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US and Qatar agree to prevent disbursal of recently unfrozen Iranian funds as Israel-Hamas war rages

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Qatar have reached an agreement that the Qataris will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access $6 billion in Iranian funds that were unblocked as part of a prisoner swap last month, a U.S. official said Thursday.The move, which stops short of a full refreezing of Iranian funds in Qatar’s banking system, follows the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel and continued Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s deal with Iran, in which $6 billion was unfrozen in exchange for the release of five detained Americans. The official who outlined the understanding between the U.S. and Qatar was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.U.S. officials have strenuously pushed back against the criticism, noting that the money had yet to be spent by Iran and can only be used for humanitarian needs.“None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran,” Secretary of ...

A woman accused of killing an elite cyclist attempted to escape custody, sheriff’s office says

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

(CNN) — The woman who authorities say fled to Costa Rica and was missing for more than a month after allegedly killing an elite professional cyclist in Texas attempted to escape custody on Wednesday, authorities said.Kaitlin Marie Armstrong is accused of fatally shooting Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson at an Austin home in May 2022 and was captured in Costa Rica on June 29, 2022, authorities said. She was deported to the US days later to face a first-degree murder charge according to the US Marshals Office. She has pleaded not guilty.On Wednesday morning, Armstrong was taken to a doctor’s appointment by corrections staff in Texas, a spokesperson with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.“As she and two corrections officers were exiting the medical building after the appointment, Armstrong ran,” spokesperson Drew Knight said. “The officers pursued her on foot for approximately 10 minutes without ever losing sight of her.”Armstrong was captured and taken to a local hospital, Knight sai...

EU starts probe into Musk’s X over Hamas content

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

European Union officials started an investigation against X on Thursday to determine if the website failed to comply with the EU’s new Big Tech regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA) by letting graphic illegal content and disinformation linked to Hamas’ attack on Israel run rampant.The Commission sent X — the platform formerly known as Twitter and acquired by entrepreneur Elon Musk last year — a formal request for information about how it has been handling problematic content on the platform. The request is a preliminary step to launch a formal probe that could lead to fines being imposed on social media totalling up to 6 percent of a company’s global revenue. It’s the first time the European Union executive has taken this step.X has until October 18 to explain its crisis response to online terrorist propaganda and other violent and false content related to Hamas’ attacks on Israeli communities; it has until October 31 to provide details on other co...

Names and faces of Harvard students linked to an anti-Israel statement were plastered on mobile billboards and online sites

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

New York (CNN) — A billboard truck drove near Harvard’s campus Wednesday displaying the names and photos of Harvard students whose organizations signed a statement blaming solely Israel for the deadly attacks by Hamas.The “doxxing truck” appeared days after the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, a coalition of Harvard student groups, earlier this week released a statement that held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” following the attacks by Hamas that have killed more than 1,200 Israelis and more than 25 American citizens. More than 1,400 in Gaza have also been killed since Israel started strikes on Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack.Some students and their groups have since distanced themselves or withdrawn their endorsements from the statement amid an intense backlash inside and outside of Harvard. Several said they did not read the statement before they signed it.A conservative nonprofit said it organized the truck featuring...

Crews assist driver who allegedly fled accident and ended up in Newton pond

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

Police in Newton say crews were able to extract a driver from a pond after their car ended up in the water while allegedly fleeing the scene of a crash.The rescue occurred after crews were called to the pond in front of city hall around 10:30 a.m., off of Commonwealth Avenue and Walnut Street, according to the Newton Police Department.Newton PD said members of the Newton Fire Department were able to get at the driver, who was not injured and was the only person inside the vehicle.SKY7-HD later flew over the scene and spotted a white sedan submerged in the pond, with water up to its windows. A ladder could also be seen stretching from the nearby ground to the car’s hood.According to police, before taking on water, the driver of the sedan was allegedly involved in a crash near 704 Walnut St., where they allegedly hit the rear of a vehicle.Citing a witness, the police department said the driver then allegedly “travelled at a high rate of speed in reverse on Walnut Street,&#...

