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Poland’s Duda backtracks on controversial Russian influence law after backlash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

BRUSSELS — Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Friday he had amended a controversial law aimed at investigating Russian influence in Polish politics, days after the EU and the U.S. expressed concerns that the bill could be used to intimidate political rivals ahead of an upcoming election.Duda said he had removed the use of sanctions for people found guilty of acting under the influence of the Kremlin — including banning them from public office — handed down by an ad hoc commission.The commission would still, however, prepare a negative opinion regarding a person’s ability to hold a public position.“I propose that instead they [the sanctions] should be replaced by a statement by the commission that a person who has been found to have acted under Russian influence does not provide a guarantee that they will properly carry out their activities in the public interest,” the Polish president said in a statement. The initial bill, including the ban on running for publ...

Trump-DeSantis feud gets ugly fast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

LACONIA, N.H. — Shortly after Ron DeSantis snapped at a reporter who questioned his limited voter engagement during a swing through New Hampshire on Thursday, his chief primary rival tried to one up him.Donald Trump made a crack about his opponents’ fear of the media and proceeded to field 20 minutes of questions from reporters in Iowa, drawing an immediate contrast to his protege turned foe. Elsewhere, a super PAC backing DeSantis drove a bus that mockingly followed Trump around the state. And DeSantis all but accused Trump of failing to push through a sufficiently sweeping conservative agenda during his four years in office, while ripping the former president for his “juvenile” use of derisive nicknames.The day on the trail illustrated just how bitter the race has become in its embryonic stages. While the campaign is still young – Republicans won’t begin voting for more than six months — Trump and DeSantis are already engaged in the kind of mano-a-mano fight typically seen much cl...

DA: Man to be charged in elderly mother’s death after attack outside Marlboro hotel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

A Westboro man is set to be arraigned on criminal charges Friday in connection with the death of his 82-year-old mother who he’s accused of attacking and hitting with a truck in the parking lot of a Marlboro hotel, officials said. Daniel Uhlman, 53, will be arraigned in Marlborough District Court on charges of armed assault to murder a person over 60, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60 in connection with the death of his mother, Nancy Uhlman, of Westboro, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.Officers responding to an apparent homicide at a hotel on Lakeside Avenue around 12:30 p.m. Thursday took Uhlman into custody. A preliminary investigation suggests there was an altercation in the parking lot during which Uhlman physically attacked his mother and struck her with her truck, according to the DA’s Office.No additional informatio...

Today is National Donut Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

(CNN) — The first Friday in June — June 2 this year — is National Donut Day.Started by the Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938, the day honors the group’s “donut lassies,” who served treats and provided assistance to soldiers on the front lines during World War I. (And this isn’t to be confused with National Doughnut Day, which is in November and honors the actual food; though both days are celebrated by eating doughnuts.)Doughnuts have been around since long before the First World War, and we have the Dutch to thank for them. The Dutch would make “olykoek,” which translates to oily cake. The first Dutch doughnuts didn’t have a hole, but they were fried in hot oil and the dough was sweet.It wasn’t until 1847 that the holed-out doughnut we know and love today appeared. Hanson Gregory, 16 at the time, claimed credit. Sick of doughnuts with a raw center, he used a pepper pot to punch out holes to help his doughnuts cook more evenly.By 1920, Adolph Levitt, a Russi...

14-year-old Dev Shah of Florida wins Scripps National Spelling Bee with final word ‘psammophile’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

(CNN) — Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, correctly spelling psammophile to take the $50,000 first prize.“It’s surreal. … My legs are still shaking,” he said at the competition in National Harbor, Maryland.Eleven students made the finals after 11 million people entered spelling competitions throughout the world.The preliminary rounds were held Tuesday, while the quarterfinals and semifinals took place Wednesday.In Thursday’s finals, Dev correctly spelled schistorrhachis, aegagrus, rommack and tolsester. In the word meaning round, Dev picked the right definition of chiromancy, identifying it as someone who tells fortunes using lines on the palm of the handDev competed against 14-year-old Charlotte Walsh from Merrifield, Virginia, as the final two standing. She earned $25,000 for reaching second place after correctly spelling akuammine, collembolous ...

