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What the Debt Limit Fight Is Actually About

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

A group of Senate Republicans hold a news conference to pass the House GOP legislation that would raise the debt limit and cut federal spending, outside the U.S. Capitol on May 3, 2023, in Washington, D.C.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesIt’s hard to believe I’m typing these words, but there’s a genuine chance Congress may fail to pass an increase in the debt limit. That would mean the U.S. might then in turn default on its debt sometime in June.No one knows what would happen at that point, because it’s completely unprecedented. But it almost certainly would be deeply unpleasant, with huge job losses, unpredictable bits of the economy imploding, and knock-on effects in other countries that will make them both fear and hate us for decades. It would be the kind of massive self-inflicted wound that can be pulled off only by empires in their dotage.Congress has veered close to this disaster in the past. But I’ve always believed that it would be impossible for it to actually happen, b...

King Charles III heads to Westminster Abbey for coronation

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III left Buckingham Palace on Saturday for the final mile of a seven-decade journey from heir to monarch, headed to Westminster Abbey to be crowned in a ceremony steeped in 1,000 years of tradition.More than 2,000 guests, thousands of troops, tens of thousands of spectators and a smattering of protesters converged in and around the abbey as the king and his wife, Camilla, traveled in a gilt-trimmed carriage pulled by six horses.The ceremony will be filled with pomp and pageantry: There will be crowns and diamonds, soaring music, purple robes, magnificent hats — and a rousing cheer of “God Save the King” inside the abbey and in the streets outside.As guests arrived, the church buzzed with excitement and was abloom with fragrant flowers and colorful hats. Streaming into the abbey were celebrities, dignitaries and world leaders, including U.S. First Lady Jill Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, eight current and fo...

Lotería de visas 2024: cómo consultar si eres ganador

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

(CNN) — El Gobierno de EE.UU. otorgará unos 55.000 documentos de residencia legal a través de este mecanismo de “Lotería de visas”.Si hiciste tu inscripción dentro de los plazos establecidos, podrás ver los resultados de los ganadores ingresando a este link: dvprogram.state.gov a partir del 6 de mayo.¿Qué es la “lotería de visas”?El Programa de Visas de Inmigrantes de Diversidad o “lotería de visas” proporciona a alrededor de 55.000 personas al año la oportunidad de obtener una tarjeta de residente permanente, conocida como Green Card, en Estados Unidos. La Green Card permite al titular tener residencia permanente en el país y eventualmente ser elegible para solicitar la ciudadanía estadounidense.La lotería de visas para inmigrantes es principalmente para personas que viven fuera de EE.UU., aunque algunos ganadores pueden estar en el país legalmente con otros tipos de visas. Solo los países que han tenido menos de 50.000 inmigrantes en los ú...

King Charles III leaves Buckingham Palace in horse-drawn carriage to be crowned at Westminster Abbey

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III leaves Buckingham Palace in horse-drawn carriage to be crowned at Westminster Abbey.Source

Ucrania dice que utilizó un sistema Patriot de fabricación estadounidense para interceptar un misil hipersónico ruso

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

(CNN) — Ucrania afirma haber utilizado por primera vez un sistema de defensa antiaérea Patriot, de fabricación estadounidense, para interceptar un misil hipersónico ruso.Mykola Oleshchuk, comandante de la Fuerza Aérea de Ucrania, dijo en Telegram el sábado: “Sí, hemos interceptado el ‘incomparable’ Kinzhal”, añadiendo la palabra “Patriot” y un emoji de la bandera ucraniana.El Kh-47 Kinzhal es un misil balístico hipersónico.Ucrania ha recibido al menos dos sistemas Patriot, uno de Estados Unidos y otro de Alemania, para mejorar sus defensas aéreas, que hasta ahora han sido incapaces de interceptar misiles rusos más modernos como el Kinzhal.Oleshchuk declaró que la interceptación “se produjo durante el ataque nocturno del 4 de mayo en el cielo de la región de Kyiv”.Dijo que el misil Kinzhal había sido lanzado por un avión MiG-31K desde territorio ruso.Yurii Ihnat, portavoz del Mando de las Fuerzas Aéreas, declaró el sábado a la tel...

