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At least 79 dead after migrant vessel sinks off Greece; hundreds may be missing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS (Associated Press)KALAMATA, Greece (AP) — A fishing boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank Wednesday off the coast of Greece, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year.Coast guard, navy and merchant vessels and aircraft fanned out for a vast search-and-rescue operation set to continue overnight. It was unclear how many passengers were missing, but some initial reports suggested hundreds of people may have been aboard when the boat went down dozens of miles from shore.Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV that it was impossible to accurately estimate the number of passengers. He said it appeared that the 25- to 30-meter (80- to 100-foot) vessel capsized after people abruptly moved to one side.“The outer deck was full of people, and we presume that the interior (of the vessel) would also have been full,” he said...

How Chicago White Sox starter Lucas Giolito is helping the environment, one pitch at a time

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

The Chicago White Sox saw environmental concerns firsthand last week in New York.The city was under a haze because of smoke carried down from wildfires burning in Canada.“Insane, it was like orange outside,” starter Lucas Giolito told the Tribune on Friday.The team’s scheduled game on Wednesday against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium was postponed because of what Major League Baseball called “clearly hazardous air quality.”“It’s that warning, that reminder that ‘Hey, don’t take this for granted,’” Giolito said. “‘We keep going the way we’re going, we continue to piss Earth off, we’re going to feel the consequences.’ We felt those in New York. I pitched the first night (Tuesday). We could all tell it was tough and the next day we couldn’t even get a game in.“Earth’s trying to remind us, ‘Hey, why don’t we take care a little bit better.’”Giolito is do...

Denver mass shooting after Nuggets’ NBA Finals win likely stemmed from drug deal: police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

A drug deal was likely at the center of a mass shooting in downtown Denver near where the Nuggets won their first NBA championship hours earlier, according to police.Two people were taken into custody in connection with Tuesday morning’s shooting, including one who was wounded. Nine other people were also wounded, and all are expected to survive, the Denver Police Department said at a news conference.The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. local time in an area where crowds had gathered to celebrate the Nuggets’ series-clinching win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.Police say they recovered from the scene a “significant quantity” of what were believed to be fentanyl pills, cash and five handguns.Five or six of the people wounded in the shooting were not believed to be involved with the drug deal, according to authorities. Ten people were hospitalized, including five who remained at the Denver Health Medical Center as of Tuesday afternoon. Four p...

FIFA official Fatma Samoura leaving after 7 years as pioneering woman in soccer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura is leaving after seven years as the highest profile woman working in world soccer, the governing body said Wednesday.Samoura will stay in the job she has held since 2016 through this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and leave at the end of the year, FIFA said.The 60-year-old former United Nations official from Senegal was an unexpected hire seven years ago soon after the election of Gianni Infantino as FIFA president.She became the first woman, first Black person, first Muslim and first non-European to be FIFA’s top administrator.“It was the best decision of my life to join FIFA,” Samoura said in a statement. “I am very proud to have led such a diverse team.”However, Infantino’s hands-on style as an executive president has meant Samoura has often struggled to establish a clearly defined public role in the $2 million-a-year job.Samoura’s time in FIFA included helping oversee men’s World Cups played in...

UK police hunt motive in Nottingham attack as friends mourn 2 students and a school caretaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Police worked Wednesday to piece together details and the motive of a knife and van attack that killed two 19-year-old students and a 65-year-old man in the English city of Nottingham, leaving three families grieving and a university city in shock.University of Nottingham students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were stabbed to death on a street near student housing in a rampage that began before dawn on Tuesday.Police say a 31-year-old suspect then killed school caretaker Ian Coates more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away as he headed to work, stole his van and ran down a group of pedestrians. Three people were hurt, one critically, in the hit-and-run.The attacks unfolded over about 90 minutes across a large swath of Nottingham, a university city of about 350,000 some 110 miles (175 kilometers) north of London. Nottinghamshire Police released more details of the attacks on Wednesday, saying a man matching the suspect’s description tried to enter a care ho...

