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Russian Olympic Committee president hits out at IOC after top athletes excluded

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The president of the Russian Olympic Committee indicated Thursday that the country could boycott qualifying competitions in fencing for next year’s Paris Games after some athletes, including his own daughter, were barred from competing.The International Olympic Committee recommends letting competitors from Russia and Belarus compete as neutral athletes without national symbols after the invasion of Ukraine, but still excluding those employed by the military or security services, or those who have publicly backed the war.Two-time gold medalist Yana Egorian and all three of the gold medalists in women’s team saber from the Tokyo Olympics — Sofya Velikaya, Olga Nikitina and Sofia Pozdniakova — were refused after vetting from the International Fencing Federation, Russian Fencing Federation president Ilgar Mamedov told state news agencies.Pozdniakova is the daughter of Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov.Some lesser-known fencers we...

Marijuana legalization bill up for vote in New Hampshire Senate, which has blocked it several times

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A bill to legalize recreational marijuana in New Hampshire faces its latest challenge Thursday before the Senate, which has rejected it several times in the past, leaving the state the lone holdout in New England. Republicans have a slight majority in the House. They have a 14-10 advantage in the Senate. Though several bipartisan bills in support of legalization have cleared the House in recent years, the Senate has blocked them. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said earlier this year he doesn’t expect new legislation to reach his desk with teen drug use and overdoses on the rise. The latest bill passed by the House would put the state’s Liquor Commission in charge of regulating marijuana, with a 12.5 percent tax levied at the cultivation level. Most of the tax revenue would go toward reducing the state’s pension liability and the state’s education trust fund, with some set aside for substance abuse prevention programs and police training. Opponents focused o...

New book on Bob Dylan will feature hundreds of rare images

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of rare photos and other images from the archives of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will be featured in “Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine,” coming out this fall. The new release also will include dozens of essays, with novelist Michael Ondaatje, critic Greil Marcus and former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo among the contributors. Callaway Arts & Entertainment announced Thursday that the 600-page book will come out Oct. 24. The founder of Callaway, Nicholas Callaway, said in a statement that “Mixing Up the Medicine” will “introduce the full scope of this artist’s monumental creativity and achievements to a new generation.”The book is edited by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel of the Bob Dylan Center, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Mixing Up the Medicine” refers to a line from Dylan’s classic “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” According to the publisher, “Mixing Up the Medicine” will include draft lyrics, photographs, drawings and other materials. The release has a lis...

Slain officer identified, two others in hospital after shooting east of Ottawa: OPP

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

BOURGET, Ont. — One officer is dead and two others were injured early Thursday morning after they were shot in a village east of Ottawa, Ontario Provincial Police said. The OPP commissioner said he anxiously awaited further information about the two injured officers, as he identified the slain officer as Sgt. Eric Mueller.“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I regretfully advise that OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller has been killed in the line of duty,” OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said in a statement posted to social media.“We anxiously await for further word on his fellow officers who are still at hospital.” The three OPP officers responded shortly after 2 a.m. to a disturbance at a home in Bourget, Ont., where someone reported hearing a gunshot, OPP said. When they arrived, the officers were shot by someone at the home, police said. All three were sent to an Ottawa hospital. In a statement, Premier Doug Ford extended his thoughts to the family of Mueller, wh...

US jobless claims filings highest since 2021, but job market remains healthy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims last week rose to its highest level in a year-and-a-half, though the labor market remains healthy by historical standards.Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 6 rose by 22,000 to 264,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s up from the previous week’s 242,000 and the highest since November of 2021. The weekly claims numbers are seen as representative of the number of U.S. layoffs.The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 6,000 to 245,250.For the week of April 29, the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose by 12,000 from the previous week to 1.81 million. American workers are enjoying unusual job security despite rising interest rates, economic uncertainty and fears of a looming recession.U.S. employers added a healthy 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market still showing surprising resilience. The u...

