Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/29/asia/north-korea-missile-intl-hnk/index.html
Tom Brady is retiring from football after 22 seasons in which he won a historic seven Super Bowl titles, sources told ESPN.
When Brady, widely considered the greatest quarterback in NFL history, left the field after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ loss to the Los Angeles Rams last weekend, he knew it was likely his final act as a football player, sources said. In the days since, he has spent time digesting that mindset and is preparing his retirement announcement along with the next chapter of his life and career, sources said.
Sources said that Brady’s decision to retire is based on several factors, including family and health. Although it’s less significant, Brady also recognizes that the Buccaneers are likely to undergo significant roster turnover, sources said.
Brady, 44, has been adamant for weeks that he never wanted a “farewell season,” and many who know him believed he desired a decision made without much drama leading up to it. He will shift his focus to new endeavors and believes this is the right moment to end his playing career, sources said.
It is unknown when Brady will formalize his plans to retire, but that move will be made with consideration to not upstage the NFL’s postseason games, including the Super Bowl. Brady’s company, TB12 Sports, sent a tweet that appeared to confirm his decision but later deleted the post.
Don Yee, Brady’s agent, deferred any comment on the quarterback’s future to Brady himself.
“I understand the advance speculation about Tom’s future,” Yee said in a statement. “Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”
Buccaneers executives and coaches have been bracing for Brady’s retirement in recent weeks, recognizing that it was more likely than not that he would hang it up after the season, team sources told ESPN. One source said as recently as this week that “all signs point” to Brady’s retiring.
The Buccaneers hoped to make an emphatic pitch to persuade Brady to play one more year, but Tampa Bay recognizes that that effort is not expected to have an impact and the team is resigned to the challenges that now lie ahead.
Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians told the Tampa Bay Times on Saturday that he was not aware of a retirement decision by Brady.
Even so, Buccaneers teammates Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were among those reacting to the news, with the wide receivers thanking Brady on Twitter.
Thanks for everything big bro it was an honor @TomBrady 🐐
— Mike Evans (@MikeEvans13_) January 29, 2022
The best ever. Congratulations bro @TomBrady grateful to have gotten to share the field with you! Much love fam 🐐
— Chris Godwin (@CGtwelve_) January 29, 2022
When Brady makes his decision to retire official, the former New England Patriots quarterback will end a storied career that spanned three different decades on the path from Foxborough to Tampa to Canton.
He won seven Lombardi trophies, the most championships won by a single player in NFL history, along with five Super Bowl MVPs. He piled up career records such as most touchdown passes (624) and most passing yards (84,250) in his 22 seasons.
His performance during the final year of his career — finishing the regular season as the NFL leader in touchdowns and passing yards — suggested that Brady could have continued playing at an elite championship level. But he recognized the sacrifice it would take from him and his family and felt it was time to tackle other challenges, sources said.
Earlier in the week, appearing on his “Let’s Go” podcast with host Jim Gray, Brady used the word “satisfied” to describe how he felt about his NFL career, which caught the attention of many who know a man who rarely was satisfied with his achievements. Brady cited his family’s desires as a heavy factor in his upcoming decision.
“I said this a few years ago, it’s what relationships are all about,” Brady said on the podcast. “It’s not always what I want. It’s what we want as a family. And I’m going to spend a lot of time with them and figure out in the future what’s next.”
Brady and his family have been building a South Florida home just north of Miami.
“I’ll know when I know,” Brady said during the podcast. “I think for all of us, you know, we can all decompress a bit. It’s been six straight months of football. Every day consumed by day in and day out football. And I think now it’s just some time to spend some time with my family and spend some time with my kids.”
Brady will become the second future Hall of Fame quarterback to call it a career this postseason. On Thursday, Ben Roethlisberger announced his retirement from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Source Article from https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33173652/tom-brady-retiring-22-seasons-seven-super-bowl-wins-new-england-patriots-tampa-bay-buccaneers-sources-say
Millions of Americans are under winter weather alerts Saturday as a nor’easter slams the Northeast.
Whiteout conditions persist as the winter storm makes its way toward the New England coast. Parts of New Jersey, including Atlantic City, saw snowfall rates upwards of 2 inches per hour, while eastern Connecticut saw a rate as fast as 3 inches per hour.
