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Chelsea’s $1B spending spree hasn’t worked out. Pochettino wants to go back in the transfer market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Chelsea has managed to do something few thought could be possible: Spend $1 billion on players and not get any better.In fact, there’s a case to be made that the team which still held the status of European champion as recently as 18 months ago has deteriorated after an unprecedented spending spree that stunned the soccer world.Approaching the halfway stage of the Premier League campaign, Chelsea is languishing in 12th place — sandwiched between Wolverhampton and Brentford — having finished last season in the exact same position.That despite spending $280 million in the summer of 2022, $350 million in January this year and more than $400 million in the most recent offseason.Turns out Chelsea might need to spend some more.“Our reality now is midtable,” Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino said after the team’s 2-0 loss at Everton on Sunday that exposed many of its underlying problems. “And if we want to go up, we have to push ourselves.“When the transfer window opens, (we will) see wh...

Walk-off Wallace: Ravens punt returner goes 76 yards for TD in OT in a 37-31 win over the Rams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Tylan Wallace caught the punt cleanly — no easy feat on this wet day — then slipped to his left, spinning away from one potential tackler and racing past a couple of more while barely staying inbounds along the sideline.By the time Shaun Jolly came diving at his feet near the 45-yard line, Wallace had Baltimore in decent shape for a field goal — but after stumbling a bit, he stayed on his feet and kept running.“I’m like, ‘I can’t go down right here. I made it this far,'” Wallace said.In his first game returning punts as a pro, Wallace ran one back 76 yards for a touchdown in overtime to lift the Ravens to a 37-31 victory over Los Angeles on Sunday, snapping the Rams’ three-game winning streak.Wallace became the fourth player in NFL history to score a touchdown on a punt return in OT. Xavier Gipson of the New York Jets also did it this season, on Sept. 11 against Buffalo.“It just feels great to be able to make a difference in the game and help the t...

Stock market today: Wall Street inches quietly lower after hitting its 2023 peak last week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Wall Street is flat ahead of the release this week of U.S. inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s final interest rate decision of the year.Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost less than 0.1% before the bell Monday.The Fed will will announce its next move on interest rates Wednesday. Most economists expect the Fed to stand pat and not raise its benchmark borrowing rate. It would be the third consecutive time that the Fed, after string of rate hikes to fight inflation, has left its benchmark rate alone. A sturdy labor market and steady spending are making it increasingly possible that the Fed can pull off a so-called “soft-landing,” whereby inflation is tamed and a recession is avoided.On Tuesday, the U.S. government will report on U.S. consumer inflation. Central banks in Europe are meeting as well this week, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank, and Norway’s central bank.Cigna jumped nearly 14...

South Florida woman charged with plotting former son-in-law’s death alleges ‘inhumane treatment’ in jail, attorneys say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

(CNN) — Lawyers for Donna Adelson, a South Florida woman charged with murder and other offenses in the 2014 fatal shooting of her former son-in-law, allege she has been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment.”Adelson’s attorney, Marissel Descalzo, filed an emergency motion Tuesday with multiple allegations, including accusations jail staff are forcing the 73-year-old to sit naked and eat with her hands while in a small cell by herself.The jail staff is also accused of withholding medication from Adelson and making her go days without a shower.The motion argued the alleged treatment is a violation of Adelson’s Sixth Amendment rights because she has been unable to communicate with her attorney or help with her defense.Descalzo requests the court release Adelson on house arrest or force the jail to improve her conditions, release her from isolation and “place Donna in a unit where she can prepare for trial and speak to her family.” It also requests an additional alternative, asking...

Harvard President Claudine Gay’s fate hangs in the balance after university’s board meeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

New York (CNN) — Harvard President Claudine Gay remains at the helm after the school’s board of directors met Sunday amid calls for her removal for failing to effectively denounce threats of violence against Jewish students on campus. Though the agenda of the meeting was not publicized, it is likely that Gay’s future was discussed given the contentious congressional testimony last week of three university presidents that led to the resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill on Saturday.The Sunday meeting was not an emergency meeting and had been scheduled long in advance, the source said. It remains unclear whether Gay has enough support to keep her job, though hundreds of faculty members have rushed to her defense in a letter to the administration.Gay apologized last week for testimony before a House committee on December 5, in which she, Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth failed to explicitly say calls for genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ cod...

