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Wembanyama’s height no longer a mystery: 7 feet, 3-1/2 inches is official, Spurs say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

Victor Wembanyama has grown a little. Or not, depending on perspective.The official height for the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, the San Antonio Spurs said Wednesday, is 7 feet, 3-1/2 inches — and that was measured without shoes, per NBA guidelines.That’s a half-inch taller than Wembanyama said he was back in October, when he was in Las Vegas for a pair of exhibition games. (His official height then was 2.21 meters, he said, and he’s now nearly 2.23 meters.) Which makes sense, given that he was 18 then, has turned 19 since and it’s reasonable to think he might still have a bit of growing left.He has been listed by various sites as anywhere between 7-foot-2 and 7-foot-5, in part because of how he towers over other 7-footers when photographed standing with them. The NBA listed him at 7-foot-4 in the league’s guide for last week’s draft, but that was not based off any official measurement.The 7-3.5 figure puts Wembanyama on pace to be the NBA’s second-tallest player this...

Officials identify firefighter killed battling Md. blaze

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

Firefighter Brice C. Trossbach. (Courtesy NAS Patuxent River)Officials at Naval Air Station Patuxent River have identified a firefighter who was killed while battling a blaze on Tuesday.Twenty-five-year-old Brice Trossbach “made the ultimate sacrifice” while responding to a mutual aid request for a house fire in nearby Leonardtown, Maryland, the installation said in a news release.Capt. Derrick Kingsley, commanding officer at NAS Patuxent River, called Trossbach’s death a “tragic loss” that serves as a reminder “of the tremendous risks our firefighters face each shift to keep our installation and our community safe.”Trossbach had served as a firefighter at NAS Patuxent River since 2019, and had also joined volunteer fire departments in Leonardtown and Lexington Park.“I’ve known Brice since he was a little kid following his dad to the Leonardtown fire station when I was the chief there, and he always wanted to be a firefighter,” G...

Muti ends 13 seasons with Chicago Symphony Orchestra with praise and honors — and Beethoven

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Riccardo Muti was in total control to the very end.He had signaled the last note of his final Orchestra Hall concert as Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director on Sunday when several people started to applaud. His back to the audience, the 81-year-old conductor snapped out his right arm and baton, demanding silence to frame Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis.”Moments later, he relaxed his shoulders, setting off seven minutes of sustained applause.“It needs a moment of tranquility to think about,” he said the next day.Muti’s 13 seasons as music director were celebrated with Sunday’s subscription finale, and he ended his tenure on Tuesday night the way it began: with a free concert in Millennium Park, although the denouement of Florence Price’s Andante moderato and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was played in a smoky haze caused by Canadian wild fires.His 540th performance with the orchestra and 508th as music director wasn’t a final goodbye. While the search for a...

Lloyd Howell to take over as executive director of NFL Players Association

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

Lloyd Howell will succeed DeMaurice Smith as the NFL Players Association’s executive director.The NFLPA’s board of player representatives announced Wednesday that Howell was elected as the next executive director. Smith had said last fall he planned to depart after serving one more term with the union.Howell has spent more than 34 years at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., most recently as chief financial officer and treasurer. He also led the company’s civil and commercial group.“We are excited to have Lloyd lead our union into its next chapter and succeed DeMaurice Smith, who has ably led our organization for the past decade plus and has our gratitude and thanks,” NFLPA President JC Tretter said in a statement. “It was important for us to run a process that lived up to the prestige of the position we sought to fill. The process was 100% player led and focused on leadership competency, skills and experience. Our union deserves strong leadership and a smooth transition, ...

