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ASK IRA: Will Heat embrace the reality of play-in desperation?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

Q: Ira, Erik Spoelstra said that the play-in “is our reality and we must embrace that.” It may be our reality, but I ain’t gonna embrace it. – Bill, Palm Beach GardensA: The beauty is that it doesn’t matter if Bill from Palm Beach Gardens embraces it (no offense, and keeps those cards and letters coming). It matters if the Heat choose to seize on the opportunity. Remember, if you don’t advance out of the play-in tournament, then you become a lottery team. To some fans, that might seem like a good thing, even with the scant opportunity to move up in the draft order. But few players want to exit a season saying they were on a lottery team. That said, it takes more than pride to take a win-and-in game. It takes skill. So now we again see if the Heat are up to the challenge of the Hawks and Trae Young. To a degree, that matchup also will show whether the Heat are up to the challenge of showing that they are at least in the same discussion as last seas...

Lucas: Desperate case against Trump built on porn and perjury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

Who said God has no sense of humor?Who else would see to it that porn star Stormy Daniels is required to pay Donald Trump $122,000 in legal fees stemming from a defamation lawsuit?Better than that for Trump and his followers is that the news broke the same day that the former president was arrested and arraigned in Manhattan on dubious hush money charges.The charges consist of falsifying business records over a $130,00 hush money payments to Daniels to cover up an alleged affair. Trump has denied the affair.Daniels was a star witnesses who testified before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s grand jury that handed down the hush money indictments against Trump.The civil litigation and the $122,000 is unrelated to Bragg’s charges, which Trump pled not guilty to, but both involve Daniels.Daniels had sued Trump in 2018 after he called her allegations that an unknown man had threatened her to keep quite about the alleged affair a “total  con job.”Her attorney at the time was the di...

Herald goes on the street with immigration enforcement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

At 4 a.m. in a Chelsea strip mall parking lot, ICE officers checked weapons one last time and tightened their bulletproof vests as they prepared to target illegal immigrants charged with rape, assault and weapons offenses in a series of early morning raids.Members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team takes a Brazilian national with extensive firearms charges into custody on Tuesday, in Holbrook. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)Members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team takes Brazilian national with extensive firearms history including ghost gun charges and gang affiliations into custody on Tuesday, in Holbrook, MA. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald) April 4, 2023Members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team takes Brazilian national with extensive firearms history including ghost gun charges and gang affiliations into custody on Tuesday, in Holbrook, M...

‘Violent’ suspect sought following unprovoked assault in North York

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a suspect wanted in an unprovoked attack in North York last week.Police say a man was assaulted by another man on April 6 at Jane Street and Grandravine Drive, south of Finch Avenue.The suspect fled the area. There is no word on the victim’s injuries.The suspect has been identified as 37-year-old Elmer Jiron Morales. He is wanted for aggravated assault.Morales is described as five-foot five inches tall, 160 pounds, with a small build and receding black hair.Police say “he is believed to be violent,” and are asking anyone who spots him to call 9-1-1.

Palestinian teen killed in army raid as settlers hold march

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 15-year-old boy was killed by Israeli fire during an army raid in the occupied West Bank on Monday. The shooting came as thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched to an evacuated settlement in the territory.The march was a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition. It also poses a new test for Israel’s security forces after days of unrest fueled by tensions over a contested Jerusalem holy site.Israeli police and army forces were being deployed to the northern West Bank — the scene of frequent tensions in recent months — to secure the march, which comes after days of fighting in Jerusalem and along Israel’s northern and southern fronts. The demonstration added to the already combustible atmosphere in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank that has accompanied the overlapping of maj...

Rights group: China sentences 2 lawyers on ‘farcical’ charge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison, Human Rights Watch said Monday, the latest in a crackdown by the ruling Communist Party on its critics.The rights group said Xu Zhiyong, 50, was sentenced to 14 years and Ding Jiaxi, 55, was given 12 years in prison under the vague charge of “subversion of state power.” Such proceedings are conducted under intense secrecy.“The cruelly farcical convictions and sentences meted out to Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi show President Xi Jinping’s unstinting hostility towards peaceful activism,” Yaqiu Wang, the group’s senior China researcher, was quoted as saying in a news release.The court in Shandong province, south of the capital Beijing, did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.Xu and Ding are among a generation of Chinese who held out hope that the ruling party would adopt a more liberal approach to governance after the political chaos of the 1966-1976 Cultural Rev...

France: 4 bodies found after Marseille building collapse

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

MARSEILLE (AP) — Two bodies were found Monday in the rubble following an explosion that collapsed a building in the southern French city of Marseille, bringing the confirmed death toll to four as rescuers continue searching for four more people who are unaccounted-for.Two other bodies had previously been found overnight. The judicial authority will proceed to identify the victims, firefighters said in a statement.Minister for Cities and Housing Olivier Klein told reporters that at least four people have died, after he met with rescuers on site. “The hope to find survivors is still there,” Minister for Cities and Housing Olivier Klein told reporters. “It is very meticulous work done by firefighters,” he added, noting the risk for adjacent buildings to collapse. More than 100 firefighters were mobilized for the searches.Marseille mayor Benoit Payan tweeted Monday that “the pain and sorrow are great.” He expressed his thoughts for the families of the victims and ̶...

Dalai Lama apologizes after video shows him kissing boy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

DHARAMSALA, India (AP) — Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video showing him kissing a child on the lips triggered criticism. A statement posted on his official website said the 87-year-old leader regretted the incident and wished to “apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.”The incident occurred at a public gathering in February at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamsala, where the exiled leader lives. He was taking questions from the audience when the boy asked if he could hug him. The Dalai Lama invited the boy up toward the platform he was seated on. In the video, he gestured to his cheek, after which the child kissed him before giving him a hug. The Dalai Lama then asked the boy to kiss him on the lips and stuck out his tongue. “And suck my tongue,” the Dalai Lama can be heard saying as the boy sticks out his own tongue and leans in, prompting laughter from the a...

Greece: Top judge quits in legal dispute over elections

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A vice president at Greece’s Supreme Court resigned Monday in a legal dispute over an attempt by the government to ban a far-right political party from participating in a general election next month.Judge Christos Tzanerikos, one of 10 serving vice presidents at the court, tendered his resignation after the government introduced supplementary draft legislation to parliament aimed at barring the Greeks Party from the May 21 election.The Greeks Party was founded two years ago by a jailed former lawmaker of the extreme right Golden Dawn party. Parliament in February approved a legislative amendment to ban it from fielding candidates in elections. The party appointed a new leader last week to try to bypass the ban, prompting the government to submit a new amendment, broadening the scope of the ban. It is also calling for a plenary session of the Supreme Court to consider the ban, instead of a regular session. Tzanerikos publicly objected to the new amendment, descr...

Avalanche kills 6, including mountain guides, in French Alps

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:07:20 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The death toll from Sunday’s avalanche in the French Alps rose to six, including two mountain guides, local authorities said Monday. The prosecutor’s office in Bonneville, in the Haute-Savoie region, said the body of a sixth person has been found after searches resumed on Monday morning.The prefecture of Haute-Savoie said one person was sent to the hospital with minor injuries. Eight other people were found unharmed. No details have been provided on the identity of the victims.The avalanche on Sunday rolled down the Armancette glacier in Contamines-Montjoie, in the Haute-Savoie region, some 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles) southwest of Chamonix.The Alps are a prime vacation spot over France’s Easter long weekend. The local France-Bleu radio station put the size of the avalanche at 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) long and 100 meters (328 feet) wide. National weather agency Meteo France had not issued a specific avalanche warning for Sunday, assessing the risk as “limited....