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NWSL expansion Utah Royals trade for former BYU star Mikayla Cluff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

HERRIMAN, Utah (AP) — The Utah Royals have traded for midfielder Mikayla Cluff, making the former BYU standout the National Women’s Soccer League expansion team’s first rostered player. The Royals acquired Cluff and the No. 26 pick in the 2024 NWSL draft from the Orlando Pride in exchange for $90,000 in allocation money and expansion protection. Cluff, a native of Kaysville, Utah, was the No. 14 pick in the 2021 NWSL draft. In two seasons with Orlando, she has four goals and an assist in 51 appearances. “While I’ve enjoyed my time in Orlando over the last two seasons, I’m extremely excited to return to play in my hometown and bring back this Club for the state and for the fans,” Cluff said in a statement Wednesday. Cluff helped lead BYU to the 2021 national championship game and was named West Coast Conference Player of the Year three times. The Royals begin play in 2024, along with Bay FC, an expansion team in the San Francisco Bay Area, that will bring the women’...

Tina Peters sues to block prosecution against her

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Tina Peters, the former Colorado elections clerk and a prominent figure in the election conspiracy movement, filed a lawsuit that claims any criminal prosecution against her violates her constitutional rights.Peters filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court in Colorado. It names U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and 21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein as defendants. Teacher fired after showing footage of school tragedies during lockdown drill In the 43-page lawsuit, Peters claims the officials retaliated against her by pursuing charges in her alleged effort to breach voting system technology after the 2020 election.It asks a judge to declare violations of her constitutional rights in any of the criminal proceedings against her. Such proceedings include an FBI raid on her home, which was a joint operation involving the defendants, and a grand jury indictment in Mesa County.Peters faces seven felony charge...

Police clash with group 'violently' protesting outside DNC headquarters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

(The Hill) -- U.S. Capitol Police officers are working to hold back approximately 150 protesters outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C.The Capitol Police said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, that its officers are responding to “approximately 150 people who are illegally and violently protesting” near Canal Street and Ivy Street, SE, which is the location of the DNC’s Washington headquarters. The law enforcement agency said arrests have been made, but did not say how many. Clashes at Gaza hospitals raise stakes for Israel Capitol Police said members were evacuated from the area and advised people to avoid it. South Capitol Street between Canal and E Streets, SE, and Ivy Street between Canal Street and New Jersey Avenue, SE, are closed, the police added.Members of U.S. Capitol Police push protesters away from the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee during a demonstration against the war between Israel and Ha...

Police make arrests after protest outside Democratic HQ calling for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police in the nation’s capital responded Wednesday night to a protest outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.U.S. Capitol Police said about 150 people were “illegally and violently protesting” near the DNC headquarters building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington. Members of Congress were evacuated from the building as the protest erupted.Video posted on social media showed protesters shoving police officers and trying to grab hold of metal barricades as the officers moved in to make arrests. The videos also show officers shoving protesters. Many of the protesters were wearing black shirts that read “Cease Fire Now.”Protesters included members of If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, who have organized other demonstrations in Washington.Protester Dani Noble said the demonstrators came to the DNC on Wednesday night to peacefully call on Democratic Party leadership to support a ...

Broward Schools cancels Thursday classes amid heavy flooding, relentless rainfall; M-DCPS schools to stay open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

The relentless rainfall that battered South Florida all day Wednesday led Broward County Public Schools officials to cancel classes on Thursday.Officials confirmed the cancellation of all classes and the closure of district offices in an X post, late Wednesday night.“All before and after school activities, events, field trips, sporting events, scheduled meetings, other planned night events and evening classes are also canceled,” the statement from the school district reads.Meanwhile, officials with Miami-Dade County Public Schools said classes will resume as scheduled on Thursday, and all public schools will remain open.A flash flood warning remains in effect for parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties until 6 a.m. on Thursday.Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this breaking story.

