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ACLU of Virginia plans to spend over $1M on abortion rights messaging

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia says it is making a financial investment unprecedented in its history for this year’s election cycle because of the implications November’s legislative races will hold for abortion access and other policy decisions in the state.The organization — which supports abortion rights and does not issue candidate endorsements — plans to spend just over $1 million through Election Day on direct mail, digital ads and volunteer outreach to highlight candidates’ positions on abortion in five Senate districts and six House districts. “We’ve never proceeded with this kind of investment and focusing on these races in this way. And we think it’s really critical because what happens this year determines whether abortion, reproductive rights will be safe for Virginians. And not only Virginians, but people from all over the South who are traveling to Virginia to access care,” Mary Bauer, the group’s executive director, sai...

Ohio State RB Miyan Williams lost for the season due to injury. WR Emeka Egbuka (ankle) practicing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An injury requiring surgery has put an end to the season for Ohio State running back Miyan Williams, coach Ryan Day said Tuesday.Day declined to discuss specifics of Williams’ injury. The fourth-year back was unavailable for the third-ranked Buckeyes (8-0) last Saturday at Wisconsin with no explanation. The previous week he rushed for a season-high 62 yards and a touchdown in the win over Penn State.“Miyan’s done a lot of great things for us,” Day said. “It’s a big hit for the team.”Williams and No. 1 back TreVeyon Henderson have battled injuries in their Ohio State careers, including this season.Henderson returned after missing three games and was terrific against Wisconsin, rushing for 162 yards and a touchdown and adding four pass receptions for 45 yards.He and Williams were expected to be a combo this season, but they have rarely been available at the same time.The Buckeyes are nursing some other key injuries.Quarterback Kyle McCord was limping on his...

Bud Light brewer confident it can win back US drinkers, but sales are still down after backlash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Anheuser-Busch InBev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales in the third quarter, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer.The world's largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said its revenue climbed 5% to $15.6 billion for the July-September period. That was in line with Wall Street's estimates, according to analysts polled by FactSet. But revenue in the United States tumbled 13.5%. Bud Light sales plunged in early April amid a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light also angered supporters of transgender rights who felt it abandoned Mulvaney. Top spots to drink local hard cider around Denver U.S. retail dollar sales of Bud Light were down 29% in the four weeks ending Oct. 21 compared to same period a year ago, according to Nielsen data compiled by Bump Williams Consulting. They are down nearly...

Police: Miami woman arrested after threatening to kill partner, assaulting her with saucepan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

A Miami woman is facing multiple charges, including robbery, battery, and assault with a deadly weapon, following an incident that allegedly unfolded due to a dispute.Roquanda Veronica McKay,35, and the victim, who have been in a romantic relationship for approximately one year and seven months and have lived together for about eight months, reportedly engaged in an argument on Monday at their Miami-Dade residence. The dispute escalated when McKay armed herself with a saucepan and struck the victim in the head with it, according to the arrest report. She also reportedly grabbed a nightstand and hurled it at the victim. Police said McKay then armed herself with a knife and began cutting their bedroom mattress.The victim started recording McKay, who allegedly snatched the victim’s cellular phone from her hands. McKay left the residence with the victim’s property but returned later. At that point, McKay reportedly placed a knife on the victim’s neck and threatened to ...

Israeli forces confirm deadly strike on Gaza refugee camp

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Dozens of Palestinians were killed and more than 150 injured after Israeli forces said they launched an attack on Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabalia, in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territory, according to Reuters. The Jabalia refugee camp is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza with over 116,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the UN’s refugee agency. Israel’s military said, according to Haaretz, that they “have taken control of Hamas military stronghold in Jabalia” and announced they had killed a Hamas commander.This announcement comes as Israel expanded its war to include a ground operation into Gaza in recent days as Western leaders struggle to send a unified message on the Israel-Hamas war and the thousands of civilian casualties. Israel has gradually increased the number of its troops in the Gaza Strip, as part of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the “second stage of the war,” without referring to a gr...

