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Artillery blame game hits Brussels over the million shell pledge to Ukraine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

BRUSSELS — Critics of the EU target of supplying 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March — which is increasingly unlikely — have been skeptical since day one. Now, as EU defense ministers gather in Brussels, the blame game is on.“We have to assume that the 1 million will not be achieved,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the start of Tuesday’s summit of EU defense ministers.When the idea was launched last March, there were worries that it was unwise to put a specific figure linked to a deadline for the ammunition pledge if there was the slightest doubt about the bloc’s ability to hit that target. “The question of whether 1 million was ever realistic was actually the right one,” Pistorius added. “There have been voices that have said, ‘Be careful. One million is easy to decide, the money is there, but the production has to be there.’ Unfortunately, those voices are now right.” The initiative came from Estonia in response to Kyiv’s desperate...

Central Perk, Boston’s new ‘Friends’-themed cafe opens for business

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

7NEWS got a sneak peek inside the new Central Perk cafe in Boston ahead of its grand opening Tuesday that drew a large crowd of Friends fans.The 205 Newbury St. cafe is themed after the hangout in the beloved sitcom offers collectibles in addition to the food. For more information visit: https://centralperk.com/pages/locations

Harvest of horseshoe crabs, used for medicine and bait, to be limited to protect rare bird

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Interstate fishing regulators are limiting the harvest of a primordial species of invertebrate to try to help rebuild its population and aid a threatened species of bird.Fishermen harvest horseshoe crabs on the East Coast for use as bait and in biomedical products. The animals are declining in some of their range, and they’re critically important as a food source for the red knot, a migratory shorebird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said it will allow no harvest of female horseshoe crabs that originate in the Delaware Bay during the 2024 fishing season. The Delaware Bay is one of the most important ecosystems for the crabs, which are also harvested in large numbers in New England.The Delaware Bay horseshoe crab population has been increasing over the last two decades, which is an encouraging sign, said John Clark, chair of the Atlantic States horseshoe crab manage...

Forever a ‘Dirtbag’: Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was shaped by college baseball and a surprising speech

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

It was April 23, 1997. A dreary evening inside a hotel lobby in northeast Wichita, Kansas, when Dave Snow summoned his team.What followed inside that landmark meeting ground on the outskirts of the Shockers’ campus has become Long Beach State baseball folklore. It’s the Brandon Hyde story his former teammates retell. A watershed moment for the future Orioles skipper who helped pilot one of the greatest regular-season turnarounds in Major League Baseball, good for AL Manager of the Year finalist recognition.Snow, a veteran baseball coach at Long Beach then in his ninth season, just watched the No. 17 Dirtbags drop back-to-back games in as many days to the 20th-ranked team in the country. They were 27-18 and fading. Snow was befuddled. He could feel the threads that stitched the group together slowly unraveling.When a Wichita State base runner stole second earlier in the day and nobody was there to cover, the throw sailed into center field. One example of a costly miscommu...

NFL power rankings, Week 11: Ravens and Bengals slip heading into pivotal matchup as AFC playoff race heats up

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

Each week of the NFL season, The Baltimore Sun will rank all 32 NFL teams. The rankings will take into account not just weekly performance, injuries and roster depth, but how well each team measures up as Super Bowl contenders.Here are the rankings heading into Week 11:1. Philadelphia Eagles (8-1, No. 2)Last week: ByeUp next: at Chiefs2. Kansas City Chiefs (7-2, No. 3)Last week: ByeUp next: vs. Eagles3. Ravens (7-3, No. 1)Last week: Loss vs. Browns, 33-31Up next: vs. BengalsJust when it looked like the Ravens were rounding into form as the best team in the NFL, they blew leads of 24-9 and 31-17 in the second half of a stunning loss to the Browns. Baltimore’s inability to finish games is deeply concerning, with a minus-17 point differential in the fourth quarter that ranks sixth worst in the league. It’s been a troubling trend for a while; according to ESPN, the Ravens’ seven losses after leading in the fourth quarter since the start of last season are tied with the...

