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Biden agrees to send long-range missiles to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

President Joe Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the United States will soon provide Kyiv with a small number of long-range missiles to help its war with Russia, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.Biden made the pledge to Zelenskyy during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the White House on Thursday, fulfilling a long-held wish by Kyiv, according to the officials who like others for this story were granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.The Army Tactical Missile Systems will likely be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks. The White House declined to comment on the matterThe news is a major win for Zelenskyy and officials in Kyiv, who have long sought the missiles. ATACMS have a range of 45 to 190 miles and Ukrainians have long argued that they are crucial to striking deep behind entrenched Russian positions along a 600-mile front line.NBC first reported the news that the missiles had been approved.Bid...

Tropical Storm Ophelia forms off the US mid-Atlantic coast, expected to bring heavy rain and wind

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Tropical Storm Ophelia has formed off the mid-Atlantic coast and is expected to bring heavy rain, storm surge and windy conditions over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.Ophelia had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph), according to a 2 p.m. ET advisory from the Miami-based center. The storm was centered 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. It was forecast to make landfall Saturday morning.Virginia’s governor declared a state of emergency Friday and the intensifying weather system forced schools to close early and canceled weekend events.Rain was already moving inland across North Carolina by midday Friday with some areas expected to get up to 7 inches (17.7 centimeters) across eastern parts of the state and into southeast Virginia, forecasters said. Storm surge warning was in effect for some areas, with surges between 3 and 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) forecast for parts of North Carolina, the hurricane center re...

Lost Truman Capote story published after discovery in notebook

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

(CNN) — An unknown story by Truman Capote has been published for the first time, after it was discovered hiding in plain sight in a red notebook belonging to the acclaimed author.Capote, a famous American writer and novelist, was born in New Orleans in 1924 and died in 1984. His two most famous works, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1958) and “In Cold Blood” (1966), solidified his place among the great American authors of the 20th century.Now, the short story “Another Day in Paradise” has been published Friday in “The Strand” magazine after being discovered by its managing editor, Andrew F. Gulli, in Washington’s Library of Congress.While Gulli had gone to the library to look for works by James M. Cain, the writer responsible for novels including “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” he told CNN he also took the opportunity to search for Capote’s work.“Then in a red notebook, there was a handwritten short story from Truman Capote. Actually I couldn’t believe it, this can’t be happen...

Column: The Chicago Cubs are in a tailspin. Someone notify David Ross and Marquee Sports Network.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

Panic time at Wrigley Field?Not yet perhaps, but the Chicago Cubs’ struggles in September have fans on edge entering the final regular-season series at Wrigley Field.Manager David Ross noted after Thursday’s loss to Pittsburgh that the Pirates were not a team of “our caliber.” If that’s the case, neither are the 96-loss Colorado Rockies, their weekend opponent. The Rockies sent Noah Davis, a pitcher with a 9.58 ERA, against the Cubs in Friday’s opener.The Cubs were expected to beat teams like the Pirates and Rockies in September, but have instead lost four of their last six games to the two bottom feeders over the last week and a half.Every game is big from now on.“Expectations are one thing, but they’ve all felt big,” Ross said Friday morning. “They felt big in Arizona, right? The Pirates, we need to beat those teams and we didn’t. We start dwindling down (in games) and you’re in a race and there’s a bunc...

Step back in time with these 4 crime fiction novels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

Moira Macdonald | (TNS) The Seattle TimesFor this month’s edition of The Plot Thickens, I decided to take a little meander into crime fiction set in the past. (Because the present, i.e. the endless late summer, was just too hot. Reading cools one down, I think.) First up: Amy Chua’s fiction debut “The Golden Gate” (Minotaur Books, $28), set in the Bay Area in the 1940s, where homicide detective Al Sullivan is trying to solve the murder of a presidential candidate — which took place in the same posh Berkeley hotel where a child mysteriously died 10 years earlier. The ghost of that girl haunts this story, which mingles socialites, hotel workers, politicians (Madame Chiang Kai-shek plays an arch cameo role), cops, monks, immigrants and one very smart 11-year-old in a rich and satisfying stew.Chua, a Yale law professor best known for her 2011 nonfiction work “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” has clearly done her research: “The Golden Gate”...

