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Williams expects tough matchup as No. 10 Trojans renew rivalry at No. 21 Notre Dame

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — USC quarterback Caleb Williams expects a hard-nosed tussle under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. It doesn’t matter that the 21st-ranked Fighting Irish (5-2) are on the ropes after losing two of their last three games.Williams is familiar with the extra weight that historic rivalries carry. He led the Trojans to a 38-27 victory over Notre Dame in the regular-season finale last fall and suited up for Oklahoma in the 2021 Red River Rivalry.“No matter how good the teams are, no matter how bad the teams are, it’s just like Oklahoma and Texas,” Williams said. “When you play against a team like that, with the sense of rivalry, the game is always a little bit harder than what the teams’ records are or whatever the case may be.”No. 10 USC (6-0) has torched opposing defenses this season by scoring an FBS-best 51.8 points per game. Thus far, Williams is outperforming his historic 2022 campaign when he practically won every accolade imaginable, including AP...

Stock market today: Wall Street falls as the vise tightens from rising yields in the bond market

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Thursday as the clamps tighten on Wall Street from rising yields in the bond market. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower in afternoon trading and on track to break a four-day winning streak, its longest since August.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 204 points, or 0.6%, as of 3 pm. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower.The stock market has largely been taking its cue from the bond market recently, and weak results announced in the afternoon for an auction of 30-year Treasury bonds sent yields of all kinds of Treasurys higher. Higher yields can knock down prices for stocks, all else equal, and slow the economy by making borrowing more expensive. Yields had already been on the rise in the morning following a report that showed inflation at the consumer level was a touch higher last month than economists expected. That raises worries about the Federal Reserve keeping its main interest rate high for a long time, as it tries to...

Gaza authorities say at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on a refugee camp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza’s interior ministry on Thursday said that an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed at least 45 people and wounded dozens more.Eyad Bozum, the spokesperson of the interior ministry, told The Associated Press that a late afternoon airstrike hit the al-Shihab family house at the center of the Jabaliya camp. The al-Shihab house was packed with dozens of relatives at the time of the airstrike. Some family members had fled heavy bombing from other parts of the strip and taken refuge there. Bozum said the death toll was likely to rise from that airstrike, because civil defense workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble and counting the dead.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israel military pulverized the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said Thursday its complete siege on the terr...

French police are probing possible poisoning of Russian journalist who denounced Ukraine war on TV

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors are investigating a suspected poisoning Thursday of a Russian journalist who fled after denouncing the war in Ukraine on live TV.Marina Ovsyannikova called emergency services and was hospitalized after suddenly falling ill as she left her Paris apartment and said she suspected she was poisoned, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.Police were examining her apartment and an investigation was underway, the prosecutor’s office said.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which helped Ovsyannikova escape Russia and settle in France, said its team has been ‘’at her side’’ since she sought medical attention. The group, known also by its French acronym RSF, did not have further information about what happened.Ovsyannikova, who worked at Russian state television Channel One, drew international attention in March 2022 after appearing behind the anchor of an evening news broadcast with a sign that said, “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lyin...

California governor signs 2 major proposals for mental health reform to go before voters in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two major pieces of legislation Thursday to transform the state’s mental health system and address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis, putting them both before voters in 2024.The Democratic governor needs voters’ approval because he wants to borrow billions of dollars through a bond to pay for the proposals. They would allow the state to borrow $6.38 billion for 11,150 new treatment beds, housing and 26,700 outpatient treatment slots to serve up to 100,000 people a year. The measure also would overhaul how counties pay for mental and behavioral health programs. Newsom spoke to state and local leaders at an event Thursday in a historic hospital in Los Angeles, cheered by those present as he signed the measures. The vacant General Hospital is being converted into roughly 1,000 affordable units.Newsom said the proposals will bring accountability to the system, adding he understands why residents in C...

2nd grand jury indicts officer for involuntary manslaughter in Virginia mall shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A special grand jury in Virginia indicted a former police officer on Thursday for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed shoplifting suspect outside a suburban shopping mall.Wesley Shifflett, a Fairfax County police officer assigned to patrol the busy Tysons Corner Center shopping mall at the time of the shooting in February, was also charged with reckless discharge of a weapon. Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, was shot and killed outside the mall after two officers chased him when a security guard said he had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store. While both officers shot at Johnson, an investigation determined Shifflett fired the fatal shot, police said.In April, a grand jury declined to indict Shifflett. It was then that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano initiated a special grand jury to reinvestigate. Descano said Virginia law gives him greater ability to oversee the investigation. When the initial grand ...

Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp.Source

First-place Lions, Buccaneers look to improve on fast starts in matchup of one-loss division leaders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

DETROIT (4-1) at TAMPA BAY (3-1)Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EDT, FOXFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK NFL LINE: Lions by 3.AGAINST THE SPREAD: Detroit 4-1; Tampa Bay 3-1.SERIES RECORD: Lions lead 31-29, including postseason.LAST MEETING: Buccaneers beat Lions 47-7 on Dec. 26, 2020, in Detroit.LAST WEEK: Lions beat Panthers 42-24 in Detroit, Buccaneers bye.LIONS OFFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (7), PASS (9), SCORING (4).LIONS DEFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (3), PASS (17), SCORING (15).BUCCANEERS OFFENSE: OVERALL (22), RUSH (25), PASS (14), SCORING (T20).BUCCANEERS DEFENSE: OVERALL (11), RUSH (10), PASS (16), SCORING (8).TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Lions plus 1; Buccaneers plus-7.LIONS PLAYER TO WATCH: RB David Montgomery. The former Bears standout set a Detroit record with six touchdowns in his first four games with the franchise. ​If he runs for a score Sunday, he will be the first non-rookie in league history to have seven rushing touchdowns in his first five games with a new team. Montgomery is averaging 93 yards rushi...

Zimbabwe opposition leader demands the reinstatement of party lawmakers kicked out of Parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader on Thursday urged the Parliament speaker to reinstate 15 of his party’s lawmakers, saying they were removed from their positions because of a fraudulent letter.Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said the lawmakers’ removal was part of an attempt by the ruling ZANU-PF party “to silence us.”The issue has added to the political tension in the southern African nation since President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term and ZANU-PF retained its parliamentary majority in disputed elections in August. Chamisa rejected the results of the elections as a “blatant and gigantic fraud.”The lawmakers from Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change party were removed Tuesday after a man claiming to be the secretary-general of the CCC sent a letter to Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda saying they were being withdrawn.Chamisa told Mudenda the man who sent the letter had no authority in his party and was an impostor, and h...

Former Fairfax Co. officer who shot unarmed man outside Tysons mall indicted by special grand jury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:13:00 GMT

A former Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man suspected of shoplifting from the Tysons Corner Center mall, has been indicted by a special grand jury.Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.Shifflett shot Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, on Feb. 22 after Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson on foot outside the mall after getting a report that a man had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom store.“The work of public safety includes charging officers for crimes when such actions are legally warranted,” Descano said in a statement. “After reviewing the evidence in this case, I believe that probable cause existed that Shifflett committed a crime, and that the entirety of the evidence should be put to a jury of community members.”This is the second grand jury to investigate the sho...