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Russia will extend Ukraine grain deal for 60 days — not 120

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — On the eve of the expiration of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief on Friday called its extension crucial to ensuring global food supplies and keeping prices from spiraling as they did after Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Russia’s U.N. ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal — but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia’s briefing to the U.N. Security Council, reiterating what a Russian delegation told senior U.N. officials at a meeting in Geneva on Monday, reinforced the Kremlin’s insistence on reducing the duration of the deal to hold out for changes on how the package is working.The U.N. and Turkey brokered the deal between the warring countries last July that allows Ukraine — one of the world’s key breadbaskets — to ship food and fertilizer from three of its Black Sea ports. A separate memorandum of understanding between the United...

Sanogo, UConn send Pitino, Iona packing from March Madness

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — With a dominant performance from its best player in the second half, UConn took the next step toward returning to its championship past.Adama Sanogo scored 10 of his season-high 28 points in the first five minutes of the second half as the fourth-seeded Huskies seized control and beat Rick Pitino’s Iona Gaels 87-63 Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.UConn (26-8) advanced to play fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s on Sunday in the West Region after losing in the first round under coach Dan Hurley the last two seasons.“We grabbed him at halftime because he was pressing in the first half,” Hurley said of Sanogo. “He was hesitant. I think he carried the weight of getting us out of the first round, I think, a little bit too much in the first half.”Iona (27-8) had its 14-game winning streak snapped as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion didn’t have the depth to keep up with one of the Big East’s best for 40 minutes.“The played a great...

Prince George’s Co. shelter to waive all pet adoption fees for a limited time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

From now until the end of April, the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Animal Services Facility and Adoption Center will waive all adoption fees for dogs and cats.It’s all thanks to $50,000 grant from Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit organization with a focus on animal welfare by providing resources to shelters across the country.More Prince George’s County NewsMore Local NewsMarlan Roberts, senior manager of operations at Best Friends, said the surrender rates are increasing at the shelter, and waving the fee was an incentive to get people’s attention.“It’s just a great time right now,” Roberts said in an interview with WTOP. “Our numbers are increasing … the amount of animals entering our shelter due to folks having hard times. Why not allow dogs at a few waived fees so we can get them into a forever home?”The grant will allow hundreds of pets in the Upper Marlboro shelter to receive vaccines and other routin...

Perfect March Madness brackets could be gone before weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

The dwindling number of perfect NCAA Tournament brackets might reach zero before the weekend.The NCAA March Madness Twitter account posted after Friday’s early games that only 30 such brackets remained. That’s out of millions, though the account didn’t say how many exactly.In ESPN’s Tournament Challenge bracket game, only 22 perfect brackets out of more than 20 million filled out were still out there with eight first-round games left to play. ESPN had no perfect brackets entering the weekend last year.Victories by double-digit seeds Princeton, Penn State and Furman on Thursday did particular damage. Only 1.4% of ESPN’s brackets had all three teams making it out of the first round, and only 0.1% had them surviving the weekend.On CBS’ site, 0.0003% of brackets were perfect through the eight early Friday games, according to Jared Shanker, the network’s senior director of digital communications.___AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hu...

Mississippi State sends Creighton home from March Madness

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Jerkaila Jordan scored 20 and led No. 11 seed Mississippi State to an 81-66 win against No. 6 Creighton in the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday night.Jessika Carter, the 6-5 Bulldog center, took advantage of the Bluejays’ undersized front court, with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Anastasia Hayes chipped in 12 points and seven assists. Ahlana Smith and Asianae Johnson each added 10 points. Lauren Jensen scored 22 points to lead Creighton (22-9), which made a run to the regional final last season. Emma Ronsiek scored 21 points, hitting 3 of 6 shots from beyond the arc.The Bulldogs picked up their second NCAA Tournament victory in coach Sam Purcell’s inaugural season. Mississippi State defeated Illinois in a First Four matchup on Wednesday.Mississippi State (23-10) will face No. 3 Notre Dame (26-5) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Fighting Irish are hosting first and second-round NCAA games this weekend.TURNING POINTDebreasha Powe hit back...

