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Orbán welcomes Erdoğan to his Mojo Dojo Casa House

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

What a couple of Kens.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday gifted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a horse, during the Turkish leader’s trip to Budapest. Erdoğan had first lavished a Turkish-made electric vehicle on Orbán during the strongman love-in.Orbán described the horse-for-car tradeoff as “The best deal I’ve ever made. For one horse power, I got 435,” as he greeted Erdoğan.In the Hollywood blockbuster “Barbie,” horses symbolize the epitome of masculinity — at least according to Ryan Gosling’s occasionally delusional character Ken, as he set up his deranged Mojo Dojo Casa House in Kendom. (Spoiler alert: Barbie got the last word.) Orbán has been bucking the EU over Ukraine, and largely resisted European leaders’ efforts to rein him in at the European Council summit in Brussels last week.Orbán and Erdoğan have been stablemates in slow-walking Sweden’s accession into NATO, which has prompted the military alliance’s top boss to...

‘Max Payne’ and ‘Rescue Me’ actor James McCaffrey dies at 65

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — James McCaffrey, who voiced “Max Payne” in the popular video game franchise and also starred in television shows including “Rescue Me,” has died, according to his agent. He was 65.McCaffrey’s talent agent David Elliot confirmed Monday that the New York native passed away Sunday surrounded by family and friends.His wife, actor Rochelle Bostrom, told The Hollywood Reporter that he died at home in Larchmont, a New York suburb of Manhattan, following a battle with myeloma, a form of cancer that affects white blood cells. Fellow New York actor and “Entourage” star Kevin Dillon was among those who took to social media to honor McCaffrey. “#rip James McCaffrey we were lucky to have known you,” he wrote Sunday in an Instagram post that included a photo of the two. McCaffrey had a 35-year career in television and film that also included roles in the television shows “Blue Bloods” and “Suits.”O...

Warren: Feds need to step up as housing woes worsen

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw her weight behind Gov. Maura Healey’s housing plan on Monday morning, and said the federal government will need to step up to help the state address its housing affordability and availability crisis.As many as 200,000 housing units will need to be built in Massachusetts over the next six years to keep up with housing demand, Warren said at an event hosted by the New England Council at the UMass Club in Boston on Monday.“The problem is bad and the problem is getting worse,” she said. “Do you think that housing is in short supply in Massachusetts right now? Do you think that rents are already rising like a hot air balloon? Well buckle up for a rough ride.”Warren praised Healey’s five-year, $4.12 billion housing bond bill, a plan that has idled before the Legislature since Healey filed it in October.The bill seeks to kickstart housing production, upgrade the state’s aging and neglected public housing stock, and ...

3 World Series champions, pioneering executive to enter Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2024

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

For the first time since 2020, there’s a new Red Sox Hall of Fame class in session.On May 30, 2024, Trot Nixon, Jonathan Papelbon, and Dustin Pedroia will return to Fenway Park and join the ranks of the franchise’s greatest. Pioneering front office executive Elaine Steward, who broke barriers as a woman and person of color, is the only non-player inductee. Billy Rohr, who had a no-hitter going until the last remaining out of his Major League debut in ’67, will also be recognized.“It is an honor to be inducted to Red Sox Hall of Fame today with Trot and Dustin, two of the best teammates you could ask for, who played every out with integrity and respect. Blessed and Thankful,” Papelbon posted on social media.The trio of homegrown stars overlapped for just one season – Pedroia debuted in ’06, Nixon’s last with the club – but their combined impact on the team was significant: three championships in a decade.NixonBoston’s first-round pick (...

Maura Healey expects Massachusetts to spend $915 million on emergency shelters in FY25

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

The Healey administration expects it will need to spend $915 million on emergency assistance shelters in Massachusetts in fiscal year 2025, according to a report executive officials prepared for the Legislature’s two budget writing committees.The report from Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz and Housing Secretary Ed Augustus lays out in detail many financial aspects of the shelter system that were largely unknown, including a blueprint for how Gov. Maura Healey expects the state to continue handling a struggling shelter system moving forward.The estimated nearly $1 billion spend takes into account shelter and associated services, staffing, intake sites, clinical and safety risk assessment sites, school district reimbursements, immigration and refugee health, community, and workforce supports, and municipal supports, according to the report, a copy of which was provided to the Herald Monday afternoon.“While $915 million represents projected fiscal year 2025 cost...