Suggestive graffiti worries French Jews after Hamas attacks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Paris police are investigating after dozens of Jewish symbols were painted on buildings in the French capital, local prosecutors said Tuesday, as antisemitic acts continue to spike following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel in early October.Some 60 stars of David were daubed overnight on walls in the city’s 14th district, the prosecutors said in a written statement to POLITICO, prompting them to launch a probe into “property damage aggravated by the circumstance that it is because of origin, race, ethnicity or religion.”The Paris office cautioned, however, that it was not yet known whether the graffiti was hostile in intent.It has “not been established that this star has an anti-Semitic connotation, but this cannot be dismissed out of hand,” the prosecutors stated. “On the other hand, the public prosecutor’s office feels it necessary to investigate the underlying intention of these tags, particularly in view of the geopolitical context...

Ukraine steps up campaign for new weapons as Washington pivots to Israel crisis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Ukrainian officials and allies in Europe are ramping up their lobbying campaign in the U.S. for new weapons and training, as Washington’s support for the war appears imperiled by new House leadership and a crisis in the Middle East.In the most recent example, a delegation of Ukrainian officials, troops and advisers visited America’s capital late last week to share Kyiv’s latest wish list: U.S. Marine Corps training on conducting ship-to-shore operations; new air defenses to take down the Russian glide bombs that are devastating Ukrainian forces; and the long-range, single-warhead version of the Army Tactical Missile System the Biden administration secretly shipped to Ukraine last month.The representatives who came to the U.S. were aware that they needed to tailor their message to the moment.In an interview, Roman Tychkivskyy, a former Ukrainian marine who now works for Ukraine’s defense ministry, compared Russians to Hamas, the terrorist group that killed 1,400 Israelis in...

UK, US slated to announce AI safety partnership

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

LONDON — London and Washington are to announce a “close collaboration” on AI safety as early as Wednesday, a U.K and U.S. official confirmed to POLITICO. The collaboration is expected to marry new guardrails the White House placed on artificial intelligence development in this week’s executive order (EO) with existing work by the United Kingdom’s “Frontier AI Taskforce.”“We plan to announce close bilateral collaboration with the U.S. safety institute this week,” a U.K. official close to the planning of Britain’s AI safety summit told POLITICO. The person was granted anonymity to talk about the summit, which will take place at Bletchley Park on Nov. 1 and 2. Both countries will be announcing their own version of the institutes as the summit kicks off. In a speech Wednesday in London, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is representing the Biden administration at the summit, will announce the United States AI Safety Institute, which will be housed at the Department o...

A heavily armed man was found dead at a Colorado amusement park. Officials say he may have been planning a devastating attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

(CNN) — A man armed with guns and explosive devices was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at a Colorado amusement park, potentially averting “an attack of devastating proportions,” officials said.The 20-year-old’s body was found in a women’s bathroom Saturday morning before the scheduled opening time of the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office said. It appears he entered the park illegally after it had last closed.He was “armed with a semi-automatic rifle and semi-automatic handgun and multiple, loaded magazines for both weapons,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “He was wearing body armor and what appeared to be a ballistic helmet. Additionally multiple improvised explosive devices, (IEDs), were discovered with the suspect and in a vehicle associated with the suspect.”“We are, to say the least, extremely lucky that he did not fulfill whatever plan he may have intentioned,” Garfield County S...

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ review: Pizza and killer animatronics? On second thought, how about tacos somewhere?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Michael Phillips | Chicago Tribune“Five Nights at Freddy’s” isn’t half as scary as one or two of the parent-vs.-parent brawls I witnessed a few years ago at Chuck E. Cheese’s, but that’s another story, too intense for any storytelling medium.Let’s talk about this story. Video game creator Scott Cawthon’s Chuck E.-inspired 2014 phenomenon takes place in a decrepit Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzajoint, with the requisite ball pit, wonky electrical wiring and smell of death, with a whiff of sheet cake. Its threatening animatronic creatures — a bear, a bunny, a one-pawed fox, a face-eating robo-bird — run the place at night, and are inhabited by the disintegrating bodies and tortured souls of children who … well, spoiler there, a little late on the warning, sorry, moving on.In the game, you take the role of night security guard Mike. You monitor the barely functional surveillance cameras and, once the robot killers come for you, you try to stay alive. There’s a labyrinth of backstory, dripped ou...