World
Tagovailoa leads TD drive in preseason debut to help Dolphins over Texans 28-3
HOUSTON (AP) — Tua Tagovailoa was intercepted on his first play of the preseason Saturday for the Miami Dolphins against the Houston Texans.
His second drive went much better.
Playing in his first game since sustaining a concussion on Christmas Day, Tagovailoa led a 14-play, 93-yard drive capped by a 2-yard scoring run by Raheem Mostert to give the Dolphins an early lead in a 28-3 win Saturday.
Tagovailoa sat down after that, ending his day 5 of 7 for 61 yards for the Dolphins (1-1).
“It was just a bad play,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s really all it was, bad quarterback play there. That’s not how you want to start a drive anyway you look at it. Bad play, but I’m glad with the way we responded.”
Miami coach Mike McDaniel was glad Tagovailoa was able to knock some of the rust off before the season opener Sept. 10 against the Chargers.
“That is exactly what preseason is for,” he said. “That is why you want someone to play. I’m glad he got it out of the way, but more importantly, the team didn’t blink.”
Tagovailoa said he wasn’t concerned about taking hits after having two concussions last season.
“It’s a physical sport. It’s tough,” he said. “I went out there and was expecting to get hit. I was expecting to go to the ground, all of that.”
Houston rookie C.J. Stroud was much sharper Saturday than he was in his NFL debut last week when he was picked off on his first possession and finished with 13 yards passing on two drives.
Playing the entire first half Saturday, the second overall pick was 7 of 12 for 60 yards and helped the Texans (1-1) to a field goal on his second drive.
“I feel like I took a step,” Stroud said. “Definitely got to clean up some things but I feel like overall I got in a good rhythm and I started playing football like I’m used to.”
He had five straight completions on that drive, highlighted by a 14-yard throw on the run to Noah Brown. Stroud hasn’t yet been announced as the team’s starter. But he has started both preseason games and works almost exclusively with the first team in practice, making it seem increasingly likely that he’ll replace Davis Mills this season.
Coach DeMeco Ryans discussed the ways Stroud improved from his previous game.
“I think overall just with the operation of the offense,” he said. “I thought that C.J. was more efficient and more comfortable and I think that everyone around him played better and that allowed him to play better. So, I’m proud of the progression that CJ took this week.”
While Stroud showed improvement Saturday, perhaps the biggest play of the day for Houston came early in the second quarter by defensive end Will Anderson Jr., who was taken third in this year’s draft.
Anderson came off the line unblocked and plowed over running back Salvon Ahmed to sack Skylar Thompson for an 11-yard loss and force a fumble. Thompson quickly jumped on the ball to get it back.
“I thought Will did a really good job of disrupting by playing on their side of the line of scrimmage,” Ryans said. “That’s what we want from our defensive linemen.”
Anderson, who had 58 1/2 tackles for losses and 34 1/2 sacks in three seasons for Alabama, is expected to help improve a defense that has struggled to get to the quarterback in recent years.
So what does Anderson think when the only person between him and the quarterback is a running back?
“They called the play. They knew what was going to happen,” Anderson said with a laugh. “I’m just going out there and doing my job.”
That drive ended in a punt for Miami, but Thompson got going after that, throwing two touchdown passes in the second quarter to make it 21-3 at the half.
Ahmed scored the first one on an 8-yard reception before Thompson connected with Braxton Berrios on an 18-yard score. That touchdown was set up by a 65-yard run by Ahmed three plays earlier.
Tagovailoa was picked off on the first play of the game by Denzel Perryman, who returned it 19 yards. The Texans couldn’t capitalize on the turnover as Stroud was called for a delay of game on third down from the 1 and his pass on fourth down fell incomplete.
Thompson’s third touchdown pass came on an 18-yard throw to undrafted free agent rookie Chris Brooks that made it 28-3 late in the third quarter.
Thompson threw for 157 yards.
INJURIES
Dolphins: Rookie De’Von Achane was carted off the field in the third quarter with a shoulder injury. McDaniel said he would undergo imaging Sunday. The former Texas A&M star, who was drafted in the third round, had six carries for 27 yards. … McDaniel said after the game that the leg injury that LT Terron Armstead sustained earlier this week is not anything “substantial,” and that they’re optimistic he can return soon.
Texans: Rookie WR Tank Dell felt some unspecified tightness during warmups and Ryans decided to hold him out of the game as a precaution.
