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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/at-maryland-football-pro-day-chigoziem-okonkwo-and-others-work-to-achieve-nfl-dreams-its-been-my-no-1-goal/
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After Maryland tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo ran the fastest 40-yard dash among his position group at the NFL scouting combine earlier this month, he was mad.
The time of 4.52 seconds ranked in the 94th percentile among tight ends since 2011, according to scouting database MockDraftable, but Okonkwo said he wanted to be faster — especially after running a 4.40 during training. Still, his performance generated much-needed buzz heading into the NFL draft on April 28 in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, Okonkwo continued to show off his skills, participating in Maryland’s Pro Day with his fellow draft-eligible teammates in front of 45 scouts from 29 NFL teams. For the senior, it’s a chance to turn a childhood dream into a reality.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 7,” the 6-foot-2, 238-pound Okonkwo said. “It’s been my No. 1 goal my entire life.”
His journey at Maryland took its share of twists and turns before a breakout senior season. As college football grappled with the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Okonkwo missed the season because of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. He returned this past season, becoming one of junior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa’s go-to targets after receivers Dontay Demus Jr. and Jeshaun Jones went down with season-ending injuries.
Okonkwo caught 52 passes for 447 yards and a team-best five touchdowns, but more importantly, he showcased his versatility as a receiver and a blocker, which he feels can translate smoothly to the NFL level.
“I can play every role,” he said. “I can play out wide, the slot, the backfield. I can cause mismatches, and I can block.”
Maryland coach Mike Locksley said the team runs a pro-style offense that allowed Okonkwo to be an inline blocker and a detached receiver.
“Our offensive system is very versatile, which allows the players to showcase things the NFL is looking for,” Lockley said.
Okonkwo said he didn’t realize how much Maryland prepared him until he went to the East-West Shrine Game in February and felt he was a step ahead of the other tight ends. While working with the Indianapolis Colts staff, Okonkwo said the coaches used the same terminology he learned at Maryland.
Big Ten Network analyst Matt Millen, a former Penn State defensive lineman and general manager for the Detroit Lions, said Okonkwo still has room to grow after improving during his career, particularly as a senior.
“If somebody drafts him, they’re going to have to be a little patient with him, but I think he has something to work with,” Millen said.
Okonkwo, who could be drafted as high as the third round, said he has had in-depth conversations with the Ravens, New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Tennessee Titans. Playing with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is something he would cherish.
“You don’t get to see that many extraordinary talents like that,” he said.
Cross looking for opportunity — perhaps close to home
Okonkwo was joined at Maryland’s Pro Day by defensive backs Nick Cross and Jordan Mosley, running back Tayon-Fleet Davis, defensive lineman Sam Okuayinonu, kicker Joseph Petrino and defensive lineman Lawtez Rogers.
Just like Okonkwo, Cross garnered attention at the NFL scouting combine, recording the fastest 40-yard dash (4.34) among safeties.
A three-time All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention, Cross led the Terps last season with three interceptions and two forced fumbles in 13 games. The junior also finished second on the team in tackles (66), including 3 ½ for loss, while adding three sacks and four pass breakups.
A Bowie native, Cross grew up a Washington Commanders fan and said it would feel good playing for his childhood team alongside his former DeMatha teammate Chase Young. However, he wouldn’t mind any NFL team that gives him an opportunity.
“Only a select few people get the opportunity to play in the NFL,” he said.
Cross, a projected third-round pick who could climb into the second round, said he has spoken with a handful of teams, including the Ravens, who he met with at the combine. Millen thinks the 6-foot, 212-pound Cross has the speed, size and agility to be productive at the NFL level.
“He’s got a good skill set for the safety spot,” Millen said. “The thing with safeties is you have to understand angles. And he does a pretty good job of that. I think he’s a pretty good player.”
Maryland’s Pro Day also featured a few other local players, such as Towson wide receiver Caleb Smith and offensive linemen Demarcus Gilmore and Andrew Garnett, as well as Delaware defensive back Nijuel Hill (Calvert Hall).
From Terps lacrosse standout to the NFL?
Former Maryland men’s lacrosse star turned Ferris State quarterback Jared Bernhardt performed wide receiver and defensive back drills, hoping a team gives him a shot after leading the Bulldogs to an NCAA Division II national championship.
When the 6-1, 195-pound Bernhardt was asked what position he preferred the most, he said “I’m open to anything.”
“It was a cool feeling coming back to College Park,” he said. “I would definitely like to do better. I try to hold myself to a high standard.”
After a five-year lacrosse career in which he became the Terps’ all-time record holder in career points (290) and goals (202), Bernhardt transferred to Ferris State, where he rushed for 1,421 yards and 26 touchdowns and completed 70.7% of his passes for 1,322 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions to be nominated for the 2021 Harlon Hill Trophy as the Division II College Football Player of the Year.
Bernhardt said the transition from lacrosse to football hasn’t been easy, as he had to watch a ton of film while seeking guidance from former New England Patriots receiver Chris Hogan, who played lacrosse for three years at Penn State before playing football at Football Championship Subdivision-level Monmouth.
Even though Bernhardt hasn’t touched a lacrosse stick in a while, he didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the sport. But for now, he’s focused on football.
“I want to win no matter the cost,” he said. “Help out any way possible. It doesn’t matter if I play.”
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/award-for-information-leading-to-missing-child-harmony-montgomery-grows-to-150000/
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Concerned observers are opening up their pocketbooks to keep the search for missing child Harmony Montgomery alive — the possible award for credible information on her location has shot up to $150,000.
“There are individuals who know where Harmony is and we need cooperation to bring her home,” Manchester Chief of Police Allen Aldenberg wrote in a 2021 department report issued two years after the now-7-year-old girl went missing. “I implore the community to keep Harmony in their thoughts and prayers and to assist us in finding her.”
Investigators have determined that the girl — who police describe as weighing 50 pounds, around 4 feet tall with blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing glasses — likely went missing between Nov. 28 and Dec. 10, 2019, according to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office.
The increase to $150,000 was announced Thursday by the police department. Donor money has been flowing in since the police opened the missing child case on Dec. 31. The pot had climbed to $100,000 by Jan. 11.
Harmony’s father Adam Montgomery and his then-wife Kayla Montgomery were evicted from their Manchester home along with Harmony, who is not Kayla’s biological daughter, and their two shared children on Nov. 27, 2019. The group was then living out of cars — a silver 2010 Chrysler Sebring and a dark blue 2006 Audi S4.
While there were reports of seeing Harmony with the pair since that eviction, by Dec. 6 those reports had dried up and the Montgomerys were only seen with their two common children, the attorney general’s office reported.
“This family was troubled, transient, and originally engaged with the Massachusetts child protection system,” N.H. Gov. Chris Sununu wrote in a January letter.
Harmony had been in the custody of her biological mother, Crystal Sorey, until 2018. A Massachusetts court gave sole custody to Adam Montgomery in February 2019.
Adam Montgomery and his former wife Kayla were arrested on Jan. 4 and 5, respectively.
This month has seen a rush of events connected to the case:
Police announced that Adam’s girlfriend Kelsey Small — who was not charged in the case — was found dead on March 13.
Both Adam and Kayla were indicted March 25. Adam is alleged to have struck Harmony in the face in July 2019 and faces a charge of second-degree assault. Kayla is alleged to have lied to the state Health Department that Harmony was a member of the household while she was missing to receive extra food stamps, and she faces a theft by deception felony charge.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/feverish-and-crazed-former-boston-philharmonic-youth-orchestra-employee-pleads-guilty-to-child-porn/
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A former employee of both the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and its Youth Orchestra pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography — with at least one of the thousands of pictures and videos depicting a child as young as 1.
David St. George, 75, of Arlington, told federal investigators that he had been collecting child pornography in a “feverish and crazed” way for a year and a half before deleting it all, but had begun collecting it again for months before the feds searched his home and arrested him on Sept. 25, 2018, according to an affidavit filed with the court.
He pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Boston to one count of possession of child pornography, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns scheduled sentencing for Aug. 16.
St. George had operated a shared drive on the encrypted remote server platform Mega under the username and email address “Still_a_Boy@protonmail.com” — an account active from January to April 2018 — according to court documents, which was first found by investigators in the United Kingdom, who tracked the IP address to the U.S. and alerted federal authorities here.
St. George copped to possessing the porn to authorities during the search, court records say. He also told them that while he often worked with children both at the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and as former artistic director for the Discovery Ensemble, which performed and held workshops for children in Cambridge, he had never had sexual contact with the children and that his interest was only in the pornography.
Investigators say they found a hard drive that contained thousands of instances of child pornography and a three-ring binder that included screenshot printouts of the other materials found.
Examples of the materials included in charging documents described photographs and videos of not only naked little boys and girls, but the sexual assault and rape by adults of many of those children.
He had continued to receive and upload child pornography despite repeatedly being banned by an online service provider, according to U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins. He had taken steps to conceal his identity through the use of the encrypted services.
The case is a part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood. The Department of Justice says that members of the public who have questions, concerns or information about the case can call 617-748-3274.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/former-heat-guard-tim-hardaway-selected-for-basketball-hall-of-fames-class-of-2022/
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Tim Hardaway, who helped contribute to the start of the Miami Heat’s ascension to playoff contention along with Alonzo Mourning in the late 1990s, now will join Mourning in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a party familiar with the process Thursday told the Sun Sentinel.
Hardaway who had fallen short on previous ballots when a finalist, in part because of anti-gay comments made during a radio report that he later expressed contrition for and worked in the community to make amends, will make it consecutive years of a Heat franchise icon being enshrined.
Center Chris Bosh, part of the Heat’s Big Three championship teams with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, was inducted as a member of the Hall’s 2021 class.
Hall selections are not inducted as a member of any particular franchise, which allows Hardaway to be celebrated for both his Heat success as well as the high-octane success he has with the Golden State Warriors’ Run TMC trio of himself, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond. Mullin and Richmond, the former Broward County prep standout, have previously been inducted, Mullin in 2011, Richmond in 2014.
Hardaway’s iconic No. 10 Heat jersey already hangs from the rafters at FTX Arena, now to be amended with the distinction of being a Hall of Famer, as have the Heat retired jerseys of Mourning, Bosh and Shaquille O’Neal. Eventually Wade’s retired Heat number also will be so altered.
Also previously enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts for careers that included time with the Heat were Heat President Pat Riley, guard Ray Allen, guard Gary Payton, former Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo and former Heat executive Billy Cunningham.
The next member of the Heat’s Big Three who will be on the ballot is Wade, for the Hall’s Class of 2023, four years after his retirement, with James eventually to follow.
The formal announcement of the Class of 2022 will be made Saturday at the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four, with induction in Springfield in September. Hardaway is in New Orleans for that announcement.
Hardaway was one of several selections who leaked Wednesday. Also reported to have made the list for 2022 induction are former San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili, former WNBA star Swin Cash and former NBA coach George Karl, as well as college basketball coach Bob Huggins, who in 1995 interviewed for the Heat coaching job that instead went to Riley.
It was then, during Riley’s first season with the Heat, that he dealt for Hardaway at the trading deadline and set the foundation for future success alongside Mourning.
Hardaway still holds the Heat franchise record of 806 career 3-pointers and had been the Heat’s all-time assists leader until he career mark was broken by Wade in 2010.
“With us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when Hardaway was named a finalist, “he really put the Miami Heat, along with Pat and Alonzo, on the map and changed the culture.”
Hardaway, 55, played 13 NBA seasons, including six with the Heat, with time also with the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers. He later served under former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy as an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons, a tenure that ended in 2018.
His career included five All-Star selections, one selection first-team All-NBA, three selections second-team All-NBA and one selection third-team All-NBA. He also was a member of the 1990 All-Rookie first team, after he was drafted No. 14 out of Texas-El Paso by the Warriors in 1989.
Along with Mourning he also was a member of the 2000 Sydney Olympic team that won the gold medal. Like Mourning and the Heat’s other Olympic gold medalists, he also has a banner at FTX Arena for that accomplishment.
Hardaway’s son, Tim Hardaway Jr., plays for the Mavericks.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/high-school-sports-roundup-march-29/
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Here’s a roundup of high school varsity action Tuesday, March 29.
Boys lacrosse
St. Mary’s 9, Loyola Blakefield 6: Nick Golini scored the go-ahead goal with 2:17 left in the third quarter and the host Saints (7-0, 1-0 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association) beat the Dons (2-4, 0-1). Loyola tied the game 5-5 with 4:03 left in the third quarter. Golini, Jake Adams and Gavin Gurlace each scored twice for St. Mary’s.
Severn 11, Mount St. Joseph 8: Jacob Todd delivered three goals and three assists, Trey Dring recorded a hat trick and Chase Hallam had a goal and two assists to lead the Admirals over the Gaels. Justin Queen added a goal and an assist, Mason Ervin, Andrew Beard and Reid Gills each added a goal, with Gills winning 13 faceoffs, while Will Perez, Jr. made 13 saves for Severn.
Key 16, Beth Tfiloh 7: Reid Chapman accounted for eight goals and an assist and Jaeden Clark added three goals and an assist as the Obezags handled the Warriors. Edward Bulmer netted two goals and an assist, Teddy Fleming contributed two goals, Kasper Kelly scored a goal, James Madison was credited with an assist and won 17 of 24 faceoffs and Henry Robbins stopped 11 shots for Key.
Gilman 8, John Carroll 4: The host Greyhounds (6-3, 1-0 MIAA A Conference) won their third straight, beating the Patriots (1-3, 0-1).
Boys’ Latin 8, McDonogh 6: Spencer Ford scored four goals to lead the host Lakers (5-1, 1-0 MIAA A Conference) over the Eagles (3-3, 0-1). Nicky Brown scored twice for Boys’ Latin.
Archbishop Spalding 15, St. Paul’s 10: Michael Weisshaar scored six goals and Race Ripley and Nick Gutierrez each had three goals to lead the host Cavaliers (5-1, 1-0 MIAA A Conference) over the Crusaders (6-1, 0-1). Spalding opened with a 6-0 run.
Fallston 18, North Harford 6: Fallston took a 10-4 lead into halftime and didn’t look back. Jacob MacMillan had four goals and three assists, while Brendon Mudd had four assists. Aiden Dixon won 70% of his faceoffs and led Fallston in ground balls with 11.
Havre de Grace 13, Harford Tech 8: Raegan Dent scored four goals to go with four assists, and Wyatt Molyneux had three goals to lead the Warriors over the host Cobras.
Northeast 18, Oakland Mills 0: RJ Breeden and Trent Wise scored three goals each, with Breeden adding two assists, as the Eagles blanked the Scorpions. Devin Wirth added two goals and an assist while Andrew Pangalis, Scott Czyz and Gage Bowers added a goal and two assists. Blaine Bennett made two saves and Zack Heisler stopped four shots for Northeast. David Millison made 11 saves for Oakland Mills.
Southern 11, Howard 10: Carter Moon notched five goals and an assist, while Garrett Simi produced two goals and an assist to lead the Bulldogs over the Lions. Tyler Wedick pitched in two goals and Brady Gauntner made 12 saves for Southern. Matt Baur recorded four goals and an assist, Dominick Diangrasso had two goals and an assist and Logan Boone made 11 saves for Howard.
South River 14, Glenelg 9: Kyle Matlick and Henry Sykes each scored four goals and LaLa Titow added a hat trick to lead the Seahawks over the Gladiators. Connor Chick recorded two goals and two assists, Justin Martin deposited a pair of goals and Greg Usher made 25 saves for South River.
Glen Burnie 10, Hammond 2: Joe Crenshaw provided five goals and an assist and Collin Flannery contributed a goal and four assists to pace the Gophers past the Golden Bears. Travis Peach and Mason Huddy added a goal and an assist apiece. Ethan Hansel finished 10 of 12 on faceoffs and Brandon Loyko made six saves for Glen Burnie.
North County 18, Long Reach 1: Josh Martel accounted for six goals and three assists and Marcus Ortiz added four goals as the Knights handled the Lightning. Nick Mahoney also netted three goals and an assist for North County.
