid package is expected to be announced on Tuesday and the money will be provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Unlike the U.S. equipment, weapons and ammunition that are more frequently sent to Ukraine from Pentagon stocks — so they can be delivered quickly — this money is to be spent over the coming months or even years to ensure Ukraine’s future security needs.The assistance initiative will fund HAWK air-defense systems, air-defense munitions and drones for air defense. It will also buy artillery, rockets, satellite imagery assistance, and funding for ongoing maintenance and spare parts for a variety of systems, according to the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not ye...

Turkey’s election gives Greece a migraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

ATHENS — After Turks themselves, Greeks will be the closest observers of Sunday’s Turkish election and they have few illusions that everything is going to be rosy with the old foe (but fellow NATO member) across the Aegean Sea after the vote, no matter who wins.That’s not to say Greeks wouldn’t be happy to see the back of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has proved a bête noire. Erdoğan has not only engaged Greek jet fighters in dangerous brinkmanship over the Aegean Sea but has hinted he could snatch a Greek island overnight and even threatened Athens with a missile. His decision in 2020 to reconvert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia — once Greek-speaking Constantinople’s greatest church — from a museum back into a mosque, as it had been in Ottoman times, delivered a particularly grave cultural wound to Greeks.Opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a soft-spoken 74-year-old former bureaucrat, would certainly prove an easier diplomatic partner, but many note th...

School bus drivers in Marlboro enter second day of strike after no deal made

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

Bus drivers in Marlboro are striking for the second day in a row on Tuesday after their union and their bus company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract over the weekend and no negotiations took place Monday. The bus company, NRT Bus, operates in three other area districts — Marlboro, Westboro, and Framingham. According to Teamsters Local 170, bus drivers in Framingham struck a deal Sunday night to avoid a strike and drivers in Westboro have not planned a strike this week despite having no deal yet.In Marlboro, school is still on during the strike, leaving many parents feeling frustrated as they worked to find another way to get their children to school. “Today is the longest I took to drop them off, there’s so much traffic everywhere,” said Rodney Canales on Monday morning. “This is not safe either.”“We did try, it was hard,” said Tamalla Abbasova. “There were a lot of cars, a lot of traffic, and the kids are frustrate...

Mark Zuckerberg wins gold and silver in his first Jiu-Jitsu tournament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

(CNN) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg won two medals in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament held at a Silicon Valley high school Saturday, adding to the tech leader’s vast array of extracurricular activities.The 38-year-old Zuckerberg competed at the BJJ Tour competition in Woodside, California. Zuckerberg won the gold medal in the Nogi Master 1 White Belt Feather Weight Division and the Silver medal in the Gi Master 2 White Belt Feather Weight Division, BJJ Tour confirmed.“Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,” Zuckerberg posted on Facebook. The post garnered more than 40,000 comments including from UFC fighter Conor McGregor and jiu-jitsu world champion Bernardo Faria.On an August 2022 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Zuckerberg said he found Jiu-Jitsu to help boost his energy and focus at work. He called the sport “primal.” He began practicing the sk...

Biden to meet with congressional leadership as threat of national debt default looms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

(CNN) — President Joe Biden is set to meet with congressional leadership on Tuesday amid a stalemate in Washington to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default that would have catastrophic economic consequences.A path forward to raising the debt ceiling remains unclear. House Republicans want to attach spending reductions to a debt ceiling increase and have passed a debt limit plan that does just that. But Biden and congressional Democrats are insisting on passing a clean increase on the debt limit before addressing a framework for spending.During Tuesday’s meeting in the Oval Office at 4 p.m. ET — the first in-person, top-level discussions to take place at the White House in months — the president will be joined by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.Biden has not formally held a meeting with McCarthy since February, when the two l...

