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Melania Trump smiles by Trump’s side, Ivanka silent, Don Jr. fumes following indictment

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

If Donald Trump was still “absorbing” the news of indictment Thursday, he and his wife Melania put on a show of “happiness” to their guests at Mar-a-Lago, according to one of those guests.“Beautiful evening here at the gorgeous Mar a Lago!” tweeted conservative media personality and Mar-a-Lago member Gina Loudon, sharing a photo of an uncertain-looking Trump at his private Palm Beach, Florida resort, with a smiling Melania Trump by his side, dressed in a very bright red dress.  “Our REAL First Couple enveloped in the love of their friends and most loyal!”Beautiful evening here at the gorgeous Mar a Lago! Our REAL First Couple enveloped in the love of their friends and most loyal! (Sorry to disappoint, corporate media . Actually not. Screw you! This is a happiness you will never know, sadly). pic.twitter.com/IFsFU41lAd— Dr. Gina (@RealDrGina) March 31, 2023Meanwhile, Trump’s two older sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump,...

Veteran-heavy Mets ready to roll with the punches after Justin Verlander injury news

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

MIAMI — It’s not exactly uncharacteristic of the Mets to drop big news during big moments of the season. Yet when the club announced that Justin Verlander would start the year on the injured list with a shoulder (teres major) strain just hours before Thursday’s season opener, it was a shock to everyone — even his teammates.“It caught all of us off guard,” right-hander Max Scherzer said Thursday night at LoanDepot Park. “I didn’t realize he was dealing with something.”Verlander himself didn’t even realize he was dealing with something until he threw his bullpen Wednesday night. The thought occurred to him that something might be wrong after his last Grapefruit League start, but he attributed some minor soreness to some mechanical adjustments. Losing a key pitcher like that could have had a ripple effect on the clubhouse, especially since the team is without All-Star closer Edwin Diaz for the season and left-hander Jose Quint...

36 bodies found inside well after collapse at Indian temple

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

By ASHOK SHARMA (Associated Press)NEW DELHI (AP) — Thirty-six bodies have been found inside a well at a Hindu temple in central India after dozens of people attending a festival fell into the muddy water when its cover collapsed, officials said Friday.Video of Thursday’s collapse at the temple complex in Indore in Madhya Pradesh state showed chaos afterward, with people rushing away. An excavator pulled down a wall of the decades-old temple to help people flee. Nearly 140 rescuers, including army personnel, used ropes and ladders to pull the bodies from the well after pumping out the water. A narrow path and debris in the well made the task difficult.“We have recovered 36 bodies and everybody is accounted for now,” Pawan Kumar Sharma, commissioner of the local municipal corporation, told The Associated Press.The secretary of the temple board was among the dead and the president is recovering from injuries, Sharma said.Police brought a case of culpable homicid...

Italy temporarily blocks ChatGPT over privacy concerns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italy is temporarily blocking the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT in the wake of a data breach as it investigates a possible violation of stringent European Union data protection rules, the government’s privacy watchdog said Friday.The Italian Data Protection Authority said it was taking provisional action “until ChatGPT respects privacy,” including temporarily limiting the company from processing Italian users’ data. U.S.-based OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Friday.While some public schools and universities around the world have blocked the ChatGPT website from their local networks over student plagiarism concerns, it’s not clear how Italy would block it at a nationwide level. The move also is unlikely to affect applications from companies that already have licenses with OpenAI to use the same technology driving the chatbot, such as Microsoft’s Bing search engine.The AI systems that power such chatbo...

Online-streaming bill closer to passing after House OKs most Senate amendments

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

OTTAWA — A Liberal government bill that would require online streaming services to contribute to Canadian content is one step closer to passing after the House of Commons approved most of the Senate’s amendments to the proposed legislation. If passed, Bill C-11 would update broadcasting rules to include online streaming and require tech giants such as YouTube, Netflix and Spotify to make Canadian content available to users in Canada — or face steep penalties.On Thursday evening, the House agreed to adopt Senate amendments that reinforce the promotion of Indigenous languages and Black content creators, and seek to ensure that funds collected from tech giants go toward promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The move received quick praise from those who advocate for the arts and media industry. “Canadians deserve the ability to see their own stories, culture and points of view included in their content options. That is what C-11 is ultimately about,” said Neal McD...

