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Boston city councilor won’t lose election after Israel-Hamas remarks, observers say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson is expected to sail through in next month’s election, but political observers say her comments on the Israel-Hamas war could be a factor in two years if she faces a stronger opponent.Her description of the Hamas terrorist organization as a “militant group” and characterization of the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis as a “military operation” last Wednesday was heavily criticized, but isn’t expected to turn off a majority of voters in District 7, two former city councilors said.“Do I think it’s going to impact her election? Probably not,” Michael McCormack, an attorney who served five terms on the City Council, told the Herald. “I think she wins with so few votes that the people who vote for her are probably just as uninformed as she is with respect to what she filed and her comments.”Also working in her favor is the “very weak” opponent she’s running against, McCormack said, referring to Althea Garrison, a perennial ca...

MLB Offseason: Key dates to know as Red Sox enter pivotal winter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

Right now all eyes are on the MLB playoffs, and for the next two weeks the focus within the sport will be on who emerges as this year’s World Series champion.But once the Fall Classic ends, the baseball world will quickly shift into offseason mode, and for the Red Sox these coming months could chart the franchise’s course for years to come.When can fans expect to see players start switching teams? How about other big decisions and deadlines that loom once the offseason officially begins? Here’s a quick primer on the offseason schedule and how things should play out this winter.When does free agency begin?Free agency and the trade market officially opens the day after the World Series ends, but free agents cannot sign with new teams until five days afterwards. During that five-day stretch clubs have exclusive rights to sign their own players, which for Boston will include James Paxton and Adam Duvall, along with likely Justin Turner, Corey Kluber and Joely Rodriguez...

Prominent German leftist to launch a new party that could eat into far-right’s support

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent German leftist politician has launched plans to form a new party that some observers think could take votes away from the far-right Alternative for Germany.Sahra Wagenknecht on Monday presented her “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance — for Reason and Fairness.” The aim is to formally launch the party in January, in time for European Parliament elections in June. Three state elections in Germany’s formerly communist east will follow next fall.Wagenknecht offers a combination of left-wing economic policy, with high wages and generous benefits, and a restrictive approach to migration. She also questions some environmentalists’ plans to combat climate change and opposes current sanctions against Russia, which was once Germany’s leading gas supplier, and German arms supplies to Ukraine.Wagenknecht is launching her project at a time when center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s quarrelsome three-party coalition is deeply unpopular. National polls show...

Danish deputy prime minister leaves politics but his party stays on in the center-right government

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s deputy prime minister and economy minister announced Monday he was leaving politics and stepping down as head of the center-right Liberal Party to spend more time with his family.The Liberals, however, are staying on in the three-party governing coalition, which has been in office since December 2022. For now, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen would take over Ellemann-Jensen’s posts and take on the roles of deputy prime minister and economy minister.A visibly moved Ellemann-Jensen said Monday he was taking the consequences following internal party criticism over dwindling support. He said he is resigning because he didn’t want to stand in the way of his party’s revival. The party had seen support plunge from 24.6% in September 2019, when he became party leader, to 8.7% in an Oct. 3 opinion poll.Critics also alleged that Ellemann-Jensen was too weak of a figure in a government where Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Lars Løk...

More than 1,600 migrants arrive on Spanish Canary Islands. One boat carried 320 people

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Some 314 migrants arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands in two boats early Monday, bringing to more than 1,600 the number of migrants to reach the islands since Friday, emergency services said.The service said one boat carrying 229 migrants was escorted to El Hierro island while another with 85 was taken to Tenerife . Of the boats that arrived over the weekend, one on Saturday was carrying 320 migrants. The state news agency EFE said it was the largest number in a single boat since human traffickers began to regularly use the Canary Island route in 1994. The previous record of 280 was recorded earlier this month.Most of the boats arrived at El Hierro, which has received several thousand migrants in recent weeks. The Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa.Most of the migrants come from sub-Saharan African countries and most of the boats depart from Senegal.Migrants arriving by boat in Spain spend up to 72 hours in police custody, for identificati...