Fox onscreen message calls Biden a ‘wannabe dictator’ following Trump arraignment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News said Wednesday that an onscreen message that called President Biden a “wannabe dictator” was taken off TV immediately after it aired and “addressed.”The headline appeared Tuesday night under onscreen video of former President Donald Trump speaking to supporters live following his arrest, next to Biden speaking at an earlier White House event.The message, called a chyron, read in full: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”Fox said in a statement Wednesday that “the chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed.” There was no explanation about how it was addressed. The website Mediaite reported that the message was onscreen for 27 seconds.The White House has said Biden has had no contact with Attorney General Merrick Garland about the indictment by special counsel Jack Smith, which accuses Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents. Biden has not commented on the case.Several commentators on Fox and...

Rhode Island seeks federal funds to fix iconic Newport Cliff Walk

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island wants federal funds to help pay some of the nearly $14 million it will take to repair Newport’s damaged Cliff Walk, one of New England’s most popular attractions.Gov. Dan McKee issued a disaster declaration on Tuesday that will allow the state Department of Transportation to apply for $10 million in emergency relief funds from the Federal Highway Administration.Coastal erosion knocked out about 30 feet (9 meters) of the 3.5-mile (5.6 kilometer) paved trail in March 2022, which winds its way beside Gilded Age mansions and offers spectacular views of the ocean. No one was hurt.The path sustained additional damage during a December storm.It remains open with a detour around the damage.“The collapse and the partial closure could cause significant harm to Newport tourism, a top driver of the local economy,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “The impacted area is now closed because it is at risk of further erosion and collapse, whic...

Elizabeth Holmes objects to $250 monthly restitution payments proposed by government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors want Elizabeth Holmes to pay $250 each month to victims of her failed blood testing startup after she leaves prison, but her attorneys are pushing back citing “limited financial resources” available to the disgraced founder of Theranos. The U.S. filed a motion last week asking the court to correct “clerical errors” which included, prosecutors said, the lack of a timeline for restitution from the one-time billionaire once she exits prison. Holmes’ legal team objected to those changes this week. Holmes, 39, began an 11-year sentence at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas, late last month after she and her former partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were convicted of fraud for duping investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while running Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup that promised to revolutionize health care.In a May 16 ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes and Balwani, who is serving a nearly 13-yea...

Book Review: Christine Pride and Jo Piazza continue as dynamic duo with ‘You Were Always Mine’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

“You Were Always Mine” by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Simon & Schuster)I don’t know who introduced writers Christine Pride and Jo Piazza but I’d like to thank their literary matchmaker. Each talented on their own, a special magic happens when they co-author a book together. Their first novel, the 2021 release, “We Are Not Like Them” tackled Black Lives Matter, race relations, police brutality, journalism ethics, forgiveness and friendship between two women, one Black and one white. Written in alternate voices, the book was at times tough to read but it felt important and necessary. Their new book “You Were Always Mine” also doesn’t shy away from hard topics. It follows a Black woman named Cinnamon and a white pregnant woman named Daisy, two strangers who form an unlikely friendship after meeting in a local park. One day Cinnamon returns to the park and finds Daisy has given birth and left her baby with a note, asking Cinnamon to raise the child as her own. C...

Police say 2 men fatally shot after road rage incident on Interstate 25 in Denver

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:39 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Two men were fatally shot after a road rage incident involving two vehicles on Interstate 25 in Denver, police said.The men were riding together in the same vehicle on Tuesday, police said. They stopped their vehicle in the righthand lane near a busy interchange and the passenger got out and approached another car, which had also stopped. The driver of the second vehicle apparently opened fire on the passenger, police said.The shooting suspect started to drive away, but the other driver grabbed onto that vehicle and the shooting suspect fired at him too, causing the victim to fall, police said. A Denver detective who happened to be driving by when the shooting happened, followed the suspect’s vehicle and called for uniformed officers to arrest the 25-year-old driver. He was arrested during a traffic stop without incident.Police have not released any information about what happened before the cars pulled over.The Associated Press