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Biden team weighs using State Department grants to fund weapons for Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

The Biden administration is considering using a State Department grant program to send additional military aid to Ukraine as Congress continues to battle over weapons funding, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the discussions.The White House is weighing a range of options as it scrambles to find additional money to support Ukraine after lawmakers stripped funding in a last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown, said the officials, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.President Joe Biden hinted at this strategy on Wednesday, saying “there is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that.” He declined to comment further.One of the officials said the president’s comments referred to “existing funding authorities” Congress previously gave the administration “that allow us to provide additional support to Ukraine for a bit longer if Congress doesn’t act.”One option under consideration is ...

‘The Storms of Jeremy Thomas’ a must for cinephiles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

Urgent message to Boston-area cineastes: See “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas.” One of the most important and prolific producers of independent films, Thomas, who won a best picture Academy Award for “The Last Emperor” (1988), was born into the cinema. His father Ralph Thomas directed the “Doctor” film series with Dirk Bogarde; His uncle Gerald Thomas helmed the raucous and still popular “Carry On” films.“Prince” Jeremy paid his dues as an editor on such films as “The Harder They Come” (1972) and “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1973). Thomas’ first effort as a producer was the Dennis Hopper vehicle “Mad Morgan” (1974), followed by the Jerzy Skolimowski Cannes award-winner “The Shout” (1978), the first of several collaborations with English actor John Hurt, including the great 1984 Stephen Frears’ gangster movie “The Hit.” Thomas was off like a rocket. He formed an artistic partnership with auteur Nicolas Roeg (Don’s Look Now”), beginning with the belatedly acclaimed “Ba...

‘Strange Way of Life’ Almodovar’s turn at gay Western

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

With “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and more recently the overrated “The Power of the Dog” (2021), the gay Western has been born. One can rightly argue that many classic Westerns (and classic Western parodies) have always had powerful, in the case of the parodies, openly homoerotic currents.Now, the great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar (“Talk to Her”), who turned down “Brokeback Mountain” all those years ago (it was directed by Ang Lee), tries his hand at the form with the 30-minute English-language short “Strange Way of Life.” The film, which takes its odd-sounding name from a famous fado song, is both moving and a bit baffling.Shot in Spain’s Andalusia region, “Strange Way of Life,” which was lensed by Almodovar regular Jose Luis Alcaine (“Volver”), certainly looks like a Western. But the film was sponsored by Saint Laurent, and at times you may ask yourself if that explains the presence of such beautifully laundered and folded undergarments and a stunningly green jacket wor...

Thursday’s high school roundup/scores: Erin Cottam tallies 100th point for Oliver Ames in victory

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

Erin Cottam dialed up a hat trick for Oliver Ames, surpassing the 100-point threshold in a 7-1 field hockey win over Taunton.Addi Weiss and Emily Carney each scored twice as Franklin (8-0-1) shut out Hockomock League opponent Mansfield 8-0. … In a Catholic Central contest, Jordi Higgins recorded a pair of goals and an assist to boost Bishop Feehan (8-1-1) to a 5-0 victory over Bishop Stang.In Patriot League action, Caitlin Patten recorded a hat trick and Stella Brazis added a pair of goals as Hingham (7-1-1) defeated Plymouth North, 6-0.Scoring her first career goal wasn’t enough for Talia Harrington, who registered a hat trick for Gloucester in a 4-0 Northeastern Conference win over Saugus. … Another three-goal, two-assist performance from Mackenzie Clarke powered Belmont (8-2) to a 7-1 Middlesex League win over Burlington.Kayla Murphy’s tally was the only goal of the game, helping Pentucket edge Methuen 1-0 in nonleague play.A hat trick from Kat Quill and Mary Firlings’ firs...

Greenway: U.S. spends big to house migrants, not military

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

President Joe Biden would never come out and say, “We value illegal migrants more than we do members of our military.” But considering how much more his administration is spending to house migrants who came here illegally than those who defend us — and the conditions both are living in — he might as well.The Biden administration is paying $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house illegal migrants. ICE provides them not only food and a bed, but medical and dental care, recreation and other services to meet higher standards than county detention systems, for example.However, the administration is not filling the beds in these facilities. It’s choosing to bypass ICE and simply release the migrants onto the streets in many cases, where they need to be housed in other facilities, like hotels in American cities. So basically, the administration is paying for nice facilities, which have a large amount of space available, and also paying to put the migr...

