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Biden administration mounts defense of transfer of Iranian assets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

Biden administration officials are taking to the airwaves to defend a transfer of frozen assets to Iran, as the administration’s critics seek to draw a connection between an unprecedented surprise attack against Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the terms of a prisoner swap with Iran announced last month.Since Hamas fighters launched their assault against Israel on Saturday, senior Biden administration officials have tried to throw water on reports that Iran was directly tied to the attacks and rebut allegations that the Biden administration enabled them by unfreezing $6 billion dollars’ worth of frozen Iranian assets as part of an agreement to release six American citizens from Iranian custody.The Biden administration defended the unfreezing of the assets, saying that the money was Tehran’s to begin with, the profits of oil sales to South Korea that experienced currency conversion challenges during a period under the Trump administration when sanctions against Tehr...

Tuesday’s high school roundup/scores: Jack Carstensen fires 3-under par to lead St. John Paul II golf team

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

Jack Carstensen shot for a school record of three-under par (33) to steer St. John Paul II (15-1) toward a 234-264 Cape and Islands League golf win over Sturgis West.Hank Brown shot a four-over par for Monomoy (8-4) in a 254-237 win over Nauset. … Sean Kearns carded a 35, and Braden Shapiro shot a 36 as Oliver Ames bested Stoughton 147-168 in a Hockomock League contest.Matt Nejame shot a 33 as Duxbury defeated Hanover 232-240 in a Patriot League matchup.Cam Poirier shot the best round of his career with a 35 as Apponequet (7-9) outlasted Fairhaven 251-256 in the South Coast Conference. … Ky Princi fired a 40 for Norwell (8-2-2) in a 118-107 nonleague win against Sandwich.Field hockeyCoco Clopton dished two assists in a game Swampscott (6-5) had three different scorers, blanking Ipswich 3-0 in nonleague play to snap a five-game skid. … Lily O’Donnell’s early goal proved to be enough as Whitman-Hanson (1-6-4) held on to defeat Norwell, 1-0. … Chloe Pickett led the way with...

River Hill golf wins third straight district title; Hawks’ Benjamin Siriboury, Glenelg’s Megan Kirkpatrick win individual titles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

While the ultimate goal for the River Hill golf team this fall may be repeating as state champions, the road to defending titles officially kicked off in emphatic fashion Tuesday at the District V tournament at Crofton Country Club.The Hawks, for a third straight season, captured the district crown as a team, posting a four-player total of 298, eight shots better than second-place Marriotts Ridge (306). It’s the lowest district team total in program history.Leading the way to victory was senior Benjamin Siriboury, who won the boys individual title by three shots over Marriotts Ridge junior George Williamson, shooting a 1-under-par 71. . It marks the second career district crown for Siriboury, who now looks to become the first boys player in Maryland high school golf history to win three straight state championships when the state tournament tees off at the University of Maryland on Oct. 23-25.“I don’t want to say that the team has something to prove, but I think...

Wild-card Rangers sweep favoured Orioles with 7-1 win at home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Corey Seager and Adolis García homered early, Nathan Eovaldi struck out seven over seven innings in another series-clinching start and the Texas Rangers completed an AL Division Series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-1 victory Tuesday night in Game 3.The Rangers, whose loss at Seattle on the last day of the regular season made them a wild-card team instead of the AL West champion, have since won all five of their post-season games. They are going to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2011. “We’ve just been playing good ball,” Seager said. “Can’t say enough about what our pitching staff has been able to do and shut down some really good offences and scored enough runs to win some games.”Baltimore won an AL-high 101 games and was never swept in a series during the regular season, but the surprise AL East champions are done after a sweep at the most inopportune time. The Orioles have lost eight playoff games in a row over th...

Activist runs almost 9,000 miles across Australia to raise support for Indigenous Voice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Ultramarathon runner Pat Farmer ended a 14,400-kilometer (8,950-mile) run at the central Australian sandstone landmark Uluru on Wednesday after a seven-month journey to raise public support for the creation of an Indigenous advocacy body in the constitution.Australians will vote on Saturday at a referendum that would enshrine in the constitution a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a mechanism for Indigenous Australians to advise lawmakers on policies that effect their lives.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at Uluru, which is an Indigenous sacred site also known as Ayers Rock, to welcome the 61-year-old runner’s arrival.Albanese said he had “utter admiration and awe” for Farmer’s commitment for the cause which opinion polls suggest is unlikely to succeed.“No one has done more than this bloke and I am very pleased to welcome him here at Uluru,” Albanese said.Farmer said his first glimpse of the enormous rock rising from the flat Australian wildern...

