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US may send second aircraft carrier toward Israel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

The U.S. could soon have two aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, according to Defense Department officials, a move that would mark a major escalation in U.S. military power in the region as fighting intensifies between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with its associated warships and fighter jets, was already scheduled to depart from Norfolk, Va., this week and may be ordered to deploy to the waters off the coast of Israel, according to two DOD officials who were granted anonymity to discuss future operations.The Eisenhower group has long been scheduled to deploy and operate near Europe, DOD spokesperson Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry said in a statement Tuesday.The ship is slated to leave Norfolk on Friday and could reach the eastern Mediterranean by the end of October if ordered, one of the DOD officials said. At that point, the Eisenhower would join the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and its strike group, which the Pe...

Hamas attack might be Israel’s Tet Offensive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

Daniel C. Thomas is professor of international relations at Leiden University.It is tempting to compare Hamas’ latest attack on Israel, launched at the end of the Simchat Torah holiday, to Egypt and Syria’s 1973 attack on the country during Yom Kippur. But it is the 1968 Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War that may prove a more instructive historical parallel.In late January of 1968, Vietcong guerillas and the army of North Vietnam broke a cease-fire, launching a massive attack against South Vietnamese and United States forces across most of the cities and provinces of South Vietnam.The attack was timed to coincide with the Vietnamese lunar new year festival Tết Nguyên Đán, when many South Vietnamese forces were on leave. But by the time the main offensive ended about eight weeks later, the attackers had suffered enormous casualties without making any territorial gains. In military terms, it was a total failure.The real significance of the Tet Offensive was the political shock wave it ...

No, Jeremy Corbyn: Response to Hamas attack shows how UK Labour has changed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England — War in the Middle East has often meant war on the British left. But this week’s Labour Party conference has been notable only for moments of solemn silence, and a broader theme of harmony, emerging from the dockside at Liverpool.The opposition party’s unified reaction to the crisis comes at a critical moment — Labour are 17 points ahead in the polls, with an election looming next year — and is the clearest sign yet of leader Keir Starmer’s vice-like grip on his party, and of how far Labour have travelled since left-winger Jeremy Corbyn resigned as leader.“I think we’ve seen a party that has changed beyond comprehension,” said former Labour MP Luciana Berger — one of several Jewish members who left under Corbyn amid bitter complaints of antisemitism within the party.As news broke Saturday of an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, it was clear the renewed conflict would at the very least overshadow Labo...

3 disagreements Macron and Scholz can’t (yet) resolve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

HAMBURG — It’s no secret French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz don’t get along particularly well. But during a two-day bilateral retreat in Scholz’s hometown of Hamburg, they tried to put on a show of unity.Things could have gone better. During a hour-and-a-half boat tour of the Hamburg harbor, it rained. When the two leaders shared a meal of traditional north German Fischbrötchen, or pickled herring sandwiches, Macron looked like he wanted to gag.It the end, the two leaders, who came to Hamburg with their cabinets to try to forge common positions on a host of issues, from defense to trade with China, announced no concrete progress. Except, that is, for a joint paper on cutting red tape in the EU (always a good one to take out of the desk drawer when you can’t agree on anything else).Though the talks were overshadowed by the war in the Middle East, Scholz said the two countries face “very similar challenges” on a variety of issues — from economic gr...

NATO forced to do the splits over support for both Israel and Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

BRUSSELS — Defense ministers flying into the Belgian capital for a NATO meeting starting Wednesday were expecting to spend their time backing Ukraine — instead, they find their intel briefings full of a region mostly forgotten in the past two years: the Middle East.From the White House’s new military support for Israel to emergency meetings across European capitals, to a fumbled EU response to the crisis, NATO allies are grappling with a renewed sense of urgency over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel over the weekend has led to the Israeli government’s vow of total retaliation in the Gaza Strip, with a record number of 300,000 reservists already drafted within 48 hours.The timing is an inconvenience for the Ukrainians, who aim to galvanize further support from NATO countries in what will be the first defense ministers’ meeting following a NATO leaders’ summit in July that saw beefed-up pledges for Ukraine’s security and...

