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Wembanyama, countrymen at French flair to international class of NBA draft prospects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama wasn’t the only young French prospect turning heads overseas.Granted, fans would have had to look much farther to find Rayan Rupert, who played for the New Zealand Breakers. He is among the international prospects expecting to hear their names called at the NBA draft on Thursday in New York. They don’t possess Wembanyama’s size and skills but they’re confident they can make an impact.There’s a distinct French flavor in this year’s draft class. Wembanyama and Rupert are French, as is Bilal Coulibaly, Wembanyama’s teammate with Metropolitans 92.Here’s a look at some of the top international prospects other than Wembanyama:RAYAN RUPERT, NEW ZEALAND BREAKERSSTRENGTHS: Rupert is a tenacious defender with a 7-foot-2 wingspan who likens his game to Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets. Standing 6-6 without shoes, the 193-pound swingman was part of the National Basketball League’s Next Stars program and just turned 19. H...

El rey Carlos III cabalga en su primer desfile oficial por su cumpleaños

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

(CNN) — Carlos III revive este sábado una tradición real al participe a caballo en el primer Trooping the Colour de su reinado, que marca el cumpleaños oficial del soberano británico.Este tradicional espectáculo militar es uno de los actos principales de la agenda real y atrae a grandes multitudes al centro de Londres. El verdadero cumpleaños de Carlos es en noviembre y suele celebrarse en privado.El rey se une a 1.500 soldados, 300 caballos y cientos de músicos que desfilarán desde el Palacio de Buckingham hasta Horse Guards Parade, en St James’s Park, para asistir a la ceremonia, presenciada por los miembros de la familia real.¿Por qué el rey Carlos III celebra dos cumpleaños? El origen del desfile Trooping the ColourEs la primera vez que un monarca reinante participa en la procesión desde que lo hiciera la reina Isabel II en 1986.Le acompañan a caballo los coroneles reales, entre ellos el príncipe Guillermo, que es coronel de la Guardia Galesa, y la princesa Ana, Bast...

Italy puts brakes on Pirelli’s Chinese shareholder

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

The Italian government has limited the powers of China’s Sinochem as a shareholder of tire maker Pirelli on national security grounds.Rome deemed the sensors that are installed in tires made by Pirelli as a “critical technology of national strategic importance” and imposed measures including restrictions to the access of strategic information and higher vote thresholds (four-fifths of the company’s board) to take strategic decisions, the government said in a statement Friday evening. The new vote threshold would prevent Sinochem from designating the chief executive officer of Pirelli despite being the company’s majority shareholder. Restrictions “are intended to create a network of measures that protect: the autonomy of Pirelli & C. S.p.A and its management; the security of procedures; the protection of information of strategic importance; and the know-how possessed by the company,” the government in Rome said. The decision has been take...

Boris Johnson breached government rules with Daily Mail gig, watchdog says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson breached the U.K.’s ministerial code by accepting a columnist job for the Daily Mail without waiting for the opinion of the committee in charge of assessing former officials’ new positions.The U.K.’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) said that Johnson was in “clear breach”of government rules outlined in a so-called “ministerial code” as he didn’t wait for the committee’s decision before accepting the new job.“The ministerial code states that ministers must ensure that no new appointments are announced, or taken up, before the committee has been able to provide its advice,” ACOBA said in a statement reported by the BBC and other media. “An application received 30 minutes before an appointment is announced is a clear breach,” ACOBA said.In his first column published on Friday afternoon, Johnson wrote about his attempts to lose weight wit...

Major ‘Jeopardy!’ flub has producers saying ‘forget it ever happened’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

(CNN) — What is … going on with “Jeopardy?”A recent “Jeopardy!” episode with fewer buzzer hits than usual has left producers wanting to move on fast.The show’s producer Sarah Foss and former champion Buzzy Cohen appeared on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast last week to discuss the episode, during which all three contestants failed to buzz in on 23 different clues. Contestants Collette Lee, Kristine Rembach and returning champion Suresh Krishnan stood stumped during the categories.Foss said it’s not something producers enjoy seeing.“One thing that was not so great about this game, in this game — this has to be a record — 23 triple stumpers. And it’s something we never like to see,” she said.Cohen added the silence was “not good,” blaming the lack of answers on the contestants’ moods.“You know, it’s the last game before lunch,” Cohen said of the episode’s taping. “Maybe everyone’s a little hungry or sleepy.”Five “Jeopardy!” episodes are taped in just one day, Co...

