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Elon Musk’s Twitter begins purge of blue check marks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

  (CNN) — Elon Musk’s Twitter on Thursday began a purge of blue verification check marks from users who have not signed up for its subscription service, with the checks disappearing from the accounts of journalists, academics and celebrities.The blue checks even disappeared from the accounts of some of the most well-known and widely followed people on the social network, including Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Bill Gates, Pope Francis, former president Donald Trump and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.Some government agencies — including the official account for US Citizenship and Immigration Services and accounts for some state Customs and Border Patrol offices — also lost their blue checks, which weren’t immediately replaced by the gray checks Twitter has designated for government accounts.The initial rollout of the change appeared to be fairly glitchy, as blue checks disappeared and reappeared on some accounts. Some other high-profile legacy verified accounts al...

Cooler and cloudy today, rain tomorrow

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

7Weather- Today is the better day of our weekend to get outside, and it’s Earth Day, so why not enjoy the outdoors! We’ll keep a lot of clouds around with an increasing breeze and cooler temperatures. Tomorrow, even cooler with rain and a wind that gets gusty for some.Clouds gathered overnight keeping our lows in the 40s. We’ll continue to see overcast skies. Similar to yesterday, we have an east/southeast wind. That onshore wind will pull from the cool Atlantic water (46°) and push inland. Towns along the coast and north of Boston will stay cooler. The breeze will pick up this afternoon. It’ll feel a few degrees cooler than what your temperature reads if you’re around the city today and this evening. You’ll likely want a thicker jacket!This evening we’re still dry. There could be a spot shower, especially farther inland ahead of the band of showers. The line of showers we’re watching to our west is to slow to move in. Waking up tomorr...

Mike Lupica: Jalen Brunson the game-changer the Knicks need as they aim to end playoff drought

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

There was that moment, on a night out of the past at Madison Square Garden, at this big, loud basketball time in the city when the Knicks are finally trying to do something at this time of year, when Jalen Brunson did a Clyde thing. Which figured, just because of the occasion.It was in the second quarter, and it ended the 10-2 run when the Knicks were turning the game, and the night, their way for good. It was Brunson, the guy the Knicks needed even more than they knew, against Donovan Mitchell, the guy they had tried so hard and so mightily to get before they got Brunson.And Brunson stole the ball.The most complete point guard the Knicks have had since Walt (Clyde) Frazier picked him pickpocket clean. Donovan was trying to make a move to his left and Brunson flashed out, and now the ball was in his hands and going the other way, the play ending with Brunson actually making a silky dunk to make the game 36-27 for the Knicks.Brunson had started slowly on Friday night the way his team...

Pete Alonso homers again, Joey Lucchesi delivers career performance as Mets blank Giants, 7-0

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — The Mets had a likely hero and an unlikely one in their 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night at Oracle Park.Pete Alonso hit his 10th home run of the season to pad his league lead and set a new franchise record for the most home runs through the months of March and April. The two-run dinger was his second in as many nights and it came off right-hander Anthony DeSclafani in the fifth inning to put the Mets up by four. Alonso also hit a two-run single in the ninth for his second four-RBI night in a row, and his 23 is tied for the league lead.The unlikely hero was Joey Lucchesi, who was called up earlier in the day to make a start in place of the injured Carlos Carrasco. The left-hander blanked the Giants (9-13) for seven innings to become the first Mets starter to even reach the seven-inning mark this season.“He was lights out,” Alonso said.Lucchesi, who grew up across the bay from San Francisco in Newark and played college ball at nea...

Ira Winderman: Heat feeling a draft, and already a bit lucky

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

Even before last Monday’s tiebreaker drawing for position in the NBA Draft, even before this playoff run comes to a close, the Miami Heat’s draft room appreciated the work ahead.Now locked into, at least for the moment, the No. 18 selection in the June 22 draft, by virtue of winning a draw for that position over the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, the totality of the work to follow can begin to be appreciated.Because once again, the little things will matter.For most of this past season, with the Heat hard up against the punitive luxury tax, the 15th and final roster spot was left vacant.For most of the past decade, an honorarium roster spot was set aside for Udonis Haslem.Now seemingly locked into the tax for 2023-24 and with Haslem retiring, that means two more roster spots come into play for assistant general manager Adam Simon and the rest of the Heat’s draft-evaluation staff.“This year you were at 14 most of the year,” he said. R...

Will Fox settlement alter conservative media? Apparently not

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit over its airing of 2020 election lies, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything had changed there.Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham led their shows Thursday talking about Hunter Biden, the president’s son. Ingraham’s show warned, “The left wants the government to be your only family.” Hannity targeted familiar villains — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Vice President Kamala Harris. Carlson mocked a speech on racial equity, saying it meant “that straight white men are bad.”Experts doubt the settlement will lead to much of a course correction in conservative media, save for a little less specificity to avoid future lawsuits.So far, that’s been the chief result of a Connecticut jury’s verdict last year that Alex Jones must pay $965 million to parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims, after claiming the 2012 massacre was a hoax and t...

Like US, Brazil beset by school violence, but seeks own path

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

About two weeks after a man killed four children in a Brazilian daycare center, authorities already have rounded up some 300 adults and minors nationwide accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence.Little has been revealed about the unprecedented crackdown, which risks judicial overreach, but it underlines the determination of the country’s response across federal, state and municipal levels. Brazil’s all-hands effort to stamp out its emerging trend of school attacks stands in contrast to the U.S., where such attacks have been more frequent and more deadly for a longer period, yet where measures nowadays are incremental.Actions adopted in the U.S. – and some of its perceived shortcomings – are informing the Brazilian response, said Renan Theodoro, a researcher with Center for the Study of Violence at the University of Sao Paulo.“We have learned from the successes and the mistakes of other countries, especially the United States,” Theodoro told The Associa...

‘It’s a game-changer’: New antibody drug to help prevent serious RSV in babies approved

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

Health Canada has approved a new antibody drug to help protect babies from serious illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.Nirsevimab, also known by its brand name Beyfortus, was authorized on April 19. It was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. Nirsevimab is “a monoclonal antibody to prevent serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in newborns and infants during their first RSV season,” Health Canada spokesman Mark Johnson said in an email to The Canadian Press on Friday.The drug, which is given by injection, is also authorized for children up to two years of age if they are at risk of serious infection, he said.Monoclonal antibodies are made in a laboratory to mimic natural antibodies to prevent or treat diseases. Nirsevimab attaches to a protein on the surface of the virus and hinders its ability to enter the body’s cells, especially those in the lungs, according to the European Medicines Agency...

Pittsburgh Jews keep defying hate as synagogue trial nears

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system. Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that ...

Truck driver uninjured after utility poles crash through windshield on Florida interstate

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:34 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The driver of a semi-truck was miraculously uninjured after two utility poles flew through the cab of his truck on Friday morning.The accident, which occurred on Interstate 275 in Tampa, took place at approximately 10:30 a.m. The Florida Highway Patrol said the 33-year-old driver of the truck reported seeing a vehicle parked on the outside shoulder of the highway. This "phantom vehicle," as the Florida Highway Patrol called it, then veered into the right lane and cut him off, the driver said. PHOTOS: Car crashes into second story of California home The driver then slammed on the brakes, causing two utility poles to break free from tie-downs on the trailer and crash through the cab of the truck. Aerial footage showed the poles sticking out through both the front and rear windshields. The driver was somehow uninjured, the highway patrol confirmed.(FHP)(WFLA)The poles were made of metal and concrete and belonged to Duke Energy, according to the Florida Highway Pa...