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Bill Belichick was excited to see Patriots get surplus of depth at important position

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

It’s still unclear who will be the starting right tackle in Week 1 when the Patriots take the Gillette Stadium game field to play the Eagles, but at least Bill Belichick now has options.In a span of just over 48 hours, the Patriots acquired offensive tackles Vederian Lowe and Tyrone Wheatley Jr. via trade and activated Calvin Anderson from a summer-long stint on the non-football illness list. That came after veteran offensive tackle Conor McDermott struggled and then suffered an injury and offseason addition Riley Reiff moved to guard and then began to miss time with his own ailment. The Patriots’ only realistic, healthy option to play opposite starting left tackle Trent Brown was rookie Sidy Sow, who had his own growing pains this summer after converting from guard in college.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots QB Mac Jones has improved in these 3 areas, according to Bill Belichick New England Patriots | Bill Belichick breaks silen...

Red Sox promoting top prospects Kyle Teel, Roman Anthony to Double-A

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

Two of the most exciting young prospects in the Red Sox organization are moving up to Portland, as Kyle Teel and Roman Anthony have both been promoted to Double-A.The news was first reported by Milb Central on Instagram and confirmed by a Red Sox source Monday morning.Teel was Boston’s first-round pick in this past July’s MLB Draft and Anthony was chosen after the second round last summer with the compensatory pick obtained by losing Eduardo Rodriguez. Both have dominated High-A pitching since joining the Greenville Drive and will now have a chance to test themselves against stronger competition over the last two weeks of the Portland Sea Dogs’ season.Teel, a 21-year-old catcher out of the University of Virginia, hit the ground running after starting his professional career last month. He made his High-A debut on Aug. 8 and proceeded to bat .377 with a .983 OPS, nine RBI, 10 runs scored, four doubles and as many walks (11) as strikeouts (11) in only 14 games. Teel ...

Malaysian court dismisses dozens of graft charges against deputy prime minister

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian court on Monday dismissed 47 corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi after prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the charges at an advanced stage of his trial. Zahid said the High Court approved the prosecutors’ application for a dismissal but refused to grant him a full acquittal, which means he can still be recharged. But he said he was grateful that the “politically motivated accusations against me have ended.”Zahid heads the United Malays National Organization, and his support has been pivotal in helping Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim form a unity government after last November’s general election led to a hung Parliament. Zahid’s dismissal sparked new criticism and further hurt the anti-corruption stance of Anwar’s government. Opposition leaders have alleged that Zahid supported Anwar so the charges against him could be dropped. Monday’s court ruling came just weeks after local elections in which the Isla...

Biden touts unions, job creation during Philadelphia Labor Day appearance

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, is in Philadelphia on Monday for the annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade. The Democratic president is speaking about the importance of unions in the United States and how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic. “This Labor Day we’re celebrating jobs, good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on, union jobs,” the president told the crowd Monday. Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work, the most since January, all news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reelection in 2024. “As we head into Labor Day, we ought to take a step back and take note of the fact that America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history,” Biden said Friday from the Rose Garden, where he spoke after the news that America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in Aug...

Insider Q&A: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic foresees interest rates staying higher for longer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has reached a delicate stage in its fight against inflation.Its policymakers have raised their key interest rate to about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years, to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation pressures. They now are considering whether to raise the rate even higher — a move that would heighten the risk of a recession — or leave it at its current level for an extended period. Though inflation has slowed for the past year, it’s showing signs of stickiness at its current levels. A recent uptick in gas prices sent inflation a bit higher in July.Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a member of the Fed’s interest rate policy committee, doesn’t think another hike is needed. But Bostic favors keeping the benchmark rate at its current level well into 2024. The Associated Press interviewed Bostic in late August and it has been edited for length and clarity: Q: Since March 2022, the Fed ha...