US employers added a strong 339,000 jobs in May as labor market stays durable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers stepped up their hiring in May, adding a robust 339,000 jobs, well above expectations and evidence of strength in an economy that the Federal Reserve is desperately trying to cool.Friday’s report from the government showed that the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, from a five-decade low of 3.4% in April.The stronger hiring demonstrates the job market’s resilience after more than a year of rapid interest rate increases by the Fed. Many industries, from construction to restaurants to health care, are still adding jobs to keep up with consumer demand and restore their workforces to pre-pandemic levels.Having imposed 10 straight rate hikes since March 2022, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to skip a rate increase when it meets later this month, though it may resume its hikes after that. Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have made clear that they regard strong hiring as likely to keep infl...

‘Veteran young guy’ Gleyber Torres showing Yankees signs of leadership

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

Only 26 years old, Gleyber Torres doesn’t consider himself a veteran.“I feel the same younger way,” the six-year pro told the Daily News, but he’s no longer among the Yankees’ youngest players. That group has been headlined by Anthony Volpe, 22, and the recently demoted Oswaldo Cabrera, 24. Other pinstriped contributors this season, including Oswald Peraza and Jhony Brito, also predate Torres, who debuted at age 21 in 2018.“He’s like the veteran young guy,” Cabrera told The News. “When you say veteran, that doesn’t mean you have to be an old guy.”While Torres can debate his veteran status with his younger peers, there’s no denying that the second baseman has shown signs of growth this season. At the plate, that’s meant well-documented adjustments to his approach, which has yielded better strikeout and walk rates and a higher on-base percentage.But Torres has also shown more leadership this year, a developm...

Endangered tree kangaroo born in San Diego

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A female joey named Kikori is now nine months old after being born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in August of last year, officials announced Thursday. Born to mother Arona and father Bek, this is only the second time this endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo species has been born at the Safari Park. Video shows several sharks feed on dolphin at Torrey Pines State Beach At birth, these tiny joeys are only about the size of a jellybean, park officials explained. The baby kangaroos then crawl into their mother's pouch, where it remains for about six months until it gains enough nourishment to become active.  “We are elated with the birth of this Matschie’s tree kangaroo joey,” said Donovan Vila, wildlife care specialist at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “Matschie’s tree kangaroos are endangered, so this joey provides hope for the future of this species.” Kikori has recently started climbing out of her mother's pouch and park officials say she's showing interest in...

How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt limit deal and staved off a catastrophe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was advice that Mitch McConnell had offered to Joe Biden once already: To resolve the debt limit standoff, he needed to strike a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and McCarthy alone. But after the first meeting of the top four congressional leaders with the president in early May, the Senate minority leader felt the need to reemphasize his counsel.After returning from the White House that day, McConnell called the president to privately urge him to “shrink the room” – meaning no direct involvement in the talks for himself, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.That, McConnell stressed to Biden, was the only way to avert a potentially economy-rattling default. A week later, Biden and McCarthy essentially adopted that path, tapping a handful of trusted emissaries to negotiate a deal that would lift the debt limit. It was a turning point in an impasse that, until then, seemed intractable. Having lived through the deba...

America’s religious leaders sharply divided over abortion, a year after Roe v Wade’s reversal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:56 GMT

In the year since the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion, America’s religious leaders and denominations have responded in strikingly diverse ways — some celebrating the state-level bans that have ensued, others angered that a conservative Christian cause has changed the law of the land in ways they consider oppressive.The divisions are epitomized in the country’s largest denomination — the Catholic Church. National polls repeatedly show that a majority of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, yet the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports sweeping bans. Among Protestants, a solid majority of white evangelicals favor outlawing abortion. But most mainline Protestants support the right to abortion, and several of their top leaders have decried the year-old Supreme Court ruling that undermined that right by reversing the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.For example, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, sai...