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Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard clears a key hurdle. But the $69B deal is still at risk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

By KELVIN CHAN (AP Business Writer)LONDON (AP) — The European Union on Monday approved Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, deciding the deal won’t stifle competition for popular console titles like Call of Duty and accepting the U.S. tech company’s remedies to boost competition in cloud gaming.But the blockbuster deal is still in jeopardy because British regulators have rejected it and U.S. authorities are trying to thwart it.The acquisition, sweetened by Microsoft’s promises to automatically license Activision games to cloud gaming platforms, “would no longer raise competition concerns and would ultimately unlock significant benefits for competition and consumers,” said the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm and top antitrust watchdog.The commission’s approval “has removed one potential major roadblock for this deal” but “it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re in a stronger position” to overturn the U.K.’s rejection, said Liam...

How the Knicks can be winners at the draft lottery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

The Knicks will be very interested spectators to Tuesday night’s draft lottery.Although they don’t have any of their own Ping Pong balls in the machine, the Knicks are rubbing their rabbit foot for some Mavericks bad luck.Why?There’s roughly a 20% chance that Dallas’s first-round pick falls outside of the top-10 and conveys to the Knicks this year. It’s the final payment of the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade and is top-10 protected.If the pick doesn’t convey this year, it pushes to next year and remains top-10 protected. If it’s not conveyed by 2026, it becomes two second-round picks.Karmic retribution would give it to the Knicks this year. The Mavericks, a team built to compete for a title with Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic in the backcourt, pulled the plug on their season with a few games remaining and a legitimate chance at the play-in tournament.They were open about the tanking strategy – with the logic that a top-10 draft pick was m...

Nathan Fletcher releases apology letter ahead of resignation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Hours ahead of his scheduled resignation from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Nathan Fletcher released an apology letter to his constituents and supporters.Fletcher's resignation from the District 4 seat will be effective at 5 p.m. Monday.On Mar. 29, 2023, Fletcher announced that he would be resigning from his position hours after allegations surfaced in a lawsuit filing accusing the supervisor of sexual misconduct towards a former Metropolitan Transit System employee. Timeline: Unfolding of the Nathan Fletcher scandal Days before announcing his resignation, Fletcher dropped his bid for the California State Senate 39th district seat and said that he was going on medical leave for treatment of post-traumatic stress and alcohol abuse.In the letter, Fletcher continued to deny the allegations against him, but claims he did engage in "consensual interactions" outside of his marriage. Former MTS employee allegedly assaulted by Nathan Fletcher speaks out He also...

Stevie Nicks announces San Diego stop on 2023 tour

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks has announced thirteen additional performances for her Live In Concert tour, including a stop in San Diego.The Fleetwood Mac star will be performing at Viejas Arena on Wed, Nov. 29.Tickets for the newly-added shows, including San Diego will be available for purchase on May 19 at 10 a.m. through Live Nation. Live National Presale tickets will be available at 10 a.m. on May 18.You can purchase tickets here. Danny Elfman bringing career-encapsulating show to San Diego Nicks, a legendary singer and songwriter, has seen great success as both a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, garnering over a dozen Grammy Award nominations individually and with the band.She has sung a number of classic hits such as "Dreams," "Edge of Seventeen," "Landslide" and "Rhiannon."Nicks will be joined by country music singer Ingrid Andress for the San Diego show, according to the Viejas Arena website.The second leg of the Live In Concert tour wil...

Kehinde Wiley is taking his art everywhere. But he’s still thinking about what’s next

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Kehinde Wiley was already well into his influential art career when his portrait of Barack Obama — arms crossed, perched on a chair amid brilliant foliage — was unveiled in 2018. But there’s no doubt it changed the artist’s life.Here’s one way he describes the shift: Now, should he ever show up at the bank and realize he’s forgotten his ID — which hasn’t happened yet, but still — he could say: “You know that portrait of Obama? I’m that guy, and I didn’t bring my ID, so if you could just Google that…”But Wiley, proud as he is of the groundbreaking work — an official portrait of a Black president by a Black artist — does wonder how long he’ll be referred to in that context.“I wonder if I will ever be able to do anything that lives up to the gravity of that moment,” he says. “Everybody wants to be seen in a number of different contexts … but I mean, what a great project to be involved in. So, come on, here’s the world’s smallest violin, playing just fo...

