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Hawks use balanced scoring, hold Lillard to six points and cruise past Bucks 127-110 for first win

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Trae Young scored 20 points to lead eight players in double figures, and the Atlanta Hawks limited Damian Lillard to six points while routing the listless Milwaukee Bucks 127-110 on Sunday night for their first victory of the season.Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 points, Dejounte Murray had 15 and Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu finished with 14 apiece for the Hawks.Lillard, who scored 39 points in his Bucks debut on Thursday, failed to score in the first half, missing all seven of his shots, including four from 3-point range, He also committed six of the team’s nine turnovers.Lillard, who came to Milwaukee in a September trade for Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen and draft choices, tallied his first points on a pull-up 3-pointer with 3:33 left in the third quarter. He shot 2 for 12 overall, 2 of 8 from behind the arc. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks (1-1) with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Malik Beasley added 18 points.Bucks forward Khris Middleton didn’t play as the team...

Wilson, Simmons lead Denver Broncos to first win over Chiefs since 2015 with a 21-9 thrashing

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Justin Simmons never paid much attention to the Broncos’ long losing streak to the Kansas City Chiefs or the way Patrick Mahomes had owned them ever since winning in Denver in his first NFL start back in 2017.Simmons won’t have to address — or ignore — either point again after the Broncos throttled the defending Super Bowl champs 24-9 on a frigid Sunday afternoon.“It just felt so good to win,” Simmons said after the Broncos (3-5) ended their 16-game losing streak to the Chiefs (6-2) by dominating every facet against a team that hadn’t lost to Denver since Week 2 of the 2015 season.It was Mahomes’ first loss to Denver after 12 wins and his first road defeat in the AFC West after winning his first 16 divisional games away from Arrowhead Stadium.He said the Broncos had a great game plan and executed.“And we didn’t execute or score any points,” he said.No touchdowns, at least.Mahomes experienced flu-like symptoms, apparently catching a stomach bug from hi...

The 49ers lose their 3rd straight game in mistake-filled 31-17 loss to the Bengals

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Brock Purdy keeps giving the ball away, San Francisco’s heralded defense is struggling to generate stops and the early season dominance for the 49ers is firmly in the past.The Niners stumbled for a third straight week, getting picked apart all game by Joe Burrow and failing to generate nearly enough offense in a 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday that sends San Francisco stumbling into its bye week.“It hurts,” Purdy said. “But at the same time, this is a going to be a good time for us to do some reflection and all of us are really hungry for the second half and the stretch that’s about to go down. So we’ll be ready for it.”It’s been quite a reversal for the 49ers (5-3), who left here three weeks ago after beating the Dallas Cowboys 42-10 on national television to improve to 5-0.But the mistakes they were able to overcome in that fast start to the season have been crushing the past three weeks in losses to Cleveland, Minnesota and no...

The mystery of the British government’s vanishing WhatsApps

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

LONDON — Downing Street’s former top officials face grillings from Britain’s public inquiry into COVID-19 this week. But the headline news may not be their testimony, but the WhatsApp messages they were sending at the time.As the nation awaits evidence sessions likely to reveal pandemic-era chaos at the heart of Downing Street, nerves in Whitehall are on edge. The inquiry has demanded the mass disclosure of messages from the encrypted app, despite an unsuccessful attempt to block their release by the government. Conservative former Chancellor George Osborne suggested late last week that messages revealed at the inquiry will contain “disgusting and misogynistic language.” Dominic Cummings, the acerbic aide to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has already chosen to publicize some of his own colorful missives ahead of time. Other witnesses have been less forthcoming, claiming their phones have long since been wiped.Nevertheless, the probe has already published a...

French Jews live in fear amid rising antisemitism following Hamas attacks

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

SARCELLES, France — In the usually lively “Little Jerusalem” neighborhood of Sarcelles, the only people loitering are gun-toting French soldiers on patrol.Since Hamas’ deadly assault against Israel on October 7, this largely Jewish enclave in the northern suburbs of Paris has gone eerily quiet, with locals keeping their movements to a minimum, and with restaurants and cafés bereft of their regular clientele — fearing an increasing number of antisemitic attacks across France.“People are afraid, in a state of shock, they’ve lost their love for life” said Alexis Timsit, manager of a kosher pizzeria. “My business is down 50 percent, there’s no bustle in the street, nobody taking a stroll,” he said in front of a large screen broadcasting round-the-clock coverage of the war.France has seen more antisemitic incidents in the last three weeks than over the past year: 501 offenses ranging from verbal abuse and antisemitic graffiti, to deat...

