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Comic Relief launches metaverse fundraiser to fight poverty

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

Can playing more Roblox make your kids more philanthropic?That’s what the nonprofit Comic Relief US hopes, announcing Tuesday its new Kids Relief initiative to encourage giving and community building with a new virtual world on the social gaming platform. The “Kids Relief Presents: Solarpunk Simulator” experience on Roblox will also serve as a fundraiser for Comic Relief’s real-life programs battling poverty in America, especially those empowering young people in that fight.Alison Moore, CEO of Comic Relief US, told The Associated Press that the Roblox virtual world and the entire Kids Relief initiative is designed to “support young people’s ability to drive change.”“Children and young people have a deeper understanding that they have the power to make change,” said Moore. “They have the power to gather together and link their arms to do something to change the world tomorrow. They’ve got the mindset that adults don’t have — that they can do it.”Comic Relief US is behind high-...

Bankman-Fried charged with paying $40M bribe to China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday.The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act raises to 13 the number of charges Bankman-Fried faces after he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and brought to the United States soon afterward.FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. He has remained free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond that lets him stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California.He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before his business collapsed.The alleged bribes stemmed from the operation of Alameda Research, which is affiliated with FTX, Bankman-Fried’s global cryptocurrency exchang...

MLB The Show breaks barrier with Negro League players

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — MLB The Show has broken a video game barrier: For the first time, the franchise will insert some of the greatest Negro League players — from Satchel Paige to Jackie Robinson — into the 2023 edition of the game as playable characters.Video gamers are now able to venture into a storyline mode involving eight Negro League legends through MLB The Show 23, which releases Tuesday. The narrative experience will feature short videos about the players along with gameplay focused on the epic moments of their careers.Along with Robinson and Paige, the game also features other players including Buck O’Neil, Rube Foster, Hilton Smith, John Donaldson, Hank Thompson and Martin Dihigo.“This made sense on multiple levels,” said Bob Kendrick, the narrator of storyline experience and president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which is located in Kansas City, Missouri. Along with the museum, he partnered with Sony for the historic Black players’ insertion into the ga...

Harris in Africa looks to painful past, innovative future

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday stood before a monument commemorating Ghana’s independence from colonialism and envisioned a grand future between the U.S. and Africa, propelled by innovation on the continent. But she’s also insisting on exploring past wounds, heading to a seaside fort where enslaved Africans were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas.“We have an intertwined history, some of which is painful and some of which is prideful,” she told a crowd of gathered at the Black Stone Gate, the monument bearing the words: “Freedom and Justice” and 1957, the year the country became independent. “And all of which we must acknowledge, teach and never forget.” The events on her second full day in Ghana is part of a weeklong trip that will include visits to Tanzania and Zambia. Harris is the most high-profile member of President Joe Biden’s administration to visit Africa as the U.S. escalates its outreach to the continent.As the nation...

Portugal: Muslim center stabbings probed as possible terror

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A man wielding a large knife killed two woman and injured several other people at an Ismaili Muslim center in Lisbon, and Portuguese authorities said they were investigating Tuesday’s stabbing attack as a possible terror act.The women were Portuguese staff members at the center, Ismaili community leader Narzim Ahmad told Portuguese TV channel SIC.Officers dispatched to the center late Tuesday morning encountered a man armed with a knife, according to a police statement. The officers ordered him to surrender and he was shot when he advanced toward them, the statement said. A suspect was in police custody at a Lisbon hospital. Investigators were looking into terrorism as a possible motive.Several other people were wounded, according to the statement, which provided no further details.Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said police shot the suspect and told reporters the attack was “a criminal act.” “Everything points to this being an isolated incident...

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked amphetamine traffickers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. and U.K. on Tuesday slapped sanctions on four Syrians and two Lebanese involved in manufacturing and trafficking the amphetamine drug Captagon, the two governments said. The six include cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad and notorious Lebanese drug lynchpins.Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into Gulf countries, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Assad and his associates, as well as key ally, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in neighboring Lebanon. The U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office statement announcing the sanctions said the Captagon industry is worth $57 billion to Assad, and has been a key source of revenue as Syria’ uprising turned-conflict continues for a 13th year. Assad’s brutal crackdown on protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of rampant torture, bom...

HBO’s ‘Succession’ sets viewer mark for fourth-season start

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — HBO’s “Succession” opened its fourth and final season with a record first-night audience of 2.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said on Tuesday.That tops the previous high for the drama about a backbiting family of media moguls. It beat the 1.7 million who watched last season’s finale the first night it was available, Nielsen said.For HBO, the first-night audience is usually only a fraction of the number of people who will watch one of their shows. For example, each episode last season averaged 7.2 million viewers when delayed viewing is taken into account.The numbers indicate that more people are catching on to the two-time Emmy winner for best drama just as it is approaching the end. There was anticipation for the season premiere, with HBO saying there was four times the viewership of previous “Succession” episodes on HBO Max last week compared to the week before.The first episode showed how much things are strained between family patriarch Logan R...

French authorities search 5 banks in Paris in tax fraud case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Authorities raided the Paris offices of five banks Tuesday on suspicion of tax fraud, the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said.The raids come as part of five preliminary investigations opened in December 2021 on counts of alleged money laundering, and alleged tax fraud linked to dividend payments, the office said in a statement. It didn’t specify which banks were raided.French media said the banks searched included HSBC, BNP Paribas, Exane — a subsidiary of BNP — Societe Generale, and Natixis.The Associated Press

Shoppers Drug Mart moves away from medical cannabis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is moving away from its medical cannabis distribution business and preparing to transfer patients to a platform run by biopharmaceutical company Avicanna Inc.The pharmacy chain owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. announced the shift Tuesday, but did not say what prompted the change or how much money Toronto-based Avicanna is paying for Shoppers to refer patients to its MyMedi.ca platform.“We are grateful for the trust placed in us by our medical cannabis patients over the past few years, and are confident we’ve found the right partner in Avicanna to continue to support them,” said Jeff Leger, Shoppers‘ president, in a statement.His company will start to send customers to Avicanna’s platform in early May, with all of the patients set to be off-loaded from Shoppers‘ medical pot service by the end of July. Customers will be able to place orders on Shoppers‘ website through the transition period.Avicanna said it will offer a similar range of pr...

WATCH LIVE | 'LaSalle Street Reimagined' progresses to next stage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Underutilized office space in The Loop will become apartments as part of a plan being pushed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot during her final weeks in office.LaSalle Street Reimagined was first presented to the public in Sep. 2022 with the goal of encouraging redevelopment and reinvestment along LaSalle Street between Washington Street and Jackson Boulevard. The initiative aims to provide TIF District backed grant funding for the "conversion of underutilized commercial spaces with mixed-income residential uses and related public amenities," and to "create a more neighborhood-oriented atmosphere within the corridor’s ground-level interior spaces," according to the plan's proposal. WGN Poll: Vallas leading Johnson in Chicago Mayoral runoff election Nine initial responses were narrowed to a list of six, and Tuesday Lightfoot has an event scheduled for an announcement about LaSalle Street, according to a release from her office.WGN plans to livestream the announcement in its en...