Cartier uses images of Amazon tribe devastated by illegal gold mining. Critics call that hypocrisy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) — Until two months ago, Cartier’s website showed Yanomami children playing in a green field.The French luxury jewelry brand said it was working to promote the culture of the Indigenous people and protect the rainforest where they live, in a vast territory straddling Brazil and Venezuela. But the project that the site described protecting the Amazon never took place. And Cartier published the photo without the approval of Yanomami leadership, violating the beliefs of a people who had been living in almost total isolation until they were contacted by outsiders in the 1970s.Some of the Yanomami and their defenders praise Cartier’s promotion of Yanomami causes. However, advertising by one of the world’s biggest jewelers with images of an Indigenous people devastated by illegal gold mining has some complaining of greenwashing, a corporation promoting its own image by supporting a cause.“How can a gold jewelry company, which we, the Yanomami people, are against, use...

What you need to know about a glass cliff and why it could put Twitter’s new CEO in danger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

Less than two months into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk declared that whoever took over as the company’s CEO “ must like pain a lot.” Then he promised he’d step down as soon as he found a replacement “foolish enough” to want the job.That person, Musk announced Friday, is Linda Yaccarino, a highly-regarded advertising executive from NBCUniversal. She’ll start in six weeks. How long she’ll last might depend on her pain tolerance. When Musk tweeted on Thursday that he’s found a new CEO but didn’t say who, one word stuck out: “she.” Some of his more extreme Twitter followers took immediate issue with the new CEO’s gender, but the fact that Musk hired a woman is actually notable simply because it is so rare — in business overall and especially in the tech industry — to see female chief executives. Her appointment renewed questions about the “glass cliff,” a theory that women — as well as underrepresented minorities — are more lik...

White House: Russia looks to purchase more attack drones from Iran after depleting stockpile

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday said Russia is looking to buy additional advanced attack drones from Iran for use in its war against Ukraine after using up most of the 400 drones it had previously purchased from Tehran.The Biden administration last year publicized satellite imagery and intelligence findings that it said indicated Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russia. And for months, officials have said the United States believed Iran was considering selling hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia, but Washington did not have evidence a deal was consummated.“Iran also continues to provide Russia with one-way attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Since August, Iran has provided Russia with more than 400 UAVs primarily of the Shahed variety,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “Russia has expended most of these UAVs, using them to target Ukrainian critical infrastructure inside Ukraine. By providing Russia with these UAVs, Iran has ...

The Weeknd changes name on social media to birth name Abel Tesfaye

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

TORONTO — The Weeknd is no more — and not just because it’s Monday.The Toronto-born singer has changed his display names on Instagram and Twitter to his birth name, Abel Tesfaye, though the usernames remain “theweeknd”.It comes one week after Tesfaye was quoted in W Magazine saying he was considering retiring the stage name, which he’s used for more than a decade.He told the magazine that he was ready to “close the Weeknd chapter,” though he plans to continue making music.He says he may still make music under the name, but he wants to “shed that skin and be reborn.”The shift comes just weeks before Tesfaye’s television show “The Idol” is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival.He’s set to star in the HBO show, which he co-created with “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson and nightlife entrepreneur-turned-producer Reza Fahim.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.The Canadian P...

Oakland students to return to class after district, striking teachers reach deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:20 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Students in the Oakland Unified School District will return to full classroom instruction Tuesday after the district and striking teachers announced a tentative deal that includes a reparations task force for Black students and more say from parents and teachers in school decisions.Monday’s announcement ends a strike that had kept 34,000 students out of school for more than a week. The last day of school for the district east of San Francisco is May 25. The union representing 3,000 educators, counselors and other workers walked out May 4 in a bid for traditional demands such as higher salaries. But they also wanted “common good” changes, such as reparations and resources for students who are homeless. Common good clauses that address community issues have become more of a bargaining issue, starting with Chicago in 2012 when teachers went on strike and demanded a voice in improving schools. In Oakland, the two sides agreed to a shared governance model of ...