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Biden admin shrugs at Prigozhin’s death as questions about Wagner’s future linger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

While the news of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death stunned the world, the response within official Washington was a collective shrug.Officials demurred from commenting on the circumstances of the downing of a flight with Prigozhin aboard, stressing instead that everyone knew this was the likely outcome of his failed mutiny against Moscow in June and that it doesn’t change the U.S. calculation on Russia or its war in Ukraine.Asked during his vacation in Lake Tahoe if Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the crash of Prigozhin’s private plane, carrying him and nine others, President Joe Biden said “there’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer.”The Wagner Group chief, a once-close Putin confidant and a backer of coups and repressive governments around the world, had widely been considered a dead man walking ever since his June insurrection. Russia’s civil aviation agency confirmed Wednesday that Prigozhin was aboa...

UMass Memorial Health moving forward with plan to close Leominster birthing center in September

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

The clock is ticking for the birthing center on the Leominster campus of UMass Memorial Health Alliance-Clinton Hospital, which is set to close next month. UMass Memorial Health announced the closure in May. As the planned closure date of Sept. 23 now approaches, the organization is moving forward with plans despite pushback from the community and nurses in the maternity ward.“I still have hope,” said registered nurse Tara Corey. “I know we’re cutting down to the wire here.” “We will not have our jobs anymore,” Corey said of the pending closure. “There won’t be a need for us in that hospital as far as if we want to stay with obstetrics which is sad.” “It’s crazy that everyone is speaking out against this and the hospital is not hearing us,” Corey continued. The state Department of Public Health recently set out a list of requirements for UMass Memorial Health to proceed with the closure. In response, the hospital wrote a 17-page letter explaining, in part, “The H...

Early testing suggests variant BA.2.86 has been detected in US wastewater, CDC report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

(CNN) — Preliminary testing of wastewater in the United States has detected the new highly mutated coronavirus variant BA.2.86, according to a risk assessment posted Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC did not give details on where the positive wastewater sample had been collected but said it was part of routine monitoring through its National Wastewater Surveillance System.Around the world, nine sequences of the new variant have been reported from human Covid-19 infections: three in Denmark, two in the United States, two in South Africa, one in the UK and one in Israel. It has also been detected at low levels in wastewater from Switzerland.The two US sequences came from patients in Michigan and Virginia. The Michigan person is an older adult who has not been hospitalized, according to the state Department of Health. The person who tested positive in Virginia was a woman who had just returned from a trip to Japan ...

Chicago Cubs are watching the standings in a tight NL wild-card race. Takeaways from their series in Detroit.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

With their sights set on winning a division title, the Chicago Cubs weren’t focusing on the National League wild-card chase.Next week’s three-game series at Wrigley Field against the first-place Milwaukee Brewers should be a chance to narrow the 3 1/2-game margin between the NL Central rivals, and the Cubs have Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele and Kyle Hendricks set up to start.But beggars can’t be choosers, and if the wild card is the Cubs’ only path to the postseason, they’ll take it.“I probably check (the wild-card standings) this year more than in the past,” manager David Ross said with a grin Wednesday morning.Of course, there was no need to check them in 2021 and ‘22, when the Cubs were out of contention by this point.“This is what’s so much fun to me about baseball — getting into this time of the year and rooting against the teams around you,” Ross said. “It’s funny, with all candidness, I can&#...

Ticker: FTC asked to probe ads directed at kids; Feds settle safety probe at dollar stores

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

Children’s advocacy groups including Fairplay and Common Sense Media are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google, saying the tech giant serves personalized ads to kids on YouTube despite federal law prohibiting the practice.The letter follows a report from The New York Times last week that found that ads on YouTube may have led to the online tracking of children. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, requires kid-oriented websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information of children under 13.In response to the Times report, Google said last week that it did not run personalized ads on children’s videos and that its ad practices fully complied with COPPA. When ads appear on children’s videos, the company told the Times, they are based on content, not user profiles.Google’s parent company, Alphabet, agreed in 2019 to pay $170 million to settle allegations that YouTube collected personal dat...