Lucas: ‘Crazy in Vietnam’

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

It is March 1967.I am in Saigon. I am hot and tired. I have a vicious fungus on both hands.  The war is everywhere including just outside the hotel, but the adrenalin rush is so great that it tends to overcome fear. Sometimes.The memory comes back to me in the wake of the 50th anniversary of the April 29, 1973, signing of the Paris peace agreement, which led to the U.S. troop withdrawal and the return of the American POWs. However, the war did not really end until 1975.Anyway, I am waiting two hours for the call from the city editor of the Boston Herald. There were no cellphones back then, or computers or email. The notice to standby came by cable. It had to be important. I wrote about it later.The call comes in. I am expecting rave reviews for my stories. Instead, Roger Dejarlis, the city editor, and Bill Stewart, managing editor, tell me I have to catch up with Massachusetts Sen Edward W. Brooke (1967-1979) and deliver a message from Hal Clancy. Clancy (“Prince Hal”) is the powerf...

Wolf in down: Dogs welcome at city outdoor dining patios, beer gardens

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

Reservations for man’s best friend could soon be taken.The city Inspectional Services Department has created a new policy that will allow restaurants to create outdoor spaces where dog owners and their four-legged family members can hang out together.City officials say the new “dog-friendly spaces” variance is open to all restaurants and beer gardens with outdoor space depending on application status. Those that are approved can be ready to welcome dogs as early as June 1.There are some caveats to the variance. The spaces must be completely outdoors, and establishments will not be allowed to prepare food around dogs. Patrons who bring their pooches are responsible for their pet’s behavior. The dog must be on a leash at all times.“Residents and small business owners have been eager for four-legged family members to be able to enjoy our outdoor spaces too,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a release, “so we’re happy to make this regulatory change allowing dogs on outdoor patios and bee...

From masks to mandates: Our pandemic poll of best and worst memories

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

It’s been a slog since the second week of March 2020.Lockdowns and panic gripped the globe as dire news began to seep out of Wuhan then Italy as the virus quickly spread to both coasts with a Biogen conference here intensifying the fears locally.SARS-CoV-2 was universally understood. Simply COVID is good enough today. The bad taste in your mouth for weeks, the splitting headaches, and worse has infected almost all of us — or worse.Now the World Health Organization — never a bastion of believability — has downgraded the plague declaring it no longer qualifies as a global emergency. But all we went through will never be forgotten, at least not for a long time. What’s your opinion? Take the poll HERE today at bostonherald.com on the best and worst of the coronavirus pandemic:BEST:To-go cocktailsRestaurants and bars were shut down crippling those businesses so severely many have been unable to recover. In a rare smart move, the state Legislature did allow t...

The Norfolk Tides are the best in the minors. The Orioles who were there say the club’s Triple-A team is ‘loaded.’

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

No baseball player is satisfied with being in Triple-A.The highest minor league level is a mix between the best prospects, who are just one more phone call away from the big leagues, and former MLB players who are looking for another crack at The Show.Playing in Triple-A offers the hope — for some, a fleeting one — of a big league call-up. That’s why the reputation for a Triple-A atmosphere can be “sour” or “bitter,” according to Orioles youngsters Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Stowers, respectively, both of whom spent time earlier this season with Baltimore’s top minor league affiliate.But those words aren’t the ones the Orioles who came through Norfolk this season have used to describe the club’s Triple-A squad. Instead, it’s “loaded,” “legit” and “talented.”So far this season, the Norfolk Tides have been crushing their Triple-A competition. With a 22-8 record for a .733 winning perc...

Battenfeld: CNN town hall, unpopular media provide perfect foil for Trump

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:10 GMT

The unpopular mainstream media, so aligned with Democrats they cheer President Biden’s re-election announcement at the cozy correspondents’ dinner, provides the perfect foil for Donald Trump.Every time Trump opens his mouth, the media says he is lying.And every time the media says the former president is lying, he goes up in the polls.That’s why CNN can pile on Trump in its town hall Wednesday night as much as they want, and it will be a win for him. Anti-Trump plants in the audience can go for the jugular. The media will seize upon and amplify the single most negative moment.Trump still wins. And that’s why he’s doing the CNN event at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire. It may seem puzzling at first why Trump would expose himself to one of his network arch-enemies – which is obsessed with taking him down – but it makes perfect sense.And Joe Biden will do his part by coordinating yet another crisis — this one at the southern border – set to unfold just one day before the...