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Bill Belichick breaks silence on Patriots’ decision to cut Bailey Zappe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

We finally have a statement from Bill Belichick on why the Patriots made the surprising decision to waive Bailey Zappe nearly a week ago during roster cuts.In the time since the Patriots cut their backup quarterback, Belichick hasn’t held a press conference or video conference call, so, Monday’s WebEx session with reporters was the first opportunity to ask the head coach about the move.“All roster decisions are based on what we feel like’s best for our football team,” Belichick said. “There’s a number of things involved there. But glad to have Bailey to continue to work with him. Still think he’s a good, young, developing player, and so we’ll keep working with him.”The Patriots waived Zappe last Tuesday. He cleared waivers Wednesday, immediately signed with the Patriots’ practice squad and was on the practice field an hour later.Since that time, the Patriots claimed quarterback Matt Corral off waivers from the Panther...

Bill Belichick explains why Patriots claimed ex-Panthers QB Matt Corral

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

Last week, the Patriots executed dozens of transactions around the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline.They saved one of their most surprising for last.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Bill Belichick breaks silence on Patriots’ decision to cut Bailey Zappe New England Patriots | Callahan: Success for the 2023 Patriots will be both simple and complicated New England Patriots | 2023 NFL season preview: Super Bowl predictions, division picks and award winners New England Patriots | Can Patriots QB Mac Jones rebound in Year 3? New England Patriots | Patriots point/counterpoint: Will Mac Jones, Bill Belichick and Co. make the playoffs? The Pats claimed ex-Panthers quarterback Matt Corral off waivers Thursday, making him only the second quarterback on the roster after Mac Jones. Corral lost Carolina’s backup quarterback competition to Andy Dalton this summer under a new coaching staff.  As a r...

Sudan’s top general meets with South Sudan’s president on the war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s top military general held talks in Juba Monday with South Sudan’s president on his second trip abroad since the war in his country started earlier this year.Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, chairman of the ruling Sovereign Council, arrived in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, Monday morning and was received by President Salva Kiir. Both leaders inspected an honor guard and then headed for talks that focused on regional efforts to find a settlement to the conflict in Sudan, according to the Sovereign Council.In April, simmering tensions between the military, led by Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital and elsewhere.The fighting has reduced Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to an urban battlefield, with neither side managing to gain control of the city. The military headquarters, where Burhan has purportedly been stationed since the conflict began, has been one of ...

Japan announces emergency relief measures for seafood exporters hit by China’s ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Monday a 20.7 billion yen ($141 million) emergency fund to help exporters hit by a ban on Japanese seafood imposed by China in response to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.The discharge of the wastewater into the ocean began Aug. 24 and is expected to continue for decades. Japanese fishing associations and groups in neighboring countries have strongly opposed the release, and China immediately banned all imports of Japanese seafood. Hong Kong has banned Japanese seafood from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.Chinese trade restrictions have affected Japanese seafood exporters since even before the release began, with shipments held up at Chinese customs for weeks. Prices of scallops, sea cucumbers and other seafood popular in China have plunged. The ban has affected prices and sales of seafood from places as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of H...

Georgia’s majority party in parliament pushes to impeach the president but is unlikely to succeed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The majority party that dominates the parliament in Georgia has launched a campaign to impeach the country’s president, even though the effort appears unlikely to succeed.The Georgian Dream party, which is increasingly at odds with President Salome Zourabichvili despite endorsing her election in 2018, announced the effort last week. It said Zourabichvili violated the constitution by travelling to European Union countries without the government’s permission.The party also took offense at recent comments by Zourabichvili, saying it believes they undermine Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU.“She also said the most disturbing thing — that Georgia did not deserve (EU) candidate status last year. After that, of course, we do not need any more evidence for her credibility to be simply lost. We had no other motivation” for the impeachment initiative, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said Monday, according to Georgian media. Impeachment needs support o...

A drone attack on Myanmar police compound reportedly kills 5, including army battalion commander

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A drone attack on a police headquarters in a major border town in eastern Myanmar has killed at least five officials including a senior army officer and a district administrator, members of two emergency rescue teams and media reports said Monday.The attack, carried out Sunday evening in two stages, is believed to be the deadliest aerial bombing targeting high-ranking security and administrative officials since armed resistance was launched more than two years ago against the military that seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after security forces cracked down with lethal force, many local armed resistance groups were formed and loosely organized into what is called the People’s Defense Force, or PDF. It’s the armed wing of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which views itself as a country’s legitimate administrative body.The PDF has allied themselves w...

Vice President Harris will face doubts and dysfunction at the Southeast Asian nations summit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will deepen her outreach to Southeast Asia this week at an international summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she’ll try to erase doubts about U.S. commitment to the region stirred by President Joe Biden’s absence. It’s Harris’ third trip to Southeast Asia and fourth to Asia overall, and she’s touched down in more countries there than any other continent. The repeat visits, in addition to meetings that she’s hosted in Washington, have positioned Harris as a key interlocutor for the Democratic administration as it tries to bolster a network of partnerships to counterbalance Chinese influence.This latest journey is another opportunity for Harris to burnish her foreign policy credentials as she prepares for a bruising campaign year. She’s already come under attack from Republican presidential candidates who say she’s unprepared to step up if Biden, the oldest U.S. president in history, can’t finish ...

Sweden, EU confirm Swedish national has been held in Iran since last year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden on Monday said a Swedish citizen in his 30s was arbitrarily detained in Iran last year and called for his immediate release.The Swedish government didn’t identify the man, but the New York Times said he was Johan Floderus, a Swede who had been working for the European Union’s diplomatic corps.Citing anonymous sources, the newspaper said Floderus was arrested on a private trip to Iran for possible use by Tehran as a bargaining chip in efforts to seek concessions from the West.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, told the semi-official Fars news agency that he had no information on the case.The Swedish Foreign Ministry said the man was detained in Iran in April last year but declined to give details.“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Sweden in Tehran are working very intensively on the case and are maintaining close contact with the EU,” the ministry said in an email.“The Swedish citizen has been arbitrarily deprived of his freed...

Woman seriously injured in Weston Road stabbing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

A woman was seriously injured in a stabbing in the area of Weston Road and Humber Boulevard on Monday morning.Toronto police were called to an apartment building in the area shortly after 7:45 a.m., where a man reportedly stabbed a woman in the lobby.The woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries and the suspect was arrested at the scene.There is no word on whether the victim and suspect were known to each other at this time.

Local businesses preparing for ‘more mellow’ TIFF as Hollywood strikes continue

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:59 GMT

TORONTO — When the Toronto International Film Festival rolls around each year, few people are as busy as Charles Khabouth.The nightlife impresario owns the Bisha Hotel and more than a dozen restaurants and clubs where the likes of Margot Robbie, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Javier Bardem have reportedly sipped wine, rubbed elbows or partied in recent years.Khabouth is still expecting a buzz around his venues this year but knows this TIFF will be “more mellow” than those in the past.“It might not be a 10, it will be an eight, but it’ll still be great,” the entertainment kingpin said a week before the 11-day festival’s Sept. 7 kickoff.The tempered expectations have come from twin Hollywood strikes that have halted film and television productions and scuttled press junkets, red carpets and star powered-premieres as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America hit the picket lines over ...