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Drake celebrates 37th birthday with ‘Breaking Bad’ stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in Miami bash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Drake’s 37th birthday party turned into a star-studded affair in Miami, featuring “Breaking Bad” actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul stepping behind the bar to mix up special cocktails.The co-stars, known for their roles as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, were seen in floral shirts, showcasing their bartending skills as they poured drinks for guests at Drake’s celebration. Tuesday night’s collaboration also served as a promotion for Cranston and Paul’s Dos Hombres mezcal brand.According to TMZ, the venue for the event was David Grutman and Noah Tepperberg’s Casadonna, an Italian-inspired restaurant along the coastline. Drake, dressed in all-black, received some friendly teasing from friends and family for his choice of mango juice over his usual passionfruit, reported the entertainment news outlet.

Health workers face mental health crisis, CDC says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

(CNN) — Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sounding the alarm on a mental health crisis for health workers around the country.Using nationwide survey data between 2018 and 2022, a new report from the agency found that nearly half of health workers reported feeling burned out in 2022, up from under a third four years prior. Health workers’ reports of being harassed at work more than doubled, as well.The report, released on Tuesday, also shows that health workers face worse mental health outcomes than employees in other industries.The findings come on the heels of the largest health care worker strike in US history, in which 75,000 unionized employees of Kaiser Permanente cited feelings of burnout and chronic staffing shortages during a walkout in five states and the District of Columbia.“While usually health workers care diligently for others in their time of need, it is now our nation’s health workers who are suffering, and we must act,” said Dr. ...

UK’s Sunak urges ‘specific pauses’ in Israel-Hamas war, stops short of ceasefire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak called for “specific pauses” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas to allow for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, but distinguished that from broader demands for a ceasefire.Speaking at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons Sunak Wednesday, Sunak said the U.K. wants hostages held by Hamas militants to be released “and for humanitarian aid to get in — and we recognize for all of that to happen there has to be a safer environment which of course necessitates specific pauses as distinct from a ceasefire.”Speaking later to journalists, Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “There needs to be a level of security for aid workers to enter [Gaza for] humanitarian relief to be distributed, and the best way to continue to achieve that is being discussed.”The statement from Sunak appears to align the U.K. with the United States. Speaking at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Israel “must take all possi...

EU shrugs as pro-Russia pals Orbán and Fico troll the West after Putin handshake

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has spent the past week brazenly trolling the West — shaking hands with Vladimir Putin, comparing the EU to an oppressive Soviet Union, and vowing to hold up a fresh tranche on aid for Ukraine.Now the swaggering Hungarian leader is set to team up with Slovakia’s newly elected pro-Putin leader, Robert Fico, to further affront the bloc during a gathering of EU leaders on Thursday in Brussels.The EU’s response so far? A collective shrug — and the whispered promise that Brussels will unfreeze €13 billion for Hungary in exchange for Budapest implementing reforms to bring it into line with EU rule-of-law standards.“Slovakia is such a piddly country that this will barely make a difference,” an EU official said. “Slovakia barely has any leverage. They need their cohesion funds and the EU’s goodwill, they can’t really afford to be a troublemaker in Brussels. What is much more relevant for Orbán is the loss of Poland as...

Mediator no more: Erdoğan takes aim at Israel, backing Hamas ‘freedom’ fighters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Israel is committing atrocities against civilians as it steps up its military operations in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an explosive broadside that appeared to pull him away from earlier ambitions of acting as a mediator in the crisis. “We had plans to travel to Israel. It has been cancelled — we will not go,” he said in a speech to governing AK Party lawmakers on Wednesday. “I invite all other countries with reason and conscience to put pressure on the … government to return the state of Israel to sanity,” he added, claiming “crimes against humanity” are now being committed against ordinary Palestinians. At the same time, in a major break with NATO allies, Erdoğan insisted that Palestinian militant group Hamas “is not a terrorist organization, but a group of freedom and mujahideen [warriors] who are striving to protect their lands and their citizens.”More than 1,400 Israelis were ...