Annapolis 7, Atholton 4: Gage Berry scored twice, while John Gonsalves, Colton Swank, Will Smith, August Keohan and Greg Durkin each tallied a goal to give the Panthers the win over the Raiders. Glen Billard led the Raiders in the defeat with a pair of goals.
Old Mill 12, Wilde Lake 10: Jumar Brooks and Jacob Statland each scored four goals, while Jamal Wilson had two goals and two assists to lead the Patriots over the Wildecats. Zach Pimpinella finished with 12 saves for Old Mill. Rowley Jackson spearheaded Wilde Lake’s offense with six goals and two assists.
River Hill 4, Arundel 2: Noah Bell and Brett Wilkins each scored a goal and John Tonrey made six saves for Arundel.
Middletown 8, Manchester Valley 7: The Mavericks fell in overtime. Marquis Morris had two goals, while Trent Onkst, Grant Miller, Blake Ray and Reid Bartles also scored.
Girls lacrosse
Patterson Mill 19, Elkton 7: Ava Lopano scored seven goals and handed out three assists in the Huskies’ win. Caroline Gabhard backed her with five goals. In net, Taylor Brown and Guin Donovan combined for 12 saves.
Fallston 9, North Harford 4: Delaney Nicolaus scored five goals to lead the Cougars over the host Hawks. The Cougars spread the offense around with five different goal scorers. Summer Eddinger made 10 saves in goal. Kendall Fortune scored three goals for the Hawks.
Beth Tfiloh 10, Indian Creek 9: Indian Creek’s Mia Putzi notched seven points with three goals and four assists, while Sophee Gomberg added three goals, but the Eagles fell to the Warriors in overtime. Molly Bunker tallied two goals and an assist, Abby Bach scored a goal and Elia Alewine made 19 saves for Indian Creek.
Centennial 15, Crofton 10: Abby Cudzilo spearheaded the Eagles offense with 7 goals, while Alana Kelly added four goals for Centennial. Ava Welsh finished with six saves. For Crofton, Kylie Corcoran found success with seven points (four goals, three assists), while Katie Bell also scored four goals. In goal, Bree Riggs tallied eight saves and Emily Clutter finished with six. Centennial led 9-5 at the half.
River Hill 18, Arundel 13: Erin Devine managed seven goals and Claire Slade added another six goals to lead the Hawks over the Wildcats. Molly Maloney and Gabrielle Bergstorm each scored two goals and Maddie Vasilios scored once for River Hill. Morgan Gore had eight goals and an assist, Marissa Arianna tallied three goals and an assist, Madison Barber registered two goals and two assists and Kylie Sharpe made 15 saves for Arundel.
Broadneck 18, Mt. Hebron 6: Lilly Kelley delivered three goals and two assists, while Olivia Orso and Lexi Dupcak each netted a hat trick, as the Bruins topped the Vikings. Mary Moore chipped in two goals and three assists, Reagan Baldwin two goals and an assist, Julia Sokolowski managed a goal and three assists. Ellie Smith led the Vikings with four points (three goals and an assist).
Old Mill 12, Wilde Lake 5: Carysn Smith delivered three goals and two assists, while Elaina Creekmore and Samantha Sobolewski each had three goals to lead the Patriots over the Wildecats. Addison Guthrie had four saves and Camryn Smith stopped three shots for Old Mill (2-1). Cassie Montgomery scored four goals and Romee Kamphee had six saves for Wilde Lake.
Oakland Mills 14, Northeast 6: The Scorpions’ offense caught fire as Sara Novak finished with a season-high 12 points (eight goals, four assists). Kaity Browne added eight points (five goals, three assists). Katie Oliver finished with 10 saves for the Scorpions.
North County 16, Long Reach 2: Alyssa Yost netted five goals and Maggie Blanford added four goals and an assist to guide the Knights over the Lightning. Natalia Cosentino pitched in three goals and two assists, Darby von Berg contributed two goals, Lindsay Culbertson had a goal and an assist and Jaclyn Bange made eight saves for North County. Chiara Pompei and Reagan Burfeind scored goals for the Lightning, as Lucy Paulhamus added an assist.
Atholton 14, Annapolis 13: Fiona Coleman managed three goals and an assist, while Paige Hruby registered three goals in the Panthers’ loss to the Raiders. Sarah Ericson and Amelia Skinner each had two goals for Annapolis.
Glenelg 18, South River 1: Lauren LaPointe led the Gladiators offensive attack with five goals. Emma Kennedy chipped in three goals and an assist, while Carleigh Callahan scored two goals. Maura Murphy added two goals and two assists and Kamryn Henson added two goals and an assist. Reese Allnutt handed out three assists.
Severna Park 16, Marriotts Ridge 6: Alyssa Gore-Chung registered four goals and two assists, while Delanie Abere and Karli Kirchenheiter added three goals apiece as the Falcons topped the Mustangs. Emma Marsh delivered two goals and five assists. For Marriotts Ridge, Hayley Lettinga recorded three goals.
Hammond 11, Glen Burnie 9: Hannah Haber provided five goals and two assists and Janna Kreh was close behind with five goals and an assist to lead the Golden Bears past the Gophers. Mia Addo made seven saves for Hammond. Dakota Smith scored five goals and Haylie Zaleskiwicz netted two goals and three draw controls for Glen Burnie.
South Carroll 22, Catoctin 1: Shannon McTavish tallied 11 points with four goals and seven assists in the Cavaliers’ win. Leah Miller was the top goal scorer in the game, finding the net six times. Also for South Carroll, Caroline Laur had four goals, Cailin Yankle had three and Reese Athey scored two. Sophia DuPont, Riley James and Olivia Russell also scored.
Manchester Valley 11, Middletown 8: The Mavericks move to 3-0 with the win. Haylee Bittinger led the offense with four goals. Emma Penczek had three goals and three assists, while Sarah Brisson had two goals and two assists. Lauren Baldwin made four saves in goal.
Harford Tech 14, Havre de Grace 8: Molly Re scored five goals and Madison Patridge had three goals to lead the host Cobras over the Warriors.
C.M. Wright 11, Bel Air 3: Cailin Hetrick scored five goals to lead the Mustangs over the host Bobcats.
Towson 17, Sparrows Point 0: Avery Briggs, Brigid Vaikness and Gwen Barber all had two-goal games to lead the Generals. Meghan Cottrell made three saves in goal.
Catonsville 16, Eastern Tech 4: For Eastern Tech, Abby Schwartz-Mitchell scored twice, while Leah Brammer and Maria Schneider also had goals. Monica Mumma made seven saves in goal.
Softball
Towson 14, Hereford 4: Lexi Predmore and Julianna Leatherwood led a dynamic offensive effort for the Generals. Predmore drove in four runs, while Leatherwood went 3-for-3 with three RBIs. Grace Hoey was also 3-for-3 and scored three runs. Samara Murchison had two hits and drove in two. Predmore got the win in the circle, striking out seven in four innings.
Manchester Valley 15, Liberty 4: Tied at 2 after an inning, the Mavericks broke open the game with six runs in the second and four in the third. Alex Carroll had three hits, including a double and home run, driving in two runs. Makenna Deane and Ashlee Hipsley each drove in three runs for Manchester Valley (2-1). Brooke Sims and April Bitzel also drove in two. Liberty (1-3) got a pair of RBIs from Hailey Seaton.
Reservoir 10, Mt. Hebron 6: Tied at 3, the Gators took control with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. Kayla Ecker has three hits and three RBIs to lead Reservoir. Abbie Frisvold had a triple, single and two RBIs. In the circle, Maggie Frisvold struck out 13 and got the win. Becca Hutchinson and Allison Sicoli each had two hits and two RBIs for Mt. Hebron (1-1).
Chesapeake 21, Southern 0: Kendall Thomas and Kacie Burkhart combined for a five-inning no-hitter, with Burkhart fanning seven in three innings and Thomas striking out two. Thomas added the offense with two doubles and four RBIs to guide the Cougars over the Bulldogs. Allison Kunes went 2-for-2 with a tripe and two RBIs, Alyssa Simms went 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs, Ava Cichetti added a hit and two RBIs and Norah Hart also stroked a hit and drove in a run for Chesapeake.
Arundel 5, Broadneck 0: Bria Sewell went 3-for-4, while Sierra Williams added two hits, including a double. Winning pitcher Kathryn Wisor, along with Sasha Anderson, went 2-for-4 as the Wildcats shut out the Bruins. Wisor gave up four hits in the circle.
Long Reach 9, River Hill 6: Kaitlynne Streets struck out five in the complete-game win. Streets also excelled at the plate finishing 4-for-6 with a double and four RBIs. Jules Dadurka also finished 4-for-5. Madison Wise went 3-for-5 with an RBI. For River Hill, Leila Schmidt went 3-for-4, while Wood went 2-for-4.
North East 5, North Harford 4: Down 5-1 in the sixth, North Harford made things interesting, scoring three runs in the final two innings, but coming up just short.
Baseball
Manchester Valley 9, Liberty 5: The Mavericks (1-1) built an 8-0 lead early and held off a late Liberty rally. Tyler Vanella had two doubles and three RBIs. Jacob Gouge and Jamison Gouge each drove in two. Hunter Agostine got the win on the mound. Liberty (1-3) was led by Kevin Hyde with two hits and two RBIs. Byron Blevins also drove in two.
Gerstell 11, Mount Carmel 1: Winner Taylor Stuck worked 3⅓ innings, giving up one run on one hit, striking out eight to lead the host Falcons (2-0, 1-0 MIAA B Conference) over the Cougars (2-5, 0-2). Stuck went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Gerstell scored six runs in the sixth inning.
Key 17, St. Frances 7: Lachlan Armstrong went 3-for-3 with four RBIs, Jack Gallant went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Trey Brandon went added a hit and drove in three runs as the Obezags defeated the Panthers. Sean Boomer pitched two innings, striking out one and allowed one earned run and Gallant tossed two innings, striking out three and yielding one earned run for Key (3-2).
Glen Burnie 9, North County 1: John Elkins pitched five scoreless innings allowing two hits, while also collecting four hits offensively, including a double and three RBIs as the Gophers topped the Knights. Alan Fangman added three hits and scored three runs for Glen Burnie (2-1). Austin Carter and Kevin Santos had hits for North County.
Chesapeake 12, Southern 2: Sean Carroll homered and drove in a pair of runs and Owen Schmidt added three hits, including a double and an RBI, to guide the Cougars past the Bulldogs. Dillon Stevens doubled twice and had an RBI, Carter Drab knocked in a pair, Brendan Phillips doubled and drove in a run and winning pitcher Nick Karls doubled and struck out seven in earning the victory for Chesapeake.
Annapolis 5, South River 4: Sebastian Casanova earned a bases-loaded walk to guide the Panthers to the walk-off win over the Seahawks. Winning pitcher Rowan Standish and Anthony Costa collected two hits apiece and Dom Montini added an RBI-single for Annapolis.
Archbishop Spalding 17, John Carroll 3: Parker Thomas (2-for-2) scored three runs and had an RBI to lead the host Cavaliers (5-2, 2-0 MIAA A Conference) over the Patriots (4-2, 1-1). Spalding took a 10-0 lead after two inningsl
Northeast 6, Crofton 3: LJ Drummond went 2-for-4 and Brady Blackmer added a hit and two RBIs to give the Eagles the victory over the Cardinals. Jack Schreiber, Nate Wilburn and Evan Dickey added to the offense for winning pitcher Dakota Patton. Patton scattered seven hits in six innings, allowing three runs and striking out five. Travis Fleshman and Nate Morseman both had two hits for Crofton.
Indian Creek 7, McDonogh 3: Winning pitcher Logan Frazier launched a three-run home run, guiding the Eagles over McDonogh. Riley Handwerger had three hits and scored two runs and Nick Pratt had an RBI single for Indian Creek.
Mount St. Joseph 19, St. Mary’s 1: Winner Shane Mummey worked four innings, giving up one run on five hits, striking out five as the host Gaels (8-2, 2-0 MIAA A Conference) beat the Saints (4-4, 0-2). Mount St. Joseph scored 12 runs in the third inning.
Fallston 4, Bel Air 0: Finley Jourdan threw a no-hitter as the Cougars (1-1) won to open conference play. Jourdan struck out seven. Offensively, Jourdan went 3-for-4. Jake Baugess Kimes had a pair of RBIs, while Nathan Slicher and Tony Sweitzer also drove in runs.
North East 15, North Harford 7: The host Hawks (0-3) fell behind 7-0 in the first inning and despite rallying, dropped the UCBAC game. Andrew Robinson pitched 5⅓ innings of relief, allowing two runs, one earned. Robinson also hit a double and scored a run. Vance Haire added a single and run scored.
Patterson Mill 4, Harford Tech 3: The Huskies scored three in the first and one in the third, enough for the win. Michael Hemelt struck out nine in five innings on the mound, giving up three unearned runs. Travis Loewe got the save pitching two perfect innings in relief. Brady Reise was 3-for-4 with a double. Jonah Vujanic drove in two runs.
Reservoir 11, Mt. Hebron 3: Matt Brathwaite finished 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Gators. Zach Gaynor tripled and drove in two runs. Justin Gutierrez threw three scoreless innings for Reservoir, allowing one hit.
Glenelg County School 4, Pallotti 1: Dylan Melton and Trey Miller combined on the two-hitter. Melton threw five innings and struck out eight. Ryan Fagan had a two-run single and Connor Wilson also drove in a run for GCS.
River Hill 2, Marriotts Ridge 1: The Hawks prevailed in a pitchers’ duel in eight innings. Michael Flaim got the win in relief, throwing two scoreless innings, striking out three. Henry Zatkowski started, striking out six in six innings. For the Mustangs, Nick Russo threw 6⅔ allowing four hits, striking out eight. Demetre Koutras led River Hill finishing 2-for-4, while Roussell led Marriotts Ridge, also finishing 2-for-4.
Poly 10, Catonsville 9: Brendan George hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, scoring Charlie Vey with the winning run for the visiting Engineers.
Kenwood 10, Aberdeen 6: Kenwood moves to 3-0 win the win. For Aberdeen, Tyler Sampson had two hits and two runs scored. Sean Deaner had two doubles and drove in three.
Tennis
South River 9, Northeast 0: Pat Miller, Aidan Quiles and Katie Boetig all won their singles matches in straight sets to lead the Seahawks to the blanking of the Eagles. The teams of Ethan Taksey and Darin Zagalsky, Caleb Oh and Mason Childs, Meera Rathod and Arusa Malik, Asha Barkat and Marissa McLean, as well as the mixed doubles duo of John Hooker and Caroline Finn also won in straight sets.
Century 7, Dulaney 2: Leading the Knights in the win was boys first singles player Jack Amerault, the mixed doubles team of twins Evan and Danielle DeLawter and the girls first doubles team of Allison Carver and Jillian Conway.
Severn 5, Indian Creek 0: Matthew McNair, Nate Krall and Daniel McNair all won in straight sets, while the doubles pairings of Aiden Gilroy and Alan Tchamourliyski , as well as Luke Fromal and Robert White also won in straight sets as the Admirals blanked the Eagles.
Liberty girls 4, Manchester Valley 1: The Lions got singles wins from Kara Bartalowitz and Jaimie Man, while Valerie Davil and Shannon Hope won second doubles and Maria Talford and Emma Meissner won third doubles. The Mavericks’ win came from Emily McElwaine and Madison MacGregor at first doubles.
Manchester Valley boys 3, Liberty 2: The Mavericks won a pair of third-set tiebreakers, from Kamden Estes at second singles and Connor Neal and Declan McGarry at first doubles, to flip the match and earn its first win over Liberty in school history. Tim Woodley and Anthony Davenport added a win for Manchester Valley. Honour Zan at first singles and the third doubles team of Blake Vandenberg and Hayden Spence won matches for Liberty.
Howard boys 5, Winters Mill 0: The Lions picked up singles wins from Alex Brousseau and Savsas Bifsas. Doubles wins came from the teams of Tyson Nguyen and Jeff Harvey, Prem Shah and Peter Banysas, and Nathan Gong and Hubert Yu.
Howard girls 5, Winters Mill 0: Singles wins came from Corinne Chay and Marina Kim. Winning doubles teams were Presley Caroland and Viola Yu, Shannon Clifford and Amelia Krueger, and Medha Hegde and Preethi Narayanan.
