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Ukraine’s president rules out holding elections next spring and calls for unity in fighting Russia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy late Monday ruled out holding a presidential vote in the spring and urged his countrymen to avoid political divides, saying they must concentrate all resources on fighting Russia.Zelenskyy’s comments in a video address follow increasing discussions about the possibility of a presidential election in March. Zelenskyy, who was elected for a five-year term in March 2019, had previously avoided definitive statements on the question. His associates had said he was pondering various possibilities.“Now, in wartime, when there are so many challenges, it is absolutely irresponsible to throw the topic of elections into society in a lighthearted and playful way,” Zelenskyy said, adding that ”the waves of any politically divisive things must stop.”“We must realize that now is the time of defense, the time of the battle that determines the fate of the state and people, not the time of manipulations, which only Russia expect...

Treasury’s Yellen calls Republican effort to cut IRS funding for Israel ‘damaging and irresponsible’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called Republicans’ most recent round of proposed funding cuts to the IRS “damaging and irresponsible” during an event Tuesday meant to commemorate new customer service improvements to the agency. “Playing politics with IRS funding is unacceptable,” she said, referring to an aid bill that passed the House last week — unlikely to be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate — that would cut $14 billion from the nation’s tax collector in exchange for providing assistance to Israel as it pursues a war against militant Hamas in Gaza. While House Republicans say the IRS cuts would save taxpayer money and offset spending, independent budget analysts say the cuts would cost taxpayers billions of dollars from uncollected tax revenues. President Joe Biden has said he would veto the bill if it reaches his desk.“The current proposals to cut funding for the IRS make this an especially crucial time to talk about the importance of t...

Steinbrenner consulted with players over whether Boone should return as Yankees manager

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner questioned current and former players along with staff on whether to keep Aaron Boone before deciding the New York manager will return next year.New York faded from contention by mid-August and finished 82-80, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016.“It was awful. We accomplished nothing. We didn’t win a division, didn’t make it to the playoffs, didn’t win a series in the playoffs, much less a championship,” Steinbrenner said Tuesday during an online news conference. “The fans didn’t get anywhere close to what they deserved.”Steinbrenner delivered a stern message when he addressed staff last month at the start of three days of meetings in Tampa, Florida.“I told them this season is completely unacceptable, that we got a winning record — that’s not an accomplishment, that’s a requirement, as far as I’m concerned,” Steinbrenner said.Boone, 50, replaced Joe Girardi before the 2018 season. Boone has a 509-361 rec...

Photos: Denver Broncos plan to build new $175M training facility

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- On Tuesday, the Denver Broncos announced the plan for a new training facility that starts construction in the spring of 2024.Replacing the over-30-year-old training facility is a three-story, 205,000-square-foot area that's over 30% bigger than the existing facility.An overall aerial rendering of the Denver Broncos' new offices at Centura Health Training Center. Rendering provided by HOK (Courtesy of Denver Broncos)An overall aerial rendering of the Denver Broncos' new offices at Centura Health Training Center. Rendering provided by HOK (Courtesy of Denver Broncos)An overall aerial rendering of the Denver Broncos' new offices at Centura Health Training Center. Rendering provided by HOK (Courtesy of Denver Broncos)The headquarters is just west of the current building on the existing Centura Health Training Center campus in Englewood.The first floor will feature an expanded locker room, sports performance areas and meeting rooms. The second floor will hold football...

Say goodbye to plastic bags, they may start disappearing soon

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Say goodbye to plastic grocery bags, because they will soon be a thing of the past in Colorado.Since the start of 2023, stores statewide have had to charge a 10-cent fee for every single-use bag they provide to customers. Photos: Denver Broncos plan to build new $175M training facility Stores could choose whether or not to keep providing plastic or paper single-use bags, with some, such as Walmart, eliminating single-use bags altogether at the start of the year.This change came because of a law passed in 2021 that was not designed to last forever. A second part of the law goes into effect in January 2024.Plastic bags out, paper bags inStarting January 2024, stores and some food establishments will no longer be allowed to buy new single-use plastic bags.They'll still be able to provide them to customers for the fee, granted they still have some in stock, but this status quo doesn't last forever. What new traffic laws did Colorado pass in 2023? That's because star...

