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Former Miami commissioner to face corruption charges in arraignment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

Former City of Miami Commissioner Alejandro “Alex” Diaz de la Portilla is set to be arraigned Friday on corruption charges, including money laundering and bribery. The case centers on allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars in campaign payments for his brother’s campaign and failed to report them, as required by law.Diaz de la Portilla was arrested and suspended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last month, marking a significant development in this ongoing legal battle. The arraignment is expected to shed more light on the charges brought against the former commissioner.

Serbia’s president calls snap elections for December 17

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić on Friday announced he was calling for snap parliamentary elections on December 17, which will be the third time voters in the country head to the polls in three and a half years.Vučić, whose ruling Progressive Party (SNS) is the dominant force in the parliament, has been facing mounting pressure from the opposition after two deadly mass shootings in the spring sparked public outrage and triggered massive protests. “We heard all their demands,” Vučić told public broadcaster RTS, alluding to a letter sent by the opposition on September 11 requesting a snap vote. “They asked for Belgrade and parliamentary elections and they got them,” the president said, adding there would also be regional elections in Vojvodina, an autonomous province in northern Serbia.“Serbia is at a turning point — we need a half-time so citizens can say what kind of policy they want,” Vučić said.Serbia, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, was...

The Orioles say they’ll be back, and for the first time in decades, they have good reason to believe it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

We’ll be back.It’s the refrain every ballclub turns to in the moments after a season ends in abrupt, crushing disappointment.The Orioles followed the script Tuesday night. In the wake of a 7-1 postseason bludgeoning at the hands of the Texas Rangers, they clung to the fact they had shocked the baseball world with 101 regular-season wins. More importantly, they said, the best is yet come.Not since the franchise’s 1970s and 1980s heyday has an Orioles team won big in the present and had sound reason to believe it would win bigger in the future. The 2023 Orioles are not just spitting in the wind when they talk of next year, saying what they’re supposed to say as they process the close of a joyous run.Their top two position players, catcher Adley Rutschman and infielder Gunnar Henderson, are 25 and 22, respectively. They have two young pitchers, Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez, whom manager Brandon Hyde believes could join the sport’s rarefied club ...

5-foot-9 Batista quite the big catch for Peabody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

PEABODY — Peabody senior Eli Batista says his favorite NFL player to watch is New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley. And much like the former Penn State star, Batista can do it all on the football field.And it’s those talents that has helped a once dormant Peabody football team turn into one of the state’s best in recent years as winners of 21 of their last 22 games under coach Mark Bettencourt.For as good and talented as Batista is, if you ask Bettencourt, he’s quick to say the senior probably hasn’t gotten all the recognition due to him thanks in large part to how talented Peabody was last season.“It was all about Shea (Lynch), Danny (Barrett) and all those guys last season so Eli was kind of underrated,” Bettencourt said. “But what Eli has is a lot of self confidence without cockiness. He’s very humble and very coachable.”Though he stands only 5-9 and weighs just 160 pounds, Batista plays and performs much bigger, especially when the competition is at its fiercest.“He just ...

Analysis: Trevor Story stabilized Red Sox infield, now he must lead it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

Trevor Story’s caught some bad breaks since signing with the Red Sox.Thanks to the MLB lockout freezing the 2022 offseason, Story didn’t even sign with Boston until right before Opening Day. As a result he got less than a week’s worth of spring training before making his debut, and it took almost six weeks before he started looking anything like his normal self.Once Story got going things went well, until he was hit by a pitch and suffered a broken wrist that kept him sidelined for most of the second half. Then this past offseason long-held concerns over his throwing elbow were finally realized, and after returning in August it felt like he could never get comfortable at the plate.Yet even a diminished Story made a tangible difference for the Red Sox down the stretch.After the starting rotation’s inability to pitch deep into games, Boston’s poor infield defense was the biggest factor in the club’s last-place finish. Between Rafael Devers’ re...

