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Tom Brady is not impressed with today’s NFL, says there’s ‘a lot of mediocrity’

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

(CNN) — Tom Brady may have called time on his football career, but that hasn’t stopped him from keeping a close eye on the NFL this season. And the legendary quarterback isn’t particularly impressed with what he’s been seeing.Speaking on a recent episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” seven-time Super Bowl winner Brady was in a damning mood as he lamented the current standard of play in the NFL.“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past,” he said.Asked why he felt that way, Brady added: “I think the coaching isn’t as good as it was. I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don’t think the schemes are as good as they were.“I think the rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. So I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been.”Brady, who retired from the NFL in February after a 23-year career with th...

Baseball great Ichiro Suzuki throws shutout against a high school girls’ team in Japan

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

(CNN) — He may have retired from professional baseball four years ago, but Ichiro Suzuki certainly hasn’t lost his appetite for the game.Likely a future Hall of Famer for his stellar Major League Baseball (MLB) career as an outfielder, Ichiro, 50, not only still likes to play, but he’s doing it as a pitcher.A Japanese high school girls’ team found out just how well he can throw during Ichiro’s annual All-Star game on Tuesday.The game, which was first played two years ago, was set up to encourage women to play baseball in Japan – and Ichiro was certainly all in.According to MLB.com, Ichiro threw a 116-pitch, complete game shutout and struck out nine in the 4-0 victory at the Tokyo Dome.He even dusted off an 86-miles-per-hour fastball during the game which, in truth, might give some of the best hitters in the world something to think about.Ichiro was joined in the game by former MLB pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka – who played for the Boston Red Sox and New Yor...

What’s open and closed on Thanksgiving Day 2023

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

New York (CNN) — Thanksgiving Day has looked different in recent years.Sights of people lining up at 5 pm Thanksgiving Day at large retailers to catch Black Friday deals are rare since the onset of the pandemic. Many stores opted to close its doors on Thanksgiving in 2020 to limit crowding and spread out the holiday shopping season — and made the decision permanent.This year, the turkey day falls on Thursday, Nov. 23. Here’s what’s open and closed on Thanksgiving Day 2023.RetailTarget is closed on Thanksgiving Day. The closure on Thursday began for the first time in 2020.“Once I heard from team members how much they appreciated that time with their families, it was an easy decision to make the policy permanent, and our store teams have had that time off ever since,” CEO Brian Cornell said in a statement in November.Walmart also won’t be open on Thanksgiving.“It’s a thing of the past. We’ll again be closed on Thanksgiving,” Walmart (WMT) US CEO John...

Police investigate shooting in Bay Terraces

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A man with a gunshot wound to the chest went to the hospital Wednesday morning after being shot in Bay Terraces, authorities said.The San Diego Police Department told FOX 5 a call came in reporting a possible shooting on the 6800 block of Potomac Street around 6 a.m. A resident heard commotion outside, prompting them to call authorities. Car dealership rampage: Man suspected of smashing windows arrested A victim of unknown age drove himself to Paradise Valley Hospital to receive medical attention, police said. He was then transferred to Mercy Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Officers are investigating the scene and are still looking for a suspect. SDPD said the shooter may have ran into an apartment complex in the area.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Palestinian flags displayed by fans of Scottish club Celtic at Champions League game draws UEFA fine

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — The display of hundreds of Palestinian flags at a Champions League game by fans of Scottish club Celtic cost the team a fine of 17,500 euros ($19,000), UEFA said Wednesday.The fans of the Scottish champions have long publicly supported the Palestinian cause and defied requests from the club not to do so on Oct. 25 when the team hosted Atletico Madrid.UEFA charged Celtic for a “provocative message of an offensive nature” inside the stadium.Celtic was fined 20,000 euros ($21,700) by UEFA for the same charge at its previous Champions League home game against Italian club Lazio on Oct. 4. At that time, Celtic fans showed an anti-fascist display with an image of Benito Mussolini, the World War II-era Italian dictator, and a slogan using an expletive.Also Wednesday, UEFA added fines totaling 11,500 euros ($12,500) for fans lighting fireworks and blocking exit passages at the game against Atletico.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerThe Associated Press