Court orders Russian-US journalist to stay in jail another 6 weeks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

A Russian court on Monday ordered a Russian-American journalist who was detained last week on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent to remain in custody until early December, her employer reported.Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, appeared in a closed session in a court in the city of Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan republic.The radio service said the court ordered her to be held until Dec. 5, rejecting her lawyer’s request for preventive measures other than incarceration.She is the second U.S. journalist detained in Russia this year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in March. Gershkovich remains in custody.The state-run news website Tatar-Inform said Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent” and was collecting information on Russian military activities. Conviction would carry a sentence of up to ...

President Joe Biden is naming ‘tech hubs’ for 32 states, Puerto Rico to help industry, create jobs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — The Biden administration is designating 31 “ tech hubs ” touching 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the specific industries that are concentrated in these areas.President Joe Biden was set to announce the hubs Monday at the White House. “I have to say, in my entire career in public service, I have never seen as much interest in any initiative than this one,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters during a Sunday conference call to preview the announcement. Her department received 400 applications, she said. “No matter where I go or who I meet with — CEOs, governors, senators, congresspeople, university presidents — everyone wants to tell me about their application and how excited they are,” said Raimondo, who planned to join Biden for the announcement.The tech hubs are the result of a process Raimondo’s department launched in May to distribute a total of $500 million in grants to cities.The $500 mill...

Commission co-hosts EU Tax Symposium 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

On 24 and 25 October, the European Parliament and the European Commission will co-host the 2023 edition of the EU Tax Symposium, with the theme "The future of taxation in the EU: challenges ahead & changes needed". The EU Tax Symposium will provide an opportunity to reflect on how tax policies could best confront the numerous policy challenges Europe faces, with a view to ensuring fair, efficient and sustainable taxation in the decades ahead. In that vein, the event aims to stimulate a broad debate on the future of our tax systems and the tax mix needed to reach our goals. Discussions will cover a broad range of topics including those related to business taxation, Value-Added Tax (VAT), behavioural taxes, personal income taxation and wealth taxation. The Symposium will also help to provide orientation for future EU policy-making.Speakers and panellists include Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis; Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni;Chair of the European Parliament's ...

Bridge: Oct. 23, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

I was in the club lounge when a penny-game kibitzer came in.“Ed got an ovation,” he said. “He made a fool of Grapefruit.”Ed is the club expert. Grapefruit can’t see a belt without hitting below it; he badgers his partners mercilessly.Ed played at four hearts. West led the queen of diamonds, dummy’s king covered, and Grapefruit, East, won and returned a diamond. West won and led a trump.Ed had four losers, but he drew trumps and led a spade from dummy: six, queen, five. Ed then ruffed his last diamond and returned another low spade. Grapefruit flinched … and put up the ace. Then Ed threw a club on the king of spades. Making four!SECOND SPADE“I’ve got a rock garden at home, and your head would look great in it,” West said to Grapefruit, giving him some of his own medicine. “Duck the second spade. South surely has the ace of clubs. If he has the jack of spades, he has ten tricks.”Grapefruit was silent, for once. An...

Ask Amy: Am I wrong to promise him a baby if he agrees not to go to war?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:59 GMT

Dear Amy: My husband and I are Israeli-American. We live in the United States and have one child, an infant.Related ArticlesAdvice | Ask Amy: If I’d known about this upheaval, I would have declined the wedding invitation Advice | Ask Amy: The fight over laundry has undermined our marriage Advice | Ask Amy: I’ve been told that a mad dash through the airport won’t win me a woman Advice | Ask Amy: Should I let him know I’ve been tracking the car’s mileage? Advice | Ask Amy: I can’t believe he’s still doing the thing that almost killed him Before children, we agreed on a three-child minimum, but now that we have our baby, I feel very strongly about being a one-child family. My husband still wants to have more children.We agreed we’d table the discussion for later, and if we did have more kids, we would wait for several years.With the war breaking out, he decide...