In addition to the snowfall, strong wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph have been reported along the Northeast coastline.
State of emergencies are in effect in several states as they brace for the worst of the storm system on Saturday afternoon.
Whipping winds, treacherous travel, potential power outages and frigid temperatures are all concerns associated with the winter nor’easter. Nearly 120,000 customers are without power in Massachusetts, and over 3,550 flights have been canceled within, into, and out of the U.S. Saturday, according to Flightaware.
In Connecticut, airports are “down at this point,” Gov. Ned Lamont said during a briefing midday Saturday. Metro-North is running on limited hourly service, and Amtrak is not operating, officials said.
Snow totals, treacherous conditions
By Saturday afternoon, over a foot of snow had so far fallen along the Northeast coast, with parts of New Jersey and Long Island reporting over 18 inches.
Additional snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches are forecast from eastern Long Island up into central New England, while another 6 to 12 inches is expected along the New England coast.
Parts of Connecticut to Maine may see up to 18 to 24 inches of snow total, with the possibility of up to 30 inches near Boston Metro — a potential recordbreaker. For the city of Boston, the most snowfall in one day in January on record is 22.1 inches on Jan. 27, 2015, and the most snow fall in one day on record overall is 23.6 inches on Feb. 17, 2003.
There are extremely hazardous travel conditions for coastal New Jersey; Suffolk County, New York; Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts where the heaviest snow totals and whiteout conditions with gusty winds will persist.
The I-95 corridor north of New York City toward Boston and Portland, Maine, are under major impacts, with whipping winds gusting 45 mph to 70 mph near the Boston Metro.
Below-zero wind chills
Parts of the Great Lakes and New England will experience bitterly cold temperatures with wind chills near 25 below zero.
The Northeast will feel frigid Saturday night as wind chills plunge to 2 and 5 below zero in New York City and Boston, respectively.
Cold weather is even heading south to Florida with temperatures dipping into the upper 20s by early Sunday. Wind chill alerts have been posted for cities including Miami, Naples and West Palm Beach. Freeze warnings are in effect for much of Florida Saturday night.
Coastal concerns
There are coastal concerns about storm surge and tidal influence especially along the coastal towns in Suffolk County, New York, which could see 4- to 8-feet waves during high tide Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Boston may also get battered with largest wave swells at 15 to 20 feet.
Beach erosion, localized flooding and property damage are all possible in these areas with the storm and high tides.
However, there is one silver lining to this winter storm: The storm system remained easterly, meaning less heavy snow and weather-related snarls for states west of Interstate 95.
The storm system is expected to move out of New York City by the afternoon and from Boston by the evening.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Daniel Peck, Hilda Estevez and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/powerful-noreaster-slams-east-coast-bringing-heavy-snow/story?id=82550115
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is considering a federal judge in South Carolina as one of several candidates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the White House confirmed, and may be casting a wider net than the three or four potential nominees whose names have widely circulated.
Judge J. Michelle Childs, who has served on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina since 2010, is one of several candidates the president is considering for the opening, a White House spokesman said. Childs has been supported by House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and key ally to the Biden administration.
Childs, who Biden nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit earlier this month, is the first candidate the White House has publicly confirmed. Her consideration, first reported by The Washington Post, came days before she was scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing.
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That hearing has been postponed.
Biden has pledged to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court in the nation’s history next month. While Supreme Court nominees are frequently pulled from federal appeals courts that’s not always the case – and a president has wide latitude to choose.
Biden is considering more than a dozen candidates for the seat, according to a source familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitives involved with the nomination process.
Some of the names under consideration have been circulating for months, including Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. Circuit and California Supreme Court Associate Justice Leondra Kruger – both of whom are considered frontrunners.
But the White House is also considering Sherrilyn Ifill, who is stepping down as president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, the source said.
How many?:Biden pledge puts spotlight on lack of diversity in lower courts
Other names include Judge Holly Thomas, recently confirmed to the California-based U.S. Court of Appeal for the 9th Circuit; Judge Wilhelmina Wright, a federal district judge in Minnesota; Nancy Abudu, who Biden recently nominated for a spot on the 11th Circuit; Arianna Freeman, nominated to the 3rd Circuit; Judge Candace Rae Jackson-Akiwumi on the 7th Circuit and Judge Tiffany Cunningham on the Federal Circuit.