Como el Sahara: ola de calor pone a Texas entre los lugares más calientes de la Tierra

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

Las temperaturas abrasadoras de tres dígitos en Texas esta semana hacen que el estado compita con los lugares más cálidos del planeta, incluido el desierto del Sahara y partes del Golfo Pérsico.Texas se ha estado asando durante semanas bajo una severa ola de calor de principios de temporada que ahora se está extendiendo al Valle del Bajo Mississippi y partes del sureste.Durante la semana pasada, varias ciudades de Texas, incluidas San Angelo y Del Rio, alcanzaron o superaron los 110 grados Fahrenheit, temperaturas que son más comunes en esta época del año en partes del norte de África y Medio Oriente.El Consejo de Fiabilidad Eléctrica de Texas, el operador de la red eléctrica del estado, dijo que el uso de energía alcanzó un máximo histórico preliminar el martes a medida que aumentó la demanda de aire acondicionado, informó Reuters. ERCOT dijo que espera que se establezca otro récord este miércoles.Paramásinformación, visita NBCNews.comSource

Top central bankers assert need for higher interest rates to tackle persistent inflation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Leading global central bankers asserted Wednesday that they are not backing off their steep interest rate increases, pointing to inflation being more persistent than expected but still downplaying fears of recession from their hikes.The message was that borrowing costs would stay high until the inflation beast is subdued, according to a panel discussion with U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey and Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda.“I think we have to be as persistent as inflation is persistent,” Lagarde said during the talk at the ECB’s annual policy conference in Sintra, Portugal. “We have to be resolute and decided and determined in reaching the target that we have set.”Despite rapid rate increases, Powell said “the bottom line is that policy hasn’t been restrictive enough for long enough.”Powell, Lagarde and Bailey stressed the strong jobs market was a driver of...

As SAG contract deadline looms, Meryl Streep joins more than 300 actors expressing readiness to strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

(CNN) — Some members of the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have written a letter to union leadership urging the negotiating committee not to settle with the Hollywood studios on a deal that does not represent their demands.The letter, which was shared with CNN, expresses concern that “this is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough.”“We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories,” the letter continued.Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Quinta Brunson, Rami Malek, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brendan Fraser, Neil Patrick Harris, Ben Stiller and Amy Schumer are among the more than 300 top-tier actors to sign the letter, according to a source who shared the text of the letter with CNN, which was first reported by Rolling Stone.CNN h...

Von der Leyen picks Ivanova as new Bulgarian Commissioner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has picked Iliana Ivanova as the new Bulgarian Commissioner, in charge of innovation, research, culture, education and youth, the same portfolio that was handled by Mariya Gabriel before she returned to Bulgarian politics.Ivanova, a former MEP and member of the European Court of Auditors, was chosen over Daniel Lorer, a member of the Bulgarian parliament. Ivanova will have to implement the bloc’s R&D program and “enhance the performance of the EU’s research spending and achieve a better impact on the ground,” von der Leyen said.

Service delayed on Orange Line at Tufts Medical Center after issue with third rail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

Crews responded to the MBTA’s Tufts Medical Center station on Wednesday after the MBTA said an operator reported flames within the track area near the station.Video at one point showed the smoky scene on the Tufts platform.The T initially announced delays for southbound trains in the area around 12:15 p.m. In an update at 12:30 p.m., the T said service was temporarily suspended between North Station and Back Bay due to what the agency described as an “issue with the third rail.” A T spokesperson said the operator of a southbound train at Tufts first reported flames within the track area in front of the train around 11:50 a.m. The spokesperson said fire crews arrived while the flames were being put out. Power was turned off to the third rail around 12 p.m. and fire crews had left the station as of around 1:45 p.m., the spokesperson said.There were no injures and the T said regular service had resumed following repairs around 2 p.m. This is a devel...

Man’s death while awaiting trial on charges he killed his mother at sea was not suspicious, autopsy says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:57 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — An autopsy has determined that the death of a man awaiting trial on charges of killing his mother off the coast of New England in a scheme to inherit millions of dollars was not suspicious, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said Wednesday.Nathan Carman, 29, of Vernon, Vermont, was found dead in his cell in a county jail in New Hampshire on June 15. The attorney general’s office does not release the cause and manner in deaths that are not suspicious, according to spokesperson Michael Garrity. The U.S. Marshals Service in Vermont said it will not be releasing the cause of Carman’s death at the request of family.The attorney general’s office confirmed that authorities consider a death to be not suspicious when they’ve determined no one else was involved, or if no crime was committed.Carman pleaded not guilty last year to fraud and first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Linda Carman, in 2016, and was...