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Adam Sandler to receive Mark Twain Prize for lifetime in comedy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

WASHINGTON — Actor-comedian Adam Sandler will be honored by comedic and entertainment royalty when he receives the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday night.Sandler, 56, first came to national attention as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” After being fired from the cast following a five-year stint, Sandler launched a wildly successful movie career that has spanned more than 30 films, grossing over $3 billion worldwide.“Adam Sandler has entertained audiences for over three decades with his films, music, and his tenure as a fan favorite cast member on ‘SNL,'” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said in a statement when Sandler’s prize was announced in December. “Adam has created characters that have made us laugh, cry, and cry from laughing.”Sandler’s top hits include “Happy Gilmore,” “The Wedding Singer” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.” Altho...

UBS buys rival Credit Suisse to ease turmoil

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

GENEVA, Switzerland — Banking giant UBS is buying its smaller rival Credit Suisse in an effort to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in global banking, Swiss President Alain Berset announced on Sunday night.Berset, who did not specify a value of the deal, called the announcement “one of great breadth for the stability of international finance. An uncontrolled collapse of Credit Suisse would lead to incalculable consequences for the country and the international financial system.”The Swiss president said the council had agreed to guarantee a total of 150 billion francs of liquidity to the 167-year-old bank, well beyond the 50 billion (54 million Swiss francs) figure that had been announced publicly. But that didn’t appear to be enough.“We noted that the outflows of liquidity and the volatility of the markets demonstrated that necessary confidence could no longer be restored, and a rapid solution guaranteeing stability was essential.”Swiss Finance Minis...

Bruins steamroll Sabres for third straight win

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

The Boston Bruins, as you’ve come to know and love them this season, are back.The B’s delivered an early knockout punch to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday at KeyBank center and cruised to a 7-0 victory, their third straight to clinch a winning record on their five-game road trip after dropping the first two to lesser opponents in Detroit and Chicago.The B’s got goals from members of all four forward lines and two defensemen for a well-rounded thumping of the Sabres, who are revealing themselves to be playoff pretenders once again.Jeremy Swayman notched his second consecutive shutout and fourth of the season with 27 stops.With the end of the regular season in sight and coming off a big win in Minnesota on Saturday, the B’s gave a couple of their big guns, Dmitry Zboril and David Krejci, the day off, though coach Jim Montgomery said the centerman was dealing with some wear and tear.While the rest mode may have signaled to some teams that this game didn’t mat...

Grizzlies’ Brooks insists hit was ‘unintentional’ in wake of $35K NBA fine for shoving Heat cameraman

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

In the wake of a $35,000 fine for what the NBA deemed “the unsportsmanlike act of shoving a camera person” during Wednesday night’s loss to the Miami Heat at Miami-Dade Arena, Memphis Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks said the act was unintentional.Addressing the incident for the first time when the Grizzlies hosted the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, Brooks said he planned to reach out to the cameraman who is a fixture at Heat home games, working as an independent contractor for Bally Sports.“It was unintentional,” Brooks said of the incident that appeared otherwise, as he unsuccessfully scrambled at the midcourt sideline to keep a ball from going out of bounds. “I was running full speed. I didn’t mean to hurt him in any way possible. I’m not that type of person.“I’m going to give him a call tomorrow to check on him and see how he is.”Brooks did not mention whether he would appeal the fine. Brooks, 27, is in the...

Governor Newsom speaks on state issues in San Diego

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- California Governor Gavin Newsom is stopping in San Diego on Sunday as part of his four-city tour to address state issues.On Thursday in Sacramento, Newsom announced plans to address California's homelessness crisis. The governor said the state will spend around $30 million to build 1,200 small homes across the state in 2023. Newsom to start California tour with homelessness proposal County officials confirmed 150 of those tiny homes will be built in the San Diego region.On Saturday in Los Angeles, the governor touted a plan to lower the cost of insulin. "We had an idea, they put the legislation into practice and now we are implementing it," Newsom stated. "A hundred million dollars we set aside, $50 million to do a manufacturing headquarters here in California. This $50 million will be established in a framework where there will be manufacturing outside the state, but for the benefit of the state."Ahead of his stop in America's Finest City, the governor made also mad...