The Biden administration has sought to increase the diversity of the federal courts. When Biden became president last year there were four African American women out of 179 appellate judgeships. Now, there are nine with three more nominees in the pipeline.
Supreme Court nominees almost always come from federal appeals courts and, more recently, they have frequently come from the D.C. Circuit, considered the second-most influential court in the nation because of its work adjudicating cases involving the federal government and its historic status as a proving ground for Supreme Court justices. Only one current justice didn’t hear appeals – Elena Kagan – and she was the U.S. solicitor general, the federal government’s top lawyer arguing cases before the high court.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/29/white-house-biden-considering-judge-childs-supreme-court/9267824002/
KYIV, Jan 29 (Reuters) – From Monday to Friday, Mykhaylo is a lawyer, Alexander is an IT programmer and Konstantin freelances in online advertising.
On Saturday, the three came together in an abandoned construction site on the outskirts of Kyiv to train as Ukrainian army reservists, ready to be called up in the event of any war breaking out with neighbouring Russia.
Nervous over the threat of some 120,000 Russian troops massed near the border with Ukraine, Kyiv has launched a new Territorial Defence force this year, which it wants to build up into a corps of up to 130,000 people.
While they may stand little chance against the much bigger and better-equipped professional Russian army, reservists like them could be tasked with protecting civilian sites in Kyiv amid any conflict.
Saturday’s training brought together about 70 locals, some in full infantry gear with hunting rifles and with combat experience from back when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and then backed rebels fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.
Others in sneakers and casual sportswear were handed mock wooden rifles.
“I am worried,” said Konstantin Sevchuk, the 43-year-old freelancer who said he had so far avoided any contact with the military after serving a year in the eastern Donbass region in 2014/15 during Ukraine’s general mobilisation.
“It doesn’t really fit into my life, I didn’t really want it. But now the situation is such that it’s needed.”
While IT programmer Alexander took part in the 2013/14 “Maidan” mass pro-democracy protests in Kyiv, he said he did not feel ready to fight when Moscow reacted to the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president by annexing Crimea.
“Now I’m in my mid-30s and it’s time for me to join,” he said, his face covered with a blue scarf. “It’s better to join now than when it’s too late. I want to be prepared.”
Breathing heavily after getting up and dropping to the snow-covered ground numerous times with his heavy equipment, Mykhaylo, 39, was enthusiastic about going to fight.
Reservists of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces take part in military exercises on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine January 29, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
“My inclination towards war craft has been there long before the war. Now it makes perfect sense to do it,” he said during the showcase exercises.
While the United States has warned that a military intervention is likely and imminent, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that too much “panic” is hurting the economy of 41 million people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West has not addressed Moscow’s main security demands in the crisis over Ukraine but that he is ready to keep on talking.
The West meanwhile has threatened Russia with heavy economic sanctions should it invade Ukraine again.
While Moscow insists it does not want a war, it has also dismissed calls to withdraw its troops, saying it can deploy them as it sees fit on its own territory. It has cited the Western response as evidence that it is the target, not the instigator, of aggression.
UKRAINE
The motley crew of reservists – arriving in everything from a small Suzuki to 4×4 vehicles and even an electric Tesla – were sometimes critical of Zelenskiy and had differing views on NATO.
But they shared a feeling that Ukraine, formerly a Soviet republic, wanted to decide its own fate independently of its old overlord Moscow.
“I want a peacefully developing Ukraine,” said Konstantin. “I want it to be a flourishing peaceful country, like Poland, like the Czech Republic, like Germany, like all European countries.”
Mykhaylo said he wanted his children “to be born and live their lives in a law-abiding and democratic country. That they know what freedom is and are ready to fight for it.”
Alexander noted how years of tensions with Russia – over Crimea, the eastern region of Donbass and Ukraine’s aspirations for closer integration with the West, but also over gas supplies and the difficult history the two nations share – had changed his country.