$150,000 reward offered as authorities search for suspect who robbed a mail carrier in Mattapan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

A reward of up to $150,000 is being offered by federal authorities as police search for a man who robbed a mail carrier in Mattapan last week.The US Postal Inspection Service is offering the reward to anyone who provides information resulting in the arrest of the suspect, who was caught on camera robbing a US Postal Service carrier on Wednesday, Oct. 18.According to the USPIS, the robbery happened in the area of Stonecrest Road just before 2:30 p.m.The suspect was described as a Black male with a height of 6’1″-6’2″ and weight of approximately 220 pounds. He was also seen wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, dark-colored pants, and white sneakers.Images of the suspect also showed the individual pointing an object that resembled a firearm, though no details on a possible weapon have been released.The USPIS asks that the public not attempt to apprehend the suspect themselves, and that if anyone has any information about the incident, contact the Postal Ins...

MBTA boss cites new ‘spirit of partnership” with Chinese train maker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

There’s still no final delivery date, but after a long stretch of upheaval afflicting promised MBTA Red and Orange Line vehicles, the agency’s top boss on Tuesday praised a “spirit of partnership” from the company building the trains.MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said the T has now received 94 out of 152 promised Orange Line cars and 14 out of 252 expected Red Line cars under its contract with Chinese firm CRRC. Dozens more Red and Orange Line cars are either currently under production in Springfield, where CRRC operates a manufacturing facility, or sitting on site waiting for final assembly.While officials work to “reset this contract” following a series of delays and malfunctions, Eng said recently completed vehicles “continue to exceed the contract requirements” for safety and quality.“They have committed to delivering this, and I believe that what we’re seeing is a spirit of partnership,” Eng told the MBTA’s...

Michael Cohen’s testimony will resume in the Donald Trump business fraud lawsuit in New York

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen will be back on the witness stand Wednesday, testifying against his ex-boss Donald Trump in a civil trial over allegations that the former president chronically exaggerated the value of his real estate holdings on financial documents.During his first day of testimony Tuesday, Cohen said he and key executives at Trump’s company worked to inflate the estimated values of his holdings so that documents given to banks and others would match a net worth that Trump had set “arbitrarily.”Trump watched as his lawyer Alina Habba then cross-examined Cohen, working to portray him as a convicted liar.Cohen worked as Trump’s lawyer and fixer for many years, but in 2018 he was prosecuted for tax evasion, making false statements to a bank and to Congress and making illegal contributions to Trump’s campaign in the form of payouts to women who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with the Republican. Trump said the women’s stories were fal...

In the Amazon, communities next to the world’s most voluminous river are queuing for water

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

CAREIRO DA VARZEA, Brazil (AP) — As the Amazon drought rages on, public authorities in Brazil are scrambling to deliver food and water to thousands of isolated communities throughout a vast and roadless territory, where boats are the only means of transportation.Across Amazonas state, which has a territory the size of three Californias, 59 out of its 62 municipalities are under state of emergency, impacting 633,000 people. In the capital Manaus, Negro River — a major tributary of the Amazon — has reached its lowest level since official measurements began 121 years ago.One of the most impacted cities is Careiro da Varzea, near Manaus by the Amazon River. On Tuesday, the municipality distributed emergency kits using an improvised barge originally designed to transport cattle.The Associated Press accompanied the delivery to two communities. It docked miles away from them, requiring residents, most of them small farmers and fishermen, to walk long distances through former riverbeds turn...

Slovakia swears in a new Cabinet led by a populist ex-premier who opposes support for Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:23 GMT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s president swore in a new government Wednesday, led by a former populist prime minister poised to end the country’s military aid for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion.Robert Fico returned to power and took over as prime minister for the fourth time after his leftist Smer, or Direction, party won Slovakia’s Sept 30 parliamentary election. The party won 42 seats in the 150-seat Parliament after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform.Fico formed a parliamentary majority by signing a coalition government deal with the leftist Hlas, or Voice, party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party.Hlas, led by Fico’s former deputy in Smer, Peter Pellegrini, gained 27 seats. Pellegrini parted ways with Fico after the scandal-tainted Smer lost the previous election in 2020.Pellegrini replaced Fico as prime minister after he was forced to resign following major anti-government street protests resulting from the 2018 killin...