Shooting at Mercedes factory in Germany leaves 2 dead; suspect detained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A man opened fire at a Mercedes-Benz factory in southwestern Germany on Thursday, leaving two people dead, authorities and the company said.The shooting occurred in Sindelfingen, a city near Stuttgart. The suspect, a 53-year-old man, was taken into custody, a spokesman for the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office said.Police received the first emergency calls around 7:45 a.m. (0545 GMT; 1:45 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, a police spokeswoman told German news agency dpa.Police said the victims were both 44 years old but provided no further details about the dead men or the gunman’s motive.All three worked for Rhenus, a logistics company, dpa reported.Police tweeted that there was no further danger to employees at the plant.In a statement, Mercedes-Benz said that two people were killed at its Sindelfingen plant and the company was “deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic news.”“Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all colleagues on site,” the statement s...

Terraform Labs founder pleads not guilty in Montenegro forged documents case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A trial opened in Montenegro on Thursday against Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon and another citizen of South Korea who are charged in the Balkan country with using forged identification documents, state-owned media reported. The two have pleaded not guilty and offered 400,000 euros ($437,000) each to be released on bail, the RTCG television report said. The court in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, hasn’t yet decided on the motion. Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March on an international arrest warrant in connection with a $40 billion crash of the firm’s cryptocurrency that devastated retail investors around the world. Both South Korea and the United States have requested his extradition from Montenegro. South Korea asked Interpol in September to circulate a “red notice” asking the agency’s 195 member nations to find and apprehend the 31-year-old Kwon. He and the other man were arrested at Montenegro’s Podgorica Airport on March 23 whi...

House Republicans point to increased migration as they advance asylum restrictions, border wall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are seeking Thursday to pass a sweeping bill to build more U.S.-Mexico border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, creating a hard-line counter to President Joe Biden’s policies just as migrants are amassing along the border with the end of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law. Democrats, who have a narrow hold on the Senate, have decried the aggressive measures in the bill as “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has already promised he would veto it.But the House GOP pointedly scheduled the vote for the same day as the expiration of Title 42, a public health emergency rule that allowed border authorities to quickly return many migrants who crossed the border illegally. Biden has conceded that the southern border will be “chaotic for a while” as migrants weigh whether to cross and U.S. officials use a new set of policies that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration while ...

Review: Jennifer Lopez anchors the action pic ‘The Mother’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

The most interesting part of “ The Mother,” a decent if forgettable action pic starring Jennifer Lopez, is the one that is left largely unexplored. The movie is a high-concept thriller that boils down to just a few words: She’s a mother and an assassin. OK, you’re probably thinking, fine.Misha Green’s script was a hot commodity in 2017, around the time “Wonder Woman” opened, which had left some studios scrambling for action movies fronted by women. There were condescending headlines propping it up as a “female empowerment” script. And, eventually, with Niki Caro signed on to direct and a movie star like Lopez on board to star and produce, it was enough for greenlight and a Netflix budget. The final film also credits Peter Craig and Andrea Berloff for the script.But history has unfortunately taught us to be suspect of a Mother’s Day rollout. The greeting card holiday is where studios always seem to dump mediocre material that happen to have women at the center. If the movies were bet...

Maine custodian coaches school chess teams in real-life 'Queen's Gambit'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:22 GMT

HAMPDEN, Maine (AP) — David Bishop spends the school day as a mild-mannered custodian, but before the final bell rings, he grabs his chess boards and pieces and begins his second role.“The Queen’s Gambit” is playing out in real life in Maine, where this custodian is coaching his schools' chess teams to acclaim.Bishop, a part-time chess coach and full-time custodian, led his elementary and middle school teams to state championship titles this year, drawing comparisons to the Netflix series about a chess prodigy inspired by a janitor.Some of his players are good enough to beat their coach, proudly declaring “checkmate!”“Initially, it was humiliating and demoralizing, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that’s a good thing. They're getting stronger," the 61-year-old said.Nationwide, chess is riding a new wave of popularity, and it's not just because of the popular Netflix mini-series based on the 1983 book by Walter Tevis.During the pandemic, a growing number of kids forced to st...