Reports: Oklahoma State to add former TCU QB Hauss Hejny
The corner of 53rd Avenue and 18th Street in Bettendorf received extra light Sunday night as Chabad Lubavitch of the Quad Cities lit a menorah for Hannukah. Sunday marked the fifth night of the festival which lasts eight days and nights. The event commemorates a period in Jewish history when Assyrian-Greeks took control of Jerusalem and tried to ban Jewish customs and religious practices. But a small group of Jewish people fought and drove them from Jerusalem, reclaiming the temple. Despite having a one-day supply of oil to light the menorah in the temple, it stayed lit for eight days. Chabad of the Quad Cities erected an 8-foot menorah at the intersection of 53rd Avenue and 18th Street in Bettendorf, seen here during the lighting during the fifth night of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. The holiday is celebrated by traditions such as singing songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods such as latke, a potato pancake, as well as lighting menorahs. Hannukah, also spelled Chanukkah, spreads the message that good triumphs evil and light will conquer darkness, according to a news release from Chabad. "At this fraught time for the Jewish community, with war in Israel and American Jews facing a major rise in antisemitism, this year we are doing more to celebrate Hanukkah with joy and Jewish pride,” said Rabbi Shneur Cadaner. “The menorah and Hanukkah represent freedom of the human spirit, freedom from tyranny and oppression, and of the victory of good over evil.” Chabad of the Quad Cities Rabbi Shneur Cadaner gives remarks prior to the lighting an 8-foot menorah in Bettendorf, during the fifth night of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. At Sunday's ceremony, battery operated votive candles were spread out among the crowd as the rabbi and his wife, Chana Cadaner, spoke about the significance of lighting candles to commemorate bringing light into the world. "We add light to the world and we make it a better place," she said, asking participants to turn on their lights one by one. "We are a community that spreads light no matter how dark it may seem around us." This year’s celebrations carried extra significance as it marks 50 years since the first public menorah was lit at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia in 1974. The public menorah was lit after the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, launched a worldwide campaign in 1973 to build awareness and promote observance of Hanukkah, according to a news release. Maureen and Harry Wellner were on hand for Chabad of the Quad Cities lighting of an 8-foot menorah in Bettendorf, on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. As a small crowd gathered at the busy intersection in Bettendorf, Mayor Bob Gallagher lit the ceremonial first candle on the menorah and wished a peaceful and happy holiday to all. The Quad-Cities' menorah is one of more than 15,000 large public menorahs throughout the world, including menorahs in front of the White House, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the Great Wall of China and Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Hanukkah is a joyous celebration that brings families and communities together to commemorate historical events and reflect on the values of perseverance, faith, and the triumph of light over darkness. Joe McCoy lights the giant menorah at 18th St. and 53rd Ave., the future home of the Chabad Center, on Sunday in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah. Guests smile after the first candle is lit Sunday on the giant menorah at 18th St. and 53rd Ave. in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 10, in Bettendorf. Rabbi Shneur Cadaner holds the torch to light the giant menorah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. Robert Lewis, a retired chef, gives a blessing in Hebrew before lighting a candle on the menorah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. Mayor of Bettendorf, Bob Gallagher, speaks to guests before the menorah lighting ceremony on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. The Quad Cities Jewish community gathered to light a giant menorah on the fourth day of Hanukkah on Sunday, December 10, in Bettendorf. Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Peel Hunt: 'Missing piece' in Reeves' City growth pushIn many ways, President Vladimir Putin seems to be winning. Russian forces are pushing ahead in Ukraine. President-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House. War fatigue is spreading across Europe. North Korean troops have boosted the ranks of his army. And yet on Thursday, Putin appeared weary, threatened and newly aggrieved as he took his bellicose threats against his Western adversaries to a new level. Even with the prospect of a friendlier American administration around the corner, he has found himself struggling anew to confront perhaps the biggest failure of his war: Russia’s inability to deter the West from providing colossal amounts of military aid to Ukraine. As a result, Putin is bringing Russia closer