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Mourners pay tribute to Doral Academy math teacher killed in Palmetto Estates shooting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

A grieving community came together to pay tribute to a schoolteacher, days after she was fatally gunned down in a Southwest Miami-Dade home.More than 100 people gathered Sunday at Doral Academy, most dressed in black, to pay tribute to Maria Cruz de la Cruz, a beloved math teacher at the K-9 charter school.7News cameras captured a sign with Cruz’s picture that reads, “In loving tribute. Maria Cruz, forever in our hearts.”Those who had Cruz de la Cruz as a teacher said that teaching math wasn’t the only path to success that she paved out for her students.“I used to come to her a lot besides school. I used to ask her, I don’t know, stuck questions about many other things,” said former student Victoria Mock.“She always had a pure smile and, like, she made a huge impact in everybody’s life. Like, she did a lot for us,” said former student Kelly Eman.“I remember one time going into her classroom, and she was like, ‘D...

Escaped vervet monkey spotted in Fort Lauderdale area is ‘searching for love,’ expert says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

A vervet monkey is on the loose in South Florida, and experts say there’s a particular motive driving his escape: he’s on a mission to find a partner.The primate, called Ninja Joe, has been spotted across neighborhoods in the Fort Lauderdale area in recent days.But every time Dr. Missy Williams, founder of the Dania Beach Vervet Project, heads to a recent sighting, Joe isn’t anywhere to be found.Williams, who spoke with 7News on Sunday, isn’t monkeying around.“He left his needle group, and he’s currently out searching for love in Fort Lauderdale, not knowing that there are limited choices out there, so we’re rooting for him,” she said. “I would argue that most people in the dating pool in South Florida would agree, regardless of what species, the dating pool is limited.”No monkey business here. Williams has been fielding tips all week in hopes of finding the primate.It’s known that at around 5 years old, male vervet m...

Video shows 2 drivers causing ring of fire in Miami after doing donuts

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

A traffic takeover in Miami set fire to the streets.Video posted to social media by Only in Dade captured two drivers doing donuts near Northwest Seventh Avenue and 54th Street, Saturday night.The motorists created a ring of fire on the road before they took off, forcing traffic in the area to come to a standstill.Several City of Miami Police units rushed to the intersection, but as of Sunday night, it’s unclear if there were any arrests.

It’s time for a plan C in Ukraine

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. Last November, top United States general Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, infuriated Kyiv — as well as some more hawkish officials from President Joe Biden’s administration — by comparing the conflict raging in Ukraine to World War I, and suggesting stalemate had been reached.Around Christmas of 1914, Milley said, “you’ve got a war that is not winnable anymore, militarily.”Later, speaking at New York’s Economic Club, he added: “When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it. Seize the moment.” The following week, he repeated his suggestion that the time had arrived for negotiations — Ukraine’s successful counteroffensives around Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south meant Kyiv could negotiate from a position of strength.“Russia right now is on its back,” Milley said.Milley was wrong about WWI — the war was militarily winnable — and was done so by the Western al...

Meloni’s Western nationalism

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

Anthony J. Constantini is writing a PhD on democratic spread and populism at the University of Vienna.Since becoming Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni has been something of a surprise for Brussels-based skeptics.As leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy, many had expected her to be a firebrand alá Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. But she has instead sought a different goal: to become the first populist-right leader to forge a genuine Pan-European alliance.And if she’s successful, it could change the game in Brussels forever.Domestically, Meloni has toned down her previously anti-European Union language. And when it comes to foreign policy, she has been resolutely pro-Ukraine, visiting the country and speaking out against then coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi’s pro-Russia statements. Meloni has also been on good terms with other European leaders, and has even managed to get along well with United States President Joe Biden — a rarity for populist-right European leaders. Surprisi...

Rishi Sunak is attempting a leadership reset. He may be too late

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

LONDON — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sees himself as a problem-solver. But the task of fixing his own leadership style may prove too much, even for him.With the Tories lagging far behind in the polls and having suffered two big by-election defeats in July, the party is demanding a “reset” of both Sunak’s approach to governing and his broader vision for the country.MPs and other Conservative insiders say they would like to see the PM demonstrate with more aggression and passion that he is on the side of voters and determined to make a difference to their lives.Last week’s long-anticipated ministerial reshuffle proved an anti-climax, more limited in scope than originally planned. A more dramatic reorganization has been shunted into the late fall, according to two people familiar with Sunak’s thinking.For some, this is yet more evidence of Sunak’s overly cautious approach, with time running out before next year’s general election. “It’s absurd,” said one generally-loyal...

What being thrown out of Russia taught me about the Kremlin’s war on the media

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

During my 10 years as a Moscow-based journalist, I struggled to imagine how and when I would eventually leave Russia.  Half Russian myself, I had moved there in 2013, keen to learn more and report on a country that I felt was often misunderstood by many in the West.In the end, the decision was made for me last month when a representative of Russia’s foreign ministry called to tell me that my visa would not be renewed and I had six days to leave.The decision, I was told, had been taken by the “relevant authorities,” a term widely used to refer to the security services.After POLITICO published a news story on my expulsion, I received a message from a fellow journalist wishing me luck.“The same thing happened to me,” they wrote.In the days since, other colleagues have shared their stories about their de facto expulsions from Russia. Most have deep ties to Russia and speak the language fluently.Taken together, their cases illustrate a worrying trend: Journalists from Western c...

Munich car show a grim affair for European automakers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

BERLIN — Consider this a final warning for Europe’s car industry.The IAA motor show gets up and running in Munich on Monday, but rather than purring Mercedes engines and silhouettes of sleek new Porsches wrapped under sheets of crisp satin cloth, the spotlight will be on Tesla and China’s insurgent all-electric brands.After a few years of sparring, this is where rivals to Europe’s legacy brands start landing punches.In a rare motor show appearance, Elon Musk’s Tesla is set to unveil an updated version of its best-selling Model 3 in Munich, while Shenzhen-based BYD — the country’s largest electric car company — will have a record six models on show in the IAA exhibition halls.The show’s organizers say 41 percent of those exhibiting will be Asian companies, which includes big battery-makers from South Korea such as LG and Samsung. The roster of Chinese companies has more than doubled since the last bash in 2021, and that includes market leaders in ba...

Jasson Domínguez belts second homer as young Yankees sweep Astros

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

HOUSTON — Having already homered off one Yankees killer in his major league debut, Jasson Domínguez teed off on another on Sunday.The 20-year-old, playing in just his third game, cranked his second home run in the sixth inning when Cristian Javier hung a slider over the inside part of the plate. The two-run blast broke a 1-1 tie, thus paving the way for a 6-1 win and series sweep for the Yankees.The Yankees had not swept the rival Astros in a three-game series since September 2013. Domínguez, who homered off the 40-year-old Justin Verlander on Friday, was just 10 years old at the time.The right-handed Javier entered Sunday’s start with a 1.83 ERA over 19.2 career innings against the Yankees, and he mostly cruised until the sixth. A DJ LeMahieu double got the Bombers on the board just before Domínguez’s blast.Javier totaled six innings, four hits, three earned runs, zero walks, eight strikeouts and 96 pitches.Gleyber Torres added a run in the ninth wh...

One dead in multi-vehicle crash in Caledon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:22 GMT

One person is dead following a two-vehicle crash in Caledon. Provincial police were called to a crash on Highway 10 near Olde Base Line Road just before 7 p.m. Sunday evening. One person was pronounced dead at the scene while two others sustained non-life threatening injuries.