Russia’s shadow fleet is a disaster waiting to happen

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and adviser at Gallos Technologies and a regular columnist for POLITICO.Earlier this month, the Cameroon-flagged Turba — a tanker transporting contraband Russian oil — was found adrift off the coast of Indonesia.Because the Turba is a shadow vessel, operating outside the official maritime sector, she lacks protection against such misfortunes. And suddenly, she was Indonesia’s problem.Turba’s misfortune occurred just a few months after a similar fate befell Pablo, another shadow tanker that was thought to be transporting Iranian oil, which caught fire off the coast of Malaysia. And that’s just, so to speak, the tip of iceberg.Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, a steady stream of such rickety vessels without insurance protection have been joining the dark fleet (as the vessels are also known) — and many of them have been having accidents. This situation poses enormous risks to law-abiding ships, the environment and...

Biden says Mideast leaders must consider two-state solution

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

WASHINGTON — As the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says could be a “long and difficult” new stage, President Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality.It’s one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a priority.“There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6,” Biden told reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week.“It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” Biden said.The push for a two-state solution — one in which Israel would co-exist with an independent Palestinia...

Firearms charge against Washington state senator Jeff Wilson dismissed in Hong Kong court

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

Associated Press (AP) — A Hong Kong court dismissed a gun charge Monday against a Washington state senator who had been arrested after he carried a gun into the Chinese territory in what he called an “honest mistake.”Republican Jeff Wilson self-declared he was carrying the gun at the airport Oct. 21, has a clear criminal record in Hong Kong and made his admission in an open manner, the prosecution said at the court hearing.Principal Magistrate Don So approved the arrangement for a bind-over order rather than a plea to possessing an unlicensed firearm, saying he was inclined to believe Wilson was innocent. The bind-over order requires Wilson to keep the peace and avoid committing further firearms offenses for two years. The magistrate said Wilson would be fined 2,000 Hong Kong dollars ($255) for breaching the order if he doesn’t comply.With the case dispensed without a conviction, Wilson is free to leave the territory. A statement posted earlier on the Longview lawmaker’s...

China Evergrande winding-up hearing adjourned to Dec. 4 by Hong Kong court

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court on Monday adjourned a winding up hearing for property developer China Evergrande Group’s until Dec. 4. Evergrande has been in crisis since it defaulted on its debt obligations two years ago. The firm is the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer, with more than $300 billion in liabilities, and is at the center of a property market crisis that is dragging on China’s economic growth.For over a year, Evergrande has been working on a debt restructuring proposal for its offshore debts. However, Evergrande chairman Hui Ka Yan was detained and investigated for illegal crimes last month, a development that called into doubt the firm’s ability to complete its debt restructuring proposal.Top Shine, an investor in Evergrande unit Fangchebao, brought the winding-up petition against Evergrande in June 2022. It has accused Evergrande of not repurchasing Fangchebao shares from the firm as previously agreed.Evergrande did not immediately comment.In Se...

Herbert throws for 3 touchdowns, Chargers get back on track with 30-13 victory over Bears

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:23:28 GMT

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Justin Herbert passed for 298 yards and three touchdowns, including a 39-yarder to Austin Ekeler, and the Los Angeles Chargers stopped a two-game slide by routing the Chicago Bears 30-13 on Sunday night.Herbert, who had struggled with accuracy the past two games after breaking the middle finger of his left, non-throwing hand four weeks ago, completed his first 14 passes and was 31 of 40 in front of a prime-time audience.Herbert directed the Chargers to points on their first five drives, marking the first time in six seasons they have accomplished that feat. Bears Report: Get the latest news and updates It was the first time in two years that Herbert passed for three TDs in the first half, finding Ekeler, Simi Fehoko and Donald Parham to help stake the Chargers to a 24-7 lead at the break.Cameron Dicker added three field goals, including two in the second half. Ekeler finished with seven receptions for 94 yards and 15 carries for 29 yards on the ground.Chic...