WHERE’S THE RUN DEFENSE
Houston’s defense, which ranked 32nd in the NFL in run defense last season, continued to struggle in that area Saturday. The Texans allowed 205 yards rushing, led by Ahmed, who had 99 and Brooks with 47.
“There’s a lot of individual effort,” McDaniel said. “There’s inches in the game of football, and especially, with a penetrating front like Houston has, you have to be on your P’s and Q’s. A lot of people have to execute things, and then, people have to make plays when the opportunity is there.”
Ryans said the team has to improve against the run.
“It’s not representative of who we need to be on defense,” he said.
UP NEXT
Dolphins: End the preseason with a visit to Jacksonville next Saturday night.
Texans: Wrap up the preseason at New Orleans Aug. 27.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
World
Ukraine and Russia exchange drone attacks while Russia continues its push in the east
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said it shot down some 60 drones and several missiles over its territory while Ukraine in turn said it destroyed over 30 Russian drones. At least four people were reported killed in an attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv on Sunday as Russia pushed ahead with its renewed offensive in Ukraine’s war-ravaged northeast.
Russian air defenses shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Local military officials said drone debris hit an oil refinery in the town of Slavyansk-on-Kuban, but there was no fire or damage. News outlet Astra published videos appearing to show an explosion at the refinery as it was hit by a drone. The videos could not be independently verified.
Nine long-range ballistic missiles and a drone were destroyed over the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, following Friday morning’s massive Ukrainian drone attack that cut off power in the city of Sevastopol.
A further three drones were shot down over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. According to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov, a church roof was set on fire by falling drone debris, but there were no casualties.
The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said that one person died and 16 were wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a minibus on Sunday morning.
In Ukraine, air force officials said air defenses shot down all 37 Russian drones launched against the country overnight.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow recently launched a new offensive, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Sunday morning that one person died and 11 were wounded as a result of shelling over the previous day.
Later on Sunday, Syniehubov said four people were killed and eight wounded in a Russian strike on the outskirts of the regional capital, also called Kharkiv.
Ukrainian troops are fighting to halt Russian advances in the Kharkiv region that began late last week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a visit to China that Moscow’s offensive in the Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but that there are no plans to capture the city.
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Morton reported from London.
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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
World
Argentina's Milei shuts up critics with miracle turnaround of economy, strong security policies
President Javier Milei of Argentina continues to stun his critics with an economy that has outperformed expectations and continues along an ambitious path for national security, including pursuit of a NATO global partnership.
“The fact that you have a president, head of state, who is defending the free market, who is defending the role of entrepreneurs and businessmen as creators of value and just defending deregulation when the tendency in Latin America and much of the West has been to regulate the economy . . . I think that’s very positive, not only for Argentina, but for the region as a whole and maybe beyond,” Daniel Raisbeck, a policy analyst at the CATO Institute, told Fox News Digital.
Milei won the presidency in November last year and prompted concern from some in the West that he would lead his country down a road to ruin with libertarian policies that would make an already troubled economy even weaker. Voters wanted economic relief from a market hit with some of the highest inflation in the world.
Those attitudes have shifted just months later as Milei has enacted a raft of policy changes: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to release a tranche of loans due to Argentina under a bailout program thanks to Milei’s government managing to create a fiscal surplus in the previous fiscal quarter and bring inflation down.
ARGENTINA REPORTS ITS FIRST SINGLE-DIGIT INFLATION IN SIX MONTHS AS MARKETS SWOON AND COSTS HIT HOME
Argentina’s inflation in March alone hit 287%, causing poverty to deepen, and citizens to take to the streets with strikes and protests against his policies. The monthly inflation rate was 25% in December when Milei first took office.
Milei then went on to significantly reduce spending with major cuts to public-sector wages as he suspended public works projects and cut subsidies. He also devalued the country’s currency by over 50%, which helped it stabilize in value even as the price of basic goods jumped.
The monthly inflation dropped to 8.8% by April, marking the first single-digit inflation rate in over six months.
Argentina recorded a $589 million budget surplus in January and continued to post a surplus for each of the first four months of 2024, even as the surplus shrank to $299 million in April, Reuters reported. This marks the country’s first quarterly surplus since 2008.
Raisbeck stressed that Milei’s primary measure of cutting spending has proven highly effective, while arguing that the significant deregulation in other parts of the economy has helped it revive over those first months of the new administration.
