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Raptors promise more activity, teamwork on offense under new coach Darko Rajakovic

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

TORONTO RAPTORS Last season: 41-41, lost to Chicago in play-in tournamentCoach: Darko Rajakovic (first season)What to expect: Rajakovic was hired to reinvigorate a Raptors team that went stale last season, going 41-41 in the final year of Nick Nurse’s Toronto tenure. The second Serbian head coach in league history, Rajakovic has promised a more active offensive approach with “interchangeable pieces, multiple players contributing.” While All-Star guard Fred VanVleet is no longer one of Toronto’s contributors after signing with Houston, Rajakovic and the Raptors have plenty of options remaining in All-Star Pascal Siakam, former Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes, defensive stalwart O.G. Anunoby, guard Gary Trent and center Jakob Poeltl. Also new in Toronto this season is Dennis Schroder. The German guard signed with the Raptors shortly before leading his nation on an undefeated World Cup run, beating Serbia in the gold-medal game and taking home tournament ...

Stock market today: Wall Street slumps again as it closes its worst week in a month

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is closing out its worst week in a month with more losses on Friday.The S&P 500 was 0.8% lower in morning trading and on track to break a two-week winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 191 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower.The stock market has been struggling under the weight of the bond market, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury has shot to the edge of 5% for the first time since 2007. High yields make borrowing more expensive for everyone, and they slow the economy while dragging on prices for stocks and other investments.The yield on the 10-year Treasury was sitting at 4.93%, down from 4.99% late Thursday. But it was again just a hair below 5% earlier in the morning, according to Tradeweb. It’s been catching up to the Federal Reserve’s main interest rate, which is already above 5.25% at its highest level since 2001.Yields swung a day earlier after investors took comments f...

A stampede in Kenya leaves 6 dead and about 100 injured during an event marking an annual holiday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A stampede in Kenya during celebrations to mark an annual public holiday killed at least six people on Friday and injured 100 others, authorities said.The stampede happened when thousands of people struggled to get inside Kericho stadium in western Kenya at dawn, police said. The stadium was the venue for this year’s Mashujaa Day, which means Heroes’ Day in Swahili.Health officials said they fear the death toll could rise. A local media cameraman at the scene told The Associated Press that “it was like a scene from hell.”“People were trying to run away but because it had rained, they kept being stuck in the mud and bodies kept piling on bodies,” said Festus Kirui. “Their shoes were stuck in the mud. And you can see that these people struggled a lot to try to get out.”President William Ruto, who addressed thousands of people at the stadium about four hours later, didn’t mention the stampede. He instead dedicated his speech to his plans fo...

Protesters in several countries demonstrate over Israeli airstrikes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

Thousands of people in Muslim countries and beyond held demonstrations Friday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to Israel’s blockade and airstrikes in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by fighters from the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.Demonstrators gathered in Iraq at the country’s border crossing with Jordan; in locations across Egypt; in Turkey’s capital Ankara and its most populous city of Istanbul; and in Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. A Tuesday night explosion at a Gaza City hospital tending to wounded Palestinians and residents seeking shelter was a prominent theme in some of the demonstrations. The cause of the blast at al-Ahli Hospital has not been determined.U.S. assessments said the explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike, as the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza initially reported. Israel has presented video, audio and other evidence it says proves the blast was caused by a rock...

SAG-AFTRA asks striking actors to avoid certain costumes this Halloween

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

Watch Video: SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood studios suspend negotiationsSAG-AFTRA is asking members to stick to the basics this Halloween as the actor’s strike nears its 100th day.On Thursday, the guild asked that actors not dress up as popular characters from struck content —such as “Barbie,” Marvel superheroes or “Wednesday Addams”— to not break strike rules.Instead, the Screen Actors Guild told members to choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures like ghosts, skeletons or spiders.Other costume options included characters from non-struck animated television shows, according to the guild.“Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract,” the guild said.If members decide to dress up in costumes inspired by struck content, the guild asks that they don’t post it to social media.The guidance comes as the Screen Actors G...

