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Bridge: June 11, 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

“How much does a mortician urn?” — graffitiAs long as there are bridge games, there will be postmortems. One player asserts that the contract could always be made, another insists that it could always be beaten. Meanwhile, a third is observing that his partner made a mistake a six-year-old child could have avoided.Postmortems are a necessary evil, essential to improvement, but even a benign postmortem at the table can ruin your focus on the next deal. Save “discussions” for a dispassionate atmosphere after the game. Remarks at the table should be supportive — or intended to prevent a recurrence of the problem. They should not, for heaven’s sake, be meant to humble your partner.In today’s deal, West led the jack of hearts against 3NT, and East took the ace and returned a heart. South won, forced out East’s ace of diamonds, won the third heart, got to dummy with the ace of spades, ran the diamonds and took the A-K of clubs. Making ...

Ask Amy: My grandson says his college grades are none of my business

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

Dear Amy: I have been contributing $20,000 a year to my 25-year-old grandson’s university education.Should I be able to know his grades and to see his university transcript?Related ArticlesAdvice | Ask Amy: Stranded bicyclist has an opinion on the coldest generation Advice | Ask Amy: My husband won’t say why he contacted these women Advice | Ask Amy: How do I tell my parents why I don’t like their friend? Advice | Ask Amy: I overheard their unkind comments about me at the funeral Advice | Ask Amy: We’re hurt by what her family says was her last wish He says it’s none of my business and he has never thanked me.– Perplexed!Dear Perplexed!: If you and your grandson have an agreement as part of this loan that you could review his grades, then he should honor that agreement.Otherwise, no – other than proof that he is matriculated and has passed his courses, I don’t think that he ...

IS militants kill 2 Iraqi soldiers, wound 3 others in northern Iraq, officials say

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State group militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, killing two military officers and wounding three soldiers, Iraq’s security media office said in a statement Sunday.The Iraqi Security Media Cell said militants belonging to the extremist group late Saturday targeted the military position in the district of Dibis with light and medium weapons but did not provide further details.The statement said that Iraqi authorities held a meeting to investigate the attack.IS, in a late Saturday statement, claimed responsibility for the attack on their website.This comes as the Iraqi military has cracked down on IS sleeper cells near the country’s borders over the past month. Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service launched airstrikes targeting the group’s positions in the western desert of the Anbar province and in the Hamrin mountains near Kirkuk, killing 27 militants.The militant group in recent years has targeted...

Romania recalls ambassador to Kenya after racist monkey slur

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

Romania is recalling its ambassador to Kenya after the diplomat allegedly made a comment equating Africans to monkeys at a meeting in Nairobi. “Any racist behavior or comments are absolutely unacceptable,” the Romanian Foreign Ministry in Bucharest said in a statement Saturday. The ministry has “initiated the procedure of recalling” Ambassador Dragos Viorel Tigau from his post in Kenya, according to the statement.The ministry “deeply regrets this situation, apologizes to all those affected and strongly rejects and condemns any behavior and any attitude incompatible with mutual respect,” the statement reads further.The move came in reaction to allegations that Tigau said “the African group has joined us” after a black monkey appeared at the window of the conference room ahead of a meeting. The incident took place at a UN building in the Kenyan capital on April 26.The Romanian Foreign Ministry said it had only been informed of the incident last week...

Germán, Calhoun, Torres lead Yankees over Red Sox 3-1

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stopper Domingo Germán. Middle-of-the-order power hitter Willie Calhoun. Sparkplug Isiah Kiner-Falafa.Not exactly how the New York Yankees would have designed it, but the piecemeal approach is working for a team missing a few of its biggest players.Germán wriggled out of trouble for six innings, Calhoun hit a tiebreaking homer and Kiner-Falafa helped build the insurance run as the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 3-1 Saturday night to even their three-game weekend series.“It’s going to take all the guys in this clubhouse,” said Calhoun, who is starting in right field because of Aaron Judge’s toe injury and has five homers and 16 RBIs in 122 at-bats. “Just relying on each other and leaning on each other and picking each other up, every single day.”Boston had runners in every inning against Germán and a trio of relievers but went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11.Third base coach Carlos Febles held Tristan Casas at third on Reese McGuire’s two-out...