Marriotts Ridge girls 3, River Hill 2: Adele Lair and Adelaide Houston each earned singles victories for the Hawks. Anna Ottman and Charita Sandoze won as the No. 1 doubles pairing for Marriotts Ridge, while Hashini Amarasinghe and Amurtha Alibilli also earned a victory as the No 2 doubles pairing. Leah Liu and Maria Ottman closed out doubles with a victory for the Mustangs.
Marriotts Ridge boys 3, River Hill 2: Mukundth Boopathi narrowly defeated Alex Artazov for Marriotts Ridge in the No. 1 singles match. The Hawks responded with a victory in No. 2 singles from Sebastian Lair. The Mustangs won two of three doubles matches as Pedro Arantes Gabriel and Shreyas Rath as well as Sai Charan Chodavarapu and Colin Wang each won in No. 1 and No. 2 doubles respectively. Dhruv Gupta and Wesley Weinberg won the No. 3 doubles pairing for River Hill.
Old Mill 6, Southern 3: Ryan Williams and Catherine Le won singles matches, while the teams of Garrett DiBenio and Tyler Blatzheim, Aidan Kress and Emmanuel Ishak, Si Yu Chen and Vivian Maneval, along with Ivan Yang and Isabel Killip won in doubles action to lead the Patriots to the win over the Bulldogs. Will Derrick and Taylor Hardesty won singles matches and the pair of Teeghan Holcomb and McKenna Brannon won in doubles for Southern.
Broadneck 9, Crofton 0: Gustav Kemp, Charlie Ernst, Elicia Aponte and Natalie Hosie were winners in singles action to lead the Bruins to the sweep of the Cardinals. In doubles action, Peter Kandra and Ben Cukor, Pierce Gannon and Devin Patel, Cailin Snider and Alyson Kouhi, Rebecca Terry and Kate Piercei, as well as the mixed tandem of Clara Kemp and Gavin Misner were also victorious for Broadneck.
Arundel 9, Meade 0: Matthias Linke, Hunter Kline and Phoebe Budd won in singles play, while the pairs of Tyler Hester and Luke Vogel, Saffron Hayes and Emily Dodd, Karley Patrick and Bridget Sevec, as well as Ava Yost and Ryan Fortescue lifted the Wildcats to the sweep of the Mustangs.
Track and field
Dundalk boys and Dulaney girls won their sides of a four-team meet also involving Towson and Franklin. Chimdy Onoh won both the shot put and discus for Dundalk’s boys. Justin Forbes won the 300 hurdles and pole vault. Dulaney’s Tristin Forby won the long jump and high jump.
On the girls side, Dulaney picked up wins from Amani Griffin (100 meters), Cassie Weymouth (1,600), Anna Albergo (3,200) and Devin DeGannes (long jump).
To submit scores and stats, email mdscores@baltsun.com with a full box score, including first and last names of the players.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/howard-county-2022-high-school-tennis-preview-river-hills-alex-artazov-following-up-on-2021-player-of-the-year-season/
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Howard County boys and girls tennis teams are excited for a conventional 2022 season after the past two seasons.
The regional tournament is scheduled to begin May 13 with the state tournament quarterfinals and semifinals scheduled for May 26-27. The season concludes on May 28 with the state finals at Wilde Lake Tennis Club in Columbia.
Centennial, Howard, Marriotts Ridge and Mt. Hebron are in Class 3A East Region I. Atholton, Long Reach, Reservoir, River Hill and Wilde Lake are in also in Class 3A East, but Region II. Glenelg, Hammond and Oakland Mills represent the final three teams in Class 2A West Region II.
With the regular season underway, here is a preview of the tennis season ahead.
Atholton
Coach: Wendy Heger, second season
Top returning players: Jason Lilly and Jessica Zhou
On the court: Both Lilly and Zhou will be the Raiders’ No. 1 singles players for the boys and girls teams, respectively. Atholton also returns several other seniors in David Szympruch, Nico Taber, Rissah Remy and Steven Tzeng. Outside of the returners, the Raiders welcome in some young talented young players like freshmen Aryan Singh, Aiden Kwon and Sam Li.
Coach’s outlook: “We have a lot of new players this year. Looking to build a fun, strong, confident team that loves tennis and loves being on our team.”
Centennial
Coach: Erin Parisi, 10th season
Last season: Boys 8-3, Girls 9-2
Top returning boys: Seniors Eric Huang, Ryan Huang and Danny Ho; sophomore Vijay Jagarapu.
Top returning girls: Seniors Rose Huang and Sarah Blackman; sophomores Michelle Fradlin and Joanna Blackman
On the court: For the boys, Eric Huang and Ryan Ho are looking to build on strong junior seasons. They finished the regular season 9-0 as the No. 1 doubles pairing. The strong doubles tandem continued their success into the postseason rattling off three consecutive victories, before a loss in the regional final. For the girls, Fradlin is coming off a phenomenal first varsity season. She had a strong regular season as the No. 2 singles player, but found even more success in doubles. Fradlin and Rose Huang won the 3A state girls doubles championship, dominating many of their matches. Freshman Avy Ramreddy is a newcomer to watch this season.
Coach’s outlook: “Our girls team graduated a number of players last year and we have a young group ready to take the court and enjoy everything about high school varsity tennis. Our boys team has some stellar returners and some new returners eager to learn from their more experienced teammates.”
Glenelg
Coach: Jennifer Shepard, third season
Last season: Boys 6-5, girls 5-6
Top returning boys: Senior Mitchell Steinberg; sophomore Lukas Zakalskis
Top returning girls: Junior Ava Stamatakis.
On the court: Steinberg won seven doubles matches in the shortened 2021 season and will look to build on that this season. In his first varsity season, Zakalskis won five matches as a freshman, adjusting well to the varsity level. For the girls, Stamatakis enjoyed an impressive sophomore season tallying five wins, looking to further that success during the 2022 season.
Coach’s Outlook: “We are looking forward to a full season of play. Our young players will get the match experience this year to grow into strong technical players.”
Hammond
Coach: Timothy McCray, first season
Last season: Boys 0-9, Girls 2-9
Top returning boys: Senior Hussain Muhammad; junior Colin Ward; sophomores Sohan Modi, Brandon Nugyen and Huy Tran
Top returning girls: Juniors Ronia Agyeman, Megan Martin, Cingh Cing and Olivia Ametewee; sophomore Shivanni Selvan.
On the court: The Golden Bears are looking to improve their record from last season, with plenty of returning experience for both the boys and girls teams. Outside of the returners for the boys, both seniors Nathaniel Lamb and Russell Hong are looking to provide added depth. In addition, the boys team has four sophomores and a freshman that will enhance the competition within the program. For the girls, Selvan is coming off a terrific freshman season as the No. 1 singles player, finishing the regular season undefeated. Agyeman and Martin are looking to build on their rapport as a doubles tandem last season. Some of the newcomers with great potential include freshman Alison Bent, who has proven to be a heavy hitter.
Coach’s outlook: “Building upon last season successes under the tutelage of previous head coach Brian Gieselman and assistant coach Timothy McCray, the chemistry and competitiveness the girls are developing and showing gives reason for excitement this season.”
Howard
Coach: Chip Boling, 15th season
Last season: Boys 9-1-1, Girls 8-3
Top returning boys: Seniors Jeff Harvey and Tyson Nguyen; juniors Alex Brosseau and Savvas Bifsas.
Top returning girls: Seniors Presley Caroland, Marina Kim and Viola Yu; junior Corinne Chau,
On the court: Brosseau is coming off an impressive sophomore season where he was a 4A state semifinalist in mixed doubles. During the regular season, he finished with an 8-2 record playing doubles. Bifsas also enjoyed a strong sophomore campaign reaching the regional finals, competing in boys doubles. For the girls, Chau was Brosseau’s partner in mixed doubles capturing a regional championship and reaching the state semifinals. Caroland and Kim is looking to cap off their high school careers strongly after making the regional finals in girls doubles. Outside of the returners, a newcomer to watch is freshman Effie Bifsas.
Coach’s outlook: “For our boys we have a solid corps of players. Our newcomers are solid players but still have a lot to learn. The team should compete hard in all matches. For our girls, we return our entire team from last year. Players have been working hard in the offseason and we should be in every match throughout the year.”
Marriotts Ridge
Coach: Scott Dingman, 17th season
Last season: Boys and girls both 14-2
Top returning boys: Seniors Pedro Arantes Gabriel, Sai Charan Chodavarapu and Shreyas Rath
Top returning girls: Senior Anna Ottman; junior Charita Sandoze
On the court: For the boys, the Mustangs return several key experienced players and will look build on an impressive 2021 season. A newcomer to watch for the boys this season is sophomore Mukundh Boopathi. For the girls, they’ll miss Gabby Tseytlin who graduated and finished last season undefeated as the No. 2 singles player. However, her and Ottman also teamed up for several matches last season proving to be a formidable duo.
Coach’s outlook: “I believe we have two solid teams with good depth from top to bottom.”
Oakland Mills
Coach: Christina Hewitt, fifth season
Top returning players: Luke Carlsen, Noad Asres, Ella Kerechanin and Estella Brummell
On the court: The Scorpions are one of the youngest teams in the county. Outside of the returners, some newcomers to watch for both the boys and girls teams are Neloni Mcentire-Mfume, Ashlynn Ramrattan and Michael Mfume. With that combination of returning and newer players, Oakland Mills is looking to show sustained improvement.
Coach’s outlook: “Overall, we have a really young team with only three seniors. Several returners have made great improvements while working hard in the off-season. I am excited to see this team compete and improve every day.”
River Hill
Coach: Kelley Pfefferkorn, seventh
Last season: Boys and girls both 11-0
Top returning players: Junior Alex Artazov; sophomore Adelaide Houston.
On the court: Artazov is coming off a phenomenal 2021 season where he was named the Howard County Boys Tennis Player of the Year. He finished 7-0 during the regular season as the Hawks No. 1 singles player. The junior captured a regional title but saw his quest for perfection end in the state finals. For the girls, Houston enjoyed an impressive freshman campaign. She finished the regular season 7-2, losing in the regional final. A newcomer to watch for the girls team is freshman Adele Lair.
Coach’s outlook: “We are optimistic for the coming season. The players are working hard to be competitive in a tough Howard County league. We are fortunate to have several players who performed well at the region/state tournament last spring.”
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Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal is a former Miami offensive lineman, so it is not surprising when he spends a lot of his time working with the players in the trenches.
“If you’re an offensive lineman and you come here, I’m just telling you the head coach is with you most of practice,” rising sixth-year offensive lineman Justice Oluwaseun said. “I’ve never seen it. I’ve never had a head coach who is literally doing individual drills, and he’s literally teaching me the technique I’m supposed to do. And it just shows you what type of coach he is.”
Assistant head coach Alex Mirabal is also the offensive line coach. The combination of the two experienced former linemen has the offensive line improving steadily as spring practice progresses.
“It’s nice having this many coaches out there and being able to get that individual coaching and development that you need, especially for the younger guys,” center Jakai Clark said. “I feel like in past years we didn’t really have that, and this year it’s just been a big improvement.”
Players have pointed to Cristobal’s and Mirabal’s teaching abilities as a major plus through the first eight spring practices.
“[Mirabal] does a good job of teaching,” Clark said. “To me, that’s the biggest difference is he’s a natural teacher. He takes the time to make sure that you understand concepts. His big emphasis is taking what you learn in the meeting room and taking it onto the field. To me, that’s made the entire group better.”
Miami does not have its full assortment of offensive linemen ready for spring ball, as rising fifth-year junior John Campbell Jr. and rising third-year sophomore Jalen Rivers are limited during practice due to injuries. Fourth-year junior tackle Zion Nelson has anchored the group, and Clark has been entrenched at center.
“I think Jakai Clark could be one of the upper-echelon centers in the ACC,” Mirabal said. “That’s my opinion on it. I think it’s my job to keep helping him get better, and he’s done a tremendous job. … He’s starting to display the leadership that you need when you have your hand on the football.”
Oluwaseun, fifth-year junior Ousman Traore, fifth-year senior DJ Scaife Jr., third-year sophomore Logan Sagapolu and redshirt freshman Laurance Seymore have been among those who have gotten into the rotation at different spots on the line, as well.
“I think that’s the strength of the whole O-line,” Oluwaseun said. “I feel like any O-lineman that we have can play anywhere. We’ve got a bunch of people who’s playing center who plays tackle, we’ve got guys who play guard who play tackle. That’s just how coach Mirabal is. He’s trying to make us get right everywhere, and I feel like just as a group that’s why I really like the group is how versatile we are.”
Clark said Sagapolu, a newcomer to the Hurricanes who transferred from Oregon, brings a lot of energy to the offensive line.
“Strength, power, explosiveness, everything,” Clark said. “Logan is a real dog. He’s obviously a very strong guy, good with his feet, good with his hands. He brings kind of like an energy piece to us, too. … If we have a big play, Logan’s the first guy to start hyping everybody up, put his hands up and start celebrating, so he brings a big energy piece.”
Now that UM is about halfway through spring practice, Oluwaseun said he’s getting excited thinking about the coming season and how the line will perform this year.
“We’re starting to jell and we’re starting to dominate, as an offense should,” Oluwaseun said, “and I’m real excited for that.”
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By The Associated Press
The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, according to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone around the plant.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest “voluntarily received such doses of radiation that the consequences will be explained to them by doctors in special protective suits.”
“They totally deserve to be nominated for this year’s Darwin Awards,” she said on Facebook. “This is a case when the enemy inspires fear through the sawdust in his head.”
The website of the Darwin Awards says they “salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner.”
The Ukrainian nuclear operator company Energoatom said Thursday that Russian troops were headed toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Heavy fighting rages near Kyiv as Russia appears to regroup
— Kremlin decree says foreign currency can still buy natural gas
— As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
— Ukraine refugees encouraged to find work as exodus slows
— Ukrainians in US mobilize to help expected refugees
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
LVIV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after Russian troops withdrew from the north and center of the country, the situation has been heating up in the southeast where Russian forces are building up for new powerful attacks.
In his nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said it was heartening for all Ukrainians to see Russian troops retreating from north of Kyiv, from around the northern town of Chernihiv and from Sumy in the northeast. By he urged Ukrainians not to let up, saying the withdrawal was just a Russian tactic.
“We know their intentions. We know what they are planning and what they are doing,” Zelenskyy said. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.
“We all want to win,” Zelenskyy added. “But there will be battles ahead. We still have to go through a very difficult path ahead to get everything we are striving for.”
Zelenskyy said he spoke Thursday with European Council President Charles Michel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while his adviser spoke with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We need more support from our partners right now when Russian troops are concentrating additional forces in certain areas,” Zelenskyy said.
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WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak said groups at risk include Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox who have broken away from the patriarch of Moscow.
Gudziak also cited reports that Russian forces have damaged two Holocaust memorials and Moscow’s false portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state although Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What is at stake for the people of faith is their freedom to practice their faith,” Gudziak said during an online panel discussion on the war, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Gudziak is head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and president of Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He also oversees external relations for the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance have reached Ukraine as part of the $800 million package of aid that President Joe Biden approved on March 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other material. He said the 100 Switchblade armed drones that Biden approved as part of the package have not yet been delivered.
Kirby said the $800 million in assistance is likely to be fully delivered within about two weeks. It also includes Mi-17 helicopters, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, secure communications systems, and satellite imagery and analysis capability.
Separately, Kirby said U.S. troops are not training Ukrainian troops in Poland but are acting as liaisons with Ukrainian personnel who cross the border into Poland to take possession of U.S. security assistance. He noted that the standard U.S. military training mission that had existed in Ukraine for years was suspended shortly before Russia invaded.
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DOHA, Qatar — A video showing the head of Ukrainian soccer wearing an armored vest on the streets of Kyiv brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress.
Andriy Pavelko used a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar on Thursday to talk about the deaths of footballers even as the sport “has taken a back seat in our country.”
The gathering in Doha featured delegates from Russia, including Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
Russia won’t be in the draw for the World Cup on Friday after being disqualified from playing internationally by FIFA over the war. Ukraine can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope the team will be in a position to return to the field by then.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ombudsperson says that at least one person has been killed and four others have been wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said those who came under the shelling on Thursday were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
She said that the Russian forces besieging Chernihiv have made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city that has been cut from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian shelling continued two days after Moscow announced it would scale back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
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BERLIN — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces which were in control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant have “in writing, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel.