to a direct conflict with the United States than at any point in decades. He announced Thursday evening that Russia had struck Ukraine with a new intermediate-range missile, one with nuclear capabilities, using a televised speech to cast the West as an aggressor that left Moscow with no choice but to respond. On Friday, Putin told a meeting of military leaders that Russia would continue using and begin regular production of the new missile. Two months from now, Trump’s second presidency could give Putin the chance to strike a peace deal with Ukraine that he could portray as a victory. But until then, people who study the Kremlin say, Putin is intent on driving home the chilling message that America risks nuclear war as it expands its support for Kyiv. “The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said on Friday. “The contours of further retaliatory actions, if our concerns are not taken into account, have also been quite clearly outlined.” Capturing the mood, one of Russia’s most influential security hawks, Sergey Karaganov, a political scientist, published an article on Thursday warning that Russia risked “ripping defeat from the jaws of victory.” To prevail over the West, he argued, the Kremlin needed to step up the threat of nuclear weapons being used. “Russia has started to win in the fight against Western aggression in Ukraine,” Karaganov wrote. “But it’s early and dangerous to relax. The fight is only beginning.” Ever since he launched his invasion in February 2022, Putin has mostly been careful to avoid direct military conflict with NATO, even as Western countries poured modern weaponry into Ukraine that killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers. But on Thursday, he said in the most explicit terms yet that he was ready for such an escalation: Russia was “entitled,” he said, to strike the military facilities of countries “that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.” The main reason for that shift appears clear: President Joe Biden’s recent decision to allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with U.S.-provided missiles that have a range of 190 miles. That was followed by a similar decision by the British government. While Ukraine’s present stock of Western missiles is not sufficient to change the course of the war, Putin appears to fear that the West could provide Ukraine with more powerful, longer-range missiles in the future. “From that point onward,” Putin said Thursday, referring to Ukraine’s missile attacks this week, “the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has assumed elements of a global nature.” But some analysts see a second reason Putin may feel prepared to take bigger risks now: Trump’s looming return to the White House. After all, Putin’s threats about a “global” war dovetail with Trump’s rhetoric about Biden risking World War III. So Putin — who quickly praised Trump after he won the election — may believe that taking more aggressive steps now could help him strike a favorable deal once Trump is inaugurated. “I don’t see him being concerned about ruining his chances for a deal with Trump — rather, quite the opposite,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “Trump took the position that Biden’s policies are leading to World War III, and what Putin is doing confirms this.” Biden long resisted allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with U.S. missiles, to Ukraine’s great frustration, amid concern about Putin’s response. In September, Putin said that such a move would put his country “at war” with NATO, for the first time defining a specific “red line” that he was warning the West not to cross. This week, the Biden administration crossed it, citing Putin’s own escalation of the war this fall by bringing thousands of North Korean troops into the fight. Biden administration officials calculate that the risk of escalation by Putin diminished with the election of Trump. But in Moscow, some question that notion. A former senior Russian official who remains close to the Kremlin said “no one knows” if a deal with Trump is really possible. But “a threat after Biden’s decision has already emerged,” he added, “so we have to respond.” He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive Kremlin deliberations. American officials “are overestimating both themselves and the significance of their agenda for others,” said Dmitry Trenin, a hawkish specialist on security policy at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, suggesting Putin is not so concerned about who holds power in Washington. “Putin has his schedule and his strategy, and he will follow them.” Still, Putin has repeatedly signaled that he is interested in a negotiated settlement, as long as he is able to keep the land Russia has captured in Ukraine and to extract political concessions, like a guarantee that the country won’t join NATO. He has often pointed to a draft treaty that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators hammered out in the first months of the invasion in 2022, in which Ukraine would have declared itself “permanently neutral” and accepted limits on the