Hurricane Lidia makes landfall in west-central Mexico as an ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 storm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

(CNN) — Hurricane Lidia made landfall in west-central Mexico Tuesday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain to the area and threatening significant flooding and storm surge, according to the National Hurricane Center.The hurricane’s center, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, slammed into the state of Jalisco, near Las Penitas, shortly before 6 p.m. MT, according to the National Hurricane Center.Lidia is expected to pound the region with generally 4 to 8 inches of rain, and even up to 12 inches in some areas, likely fueling flash flooding and mudslides in areas of higher terrain, the hurricane center said.Flooding also is expected along the coast, with seawater being pushed toward the shore where Lidia came barreling through.“A dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the south of where Lidia made landfall. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destr...

Cubs security worker has allergic reaction to unknown substance in mail, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

A Chicago Cubs security worker had an allergic reaction to an unidentified substance on a piece of mail Tuesday, triggering a hazardous materials response from the Chicago Fire officials.Authorities later determined that there wasn’t a threat to public safety, Cubs spokesperson Julian Green said in an email. Chicago Police sent its Bomb and Arson unit to the area and described the substance as a “skin irritant.”The worker first encountered the unknown substance sent to the team’s front office at 1101 W. Waveland Ave. around 2:50 p.m., according to police. The guard found a “foreign substance contained in a small package as part of our mail screening process,” according to Green.The unidentified worker was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center as a precaution and was treated and released, Green said.“During the initial safety assessment and investigation, some areas of the building were not accessible,” Green said. &...

Republican Rep. Peter Durant declares victory in Senate special Republican primary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

State Rep. Peter Durant declared victory Tuesday night in a Republican special primary election for a central Massachusetts Senate seat that was vacated earlier this year by Anne Gobi, who left the Legislature to serve in the Healey administration.Unofficial election results streamed in as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. and Durant told the Herald he was declaring victory just before 10 p.m., saying it was “statistically impossible” for his Republican challenger, Bruce Chester, to make up the difference in votes according to unofficial results from town clerks.The one Democrat in the race, Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, faced no challenger in his primary and swiftly moved on to the Nov. 7 general election, where he is poised to face off against Durant, a House colleague.Durant said people are upset about gun rights and the cost of living in Massachusetts.“And this just proves that the guy from the small town can make a big impact. So we’re very happy with tonight’s results. I thi...

‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ will be a blockbuster – and might shake up the movie business

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Greg Marcus has been in the movie business for years but he never expected to be urging moviegoers to take out their phones during a film — let alone to be crafting friendship bracelets in preparation for an opening weekend.But there the chief executive and chair of the Marcus Corporation is in a promotion for his theater chain headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stringing beads together while humming “Shake It Off.”Movie theaters are readying for an onslaught like they’ve never seen before, beginning Friday when “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” debuts. The concert film, compiled from several Swift shows at Southern California’s SoFi Stadium, is expected to launch with $100 million, or possibly more. Advance ticket sales worldwide have already surpassed $100 million. Swifties will descend. Dancing will be encouraged.“This is different,” says Marcus. “Take your phone out. Take selfies. Dance, sing, get up, have a good time. We want to create an atmosphere.”Concert fil...

Author and activist Louise Meriwether, who wrote the novel ‘Daddy Was a Number Runner,’ dies at 100

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:55:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Louise Meriwether, the author and activist whose coming-of-age novel “Daddy Was a Number Runner” is widely regarded as a groundbreaking and vital portrait of race, gender and class, has died. She was 100. Meriwether died Tuesday at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in Manhattan, according to Cheryl Hill, a filmmaker who said she is part of the author’s “extended family.” The cause was old age, Hill said. “Daddy Was a Number Runner,” published in 1970, tells of a poor Black community in Harlem during the 1930s as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Francie Coffin. The narrative is a grim panorama of gangs, gambling, confrontations with the police and endless worrying about money. But it is also a testament to the human spirit, whether Francie’s growing consciousness of her sexuality or the tenuous bond she feels as she looks out on the street life of Harlem.“I wanted to hug them all,” Francie thinks to herself. “We belon...