EU lawmakers reject proposal to cut the use of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a plan to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030 and to ban all pesticide use in areas such public parks, playgrounds and schools.After a series of amendments watered down the proposal of the EU’s executive Commission, the bill was rejected in a 299 to 207 vote, with 121 abstentions. It buried the bill for good and any new proposal would need to start from scratch after June elections for members of the European Parliament. “This is a bitter blow for the protection of the environment and public health. To put it bluntly, the majority of MEPs put the profits of big agri over the health of our children and the planet,” said Sarah Wiener, a Green lawmaker who was rapporteur for the proposal.“There is not going to be a new sustainable use of pesticides regulation,” Wiener said.The European Commission said last year that current rules limiting the use of pesticides were too weak and had not been applied co...

Judge denies corrupt Baltimore ex-detective’s request for compassionate release

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge has denied a compassionate release request filed by a former Baltimore police officer convicted in 2018 as part of the department’s Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal.Daniel Hersl, the oldest member of the deeply corrupt and now-disbanded Baltimore police unit, was sentenced to 18 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of racketeering and robbery.Last month, he filed the request for release, saying he was recently diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes, liver, lungs and more. He said a prison doctor concluded he has less than 18 months to live, and asked for home detention.Hersl, 53, was one of eight indicted members of the once-lauded Gun Trace Task Force, which was created to get illegal guns off the streets of a city plagued by violent crime. But instead, members robbed drug dealers, planted narcotics and firearms on innocent people and assaulted random civilians. More than a dozen officers have ...

Albania’s prime minister calls for more NATO troops in neighboring Kosovo following ethnic violence

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama urged NATO on Wednesday to further boost its military forces in Kosovo and secure the country’s borders with Serbia, warning that recent ethnic violence in Kosovo could potentially trigger a wider Balkan conflict.Kosovo’s border with Serbia was “out of control,” Rama said after an informal meeting of Western Balkan NATO members in North Macedonia. He said the frontier was being used for a host of illegal activities, including drugs and arms smuggling and infiltration by ultra nationalists, that could lead to “great disturbances” in the region.Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, is a former Serbian province. It gained independence with the help of a NATO military campaign, launched in 1999 to end a bloody Serb crackdown on an armed separatist movement.Tensions remain high, with violence breaking out twice in recent months, and Western countries fear that Russia could try to foment trouble in the Ba...

Chow disappointed in feds fiscal update, says Toronto needs ‘faster action’ to address refugee crisis

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

Both the City of Toronto and the province of Ontario are calling on the federal government to invest more in housing and infrastructure, following the release of the Trudeau government’s fall economic statement.Mayor Olivia Chow says the federal government’s mini-budget fails to meet the ambition of Toronto’s housing plan and argues the city needs more urgent funding to tackle an ongoing crisis, citing the hundreds of refugees currently sleeping on the city’s streets.“It’s raining out there, there are people in tents,” said Chow, speaking with Breakfast Television on Wednesday morning. “Our need is now. We are hoping for faster action.”“We need funds to house and shelter the refugees. It’s going to get very cold soon.”As part of Tuesday’s fiscal update, the federal government announced $15 billion in new loan funding to build more than 30,000 new rental units in Canada, with an additional $1 billion over t...

Authorities warn that fake HIV drugs are found in Kenya despite a crackdown on counterfeits

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan authorities issued a warning Wednesday about the sale of counterfeit HIV prevention drugs in the country, saying their “safety, quality and efficacy cannot be assured.”The Pharmacy and Poisons Board said the drugs were in two batches falsely labeled as Truvada, a commonly used HIV prevention drug worldwide.The board said on X, formerly Twitter, that it will take “stern legal and regulatory action” against anyone found trading, distributing, selling or dispensing from the batches.Kenyan police fear that thousands of counterfeits of Truvada could already be in circulation on the market.Around 1.4 million people have HIV in Kenya, according to UNAIDS data in 2022. Of those, 1.2 million are on antiretroviral therapy drugs.Truvada is manufactured by U.S.-based Gilead Sciences Inc., which in January warned that millions of dollars’ worth of fake versions of its HIV drugs were being sold in the U.S., posing dangers to patients.But their discovery in Kenya...