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Success-starved Kings close in on long-awaited playoff berth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Sacramento Kings might just be riding the beam all the way to the NBA playoffs.The resurgent Kings are on the verge of ending the longest postseason drought in league history, with first-year coach Mike Brown employing a fast-paced offense led by the dynamic duo of De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis to put Sacramento in first place in the Pacific Division. “It’s a great feeling. It’s great because it’s my first time,” Fox said of being in the playoff hunt. “This is something we want to make annual. We want to be contending for a title. … It’s great for the city and organization. We still want bigger things for ourselves.”The Kings (43-29) are in third place in the Western Conference and might be able to clinch the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2006 during the final three games of a four-game homestand that ends Monday night against Minnesota.The 16 seasons without a playoff berth are the longest in NBA history and th...

China’s Xi invites Spanish PM on state visit next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has invited Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to Beijing for a state visit as Xi tries to galvanize support for China’s peace proposal for Ukraine.Spain’s minister for the presidency, Félix Bolaños, confirmed late Wednesday that Sánchez would visit China on March 30-31, citing Xi’s “possible mediation in the war in Ukraine” as a key reason for the visit. Spain takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency in July, and Sánchez has portrayed his nation on the world stage as a staunch NATO ally of Ukraine.He plans to hold commercially focused meetings during the Boao Forum for Asia on the Chinese island of Hainan on March 30 before traveling to Beijing to meet with Xi on March 31, Sánchez’s office said.Xi met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to promote Beijing’s peace plan for Ukraine, which Western nations have all but dismissed as unviable. Putin said it could be a basis for ending the figh...

Palestinian killed in Israeli military raid in West Bank

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian militant during a raid in the northern West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, the latest escalation of violence in what has been the deadliest start of a year for Palestinians in the occupied territory in more than two decades. Israeli forces stormed into the northern city of Tulkarem, home to an emerging militant group with ties to the armed offshoot of the nationalist Fatah party. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 25-year-old Amir Abu Khadija was shot multiple times in the head and legs. The Tulkarem branch of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed Abu Khadija as its leader.The Israeli military said Abu Khadija was wanted for recent shooting attacks on Israeli settlements and security forces. Troops raided his hideout apartment in Tulkarem and shot and killed Abu Khadija when he drew his gun, the military said, adding that the army confiscated an M-16 assault rifle and the car he allegedly ...

Denver weather: Cool Thursday with mountain snow showers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver's weather will stay cool on Thursday with isolated showers in the lower elevations and more rounds of snow in the mountains. The unsettled weather will stay in the forecast through Monday of next week. Weather today: Low 50s and breezyTemperatures on Thursday will hit the low 50s with partly cloudy skies and a 10% chance for a rain or rain and snow mixed shower Thursday evening. East High School shooting suspect found dead near car in Park County Winds will be breezy at times with gusts up to 20mph on the Front Range, but it will be calmer than Wednesday's winds. There will be scattered showers across the mountains with slick roads possible. Weather tomorrow: Similar to ThursdayFriday's temperatures will stay around the low 50s in Denver with a 20% chance for scattered showers. Once again, depending on the time, temperature, and location, a few snow showers could mix in with the rain. Totals will stay less than an inch across Eastern Colorado with no road i...

Investigation underway after shooting on SR-826 entrance ramp leaves 1 hospitalized

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

A driver is now hospitalized and in serious condition after being shot while driving on the Palmetto Expressway entrance ramp just after 2 a.m., Thursday. The Florida Highway Patrol reported that someone inside a silver vehicle opened fire on the driver of a white BMW SUV as he was heading southbound on State Road 826. Detectives investigating the incident said that two drivers were heading east on Northwest 36th Street onto the southbound entrance ramp of the Palmetto when a silver vehicle pulled up alongside the white BMW and began firing shots. The man behind the wheel of the SUV was shot several times and was rushed to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital as a trauma alert.7SkyForce showed an aerial view of the scene, revealing the bullet-riddled BMW. Meanwhile, the silver vehicle fled the scene and continued south on SR-826. The driver who was shot called 911, leading to police closing the entrance onto the Palmetto Expressway south.The closure caused delays for morning commuters, with...