Ukraine said three convoys of Russian forces have already left the site toward Belarus, while the remaining troops were presumed to be preparing to leave, the agency said Thursday.
The IAEA added that it was in close consultations with Ukrainian authorities on sending a first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl in the next few days.
The agency said it has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being inside the exclusion zone of the now-closed plant, but is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his offer to host a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders during a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the Turkish president also told Zelenskyy Thursday that a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Istanbul earlier this week had given “a meaningful impetus” to efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s delegation laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of nations, including Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with a top Turkish Cypriot official that Erdogan also is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said there’s “no clear evidence” that Vladimir Putin is scaling back military operations around Kyiv and suggested that the Russian president may have ordered some of his advisers fired or placed under house arrest.
Biden told reporters that “there’s some indication” that Putin has taken those steps against some of his advisers. He added, “But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”
The White House on Wednesday released unclassified intelligence findings that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.
The president made the comments after formally announcing that the U.S. would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of easing surging gasoline prices.
Biden also reiterated that his administration remains skeptical that Russia will scale back operations around Kyiv as Moscow announced earlier this week.
Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv suburbs Thursday, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
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UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine says the United Nations and its partners have delivered supplies for thousands of people in the country’s northeast but have been unable to reach some encircled cities in the south.
Osnat Lubrani said Thursday that food rations from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the U.N. World Food Program will benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and areas including Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, she said, basic household items including blankets and kettles from the U.N. refugee agency will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help 6,000 people with hygiene and drinking water.
Lubrani said medical supplies and trauma kits from the U.N. World Health Organization will treat 150 patients needing intensive care for serious injuries while other medical supplies will support 10,000 people for three months.
Shei said the U.N.-facilitated humanitarian notification system with Ukraine and Russia enabled safe passage for the convoy to Sumy on Thursday “but this is clearly not enough.” Efforts over the past month to reach Mauripol, Kherson and other encircled cities in the south have been unsuccessful because of safety concerns.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog says its director-general has arrived in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks with senior Russian officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency didn’t specify in a tweet whom exactly Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet on Friday or give further details of his agenda.
He arrived in Kaliningrad Thursday following a visit to Ukraine, where he visited a nuclear power plant and conferred with the energy minister and other officials on efforts to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants — one of which, at Zaporizhzhia, is under the Russian military’s control.
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GENEVA — A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in a Ukraine-held city where staff are preparing to take civilians out of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.
Julien Lerisson, deputy director of operations for the ICRC, said Thursday that the team assembling in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, has medicines, food, water, hygiene items and other essentials.
He said the organization has high-level agreement for the mission but is focused on making sure “the order trickles down the chain of command,” allowing the team to enter and leave Mariupol safely.
The Russian military has said it committed to a cease-fire along the route from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian authorities have said 45 buses would be sent to collect citizens and provide resources to those who remain.
Lucile Marbeau, a staff member with the ICRC team hoping to enter Mariupol, said on Thursday: “We’re here because really, we hope to be able to facilitate safe passage for civilians desperately wanting to flee Mariupol.”
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LONDON — Britain’s defense minister says Ukraine’s international allies have agreed to send more military equipment, including artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace held a conference call Thursday with defense ministers from more than 35 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Wallace said that as a result “there will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine.” He said that would include “more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly,” to help counter Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities.
Wallace said Ukraine was “also looking for armoured vehicles of some types, not tanks necessarily, but certainly protective vehicles.”
He said allies were also “looking to see what more we can do” to help Ukraine defend its coastline.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has sanctioned an employee of a state-affiliated Russian defense firm that developed malicious software that was used to target the energy sector.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh. He was one of four Russians charged in Justice Department indictments unsealed last week that alleged the hacking by Russia of critical infrastructure around the globe, including in the U.S. energy and aviation sectors.
Among the thousands of computers targeted in some 135 countries were of a Saudi petro-chemical plant where the hackers overrode safety controls.
That hack is singled out in a Treasury Department release announcing sanctions against Gladikh and several other employees of the research firm. In total, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was designating 21 entities and 13 individuals, including in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said Thursday.
The operator, Energoatom, said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received “significant doses of radiation.”
The Russian troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Energoatom said the Russians have signed a document confirming the handover of the Chernobyl plant and stating that the plant’s administration doesn’t have any complaints about the Russian troops who were “guarding” the facility.
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LONDON — The head of Britain’s military says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” in Ukraine and is weaker than he was before the invasion.
Adm. Tony Radakin at a think-tank seminar Thursday in London said Moscow’s aim to “take the whole of Ukraine” fell apart. He added that the coming weeks “will continue to be very difficult” for Ukraine.
“But in many ways, Putin has already lost,” he said. “Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.”
Radakin also said there was “disquiet” at all levels of Russia’s military about the campaign, from troops who were not told they were invading Ukraine up to senior commanders.
Western officials say Putin’s small inner circle is not giving him the true picture of the war, and his isolation may have contributed to miscalculating the strength of resistance Russian troops would meet.
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BERLIN — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed regret Thursday at Russia’s decision to veto the extension of its observer mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who holds the OSCE rotating chair, said the observers had played a “crucial role by providing objective information on the security and humanitarian situation on the ground and relentlessly working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population” in Ukraine for the past eight year.
The Vienna-based body’s secretary general, Helga Maria Schmid, expressed gratitude to the mission’s members, several of whom were wounded or killed over the years.
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BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says Europe should impose additional sanctions on Russia to prevent what he described as a “barbaric” war in Ukraine.
Robert Habeck said he discussed what further measures could be taken with his French counterpart during a bilateral meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“The last package (of sanctions) doesn’t need to be the final one, it should not be the final one,” he told reporters, adding that he and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had “identified additional points that could be included in a (sanctions) package.”
Habeck declined to elaborate on what those points might be.
Speaking ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on new rules requiring countries to pay for Russia’s natural gas sales in rubles, Habeck insisted that contracts would be adhered to. These stipulate payment in euros or dollars.
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BERLIN — The Austrian and German leaders have underlined their rejection of a halt to Russian energy deliveries at this point.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer noted that several central and eastern European countries depend to one extent or another on Russian gas deliveries.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that existing sanctions already are having a significant effect and said they need time to switch to new providers and renewable energy sources.
Nehammer said that “sanctions only make sense … when they hit those they are supposed to hit, and don’t weaken those who carry out sanctions.”
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ROME — A Kremlin decree says “unfriendly countries” can continue to pay for natural gas in foreign currency through a Russian bank that will convert the money into rubles.
The decree published Thursday by state media came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin talked tougher, saying Russia will start accepting ruble payments starting Friday for Western countries that imposed sanctions over its conflict with Ukraine. He said contracts will be stopped if buyers don’t sign up to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks.
European leaders had rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The decree Putin signed and published by state news agency RIA Novosti says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. The buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell that currency for rubles, which are placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
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ROME — Italy’s leader is urging Europe to “cultivate all available land” as a partial remedy to reductions in agricultural imports, especially of Russian grain, due to the war in Ukraine.
Premier Mario Draghi told reporters on Thursday that under existing agricultural practices in the European Union 10% of land is purposely left fallow, but that must now change as European countries search for ways to reduce dependency on farm imports.
It’s not clear whether Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, might be able to salvage any of this planting season.
Meanwhile, Draghi noted that Western Europe will be looking to food producers like Canada, the United States and Argentina to help make up the shortfall of imports from Ukraine and Russia.
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STOCKHOLM — The deputy director of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security agency says Russia has made “a strategic miscalculation when invading Ukraine.”
Daniel Olsson said the invasion of Ukraine “has shown that the Russian leadership is ready to take great risks, larger than previously taken.”
The government agency’s analysis suggested a likely “a western containment of Russia,” including reducing trade in Russian energy.
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Three weeks ago, I found myself lying half-naked on a table surrounded by a lot of people wearing masks intent on plunging sharp knives into me. Even by Baltimore standards, this is considered a somewhat atypical circumstance, at least for a Monday afternoon in March. But there I was having spent the previous weekend on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, hanging out with friends at their brand new home only to gradually realize I’d lost all appetite for food and my midsection had become increasingly tender. It had seemed prudent to return to Baltimore early Sunday and, as things did not improve, to show up at the local hospital emergency room with a suspected case of appendicitis.
Now, my always-skeptical spouse, a seen-it-all medical professional, has a long-standing rule about any family member going to the ER. You must say “yes” to the following question: Is there a bone sticking out? There was not. Still, in an uncharacteristic moment of empathy (or perhaps to get me to stop moaning), she drove me to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center at 6:30 a.m. The timing proved fortuitous. At that early hour, they could take me immediately, evaluate my circumstances, give me a CT scan and conclude the following: First, that I had acceptable health insurance coverage and second, that I had an unacceptable appendix, and it would have to be removed as soon as possible or things could get dicey in there.
I knew a little bit about my unfortunate condition. In the human digestive system, the appendix is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Senate minority leader. Sure, it probably played a useful role at one time (rounding up good bacteria votes, perhaps) but now it’s just causes disruptive bellyaches in Mitch McConnell fashion. Mine had become infected and would be removed through laparoscopic surgery which involves narrow tubes stuffed into your gut which is also inflated with carbon dioxide gas to make it as spacious as possible. I can only speculate on how amusing this procedure may have been for onlookers. For the 90-minute procedure, I was mercifully knocked out cold. When I awoke in the recovery room, I was assured that I had survived and that the insurance billing was going wonderfully (well, they didn’t say that exactly, but I was a little groggy).
This is where the going got tough. I won’t bore you with symptoms but suffice to say they are all unpleasant in their own disruptive ways. I was sent home with a small quantity of pain medication and a much larger bottle of antibiotics. I was encouraged to move around but spent much of the day lying on a couch trying to find a comfortable position and a decent news program. Both proved elusive. The Russia-Ukraine war was a misery — as was much of the cable news commentary, particularly at a certain network that was just months earlier toasting Vladimir Putin as a genius and now, amazingly, saw him as the evil result of Joe Biden’s lax approach to foreign policy. Talking heads who would have struggled to find Ukraine on a map months earlier were suddenly claiming to have a better understanding of how best how to combat Russia’s air superiority than the Pentagon.
Later, when the confirmation hearings for Kentanji Brown Jackson broke out, it was just as painful to see such an impressive nominee tagged by certain Republicans (unrestrained by their clearly limited understanding of the legal system), as soft on crime despite precious little evidence to back that up. Now, I know what you are thinking here, dear reader. Someone predisposed to retching should never voluntarily watch Sen. Ted Cruz for an extended period of time. Point taken. It was, I’ll admit, the equivalent of the seasick sampling a few choice morsels from the rotting sardine tray. But when you are appendix-free, you think you might have developed some immunity to the contents of the large intestines. I can faithfully report that no “-ectomy,” short of a brain-ectomy, prepares you for the junior senator from Texas.
Light reading was an option, I suppose, but it’s difficult to keep focused on the written word as your insides roil around. And that would have prevented me from making an important discovery. There is respectable journalism taking place on cable television. It’s just not on the traditional news channels. Turn on ESPN, and you will see well-informed journalists who have built entire careers developing expertise in their field and who continue to closely monitor events, interviewing newsmakers and asking tough questions. Seriously. I bet the average sports talk show host knows far more about the NFL salary cap than any news anchor equivalent knows about the S-400 (Hint: Built in Russia, it’s a surface-to-air missile system). Why is cable sports coverage so good when news commentary is so lame?
So, in review, here’s what I learned from my ordeal. First, get yourself to the hospital when you are sick to your stomach with pain near your navel or perhaps in the lower right part of your belly. Second, don’t watch anything on television that produces that exact same symptoms.
Peter Jensen is an editorial writer at The Sun; he can be reached at pejensen@baltsun.com.
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They say only death and taxes are certain, but in Massachusetts the former doesn’t necessarily stop the latter.
That should change, though, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which issued a brief Thursday in support of Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal to alter the estate tax.
“Massachusetts should change its estate state because we currently have the highest tax burden of any state in the nation for estates between $1-3 million,” Eileen McAnneny, foundation president, said in an emailed statement.
Currently, Massachusetts is one of 12 states that taxes an estate after a person’s death.
Among the states that do so, Massachusetts is tied with Oregon for the lowest threshold at which an estate tax kicks in, at $1 million.
Massachusetts also employs a so-called “cliff effect,” whereby an estate worth just $1 less than the threshold is free of a tax burden, while that dollar results in substantial tax liability.
This may not seem like it would be a problem for too many people, but that’s not the case for anyone who owns real estate in Massachusetts. When it comes to the estate tax, the value of your home is included.
Considering then, the foundation says, that the current median value of a single-family home in working class Somerville is nearly $900,000, it wouldn’t take much more than a small 401(k) account to put a working family into tax liability.
“The current tax regime punishes people for working hard, saving and acquiring wealth,” McAnneny said.
Baker proposes raising the threshold to $2 million and eliminating the cliff effect with an estate exclusion at $2 million.
Even that proposal, if agreed to by the legislature, would mean Massachusetts would have the third-highest estate tax, behind Rhode Island and Oregon. Baker’s estate tax proposal carries a price tag of $231 million in lost tax revenue, his administration said.
Baker previously indicated that our economy cannot retain people through retirement if the rate is not changed to be competitive. McAnneny agrees.
“Changing our estate tax would make Massachusetts less of an outlier, more competitive and help to retain people nearing retirement, small business owners and others that are adversely impacted,” she said.
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Who would ever imagine shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars in a sandbox?
But that was the scene Thursday when Gov. Charlie Baker and a group of the city’s top developers gathered behind a trough of sand with gleaming, silver-engraved ceremonial shovels to kick off a massive $597M project in the booming Seaport.
“Has anyone ever done a groundbreaking indoors before,” Baker asked the audience of local officials and business leaders gathered in a suite at the Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport.
The event was billed as a groundbreaking for 10 World Trade, “a premier life science and office development” originally planned to be built in 2020 but delayed due to COVID.
In truth, the groundbreaking had already occurred.
Behind Baker, and past developer John Hynes III, outside the windows and below the crowded conference room’s 3rd-floor balcony, the machines and workers were busy on the ground where eventually there will be a more than 500,000-square-foot lab and office building.
Soon to be situated where not much more than parking used to be at 10 World Trade Center Ave., Watertown based architectural firm Sasaki’s unique building design will take form with flared sides, a glass exterior, and no internal columns.
The design will allow for public access to its bottom floor, which will include 40-foot arched ceilings and 24-hour eateries, and maximize use of interior space, according to 10 World Trade project executive John Hynes IV.
The top floor of the structure will also include a 15,000-square-foot, state of the art fitness center and a 300-meter running track.
The building will be surrounded by over 2-acres of sustainable landscaped, publicly viewable greenspace, with a new planned pedestrian bridge.
Hynes III shared the history of the site with the audience, noting that the population of the city had suffered due to various market changes. He noted his grandfather, mayor during the 50s, had tried to stop that decline.
Hynes III said that he hoped the project would bring more people to the city, continuing his grandfather’s work.
“There is some real value in believing that you are building on the work of those who came before you,” Baker told Hynes III and Hynes IV.
After the public speaking, the gathered officials took to the open air balcony to dip their ceremonial shovels into a trough of sand.
Behind them, as green vested construction workers moved about the building’s jobsite, a pair of cranes hoisted a ‘10 World Trade’ flag into the wind.
The officials tossed the sand into the air for pictures and the wind picked it up, blowing it back into the faces of the governor and developers.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/actor-ezra-miller-ordered-to-stay-away-from-hawaii-couple/
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HONOLULU — A Hawaii judge has granted a couple’s request for a temporary restraining order against Ezra Miller, an actor known for playing “The Flash” in “Justice League” films.
The couple filed a petition for a temporary restraining order Tuesday, alleging that Miller burst into their bedroom and threatened them in Hilo, a small town on the Big Island. The petition also accused Miller of stealing some of their belongings, including a passport and wallet.
The judge’s order, filed in court Wednesday, said it was necessary to grant the couple’s petition to prevent harassment.