Wu names new Boston School Committee member

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

Mayor Michelle Wu has appointed Chantal Lima Barbosa to fill the open School Committee seat ahead of the coming school year, city officials announced Wednesday, making her the first Cabo Verdean woman to serve on the board.“Chantal is a dedicated public servant whose education background, experience as a BPS alum from an immigrant family and love for BPS communities will benefit all BPS families, educators, and staff,” Wu said in the announcement Wednesday.Lima Barbosa will fill the seat left open after committee member Lorena Lopera announced her resignation in June. Applications opened in mid-July and were reviewed by the Boston School Committee Nominating Panel.The new member will serve out the remainder of Lopera’s four-year term ending on Jan. 1, 2024, after which she may be re-appointed to serve a full term.Lima Barbosa is the daughter of Cabo Verdean immigrants and lived there with her parents until the family moved to Boston in 2010, the city release stated...

Brian Cashman ‘embarrassed’ by Yankees’ ‘disaster’ season as evaluations loom

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

With the Yankees desperately trying to avoid another loss on Wednesday, Brian Cashman held his fourth impromptu press conference of the 2023 season.The team the general manager assembled has been nothing short of catastrophic. Entering Wednesday’s game against the Nationals, the last-place Yankees were five games under .500 at 60-65, 10 games out of the final wild card spot, and in the midst of a nine-game losing streak, the franchise’s longest since 1982.“We are what our record says we are,” Cashman admitted. “We’re certainly not proud of it. It’s been a disaster of a season. We’re embarrassed by it.”A “storm” of injuries, as Cashman put it, has hindered the Yankees all year, but the club also left spring training with clear holes at third base and in left field, among other concerns. Cashman did not upgrade the offense after it was exposed in last year’s postseason, and he planned on being heavily reliant on i...

India moon landing near south pole is ‘fantastic achievement’: A possible spot for moon bases

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

India took moon exploration to the next phase becoming the first country to land near the lunar south pole — an “exciting accomplishment not only for them but for the international community,” according to a moon expert.India’s mission Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landed on the moon Wednesday, joining the U.S., Russia and China as the only countries to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon.The spacecraft landed further south than any in history, near the lunar south pole where some researchers believe there is plenty of water ice. The south pole is a potential spot for moon bases in the future.“It’s a fantastic achievement for India,” University of Notre Dame Professor Clive Neal told the Herald. “It’s an exciting accomplishment not only for them but for the international community.“This is an area of the moon we have no idea about,” he added. “And this gives us another data point in the highlands of the moon.&#...

What’s next for the Chicago White Sox front office? A report lists Chris Getz and Dayton Moore as names to watch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

Yasmani Grandal recalled going through front office changes early in his major-league career with the San Diego Padres.The catcher is experiencing it again as a veteran with the Chicago White Sox.“Usually that happens when a team doesn’t perform,” Grandal said Wednesday.The Sox announced an overhaul Tuesday, firing executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn.“Definitely shocking,” Grandal said. “But the one thing I’ve learned in this game is that it’s also a business. Things like this happen all the time.”The Sox have followed up a disappointing 2022, where they went 81-81 and missed the playoffs, by taking a huge step back at 50-77.“We just haven’t reached that potential,” said shortstop Tim Anderson, who returned to the lineup Wednesday after serving his five-game suspension. “We have to continue to try to get better. We haven’t got to where we need to be.”The Sox won ...

Padres pitcher Robert Suárez ejected after sticky substance check

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:33:22 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Padres relief pitcher Robert Suárez was ejected from the game Wednesday against the Miami Marlins after a sticky substance check.Suárez, who was replacing Steven Wilson in the top of the eighth inning, got looked at by the umpires prior to entering the game. However, Suárez was shortly tossed out following the substance check.Tom Cosgrove ended up pitching the eight inning instead of Suárez.Major League Baseball umpires usually perform a substance check after every inning and when a new pitcher is brought into the game. Philippine Cultural Arts Festival coming to Balboa Park It is uncertain at this time what Suárez possessed to prompt the ejection.Suárez will be suspended for 10 games, according to a rule Major League Baseball implemented in June 2021 to crack down against players using illegal foreign substances to doctor baseballs. Suárez can, however, appeal the suspension, per Padres manager Bob Melvin.The Padres would be limited to 25 players during Suárez’s sus...