Robbins: Recklessness, ignorance go viral in America

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

“There’s a recklessness in the air in America” was the elegant yet apt way ABC News journalist Terry Moran put it on Friday evening. Moran made the observation in the context of Rudy Giuliani’s misbegotten belief that he could egregiously defame two Georgia poll workers and get away with it. He didn’t. The “say anything” ethos Giuliani appears to have absorbed from Donald Trump backfired spectacularly on New York’s former mayor, who was hit by a defamation verdict against him of $148 million, and that’s a whole lot of hair dye.That recklessness, that disregard for either truth or consequences, afflicts both sides of the political divide. A Harvard/Harris poll released last weekend showed that a majority of Americans aged 18-24 are sufficiently untethered to tell pollsters that it would be good and just for Hamas, an internationally acknowledged terrorist organization which slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in cold blood on Oct. 7, to displace the state of Israel. That this cohort receives ...

Iceland volcano erupts weeks after thousands were evacuated from a town on Reykjanes Peninsula

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A volcanic eruption started Monday night on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, turning the sky orange and prompting the civil defense to be put on high alert.The eruption appears to have occurred about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the town of Grindavík, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. Webcam video from the scene appears to show magma, or semi-molten rock, spewing along the ridge of a hill.In November, police evacuated the town or Grindavik after strong seismic activity in the area damaged homes and raised fears of an imminent eruption.A coast guard helicopter will attempt to confirm the exact location — and size — of the eruption.Grindavik, a fishing town of 3,400, sits on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik and not far from Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s main facility for international flights. The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal resort, one of Iceland’s top tourist a...

Earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 111 people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — At least 111 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country’s state media reported on Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighboring province of Qinghai in the quake, which occurred just before midnight on Monday. More than 200 people were injured, Xinhua said, 96 in Gansu and 124 in Qinghai. The quake struck in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 5.9.State broadcaster CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure.The earthquake was felt in Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of the capital of Beijing. University students in Lanzhou rushed out of their dorms, acco...

Earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 111 people in Gansu, Qinghai provinces

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — At least 111 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country's state media reported on Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighboring province of Qinghai in the quake, which occurred just before midnight on Monday. More than 200 people were injured, Xinhua said, 96 in Gansu and 124 in Qinghai. The quake struck in Gansu's Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 5.9.State broadcaster CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure.The earthquake was felt in Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of the capital of Beijing. University students in Lanzhou rushed out of their dorms, according to a social media ...

It's lobster season: San Diego Bay ranked second best place in CA to catch lobsters

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:02:06 GMT

SAN DIEGO (KSWB) -- Lobster season is underway, and San Diego Bay is ranked as the second best location in California to catch the crustaceans.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) lists San Diego Bay as the second top location to catch California spiny lobster, based on the percent of reported catch for the 2022/2023 season. The No. 1 location for last year's season was Catalina Island, with Carlsbad to Oceanside coming in at No. 10. CDFW 2022/2023 Top 10 Locations (by percent of reported catch):Catalina Island (13.3%)San Diego Bay (12.9%)Point Vicente to King Harbor (6.2%)Santa Cruz Island (5.5%)Long Beach/Middle Breakwater (5.4%)Zuniga Jetty (3.6%)King Harbor to Santa Monica (3.1%)Santa Monica to Malibu Point (3.1%)Laguna Beach to Newport Beach (3.0%)Carlsbad to Oceanside (2.4%)Recreational lobster season opens the first Wednesday in October and runs through the first Wednesday after March 15 each year. SeaWorld San Diego takes in cold-stunned sea turtle found ...