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ASK IRA: Have Heat run out of statements at the wrong time?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

Q: I think the reality is they just aren’t as good as the top five teams and now looking like they aren’t as good as six because they couldn’t beat Brooklyn. I love watching the Heat every year compete but this year has been a tough one. With them until they go fishing. – Douglas.A: Which certainly could come sooner than later. If the playoffs are about momentum, this is not trending in the right direction. And time for making statements is running out. I’m not sure that anything beyond a victory next week in Philadelphia would qualify as a statement on the Heat’s remaining regular-season schedule. There could have been a statement against the Nets last Saturday, but not. There could have been a statement in Toronto, but not. There could have been one in New York, but not. Suddenly, those statement victories earlier this month against the Hawks, Cavaliers and Knicks feel like distant memories?Q: How can the Heat expect Victor Oladipo to develop wh...

Howie Carr: John Kerry a high-flying global warmer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

John Forbes Kerry should just swear off ever speaking again about private jets, at any time, in any context, anywhere.America’s Gigolo can make a pluperfect ass out of himself on just about any subject, but private jets really bring out the worst in Liveshot, who turns 80 this year.Now Kerry’s done it again, defending his use of a “private” jet – actually, it belongs to the State Department – while endlessly lecturing the rest of us on the necessity of traveling by bicycle or ox cart or donkey.This time it was in an interview with a Yahoo News reporter.The scribe mentioned the obvious incongruity of the smug, virtue-signaling billionaire class jetting off to, say, Davos, to denounce the utter selfishness of the plebeians. You know, those greedy deplorables who like to keep their ranch houses and double-wides heated at 68 degrees all winter, and who don’t want to rely on the T to do their grocery shopping every weekend.The reporter began, “People are starting to pay more attention bu...

Parents of woman killed by Oscar Pistorius oppose his parole

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — The parents of Reeva Steenkamp, the woman Oscar Pistorius shot dead 10 years ago, still believe he is lying about their daughter’s killing and opposed the former Olympic runner’s application for parole, their lawyer said Friday.“Unless he comes clean, they don’t feel that he is rehabilitated,” lawyer Tania Koen told reporters outside the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre prison in Pretoria, where Pistorius has been incarcerated since 2016 and where his parole hearing took place Friday.“He’s the killer of their daughter. For them, it’s a life sentence,” Koen said before the hearing.Pistorius, a double-amputee runner and multiple Paralympic champion who made history by competing against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 Olympics, was convicted of murder for the Valentine’s Day 2013 shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his home. Pistorius has always claimed he shot his girlfriend in error after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder...

Charles III heads to Hamburg on last leg of 1st foreign trip

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — King Charles III boarded a carriage, though not the horse-drawn kind, for the final leg of his three-day trip to Germany, traveling by train from Berlin to the port city of Hamburg, where he planned to remember pivotal events from World War II.German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier accompanied Charles and Camlla, the queen consort, on the two-hour high-speed train journey from the capital. The couple landed Wednesday in Berlin for Charles’ first foreign trip as king. Steinmeier greeted them at the Brandenburg Gate with full military honors and later hosted a banquet in their honor.On Thursday, Charles became the first monarch to address the German parliament, telling assembled lawmakers that “together we must strive for the security, prosperity and well-being that our people deserve.” He then met with Ukrainian refugees and a German-British military unit before visiting an organic farm where he tried his hand at making cheese.Charles’ trip is part o...

Ex-England cricket captain Vaughan cleared of racism charge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan was cleared by a disciplinary panel Friday of making a racist remark toward a group of Yorkshire teammates of Asian ethnicity in 2009, the latest stage of a scandal that has left a cloud over the English game.The scandal erupted when Azeem Rafiq, a former player at Yorkshire, went public in 2020 saying he had been the victim of racial harassment and bullying across two spells at English cricket’s most successful club between 2008-18.Among his allegations, which were heard in the British parliament and led to Yorkshire losing sponsors and briefly the right to host international matches, Rafiq accused Vaughan of saying to Rafiq and other teammates of Asian ethnicity there were “too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that.” Vaughan was alleged to have made the comment on the sidelines of a Twenty20 match.Vaughan categorically denied the charge, which was issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board, and it was dis...

