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Macron: No Russian flags at Paris 2024 Olympics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that no Russian flags will be allowed at the Paris 2024 Olympics.“Obviously there cannot be a Russian flag at the Paris Games,” Macron said in an interview with French sports paper L’Équipe. “I think there’s a consensus [on that].”Macron went on to add that the Russian flag had “no place” at the 2024 Olympics, at a time when Russia is “committing war crimes, when it’s deporting children.”Asked about whether Russian athletes will be allowed to participate, Macron said that is not a decision for the host country, but rather for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The committee will have to decide what place to give Russian athletes “who sometimes have prepared for a lifetime, and can also be the victims” of the Kremlin’s regime, he said. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international ...

West Bridgewater star Harris armed for battle this fall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

WEST BRIDGEWATER — The cars raced loudly along Route 24 through the muggy air. However, the West Bridgewater High School football team barely noticed as they practiced.For stars like senior quarterback James Harris, this campaign presents an opportunity to continue a winning tradition the Wildcats have established.“This is by far the most excited I have been for a season, and it’s not even close,” said Harris. “My friends that I’ve built over these past four years? We’re here. We were working all summer. Some of these guys have been working their butts off. It really pays off, and it shows here.”Harris will be looking to build upon a year in which he finished with 22 touchdowns and averaged 11 yards per carry. Schools like Springfield College and the University of New England have been eying his services, but the captain is focused on making history at his hometown school.“I intend to do better,” Harris said. “Always try to do better, I know I can be better, and I know I can be bett...

Division 7-8 football players to watch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

EMASS DIVISION 7AmesburyBlue HillsBoston Latin AcademyCaseChelseaCohassetEast BostonHamilton-WenhamIpswichLowell CatholicManchester-EssexMashpeeMonomoyNantucketO’BryantRocklandSouth Shore VokeWest Bridgewater EMASS DIVISION 8Atlantis Charter/WestportBourneBrightonCape Cod TechCarverCathedralEnglish/New MissionGeorgetownHolbrook/AvonHullKeefe TechKIPPLynn TechMillisMinutemanNashoba TechOld ColonyRandolphRoxbury PrepSt. John PaulTech BostonUpper CapeWareham DANDY DOZEN FOR DIVISION 7-8Davion Adediran, Fr., QB, 6-0, 172, Atlantis Charter: As an eighth-grader, Adediran threw for 1,264 yards and 14 touchdowns.Liam Appleton, Sr., RB/LB, 6-2, 205, Cohasset: Appleton was an offensive force in the South Shore League, rushing for 930 yards on 106 carries, while catching 49 passes for a school-record 952 yards and 16 total touchdowns.Will Arsenault, Sr., OL/LB, 6-1, 235, Amesbury: The co-Offensive Lineman of the Year in the Cape Ann League, Arsenault is a force on both sides of...

A lawsuit seeks to bar Trump from the primary in Colorado, citing Constitution’s insurrection clause

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI (Associated Press)DENVER (AP) — A liberal group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the U.S. Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.”The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.It will jolt an already unsettled 2024 primary campaign that features the leading Republican candidate facing four separate criminal cases.Liberal groups have demanded that states’ top election officials bar Trump under the clause that prohibits those who “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding...

Electrical fire at Camden Yards on day Orioles played ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ disrupted complex’s cooling system

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

Before there were bees, there was a fire.A month before a swarm of honeybees in Oriole Park’s outfield interrupted gameplay on Aug. 27, an electrical fire started in the Camden Yards complex’s cooling plant around 2 p.m. on July 30, five hours ahead of the red-hot Orioles’ home game against the New York Yankees on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”The fire damaged one of the complex’s three chillers — the machines that cool the ballpark and M&T Bank Stadium and weigh, in total, roughly 3,000 tons. Another of the three chillers suffered a mechanical problem, likely related to the fire, said Jeff Provenzano, the Maryland Stadium Authority’s vice president of facilities.“In the matter of an hour, we lost two-thirds of the plant’s capacity to cool the complex,” Provenzano told the authority’s board on Tuesday. “Not a good time. Not a good time.”Electrical fires can start because of faulty electric...