Days earlier, Miller allegedly harassed patrons at a karaoke bar. Late Sunday, police were called to Margarita Village in Hilo, where they said Miller yelled obscenities, grabbed a mic from a singing woman and lunged at a man playing darts.
“The bar owner asked Miller to calm down several times to no avail,” police said in a news release.
Miller was arrested at the bar shortly after midnight Monday and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment. Miller was released on $500 bail.
Neither Miller nor the actor’s representatives could immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Miller is ordered to appear at a court hearing April 13.
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How many times have you unwrapped a fast-food burger and noticed that it bears little resemblance to what’s shown in advertisements?
Consumers suing Miami-based Burger King Corporation share your frustration.
The suit claims that meats shown in Burger King’s advertisements and menu illustrations are deceptively larger that what consumers actually get.
When unwrapped, Whoppers are actually wimpy and Big Kings aren’t so regal, it says.
“Burger King materially overstates the size of nearly every menu item in its current advertisements,” claims the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami.
The suit seeks damages on behalf of the four plaintiffs and millions of others who it says suffered financial damages when they were deceived by Burger King’s photos into purchasing its comparatively diminutive sandwiches. They also want Burger King to replace the photos with ones showing the products’ actual sizes.
“Burger King advertises its burgers as large burgers compared to competitors and containing oversized meat patties and ingredients that overflow over the bun to make it appear that the burgers are approximately 35% larger in size and contain more than double the meat than the actual burger,” the suit claims.
The consumers said they would not have ordered their Burger King sandwiches if the photos showed the actual size of the products. What they received “is much lower in value than what was promised,” the suit says.
Burger King Corporation declined to comment on the claims, saying through a spokesperson that it “does not comment on pending or potential litigations.”
Nearly all of the Miami-based burger chain’s products are exaggerated in menu illustrations and ads, the suit claims. Those products include all Whopper-branded sandwiches, such as the meatless Impossible Whopper, the Triple Whopper with Cheese, all of the Croissan’wich breakfast sandwiches, the standard hamburger and cheeseburger, and the recently launched Whopper Melts.
A side-by-side comparison shows the chain’s photo of its Big King with two cheese-topped patties extending wider than their bun, piled high with lettuce, onion and pickles. Next to it is the actual Big King, with the meat smaller than the bun and two slices of lettuce poking from the side.
Similar comparisons show beef patties that are much larger in promotional photos of Burger King’s Whopper and newly introduced Whopper Melt than what consumers actually received.
The lawsuit includes complaints posted online by food reviewers and regular consumers. “Yo @BurgerKing,” one Twitter user posted, “why did I just get the #BigKing and this thing looks like the Small Prince? What’s up with that?”
Prior to September 2017, photos of Burger King’s sandwiches “more fairly advertised the size of the Whopper on its website and store menus,” the suit states. But in more recent years, “the burger increased in size by approximately 35% and the amount of beef increased by more than 100%,” it says, adding that the size and amount of ingredients of the actual Whopper has not increased over that time.
Burger King has previously come under fire for overstating its burger sizes, the lawsuit says. About 12 years ago, the United Kingdom’s advertising regulator ordered the company to stop advertising “overstated burgers” after finding that the thickness and height of its burgers were “considerably less” than advertised.
Four plaintiffs are named in the suit, which seeks class action status. One is a full-time Florida resident, two are residents of New York state, and another consumer splits time between the two states.
They are represented by Anthony J. Russo of the Delray Beach-based Russo Firm and New York City-based attorney James C. Kelly.
While undoubtedly relatable to consumers, class-action lawsuits against fast-food giants often fail.
In 2020, a Fort Lauderdale-based district judge dismissed a suit complaining that the chain’s meatless Impossible Burger was deceptively promoted as vegan but cooked on the same surface as beef patties. The judge found that the chain never claimed the burgers were vegan, and that the plaintiffs failed to ask about the cooking method before ordering.
In 2018, a federal judge in Miami struck down a lawsuit against McDonald’s that claimed it was cheating customers by failing to discount prices of Quarter Pounders ordered without cheese. The judge found that the plaintiffs failed to establish that they were entitled to relief for their “unwanted cheese vexation.”
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
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The Chicago Bulls faced off against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night at the United Center to begin a stretch of five straight home games, trying to put themselves in good position for a playoff run.
They’ll have one more road game — April 10 at the Minnesota Timberwolves — before a much-anticipated return to the postseason for the first time since 2017.
Building some momentum is paramount for a team that has saved its worst for last. After going 39-21 and battling through some difficult injuries, the Bulls regressed significantly, losing 11 of 16 games and slowly sinking in the Eastern Conference standings.
Hopes of finishing as the third or fourth seed in the East and earning home-court advantage for at least the first round appear remote. But hanging on to the No. 5 spot over the Toronto Raptors should be attainable with a strong finish.
No matter their opponent in the first round — the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers — the Bulls will enter the playoffs as huge underdogs, thanks to their post All-Star break slide and a combined 1-11 record against those four teams.
Alex Caruso said the goal is to “find the best version of us” down the stretch.
“When we play at that version, we’re a really good team,” he said.
The problem is the Bulls haven’t played at that level for several weeks, even since the recent returns of Caruso and forward Patrick Williams. The loss of Lonzo Ball to a meniscus tear in his left knee has been one of the biggest reasons for the Bulls’ woes, and there’s no certainty he will be back for the postseason.
On March 21, the Bulls announced a 10-day pause on Ball’s running program to give him more time to heal from arthroscopic surgery done in January. Before Thursday’s game against the Clippers, coach Billy Donovan said Ball would be “ramping up” again but added it would be a gradual process to see how he responds.
Ball has recovered well since the surgery, Donovan said, but getting back to game speed is another matter.
“Sprinting is where he’s had some discomfort,” Donovan said. “Pulling him back, he does feel fine. It’s just when he gets to doing anything full speed. … And we’ll see if this (pause) has helped.”
The Bulls’ postseason hopes don’t hinge on Ball’s return. Caruso can run the show, and rookie Ayo Dosunmu continues to develop into a dependable player. But there’s no doubt the Bulls would receive a big emotional lift if Ball somehow were able to make it back for the playoffs.
“That’s our starting point guard, so if you get that back to any team, it’s going to be a good addition,” Caruso said Thursday. “I don’t know what his timetable is or what the plan is for him. … But he looks like he’s in good spirits. He’s been working.
“So cross our fingers and see what happens when that day comes.”
Crossing fingers might not be enough. With only 10 days left in the regular season, is there enough time?
Donovan said doctors have given no indication Ball can’t do it.
“He really wants to play,” Donovan said. “But he’s also going to be smart in terms of how he’s feeling, and he’s going to be realistic and the doctors will put their heads together. But certainly every day that goes by, and time that passes by, you’re moving closer and closer to the end of the season.”
And if Ball can’t make it back in those 10 days, could he still make his return in the postseason?
Donovan couldn’t answer that question but said if Ball responds well to the ramp-up they’ll get a better idea from doctors.
As for now, the Bulls are grappling with a difficult final stretch that continues a Saturday game against the Heat, who have beaten them all three times in the season series, and includes back-to back games Tuesday and Wednesday against the defending champion Bucks and Celtics.
It’s time to see what they’re made of.
“Any team that’s planning on playing in the postseason has to have a high sense of urgency this time of the year,” Caruso said. “It’s just about us going out there and trying to fine-tune some stuff, work on some defensive coverages and stuff we might try in the playoffs.
“But overall, it’s about sharpening us and making sure we’re ready to go.”
It has been a roller-coaster season for the Bulls, but after their failed rebuild and overall bad vibes from the Jim Boylen era, no one can say it hasn’t been fun to watch. If the Bulls do go on to lose in the first round, fans might debate whether the season was a success, which might be unfair but is the way the world works these days.
Once the Bulls proved they were back, everyone was excited about the possibility of a happy ending, which would include at least one playoff-series win.
But this team has never done anything the easy way, so why start now? With or without Ball, the Bulls can succeed in the playoffs if everyone pulls together behind DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
“The East, 1 through 6 (seed) right now, is pretty tight, even with Cleveland one game behind,” Caruso said. “I don’t really worry about matchups. Once the playoffs start, it’s zero-zero. I’ve seen teams lose 3-1 or 4-0 in a season series and then win in five or six games.
“Playoffs are unpredictable. When that day comes, we’ll see where we’re at.”
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Florida and 20 other states are suing the federal government over mask mandates for airlines, trains and other forms of public transportation, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.
The mandates have caused “unruly passenger situations,” because people “nibbling on peanuts for 2½ hours” can keep the masks off, but somebody reading can’t, DeSantis said. “It’s amazing it’s gone on as long as it has,” he said.
The lawsuit marked the latest clash between the federal government and Gov. DeSantis, who has pushed to close the curtain on what he calls “COVID theater” as coronavirus cases have dropped. Filed in federal court in Tampa, the lawsuit argues the federal government has shown an “outright disdain for the limits on its power — especially when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
President Joe Biden’s administration earlier this month extended requirements for travelers to wear masks on public transportation through April 18 at the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The current CDC transit order, which has been in place since soon after Biden took office in January 2021, has been previously extended three times. It requires masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares and at transportation hubs such as airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations, and seaports, Reuters reported.
Commuters have been mostly compliant with wearing masks on Tri-Rail, the commuter-rail system that runs across South Florida, but “as the pandemic has subsided, fewer of our riders are accepting the need to wear the masks,” said Steven Abrams, its executive director.
Officers who come through the Tri-Rail cars hand out free masks to passengers who don’t have them. “People do appreciate the masking on the rush-hour trains,” Abrams said. “But on other trains where people can easily spread out, there are clearly riders who don’t see the necessity.”
Recently, the CEOs of 10 airlines and cargo carriers signed a letter to Biden urging him to end the transportation mask mandate and testing requirements for international travelers. Airlines and travel groups had called on the White House to “repeal the federal mask mandate for public transportation, or provide a clear roadmap to remove the mask mandate within 90 days.”
The following states have joined Florida in the complaint: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
“If politicians and celebrities can attend the Super Bowl unmasked, every U.S. citizen should have the right to fly unmasked,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement. “It is well past time to get rid of this unnecessary mandate and get back to normal life.”
The push to remove the required masks coincides with DeSantis’ stance that such mandates are unnecessary. Earlier this month, DeSantis made national news when he asked high school students to remove their masks during a news conference.
Also this month, state officials said they planned to recommend that healthy children not get vaccinated, which drew an outcry from the White House. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said at the time it was “absolutely not” good policy.
Masks do have a significant impact on curbing the spread of respiratory infectious disease, and certain people may still need to protect themselves, Dr. Marissa Levine, a University of South Florida College of Public Health professor, recently told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash.
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Lawrence Taylor, the ex-football great who spent his Hall of Fame career as a linebacker with the New York Giants, pleaded not guilty Wednesday during his arraignment on charges of failing to register as a sex offender.
Taylor, 63, was arrested Dec. 16 for failing to report his address change to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Taylor’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, said Taylor used his home address instead of a hotel address.
Taylor must report address changes as a sex offender due to a plea agreement in a 2010 incident in which he had sex with a 16-year-old who he said claimed to be 19 years old. He pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and sex with an underage prostitute, both misdemeanors, and was sentenced to six years’ probation.
Eiglarsh said Taylor wants the charges dropped because Taylor changed his living situation only because Pembroke Pines police suggested he stay at a nearby hotel due to martial problems. He said Taylor registered with the correct address and complied with the plea arrangement.
“He registered,” Eiglarsh said. “He just put an address down that he thought was accurate. That’s the house he’s been living in for years.
“But he spent some time 50 yards away at a hotel that’s close to his house because of the marital problems he’s having.”
“He took their instruction and still believed that his address was the home that he lived in for years, and he was still living in the pool house from time to time,” Eiglarsh said. “So, he mixed his time there. So, did he violate the law? I don’t think so.”
Taylor, a trend-setter as a pass-rushing linebacker, won two Super Bowls (XXI and XXV) with the Giants, won the NFL MVP in 1986, is a 10-time All Pro and 10-time Pro Bowl selection, and was named to the NFL’s 100th and 75th Anniversary All-Time teams, among numerous other honors.
He also competed on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC-TV in 2009.
Taylor has had numerous brushes with the law over the years. In Florida, he’s had incidents related to cocaine, driving under the influence (a September 2016 incident in which he hit a motor home and then a highway patrol car), and a November 2009 hit-and-run crash in Miami-Dade County (he left his Cadillac Escalade after crashing into a Lexus; no one was injured).
He’s also had troubled financial dealings, declaring bankruptcy in 1998, and at least two trips to drug rehabilitation. Also, in 2016, his wife was arrested by Pembroke Pines police on a domestic violence charge for throwing an object that hit Taylor in the head.
Eiglarsh said the failure to report charges against Taylor are both felonies and carry a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Chris Perkins can be reached at chperkins@sunsentinel.com.
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Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King wants to get to the NFL any way he can.
“I love football; I love the game of football,” King said. “Whoever gives me the opportunity to play at the next level: receiver, running back, special teams. I don’t care if they tell me to go wash the car. I’ll do it.”
King, whose final college season was cut short by a shoulder injury, was one of 11 Hurricanes who worked out at the team’s Pro Day in Coral Gables on Wednesday.
The Hurricanes’ former signal-caller has been a quarterback for most of his life, but he also worked out at wide receiver — a position he played for part of his college career — on Wednesday to maximize his chances of making an NFL roster.
“I don’t want to say it’s hard,” King said. “Obviously, I’ve been playing quarterback since I was four years old. I played receiver a year and a half of my whole life. I am a quarterback, that’s who I am. I lead like a quarterback. I watch tape like a quarterback.”
King spent most of his six college seasons as a quarterback, but he played wide receiver his freshman and part of his sophomore year at Houston. He had 58 catches for 492 yards and three touchdowns in those two seasons. He also caught two passes for 16 yards in two seasons at Miami.
After moving back to quarterback in his sophomore year, King had a breakout junior campaign. He completed 63.1 percent of his collegiate passes for 8,378 yards and 76 touchdowns against 19 interceptions. He also ran for 2,055 yards and 32 scores.
With representatives of several NFL teams in attendance on Wednesday, King ran an unofficial time of 4.65 in the 40-yard dash and ran about a 7.3 in the shuttle drill, according to the ACC Network’s broadcast.
“I felt all right,” King said. “I feel like I definitely could’ve done better at some things, but it is what it is at this point.”
King said he has a workout with the New England Patriots on Thursday and will work out at the Dolphins’ local workout day. He said he wants to be seen as a jack-of-all-trades.
“That’s my goal,” King said. “The more you can do, the more valuable you are.”
King said he has been trying to maximize his abilities at both quarterback and wide receiver. He earned an invitation to the NFL combine as a quarterback, so that was his earlier focus. Now he is working consistently at both positions.
“I was trying both every day,” King said. “Not trying to overwork and keep myself healthy. I would throw first then after I do my throwing, go run some routes [for] maybe 20, 30, 40 minutes. Just getting it in every day so I can feel comfortable.”
King’s teammate, fellow prospective draftee Charleston Rambo, thinks King is more than capable at either position.
“He’s athletic,” Rambo said. “He’s going to throw it. He’s going to catch it. He’s going to run. He’s just balling.”
Rambo said King “knows his stuff,” but the former Hurricanes signal-caller said Rambo and fellow wide receiver Mike Harley Jr. offered some good advice.
“Catch the ball, that’s the most important thing, right?” King said. “You can’t go out there run a good route and drop the ball. It makes no sense. So I caught everything, so that was good.”
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By The Associated Press
The Ukrainian government said Russian forces blocked 45 buses that had been sent to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars.
Twelve Ukrainian trucks were able to deliver humanitarian supplies to Mariupol, but the supplies were seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.
According to Ukrainian officials, tens of thousands of people have made it out of Mariupol in recent weeks along humanitarian corridors, reducing the prewar population of 430,000 to about 100,000 by last week.
