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UK ups Stormont rescue offer to £3.3bn as DUP told to stop blocking a deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

DUBLIN — The price tag for reviving Northern Ireland’s cross-community government keeps going up – but the U.K. now says £3.3 billion is as good as it will get.As he announced an inconclusive end to eight months of negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he had just presented a final financial offer to DUP chief Jeffrey Donaldson and the leaders of three other parties entitled to share power in the region’s collapsed government at Stormont.The major concession from last week’s initial offer of a £2.5 billion rescue package for Stormont is a new commitment from the U.K. Treasury to write off £559 million in existing overspends from the past two years of rudderless governance.That debt write-off — which the Northern Ireland Office bills as “new money” since it removes potential crippling deductions from upcoming budgets — is conditional on the DUP ending its blockade of power-sharing and crafting its own balanced budget plan...

European vessels to police Red Sea as part of US task force

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

The United Kingdom has deployed a naval destroyer to the Red Sea as part of a coalition to counter attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial vessels sailing through the major trade chokepoint, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Tuesday.It’s part of a growing international effort to ensure the freedom of the seas in the key shipping lanes.The HMS Diamond has already been active in the area to bolster efforts to protect merchant vessels, but will now formally join the United States-led Operation Prosperity Guardian aimed at safeguarding navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a critical avenue for oil and container traffic. More than a tenth of global maritime trade passes through those waters with more than 23,000 sailings a year through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, according to the British government.Over the weekend, HMS Diamond shot down a drone with a Sea Viper anti-aircraft missile as attacks on merchan...

Taylor Swift once made Jessica Chastain the ultimate breakup playlist

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

(CNN) — Taylor Swift is known several of her songs about heartbreak, so it seems only right she’d know how to help a friend recovering from a breakup.Swift sent a personalized breakup playlist to Jessica Chastain after the actress shared she was dealing with a recent split when they met at the 2011 Met Gala.“She was so sweet,” Chasten told host Jimmy Fallon during a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show.”“I just went through a breakup and I was talking to her about that, and we went and danced together. It was such a fun night,” she continued. “And then the next day. I had an email from iTunes that said, like, ‘Taylor Swift’ or whatever, and I just thought that it was a Taylor Swift album.”But, in fact, the message was a playlist curated by the one and only.“She had, like, curated all these breakup songs to send me to help me get through my breakup!” Chastain recalled. “Isn’t that the sweetest thing? And here I thought it was like a Taylor Swift advertiseme...

Column: Cubs Convention is on, while SoxFest remains off. Can an old tradition be revived?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

The announcement of Cubs Convention events Monday helped Cubs fans temporarily forget about the team’s lack of any offseason signings, while simultaneously reminding White Sox fans that SoxFest remains on hiatus.Fan fests have been an annual winter marketing tool for our two teams since the Cubs invented the genre in 1986 as a way to get people interested in the upcoming season and maybe sell a few tickets. The main difference between the two local fan fests is that Cubs fans generally want autographs and to be close to the players, while Sox fans want their pound of flesh from management for the team’s inadequacies.This would’ve been a nice chance for first-year general manager Chris Getz to get his first official grilling, though it’s hard to imagine the genial Getz barking back like his predecessors.Oh well. Maybe next year.Whether these fan fests are an outdated idea in 2024 is debatable, but traditions in Chicago are worth preserving, so for the Cubs, th...

New England Revolution hire Caleb Porter has head coach

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

FOXBORO – The New England Revolution have appointed Caleb Porter as head coach, the club announced Tuesday. Porter, a two-time MLS Cup winner with nine seasons of managerial experience in Major League Soccer, becomes the ninth official head coach in club history.Porter replaces Bruce Arena as coach.Porter, 48, is one of only six coaches to win multiple MLS Cup championships, and one of three to do so with more than one club, having led both the Portland Timbers (2015) and Columbus Crew SC (2020) to title-winning seasons. He is one of only two active managers currently leading an MLS club to own multiple MLS Cups, along with Seattle’s Brian Schmetzer.The 2013 MLS Coach of the Year will begin his 10th MLS season with New England in 2024, having compiled a 113-93-89 regular season record to date across five seasons with Portland (2013-17) and four with Columbus (2019-2022).Porter’s 295 games of experience are eighth most among all coaches currently helming an MLS club, while his .534 c...