Howie Carr: Trump indictment lesson is ‘No man is above the law,’ unless he’s a Democrat

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

“No man is above the law.”That’s the mantra this weekend among Democrats and state-run media (but I repeat myself).In America today, that is undoubtedly true. No man — or woman — is above the law.Unless his or her name is, say, Biden or Clinton or Comey or Clapper or Brennan or Wray or McCabe or Strzok or Lerner or Holder or… well, you get the picture.No man is above the law unless… he’s a Democrat. In which case, there are no laws. Or at least, none that will ever be used against you.If you read the feds’ “sweeping” indictment of former President Donald J. Trump, the charges barely rise to the level of, “Are you kidding me?”The key evidence — the smoking gun — seems to be a conversation Trump had two summers ago in New Jersey. He was talking with several people — also known as witnesses — concerning an upcoming book. His remarks were recorded, because Trump didn’t want to be misquoted down the road.Trump was chatting about the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. ...

NHL notes: Is short-term the way to go for free agents in current market?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

An interesting development occurred in the NHL this last week, and one has to wonder if it will color the Bruins’ and their free agents’ approach to talks on any new deals.Los Angeles defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, the deadline deal acquisition from Columbus who performed very well for the Kings’ down the stretch, was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. For the usually sought-after commodity – a 27-year-old, 6-foot-3, 221-pound rugged defenseman who can also be useful in the offensive zone – it was normally the time for him to either re-up with his current team on a lucrative max eight-year contract or sit back and wait for the suitors to fall all over themselves.Instead, Gavrikov signed just a two-year extension heavy on signing bonuses that will pay him a healthy AAV of $5.875 million.Putting aside the ever-present risk of an injury that could change the trajectory of a career, the short-term deal is an understandable long-term play. The salary ca...

Tunisia’s president urges aid to stem migration as European leaders visit

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s increasingly autocratic president hosted the leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and the European Union on Sunday for talks aimed at smoothing the way for an international bailout and restoring stability to a country that has become a major source of migration to Europe.On the eve of the talks, Tunisian President Kais Saied made an unannounced visit to a migrant camp in the coastal city of Sfax, a central jumping-off point for boat journeys crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. Saied spoke with families living in the camp, and pleaded for international aid for Africans who converge on Tunisia as a transit point to reach Europe.His caring words, and sympathetic images posted on the president’s Facebook page, contrasted sharply with Saied’s stance earlier this year, when he stoked racist abuse of Black African migrants in Tunisia with a speech railing against a perceived plot to erase his country’s Arab identity.Support from Tunisia...

Taliban slam ‘baseless and biased’ UN report suggesting rifts and conflict within their ranks

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban condemned on Sunday a “baseless and biased” report from the U.N. Security Council highlighting rifts within the group’s ranks.The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.A report — issued earlier in June — by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain “highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive” toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar’s return as the seat of power — like it was during the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s — circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the center of the current government, because of the way decisions are made.Key figures, such as the Taliban’s main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as tho...

Smokestack implosion at defunct Detroit trash incinerator ends decades of stink

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:42:08 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — In a boom, a low rumble and a vibrating crash, the looming smokestack of a shuttered trash incinerator whose stench sickened and angered Detroit residents for decades came down in a controlled implosion Sunday morning.Reducing the smokestack to rubble is almost the final phase in the facility’s yearlong demolition, which should be completed by July, according to the city.The facility has stood a few miles northeast of downtown Detroit. Before closing in 2021, fumes and the rank odor of burning trash could be smelled for miles, but were strongest for residents of nearby streets, raising concerns about pollution and the impact on residents’ health.The approximately 330-foot-tall (100-meter-tall) incinerator operated by Detroit Renewable Energy opened in 1989. Up to 5,000 tons (4,535 metric tons) of trash were burned there per day.“The presence of this incinerator has been a real pain point for this community because it was another example of a health hazard ...