“Argentina was one of the most regulated economies in the world,” Raisbeck said. “So when you have a very well-thought-out package like the one that they introduced . . . and you get rid of as many of those regulations as you can, then it’s very positive.”
AT LEAST 90 INJURED AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN HITS BOXCAR, DERAILS IN ARGTENTINE CAPITAL
He noted that Milei has not adhered to some of his more aggressive campaign promises, which included a promise to dollarize the economy and shut down the Central Bank, saying that it was a “non-negotiable matter.”
Even days after he won the election, Milei appeared to favor more moderate Cabinet members than many would have expected of a man who jolted the international community with his outsider attitude and plans.
The Wall Street Journal, in December 2023, argued that Milei’s tenure “may turn out to be pretty conventional,” with pro-market Economy Minister Luis Caputo leading away from Milei’s more radical plans.
The promised dollarization has been delayed, and Raisbeck explained that Milei’s approach has relied heavily on using the Central Bank to help regulate the economy, though he argued that Milei’s policies remain libertarian due to the deregulation he has pursued in other areas.
“Everything related to deregulation is very libertarian, and we’ve seen great success already in the housing market, for instance,” Raisbeck said. “So that obviously brought a huge amount of supply that was suppressed because of price controls.”
Milei also brought Argentina back to the international foreground, with a stronger focus on national security and changing up the country’s goals from the previous administration – most notably, he rejected the invitation to join the China and Russia-led economic bloc BRICS.
PERUVIAN LAWMAKERS BEGIN YET ANOTHER EFFORT TO REMOVE PRESIDENT DINA BULARTE FROM OFFICE
Milei argued that it was not “opportune” for Argentina to join the bloc as a full member, according to German outlet DW. However, he will continue to develop ties with its members in the meantime.
“They have a good security minister, Patricia Bullrich, who has experience because she was a security minister in the previous government,” Joseph M. Humire, the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital. “She has been able to get the ball rolling very quickly, and I think that was the benefit of having her in that position.”
Humire explained that Milei’s government has largely focused on clearing out external agitators, particularly those connected to Russian disinformation networks, which remain a paramount concern in most parts of the world as Moscow seeks to expand its influence.
“The external forces are usually the key,” Humire said. “Usually, it’s the Russians. The Russians have probably the biggest disinformation networks to be able to amplify local grievances and turn them into this macro instability, and they did that in Colombia, in Chile.”
“A lot of the specifics of the nation’s security has been in mitigating these agitation networks that create chaos throughout the country, and they have been neutralizing some of these threats while they’re studying others,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 815
Here is the situation on Sunday, May 19, 2024.
Fighting
- Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region halted operations following a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, Interfax news agency reported. The refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tonnes of oil per year, about one million barrels per day.
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Ukraine’s air force claimed it destroyed all 37 Shahed attack drones launched by Russia overnight. The regions targeted by the drones include Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Kherson.
- The governor of Kharkiv said nearly 10,000 people had been forced to leave their homes since Russian forces launched a surprise ground attack on May 10. Russia claimed its military took control of another village, Staritsya, in the Kharkiv region near the Russian border.
- Ukrainian prosecutors said Russian shelling killed a 60-year-old woman and injured three other civilians in the northeast city of Vovchansk, 5km (3 miles) from the Russian border. A 59-year-old man was also injured in the village of Ukrainske.
- Russia said its forces shot down nine US ATACMS missiles over Crimea and at least 60 drones over Russian sovereign territory. Its forces also shot down a Tochka-U missile fired by Ukraine in Russia’s Belgorod region.
- Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone attack injured a woman and a man in the village of Petrovka. The two were treated for shrapnel injuries.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged issues with staffing and “morale” within the country’s troops as he signed a mobilisation law that came into force on Saturday. Kyiv has lowered the age at which men can be drafted from 27 to 25 and tightened punishments for those who avoid the call-up.
- Ukrainian prosecutors said they were investigating as a potential war crime a Russian air attack on a residential area of the regional capital, Kharkiv, in which six civilians were wounded, including a 13-year-old girl, 16-year-old male and an eight-year-old.
- Ukrainian officials accuse Russian soldiers in Vovchansk of using dozens of captured civilians as “human shields” to defend their command headquarters.
- Moscow denied deliberately targeting civilians even as thousands have been killed and injured since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- Poland announced it would spend $2.5bn to fortify its eastern border, which includes Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
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