The star cornerback duo of Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard has the Dolphins secondary rolling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard have been talking about the impact they could have on the field together since before the Miami Dolphins even acquired Ramsey this past offseason.Now that the duo has shared the field for four games, the Dolphins are yielding positive returns of two veteran cornerbacks who were good alone but are proving to be better together.Entering Monday night’s matchup against the Tennessee Titans, the Dolphins have the ninth-best pass defense in the NFL — up from No. 25 through the first four weeks of the season.The connection between Ramsey and Howard is a big reason for that.“He’s a great teammate,” Ramsey said of Howard. “Obviously he’s been elite in this league for just as long as I have. It’s great to team up with him. He teaches me new techniques that I hadn’t tried yet or maybe that I’ve put in the back of my toolbox for a little bit and he brings them back up. That’s been good. We just challenge each other.”Miami acq...

Months after suffering cardiac arrest, Bronny James scores 4 points during first-ever college game

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

(CNN) — Bronny James has a lot of work to do if he’ll ever come near matching the scoring records of his legendary father LeBron James, but he now has more points in college than his dad ever did.While his dad – whom it should be noted went straight from high school to the NBA – watched from the stands, Bronny James returned to the court for a game for the first time since suffering cardiac arrest this summer and being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.In his first-ever college game, the younger James made one 3-pointer, one free throw, had three rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block in 17 minutes as the University of Southern California lost to Long Beach State 84-79 in overtime.One of those steals came with 26 seconds left in regulation and the Trojans leading by one point. James then made one of two free throws but Marcus Tsohonis of Long Beach State made a tying jumpshot with three seconds in regulation. In July, the 18-year-old James, a freshman who was an All-...

Europe must defend itself with US support in doubt, UK’s Grant Shapps says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

LONDON — Europe needs to take responsibility for its own security amid signs that American military backing for Ukraine is starting to wane, United Kingdom Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned on Monday. At a press conference in London, Shapps said European governments needed to stop relying on the U.S. to “ride in to the rescue,” 22 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Increasing military spending will be key to strengthening Europe’s ability to defend itself, he said. Lawmakers in Washington are still arguing over a multibillion-dollar tranche of aid for Kyiv, while EU governments can’t agree on their own package of support.“I actually genuinely do think Europe needs to step up and look after its own security,” Shapps said. “We can’t carry on expecting the U.S. to always ride in to the rescue of Europe.”Shapps made his remarks at a highly sensitive time for Ukraine’s war against Russian invaders, amid growing indications that Western resolve may be faltering...

Mark Rutte makes humblebrag pitch for NATO top job

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

BERLIN — He didn’t mean to say it (but he really did).Weeks after revealing his ambition to take on the NATO secretary-general post in a chat with Dutch national radio, the Netherlands’ outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte says it was a “mistake” to be so candid, while letting everyone know he’s definitely still running.“After 13 years in this job you still make mistakes,” he told a crowd at the Hertie School in Berlin on Monday. “And the mistake was that I spoke about a possible shift for me, to secretary-general, and I’m absolutely not sure whether it will happen.”“I’m not going to retract what I said,” he added, “because what I said was obviously what I meant to say, but I should not have said it.”Rutte said any thoughts of trying for the NATO top job earlier this year would have been impossible because at that time a departure from the Dutch government would have triggered a national election...

Zelensky faces impossible task ahead of meetings in Washington

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

(CNN) — The fate of billions in assistance for Ukraine remains in limbo Monday morning even as President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to make a crucial pitch to senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday.Zelensky’s visit to Washington – his third since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 – is unlikely to shift a now cemented dynamic in Washington that Republicans, even those that back additional funding for Ukraine, aren’t willing to do more unless Democrats and the White House concede on major policy changes on the US southern border.It’s a complicated moment for the White House, which has made the case again and again that Zelensky and his country are at a critical inflection point in their fight for Democracy. And yet, President Joe Biden’s administration may not be able to deliver the resources it has promised if a domestic, decades-long fight over immigration doesn’t rapidly yield a breakthrough soon.Bottom Line: It’s more likely than not that Congress leav...