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US intelligence says an intentional explosion brought down Wagner chief Prigozhin’s plane

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

By EMMA BURROWS and AAMER MADHANI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that the plane crash presumed to have killed Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was intentionally caused by an explosion as Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday eulogized the man who staged the biggest challenge to his 23-year rule.One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details on what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to have also killed several of Prigozhin’s lieutenants to avenge a mutiny that challenged the Russian leader’s authority.Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said pr...

Mike Lupica: The numbers don’t lie. Brian Cashman is the one who created this Yankees ‘disaster’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

Brian Cashman talked on Wednesday about the “disaster” and “mess” the 2023 Yankees have become. He was talking about a team that he and he alone built, one that he has actually been building for years, a team whose poor performance he now says has shocked him. We’re all shocked that the Yankees are in last place in the last week of August. But Cashman can’t possibly think they were ever going to be good enough to win it all this season, after how little he did between last season and this to close the gap on the Astros, the team the Yankees can never get past in October.Cashman also talked about his own track record as being a reason why he is the man to get the Yankees going back in the right direction again. And he sure does have a track record of winning seasons, over a quarter-century since he became the caretaker of the last great Yankee dynasty, something cited in his defense about as often as they play “God Bless America” d...

A family resort in Wisconsin Dells is getting the highest waterslide in the US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

Simon Peter Groebner | (TNS) Star TribuneMt. Olympus Water & Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells is no stranger to spectacle, with such attractions as a replica of the Roman Colosseum, a go-kart track modeled after a giant Trojan Horse, and Medusa’s Slidewheel, aka “America’s first rotating waterslide.” Now the family resort is planning to open the highest waterslide in the United States.The 145-foot-high outdoor attraction — forebodingly named the Rise of Icarus, after the mythical Greek who flew too close to the sun — is part of an $8 million expansion at Mt. Olympus including an outdoor kids’ water play area with 10 new slides and water features. Construction begins after Labor Day, according to Mt. Olympus, and the slide will open next summer.New renderings of the Rise of Icarus — and video on the Mt. Olympus website — depict a slender, multicolored tower that rises over the theme park. Designers are using Icarus’ height to create a long, fast, ...

Scores of Trump fans gather outside Georgia jail to show support ahead of his expected surrender

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — Hours before former President Donald Trump was expected to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss, dozens of his supporters had already gathered Thursday morning outside the facility. And the crowd grew steadily as the day progressed. It will be the fourth time this year that Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, is booked on criminal charges. But unlike his previous arrests, which happened in courthouses just before initial appearances before a judge, this time he will be turning himself in at a notoriously troubled jail. Also different from his previous surrenders: authorities are expected to take a booking photo of the former president.Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of participating in a sprawling scheme to undermine...

Ticker: Mortgage rates at highest level since 2001; Labor market keeps humming along

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed further above 7% this week to its highest level since 2001, another blow to prospective homebuyers grappling with rising home prices and a stubbornly low supply of properties on the market.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan jumped to 7.23% from 7.09% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.55%.It’s the fifth consecutive weekly increase for the average rate, which is now at its highest level since early June 2001, when it averaged 7.24%. Back then, the median sales price of a previously occupied U.S. home was $157,500. As of last month, it was $406,700.“This week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reached its highest level since 2001 and indications of ongoing economic strength will likely continue to keep upward pressure on rates in the short-term,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.Labor market keeps humming alongApplications for unem...

Column: ‘The Blind Side’ and Hollywood’s willful blindness to the truth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

Nina Metz | Chicago TribuneWhat kind of fidelity to the truth do you expect from Hollywood?The 2009 movie “The Blind Side” purports to tell the story of Michael Oher, a Black high school student rescued from poverty and neglect by the Tuohys, a wealthy white family who embraced him as one of their own, and whose love and selfless care guided him on a path that would eventually land him a career in the NFL.Last week, Oher filed a petition in a Tennessee court that challenges not only the validity of that portrayal, but alleges the couple did not adopt him — as they claimed — but tricked him, at age 18, into signing a document that made the couple his conservators for the last two decades.As reported by ESPN, the petition alleges the Tuohys “used their power as conservators to strike a deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from an Oscar-winning film that earned more than $300 million, while Oher got nothing for a story ‘that would not have e...

Chicago Cubs are bringing Keegan Thompson back from Triple-A Iowa to bolster a taxed bullpen

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

The Chicago Cubs bullpen is getting a reinforcement.Right-hander Keegan Thompson was on a flight Thursday morning from Chicago to Pittsburgh — where the Cubs begin a four-game series Thursday night at PNC Park — and will be recalled before the series opener, the Tribune has learned. The Cubs do not announce any roster moves until shortly before they take the field for pregame work.Thompson, 28, has been with Triple-A Iowa since the Cubs optioned him May 19 after prolonged inconsistencies. He owned a 4.22 ERA with 14 walks and 16 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings before his demotion.Thompson’s struggles continued at Iowa, where he surrendered 24 runs, 24 hits and 20 walks and struck out 27 in 16 2/3 innings over his first 12 outings. He also missed five weeks while on the injured list from mid-June to late July.He showed improved command in his last four appearances — all at least two innings — dating to Aug. 9. Thompson issued just one walk in 8 1/3 innings ...

Firefighters in Greece struggle to control wildfires, including the EU’s largest blaze

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

By ELENA BECATOROS (Associated Press)ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters struggled Thursday against strong winds and hot, dry conditions to tame multiple wildfires ravaging Greece, including one in the country’s northeast that officials say is the largest recorded in the European Union.The wildfires have left 20 people dead over the last week. Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey. Their bodies were found near a shack in a burnt forest area near Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece. Sixty firefighters have been injured, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said.The wildfire in the Alexandroupolis region, burning for a sixth day, combined with smaller fires to create a massive blaze that consumed homes and vast tracts of forest and triggered multiple evacuations of villages and of the city’s hospital. With more than 730 square kilometers (282 square miles) burned, th...

Journalism has seen a substantial rise in philanthropic spending over the past 5 years, a study says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — There has been a “substantial” increase in philanthropic spending for journalism over the past five years, particularly outlets that serve poor and minority communities, a report issued on Thursday said — but journalists need to tighten ethical rules that govern the new spending, it recommended.The struggling news industry is increasingly relying on donations and subscriptions, although it hasn’t come close to making up for the collapse in advertising that has led to the dramatic drop in outlets that cover local news.More than half of funders surveyed by NORC at the University of Chicago said they have increased their journalism grants. Most nonprofit and for-profit news organizations report more funding.“We see many more people — and that includes people who work in philanthropy — being interested in a stronger civic infrastructure by funding local news,” said Sarah Alvarez, founder of Outlier Media, a Detroit-based news source that started in 2016 and now has...

Slain Marine’s family plans to refile lawsuit accusing Alec Baldwin of defamation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for the family of a Marine killed in Afghanistan said Thursday that a new version of a lawsuit accusing actor Alec Baldwin of unleashing his social media followers against them will soon be filed after a federal judge dismissed the original lawsuit but invited the family to rewrite it and submit it again.Attorney Dennis Postiglione, representing the sisters and widow of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, said he’ll meet a Sept. 12 deadline set by the judge to renew allegations that Baldwin subjected family members to online threats and harassment after he posted and commented on a photo shared online by one of McCollum’s sisters, Roice McCollum, who had been in Washington during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.Earlier this week, Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan dismissed the family’s defamation lawsuit, which sought $25 million in damages, but he invited a refiling of the lawsuit to correct deficiencies and renew claims of defamation and intentional inflic...