Collins: Expanding private jet capacity at Hanscom reckless idea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

In New England, we’ve experienced deluges of rain, flooding, and Canadian wildfire smoke this summer. Other regions have faced record heat waves, droughts, and wildfires.But apparently, the perspective looks different from a private jet. Private jets, enjoyed almost exclusively by the extraordinarily wealthy, pollute at 10 to 20 times the rate per passenger compared to commercial jets.As our society awakens to the new abnormal of climate disruption, developers are hatching a plan to expand this form of carbon-intensive travel in New England. They’re pressing Massport and state officials to approve a plan to triple the private jet capacity at Hanscom Field, New England’s busiest private jet port.The disconnect between the Commonwealth’s climate goals and the Hanscom expansion couldn’t be weirder. As cities and towns plan to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030, Hanscom’s expansion would release a carbon bomb — all so a handful of billionaires and multi-millionaires can fly to Nantucket or...

‘He was Chicago’s son’: Dick Butkus, the Hall of Fame Bears linebacker known for his toughness, dies at 80

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

Perhaps no player in the Chicago Bears’ 104-year history better epitomized the team’s tough and determined identity than Dick Butkus.A product of Chicago’s working-class South Side and the University of Illinois, Butkus became a fierce Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker before embarking on a modest but enduring entertainment career in Hollywood.“After football, it was difficult for me to find what I liked second-best,” Butkus once told the Tribune. “Football was always my first love. That certainly didn’t mean I couldn’t find something else. And the proof of the pudding is where I have ended up today.“I guess I could have been one of those guys who didn’t prepare to quit. But things happened and through hard work I found out that, hey, there are other things besides football.”Butkus, 80, died “peacefully in his sleep overnight” at his home in Malibu, California, the Butkus family said Thursd...

‘The Royal Hotel’ well worth checking into

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

Another gift from South Australia, after the recent hit “Talk to Me,” “The Royal Hotel” is a cautionary trip to a dark and arid corner of mindless, toxic masculinity. Hanna (Julia Garner, “The Assistant”) ) and Liv (Jessica Henwick, “Glass Onion”) are two young women from Canada (or so they say), who have run out of friends and money aboard a cruise ship and decide to take jobs at a pub in a remote corner of Australia, where the clientele are sex-starved local miners. Cue the Hitchcock shot of the two women being dropped off in the middle of dusty nowhere by a bus.When Liv and Hanna first arrive at the pub, they meet at-first-frosty cook and caretaker Carol (Ursula Yovich, “Australia”) and pub owner Billy (Hugo Weaving), who just happens to be a drunk and keeps pickled snakes in glass jars on shelves behind the bar. Hanna and Liv also run into their predecessors in rooms upstairs, Jules (Alex Malone) and Cassie (Kate Cheel), Englishwomen whose going-away party runs out of control.Af...

Week 5 recap: Chicago Bears snap a 14-game skid, beating the Washington Commanders 40-20 for 1st win of the season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

After 346 days, the Chicago Bears losing streak finally has ended.Bears quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver DJ Moore connected again and again in front of a national TV audience Thursday night at FedEx Field to lift the Bears to a 40-20 victory over the Washington Commanders.Fields threw for 282 yards and four touchdowns, and Moore had eight catches for a career-high 230 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears halted their franchise-record losing streak at 14 games. It was their first win since Oct. 24, 2022 against the Patriots in New England.The win didn’t come without a little drama, however.After the Bears shot to a 27-3 halftime lead behind three Fields touchdown passes, the offense dried up and the Commanders clawed back to within 30-20, in part due to multiple Bears injuries.The Commanders had a chance to pull within a touchdown, but kicker Joey Slye missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt wide right with 5 minutes, 14 seconds to play.On the ensuing drive, Moore ca...

Rebecca Miller & cast reimagine screwball comedy in ‘She Came to Me’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:16 GMT

BERLIN, Germany – Rebecca Miller, whose wacky, one of a kind comedy “She Came To Me” opens Friday, is in the unique position of being famous by birth and by marriage.The daughter of “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible” playwright Arthur Miller and his third wife, the photographer Inge Morath, she’s married to the revered Oscar-winning and retired actor Daniel Day-Lewis.As a writer, director, Miller, 61, goes her own way. When “She Came to Me,” which stars Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei, world premiered last winter at the Berlin Film Festival, Day-Lewis was nowhere to be seen: This was strictly a Miller showcase.Best described as a screwball comedy, “She Came to Me” focuses on Dinklage in a scene-stealing role as an opera composer – who’s been blocked for five years — whose marriage to Hathaway becomes crazily complicated when he encounters and is attracted to Tomei’s tugboat captain.Tomei found inspiration “watching a lot of Giulietta Masina (Italian direct...