Biden’s ‘God save the Queen’ remark at CT gun safety summit causes confusion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

President Joe Biden’s closing statement following his keynote speech at the National Safer Communities Summit at the University of Hartford on Friday has come into question.During his last few seconds on the stage at the summit, Biden said “God Save the Queen, man” to a crowd made up mostly of gun reform activists, gun violence survivors and families of shooting victims.Biden traveled to West Hartford on Friday to celebrate one year since the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun law passed by Congress in 30 years.After his statement stirred questions and was trending on social media, a spokesperson for the White House said Friday evening that the president was responding to someone in the crowd when he made the comment.“He couldn’t do the full ropeline due to weather, and was commenting to someone in the crowd,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said via email.WATCH: Biden finishes gun control speech with curious 'God...

Saudi FM in Tehran as part of restoration of diplomatic ties after a 7-year rift

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat arrived in the Iranian capital on Saturday, the latest step in the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two Mideast rivals, Iranian state media reported.The state-run IRNA said that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is going to meet his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran.Prince Faisal is expected to officially inaugurate the kingdom’s embassy, later on Saturday, in the capital.Both nations reopened their diplomatic missions in recent weeks.In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies after seven years of tension.It was a major diplomatic breakthrough brokered by China, lowering the chance of further conflict between Riyadh and Tehran — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.The Associated Press

Trump’s legal troubles anger some GOP voters. Still, it’s no sure bet they will back him in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Kathleen Evenhouse took a break from her work in the corner of a small-town Iowa coffee shop to slam the federal criminal indictment of Donald Trump as patently political, the work of a U.S. Justice Department she says is awash in hypocrisy. “I think we’re playing a game as a country,” the 72-year-old author from Pella said in an interview, expressing a sentiment widely shared among conservatives since the former president was charged. “I think that damages any sense of justice or any sense of — should I even bother to vote? Why should I listen to the news? Or why should I care?”Evenhouse does plan to vote in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucuses next year. Despite her anger about Trump’s plight, he will not win her support. Many voters in early states who will play an outsize role in deciding his political fate agree that he is being treated unfairly. While there is widespread distrust of the Justice Department and it...

German police arrest truck driver accused in crash that killed Italian cyclist Rebellin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

ROME (AP) — Police in Germany have arrested a truck driver accused in the crash in Italy last year that killed professional cyclist Davide Rebellin, Italian prosecutors said Saturday.Wolfgang Rieke is accused of road homicide and leaving the scene of a crash. Vicenza prosecutor Lino Giorgio Bruno said he was arrested Thursday in Muenster on a European arrest warrant. German authorities said he had surrendered.Rebellin, one of cycling’s longest-serving professionals, was killed Nov. 30 during a training run near the northern Italian town of Montebello Vicentino. At the time, Italian media reported the truck that struck him didn’t stop. But prosecutors, citing roadside video and witness photos, said the driver stopped, got out of the cab and approached Rebellin, and then got back in the truck and left the scene.The investigation identified the truck as belonging to a shipping firm based in Recke, Germany, and Rieke as the driver. After the crash, the truck continued on to its destinat...

Blinken set for high-stakes China visit with tensions rising and breakthrough prospects low

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:22 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on a high-stakes diplomatic trip to China to try to cool down escalating tensions between the two powers that have set many around the world on edge. Blinken will be the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office, and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years. Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as already ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years. Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.Blinken arrives in Beijing on Sunday for two days of talks. He expects to meet with Qin on Sunday, Wang, and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, according to U.S. officials. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to Blinken’s trip early at a meeting last yea...