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Bulgarian election too close to call after fifth vote in 2 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

No clear winner emerged in Bulgaria’s election on Sunday night, much to the dismay of voters who have been to the polls five times in the last two years.In the first release of results, it seemed that the pro-Western coalition, Continuing the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, had won a narrow majority with 26.4 percent, beating the center-right establishment party, GERB, which scored 25.5 percent. But in a recount, the former scored 24.8 percent while the latter secured the lead with 25.9 percent.Observers expect a clear winner to emerge by Monday after all international voters’ ballots are counted.The vote is seen by many as a make-or-break test for GERB, whose leader Boyko Borissov served as prime minister from 2009 to 2021, until nationwide protests erupted over his government’s role in the country’s rampant corruption.Continuing the Change, led by Harvard graduates Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev, and Democratic Bulgaria, led by Hristo Ivanov, have campaigned on a promis...

Nets’ defensive game plan shows promise: ‘We want to get that ball out of their hands’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

For Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn, a football analogy best explains his team’s defensive strategy, a strategy that has paved the way for the Nets to win three straight games and four of their last five with Sunday’s win over the Utah Jazz.In football, there’s the run and the pass, and a good defense can take away one and make the other as difficult as possible.The Nets are picking from a comparable set of poisons: They are taking away a team’s No. 1 scoring option and forcing opponents to win with the rest of their roster.The strategy was on full display as the Nets stumped All-Star forward Lauri Markkenen, who mustered just 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the field in his first game back after missing two with a hand injury, three points shy of his season average.“You know going into the game that number one dude, he knows how to score. He’s done it before probably and he can probably continue to do it again,” head coach Jacque Vaughn sa...

Knicks clinch playoff berth with victory over short-handed Wizards

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

CLEVELAND — Break out the kazoos. The Knicks have clinched.A 118-109 victory Sunday over the Wizards assured the franchise a spot in the postseason for just the second time in the last 10 years, with Jalen Brunson leading the charge while Julius Randle and RJ Barrett logged injury/illness DNPs.James Dolan, a kazoo enthusiast, wasn’t in attendance but he’s undoubtedly happy about the circumstances. He declared the playoffs as an expectation this season, and the Knicks obliged — providing the owner the added revenue from postseason games and a hike in ticket prices for next season.Brunson, Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin and Quentin Grimes scored at least 21 points apiece, as the Knicks overcame an early deficit to punish the shorthanded Wizards in the second half.The next step for the Knicks (46-33) is to stave off the Nets (43-34) to secure the fifth spot and a first-round matchup against Cleveland.Sunday was a gimme.The Wizards sat four of their regular starte...

Explosion kills prominent Russian blogger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city Sunday, killing a well-known military blogger and strident supporter of the war in Ukraine. Some reports said a bomb was embedded in a bust that was given to him as a gift.Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky was killed as he was leading a discussion at the cafe on the bank of the Neva River in the historic heart of St. Petersburg. Some 30 people were wounded in the blast, Russia’s Health Ministry reported.Russian media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting with members of the public when a woman presented him with a box containing a bust of him that apparently blew up. A patriotic Russian group that organized the event said it had taken security precautions but acknowledged that those measures “proved insufficient.”In remarks recorded on video, a witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky during the discussion.The ...

Luis Robert Jr.’s 9th-inning catch — ‘one of the best I’ve ever seen’ — preserves the Chicago White Sox’s 4-game split in Houston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

Kyle Tucker appeared to have an extra-base hit.Luis Robert Jr. had other ideas.The Chicago White Sox center fielder was shaded toward right-center. He raced to left-center and made a miraculous sliding catch to rob Tucker in the ninth inning Sunday in front of 42,835 at Minute Maid Park.The grab helped preserve a 6-3 victory for the Sox, who earned an impressive split of the four-game series against the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros.“I knew that it was a hard-hit ball and it was far,” Robert said through an interpreter. “I saw when the ball was in the air and I just put my head down and ran as fast as I could. When I put my head up again, I saw the ball and was there.”The catch was the second out of the inning. Two runners were on base and the Sox had a five-run lead. The Astros got back-to-back RBI singles after the play to bring the tying run to the plate before Chas McCormick popped out to first baseman Andrew Vaughn to end the game.Sox man...