Stocks rise as Wall Street heads for winning March, quarter

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising Friday, and Wall Street is on track to close out a winning March and first quarter of the year despite a long list of worries being thrown at it. The S&P 500 was 0.9% higher in afternoon trading. It’s on pace for a 3% gain for the month and a second winning quarter in a row after tumbling through most of last year on worries about high interest rates meant to get inflation under control. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 283 points, or 0.9%, at 33,142, as of 12:36 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher. Friday’s gains came after a report showed inflation across the United States slowed in February, though it was still high relative to history. A continued slowdown could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to take it easier on interest rates after jacking them higher at a furious pace over the last year. The threat of higher rates has been behind the stock market’s struggles since it peaked in early 2022. High rates ...

Harris visits site of grandfather’s old home in Zambia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris paused Friday during a whirlwind diplomatic swing through Africa for something much more personal: A visit to the site of her maternal grandfather’s home in Lusaka, where he lived as an Indian public servant in the 1960s.P.V. Gopalan was working with the newly independent Zambia government six decades ago on refugee resettlement and lived at 16 Independence Ave., where Harris visited as a little girl.The home no longer exists; rather, an office building now stands on the plot of land. The location was identified using plot numbers in public records and land surveys, according to a White House official.Harris on Friday said it was “very special” to go back, and she described her grandfather as “one of my favorite people” with a lasting influence on her life.“He believed in the nobility of public service, he believed in fighting corruption,” she said. “These are things he would talk about a lot, and I don’t think until I was older I r...

Review: Boygenius is cohesive and powerful in ‘The Record’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

“The Record” by Boygenius (Interscope)The internet’s favorite indie girls welcome you into the brilliant, colorful world of Boygenius, again.The supergroup, consisting of best friends Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, formed and released their critically well-received self-titled EP in 2018. Five years later, the powerhouse women of Boygenius masterfully recapture the same magic in their first full-length album, “The Record.” Cohesion within the group sneaks up on you like a shadow in the night. The album is soft, brutal and a reflection of a cruel, unrelenting world full of fatalistic imagery, but the love they’ve discovered in each other and in the music they craft together saves and reignites them.Album single “Emily I’m Sorry,” dives into Bridgers’ perspective on a past relationship, apologizing for all the wrongdoing she inflicted on Emily. Dacus and Baker seamlessly harmonize with Bridgers as she sings anxiously, “I’m 27 and I don’t know who...

Moscow prison for US reporter was used in Stalin’s purges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

Lefortovo prison, where American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been jailed on espionage charges, dates from the czarist era and has been a terrifying symbol of repression since Soviet times.The inconspicuous, pale yellow complex in eastern Moscow was built as a military penitentiary in 1881 and was used for low-ranking convicts sentenced to relatively short terms. But it gained its notoriety after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, when it became a top detention facility for the Soviet secret police.Under Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s Great Terror of mass arrests in the 1930s, Lefortovo was one of the main pre-trial detention facilities for “enemies of the people,” equipped with torture chambers to extract confessions. Stalin’s sadistic secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria, personally took part in some prisoner interrogations and executions in its basement.Vasily Blyukher, one of the highest-ranking Red Army officers, was among those who died in 1938 after being tortured in Lefortovo.A...

Missouri Planned Parenthood sues over transgender inquiry

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:08 GMT

Associated Press (AP) — Missouri’s state attorney general is investigating gender-affirming care provided by Planned Parenthood, according to a lawsuit filed by the St. Louis health provider.Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued Attorney General Andrew Bailey Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court, according to court documents. Bailey’s office demanded records from Planned Parenthood on March 14 as part of an investigation into treatments provided to transgender youths at an unrelated St. Louis clinic run by Washington University, the lawsuit claims.Planned Parenthood argues in its lawsuit that its clinic has nothing to do with the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, which came under multiple investigations following allegations of mistreatment by a former employee. Planned Parenthood is trying to block access to its records and asked Judge Elizabeth Hogan to tell Bailey he has no authority to investigate the c...