Vereshchuk said about 45,000 Mariupol residents have been forcefully deported to Russia and areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Heavy fighting rages near Kyiv as Russia appears to regroup
— Kremlin decree says foreign currency can still buy natural gas
— As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
— Ukraine refugees encouraged to find work as exodus slows
— Ukrainians in US mobilize to help expected refugees
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
LVIV, Ukraine — The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, according to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone around the plant.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest were exposed to radiation, but that could not be confirmed.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator company Energoatom said Thursday that Russian troops were headed toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after Russian troops withdrew from the north and center of the country, the situation has been heating up in the southeast where Russian forces are building up for new powerful attacks.
In his nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said it was heartening for all Ukrainians to see Russian troops retreating from north of Kyiv, from around the northern town of Chernihiv and from Sumy in the northeast. By he urged Ukrainians not to let up, saying the withdrawal was just a Russian tactic.
Zelenskyy said he spoke Thursday with European Council President Charles Michel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while his adviser spoke with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We need more support from our partners right now when Russian troops are concentrating additional forces in certain areas,” Zelenskyy said.
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WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak said groups at risk include Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox who have broken away from the patriarch of Moscow.
Gudziak also cited reports that Russian forces have damaged two Holocaust memorials and Moscow’s false portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state although Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What is at stake for the people of faith is their freedom to practice their faith,” Gudziak said during an online panel discussion on the war, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Gudziak is head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and president of Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He also oversees external relations for the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance have reached Ukraine as part of the $800 million package of aid that President Joe Biden approved on March 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other material. He said the 100 Switchblade armed drones that Biden approved as part of the package have not yet been delivered.
Kirby said the $800 million in assistance is likely to be fully delivered within about two weeks. It also includes Mi-17 helicopters, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, secure communications systems, and satellite imagery and analysis capability.
Separately, Kirby said U.S. troops are not training Ukrainian troops in Poland but are acting as liaisons with Ukrainian personnel who cross the border into Poland to take possession of U.S. security assistance. He noted that the standard U.S. military training mission that had existed in Ukraine for years was suspended shortly before Russia invaded.
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DOHA, Qatar — A video showing the head of Ukrainian soccer wearing an armored vest on the streets of Kyiv brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress.
Andriy Pavelko used a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar on Thursday to talk about the deaths of footballers even as the sport “has taken a back seat in our country.”
The gathering in Doha featured delegates from Russia, including Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
Russia won’t be in the draw for the World Cup on Friday after being disqualified from playing internationally by FIFA over the war. Ukraine can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope the team will be in a position to return to the field by then.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ombudsperson says that at least one person has been killed and four others have been wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said those who came under the shelling on Thursday were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
She said that the Russian forces besieging Chernihiv have made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city that has been cut from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian shelling continued two days after Moscow announced it would scale back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
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BERLIN — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces which were in control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant have “in writing, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel.
Ukraine said three convoys of Russian forces have already left the site toward Belarus, while the remaining troops were presumed to be preparing to leave, the agency said Thursday.
The IAEA added that it was in close consultations with Ukrainian authorities on sending a first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl in the next few days.
The agency said it has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being inside the exclusion zone of the now-closed plant, but is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his offer to host a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders during a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the Turkish president also told Zelenskyy Thursday that a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Istanbul earlier this week had given “a meaningful impetus” to efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s delegation laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of nations, including Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with a top Turkish Cypriot official that Erdogan also is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said there’s “no clear evidence” that Vladimir Putin is scaling back military operations around Kyiv and suggested that the Russian president may have ordered some of his advisers fired or placed under house arrest.
Biden told reporters that “there’s some indication” that Putin has taken those steps against some of his advisers. He added, “But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”
The White House on Wednesday released unclassified intelligence findings that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.
The president made the comments after formally announcing that the U.S. would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of easing surging gasoline prices.
Biden also reiterated that his administration remains skeptical that Russia will scale back operations around Kyiv as Moscow announced earlier this week.
Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv suburbs Thursday, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
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UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine says the United Nations and its partners have delivered supplies for thousands of people in the country’s northeast but have been unable to reach some encircled cities in the south.
Osnat Lubrani said Thursday that food rations from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the U.N. World Food Program will benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and areas including Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, she said, basic household items including blankets and kettles from the U.N. refugee agency will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help 6,000 people with hygiene and drinking water.
Lubrani said medical supplies and trauma kits from the U.N. World Health Organization will treat 150 patients needing intensive care for serious injuries while other medical supplies will support 10,000 people for three months.
Shei said the U.N.-facilitated humanitarian notification system with Ukraine and Russia enabled safe passage for the convoy to Sumy on Thursday “but this is clearly not enough.” Efforts over the past month to reach Mauripol, Kherson and other encircled cities in the south have been unsuccessful because of safety concerns.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog says its director-general has arrived in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks with senior Russian officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency didn’t specify in a tweet whom exactly Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet on Friday or give further details of his agenda.
He arrived in Kaliningrad Thursday following a visit to Ukraine, where he visited a nuclear power plant and conferred with the energy minister and other officials on efforts to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants — one of which, at Zaporizhzhia, is under the Russian military’s control.
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GENEVA — A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in a Ukraine-held city where staff are preparing to take civilians out of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.
Julien Lerisson, deputy director of operations for the ICRC, said Thursday that the team assembling in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, has medicines, food, water, hygiene items and other essentials.
He said the organization has high-level agreement for the mission but is focused on making sure “the order trickles down the chain of command,” allowing the team to enter and leave Mariupol safely.
The Russian military has said it committed to a cease-fire along the route from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian authorities have said 45 buses would be sent to collect citizens and provide resources to those who remain.
Lucile Marbeau, a staff member with the ICRC team hoping to enter Mariupol, said on Thursday: “We’re here because really, we hope to be able to facilitate safe passage for civilians desperately wanting to flee Mariupol.”
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LONDON — Britain’s defense minister says Ukraine’s international allies have agreed to send more military equipment, including artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace held a conference call Thursday with defense ministers from more than 35 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Wallace said that as a result “there will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine.” He said that would include “more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly,” to help counter Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities.
Wallace said Ukraine was “also looking for armoured vehicles of some types, not tanks necessarily, but certainly protective vehicles.”
He said allies were also “looking to see what more we can do” to help Ukraine defend its coastline.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has sanctioned an employee of a state-affiliated Russian defense firm that developed malicious software that was used to target the energy sector.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh. He was one of four Russians charged in Justice Department indictments unsealed last week that alleged the hacking by Russia of critical infrastructure around the globe, including in the U.S. energy and aviation sectors.
Among the thousands of computers targeted in some 135 countries were of a Saudi petro-chemical plant where the hackers overrode safety controls.
That hack is singled out in a Treasury Department release announcing sanctions against Gladikh and several other employees of the research firm. In total, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was designating 21 entities and 13 individuals, including in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said Thursday.
The operator, Energoatom, said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received “significant doses of radiation.”
The Russian troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Energoatom said the Russians have signed a document confirming the handover of the Chernobyl plant and stating that the plant’s administration doesn’t have any complaints about the Russian troops who were “guarding” the facility.
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LONDON — The head of Britain’s military says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” in Ukraine and is weaker than he was before the invasion.
Adm. Tony Radakin at a think-tank seminar Thursday in London said Moscow’s aim to “take the whole of Ukraine” fell apart. He added that the coming weeks “will continue to be very difficult” for Ukraine.
“But in many ways, Putin has already lost,” he said. “Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.”
Radakin also said there was “disquiet” at all levels of Russia’s military about the campaign, from troops who were not told they were invading Ukraine up to senior commanders.
Western officials say Putin’s small inner circle is not giving him the true picture of the war, and his isolation may have contributed to miscalculating the strength of resistance Russian troops would meet.
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BERLIN — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed regret Thursday at Russia’s decision to veto the extension of its observer mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who holds the OSCE rotating chair, said the observers had played a “crucial role by providing objective information on the security and humanitarian situation on the ground and relentlessly working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population” in Ukraine for the past eight year.
The Vienna-based body’s secretary general, Helga Maria Schmid, expressed gratitude to the mission’s members, several of whom were wounded or killed over the years.
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BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says Europe should impose additional sanctions on Russia to prevent what he described as a “barbaric” war in Ukraine.
Robert Habeck said he discussed what further measures could be taken with his French counterpart during a bilateral meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“The last package (of sanctions) doesn’t need to be the final one, it should not be the final one,” he told reporters, adding that he and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had “identified additional points that could be included in a (sanctions) package.”
Habeck declined to elaborate on what those points might be.
Speaking ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on new rules requiring countries to pay for Russia’s natural gas sales in rubles, Habeck insisted that contracts would be adhered to. These stipulate payment in euros or dollars.
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BERLIN — The Austrian and German leaders have underlined their rejection of a halt to Russian energy deliveries at this point.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer noted that several central and eastern European countries depend to one extent or another on Russian gas deliveries.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that existing sanctions already are having a significant effect and said they need time to switch to new providers and renewable energy sources.
Nehammer said that “sanctions only make sense … when they hit those they are supposed to hit, and don’t weaken those who carry out sanctions.”
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ROME — A Kremlin decree says “unfriendly countries” can continue to pay for natural gas in foreign currency through a Russian bank that will convert the money into rubles.
The decree published Thursday by state media came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin talked tougher, saying Russia will start accepting ruble payments starting Friday for Western countries that imposed sanctions over its conflict with Ukraine. He said contracts will be stopped if buyers don’t sign up to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks.
European leaders had rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The decree Putin signed and published by state news agency RIA Novosti says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. The buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell that currency for rubles, which are placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
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ROME — Italy’s leader is urging Europe to “cultivate all available land” as a partial remedy to reductions in agricultural imports, especially of Russian grain, due to the war in Ukraine.
Premier Mario Draghi told reporters on Thursday that under existing agricultural practices in the European Union 10% of land is purposely left fallow, but that must now change as European countries search for ways to reduce dependency on farm imports.
It’s not clear whether Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, might be able to salvage any of this planting season.
Meanwhile, Draghi noted that Western Europe will be looking to food producers like Canada, the United States and Argentina to help make up the shortfall of imports from Ukraine and Russia.
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STOCKHOLM — The deputy director of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security agency says Russia has made “a strategic miscalculation when invading Ukraine.”
Daniel Olsson said the invasion of Ukraine “has shown that the Russian leadership is ready to take great risks, larger than previously taken.”
The government agency’s analysis suggested a likely “a western containment of Russia,” including reducing trade in Russian energy.
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Another week, another loaded 9 mm pistol found in a Boston school, leading to a call for metal detectors or “whatever it takes” to ensure guns never find their way into schools.
In the latest of at least eight firearms found in Boston schools since September, the gun was discovered Monday in the fanny pack of a 16-year-old boy at the grades-6-to-12 Dearborn STEM Academy in Roxbury, according to Boston Police.
The gun had six bullets in the magazine, police said, and the boy was charged with three counts of delinquency: one for having a gun on school property, one for having a loaded firearm and one for having ammunition.
“There could have been an enormous tragedy,” said the Rev. David Searles of Central Assembly of God Church in East Boston and a member of Boston S.O.S. (Safety of Our Schools), a local movement made up of parents, clergy, and community leaders.
“We’re demanding whatever it takes to keep schools gun-free,” Searles said. “If a gun made it into a white, suburban school one time, there would be such outrage to preclude it from ever happening again. But when it happens here, the attitude is well, that’s Dorchester, or Roxbury, or Mattapan. And we say that insidious view smacks of racism.”
If metal detectors have to be placed in every school, he and other activists said, so be it.
“If metal detectors are good enough for the employees of City Hall, why aren’t they in schools with poor black and brown children?” said the Rev. Eugene Rivers.
“I would offer that the systems we have in place led to the recovery of the weapons,” said Jonathan Palumbo, a Boston Public Schools spokesman.
“Our safety protocols and relationships with students were part of the response that led to the recovery of the weapons and our relationship with the Boston Police Department ensured a swift response and the safe transfer of the weapons outside of our school buildings,” he added.
Palumbo called it a “city-wide challenge” the schools are tackling with police and the mayor’s office.
“As a BPS parent, I send my child off to school every day and place her in the trust and care of our educators and school safety officials,” said City Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia. “The recent events that have taken place in and around BPS schools are deeply concerning and we have a responsibility as public officials to work with the community to make sure that our students have a learning environment that is safe and welcoming.”
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The Orlando Magic’s defense has stepped up since the All-Star break, with much of that success being tied to them trying out different schemes more.
The Magic typically play drop defense with their bigs and will occasionally hedge depending on the ball handler, but since the break they’ve been incorporating two other schemes: Zone and switching.
“The league’s gotten so good in ways guys can score,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “You can’t give one package to specific guys. You’ve got to be able to play in the drop. You’ve got to be able to blitz the pick-and-roll. You’ve got to be able to mix in zone here and there. It’s so great our guys have the versatility to be able to do it.”
Orlando’s played zone slightly more since the break. The Magic have zoned 4.82 times per game since the break compared to 4.47 before the break, according to Synergy.
For the season ahead of Friday’s home game against the Toronto Raptors, the Magic allow 0.906 points per possession when in a zone vs. 0.984 points per possession when playing man-to-man defense.
“A lot of coaches say the more you work on it, the tougher to gets,” Mosley said of playing zone defense. “The zone has applied a lot of communication, which we continue to grow with. It’s helped a ton in games.”
Switching has been an even bigger part of the Magic’s defense.
When done correctly, switching helps teams keep offensive actions in front and minimize gaps for offenses to attack.
But when not done with enough discretion, offenses can weaponize a team’s switching by creating favorable mismatches, which is what the Washington Wizards did multiple times during the fourth quarter of their 127-110 Wednesday win over the Magic.
Kristaps Porziņģis (35 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists) drew three fouls — two shooting — in the fourth after a Magic guard switched onto the 7-foot-3 center, helping him go 5 of 6 on free throws in the final period and 10 of 13 overall.
“That was the key point from the beginning of the game — switch without fouling,” Mosley said. “[Porziņģis] did a great job of drawing those fouls, but those swipe downs were a lot of it.”
To Franz Wagner, switching effectively requires the team’s technique to be precise.
“If you’re just letting people run around freely it’s really hard to guard when you want to switch,” Wagner said. “And you’ve got to be able to guard one-on-one. That’s what we want to do when we switch — force people to score one-on-one on us. If they get into the paint and someone has to help, it’s hard to rotate against. If you do those two things, most of the time you have a good night.”
Orlando’s defense has produced during the past month, ranking fifth in defensive rating since Feb. 23, even as it toggles between coverages.
“It requires great communication,” Wagner said. “Not just from us, but us asking the coaches what we’re in. They’ve done a great job of that.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at khprice@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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Mayor Michelle Wu said that the citywide changes to the outdoor dining rules that have some restaurants across the city in a stew are the result of turning “two years of experiments” into a long-term program and that the city’s “looking into” what resources to provide.
“I know that people have made different purchases and investments based on previous years and based on these two years of experiments,” Wu said when asked about the criticism from restaurants around Boston. “As we’re starting to really look ahead to codifying what a fully sustainable, safe and healthy program looks like, there have been some changes in neighborhoods across the city.”
Though the ongoing battle between North End restaurateurs over the fee that applies to anyone doing outdoor dining in the old Italian neighborhood has received weeks of headlines, frustration has simmered in other corners of the city over new guidelines around topics including barriers as restaurants get ready to start putting out the patios.
Ginger Brown of JP Centre/South Main Streets wrote in a a letter published in the JP Gazette that “Only the privileged, wealthy, and experienced could navigate this system on a yearly basis. Small business owners do not have the time, money, or resources to apply.”
Brown said that there are too many hoops to jump through, and that in particular there are now more stringent requirements for what barriers have around street seating. That means, she wrote, that “previous barriers that do not meet these requirements are now a lost investment.”
Other media reports chronicled similar complaints from other eateries and watering holes around the city.
Barriers had been fairly ad-hoc up to this point, but now the city says restaurants either need to use concrete Jersey barriers, or the plastic ones that you fill up with water. The city’s 24-page “Interdepartmental Guidance” document about outdoor dining for restaurant owners includes a rundown of these rules, plus some pictures of Jersey barriers to drive the point home.
Asked whether the city will be providing more services for restaurants having trouble, Wu said, “We’re looking into it.”