Heat sign Udonis Haslem, but this time as a vice president

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Udonis Haslem is back with the Miami Heat — this time, as an executive.The long-awaited move was completed Tuesday, when Haslem was hired as Miami’s new vice president of basketball development. It comes five months after his 20-year playing career with the Heat ended, the last 16 of those as a team captain.Haslem is one of two players to play for all three of Miami’s NBA title teams, with Dwyane Wade being the other. Haslem had long spoken of joining the Heat front office or ownership group after retirement, and he had been at some practices in recent weeks.Haslem — a Miami native and the franchise’s all-time rebounding leader — was the NBA’s oldest active player at 43 when he retired after last season. The three-time champion was the third player to spend a two-decade career with one franchise, joining Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.He also became the oldest player to appear in an NBA Finals game, doing so two days befo...

Prince William’s 2023 Earthshot Prize winners announced

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

Singapore (CNN) — An agritech startup that helps female farmers in India to cut food waste using solar-powered dehydration equipment is among the five green innovations to scoop the Prince of Wales’ prestigious Earthshot Prize.The winners of the annual eco-awards were revealed on Tuesday evening at a star-studded ceremony at the Theatre at MediaCorp in Singapore.Each will walk away with £1 million (around $1.2 million) to scale up their pioneering projects.Prince William and his Royal Foundation launched the ambitious 10-year initiative in 2020, with the goal of funding 50 solutions to some of the planet’s most urgent environmental problems by 2030.“I choose to believe that future generations will look back on this decade as the point at which we globally took collective action for our planet — the moment we refused to accept the voices of denial and defeatism, and instead became the architects of change towards a healthy and sustainable world,” William said during th...

Italy threatens to seize more than $800 million from Airbnb over unpaid taxes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

Rome (CNN) — Italian tax authorities are poised to seize some €779 million ($836 million) from Airbnb as a result of its alleged failure to pay taxes owed by landlords using the platform.It’s the latest sign of intense scrutiny of short-term rentals that have proliferated in big cities in Europe and the United States.The seizure was ordered by the Milan-based public prosecutor’s office for tax offenses and the sum is equal to the amount Airbnb (ABNB) failed to pay on behalf of landlords between 2017 and 2021, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement late Monday.The company’s Ireland-based European arm brought in around €3.7 billion ($3.96 billion) in rental income in Italy in that time, of which 21% was due in taxes, according to the statement. It is unclear if specific landlords will be charged in any way.Airbnb had argued in a European Union court that the tax on short-term rentals, introduced in 2017, was not legal under the bloc’s regulations, but lost the case...

Rare Titanic first-class menu up for auction sheds light on life aboard

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

London (CNN) — A rare first-class menu from the Titanic is expected to fetch up to £70,000 ($86,000) when it goes on sale on Saturday in an auction of memorabilia associated with the doomed ocean liner.Heavily water-stained, with some of the lettering partly erased, it is likely that this menu ended up in the North Atlantic for a time when the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son Ltd. said in the lot description.The ultimately salvaged menu details the first dinner on board after the Titanic set sail from Queenstown, Belfast and reveals the opulence that the ship’s first-class passengers would have experienced.Dinner options on that night of April 11 included oysters, sirloin of beef with horseradish cream and pureed parsnips, with desserts including apricot Bordaloue – a type of tart – and Victoria pudding.There seem to be no other surviving examples of the first-class menu for that spec...

Execs ignored the damage Instagram does to teens, Meta whistleblower tells Congress

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:23:59 GMT

Washington (CNN) — Meta’s top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings for years about harms to teens on its platforms such as Instagram, a company whistleblower told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.Meta instead fosters a culture of “see no evil, hear no evil” that overlooks evidence of harm internally while publicly presenting carefully crafted metrics to downplay the issue, said Arturo Bejar, an ex-Facebook engineering director and consultant.Bejar is the latest former insider to level public allegations that the tech giant knowingly turns a blind eye to problems that its policies and technology cannot cheaply or easily address.Bejar’s testimony before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee comes after what he described as fruitless appeals to Zuckerberg and his lieutenants in the fall of 2021 based on research his team had conducted on the experiences of teens and other users of Meta’s platforms.Sexual harassment of teensTuesday’s hearin...