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US Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to pocketing bribes in a wide-ranging corruption case

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of pocketing bribes of cash and gold bars in exchange for wielding his political influence to secretly advance Egyptian interests and do favors for local businessmen.Menendez made his initial court appearance in Manhattan’s federal court days after prosecutors unsealed an indictment alleging vast corruption by the Democrat, who was forced to step down as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted. A lawyer entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.A defiant Menendez has said allegations that he abused his power to line his pockets are baseless. He has said he is confident he will be exonerated and has no intention of leaving the Senate.Still, calls for Menendez to resign continued to mount on Wednesday with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, saying “he should step down.” More than half of Senate Democrats have n...

Dolphins set numerous records in their blowout win over Broncos but miss out on a few more

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

The records kept getting set almost as fast as the Miami Dolphins scored last week against the Denver Broncos.The first team ever with 10 touchdowns from scrimmage, the first to gain at least 350 yards through the air and on the ground, a record-tying two players with four touchdowns.The Dolphins fell short of a few other notable marks in the 70-20 victory thanks in part to mercy by the coaching staff and a statistical quirk.With a chance to become the first team since 1966 to top the 70-point mark in a game, coach Mike McDaniel had Mike White take a knee on fourth down from the Denver 27 with 33 seconds left.That’s in stark contrast to the decision Washington coach Otto Graham made the last time a team scored 70 points in a game.Graham sent out kicker Charlie Gogolak for a 29-yard field goal in the closing seconds of a 72-41 win over the Giants on Nov. 27, 1966. Had McDaniel done the same, the Dolphins could have set the mark for points in a regular-season game.The overall re...

Ex-Patriots captain: Mac Jones must stop getting involved in dirty incidents

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

Patriots quarterback Mac Jones has invited outside claims that he’s a dirty player through separate incidents in all three of his NFL seasons.The latest came Sunday, with his alleged low blow of Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner in the fourth quarter of a 15-10 road win. Over the past two years, former Pats captain Devin McCourty was part of a locker room that defended its quarterback, even as Jones was fined three separate times last year.But after Jones’ latest incident Sunday, McCourty, now an analyst on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” said they have to stop.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Everything Patriots HC Bill Belichick said in extensive rundown of Cowboys New England Patriots | Patriots’ Bill Belichick backs away from Micah Parsons-Lawrence Taylor comparison New England Patriots | Patriots extra points: Bill O’Brien calls Cowboys defender a top-5 player in the NFL New England Patri...

Late night TV shows announce their return after Hollywood writers end strike

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

By MARK KENNEDY and ANDREW DALTON (AP Entertainment Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — Hours after Hollywood’s writers strike officially ended, Bill Maher led the charge back to work by announcing early Wednesday that his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” would be back on the air Friday.“My writers and ‘Real Time’ are back! See you Friday night!” he posted on social media.By mid-morning, the hosts of NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS had announced they’d also return, all by Monday. “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver was slated to return to the air Sunday.Fallon, Meyers, Kimmel, Colbert and Oliver had spent the latter part of the strike teaming up for a popular podcast called “Strike Force Five” — named after their personal text...

White House: US soldier who crossed into North Korea 2 months ago is in American hands

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

By MATTHEW LEE, KIM TONG-HYUNG and LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas two months ago was released into American custody, the White House announced Wednesday.Earlier, North Korea had said it would expel Pvt. Travis King — though some had expected the North to drag out his detention in hopes of squeezing concessions from Washington at a time of high tensions between the two countries.“U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. “We appreciate the dedication of the interagency team that has worked tirelessly out of concern for Private King’s wellbeing.” Officials said they did not know exactly why North Korea decided to expel King, but said they suspected that Pyongyang determined th...

Major I-5 closure set for northbound lanes this weekend

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Six miles of the northbound Interstate 5 freeway will be squeezed into one lane this weekend for the second of two major Caltrans closures to the roadway this month for maintenance.The closure will start Friday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m., running until Monday, Oct. 2 at 5 a.m. During that time, crews are going to be making repairs to the bridge deck over State Route 163.Officials are working to get the word out to the public about the closures due to the large impact that it is expected to have on drivers. Driver killed in North County rollover crash A stretch of I-5 from 18th Street in National City to the SR-163 overpass will have limited access throughout the duration of the 56-hour closure. As an alternative, locals are advised to use either the Interstate 805 or the Interstate 15 to beat the delays.Southbound I-5 lanes will not be impacted by the maintenance work.A map of this weekend's closure and alternate routes can be found below:Map showing the closure to northboun...

Mobs of masked teens ransacked Philadelphia stores. Police have made over a dozen arrests

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Groups of teenagers swarmed into stores in several areas of Philadelphia in an apparently coordinated effort, stuffing plastic bags with merchandise and fleeing, authorities said. Police arrested 15 to 20 people.The flash mob-style ransacking Tuesday night at stores including Foot Locker, Lululemon and Apple came after a peaceful protest over a judge’s decision to dismiss murder and other charges against a Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver, Eddie Irizarry, through a rolled-up window. Those doing the ransacking were not affiliated with the protest, Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford said at a news conference, calling the group “a bunch of criminal opportunists.” Video on social media showed masked people in hoodies running out of Lululemon with merchandise and police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk. Photos of a sporting goods store at a mall showed mannequins and sneakers scattered on the sidewalk. The thef...

Who’s being listened to on the global stage? Increasingly not who you might think

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Togo’s foreign minister wasn’t having any of it. He talked of an accelerating “African awakening,” of a resolve to “fight our own battles,” of a refusal to be banished to the children’s table while the musclebound great powers of the 20th century moved chess pieces around the board.“Nobody is at the center of the world,” Robert Dussey said in French, his voice emphatic. “We don’t want to be relegated to the background as the world develops.”Africa was Dussey’s subject. But he might have been one of any number of leaders speaking at the United Nations this past week — the voices of smaller nations that typically command less attention. They come, they air grievances and concerns, and then the oxygen is gobbled up by others — often the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.This year, though, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s high-profile presence notwithstanding, things felt different. Top leaders of four of the five permanen...

Canada’s troubled war criminal past needs to be confronted: immigration minister

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada could revisit calls to declassify Canadian documents about the presence of Nazi war criminals in Canada. That could include making public the names of former soldiers who fought with the Nazis during the Second World War and were allowed to later immigrate to Canada.His comments come as fallout continues for Canada and the federal government after the House of Commons gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran they later discovered had fought alongside Nazis during the Second World War. Speaker Anthony Rota, who invited the man to witness Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech in Parliament last week, is to step down later today after acknowledging the invitation was a grave mistake.B’nai Brith Canada said on Tuesday that Rota’s resignation was the right move, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must now show that Canada is willing to confront its decision to admit former Nazi soldiers by making publ...

Ontario records $5.9B deficit for the last fiscal year

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:37:26 GMT

TORONTO — Ontario ended the last fiscal year with a smaller deficit than projected in the 2022 budget, but it was several billion dollars higher than in a fiscal update from the province six weeks ago.Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy released the province’s public accounts for 2022-23 on Wednesday – which looks at the final numbers for the last fiscal year – and it showed the province ended the year with a $5.9 billion deficit.That was lower than the $19.9 billion deficit projected in the government’s 2022 budget for that fiscal year. The ministers said the decrease was mainly due to higher taxation revenues, particularly in corporate taxes and sales tax, reflecting higher-than-expected inflation and strong economic growth.In mid-August, however, Bethlenfalvy had released the province’s first-quarter finances, which pegged the 2022-23 deficit at $2.2 billion.He said Wednesday that the change in those figures was ...