9 tactics for home buyers grappling with high mortgage rates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

By Holden Lewis | NerdWalletMortgage rates have risen to their highest levels in more than 20 years, making it harder to afford a home. And yet, out of necessity or desire, hundreds of thousands of people buy homes every month.With the 30-year fixed rate topping 7%, NerdWallet asked real estate agents and mortgage loan officers for advice on how home buyers can stretch their homebuying dollars in this time of high interest rates. Here are nine tactics that they suggested.1. Ask the seller to reduce the mortgage rateTemporary mortgage rate buydowns have become commonplace since rates surged in early 2022. With a temporary rate buydown, the seller pays a portion of the buyer’s interest payments upfront. This reduces the house payments for the first one, two or three years of ownership.“This is a common strategy for new-home builders, but it can also be used in the purchase of resale homes,” said John Bianchi, executive vice president for loanDepot. (All sources in th...

Patriots eager to celebrate Tom Brady’s return ‘the right way’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

FOXBORO — When Matthew Slater was drafted by the Patriots in 2008, he didn’t think too fondly of Tom Brady.“I didn’t like him when I got here,” Slater cracked on Wednesday.It was in good nature. Slater grew up a Rams fan because his father Jackie played all 20 seasons of his career for them, and he certainly didn’t forget Brady beating them for his first Super Bowl victory.“I was like, ‘I don’t know about this Brady guy,’ ” Slater joked.But it didn’t take long for Slater’s view of Brady to change.“I’ll never forget my first day in here, he came up and introduced himself to me,” Slater said. “He knew a little bit about my college career, there wasn’t much to know, but he knew it. The kindness that he showed me, that he didn’t have to really has stuck with me ever since then. I remember calling my parents, I’m like, ‘Hey, Tom Brady knows my name. He introduced himself.’ And he was like that with everyone. It wasn’t just me. … He was just a genuine, humble human being.”More than the le...

Catholic-Jewish research substantiates reports that Catholic convents sheltered Jews during WWII

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

ROME (AP) — Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II, providing names of at least 3,200 Jews whose identities have been corroborated by the city’s Jewish community, officials said Thursday.Researchers from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust research institute and Rome’s Jewish community released the findings at an academic conference Thursday held at the Museum of the Shoah, part of Rome’s main synagogue.The documentation doesn’t appear to shed any new light on the role of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi occupation of Rome. Historians have long debated Pius’ legacy, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives and critics saying he remained silent as Roman Jews were rounded up and deported from the Vatican’s backyard.Rather, the new documentation provides names and addresses of people who were sheltered in Catholic in...

Fiji is deporting leaders of a South Korean sect that built a business empire in the island country

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Fijian authorities on Thursday said they were in the process of deporting six leaders of a South Korean religious sect that a decade ago moved hundreds of followers to Fiji and built a series of thriving businesses into an empire.But authorities said they were only able to apprehend four of the principals of the Grace Road Church, and that senior director Daniel Kim and another man were on the run. It’s unclear how the deportations will affect the estimated 400 South Korean adherents who remain in Fiji and the hundreds of local Fijians they employ. Grace Road businesses are prominent across the island country and include farms, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations and dentists.The sect first moved to Fiji under Daniel Kim’s mother, Shin Ok-ju, who told her followers that Fiji provided a safe haven from impending war and famine. She is currently imprisoned in South Korea after being found guilty of various crimes, including holding followers ca...

Police comb the UK and put airports on alert for an escaped prison inmate awaiting terrorism trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:17 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British police hunted across the country on Thursday and put ports and airports on alert for a former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.Opposition politicians demanded to know how Daniel Abed Khalife managed to slip out of medium-security Wandsworth Prison and why he was not being held at a maximum-security facility.Khalife, 21, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act by gathering information “that could be useful to an enemy.”He was discharged from the British army after his arrest earlier this year and had denied the allegations. His trial was set for November.Police said Khalife was dressed in a kitchen uniform of white T-shirt and red checkered trousers when he escaped from the overcrowded Victorian prison in south London.Opposition politicians linked the escape to years of austerity under the Conservative Party, which has governed Britain since 2010. Many ...