Giorgio Napolitano, former Italian president, 1st ex-Communist in that post, has died, at 98

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

ROME (AP) — Giorgio Napolitano, the first former Communist to rise to Italy’s presidency, died on Friday, the Quirinal presidential palace said.Napolitano, who was also the first person to be elected twice to the mostly ceremonial presidency, was 98. A statement issued Friday night by the presidential palace confirmed Italian news reports of the death of Napolitano, who had been ailing in a Rome hospital for weeks. The current president, Sergio Mattarella, in a message hailed his predecessor as head of state, saying that Napolitano’s life “mirrored a large part of the history” of Italy in the second half of the 20th century. As a prominent member of what had long been the largest Communist party in the West, Napolitano had advocated positions that often veered from party orthodoxy. He sought dialogue with Italian and European socialists to end his party’s isolation, and he was an early backer of European integration. The Associated Press

Arrests made in boy’s shooting death that sparked New Mexico governor’s aggressive guns ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two people were arrested Thursday in connection with a shooting outside an Albuquerque baseball stadium that killed an 11-year-old boy and prompted the New Mexico governor to issue a controversial gun ban.Jose Romero, 22, and Nathen Garley, 21, were being held for the Sept. 6 shooting after an Albuquerque Isotopes game in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, Police Chief Harold Medina said at a news conference.Medina said the two men had argued with people during the ballgame and mistakenly opened fire on a truck carrying the boy and his family as it was leaving the parking lot because it closely resembled the truck of the intended targets.“These cowards thought they were tough,” Medina said in an earlier social media post. “They killed an innocent child.”Romero was taken into custody on Thursday evening. He already was wanted for failing to appear in court in connection with alleged drug dealing, Medina said.Garley was already in custody when he...

Medicaid expansion to begin soon in North Carolina as governor decides to let budget bill become law

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday he would let the state budget bill coming to his desk become law without his signature, opening the way for Medicaid coverage for 600,000 low-income adults, with some receiving the government health insurance soon. The Democratic governor unveiled his decision on the two-year spending plan minutes after the Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final legislative approval to the 625-page measure. A Medicaid expansion law that Cooper signed in March said that a state budget for this fiscal year still had to be enacted before coverage could be implemented. Negotiations on that budget plan, which was supposed to take effect July 1, carried on throughout the summer. The final two-year plan accelerates individual income tax rate cuts, broadens private-school scholarships to all K-12 children and contained other items that weaken the governor’s office while strengthening the GOP-dominated legislature and its p...

It’s not all grim across regional theater. Some venues offer ways to beat the post-pandemic blues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Everyone who enters Barter Theatre in southwestern Virginia is met and welcomed by Katy Brown, the producing artistic director.It’s a simple touch but a telling one for the 90-year-old theater in Abingdon that has forged a very human connection with its 8,000 residents. Barter Theatre is not just a theater; it’s their theater.“You can feel the ownership from the people that are here,” Brown says. “Really being a part of your community in that way is vital to the future of regional theater.”Barter — a scrappy venue with roots in the Depression when patrons bartered goods for seats — may offer a roadmap as regional theaters struggle to reconnect with lagging post-pandemic audiences.Lessons from other regional theaters — like embracing digital ways to connect, hosting events like LGBTQ Nights, rethinking the traditional calendar and even re-configuring theater lobbies — could help. “The theater companies that are succeeding have taken the time during COVID t...

Canada Post reviewing use of address data following criticism from privacy watchdog

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:43 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada Post said Friday it is reviewing how it uses data for tailored marketing campaigns after the federal privacy watchdog found the post office was breaking the law by gleaning information from the outsides of envelopes and packages.Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne said in a report released this week that information collected for the post office’s Smartmail Marketing Program includes data about where individuals live and what type of online shopping they do, based on who sends them parcels. The information is then used to help build marketing lists that Canada Post rents to businesses.The commissioner found Canada Post had not obtained authorization from individuals to indirectly collect such personal information, a violation of Section 5 of the Privacy Act.He recommended Canada Post stop the practice until it can seek and obtain consent from Canadians.Dufresne’s report said the post office disagreed with his conclusion and declined to take the correct...