Sorting through the Chicago Bears’ pass rusher options as GM Ryan Poles seeks to beef up the defense

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

Not only did Jaquan Brisker have the unusual distinction of leading the Chicago Bears in sacks last season as a defensive back, he was the first homegrown player atop that category since the middle of the Lovie Smith era.Brisker’s four sacks paced the league’s last-ranked pass rush in 2022, when the rookie safety became the first player drafted and developed by the Bears to lead them in sacks since Alex Brown had six in 2008.During that 13-year span, Adewale Ogunleye, Israel Idonije, Julius Peppers, Willie Young, Lamarr Houston, Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn took turns spearheading the pass rush, evidence of how reliant the Bears have been on free agency and the trade market at a marquee position.Now general manager Ryan Poles has to sort through potential options to beef up the pass rush like a shopper hitting the mall in search of the perfect gift the day after Christmas. The Bears have essentially admitted they need help at defensive end. The good news is ...

Ravens WR Zay Flowers played ‘every position’ at rookie camp. Here’s how he fits in the offense.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

Zay Flowers’ first “Welcome to the NFL” moment came in the form of a message from Baltimore native and former NBA star Carmelo Anthony, who reached out after the Ravens selected the Boston College wide receiver 22nd overall in last month’s draft.“He was like ‘Welcome to flock nation,’” Flowers said. “I was like ‘Carmelo Anthony texted me?’ Then I clicked on his page and there were 7 million followers; I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s him.’”Flowers’ actual debut was much more routine — he joined 23 others at a three-day rookie minicamp Thursday through Saturday at the team’s facility in Owings Mills.In many ways, it was just another couple of practices for a player who’s been having them for most of his life. But it also gave Flowers — and Ravens coaches — a feel for how he might be used in the offense. There were some differences from his days at Boston College.R...

Willson Contreras embraces the villain role on the other side of the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry: ‘When you get booed, you’re doing something right’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

Willson Contreras, decked out in St. Louis Cardinals red, admitted to experiencing nerves Monday in the visitors dugout at Wrigley Field.Those feelings had nothing to do with the Cardinals’ decision to make him their full-time designated hitter for the foreseeable future in an effort to overhaul the catcher’s behind-the-scenes work with the pitching staff.Contreras wasn’t sure what type of reception he would receive from Chicago Cubs fans on a damp, cool night at Wrigley Field in his first game back since signing a five-year, $87.5 million contract with the Cardinals in the offseason. Contreras, 30, hoped for the best, but the three-time All-Star acknowledged not all fans might be able to look past his new allegiance despite helping the Cubs win a World Series title in 2016.“The welcome back is probably going to be 50-50: 50% is going to be happy and 50% is going to boo me, which is acceptable,” Contreras said. “I’m not mad about the fan bas...

Imran Khan, ex-Pakistani PM, is arrested, his party says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s anti-graft agents on Tuesday arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he appeared in a court in the capital, Islamabad, to face charges in multiple graft cases, police and officials from his party said. The arrest, which marks a dramatic escalation on Pakistan’s political scene, drew nationwide condemnation from the supporters of the popular opposition leader and former cricket star. Khan was dragged outside the Islamabad High Court and pushed into a police vehicle by agents from the National Accountability Bureau, according to Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Chaudhry denounced the arrest as “an abduction.” Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast images of the 72-year-old Khan being pulled by security forces towards an armored vehicle, which took him away. Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaign...

Ukraine flags block Russian ambassador’s path on Victory Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:49 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A large installation representing Russian atrocities in Ukraine blocked the path of Russia’s ambassador to Poland as he sought Tuesday to place a wreath at a Warsaw memorial to Soviet soldiers on Russia’s Victory Day holiday.The installation included hundreds of fluttering blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and crosses serving as symbolic grave markers for Ukrainians killed by Russians during the full-scale war launched by Moscow last year. A pool of fake blood below the crosses underlined the message of the protest, which was created by Euromaidan-Warszawa, a citizens’ initiative that supports Ukraine.Organizer Viktoria Pogrebniak said the installation was meant to fight back against Russian propaganda, and “show the real picture to the world.”“We are bombed, we are killed, we are raped,” Pogrebniak said. “We are killed just because we are Ukrainians.”The protesters, mostly Ukrainians but also Poles, blocked Ambassador Sergey Andreev’s pas...