Copenhagen mayor urges foreigners to stop buying marijuana at city’s drug oasis following shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Copenhagen’s mayor on Monday urged foreigners not to buy weed in the city’s Christiania neighborhood where a 30-year-old man was shot and killed and four others injured two weeks ago due to gang turf wars fighting over the marijuana trade in the area.The Aug. 26 killing was the latest in a bloody feud between rival gangs, the Hells Angels and the outlawed Loyal to Family. Both are trying to monopolize the sale of cannabis in Christiania.On Friday, a 28-year-old man, affiliated with the Loyal To Family gang was arrested in relation to the shooting.The sale of marijuana is illegal in Denmark. “The spiral of violence at Christiania is deeply worrying,” Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen said. She called on “the hundreds of thousands of visiting tourists and the many new foreign students who have just moved to Copenhagen to stay away and refrain from buying weed or other drugs at Pusher Street.” Christiania has become one of Copenhagen’s bigg...

Ukraine’s defense minister resigns following Zelenskyy’s announcement of his replacement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted a letter of resignation on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be replaced and named his successor.Oleksii Reznikov’s removal follows a scandal around the defense ministry’s procurement of military jackets. It was not the first similar case during the ongoing war.Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new leadership was needed after Reznikov went through “more than 550 days of full-scale war.” He named Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker, as the new defense minister.“Reznikov was a good and prominent international negotiator, but it appears that there is chaos and disorder within the Ministry of Defense, which many deputies have taken advantage of, resulting in corruption scandals during the war,” said analyst Volodymyr Fesenko from the Kyiv-based Penta Center.“All actions of the Ukrainian authorities are geared toward the interests of the...

Russia arrests mathematician on terrorism charges minutes after his release from prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities in Russia arrested a mathematician on terrorism charges Monday after he had just completed a prison sentence for hooliganism, the latest step in a years-long Kremlin crackdown on political opponents. Azat Miftakhov, 30, was detained minutes after his release from a penal colony over 900 kilometers (559 miles) east of Moscow, according to Russian media reports. His lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina, told Russian state news agency Tass that Miftakhov was charged with justifying terrorism and refused to plead guilty. Miftakhov was arrested in 2019 and accused of attacking a Moscow office of the Kremlin’s ruling United Russia party, allegations he rejected. At the time, he was a postgraduate student pursuing an advanced degree in math and professed anarchist views. He accused authorities of torturing him in detention.A Moscow court convicted him of hooliganism in 2021 and sentenced him to six years in prison. Human Rights Watch called his conviction “clearly unj...

Ontario’s housing minister Steve Clark resigns amid Greenbelt scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

Steve Clark has resigned as Ontario’s housing Minister.He posted a letter addressed to Premier Doug Ford on X, formerly Twitter, announcing the decision, saying it is his “responsibility to adhere to Ministerial accountability.”As someone who has given my life to serving the people through our democratic institutions, it is my responsibility to adhere to the principles of Ministerial accountability. I will continue to serve my constituents as the MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes pic.twitter.com/5VvUMB43gi— Steve Clark (@SteveClarkPC) September 4, 2023Clark says he will continue to serve as MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.The move comes days after a scathing report from the province’s integrity commissioner, who found Clark violated ethics rules for the way the government removed land earmarked for development from the protected Greenbelt.More to comeWith files from The Canadian Press

Report says Dutch government spends billions on subsidies for fossil fuel producers and users

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:08 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government spends some 37.5 billion euros ($40.5 billion) per year in subsidies to industries that use fossil fuels, according to a new report published Monday by a platform that investigates multinationals and by two groups lobbying for a transition to renewable energy.The report lists 31 government subsidies, mainly tax breaks, that make it cheaper for companies to produce and use fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.The sector with the biggest chunk of the government’s support is the Dutch shipping industry, which benefits to the tune of 6.7 billion euros, according to the report. Electricity generated using fossil fuel gets 5.3 billion euros in tax breaks and other benefits, it adds.The report was published by the The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, known as SOMO, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International. It calls on lawmakers to begin phasing out the subsidies even before the country...