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Germany rethinks China’s Hamburg port deal as further doubts raised

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

BERLIN — Further doubts loom over the fate of a controversial plan to sell parts of a Hamburg port terminal to China, amid pressure for Berlin to rethink its ties to Beijing.A new internal report by the German economy ministry, obtained by POLITICO, accuses the Hamburg port operating company of failing to properly register the terminal in question as “critical infrastructure,” which would have changed the scope of the deal.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, pushed the deal through last October for Chinese state company Cosco to buy a minority stake in the Tollerort terminal in the Hamburg port, ahead of a state visit to China. But this came amid objections within his three-party coalition government, with members of the Green party and liberal FDP expressing concerns about undue Chinese influence.As POLITICO reported last week, the deal has now been thrown into uncertainty after Germany’s BSI security agency recently declared the facility as “critical infrastruc...

Feeling Blessed: Haverhill man says he felt compelled to buy $1M-winning ticket after Easter Mass

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

A man from Haverhill won big earlier this month, telling lottery officials he felt a need to buy scratch tickets after being blessed at Easter Mass.Edward Richards was the winner of a $1 million prize after buying a $50 “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” instant ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.Richards told officials he bought the ticket after attending Easter Mass on Saturday, April 8, where, after being blessed with holy water at Mass, he felt a need to buy some lottery tickets.“He ended up going to a store in an area he would not have otherwise been had he not gone to Mass, purchasing his winning ticket at Richdale Convenience, 67 W. Main St. in Georgetown,” the Mass Lottery website stated.Joined by his daughters, Richards chose his prize’s cash option at the Mass Lottery headquarters in Dorchester, opting for a one-time payment of $650,000 (before taxes).He told lottery officials he plans to use the winnings for home improvements as well as inst...

WATCH: New video shows fire in Fisher College baseball team’s bus 

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

New video shows the moment a bus for the Fisher College baseball team went up in flames over the weekend, sending smoke billowing over a highway in Maryland. The team was traveling through the area on Sunday after playing in North Carolina over the weekend. Speaking with 7NEWS, Fisher College baseball player Ronnie Luke said he heard a noise that sounded “like a gunshot.”“Within seconds, minutes, smoke was coming in the bus,” Luke said. The team was able to get off the bus safely, soon watching the bus and a rising plume of black smoke from the side of the highway. What started as a scary incident eventually turned into only a minor inconvenience thanks to firefighters who responded to the scene and later brought the Fisher team back to their station. “Instead of making them stay on the side of the road for the next four hours, we wanted to make sure they were safe because of how dangerous I-95 is,” Xavier Owens of the White Marsh Volunteer Fire Company sai...

Nets Notebook: Cam Thomas minutes would take away from someone else, says Jacque Vaughn

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said the biggest issue with finding minutes for gifted second-year scorer Cam Thomas is that he must then take minutes away from someone else.Vaughn tightened his rotation in Game 2, giving minutes to only eight players. Aside from the starters, only Royce O’Neale, Joe Harris and Seth Curry played bench minutes on Monday.“It’s just always at the disposal of someone not getting minutes, and so who is that?” Vaughn said after practice at the HSS Training Facility in Industry City on Wednesday. “Is that Spencer? Is that Cam Johnson? Is that Mikal Bridges? I think everyone is available to play it and in the wheelhouse to hopefully be prepared if their number is called.”Vaughn also addressed the idea of giving Thomas minutes after Monday’s loss in Philadelphia.“I just thought that if we felt like we were struggling to get looks, maybe that could be an answer,” he said postgame. “But I thought we got...

Mets Notebook: Denyi Reyes heads to Triple-A to stretch out as a starter

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

LOS ANGELES — With Carlos Carrasco on the injured list, the Mets are trying to plan accordingly for future starting pitching issues that may arise. The club optioned Denyi Reyes to Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday to stretch him out and use him as a starter.The Mets had to send a pitcher back to Triple-A to make room for Tommy Hunter on the roster and they like Reyes’ prior starting experience. Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana and Carlos Carrasco are all on the injured list and Max Scherzer has already experienced soreness in his back. The Mets haven’t been able to benefit from the deep pool of starters the club thought it assembled.“With Justin and Quintana and Carrasco, we need to increase our depth,” manager Buck Showalter said Wednesday morning at Dodger Stadium. “We think Reyes can do that.”The Mets have decided who will fill Carrasco’s spot in the rotation Friday in San Francisco, but the team doesn’t want to release a name ye...