Death toll climbs amid trail of tornadoes 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

WYNNE, Ark. — Residents across a wide swath of the U.S. raced Sunday to assess the destruction from fierce storms that spawned possibly dozens of tornadoes from the South and the Midwest into the Northeast, killing at least 32 people.The storms tore a path through the Arkansas capital and also collapsed the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, stunning people throughout the region with the scope of the damage.The number of deaths continued to grow Sunday.“While we are still assessing the full extent of the damage, we know families across America are mourning the loss of loved ones, desperately waiting for news of others fighting for their lives, and sorting through the rubble of their homes and businesses,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.Biden earlier declared broad areas of the country major disaster areas, making federal resources and financial aid available for recovery.Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, where at least five people were killed, al...

Massachusetts weather forecast: Close to 70 degrees on the way during ‘mostly dry week’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

Could 70 degrees be spotted on thermometers across the region during the first week of April?It’s certainly a possibility with the National Weather Service forecasting unseasonably warm conditions this week.The warmest day is expected to be on Thursday, as meteorologists forecast high temps in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees.“If this were a sunny day we would be talking highs approaching 80F!” the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion reads. “Given the amount of clouds and periods of rain, highs are more in line with the upper-60s to near 70! Still not bad when you see our normal high are in the low to mid-50s.”Ahead of that abnormally warm Thursday, the workweek should start with dry and mild conditions. Monday will be a mostly sunny day with high temps in the mid-50s.It’s expected to turn breezy Monday afternoon, with strong wind gusts up to 35 mph. Also, dewpoints are only going to be in the 20s.“These low dew pts combined...

Police reforms tested in city where officer killed Black man

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

The Rev. James Stokes remembers Grand Rapids following the slaying of George Floyd, when demonstrations devolved into rioting that left businesses damaged and scores of people arrested.Stokes and other leaders in the western Michigan city desperately wanted to avoid a similar outbreak of violence when a white Grand Rapids police officer fatally shot Patrick Lyoya, a Black motorist, last April. After video of that shooting was publicly released, outrage in the community grew, and some feared a violent response. But the protests — while loud and angry — were peaceful. No buildings were burned. No shops were looted.City leaders say policing reforms and outreach to Grand Rapids’ Black community, including the clergy, helped to keep the peace after Lyoya’s slaying. Others believe the reform efforts have been slow and their impact superficial at best.“We knew what potentially could have happened,” said Stokes, pastor of New Life Tabernacle church. “As pastors, we g...

Kelsea Ballerini honors shooting victims at CMT Music Awards

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The CMT Music Awards opened Sunday with a tribute to victims from a school shooting, as co-host and country star Kelsea Ballerini shared her own experience as a witness to another school shooting at her high school. Country stars walked the red carpet ahead of the awards show, held this year in Austin, Texas, wearing black ribbons in honor of the six victims — three adults and three nine-year-olds — who were killed Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.Ballerini described a 2008 shooting at a school in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee before dedicating Sunday’s show to the “ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses and responders whose lives continue to be forever changed by gun violence.”Country singer Blake Shelton then kicked off the awards show with a Texas dance hall version of his song “No Body.”This year’s CMT Music Awards will merge country, rock and blues straight from the heart of Texas, featu...

LSU wins 1st NCAA title, Mulkey’s 4th, beating Clark, Iowa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:50 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Kim Mulkey returned home to Louisiana wanting to bring LSU its first basketball championship. The Hall of Fame coach did just that in only her second year at the school.Her Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 on Sunday and win the first basketball title, men’s or women’s, in school history.“I turn around and look at the Final Four banners (in the home arena), nowhere did it say national champion,” Mulkey said. “That’s what I came home to do.”The victory made Mulkey the first women’s coach to win national titles at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSU two years ago.“Coaches coach a lifetime and this is the fourth time I’ve been blessed,” Mulkey said. “Never in the history of LSU basketball, men or women, has (anybody) ever played for a championship.”The feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most natio...