“We’ve grown up as a nation. We understand what we want and how to get there. We’ve only made small steps, but we know that we are Ukrainians. We’re not the Soviet Union anymore.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/ukrainian-reservists-gear-up-case-conflict-with-russia-2022-01-29/
Tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents are without power Saturday as a blizzard pummels the region with more than two feet of snow and wind gusts up to 90 mph in some areas.
As of Saturday afternoon, over 108,000 residents were reporting power outages.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency warned that the greatest risk for outages was in the eastern part of the state, including Cape Cod and the Islands.
Some of the hardest hit towns include Provincetown with more than 5,900 out — which is listed as 100% of town, Eastham with over 6,000 — 90%, Chatham with more than 7,600 –89% , and Barnstable with more than 19,000 — 63%.
Source Article from https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/massachusetts-power-outages-see-which-towns-have-no-power/2627198/
More on the fight over abortion access in the U.S.
The latest: On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center, a case from Mississippi that legal observers say could weaken or overturn the legal right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. A ruling is expected sometime in 2022.
More coverage:
4 takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on abortion
What could happen if Roe v. Wade gets struck down?
What the Supreme Court justices have said about abortion and Roe v. Wade
The Mississippi clinic at the center of the fight to end abortion in America
How U.S. abortion laws, including Mississippi and Texas, compare to other countries
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/29/abortion-supreme-court-roe-texas-mississippi/
The governors of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia declared states of emergency, telling residents to stay off the roads for their own safety.
Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60177979
The governors of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia declared states of emergency, telling residents to stay off the roads for their own safety.
Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60177979
The governors of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia declared states of emergency, telling residents to stay off the roads for their own safety.
Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60177979
For months, the West has watched a steady build-up of Kremlin forces along Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus. The increased military presence mimics Russian moves ahead of its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, which sparked an international uproar and triggered a series of sanctions against Moscow.
The Kremlin has denied that the troop deployment is a prelude to an attack and has instead characterized the movement as a military exercise.
Russian officials have meanwhile repeatedly called on the U.S. to prevent an eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance.
Russia has also demanded that the U.S. “shall not establish military bases” in the territories of any former Soviet states that are not already members of NATO, or “use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.”
The U.S. and NATO have said that such a request cannot be accommodated.
Since 2002 Kyiv has sought entry into NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance.
While President Joe Biden has not committed to sending U.S. combat troops to Ukraine, American forces could deploy to neighboring NATO member countries. In addition to sharing a border with Russia and Belarus, Ukraine is boarded by four NATO countries.
“We are ready, capable and prepared to uphold our obligation under treaty to NATO,” Milley said, evoking the group’s Article 5 clause, “an attack against one NATO ally is an attack against all NATO.”
Earlier this week, Biden told reporters that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine would radically alter European security. “If he were to move in with all those forces, it’d be the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world,” Biden said.
Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, the second call this month, to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.
The president also told Zelenskyy that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv remains open and fully operational after the State Department issued an order for eligible family members of personnel at its embassy in Kyiv to leave.
The State Department also recommended on Sunday that all U.S. citizens in Ukraine depart the country immediately, citing Russia’s continued military buildup on the border.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/28/pentagon-leaders-warn-of-a-horrific-aftermath-if-russia-invades-ukraine.html
Joe Biden promises to fix all bridges in Pittsburgh after Forbes Avenue collapse
American Majority CEO Ned Ryun reacts on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’
President Biden paid a visit to Pittsburgh on Friday, and shortly before he arrived in Pennsylvania’s second-largest city, a bridge carrying Forbes Avenue over a Frick Park ravine collapsed, injuring 10 people and causing a massive gas leak.
The timing of the collapse as the president who proclaimed “infrastructure” a top priority was not the optics the White House was hoping for, American Majority CEO Ned Ryun told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” later Friday.
The Keystone State’s highway infrastructure has for years ranked near the bottom in terms of the condition of its highways, and truckers have long lodged concerns about the ubiquitous potholes and washboard pavement on many of its miles. But, as host Tucker Carlson noted, Biden promised while in Pittsburgh to “fix all of” that city’s bridges following the collapse, which total more than 400.
The Steel City has been reputed to hold the title of home to the most bridges in the world.