‘He’s a dictator’: Biden claims progress in Xi meeting, but deep fault lines remain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

WOODSIDE, Calif. — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping held a tightly-scripted diplomatic encounter Wednesday on the sidelines of a Pacific states summit aimed at calming fears over the U.S. and China drifting toward military conflict in the Indo-Pacific.Then, in the waning moments of his remarks to the press following the meeting, Biden stood by his prior assessment that Xi is a dictator.“Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country,” Biden said during a news conference following his four-hour session with Xi.The remarks could spark possible backlash from China. The last time Biden called Xi a dictator, at a June fundraiser in Northern California, Chinese officials called the remarks absurd and a provocation.Biden just minutes earlier Wednesday had announced agreements on a number of confidence-building measures — specifically a resumption of high-level military-to-military communications. “Open, clear, direct commu...

Prominent settler leader pushes Netanyahu to rebuild Israeli homes in Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

TEL AVIV — While the world tries to work out what Israel’s goals are in Gaza, a prominent settler from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party is seizing on a moment of national crisis to tell him to reintroduce West Bank-style settlements in the coastal enclave as a defensive belt.Yossi Dagan, an influential figure on Israel’s right wing who leads a settler community in the occupied West Bank, told POLITICO in an interview it was time to turn the clock back to before 2005 and rebuild settlements in Gaza. These would, he explained, act as well-guarded outposts to prevent the recurrence of attacks like the onslaught on October 7, in which Hamas Islamist militants murdered some 1,200 people. “If you have communities and people, you have the army and you have more control, and whenever you retreat from the land, you have what happened — a Holocaust,” said Dagan, who has close ties with rightwing American Christian Evangelicals, and has be...

Does the architect of Europe’s Green Deal truly understand what he’s unleashed?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

As a candidate for Dutch prime minister, Frans Timmermans could soon be grappling with the changes he set in motion.By KARL MATHIESENIllustration by Weston Wei for POLITICOHEERLEN, NetherlandsTHE ARCHITECT OF EUROPE’S GREEN REVOLUTION knew he was unleashing dislocation and suffering across the Continent. He knew that, because half a century ago his family and practically everybody they knew had their lives turned upside down by the same kind of industrial upheaval he himself has now loosed across the European Union.As the European commissioner in charge of the wrenching transformation the bloc must undergo to meet its climate ambitions, Frans Timmermans has spoken often about the fate of the former Dutch coal town where he spent part of his early life. In his telling, Heerlen is a cautionary tale, a warning of the dangers for communities when not enough is done to cushion them from change.Timmermans resigned as executive vice president of the European Commission in August to r...

Rishi Sunak fights to save his Rwanda policy — and his skin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

LONDON — In two huge political moments this week, Rishi Sunak was asked to pick a side and declined. His mixed messages may just keep him in business. His flagship immigration policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda was dealt a crushing blow Wednesday as it was declared unlawful by the U.K. Supreme Court.Polls show immigration is a major concern of British voters, and Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” making illegal crossings across the Channel, a promise some suggested he was rowing back from after he sacked his hard line home secretary Suella Braverman Monday.Following the Supreme Court judgement, Sunak at first made clear he would respect the ruling and focus efforts on forging a new treaty with Rwanda. It was immediately clear this would not be enough to satisfy the right of his party, which lost no time in calling on him to effectively bin the U.K.’s human rights framework, or even just ignore the court altogether.“The planes should just go ahead and t...

Meet David Cameron’s Indo-Pacific fixer: an ex-MEP known for championing Beijing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:14 GMT

LONDON — As Westminster debated the wisdom — or otherwise — of David Cameron’s return to frontline politics this week, one former colleague was in no doubt.“Cameron is in the right place at the right time,” wrote former Tory MEP Nirj Deva of the new U.K. foreign secretary. “There are very few if any international leaders who could lead on so many fronts with knowledge, deep relationships and meticulous attention to detail.”Deva’s glowing appraisal was hardly surprising. The pair are friendly — and picture after picture shows him and Cameron together at events around the world.But Cameron’s association with the ex-MEP raises further questions about his own past involvement with Chinese investment projects which could cause a conflict with Britain’s core strategic interests.During a 20-year career in Brussels, Deva was well known for building links with China, even founding an EU-China friendship group that was later wound up after conce...