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Celtics’ Jayson Tatum discusses relationship with Tom Brady: ‘Tom is the best’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

NEW YORK — With a day off in New York on Tuesday before Wednesday’s season opener against the Knicks, Celtics star Jayson Tatum joined a couple of other sports stars for a special surprise.Tatum teamed up with Patriots legend Tom Brady and Yankees star Aaron Judge to surprise nine children with critical illnesses through a new partnership between Fanatics and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.“It was great being around the kids who obviously were facing challenges in life but fighting to overcome those to be with their friends and families and brothers and sisters,” Tatum said. “To see the reaction on their faces when we came out on the court and played basketball and threw footballs around with them, just got to hang out with them. It was priceless.”For Tatum, it was also another opportunity to interact with Brady and continue to develop a growing relationship with him. He said he first met Brady when he was still playing for the Patriots, and they occasionally communicate with each other...

After an uneasy time in San Diego, Bob Melvin is coming home to San Francisco as Giants manager

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — At least once every time Bob Melvin visited San Francisco as a visiting manager, he allowed himself to believe that maybe someday, he would wear a Giants uniform again.Running the bleachers before games, Melvin would glance out at iconic McCovey Cove. Before the team locked up the 60-foot Coca-Cola slide beyond left field, he used to take good-luck, head-first plunges, too.On Wednesday, after buttoning up his new No. 6 Giants jersey as the franchise's 39th manager, Melvin called it “surreal” that this moment was actually happening. After 20 years as a big league manager — including a recent, turbulent end to his time managing the rival San Diego Padres — the soon-to-be 62 year old is coming home. “I think probably every series I would look in that dugout and look over to the other side and say, ‘Maybe someday, hopefully,’” Melvin said. “There were always times here, I can admit that now, that I was hoping at some point in time I'd come back.”The Giants are count...

House back in action after Mike Johnson clinches Speakership: Live coverage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

Republicans overwhelmingly backed Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.)'s bid for House Speaker on Wednesday, ending a chaotic, 22-day stretch without an elected leader in the chamber.Johnson secured 220 votes, compared to 209 for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).The fourth Speaker candidate in three weeks, Johnson won the conference's nomination on Tuesday night.Johnson, 51, has been the House GOP’s vice chairman, a junior leadership position, since 2021. He is also a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House. Follow along here for live updates.

Driver pleads guilty over 2021 crash that killed two University of B.C. students

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — The BC Prosecution Service says a Vancouver man accused in the dangerous driving deaths of two University of British Columbia students has pleaded guilty. Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman with the prosecution service, says Tim Goerner pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death earlier this month. The service says a sentencing hearing will be held for Goerner on Nov. 6. The man was originally accused of impaired driving causing death and other charges in September 2022, in relation to the deaths of Evan Smith and Emily Selwood, both 18, who were struck and killed by a vehicle that veered onto a sidewalk near the university’s Point Grey campus. At the time, the RCMP said the students had been walking just before 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2021. Mounties from Richmond and the university detachment investigated for nearly a year before charging Goerner, now aged 23.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2023. The Canadian Press

India eases a visa ban a month after Canada alleged its involvement in a Sikh separatist’s killing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Wednesday announced an easing of its visa ban on Canadian nationals imposed more than a month ago after Canada alleged that India was involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada.India announced that it will resume services for entry, business, medical and conference visas starting Thursday, according to a press release issued by the Indian High Commission in Ottawa. Emergency services will continue to be handled by the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, it said.Wednesday’s announcement could ease tensions between the two countries.A diplomatic spat erupted between them after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in suburban Vancouver in western Canada. Nijjar was a 45-year-old Sikh activist and plumber who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver. For ...

CPKC lowers earnings expectations due to ‘economic headwinds,’ port workers strike

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. is lowering its financial forecast due to economic challenges and losses stemming from the B.C. port workers strike.CEO Keith Creel says “economic headwinds” and the 13-day job action in July that shut down the country’s largest port prompted it to predict flat to slightly positive adjusted diluted earnings this year versus last.The revision marks a more pessimistic outlook than the one offered three months earlier, when the Calgary-based company projected adjusted diluted earnings would grow by mid-single digits in 2023.In the quarter ended Sept. 30, CPKC is reporting that net income fell 12 per cent to $780 million from the combined $891 million earned by Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern a year earlier — before the two railways merged in April.Despite the drop in profits, CPKC says revenues surged 44 per cent to $3.34 billion in its third quarter from a combined $2.31 billion in the same period the year before....

‘Let’s Fly,’ the latest exhibition from the Balloon Museum, awakens childlike wonder in all of us

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The first thought that comes to mind when you enter the Balloon Museum for the “Let’s Fly” exhibit is the massive scale of the art.It’s easy to think of such an environment as having either professional-level balloon art or installations that rival the scale of a Thanksgiving Day Parade float, and that would be true. But it’s the adventure of a theme park attraction that can awaken the childlike wonder in all of us.That’s definitely the intention according to Chiara Caimmi, who serves as the artistic production coordinator. She wants every installation to provide “some kind of interaction” with the audience.“Sometimes it’s a relationship with the space where you enter a new world, or you have a different perception of the space you are in. You feel little or you feel big,” Caimmi said.She calls it “an immersive experience through inflatable artwork.”“We have 14 artists involved in our New York City exhibition, and so you are going to see all of thes...

French league suspends Atal for 7 games for sharing an antisemitic message on social media

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

NICE, France (AP) — The French soccer league suspended Nice defender Youcef Atal for seven matches on Wednesday after he shared an antisemitic message on social media.Nice had already suspended Atal last week until further notice and said that he apologized for his actions. After the matter was reviewed by the French soccer federation’s ethics committee, the French league’s disciplinary commission suspended Atal.Atal’s suspension comes after the Nice public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation targeting Atal on charges “of defending terrorism” for sharing the message online. The prosecutor’s office said Atal is also being investigated for “public incitement to hatred or violence because of a particular religion.”The 27-year-old Atal, who also plays for Algeria’s national team, apologized after reportedly reposting and then deleting a video in which a Palestinian preacher made an antisemitic statement.Writing on Instagram, Atal said he understood that his post was s...

Venezuela’s attorney general opens investigation against opposition presidential primary organizers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday announced a criminal investigation into organizers of this past weekend’s primary election that was meant to let voters choose an opposition candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro next year.Attorney General Tarek William Saab told reporters the probe would look at allegations including that the independent National Primary Commission that organized Sunday’s balloting was illegally usurping the duties of a government entity.The announcement came hours after the opposition-organized commission released updated results showing participation of more than 2.4 million voters, the overwhelming majority of whom supported longtime government foe María Corina Machado. Saab said his investigation also would look into allegations of identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy.“As we know, an act of buffoonery took place Sunday, a kind of theater to deceive both national and international public opinio...

Canada Growth Fund invests $90M in Calgary geothermal company

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

CALGARY — A geothermal energy company is the first recipient of funding from the Canada Growth Fund, the federal government’s new $15-billion arm’s-length public investment vehicle.Calgary-based Eavor Technologies Inc. has developed a proprietary closed-loop geothermal system that the company says can be used to produce clean, reliable baseload heat and power.The Canada Growth Fund has committed $90 million of Series B preferred equity in the company, to help Eavor grow its business while retaining intellectual property and creating jobs in Canada.Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the creation of the Canada Growth Fund in the 2023 federal budget.The fund is meant to help Canada’s economy transform and grow on the path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Its mandate is to invest in Canadian clean technology businesses that are developing technologies at the commercialization stage.One of the goals of the fund is to help bridge the liquidity gap in the Canadia...