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Russian officials said Thursday they are prepared to send a delegation to Istanbul for a third round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, while awaiting completion of ongoing prisoner exchange processes and new proposals from Kyiv. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Moscow's negotiating team stands ready to travel to Istanbul, expressing hope that Ukraine will adhere to existing agreements and continue the negotiation process. "The Russian delegation is ready to go to Istanbul for the third round of negotiations," Zakharova said during her weekly news briefing in Moscow. "We hope that Kyiv will act in accordance with the...

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The Richardson’s ground squirrel weighs less than a pound, is about a foot long and is native to the northern Plains. The little creature also is a ferocious tunneler, and it’s exasperating the people of Minot, North Dakota, where it’s burrowing everywhere from vacant lots to the middle of town, and growing more plentiful over the past two decades. Now North Dakota’s fourth-largest city is fighting back, but even the pest control guy leading the charge acknowledges that it will be difficult to turn the tide against the rodent.

Blue-collar hero and former host of "Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe says claims of a massive deficit of trades workers in the United States are not hyperbole. Rowe spoke at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where he sounded the alarm on a serious lack of young people going into the trades. Providing stories from employers, politicians, and even the military, Rowe stressed the need to move away from computer programming and coding in favor of tougher, more traditional career paths. "We've been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code," Rowe told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University in...

<p>Mossad spy agency head David Barnea visited Washington this week as Israel seeks the Trump administration’s help in moving Palestinians out of Gaza, Axios reports, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.</p><p>The two sources say Barnea told US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya have shown willingness to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza, and that Washington should offer “incentives” to those countries to agree to the relocation.</p>

Congressional Democrats' job approval rating has plunged to a record low, with less than 20 percent of registered voters approving of their performance and a majority of Democratic voters expressing disapproval, according to a new poll. Only 19 percent of voters are satisfied with how Democratic officials are performing in Congress—the lowest rating ever recorded by Quinnipiac University since its pollsters began asking the question in 2009. Seventy-two percent said they disapprove, while 10 percent offered no opinion, the Wednesday poll found. Even among Democratic voters, disapproval outweighed support. Fifty-two percent said they disapprove of their congressional leaders, compared with...

Daily Readings from the USCCBThe Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. Matthew 12:14–16This passage goes on to say that Jesus withdrew to a more deserted place to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah the Prophet (Isaiah 42:1–4). That prophecy is the first of what is referred to as “The Songs of the Suffering Servant.” In these songs or poems of Isaiah, the Messiah is presented to us...

Last week, former President Biden's physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor refused to answer questions regarding his patient's fitness to carry out the duties required of the presidency. Earlier this week, Anthony Bernal, senior advisor to First Lady Jill Biden, refused to answer questions on the same subject. On Friday, Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff to Biden, refused to answer questions on the same subject. All three of them invoked their 5th Amendment right against self incrimination. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said the "pattern of key Biden confidants seeking to shield themselves from criminal liability increases our suspicion that...

A United Airlines passenger was left infuriated over what he claimed was the bad behavior of a young child flying in the business class cabin. Mitchell Miller shared two snaps of a little boy standing on his United Polaris seat on a transatlantic flight to Paris on his Threads account. 'An immature father who lets his son scream and shout and stand up in the seat and jump up and down so far for the whole flight,' Miller wrote. 'The kid hasn’t ST*U (shut the **** up) since we took off and daddy couldn’t care less. 4 hours, 52 minutes...

Amid disastrous green diktats and crippling cuts to farmers’ livelihoods, the out-of-touch elites in Brussels seem to have forgotten where their food comes from. This afternoon, farmers from all over the European Union met outside the European Parliament to march on the Berlaymont, the European Commission’s HQ. Organised by COPA-COGECA, the umbrella body for 22 million European farmers, the demonstration should by all rights be a wake-up call for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The unions will hand over a petition signed by 6,335 organisations, along with a symbolic pair of boots, in protest of the EU’s plans to...

Winding down the narrow main street of his north Italian town, Giacomo de Luca points to the businesses that have closed: two supermarkets, a barbershop, restaurants – all with shutters drawn and faded signs above their doors. The pretty town of Fregona at the foot of the mountains is emptying out like many here, as Italians have fewer children and increasingly migrate to bigger places or move abroad. Now the local primary school is at risk and the mayor is worried. "The new Year One can't go ahead because there are only four children. They want to shut it down,"...