Banking giant UBS acquiring Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Banking giant UBS is buying its smaller rival Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion in an effort to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in global banking, Swiss President Alain Berset announced on Sunday night. Berset called the announcement “one of great breadth for the stability of international finance. An uncontrolled collapse of Credit Suisse would lead to incalculable consequences for the country and the international financial system.”The Swiss Federal Council, a seven-member governing body that includes Berset, passed an emergency ordinance that allows the merger to go through without the approval of shareholders.Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann called the deal “a clear turning point.” “It is a historic, sad and very challenging day for Credit Suisse, for Switzerland and for the global financial markets,” Lehmann said, adding that the focus is now on the future and in particular on the 50,000 Credit Suisse employees, 17,000 of whom are in Switzerland.Colm Kelleher...

Gunmen kill 9 Chinese at mine in Central African Republic

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Gunmen stormed a Chinese-operated gold mining site that had recently been launched in Central African Republic, killing nine Chinese nationals and wounding two others Sunday, authorities said.However, the rebel coalition initially blamed by some for the attack put out a statement later in the day. Without providing evidence, it accused Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of being behind the violence.The attack early Sunday came just days after gunmen kidnapped three Chinese nationals in the country’s west near the border with Cameroon, prompting President Faustin Archange Touadera to plan a trip to China in a bid to reassure investors.The assault on the Chimbolo gold mine began around 5 a.m. when the gunmen overpowered the site’s guards and opened fire, said Abel Matipata, mayor of the nearby town of Bambari, located 25 kilometers (16 miles) away. The mining site’s launch had taken place just days earlier, he added.The ...

Greek city marks 80th anniversary of Auschwitz train convoy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, commemorated on Sunday the 80th anniversary of the departure of the first train convoy for the Auschwitz camp.Officials, led by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, marched from Eleftherias (“Freedom”) Square, where members of the city’s Jewish community were rounded up by the German occupying forces, to the city’s Old Train Station, where they laid red carnations on the tracks. Some marchers held a banner reading “Thessalonki Auschwitz 80 years: Never again” and white balloons carrying the same slogan were released.The first train carrying Jewish people departed from the station, which is now a freight terminal, on March 15, 1943; the last one, on Aug. 7 that year. Most Jews, more than 48,000 of them, were sent to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau sub-camp, where almost all were immediately gassed. Another 4,000 were sent to Treblinka and a smaller number to Bergen Belsen. About 90% of a once-thriving commun...

Pope Benedict XVI’s aide acknowledges criticism over memoir

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

ROME (AP) — The longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged Sunday that his tell-all memoir, published in the days after Benedict’s death, had been criticized for casting Pope Francis in an unfavorable light, but insisted that some of the polemics were more about anti-Benedict prejudice than anything else.In some of his first public comments since Benedict’s Dec. 31 death, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein said he remained loyal to Francis and that he was still waiting for the pontiff to give him a new job.Gaenswein’s future has been the subject of much speculation following Benedict’s death and the publication of “Nothing But the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.” In the memoir, Gaenswein charted his nearly 30 years working with Benedict, but also settled old scores, revealed palace intrigues and detailed some of the bad blood that accrued during the decade in which Benedict lived as a retired pope alongside Francis.Published during the emotional period around Benedict’s J...

DA weighing Trump charges won’t be intimidated by rhetoric

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is standing firm against Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile rhetoric, telling his staff that the office won’t be intimidated or deterred as it nears a decision on charging the former president.Bragg sent an internal memo late Saturday hours after Trump unleashed a three-part, all-caps social media post in which he said he could be arrested in the coming days, criticized the district attorney and encouraged his supporters to protest and “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”Bragg, whose office has been calling witnesses to a grand jury investigating hush money paid on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 campaign, did not mention the Republican by name, but made it clear that’s who he was writing about. The memo came as law enforcement officials in New York City are making security preparations for the possibility Trump is charged and appears in court in Manhattan. “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in...