Finland’s young leader is popular but faces tough reelection

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — A parliamentary election in Finland on Sunday is shaping up as an extremely close race between three parties as Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats fight to secure a second term running the government.The election is taking place days after Finland cleared the last big hurdle in its 10-month campaign to join NATO. Turkey’s parliament ratified the northern European nation’s membership in the Western military alliance late Thursday.Marin, who at age 37 is one of Europe’s youngest leaders, has received praise for her Cabinet’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her vocal support of Ukraine in the last year has increased her international visibility. She remains popular at home, but Finns are also frustrated with their country’s rising cost of living.The economy, climate change and others issues that affect voters’ daily lives — like education and social benefits — have dominated the election campaign. Job creation and ...

Russia sends bombs as Ukraine marks grim Bucha anniversary

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia used its long-range arsenal to bombard anew several areas of Ukraine on Friday, killing at least two civilians and damaging homes as Ukrainians commemorated the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Bucha, a town near Kyiv, stands as a symbol of the atrocities the Russian military has committed since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022.“We will never forgive,” Zelenskyy said in a post on his Telegram channel. “We will punish every perpetrator.”The Kremlin’s forces occupied Bucha weeks after they invaded Ukraine and stayed for about a month. When Ukrainian troops retook the town, they encountered horrific scenes: bodies of women, young and old men, in civilian clothing, lying in the street where they had fallen or in yards and homes.Other bodies were found in a mass grave. Over weeks and months, hundreds of bodies were uncovered, including some of children. Russian soldiers on intercepted phone conversati...

Weekend need to know: Stranger Things experience, Spring Run-Off, Toronto Vintage Show

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

The Upside Down has arrived in Toronto for all Stranger Things fans, an annual run through High Park is happening to welcome the return of Spring, plus Canada’s largest vintage show returns to Exhibition Place.There is a scheduled subway closure on Line 1 as well as a late subway opening on Line 2 this weekend. People can also keep an eye on ongoing road closures within the city.Here’s what to do this weekend:Top eventsStranger Things: The Experience Stranger Things: The Experience is a new immersive experience located at Cinespace Studios Marine Terminal in Toronto.Fans will be thrown into a replica of the town of Hawkins, The Upside Down and all things from the Stranger Things universe.Tickets are limited and prices will start at $49 per person.Children under 5 years old will not be allowed into the experience, and anyone under 14 years old must be accompanied by an adult.Opening times:Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.Saturdays and Sundays: 10:30 a.m...

Russia, Indonesia sign extradition treaty to combat crime

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia and Russia signed an extradition agreement on Friday which they said will help combat transnational crime and be a turning point in their relations.The treaty — Indonesia’s first extradition agreement with a European country — was signed by Indonesian Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and Russian Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko.Chuycenko said the agreement is key to bringing bilateral relations forward.“With this treaty signed, we now have a legal basis for our cooperation in the sphere of combating crimes and this is going to be systematical and productive in the future,” Chuychenko said after the signing ceremony on the resort island of Bali.Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have fled to Bali since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russians were the second biggest group of visitors to Bali last year after Australians, and their number is predicted to continue to incre...

Norway makes country’s largest-ever cocaine seizure in Oslo

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:04 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Police made the largest-ever cocaine seizure in Norway when they discovered 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of the drug in boxes of fruit in Oslo, officials said.Norwegian news agency NTB said late Thursday that the drugs were found this week following a tipoff from German police who seized 1,200 kilograms (2,645 pounds) in Potsdam on Tuesday.Police didn’t disclose the exact date that the cocaine was found in Oslo, or where the fruit originated from. No one has been arrested in Norway.Police spokeswoman Grete Lien Metlid was quoted by NTB as saying that it was the largest seizure ever in Norway. She said that it was too early to say whether the cocaine was intended for the Norwegian market, or if Norway was being used as a transit point. “We cannot rule out that there are larger networks with connections to Norway,” Lien Metlid told NTB.The previous largest seizures of cocaine in Norway was in 2013 when 153 kilograms (337 pounds), were seized, and in 20...