The 5 highest - and lowest - paying college degrees in Denver

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Student loan payments are due once again, marking the first time in over three years many have had to pay up for their college education. If you're among those, you may be even more aware of the payoff — large or small — of attending college and getting your degree.Here in Denver, that may be especially true, depending on the degree you have. Overall, the U.S. Census Bureau found Americans with bachelor's degrees earned, on average, $74,154 in 2022, roughly $600 below the national average of all earners, regardless of their education. Colorado adults: Can you answer these 5th-grade state math test questions? There are, however, degree-holders earning much more — and much less — than that. According to data released by the Census Bureau this week, roughly 37% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 have a bachelor's degree. Of the roughly 1.7 million people living within the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area, nearly 51% have a bachelor's degree — the fifth-highest rate of...

One month after experimental pig heart transplant, doctors say they see no signs of rejection or infection

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

(CNN) — One month after an experimental procedure to transplant the heart of a genetically modified pig into a patient with end-stage heart disease, doctors say the heart is functioning on its own and shows no signs of rejection.In September, 58-year-old Lawrence Faucette underwent the surgery, only the second ever performed in a human. Faucette’s heart disease and pre-existing conditions made him ineligible for a traditional human heart transplant.“The physicians taking care of him believe his heart function is excellent,” said Dr. Bartley Griffith, director of the Cardiac and Lung Transplant Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who performed the surgery.“We’ve had no evidence of infections and no evidence of rejection right now.”Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, director of UMMC’s Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program, said in an update shared on Friday, “we are withdrawing all the drugs that were initially supporting his heart. So now his heart is doing everything on its ...

Judge threatens to hold Donald Trump in contempt after deleted post is found on campaign website

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial judge threatened Friday to hold the former president in contempt, raising the possibility of fining or even jailing him because a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer remained visible for weeks on his campaign website after the judge had ordered it deleted.Judge Arthur Engoron said the website’s retention of the post was a “blatant violation” of his Oct. 3 order requiring Trump to immediately delete the offending message. The limited gag order, hours after Trump made the post on the trial’s second day, also barred him and others involved in the case from personal attacks on members of Engoron’s judicial staff.Engoron did not immediately rule on potentially sanctioning Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but noted that “in this current overheated climate” incendiary posts can and have led to harm.Trump, who returned to the trial Tuesday and Wednesday after attending th...

Florida man convicted of murdering wife in dispute over ‘Zombie House Flipping’ appearance

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been found guilty of murdering his wife after a dispute over whether they should appear together on a home-renovation television show.David Tronnes was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday for the 2018 death of Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, who prosecutors said was beaten and strangled to death in their Orlando house. Tronnes was sentenced to life in prison immediately after jurors returned the guilty verdict following almost five hours of deliberations.According to prosecutors, Tronnes had spent thousands of dollars on home renovations in hopes of appearing on the A&E reality show “Zombie House Flipping,” which is filmed in Orlando. Cooper-Tronnes refused to appear on the show, which upset Tronnes and led to arguments.Cooper-Tronnes was killed in the bedroom, and Tronnes attempted to clean up the scene before police arrived, according to evidence presented at trial. Tronnes claimed he found his wife in the bathtub after spending th...

EU’s two presidents, von der Leyen and Michel, to hold separate Biden meetings

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:14:44 GMT

WASHINGTON — EU leaders in Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday had an important objective: projecting a united front after days of mixed messages on the Israel crisis. But even before the meeting started, the divides were on full display. European Council President Charles Michel, who is visiting the White House for the first time, will hold a bilateral meeting with Biden in the Oval Office ahead of the EU-U.S. summit. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will instead join the U.S. leader for a scheduled walk through the Rose Garden after the meeting. The arrangement speaks to an increasingly problematic issue facing the EU as it engages internationally — working out who speaks for Europe on foreign policy. Von der Leyen, who heads the EU executive, and Michel, the former Belgian prime minister who leads the European Council representing the bloc’s 27 national governments — have a notoriously tetchy relationship.The latest b...