Action on climate change excites community

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Environmental justice is making news in Colorado again. This time, The state is being praised for progressive action on climate change.The Environmental Protection Agency just announced $3 million in grant funding coming to the state to help Colorado with air pollution efforts. Leaders and climate activists say it is beyond time for action on climate change. They are happy about the state focusing on the issue now. Altitude lawsuit settled, but still no games on Comcast Friday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was joined by the EPA and environmental advocates in celebrating the grant for planning strategies to reduce air pollution."We'll be able to update the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap, a number of supporting studies to make sure that the decisions and policies here in Colorado are science-based. The roadmap here in Colorado will now be able to include modeling of not only our current emissions trajectory but the impact of this enormous federal investment,...

John Martin’s Irish Pub, Wynwood Marketplace throw festive St. Patrick’s Day celebrations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

St. Patrick’s Day is finally here. Not that you need an excuse to throw back a few green ones. If you want to celebrate big time, we know two great options. Deco’s Alex Miranda has the deets.The Irish are lucky.Alex Miranda: “St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that is beloved by everybody. I mean, it doesn’t matter where you’re from.Emi Guerra: “The food is phenomenal, the drinks are great, the beer is flowing.”And now this 2-for-1 drink deal?Emi Guerra: “You buy a shot of Irish whiskey, and you get a free Harp beer with it.”Alex Miranda: “Now, is that dangerous to mix? Not that I haven’t done it before.”At John Martin’s Pub and Restaurant.Emi Guerra: “It’s rooted on tradition. It’s been around since 1989.”The Coral Gables institution is throwing a St. Patrick’s Day street fair for free.Emi Guerra: “Everything from entertainers, stage, live music.”Guest: “I...

NATO is racing to arm its Russian borders. Can it find the weapons?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

BRUSSELS — Add NATO’s military planners to the list of those concerned about having enough shells. In the coming months, the alliance will accelerate efforts to stockpile equipment along the alliance’s eastern edge and designate tens of thousands of forces that can rush to allies’ aid on short notice — a move meant to stop Russia from expanding its war beyond Ukraine. To make that happen, though, NATO must convince individual countries to contribute various elements: Soldiers, training, better infrastructure — and, most notably, extensive amounts of pricey weapons, equipment and ammunition. With countries already worried about their own munitions stockpiles and Ukraine in acute need of more shells and weapons from allies, there is a risk that not all NATO allies will live up to their promises to contribute to the alliance’s new plans. “If there’s not somebody hosting the potluck and telling everybody what to bring, then everyone would bring potato chips because p...

Has Emmanuel Macron broken France?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years.In 2017, Emmanuel Macron promised a new, consensual kind of politics. He would, he said, be a revolutionary-in-a-suit, dismantling the special interests and smashing the barriers that restricted opportunity and stifled French prosperity.As recently as last June, Macron spoke about “a new method of governance.” The French people were, he told French regional newspapers, “tired of reforms which come from above.”Nine months later, there are riots in several French cities. There are blocked motorways, transport and energy strikes, and mountains of uncollected rubbish in the French capital as Macron used his special constitutional power to impose a pension reform detested by 70 percent of French adults.Far from a “suited revolutionary,” Macron has become a traditional French leader confronting the immobilization of the French people. Like Nicolas Sarkozy and Fra...

It’s going to be hard to get rid of Turkey’s Erdoğan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:32 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. In any fairly run election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be heading for electoral defeat.But let’s be frank, Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections in May won’t be observing Queensberry Rules, and it shouldn’t be treated as such.At first glance, Erdoğan does seem to be in deep trouble, facing the most difficult election he’s encountered during his 20 years in power — especially if the opposition bloc gets its act together and campaigns in a coherent, joined-up fashion, leveraging strengths and relentlessly focusing on the supreme goal of ejecting Erdoğan.Recent opinion polls show Turkey’s opposition candidate, the scholarly Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu — hardly the most charismatic of politicians — leading the incumbent president by over 10 percentage points, with the elections just weeks away. And according to the polls, the six-party Nation Alliance looks like it could grab the highest number of seats ...