A Port Authority bus that was on a bridge when it collapsed is visible in Pittsburgh’s East End. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
(AP)
“This is just a continuation, though, as we see the bridges collapse, our borders overrun that the American people have not exactly been a priority for our ruling class,” Ryun said.
The Forbes Avenue bridge dated back to 1973, according to reports.
“This infrastructure bill was a lie, an Orwellian lie — it was the gateway to the Green New Deal with a pittance thrown at real infrastructure.”
PITTSBURGH BRIDGE COLLAPSES, INJURING 10, CAUSING GAS LEAK
“So as our leaders lie to us and juxtapose that against all the money that the trillions that they stole from the American people to fund their foreign wars and the fool’s errand of nation-building, all to watch that multi-trillion dollar investment collapse overnight,” he continued, referring to Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal.
U.S. President Joe Biden (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Ryun, son of former Kansas Rep. Jim Ryun, said events like the Frick Park bridge collapse show that costly foreign wars and other expenditures have long been the priority of the ruling class in Washington, while Americans suffer the consequences in their everyday lives.
The political establishment, he said, views American citizens as “ATMs [Automatic Teller Machines] to fund their priorities — whether it’s ‘equity’ or the Green New Deal.”
“I hope that the American people in the midterms and moving on realized we better make better choices on leadership or we’re going to be stuck with more of this in which our country is crumbling as these people chase unicorns and their pipe dreams,” he said.
Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-pittsburgh-bridge-collapse-infrastructure-ned-ryun-tucker
A former chairman of Wisconsin state’s Republican Party signaled that he will be complying with a subpoena he received from the House select committee investigating the events around the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Andrew Hitt was among a group of Republicans who submitted documents to the National Archives, Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette, a federal judge and the U.S. Senate, saying that former President TrumpDonald TrumpFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Overnight Defense & National Security — Pentagon tells Russia to stand down Billionaire GOP donor maxed out to Manchin following his Build Back Better opposition MORE had won the 2020 election despite the fact that only an hour prior to that the state Supreme Court had said the victor was President BidenJoe BidenFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Romney tests positive for coronavirus Pelosi sidesteps progressives’ March 1 deadline for Build Back Better MORE, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Hitt on Friday was issued a subpoena, along with 13 others from other states such as Arizona and Georgia, seeking his cooperation with the Jan. 6 committee.
“Your delegation of purported electors for former President Trump and former Vice President Pence then sent an alleged ‘Certificate of the Votes’ of the purported electors to Congress for consideration by former Vice President Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” committee Chairman Bennie ThompsonBennie Gordon ThompsonFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 14 involved in false electors scheme Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena furthers complications for Rudy Giuliani, DOJ MORE (D-Miss.) said in a letter to Hitt.
“The existence of these purported alternate-elector votes was used as a justification to delay or block the certification of the election during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” it added.
Hitt, who is now a partner at Michael Best Strategies LLC, said that he will be complying with the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“I absolutely will cooperate with the committee’s request to provide information,” Hitt said. “As I said in the past, the Wisconsin Electors were simply following the guidance of Wisconsin legal counsel to preserve the ongoing Wisconsin legal strategy. There was no intent beyond that and I’m happy to participate in this process to clarify any confusion that may exist.”
The committee’s subpoenas and voluntary requests for sit-downs have also signaled that its members are interested in also speaking to people closer to Trump’s orbit, including his daughter, Ivanka TrumpIvanka TrumpFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena Are the legal walls closing in on Donald Trump? WATCH: Weekend stories you might have missed MORE, and personal lawyer Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiFormer chairman of Wisconsin GOP party signals he will comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Breaking: Justice Breyer to retire Best path to Jan. 6 accountability: A civil suit against Trump MORE.
Meanwhile, last week the House panel received over 700 pages of contested National Archives documents after the Supreme Court blocked a bid by Trump to shield those documents from the committee.
The Hill has reached out to Hitt for comment.
Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/591915-former-chairman-of-wisconsin-gop-party-signals-he-will-comply-with
During his funeral service, the 22-year-old rookie was posthumously promoted to detective first grade during his funeral service. A second officer, Wilbert Mora, 27, died earlier this week.