Zoo Miami’s Sumatran tigress undergoes health exam ahead of transfer to Fort Worth Zoo

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

N’dari, the Sumatran tigress born at Zoo Miami on Jan. 5, 2021, underwent a thorough routine health examination Wednesday as part of her preparation for transfer to the Fort Worth Zoo later this spring. The procedures included radiographs, dental cleaning, blood collection, an abdominal ultrasound, and an eye exam. The tigress also received vaccinations for rabies and distemper. From an approximate birth weight of 3 pounds, N’dari has steadily grown and now weighs 180 pounds.N’dari is scheduled to move to the Fort Worth Zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP) recommendation. The SSP managed through the Association for Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), is a cooperative population and management program designed to maintain a healthy and self-sustaining population of most threatened and endangered species under human care. The program recommends the best pairing of animals within the program to achieve the healthiest genetic diversity.There are less than 500 Sumatran ...

Labour’s Starmer slams Boris Johnson ‘circus’ in crime-fighting pitch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

LONDON — Labour leader Keir Starmer attacked the “circus” around Boris Johnson as he tried to slot the ex-prime minister’s dramatic parliamentary grilling into an anti-crime pitch. In an address Thursday in the key election battleground of Stoke, Starmer brought up his old political foe’s interrogation by the House of Commons privileges committee. The cross-party group spent much of Wednesday afternoon probing whether Johnson misled MPs over rule-breaking gatherings in government offices at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Starmer — formerly director of public prosecutions (DPP) — sought to link the issue to his own host of anti-crime promises that he hopes will persuade voters that Labour has their back on an issue traditionally seen as a Conservative strength.The Labour leader said his own time as DPP — attacked by some Conservatives — meant he “found the pandemic parties in Downing Street under Boris Johnson so reprehensible” and the ...

How COVID-19 changed cities — and how it didn’t

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

The world ground to a halt three years ago when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Amid lockdowns, mask requirements and travel restrictions, city residents were confined to their apartments, the monotony broken up by the occasional grocery run, distanced walks on empty streets, and evening applause for emergency workers. But as the pandemic’s intensity has waned, life in cities has reverted to “normal” at impressive speed. Across Europe, people are once again commuting to workplaces, sitting in crowded restaurants and concert halls, and boarding planes. So how many of COVID’s provisional changes have become permanent, and how many have been swept away? 4 ways cities changedBike-lane boomCOVID-19 was terrible for human beings, but it gave a great boost to cycling infrastructure. One of the first cities to bet big on bicycles was Milan, which just one month into Italy’s hard lockdown unveiled its a strategy to reconfigure 35 kilome...

Cactus League report: Why Lucas Giolito likes the cool weather in Arizona this spring — and the back-end backbone of the Cubs bullpen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

The long ball carried the Cubs offense Wednesday.Cody Bellinger, Edwin Ríos and Christopher Morel all homered in a 4-2 win against the Oakland Athletics. Ríos’ two-run homer and Morel’s solo homer were each their fourth of the spring, leading the Cubs. In a bullpen game, nine pitchers combined to strike out eight A’s and walk three.Meanwhile, left-hander Drew Smyly pitched in a minor-league game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Sloan Park. He threw 80 pitches in five scoreless innings, limiting them to two hits with seven strikeouts and three walks.The Sox went 0-for-2 in split-squad action, falling 2-0 to the Texas Rangers in Peoria, Ariz., and 4-3 to the Kansas City Royals at Camelback Ranch.Mike Clevinger allowed one run on three hits with three strikeouts and one walk in five innings against the Rangers.“It was good to finally get out there and extended a little bit and get to roll the lineup over again and being able to work with (catcher) S...

Anti-Semitic reported incidents surge in Massachusetts, hit record highs in New England and US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:42 GMT

Anti-Semitic reported incidents spiked across the state last year, as the total number of incidents against the Jewish community hit record highs in New England and around the U.S., according to Anti-Defamation League officials who called it a “a grim reminder that anti-Semitism continues to infect our communities in real and pervasive ways.”The ADL’s annual “Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents” recorded a total of 204 anti-Semitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in the New England region last year — a 32% jump from 2021, and the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded in the region that covers Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont.The Bay State accounted for 152 of those 204 anti-Semitic reported incidents. Massachusetts’ total of 152 incidents was a 41% surge from the previous year, and the state recorded the sixth highest number of incidents in the country.Nationally, ADL recorded 3,697 an...