The political establishment is in a full-blown meltdown over Zohran Mamdani, and their reaction is as predictable as it is revealing. Since the democratic socialist’s victory in the NYC mayoral primary, a flood of right-wing attacks has sought to paint him as a dangerous radical. But these narratives are a house of cards. When you examine the facts, the smears about him being a “communist” or an “antisemite” collapse, revealing a deep-seated fear — not of his ideology, but of his specific, popular policies that threaten corporate profits. This is a factual takedown of the panic and an explanation of...

19 July 2025 Saturday of week 15 in Ordinary Time Relic of Saint Macrina the Younger in Monastery of Gregoriou in Mt. AthosReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingExodus 12:37-42The sons of Israel leave Egypt hurriedly by nightThe sons of Israel left Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand on the march – all men – not counting their families. People of various sorts joined them in great numbers; there were flocks, too, and herds in immense droves. They baked cakes with the dough which they had brought from Egypt, unleavened because the dough was not leavened; they had...

A fed up shopkeeper says he's had enough of sitting back while criminals help themselves to his stock - and has taken matters into his own hands to protect his business. Andrew Board, 39, who runs the Core Convenience Store in Newton Hall, Durham, has become a local have-a-go hero - chasing down thieves, physically dragging them back into the shop, and banning dozens from ever stepping foot through the door again. After six years of running the store, the married father-of-three had reached the end of his tether at being 'robbed blind' while courts dish out slap on the...

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Friday bashed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. “Tulsi Gabbard is not competent to be the director of national intelligence,” he told moderator Peter Baker at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. “I believe she is trying to politicize the workforce and work product, and that makes America less safe.” His comments came just before Gabbard released a Friday report alleging that Obama-era officials engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” to alter intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. “Their goal was to subvert the will of...

LONDON — In a protest to make the nation's democratic process more inclusive, Muslims in the United Kingdom marched to demand that the voting age be lowered to 13 so their wives would be able to vote. Following intense debate on the wisdom and necessity of lowering the voting age in the UK, lawmakers agreed that there could be a case to be made for making it legal for the child brides of the country's millions of Muslim residents to vote in elections. "Every wife in the UK should have the right to vote, even when they are children," said...

Ken Burns has made more than 30 documentaries and won multiple Emmys.But without funding from public television, his educational programming such as "The Civil War" and "Baseball" might never have existed, he told "PBS News Hour" in an interview Thursday.Even today, the acclaimed filmmaker whose works — including his upcoming project "The American Revolution" — are broadcast on PBS, said his films get around 20% of their budgets from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the body Congress recently voted to defund.

[Catholic Caucus] Exclusive from Rome: Pope Leo XIV issues exemption to San Angelo DioceseIn a quiet corner of San Angelo, the past is very much alive. At St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Parish, the ancient rite of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) — also known as the Extraordinary Form — continues to thrive, even as worldwide limitations challenge its practice.“The Latin Mass is a ascent to Calvary where the Lord Jesus Christ reliving essentially the passion in every Latin Mass,” said Father Freddy Perez, Parochial Administrator, St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in San Angelo. In 2021, the Vatican issued a...

Sectarian clashes escalated in Syria's predominantly Druze region of Sweida on Saturday, with machinegun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire. Reuters reporters heard gunfire from inside the city of Sweida and saw shells land in nearby villages. There were no immediate, confirmed reports of casualties. The government had said security forces were deploying in the southern region to try to keep peace, and urged all parties to stop fighting after nearly a week of factional bloodshed in which hundreds have been killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human...

Tourists, international students and business travelers may be required to pay a $250 fee when visiting the United States on a non-immigrant visa. The new provision applies solely to visitors from countries that require a non-immigrant visa for entry, as outlined in the “big, beautiful” spending bill signed by President Trump, according to the Envoy Global law firm. No formal start date has been announced to begin the collection of the “visa integrity fee.” Starting in 2026, the $250 price could increase to accommodate inflation, per the law firm. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be tasked with determining the...

More than two dozen people were hurt when a vehicle careened into a crowd of people in front of a nightclub in East Hollywood overnight, authorities said. The driver was then pulled from his vehicle, beaten and shot. Initial reports of a car colliding with a crowd came in around 2 a.m. Saturday in the 4600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The popular Vermont Hollywood venue is located within that block. ... His condition as of 8 a.m. Saturday was not known. A law enforcement source informed KTLA shortly before 8 a.m. that...