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European officials support plan that could ease Ukraine’s move into NATO

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

Support for easing Ukraine’s pathway to NATO membership is growing within the alliance, increasing the likelihood that the proposal becomes official during a major gathering next month.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has privately suggested that allies agree Ukraine could join NATO after the war without following a Membership Action Plan, which is a series of military and democratic reforms an applicant nation must make before accession.Removing the MAP hurdle speeds up Ukraine’s bid to become an ally, but doesn’t provide any timeline or guarantees that Kyiv will eventually receive unanimous approval for its membership.That falls short of Ukraine’s wishes to join right away but goes further toward making them eventually come true. President Joe Biden is “open” to the plan and told Stoltenberg as much during their discussion in Washington on Tuesday. As NATO’s most important member, U.S. support goes a long way to waiving the MAP requirement during the alliance’s July summit ...

Greek coast guard defends actions after hundreds of migrants feared dead

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

ATHENS — Greece’s coast guard defended its actions in responding to a fishing boat that sank off its southern peninsula while carrying hundreds of migrants Wednesday, leading to one of the largest tragedies in the Mediterranean in recent history. At least 78 people died and hundreds of others are considered missing, according to the U.N.’s migration agency, IOM, and its refugee agency, UNHCR. Aerial photos of the vessel before it sank, released by Greek authorities, showed people crammed on the deck without any lifejackets.Greek authorities said they had tracked the vessel since Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said its aircraft spotted the boat Tuesday and warned Greece and Italy. The Greek authorities claimed the people on board, some thought to be the smugglers who had arranged the boat from Libya, were refusing assistance and insisting on reaching Italy, and did not intervene until the next day despite being monitored by the Greek coast guard...

Western countries launch a raft of plans to keep up with Ukraine’s weapons needs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

NATO defense ministers wrapped up two days of meetings in Brussels Friday where they pledged billions more in military aid for Ukraine as Kyiv enters the second week of its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia.At the same time, officials in the U.S. and Europe intensified plans to build more weapons for Ukraine over the long-term while also working to restock their own shelves at home.The question now is: Can the defense industry keep up?The issue became center stage over the past week as images of destroyed equipment — including U.S.-made Bradley fighting vehicles and German-made Leopard tanks — began surfacing on social media.The need to supply and sustain Ukraine will remain for years, especially if Ukraine joins NATO. At the same time, individual governments are scrambling to increase funding for their own defense industries to ramp up production and work through supply chain bottlenecks that remain from decades of neglect, and COVID-era disruptions.U.S. Army Secretary C...

Ray Lewis III, son of Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, dies at 28

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

(CNN) — Former college football player Ray Lewis III, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, has died at the age of 28, according to a social media post from his younger brother.Rahsaan Lewis posted about his brother’s death on Instagram on Thursday.“Really can’t believe I’m even typing this but RIP big brother. A true angel I pray [you’re] at peace now because [I know] how much you was [really] hurtin,” the post read.“I love you I love you I love you,” Lewis added.The circumstances around the death have not been released. CNN has reached out to Lewis’ representatives for comment.Lewis III made a name for himself playing high school football for Lake Mary Preparatory School in Florida.Like his father, he went on to play college football for the University of Miami before moving to Coastal Carolina and then Virginia Union.Mark James, Lewis III’s coach at Virginia Union, wrote a tribute to his former player on Facebook.“Young man it was a pleasure to brin...

Pool deck at collapsed Florida condo building failed to comply with codes, standards, officials say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The swimming pool deck of a beachfront South Florida condominium that collapsed two years ago, killing 98 people, failed to comply with the original building codes and standards, with many areas of severe strength deficiency, federal investigators said Thursday.Investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology gave an update on the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, during a regular meeting of the National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee. The town of Surfside is located just north of Miami Beach.Besides design understrength, investigators reported signs of corrosion, misplaced reinforcement and the placement of heavier and additional plant containers on the deck than those in the original plans. These and other factors led to “ critically low margins against failure,” investigators said.Experts have previously suggested problems with the pool deck might have led to the 40-year-old, 12...

Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Audio and Spotify have ‘mutually agreed’ to part ways

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

(CNN) — Archewell Audio, the company of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has announced the end of a multi-year partnership with Spotify in a joint statement released to CNN Friday.“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” the statement said.The Sussexes were among Spotify’s most notable audio personalities, having announced an exclusive partnership with the service in December 2020.In a news release at the time, Spotify said the pair “will host and produce podcasts that build community through shared experience, narratives, and values.”The announcement comes just two weeks after Spotify said it had cut 200 jobs within its podcast unit, amounting to 2% of the audio streaming company’s global workforce, in a “strategic realignment.”Archewell Audio’s multi-year partnership with Spotify was intended to include numerous programs but, ultimately, the couple’s company produced one s...

Boston Mayor Wu rejects City Council budget cuts to Boston Police, Veterans departments

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

Mayor Michelle Wu has vetoed millions of dollars in cuts the City Council tried to push through for the Boston Police and Veterans Services departments following days of backlash.Wu also rejected the entirety of cuts proposed for the Public Works and Transportation departments, totaling more than $5 million, along with the Boston Public Library, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet.In a Friday letter to the City Council, Wu called the Council’s attempt to slash nearly $31 million from the Boston Police budget “illusory, as the city is obligated to cover salary and overtime expenses incurred by the department”She also said plans to cut from departments like the Office of Veterans Services, where the Council had approved a $900,000 reduction, “would reduce critical programming and limit our ability to fund future obligations.”“Our returned budget also includes rejections, because the scale and scope of amendments passed by the Council would resul...

The Who’s Pete Townshend tells the story behind ‘Tommy’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

Chris Jones | Chicago Tribune (TNS)CHICAGO — In the beginning, there was no pinball wizard.“Tommy” was the fourth studio album released by the British band known as The Who and a colossal step forward when it came to rock music and narrative complexity. It was originally to be a mystical, psychological study of a traumatized post-war boy. No bumpers or flippers attached.Pete Townshend was in his early 20s when he wrote most of “Tommy,” which was released in 1969. Now, as the album-turned-Broadway musical plots a Chicago comeback, he’s 78. With Townshend credited with music, lyrics and book and Des McAnuff as director, “Tommy” the musical opens soon at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.In the late 1960s, Townshend was enthralled with the notions of Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual leader who taught that the ordinary world is mostly illusory and that true meaning flows only from the inner transformation of consciousness. Pop music was still in the thrall of the three-minute single when Townsh...

Unionized UPS workers could strike this summer, scrambling supply chains and home delivery

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

By HALELUYA HADERO and MATT OTT (AP Business Writers)NEW YORK (AP) — Unionized UPS workers voted overwhelmingly on Friday to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a potential work stoppage if the package delivery company and Teamsters can’t come to an agreement before their contract expires next month. The Teamsters said 97% of unionized workers voted for the authorization, which the union urged for in order to have more leverage during negotiations with the company. But a yes vote does not mean a strike is imminent. “If this multibillion-dollar corporation fails to deliver on the contract that our hardworking members deserve, UPS will be striking itself,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a prepared statement. “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it to ensure UPS acts accordingly.”The Teamsters represent about 340,000 UPS employees, more than half of the company’s...

Losing hope of finding kids in plane crash, Indigenous searchers turned to a ritual: ayahuasca

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 07:11:21 GMT

By REGINA GARCIA CANO (Associated Press)BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The weary Indigenous men gathered at their base camp, nestled among towering trees and dense vegetation that form a disorienting sea of green. They sensed that their ancestral land — Selva Madre, or Mother Jungle — was unwilling to let them find the four children who’d been missing since their charter plane crashed weeks earlier in a remote area in southern Colombia.Indigenous volunteers and military crews had found signs of hope: a baby bottle, half-eaten fruit, dirty diapers strewn across a wide swatch of rainforest. The men were convinced the children had survived. But punishing rains, harsh terrain and the passing of time had diminished their spirits and drained their stamina.The weak of body, of mind, of faith do not make it out of this jungle. Day 39 was do or die — for the children and the search teams.That night at camp, Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, reached f...