Ticker: Social Security payments to go up 3.2%;  Mortgage rates up again

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

Millions of Social Security recipients will get a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, far less than this year’s historic boost and reflecting moderating consumer prices.The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, means the average recipient will receive more than $50 more every month beginning in January, the Social Security Administration said Thursday. The AARP estimated that increase at $59 per month.“This will help millions of people keep up with expenses,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Social Security’s acting commissioner.Thursday’s announcement follows this year’s 8.7% benefit increase, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation, which pushed up the price of consumer goods. With inflation easing, the next annual increase is markedly smaller.Mortgage rates up againHome loan borrowing costs rose for the fifth straight week, keeping the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate at its highest level in more than two decades and taking another bite out of prospective homebuyers&#...

Howie Carr: Harvard’s depraved cheerleading

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a graduate of Harvard Law School.So when I had him on my radio show Wednesday, I asked him for his reaction to the depraved cheerleading by some at his old school to the horrific slaughter by Muslim terrorists last weekend.“I knew Harvard was very left-wing,” he said, “but at this point with the Ivy League, how nuts they’ve gotten, if I see a Harvard resume cross my desk I’m running the other way.”DeSantis continued, “Yes, they’ve always been anti-Israel, but to go up and cheer a terrorist group that’s cutting off he heads of infants is absolutely despicable.”Yes it is, but it is also absolutely predictable. This is Harvard, after all. This is Cambridge. These genocidal Nazi fiends on Mass Ave are just the latest iteration of the Tsarnaevs. Remember them?A family of Third World Muslim grifters who lied about the “oppression” they were suffering – namely, having to work for a living like the stupid infidels.The Tsarnaevs were granted asylum – which means ...

Taylor Swift surprised by ‘guiding light’ Beyoncé at ‘Eras Tour’ film premiere

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

Jami Ganz | New York Daily NewsDon’t blame Taylor Swift if she was totally enchanted when Beyoncé surprised her at the “Eras Tour” film premiere, as both pop stars prepare for their concert flicks to overtake box offices.The “Enchanted” singer, 33, took to Instagram early Thursday to share a boomerang of the pair posing at the front of an empty auditorium, as Beyoncé, 42, tosses popcorn.“I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without Beyonce’s influence,” wrote Swift, whose Eras tour has thus far grossed over $2 billion. “The way she’s taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms. Her generosity of spirit. Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale.”PHOTOS: ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert movie premiere in L.A.(FILES) US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Sofi stadium in Inglewood, California, ...

The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital is overflowing

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

By ISABEL DEBRE, SAMYA KULLAB and MOHAMMED JAHJOUH (Associated Press)GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed Thursday as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them on the sixth day of Israel’s heavy aerial bombardment on the territory of 2.3 million people.With scores of Palestinians killed each day in the Israeli onslaught after an unprecedented Hamas attack, medics in the besieged enclave said they have run out of places to put remains pulled from the latest strikes or recovered from the ruins of demolished buildings.The morgue at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital can only handle some 30 bodies at a time, and workers had to stack corpses three high outside the walk-in cooler and put dozens more, side by side, in the parking lot. Some were placed in a tent, and others were sprawled on the cement, under the sun.“The body bags started and just kept coming and coming and now it’s a graveyard,” Abu Elias Shobaki, a nurse at Shifa, said of the p...

An annular solar ‘ring of fire’ eclipse is this weekend: What will it look like from Massachusetts?

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:28:18 GMT

As an annular solar “ring of fire” eclipse crosses the sky in the western half of the U.S. over the weekend, how visible will the astronomical event be from Massachusetts?Unfortunately for local science and space lovers, New England is not in a great spot for this weekend’s alignment of the sun and moon. Also, it could be pretty cloudy with a chance for rain, so that won’t help the view either.If you’re in the Boston-area on midday Saturday, only about 17% of the sun will be covered by the moon at the max of the eclipse. About 83% of the sun will be uncovered, meaning it will still be very bright if it’s not cloudy at the time.“What we’re going to have in Boston is not much,” Talia Sepersky, of the Museum of Science’s Charles Hayden Planetarium, told the Herald ahead of Saturday’s event.“On a perfectly clear day, only 17% of the sun would be covered, so you probably wouldn’t notice,” Sepersky added. ...