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Monday night’s $785M Powerball jackpot is 9th largest lottery prize

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa — The ninth-largest lottery jackpot will be on the line Monday night when numbers are drawn for a $785 million Powerball prize.The payout has grown so large because it has been building for more than two months, since a player in California matched all six numbers on July 19 and won $1.08 billion. That’s 28 consecutive drawings without a big winner.That winless streak is due to the miserable odds of winning the Powerball jackpot, at 1 in 292.2 million. It’s those long, long odds that result in such large top prizes, as they cause the jackpot to roll over week after week.Although the game highlights the $785 million prize, that is for a winner who is paid through an annuity over 30 years. Winners almost always choose the cash payout option, which for Monday night’s drawing would be $367 million.The giant jackpot would also be subject to federal taxes, and some states also tax lottery winnings.Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, ...

Writers’ union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood studios to end historic strike

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

By ANDREW DALTON (AP Entertainment Writer)LOS ANGELES (AP) — Screenwriters’ union leaders and Hollywood studios have reached a tentative agreement to end a historic strike after nearly five months, raising hopes that a crippling shutdown of film and television filming is near an end.Actors remain on strike, but movement on the writers’ demands could mean that the actors will find a resolution soon as well. The Writers Guild of America announced the deal Sunday in a joint statement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents studios, streaming services and production companies in negotiations. The agreement must be approved by the guild’s board and members before the strike officially ends, and that could happen this week.“WGA has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP,” the guild said in an email to members. “This was made possible by the enduring solidarity of WGA members and extraordinary s...

London police call for backup as armed officers lay down guns after colleague charged with murder

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — London police have been forced to call on neighboring departments and the military for backup after scores of specially trained firearms officers refused to carry guns after a murder charge was filed against one of their colleagues.The action deepened the sense of crisis in Britain’s largest police force, which is struggling to restore public confidence after a series of scandals and an independent review that found it was riddled with institutional racism, sexism and homophobia.Commissioner Mark Rowley, who heads the Metropolitan Police Service, called for greater clarity on the rules governing the use of lethal force and legal protections for officers when they make split-second decisions to fire their weapons. But that only fueled the concerns of some campaigners who said there is already a “lack of accountability” in the police force. “Police cannot be judge, jury and executioner and must not be above the law,” said Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, a charity foc...

Book Review: ‘American Gun’ is a haunting look at the AR-15’s role in our violent era

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A decade before the school shooting at Columbine and more than two decades before the massacre at Uvalde, a man armed with an AK-47 fired his rifle at a crowded elementary playground in California, killing five children and injuring 31 others.The 1989 Stockton shooting, recounted in “American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15,” was at that point the worst shooting at an elementary school in the country’s history. It prompted a prophetic question from a local school official who asked whether “we need a plan where kids are told to hit the deck like air raid drills.”In “American Gun,” Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson trace how gun violence has transformed the country from one where such drills seemed outlandish to one where active-shooter drills and alerts are a constant part of life.McWhirter and Elinson chronicle that haunting evolution by focusing on the history of the AR-15 -style rifle that has been used in many mass ...

Sex abuse allegations against a deceased cardinal add to the German church’s troubles

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A scandal centering on sexual abuse allegations against a long-deceased cardinal has created a “very difficult situation” for the troubled Catholic Church in Germany, a top German bishop said Monday, hours after a statue of the late cleric was removed from its perch outside Essen Cathedral. The accusations against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991, added to a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy that has shaken the German church. Last week, the Essen diocese said there were suspicions that Hengsbach may have abused a 16-year-old girl in the 1950s when he was an auxiliary bishop in nearby Paderborn, and that another person — according to German news agency dpa, also a woman — also accuses him of abusing them in 1967, when he was bishop of Essen.In a letter to parishes released on Friday, Essen’s current bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck, apologized for his mistakes in handling the allegations. He said he had heard about the first accusation in 2011 but di...

