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Column: Drafting Darnell Wright is the latest item on the Chicago Bears’ checklist to better evaluate QB Justin Fields

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

Ryan Poles used the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft to add future assets and get a bona fide wide receiver for Justin Fields in DJ Moore.When the Chicago Bears general manager got around to using his first-round pick Thursday night, he added more protection for Fields by choosing Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright with the No. 10 pick.Much of the rest of the draft figures to be about finding defensive linemen and pass rushers for an undermanned unit, but the Bears won’t go into next season with folks saying they lack adequate protection or targets for Fields. Poles called Wright a “tone setter.”If 2022 was about tearing down the roster and resetting the salary cap, 2023 is about making a complete assessment of Fields. To do that, the Bears needed to start building the offense. After coming up short in a bid to sign offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey in free agency — I was told the Bears’ offer was close to $17 million per year — they drafted a pl...

Column: The Carolina Panthers made Bryce Young the No. 1 pick. Why it matters to Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

For the last four months, Bryce Young has stood in and taken the shots he knew were coming during the pre-draft process.Not built to last in the modern-day NFL. Too short. Too slight. Too risky.Young has fielded questions on his physical shortcomings and answered them with a “control what you can control” mindset. “It’s fair,” he said.Young also took every opportunity he had — from interviews at the combine to his pro day workout at Alabama to visits at the facilities of the Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans and Las Vegas Raiders — to sell teams on his skills and his mentality.On a stage Thursday night at Union Station Kansas City, Young got his “Welcome to the NFL” hug from Roger Goodell and took his pedestal as the top pick in the 2023 NFL draft.There it was, at 7:17 p.m., the No. 1 selection.The pick the Chicago Bears once owned was spent by the Panthers. For the 18th time in 25 years, the No. 1 player drafted was a quarterbac...

Russian missile and drone attack in Ukraine kills 17 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

UMAN, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 17 people, most of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the center of the country, officials said. Three children were among the dead.The missile attacks included the first one against Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in nearly two months, although there were no reports of any targets hit. The city government said Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv. The strikes on the nine-story residential building in central Ukraine occurred in Uman, a city located around 215 kilometers (134 miles) south of Kyiv. Fifteen people died in that attack, according to the interior ministry, including two 10-year-old children and a toddler. Another of the victims was a 75-year-old woman who lived in a neighboring building and suffered internal bleeding from the huge blast’s shock wave, according to eme...

Guards on famous yacht mistakenly shoot at Yemen Coast Guard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Private armed guards aboard a famous yacht once owned by the late Welsh actor Richard Burton opened fire on Yemeni Coast Guard members Friday after mistaking them for pirates, sparking a gunfight in the Gulf of Aden, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was wounded.The incident off Yemen shows the danger faced by both shippers and security forces in the waters off the Arab world’s poorest country, even as it remains crucial for global commerce. Details of what happened to the Kalizma remained unclear hours after the incident, which the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations initially reported as an attack with gunfire off Nishtun, in Yemen’s far east near the border with Oman.But by Friday afternoon, the British military operation providing support to ships across the Mideast described the attack in the Gulf of Aden as being “confirmed by authorities as government agency activity,” without elabora...

Japan to restore preferred trade status for South Korea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s trade ministry on Friday said it has begun procedures to restore preferential trade status for South Korea, days after Seoul took a similar step for Tokyo and requested reciprocity, and more than three years after the countries downgraded each other during a bitter historical dispute. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said talks with South Korea this month showed that its controls over trade in sensitive materials with both civilian and military uses are now as effective as those used by Japan.It said it has proposed as a result that South Korea be restored to the list of countries which receive preferential Japanese trading status, subject to a monthlong public comment period ending May 31. The list currently contains 26 nations including the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany.The step would end a trade dispute that began in July 2019 when Japan removed South Korea from its “white list” of countries given fast-track approvals...

Pipeline company TC Energy reports first-quarter profit up from year ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

CALGARY — TC Energy Corp. reported a first-quarter profit of $1.31 billion, up from $358 million in the same quarter last year.The pipeline company says the profit amounted to $1.29 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, up from a profit of 36 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue totalled $3.93 billion, up from $3.50 billion in the first three months of 2022.TC Energy says its comparable results for its most recent quarter amounted to $1.21 per share, up from $1.12 per share in the same quarter last year.Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.15 per share, according to estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.TC Energy says construction of its Coastal GasLink project continued in line with its revised cost and schedule and is now about 87 per cent complete. The company says it continues to target mechanical completion by late this year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:T...

Extremists kill 33 soldiers in latest Burkina Faso attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A large number of Islamic extremists launched an attack on Burkina Faso’s military in the country’s east, killing 33 soldiers and wounding a dozen others, the army said Friday.The assault took place Thursday in the Gourma province town of Ouagarou, according to an army statement. “During particularly intense combat, the soldiers of the detachment showed remarkable determination when faced with an enemy that came in very large numbers,” the statement said, adding that 40 jihadis also were killed.Fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have waged a violent insurgency in Burkina Faso for seven years. The violence has killed thousands of people and displaced around 2 million. It also has divided a once peaceful nation and fueled frustration that led to two coups last year. The new junta leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, has promised to secure the country. But some civilians say they also fear Burkina Faso’s security forces, which ...

2 dead in collapsed dump site at Indonesia nickel plant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — Two bodies have been recovered following the collapse of a nickel waste disposal site in Indonesia, in the latest of a series of deadly accidents at Chinese-owned nickel smelting plants on the Southeast Asian country’s Sulawesi island, officials said Friday.The victims were operating two dump trucks Thursday in the disposal area when they were engulfed by a wall of black sludge-like material, a type of soft gravel that is removed in ferronickel burning, said Dedy Kurniawan, a spokesperson for PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP.Rescuers managed to pull the men’s bodies out after a three-hour operation, he said, adding that the company was investigating what caused the accident.Authorities are also working to determine whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, said local police chief Supriyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. He said a preliminary investigation showed a crack at the bottom of the disposa...

Austrians flock to take advantage of repair subsidy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The Austrian government said Friday that a program to encourage consumers to repair broken electrical devices instead of throwing them away has far exceeded expectations in its first year.The Environment Ministry says more than 560,000 repair vouchers worth up to 200 euros ($220) each were redeemed since the program was launched a year ago.Authorities had initially expected 400,000 vouchers to be redeemed by the beginning of 2026.The program allows consumers to take defective devices such as smartphones, laptops, coffee makers or dishwashers to one of 3,500 locations and have half the cost of the repairs covered by the voucher.The European Union is currently working to introduce a “right to repair” for certain devices to help reduce the vast amounts of electronic junk produced across the 27-nation bloc every year.The Associated Press

Error, confusion plague review kicking millions off Medicaid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:01 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid come Monday.One form on the state’s website said coverage for their sick 5-year-old son, Ryder, had been denied. But another said the family would remain on Medicaid through next year. Still, a letter from the state said McHenry now makes too much money for him, his wife and their older son to qualify after the end of the month. Three phone calls and a total of six frustrating hours on hold with Florida’s Department of Children and Families later, the McHenrys finally got the answer they were dreading on Thursday: Most of the family is losing Medicaid coverage, although Ryder remains eligible because of his illness.“I’m trying not to go into panic,” McHenry’s wife, Allie McHenry, told The Associated Press earlier in the week.The McHenrys are among the first casualties in an unpreced...