2 Guatemalan migrants were shot dead in Mexico near US border. Soldiers believed to be involved

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Guatemalan migrants were killed Monday and three others — along with a Honduran man — were wounded in a shooting in northern Mexico near the U.S. border that apparently involved Mexican army soldiers.Prosecutors in the northern state of Chihuahua said the army has turned over four soldiers to testify in the case, but did not say whether they were formally suspects in the still-unclear shooting. The survivors told authorities they were heading to the border wall in a truck with a ladder to climb a wall into the United States, when they came under fire. The four wounded migrants mostly suffered wounds to their legs and their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.The army also turned over four rifles for testing. A fifth soldier who was apparently in the patrol vehicle has not been located.Prosecutor Carlos Manuel Salas said the shooting occurred near the Santa Teresa border crossing west of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. He said t...

Texas executes man who questioned evidence presented at trial in deadly carjacking of elderly woman

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who unsuccessfully challenged the safety of the state’s lethal injection drugs and raised questions about evidence used to persuade a jury to sentence him to death for killing an elderly woman decades ago was executed late Tuesday.Jedidiah Murphy, 48, was pronounced dead after an injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the October 2000 fatal shooting of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham of the Dallas suburb of Garland. Cunningham was killed during a carjacking.The execution took place hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an order that had delayed the death sentence from being carried out. The high court late Tuesday also turned down another request to stay Murphy’s execution over claims the drugs he was injected with were exposed to extreme heat and smoke during a recent fire, making them unsafe and leaving him at risk of pain and suffering. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday had upheld a federal judge’s order from last ...

Fire partially collapses a parking structure at London’s Luton Airport and 5 people hospitalized

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A fire burning in a London airport’s parking structure early Wednesday caused a partial collapse, and five people have been hospitalized for smoke inhalation.All flights at Luton Airport were suspended until noon due to the fire, the airport posted on the X social media platform.Five people, firefighters and an airline official, were admitted to hospitals for smoke inhalation. A sixth person was treated at the scene.Video posted on social media and on British news outlets’ websites showed police and fire department vehicles gathered outside a multi-story parking structure where the top level was engulfed in orange flames. The newly built parking structure for Terminal 2 partially collapsed after the fire started around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The airport asked would-be passengers to stay away since access to the area was restricted.Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue, Bedfordshire Police and the East of England Ambulance remain on the scene.Luton Airport is about 35 miles (56 k...

Kari Lake begins Senate campaign as she keeps fighting her loss in the last election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake asked for a show of hands.Who’s been canceled? Who’s lost friends? Has strained relations with family? Been indicted? Sued for defamation? “If your hand did not go up in any of that, then I do think you need to work a little harder. I really do,” Lake told an adoring crowd of Michigan Republicans gathering last month on Mackinac Island. Lake launched a U.S. Senate campaign for an Arizona seat in a splashy Scottsdale rally on Tuesday, having never conceded that she lost last year’s race for Arizona governor. She is trying out new messages and courting the support of national Republicans she’s insulted in the past. But the former television news host isn’t backing down on the things that made her a star on the far right — her combativeness with perceived enemies, her fealty to Donald Trump and her willingness to defend his election lies. That worries some Republicans who fear she will cost them a race that could decide control of the Se...

Woman launches sustainable footwear line, sourced and made in Mexico

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:50 GMT

CHICAGO — Vanessa Arroyo loved fashion, even studied design at Colombia College in Chicago, but knew nothing about shoes. But that was the first job she was offered when she arrived in New York City with a one way ticket looking to live her fashion dream. Thanks to mentors, Arroyo learned on the job how to design footwear for the top brand Rag and Bone. She loved the fashion world in the Big Apple, but after six years, she yearned for more. By then she was in love with shoes, and went to Guanajuato, Mexico to learn how to make them. Little did she know that trip would also mean a personal transformation for her and a deeper understanding of her Mexican ancestors. More: Hispanic Heritage Month Last May, she launched her own brand of footwear called “Seres” that is sourced and made in Mexico. She is proud of her sustainable, fashion forward shoes but even more of the fact that it represents who she is and where she comes from.