True or false: Bears QB Justin Fields’ inability to close will accelerate his exit from Chicago

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

The Chicago Bears couldn’t believe it. Any of it.The Bears couldn’t fathom that they let a 10-point fourth-quarter lead get away, couldn’t comprehend that they kicked away a day-saving miracle on the game’s final play, couldn’t quite process that Sunday’s devastating 20-17 road loss to the Cleveland Browns torpedoed their energized chase of a playoff berth. Instead, they were left with another gut-wrenching disappointment to accept and another emotionally testing regrouping mission for Week 16.On Christmas Eve, the Bears will play the hapless Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field with every opportunity to get back on the winning track. But the sting of Sunday’s loss is going to leave a mark and could create some unwanted resignation as well. The coming week will challenge the Bears’ focus, unity and emotional stability.As Tribune writers Colleen Kane and Dan Wiederer get their arms around it all, they engage in a “true or false̶...

UK offers a big financial package if Northern Ireland politicians revive their suspended government

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Tuesday it will give Northern Ireland 3.3 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) to ease a budget crisis if stubborn lawmakers stop boycotting the suspended power-sharing Belfast government.Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the financial package was a final offer and urged the holdout Democratic Unionist Party to get back to governing.“It is now the time for decisions to be made,” he said after meeting leaders of Northern Ireland’s main parties at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast.The semi-autonomous government has been on ice for almost two years since the DUP, the main British unionist party, walked out to protest post-Brexit trade rules. That left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system.Under power-sharing rules established by Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, the main British unionis...

North Carolina’s 2024 election maps are racially biased, advocates say in lawsuit

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina voting-rights advocates sued Tuesday to overturn all of the redistricting plans drawn by Republicans for the 2024 elections, saying legislative leaders unlawfully weakened the electoral influence of Black voters.The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, Common Cause and eight Black residents filed a lawsuit in federal court. They accused GOP legislative leaders of intentionally moving boundary lines for General Assembly and congressional districts this fall so that preferred candidates of Black voters lose to candidates backed by white voters. For decades, Black residents have overwhelmingly favored Democratic candidates.“The General Assembly targeted predominantly Black voting precincts with surgical precision throughout the state in drawing and enacting the 2023 Plans, at the expense of traditional redistricting criteria, to achieve preferred district lines that diminish Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice at all levels of g...

Cause remains unclear for Arizona house fire that left 5 people dead including 3 young children

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities continue to investigate the cause of a house fire in northwestern Arizona that left five people dead, including three young children.Bullhead City police said the fire broke out about 5 p.m. Saturday and it was extinguished in nine minutes, but there were no survivors. There also wasn’t an adult at the home at the time.The father of four of the victims told investigators that he was gone for about 2 1/2 hours Saturday afternoon to buy groceries and Christmas gifts.A 4-year-old girl and three boys — ages 2, 5 and 13 — who died were all siblings and lived at the home, according to police, who said the other victim was an 11-year-old boy who was a family relative and visiting at the time.The names of the dead were being withheld pending identification by the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office. Police said the five bodies were located in the same upstairs bedroom of the two-story duplex in a community near the Colorado River and the Nevada bo...

Pope’s approval of gay blessings could have impact where rights are restricted, LGBTQ+ advocates say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:52 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ authorization for Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples is in many ways a recognition of what has been going on in some European parishes for years. But Francis’ decision to officially spell out his approval could send a message of tolerance to places where gay rights are more restricted.From Uganda to the United States, laws that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people or even criminalize homosexuality have increased in recent years, leaving communities feeling under attack. Pastors in some conservative Christian denominations in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, have sometimes supported such measures as consistent with biblical teaching about homosexuality.The Vatican says gays should be treated with dignity and respect but says homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Francis hasn’t changed that teaching, but he has spent much of his 10-year pontificate trying to show a more welcoming attitude to LGBTQ+ Catholics.The Vat...