7 killed and 16 injured as a suspected migrant-smuggling vehicle crashes in southern Germany

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A vehicle apparently packed with migrants left a highway in southern Germany at high speed on Friday and crashed as the driver tried to evade a police check, killing seven people and injuring 16, authorities said. The accident happened near Ampfing, east of Munich on the A94 highway, which leads to the Austrian border. The van left the road and overturned.Police described the van, which had 23 people on board, as “a suspected smuggler vehicle.” They said prosecutors had opened a homicide investigation.Bavaria’s top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, said that the dead included a young child. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals. The Austrian-registered van was designed to carry nine people, and it wouldn’t have been possible for many of the people on board to use seat belts, German news agency dpa reported. Police said the vehicle was carrying Syrians and Turks, while the driver was a stateless man resident in Austria.“...

Factory fishing in Antarctica for krill targets the cornerstone of a fragile ecosystem

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

ABOARD THE ALLANKAY off Antarctica (AP) — The Antarctic Endeavour glides across the water’s silky surface as dozens of fin whales spray rainbows from their blowholes into a fairy tale icescape of massive glaciers.But as a patrol of environmentalists approaches the Chilean super trawler in an inflatable boat, the cruder realities of modern industrial fishing come into view.From one of the ship’s drain holes, a steaming pink sludge cascades into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. It’s the foul-smelling runoff from processing the 80-meter (260-foot) factory ship’s valuable catch: Antarctic krill, a paper-clip-sized crustacean central to the region’s food web and, scientists say, an important buffer to global warming.“What’s coming out of the side are the remnants of the ecosystem,” says Alistair Allan, an activist for Australia’s Bob Brown Foundation, as he looks on from the inflatable boat. “If this was off the coast of Alaska, it would be a national park. But since it’s down he...

Dump truck with raised bin strikes bridge on Hwy. 404

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

A dump truck with a raised bin crashed into a bridge on a GTA highway overnight resulting in lane closures ahead of the Friday morning rush.Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a dump truck was travelling southbound on Highway 404 in Markham around 1 a.m. when it struck the overhead Highway 407 bridge.Police say the bridge sustained some damage and engineers are on scene to check its structural integrity.The driver was not injured.Two lanes of the southbound 404 are currently blocked. The investigation is ongoing.#Collision investigation underway. Dump Truck vs Bridge. #HWY404SB at #HWY407. The collision occurred at 1:00am. Lanes blocked for the next few hours. #407OPP #AuroraOpp Information call. Constable Dunnah 416-526-5844^td pic.twitter.com/4K0dlcq2sH— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) October 13, 2023

China’s inflation data show economy in doldrums despite a slight improvement in trade

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s economy remains in the doldrums, data released Friday showed, with prices due to slack demand from consumers and businesses. Consumer prices remained flat in September compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said, while wholesale prices fell 2.5%. Exports and imports also fell last month as demand fell in overseas markets. The faltering recovery of the world’s second largest economy from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic is dragging on regional and global growth, though economists have said the worst might have passed. Trade ticked up slightly from the month before and manufacturing is showing signs of improvement. Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund cut growth forecasts for China, predicting economic growth of 5% this year and 4.2% in 2024, down slightly from its forecasts in July.The IMF attributed its downward revision to weaker consumer confidence, subdued global demand and a crisis in the property sector that has...

Biden awards $7 billion for ‘clean hydrogen’ hubs across the country to help replace fossil fuels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Clean-energy projects in seven states from Pennsylvania to California have been selected by the Biden administration for a $7 billion program to kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel, a key component of President Joe Biden’s agenda to slow climate change.His goal is to establish seven regional “hydrogen hubs” to help replace fossil fuels such as coal and oil with cleaner-burning hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity. Biden is expected to make the official announcement during an economic-themed visit to Philadelphia on Friday.The White House calls clean hydrogen “essential to achieving the president’s vision of a strong clean energy economy” and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2050.“As a clean fuel, hydrogen complements the role played by other clean energy sources, like wind and solar, to help the U.S. reduce emissions in energy-intensive sectors of the economy: steel and cem...