size of its army. Russia may be “quite cynical and skeptical” about the prospects for a deal after Trump takes office, said Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp. “But they still recognize that they need a deal eventually.” Ukrainian and Western officials contend that Putin is simply looking for a deal only on his terms, tantamount to capitulation. The 2022 negotiations between Russia and Ukraine fell apart amid disputes over how the West could protect Ukraine from another Russian invasion in the future. That issue — the shape of “security guarantees” for Ukraine — is likely to loom as the most complicated factor in any renewed talks after Trump returns to the White House, more important than how much Ukrainian territory Russia is allowed to keep control over. Until then, conditions appear ripe for further escalation — because Russia and Ukraine are jockeying for better negotiating positions before Trump takes office, and because Putin appears determined to deter a further expansion of Western aid to Ukraine that could bring the fighting deeper into Russian territory. “We’re in an escalatory spiral,” Charap said. Separate from any preparation for future negotiations, he added, that spiral “is a sort of dynamic of its own.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times . © 2024 The New York Times Company
A Zimbabwean expert in international relations and political science has linked allegations of cooperation between the Kiev regime and transnational criminal networks in training militants to "broader Western strategies" aimed at undermining Russian partnerships and influence in Africa and Middle Eastern countries such as Syria. Dr. Mahuku framed the alleged collaboration as a form of proxy warfare and characterized the actions as a form of neo-colonialism, highlighting the West's attempts to gain a foothold in areas where it has historically wielded significant power. From Russia’s perspective, Dr. Mahuku explained, the conflict in Ukraine is a manifestation of "deeper systemic rivalries" with the United States and the Global North. He highlighted Russia's view of NATO's continued military support for Ukraine as a direct threat to its national security and territorial integrity. The alleged training of fighters by the Kyiv regime for deployment in Africa and Syria, along with reports of Ukrainian arms sales to terrorist groups in Mali, highlight the complex global implications of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, according to the Zimbabwean academician. Dr. Mahuku detailed the multiple ways these actions undermine Russia’s efforts to stabilize these regions . Dr. Mahuku added, "Secondly, undermining Russia's counter-terrorism efforts will result in Russia not being involved in counterterrorist activities in Syria as well as in Africa. [...] It also disrupts regional stability. [...] This contributes to broader accusations of neo-colonial strategies by the West". To counter these actions, the analyst suggested Russia promote a diplomatic narrative emphasizing peaceful resolutions and " encourage Western leaders to support dialogue ". He also advocated for Russia to leverage platforms like BRICS and the CIS to build a coalition that opposes Western destabilization efforts. He emphasized Africa's rising importance on the global stage and suggested that Africa's response to these events could significantly influence global public opinion, fostering a "more nuanced understanding of the complexities that are involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict." According to Dr. Mahuku, reports from Malian media regarding the provision of white phosphorus ammunition from Ukraine to terrorist groups, if verified, represent a serious violation of international law, undermining African efforts towards silencing the guns by 2030 (Agenda 2063). The expert acknowledged the need for thorough investigation but stressed that the sheer volume of weapons supplied to Ukraine, combined with the war's chaos and alleged mercenary infiltration within the Ukrainian military, makes it challenging to ensure accountability and prevent the misuse of weapons. He also pointed to the issue of corruption within Ukraine as a contributing factor to the illicit arms trade.
Will Adam Thielen Play in Week 13? NFL Injury Status, News & UpdatesThe Boston Fleet allowed two goals in the final two minutes to fall 3-1 to the Toronto Sceptres to kick off the second Professional Women’s Hockey League’s season Saturday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. The Fleet played for the inaugural PWHL title last season, falling in the final game to Minnesota. In the 2024-25 season opener, the Fleet were outshot 41-19, including 32-7 over the final two periods. Former Northeastern University goaltender Aerin Frankel was superb in stopping 38 of 40 shots. Hannah Miller scored a power-play goal with 1:38 left for the game-winner. Emma Maltais scored into an open net with 12 seconds left to account for the final. Boston took a 1-0 lead at 3:00 of the opening period thanks to a goal by captain Hilary Knight. Megan Keller and Hannah Bilka earned assists.