Interest rates will stay high ‘as long as necessary,’ the European Central Bank’s leader says

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The head of the European Central Bank said Monday that interest rates will stay high enough to restrict business activity for “as long as necessary” to beat back inflation because upward pressure on prices “remains strong” in the 20 countries that use the euro currency.Christine Lagarde said “strong spending on holidays and travel” and increasing wages were slowing the decline in price levels even as the economy stays sluggish. Annual inflation in the eurozone eased only slightly from 5.2% in July to 5.3% in August.“We remain determined to ensure that inflation returns to our 2% medium-term target in a timely manner,” Lagarde told the European Parliament’s committee on economic and monetary affairs. “Inflation continues to decline but is still expected to remain too high for too long.”The ECB last week raised its benchmark deposit rate to an all-time high of 4% after a record pace of increases from minus 0.5% in July 2022. Analysts think the ECB may be done...

Egypt sets a presidential election for December with el-Sissi likely to stay in power until 2030

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt will hold a presidential election over three days in December, officials announced Monday, with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi highly likely to remain in power until 2030.Waleed Hamza, the chairman of the National Election Authority, said the vote will take place on Dec. 10-12, with a runoff on Jan. 8-10 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. Egyptian expatriates will vote on Dec. 1-3, and in the runoff on Jan. 5-7, he added.A handful of politicians have already announced their bids to run for the country’s highest post, but none poses a serious challenge to el-Sissi, who has been in power since 2014 and has faced criticism from the West over his country’s human rights record. El-Sissi, a former defense minister, led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013 amid street protests against his one-year rule. Since then, authorities have launched a major crackdown on dissent. Thousands of government critics have been sil...

Philippine coast guard says it removed barrier placed by China’s coast guard in disputed shoal

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine coast guard said Monday it has complied with a presidential order to remove a floating barrier placed by China’s coast guard to prevent Filipino fishing boats from entering a lagoon in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.Philippine officials condemned the installation of the 300-meter (980-foot) -long barrier at the entrance to the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal as a violation of international law and their Southeast Asian nation’s sovereignty. The Philippine coast guard’s report that it has removed the barrier underscores intensifying Philippine efforts to fight China’s increasingly aggressive actions, against many odds, in one of the world’s most hotly contested waters.Chinese coast guard vessels laid the rope and net barrier, held up by buoys, last week as a Philippine government fisheries vessel approached and more than 50 Philippine fishing boats swarmed outside the shoal, the Philippine coast guard said.The Philippine coast guard said...

Military drops one of the sexual misconduct charges against Lt.-Gen. Steve Whelan

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The military has dropped one of the charges related to alleged sexual misconduct against Lt.-Gen. Steve Whelan, who was removed from his job as head of military personnel in 2021 after the allegations were made.Whelan was set to face a court martial this morning on two charges of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline.One of those charges was related to what the military called an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.The military prosecution says that charge has been withdrawn.Whelan has pleaded not guilty to a second charge, an allegation that he inappropriately changed a performance evaluation report for Warrant Officer Dana Mills in 2011.The prosecution says the pair had a personal relationship that included “flirtatious email exchanges,” and that their relationship changed while they were deployed together.In an opening statement, the prosecution told the court martial that Mills complained her evaluation report was scored too low after she re...

Report: More details emerge on Alan Williams' resignation

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

CHICAGO —Before another rough game for the Bears on the field on Sunday, there were more details that emerged on the resignation of Alan Williams last week.Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, the defensive coordinator left the team, in part, due to what has been described as "inappropriate activity." While there was no criminal activity, according to the report, the Bears' human resources department was involved in the process that would lead up to Williams' resignation.As of now, the Bears have been mum on the reasons for the defensive coordinator's abrupt resignation. There has been no "thank you" or "best wishes" given to Williams on social media from the team, with players and coaches having little to say about the resignation. As bizarre of a week as it gets for the Bears Williams released a statement on Wednesday saying that he did so to "take care of my health and my family."The defensive coordinator joined the Bears along with Eberflus in the winter of 2022 after working with him ...