Homeowner who shot Black teen Ralph Yarl pleads not guilty

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

By MARGARET STAFFORD and JIM SALTER (Associated Press)LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — Walking with a cane and speaking too quietly to be heard throughout a Liberty, Missouri, courtroom, 84-year-old Andrew Lester pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly knocked on Lester’s front door looking for his younger brothers.The shooting has attracted presidential attention and renewed national debate about gun policies as people react with shock to a 16-year-old honor student being shot first in the head, then in the arm while making a routine errand in a residential neighborhood.The case is among three in recent days involving young people who were shot after mistakenly showing up in the wrong places. A 20-year-old woman was killed in upstate New York when the car she was in pulled into the wrong driveway. In Texas, two cheerleaders were shot after one of them mistakenly got into a car thinking it was hers.Yarl was shot at point-blank range...

Biobot, the Cambridge company monitoring Boston-area COVID wastewater, will start tracking norovirus

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

The Cambridge-based biotech company that has been monitoring COVID-19 wastewater levels in the Boston-area will now start to track norovirus in sewage to help communities respond to outbreaks, the firm announced on Wednesday.Local communities throughout the COVID pandemic have closely followed the virus wastewater data, which has helped predict coronavirus waves.By now monitoring wastewater for norovirus, Biobot Analytics said the company can provide key information about disease levels and trends, so communities can quickly respond to mitigate outbreaks.Norovirus cases are at an all time high. As the leading cause of foodborne illness in the U.S., the highly contagious stomach bug costs the economy about $2 billion annually in lost productivity and healthcare expenses. About 20 million people are sickened each year.Norovirus cases at the state and local level aren’t reported to the CDC, resulting in larger data gaps when compared to other illnesses, such as COVID.“Norov...

Supreme Court temporarily extends access to abortion pill

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has temporarily extended women’s access to an abortion pill until Friday while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on mifepristone to take effect as a legal challenge to the medication’s Food and Drug Administration approval continues.In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday, the court indicated it will act by Friday night. Alito provided no explanation for why the court put off a more lasting decision.The justices had given themselves a deadline on Wednesday in a fast-moving case from Texas in which abortion opponents are seeking to roll back FDA approval mifepristone. used in the most common method of abortion in the United StatesThe drug first won FDA approval in 2000, and conditions on its use have been loosened in recent years, including making it available by mail in states that allow access.The Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the m...

Nets prioritize pace for Game 3 vs. the 76ers, but ‘it’s not like we’re gonna be able to flip a switch’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

After back-to-back middling performances in Games 1 and 2 of Brooklyn’s first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, both losses, starting point guard Spencer Dinwiddie hit the film room.His revelation?His shots are coming way too late in the shot clock.Dinwiddie has struggled to generate buckets for a Nets team that desperately needs them. He has scored 26 points combined through Brooklyn’s two opening first-round games, but he’s taken 26 shots to get them. He shot one-of-five from downtown in the 96-84 Game 2 loss in Philly and is just two-of-eight from three-point range in the series.That’s a 25% clip for Dinwiddie, who shot over 40% from three in a 76-game stint with the Dallas Mavericks but finished the regular season shooting just 29% from deep after the midseason trade back to the Nets.Dinwiddie said he needs to both take better shots and convert on the difficult ones, too, because clean looks will be scarce in a playoff series against a ...

The Cavs adjustment that doomed Jalen Brunson and Knicks in Game 2

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:56:37 GMT

CLEVELAND — After getting chiseled by Jalen Brunson in Game 1, the Cavaliers adopted a two-prong strategy to deal with the crafty point guard.1) Pressure him when he has the ball.2) Make him work on defense.The effective approach was keyed by an adjustment from coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who essentially removed Isaac Okoro from the rotation and unleashed Caris LeVert.Suddenly, Brunson couldn’t hide in the corner on defense. He needed to guard versatile scorers such as LeVert, who went off for 24 points in 40 minutes of Cleveland’s 107-90 Game 2 win Tuesday.Targeting Brunson, who often struggles on defense, was intentional.“It’s very important to have [Brunson] play on both sides of the floor,” Cavs star Darius Garland said. “Not just have him sit in the corner. So just try to put him in a couple actions, to see if he can move his feet on the defensive end. Because he’s going to have to work really hard on the offensive end against us.R...