On the barrier topic, she said there is “the need to have full barriers that are solid and when people are sitting in the street, right up potentially against traffic to know that that extra protection is there. In the last couple years, we’ve been very lucky in some ways that there hasn’t been a major incident.”
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By NEBI QENA and YURAS KARMANAU
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.
“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”
“There will be battles ahead,” he added.
Meanwhile, a convoy of 45 buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. But Russian forces blocked the buses, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars, according to the Ukrainian government.
Twelve Ukrainian trucks were able to deliver humanitarian supplies to Mariupol, but the supplies were seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.
The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands have managed to get out of Mariupol in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing its population from a prewar 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 as of last week, but other relief efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.
A new round of talks was scheduled for Friday, five weeks into the war that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster had transferred control of it in writing to the Ukrainians.
The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl plant early Friday, the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone said.
Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the IAEA said it had not been able to confirm the reports of Russian troops receiving high doses. It said it was seeking more information.
Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the Feb. 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation. The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the reactor that exploded in 1986.
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it “seems unlikely” a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.
He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a “hot spot” of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.
Early this week, the Russians said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to increase trust between the two sides and help negotiations along.
But in the Kyiv suburbs, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk said on social media Thursday that Russian forces shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there were battles around Hostomel. Pavliuk said there were Ukrainian counterattacks and some Russian withdrawals around the suburb of Brovary to the east.
Chernihiv came under attack as well. At least one person was killed and four were wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy of buses sent to Chernihiv to evacuate residents cut off from food, water and other supplies, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova
Ukraine also reported Russian artillery barrages in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence indicates Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.
“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”
The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its “main goal” now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.
The top rebel leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to set up a rival city government for Mariupol, according to Russian state news agencies, in a sign of Russian intent to hold and administer the city.
With talks set to resume between Ukraine and Russia via video, there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions weren’t yet “ripe” for a cease-fire and that he wasn’t ready for a meeting with Zelenskyy until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said after a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.
In other developments, Ukraine’s emergency services said the death toll had risen to 20 in a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a government administration building in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
As Western officials search for clues about what Russia’s next move might be, a top British intelligence official said demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine are refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
In a speech in Australia, Jeremy Fleming, head of the GCHQ electronic spy agency, said Putin had apparently “massively misjudged” the invasion.
The Pentagon reported Thursday that an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance from the U.S. have reached Ukraine as part of an $800 million aid package President Joe Biden approved this month.
The shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other materials, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the war is going because they are afraid to tell him the truth.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. is wrong and that “neither the State Department nor the Pentagon possesses the real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.”
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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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After a wholly unsatisfactory game against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday, the Bruins owed their fans some good times. And on Thursday, the B’s made good on the debt, with the help of a hapless New Jersey Devils team.
After Tuukka Rask got the crowd primed with his first Garden appearance since retiring by doing the ceremonial puck drop, the B’s provided some good old fashioned entertainment with hits, fights and goals, goals and more goals, including one for a local boy making his NHL debut.
When it was all over, the B’s had themselves a nice, stat-padding 8-1 victory.
The B’s took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission after a high-energy first period.
First, Matt Grzelcyk gave the B’s a 1-0 lead just 57 seconds in when he picked off a rim attempt and he fired a seeing-eye shot that made it through Devils’ goalie Nico Daws, who would have a rough night.
With a couple of players making their Bruin debuts, things got nasty. First, Josh Brown endeared himself to the Garden crowd by dropping the gloves with Mason Geertsen just 2:56 into his Bruins career, landing and taking a few blows in a bout that pleased the fans.
Then the ever-rambunctious Miles Wood drilled Charlie McAvoy into the end boards on a heavy but clean hit, causing Mike Reilly — himself making a return to the lineup for the first time since since Hampus Lindholm came aboard — to jump the Devil and earn an extra two for roughing.
Meanwhile, Marc McLaughlin looked NHL ready with a high-energy few shifts and a hit on his first time on the ice in his NHL debut. Another highlight was still to come for him.
The Devils drew even when, after the B’s had just killed off a Lindholm penalty, Jack Hughes beat Linus Ullmark with a sublime, bad-angle shot that got past Ullmark’s ear on the short side at 11:02.
But the B’s went into the break with a lead thanks to a mistake by Daws. Patrice Bergeron threw a long distance puck on net, perhaps hoping to just get an offensive zone faceoff. But Daws blockered the puck into the deserted slot, where Jake DeBrusk swooped in to grab it and beat Daws on a move to his forehand for his 18th of the year at 16:09.
Then the B’s dropped the roof on the Devils in the second period with six unanswered goals.
Erik Haula stretched the B’s lead to 3-1 at 2:22 on a too-easy play. David Pastrnak collected a puck behind the net and was allowed to circle out front unmolested to take a clean shot that Daws stopped. He gave up a fat rebound, however, and Haula was there in the low slot to pop it home for his 10th of the season.
The B’s made it 4-1 at 6:33 on a hyperactive shift from DeBrusk. At the end of it, he found himself alone with the puck at the left side of the net. On his backhand, he did not have a high percentage shot so he found Brad Marchand in the high slot and Marchand notched his 29th.
After Bergeron deflected home a Pastrnak shot for his 18th goal of the season, a power-play tally, that was it for Daws, who gave way for Jon Gillies.
Gillies received the same treatment. Before the new netminder had broken a sweat, Reilly set up Marchand for a one-timer and his 30th of the season, making it his fifth career 30-goal season.
But there was more fun to be had, and perhaps the biggest roar of the night. With the Devils pressing in the offensive zone, Trent Frederic broke out on a 2-on-1 with McLaughlin. Frederic was looking pass all the way, but it didn’t matter. He found McLaughlin and the Billerica boy buried it past Gillies’ glove on a nice one-timer.
Before the period was out, Taylor Hall scored his 16th goal off Pastrnak’s third helper of the night.
About the only thing that did not go right for the B’s was Marchand getting his hat trick goal called back for an obvious offsides, causing a few fans to lose their chapeaus for no reason.
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Gov. Hochul this week announced a deal with the National Football League and the Pegulas, the owners of the Buffalo Bills, to spend more than $1 billion in public funds on a new NFL stadium. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the Hochul administration’s love of spending taxpayer funds on corporate subsidies.
In fact, in addition to the stadium, her administration has proposed billions in new spending at the Empire State Development Corp. — the state’s chief economic development agency. That doesn’t include the $5 billion that county Industrial Development Agencies spend on corporate subsidies each year.
Put it all together and that’s billions in state money transferred from public taxpayers to private corporations every single year to sustain a model of economic development that a significant amount of research and real-world experience, in New York and all across the country, has shown to be a miserable failure. Indeed, the administration’s nominee to run the ESDC, Hope Knight, couldn’t even answer basic questions about economic development program effectiveness or job quality during a hearing earlier this year.
The state can and must do much better.
Our organizations and several partners last week released “The Dirtiest Dozen,” a report outlining 12 of the worst corporate subsidy deals New York has made over the last decade. Among them: a deal with Plug Power, which received $4 million from the state per job created; the so-called “Buffalo Billion,” which created a slew of corruption convictions instead of jobs; the Central New York film hub, which was built with $15 million in public money and sold for a single dollar; Amazon receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to run local New York businesses into the ground; and the pharmaceutical manufacturer Medline claiming it needed public money to build a new facility, yet when that money was denied, going ahead and building anyway, basically admitting its ask was a sham.
These episodes are disturbing individually, but when put together reveal the width and breadth of the problems inherent in the way the state has been doing economic development. And there’s so much secrecy and sleight of hand built into the system — with deals covered by nondisclosure agreements and negotiated behind closed doors with little public input, and many of the players involved having significant conflicts of interest — that we’re surely missing some of the worst abuses.
Tellingly, one of the best ways to determine whether a state will increase its corporate subsidy spending in a given year is not to look at any economic indicator, but simply to see if the incumbent governor is running for re-election. The Hochul administration is attempting to build political power and reward political allies, not create a sustainable economic foundation for the state’s residents.
Not only has Hochul proposed doubling down on failure to boost her own political fortunes, but her administration seems utterly unwilling to embrace any reforms of current economic development programs. The distinct impression is that the administration thinks a system that has repeatedly failed to live up to its promises other than to campaign donors and billionaires is fine as it is.
Fortunately, the Legislature is not standing idly by. Both the state Senate and Assembly included key reforms in their respective budgets, including mandating the creation of a database of deals that will allow anyone to examine a subsidy arrangement and whether it’s creating the promised jobs, as well as allowing the state comptroller to audit economic development deals, a power which was removed by the Cuomo administration. Other proposed reforms in the Legislature include banning non-disclosure agreements in corporate subsidy deals and preventing corporations like Amazon from receiving subsidies to build out their warehouse networks.
But transparency, ultimately, will only get the state so far. Ample research has shown that investing in people — workers, families, students, children — is a far better use of public funds than bribing corporations to locate facilities in a particular place. The state should reprogram money currently being spent on wasteful corporate subsidies and sports stadium boondoggles and spend it instead on education, children, the workforce and the infrastructure that supports local businesses. Invest in the people who make New York great and economic prosperity will follow.
Garofalo is director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. Kink is executive director of the Strong Economy for All coalition.
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Florida coach Billy Napier finished the first scrimmage with his new team increasingly aware he needs more bodies before next season.
It still might not be enough to accelerate the Gators’ rebuild. Either way, this roster isn’t going to cut it.
Napier applauded the Gators’ physicality Thursday, praised the overall quarterback play and appreciates the players’ buy-in with a new staff.
“There’s a lot of bright spots,” he said.
The looming dark cloud is a lack of quality depth to run the kind of operation Napier expects and the Gators need.
Florida’s lack of personnel prevented Napier from calling 25 to 30 plays he normally would. Injuries at tight end, including a career-ending one to redshirt freshman Gage Wilcox, forced long snapper Rocco Underwood into action at his high school position.
The redshirt freshman and former Lake Mary standout responded with a pass reception.
“We got a lot of players who are taking advantage of opportunities,” Napier said. “You can sit around and complain about those things but to me, I see opportunity. That’s the approach we’re going to take.”
Once the offseason arrives, Napier and his staff will seize every opportunity to beef up the Gators’ roster. Expect Florida to be very active in the transfer market.
“We have spots available,” Napier said. “You can anticipate us being very aggressive in the portal this spring. We need players.”
Florida’s needs also will benefit the bottom of the roster.
Napier expects to award scholarships to five walk-ons. While a nice gesture to a well-deserving group the move does nothing to narrow the gap with Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M.
For now, the Gators push to improve during the final seven spring practices, culminating with the spring game the night of April 14.
Despite not fielding a complete third string, Napier does not anticipate injuries and depth concerns will alter the game’s format. Under former coaches Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen, the Gators did not always have enough offensive linemen to stage a spring scrimmage.
“As long as we’re able to stay relatively healthy … We’ll be able to play our traditional spring-game format,” Napier said. “We got a lot of work to do. Heck, I haven’t even thought about the spring game to be honest with you.”
One area of concern is cleaner quarterback execution during stressful situations. Napier, however, chalks some of it up to the Gators’ inaugural scrimmage in a new system.
“Probably the one negative there were a couple of critical situational errors,” Napier said. “But that’s part of it because everything we’ve been doing has been compartmentalized and the situation is defined. When you get to a scrimmage all the variables are changing, the ball’s moving, you have to change gears mentally.”
Napier declined to single out individual plays or performance Thursday.
“We’re a long way from individual players,” he said. “What we’re focused on right now — we have a lot of good individual players — we’re trying to build a football team.”
To help get across his message, Napier invited Les Snead, general manager the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, to speak to his team.
Snead echoed Florida’s first-year coach when it came to program building.
“A term that they use was, ‘We,’ not me,” Napier said. “He told many stories about individual players on their team really accepting their role, working to earn more, the importance of each individual role, whether that’s big or small. We all know we got about 100 football players out there, but there’s probably 250 people or so that contribute to our team.
“It’s important that we all understand that it takes a lot of people.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/kristian-winfield-ben-simmons-is-the-ace-in-the-nets-back-pocket-if-he-ever-gets-healthy-enough-to-be-played/
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The Nets are a championship contender whether or not Ben Simmons plays a game this season.
And as of now it remains unclear whether the star forward will actually play a game this season, since his back started bothering him weeks ago.
The ambiguity of Simmons’ future availability, however, makes him a wild card on a top-heavy Nets roster. The 25-year-old two-time All-Star is rehabbing after receiving an epidural to help him work through a herniated disk in his lower back.
He has yet to make his Nets debut, has not practiced with the team or completed individual workouts in weeks, and has been on the Nets’ injury report every game since his arrival via the Feb. 10 blockbuster James Harden trade.
But the Nets have not shut him down or ruled him out for the season.
Simmons is still working to put his back issues behind him and eventually help a team with championship aspirations. And he’s been telling his teammates he’s working to make his debut as quickly as he can, according to Seth Curry.
Which makes Simmons the ace in the back pocket for a deep and talented Nets team if he can eventually be healthy enough to play minutes for this Nets team.
“Ace in the back pocket is exactly right,” veteran guard Patty Mills said.
That’s because Simmons so dramatically shifts what the Nets will be capable of doing on both ends of the floor. He is a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, a 6-11 forward with a point guard’s court vision and ball control who will always defend, and oftentimes neutralize, the opposing team’s best perimeter scorer.
Before taking the head coaching job in Brooklyn, Steve Nash used to be a player development consultant for the Golden State Warriors, who continue to use Draymond Green as a utility playmaker on both ends of the floor. Green is a former Defensive Player of the Year who initiates offense and directs traffic on defense.
“I think [Simmons and Green] have similar skill sets in a way,” Nash told the Daily News on Thursday. “But the only thing that Ben can do now is prepare physically, mentally by being around in practice, shootaround, film room, paying attention during games, and then as he gets back on the court, the skill stuff.”
But identifying an apples-to-apples comparison for Simmons is a difficult task.
Simmons is faster, more athletic and has more elevation than Green ever could. Truthfully there isn’t a player in the league in a role comparable to the one Simmons could play in Brooklyn because there isn’t quite a player like Simmons.
“He’s very unique, and that’s what makes us very strong when we do get him,” Mills said. “I think he’s a unique player, high IQ, great feel for the game, great passer and unbelievable defensive player that can guard anyone, so I think for many reasons, he will make us better.”
This all, of course, stands only if Simmons is able to play before the Nets get eliminated from the playoffs.
“He hasn’t really practiced with us,” Bruce Brown added at shootaround on Thursday. “He really just passes the ball. I don’t think he’s done much, but maybe when I’m not here, he’s doing stuff.”
Yet Simmons has been engaged even more so in recent practices, according to his fellow Australian teammate. Mills said the Nets started mapping out how Simmons could look like alongside different players on the court.
“I think more importantly, it’s been the conversations he’s having about where he sees himself on the team and different parts of the floor, defensive and offensive end, and getting a feel that way,” Mills added.
Nash, however, remained hesitant. Backs are tricky, and as much as the Nets want to envision Simmons’ fit, nothing quite matches seeing him in real time on the floor.
“Clearly, we’d love to have Ben play for us. We will hopefully get him back,” Nash said. “At the same time every day, we can’t put our feet in the air because we don’t know when or if it’s going to happen. We just have to play what’s in front of us, with what’s the group that’s available today.”
For that to happen, the star forward must progress from rehab to individual workouts to one-on-one, two-on-two and eventually five-on-five. And he must complete three high-intensity workouts without an injury setback before the Nets’ performance staff clears him to play.
That is unlikely to happen before the play-in tournament begins on April 12. It might not even happen until the second round of the playoffs.
Simmons, however, is worth the wait. He is a perennial top-20 leader in steals, assists, rebounds and field goal percentage, who could potentially join the roster in the middle of a championship push.
He’s an ace in the back pocket for a team already loaded with stars and capable role players … if he gets healthy.
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By The Associated Press
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has stripped two generals of their military rank.
Zelenskyy said “something prevented them from determining where their homeland was” and they “violated their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.”
According to Zelenskyy, one of the generals had headed internal security at the SBU, the main intelligence agency.
He said the other general had been the SBU head in the Kherson region, the first major city to fall to the Russians.