Patriots-Colts film review: Why the Germany loss may not be rock bottom

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

The Patriots’ loss in Germany revealed to the football-watching world what has quietly been evident in New England for weeks.After tailoring the offense to his quarterback, Bill O’Brien has been calling games around Mac Jones, not through him.Nowadays, the Patriots run rudimentary pass concepts almost exclusively. They wield their run game like a hammer whenever possible. The majority of Jones’ downfield throws are schemed play-action shots behind an increasing amount of max protection to simplify his reads and keep him comfortable.O’Brien has baby-proofed the offense, yet Jones still bangs his head and melts down. He might have lost the coaching staff’s trust for good Sunday. The Patriots have lost two, perhaps three, games this season because of him. He’s been benched three times.Not even box-score scouting can save Jones. Remember: almost 20% of Jones’ passing yards came off a meaningless completion before the half to Demario Douglas, Had...

Renowned Candian-born Israeli peace activist, Vivian Silver, confirmed killed in Hamas attack

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born Israeli activist who devoted her life to seeking peace with the Palestinians, was confirmed killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel.For 38 days, Silver, who had moved to Israel in the 1970s and made her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, had been believed to be among the nearly 240 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. But identification of some of the most badly burned remains has gone slowly, and her family was notified of her death on Monday.Silver was a dominant figure in several groups that promoted peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as a prominent Israeli human rights group. She also volunteered with a group that drove Gaza cancer patients to Israeli hospitals for medical care.“On the one hand, she was small and fragile. Very sensitive,” her son Yonatan Zeigen told Israel Radio on Tuesday. “On the other hand, she was a force of nature. She had a giant spirit. She was very assertive. She had very strong core beliefs...

Ontario to ban unpaid restaurant trial shifts; part of new labour law coming today

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

Ontario is planning to explicitly ban unpaid trial shifts for restaurant and hospitality workers, while also strengthening rules against deducting employee wages in the event of customer theft.The latest proposed changes are set to be announced Tuesday by Labour Minister David Piccini ahead of legislation expected to be tabled this afternoon that contains a host of new labour laws.Piccini says that while it is already the law that employees must be paid for all hours worked, unpaid trial shifts are still happening as part of the interview process in some restaurants, so the practice will be specifically prohibited.Similarly, Piccini says labour laws already prohibit employers from deducting wages due to lost or stolen property, but new language will specifically ban it in instances of dine and dash or gas and dash.As well, while current laws permit employers to share in pooled tips if they are performing the same work as their staff, the legislation to be introduced today would requ...

Book Review: Benjamin Taylor’s brief new biography of Willa Cather displays the devotion of a fan

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

Benjamin Taylor has a thing for Willa Cather. This year, the 150th anniversary of her birth, he has written a passionate love letter to her in the form of a brief but illuminating biography. “Chasing Bright Medusas” clocks in at just over 150 pages but it offers a fine introduction to one of the leading novelists of the American frontier.Taylor, a prize-winning author who also penned short books about Philip Roth and Marcel Proust, argues that Cather’s move at age 9 from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Red Cloud, Nebraska, where for the first time she encountered Jews, Norwegians, Mexicans and immigrants of all kinds, was a foundational event that “made her a cosmopolitan while she was still a provincial.”He also demonstrates how, as she matured as a writer, she differed sharply from her younger contemporaries in the literary world, including Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Dos Passos, in her “unironic” idealism about America’s possibility.His other major themes include her comp...

EU struggles to produce and send the ammunition it promised to Ukraine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:31:14 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations acknowledged on Tuesday that they risk failing to provide Ukraine with the ammunition they pledged to help Kyiv stave off the Russian invasion and win back its territory.Early this year, EU leaders promised to provide 1 million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine’s front line by spring next year in what would have amounted to a serious ramp-up of production. But the 27-nation bloc, for over half a century steeped in a “peace, not war” message and sheltering under a U.S. military umbrella, is finding it tough to come up with the goods. “The 1 million will not be reached, you have to assume that,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, ahead of a meeting of EU defense and foreign affairs ministers in Brussels. Estonia’s defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, said it was crucial to ramp up supply of the ammunition.“Look at Russia. They are producing today more than ever. They are getting shells from North Korea. Europe cannot say that R...