Zelenskyy didn’t say anything about the fates of the two generals other than them being stripped of their rank.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Heavy fighting rages near Kyiv as Russia appears to regroup
— Kremlin decree says foreign currency can still buy natural gas
— As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
— Ukraine refugees encouraged to find work as exodus slows
— Ukrainians in US mobilize to help expected refugees
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
LVIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government said Russian forces blocked 45 buses that had been sent to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday that 12 Ukrainian buses with humanitarian aid left Melitopol for Mariupol, but the Russian forces stopped the buses and seized the 14 tons of food and medicines.
According to Ukrainian officials, tens of thousands of people have made it out of Mariupol in recent weeks along humanitarian corridors, reducing the prewar population of 430,000 to about 100,000 by last week.
Vereshchuk said about 45,000 Mariupol residents have been forcefully deported to Russia and areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
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LVIV, Ukraine — The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, according to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone around the plant.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest were exposed to radiation, but that could not be confirmed.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator company Energoatom said Thursday that Russian troops were headed toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after Russian troops withdrew from the north and center of the country, the situation has been heating up in the southeast where Russian forces are building up for new powerful attacks.
In his nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said it was heartening for all Ukrainians to see Russian troops retreating from north of Kyiv, from around the northern town of Chernihiv and from Sumy in the northeast. By he urged Ukrainians not to let up, saying the withdrawal was just a Russian tactic.
Zelenskyy said he spoke Thursday with European Council President Charles Michel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while his adviser spoke with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We need more support from our partners right now when Russian troops are concentrating additional forces in certain areas,” Zelenskyy said.
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WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak said groups at risk include Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox who have broken away from the patriarch of Moscow.
Gudziak also cited reports that Russian forces have damaged two Holocaust memorials and Moscow’s false portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state although Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What is at stake for the people of faith is their freedom to practice their faith,” Gudziak said during an online panel discussion on the war, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Gudziak is head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and president of Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He also oversees external relations for the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance have reached Ukraine as part of the $800 million package of aid that President Joe Biden approved on March 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other material. He said the 100 Switchblade armed drones that Biden approved as part of the package have not yet been delivered.
Kirby said the $800 million in assistance is likely to be fully delivered within about two weeks. It also includes Mi-17 helicopters, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, secure communications systems, and satellite imagery and analysis capability.
Separately, Kirby said U.S. troops are not training Ukrainian troops in Poland but are acting as liaisons with Ukrainian personnel who cross the border into Poland to take possession of U.S. security assistance. He noted that the standard U.S. military training mission that had existed in Ukraine for years was suspended shortly before Russia invaded.
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DOHA, Qatar — A video showing the head of Ukrainian soccer wearing an armored vest on the streets of Kyiv brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress.
Andriy Pavelko used a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar on Thursday to talk about the deaths of footballers even as the sport “has taken a back seat in our country.”
The gathering in Doha featured delegates from Russia, including Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
Russia won’t be in the draw for the World Cup on Friday after being disqualified from playing internationally by FIFA over the war. Ukraine can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope the team will be in a position to return to the field by then.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ombudsperson says that at least one person has been killed and four others have been wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said those who came under the shelling on Thursday were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
She said that the Russian forces besieging Chernihiv have made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city that has been cut from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian shelling continued two days after Moscow announced it would scale back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
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BERLIN — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces which were in control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant have “in writing, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel.
Ukraine said three convoys of Russian forces have already left the site toward Belarus, while the remaining troops were presumed to be preparing to leave, the agency said Thursday.
The IAEA added that it was in close consultations with Ukrainian authorities on sending a first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl in the next few days.
The agency said it has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being inside the exclusion zone of the now-closed plant, but is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his offer to host a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders during a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the Turkish president also told Zelenskyy Thursday that a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Istanbul earlier this week had given “a meaningful impetus” to efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s delegation laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of nations, including Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with a top Turkish Cypriot official that Erdogan also is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said there’s “no clear evidence” that Vladimir Putin is scaling back military operations around Kyiv and suggested that the Russian president may have ordered some of his advisers fired or placed under house arrest.
Biden told reporters that “there’s some indication” that Putin has taken those steps against some of his advisers. He added, “But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”
The White House on Wednesday released unclassified intelligence findings that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.
The president made the comments after formally announcing that the U.S. would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of easing surging gasoline prices.
Biden also reiterated that his administration remains skeptical that Russia will scale back operations around Kyiv as Moscow announced earlier this week.
Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv suburbs Thursday, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
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UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine says the United Nations and its partners have delivered supplies for thousands of people in the country’s northeast but have been unable to reach some encircled cities in the south.
Osnat Lubrani said Thursday that food rations from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the U.N. World Food Program will benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and areas including Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, she said, basic household items including blankets and kettles from the U.N. refugee agency will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help 6,000 people with hygiene and drinking water.
Lubrani said medical supplies and trauma kits from the U.N. World Health Organization will treat 150 patients needing intensive care for serious injuries while other medical supplies will support 10,000 people for three months.
Shei said the U.N.-facilitated humanitarian notification system with Ukraine and Russia enabled safe passage for the convoy to Sumy on Thursday “but this is clearly not enough.” Efforts over the past month to reach Mauripol, Kherson and other encircled cities in the south have been unsuccessful because of safety concerns.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog says its director-general has arrived in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks with senior Russian officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency didn’t specify in a tweet whom exactly Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet on Friday or give further details of his agenda.
He arrived in Kaliningrad Thursday following a visit to Ukraine, where he visited a nuclear power plant and conferred with the energy minister and other officials on efforts to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants — one of which, at Zaporizhzhia, is under the Russian military’s control.
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GENEVA — A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in a Ukraine-held city where staff are preparing to take civilians out of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.
Julien Lerisson, deputy director of operations for the ICRC, said Thursday that the team assembling in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, has medicines, food, water, hygiene items and other essentials.
He said the organization has high-level agreement for the mission but is focused on making sure “the order trickles down the chain of command,” allowing the team to enter and leave Mariupol safely.
The Russian military has said it committed to a cease-fire along the route from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian authorities have said 45 buses would be sent to collect citizens and provide resources to those who remain.
Lucile Marbeau, a staff member with the ICRC team hoping to enter Mariupol, said on Thursday: “We’re here because really, we hope to be able to facilitate safe passage for civilians desperately wanting to flee Mariupol.”
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LONDON — Britain’s defense minister says Ukraine’s international allies have agreed to send more military equipment, including artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace held a conference call Thursday with defense ministers from more than 35 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Wallace said that as a result “there will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine.” He said that would include “more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly,” to help counter Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities.
Wallace said Ukraine was “also looking for armoured vehicles of some types, not tanks necessarily, but certainly protective vehicles.”
He said allies were also “looking to see what more we can do” to help Ukraine defend its coastline.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has sanctioned an employee of a state-affiliated Russian defense firm that developed malicious software that was used to target the energy sector.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh. He was one of four Russians charged in Justice Department indictments unsealed last week that alleged the hacking by Russia of critical infrastructure around the globe, including in the U.S. energy and aviation sectors.
Among the thousands of computers targeted in some 135 countries were of a Saudi petro-chemical plant where the hackers overrode safety controls.
That hack is singled out in a Treasury Department release announcing sanctions against Gladikh and several other employees of the research firm. In total, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was designating 21 entities and 13 individuals, including in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said Thursday.
The operator, Energoatom, said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received “significant doses of radiation.”
The Russian troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Energoatom said the Russians have signed a document confirming the handover of the Chernobyl plant and stating that the plant’s administration doesn’t have any complaints about the Russian troops who were “guarding” the facility.
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LONDON — The head of Britain’s military says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” in Ukraine and is weaker than he was before the invasion.
Adm. Tony Radakin at a think-tank seminar Thursday in London said Moscow’s aim to “take the whole of Ukraine” fell apart. He added that the coming weeks “will continue to be very difficult” for Ukraine.
“But in many ways, Putin has already lost,” he said. “Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.”
Radakin also said there was “disquiet” at all levels of Russia’s military about the campaign, from troops who were not told they were invading Ukraine up to senior commanders.
Western officials say Putin’s small inner circle is not giving him the true picture of the war, and his isolation may have contributed to miscalculating the strength of resistance Russian troops would meet.
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BERLIN — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed regret Thursday at Russia’s decision to veto the extension of its observer mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who holds the OSCE rotating chair, said the observers had played a “crucial role by providing objective information on the security and humanitarian situation on the ground and relentlessly working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population” in Ukraine for the past eight year.
The Vienna-based body’s secretary general, Helga Maria Schmid, expressed gratitude to the mission’s members, several of whom were wounded or killed over the years.
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BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says Europe should impose additional sanctions on Russia to prevent what he described as a “barbaric” war in Ukraine.
Robert Habeck said he discussed what further measures could be taken with his French counterpart during a bilateral meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“The last package (of sanctions) doesn’t need to be the final one, it should not be the final one,” he told reporters, adding that he and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had “identified additional points that could be included in a (sanctions) package.”
Habeck declined to elaborate on what those points might be.
Speaking ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on new rules requiring countries to pay for Russia’s natural gas sales in rubles, Habeck insisted that contracts would be adhered to. These stipulate payment in euros or dollars.
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BERLIN — The Austrian and German leaders have underlined their rejection of a halt to Russian energy deliveries at this point.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer noted that several central and eastern European countries depend to one extent or another on Russian gas deliveries.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that existing sanctions already are having a significant effect and said they need time to switch to new providers and renewable energy sources.
Nehammer said that “sanctions only make sense … when they hit those they are supposed to hit, and don’t weaken those who carry out sanctions.”
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ROME — A Kremlin decree says “unfriendly countries” can continue to pay for natural gas in foreign currency through a Russian bank that will convert the money into rubles.
The decree published Thursday by state media came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin talked tougher, saying Russia will start accepting ruble payments starting Friday for Western countries that imposed sanctions over its conflict with Ukraine. He said contracts will be stopped if buyers don’t sign up to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks.
European leaders had rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The decree Putin signed and published by state news agency RIA Novosti says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. The buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell that currency for rubles, which are placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
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ROME — Italy’s leader is urging Europe to “cultivate all available land” as a partial remedy to reductions in agricultural imports, especially of Russian grain, due to the war in Ukraine.
Premier Mario Draghi told reporters on Thursday that under existing agricultural practices in the European Union 10% of land is purposely left fallow, but that must now change as European countries search for ways to reduce dependency on farm imports.
It’s not clear whether Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, might be able to salvage any of this planting season.
Meanwhile, Draghi noted that Western Europe will be looking to food producers like Canada, the United States and Argentina to help make up the shortfall of imports from Ukraine and Russia.
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STOCKHOLM — The deputy director of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security agency says Russia has made “a strategic miscalculation when invading Ukraine.”
Daniel Olsson said the invasion of Ukraine “has shown that the Russian leadership is ready to take great risks, larger than previously taken.”
The government agency’s analysis suggested a likely “a western containment of Russia,” including reducing trade in Russian energy.
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The Chicago Bulls faced off against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night at the United Center to begin a stretch of five straight home games, trying to put themselves in good position for a playoff run.
They’ll have one more road game — April 10 at the Minnesota Timberwolves — before a much-anticipated return to the postseason for the first time since 2017.
Building some momentum is paramount for a team that has saved its worst for last. After going 39-21 and battling through some difficult injuries, the Bulls regressed significantly, losing 11 of 16 games and slowly sinking in the Eastern Conference standings.
But they came back from the dead Thursday to post a 135-130 overtime win over the Clippers, starting the homestand off on a good note.
DeMar DeRozan scored a season-high 50 points to carry the Bulls, slamming home a dunk at the end to put an exclamation mark on the win. DeRozan scored 27 of his 50 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Bulls bounced back from a lethargic first half in which they trailed by 15 points. He became the only Bulls player other than Michael Jordan to score 30 or more points in 27 games.
The Bulls trailed by eight with just more than two minutes left in the fourth when Nikola Vučević 3-pointer and a DeRozan jumper pulled them within 3. It was still a three-point game in the final seconds of the fourth when Alex Caruso attempted to inbound to DeRozan, who was fouled away from the play. After a replay review, the Bulls were awarded the ball after a DeRozan free throw sliced the deficit to two. DeRozan was fouled by Paul George on a 3-point attempt with 3.5 seconds left and hit his first two to tie the game before the third shot went off the rim, sending the game to overtime.
The Bulls never trailed overtime. DeRozan scored 10 points, including the final six for the Bulls. Patrick Williams, who didn’t take a shot until hitting a 3 early in the fourth, finished with 10 points.
Hopes of finishing as the third or fourth seed in the East and earning home-court advantage for at least the first round appear remote. But hanging on to the No. 5 spot over the Toronto Raptors should be attainable with a strong finish.
No matter their opponent in the first round — the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers — the Bulls will enter the playoffs as huge underdogs, thanks to their post All-Star break slide and a combined 1-11 record against those four teams.
Alex Caruso said the goal is to “find the best version of us” down the stretch.
“When we play at that version, we’re a really good team,” he said.
The problem is the Bulls haven’t played at that level for several weeks, even since the recent returns of Caruso and forward Patrick Williams. The loss of Lonzo Ball to a meniscus tear in his left knee has been one of the biggest reasons for the Bulls’ woes, and there’s no certainty he will be back for the postseason.
On March 21, the Bulls announced a 10-day pause on Ball’s running program to give him more time to heal from arthroscopic surgery done in January. Before Thursday’s game against the Clippers, coach Billy Donovan said Ball would be “ramping up” again but added it would be a gradual process to see how he responds.
Ball has recovered well since the surgery, Donovan said, but getting back to game speed is another matter.
“Sprinting is where he’s had some discomfort,” Donovan said. “Pulling him back, he does feel fine. It’s just when he gets to doing anything full speed. … And we’ll see if this (pause) has helped.”
The Bulls’ postseason hopes don’t hinge on Ball’s return. Caruso can run the show, and rookie Ayo Dosunmu continues to develop into a dependable player. But there’s no doubt the Bulls would receive a big emotional lift if Ball somehow were able to make it back for the playoffs.
“That’s our starting point guard, so if you get that back to any team, it’s going to be a good addition,” Caruso said Thursday. “I don’t know what his timetable is or what the plan is for him. … But he looks like he’s in good spirits. He’s been working.
“So cross our fingers and see what happens when that day comes.”
Crossing fingers might not be enough. With only 10 days left in the regular season, is there enough time?
Donovan said doctors have given no indication Ball can’t do it.
“He really wants to play,” Donovan said. “But he’s also going to be smart in terms of how he’s feeling, and he’s going to be realistic and the doctors will put their heads together. But certainly every day that goes by, and time that passes by, you’re moving closer and closer to the end of the season.”
And if Ball can’t make it back in those 10 days, could he still make his return in the postseason?
Donovan couldn’t answer that question but said if Ball responds well to the ramp-up they’ll get a better idea from doctors.
As for now, the Bulls are grappling with a difficult final stretch that continues a Saturday game against the Heat, who have beaten them all three times in the season series, and includes back-to back games Tuesday and Wednesday against the defending champion Bucks and Celtics.
It’s time to see what they’re made of.
“Any team that’s planning on playing in the postseason has to have a high sense of urgency this time of the year,” Caruso said. “It’s just about us going out there and trying to fine-tune some stuff, work on some defensive coverages and stuff we might try in the playoffs.
“But overall, it’s about sharpening us and making sure we’re ready to go.”
It has been a roller-coaster season for the Bulls, but after their failed rebuild and overall bad vibes from the Jim Boylen era, no one can say it hasn’t been fun to watch. If the Bulls do go on to lose in the first round, fans might debate whether the season was a success, which might be unfair but is the way the world works these days.
Once the Bulls proved they were back, everyone was excited about the possibility of a happy ending, which would include at least one playoff-series win.
But this team has never done anything the easy way, so why start now? With or without Ball, the Bulls can succeed in the playoffs if everyone pulls together behind DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
“The East, 1 through 6 (seed) right now, is pretty tight, even with Cleveland one game behind,” Caruso said. “I don’t really worry about matchups. Once the playoffs start, it’s zero-zero. I’ve seen teams lose 3-1 or 4-0 in a season series and then win in five or six games.
“Playoffs are unpredictable. When that day comes, we’ll see where we’re at.”
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