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Jurors hear closing arguments in domestic violence trial of actor Jonathan Majors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan jury will soon decide if Jonathan Majors is guilty of assaulting his girlfriend following two weeks of clashing narratives about whether the rising Hollywood star was the aggressor or victim during a chaotic struggle in the backseat of a car.The court case has centered on allegations brought by Grace Jabbari, a 30-year-old British dancer who said the “Creed III” actor struck her on the side of the head, twisted her arm behind her back, and squeezed her finger until it broke during a dispute last spring. In closing arguments that ended before lunch on Thursday, an attorney for Majors portrayed Jabbari as a compulsive liar who concocted a story of an abusive relationship as revenge after catching her boyfriend of two years texting another woman.The 34-year-old actor, who did not testify during the trial, dabbed his eyes with a tissue as his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, implored the jury to “end this nightmare for Jonathan Majors.”Prosecutors, meanwhile, said t...

Biden coming to Milwaukee next week for third visit to battleground Wisconsin this year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to travel to Milwaukee on Wednesday, marking his third visit to the battleground state this year.The White House announced Thursday that Biden plans to discuss his economic agenda while in Milwaukee. No other details about the trip, including where exactly he was going, were announced.Biden was last in the state for a visit to Milwaukee in August. In February, he visited a Madison-area union training center.Wisconsin is among the handful of critical states where Biden needs to persuade voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives by generating roughly $500 billion in corporate investments in factories and other facilities.Biden has been to Wisconsin six times since he took office in 2021. The Associated Press

Zelenskyy makes first visit to US military headquarters in Germany, voices optimism about US aid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his first visit Thursday to the U.S. military headquarters in Germany where allied leaders coordinate the delivery of weapons and other aid to the war effort. And in a social media post after he left, he expressed optimism about getting additional American aid, which has been hung up for weeks in congressional gridlock.“We expect that the U.S. Congress will soon adopt the crucial decision to continue such vital support for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, after meeting for several hours with U.S. military commanders, including Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command, Gen. Darryl Williams, head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, and Lt. Gen. Antonio Aguto Jr., who leads the security assistance coordination.In a statement, U.S. European Command said they discussed efforts to meet Ukraine’s urgent battlefield needs and the ongoing training of Ukrainian forces. Training has been taking place in Germany and several...

‘He had the best smile’: Mom of alleged Kenneth Law victim mourns son, wants answers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

Kim Prosser was angry and consumed by grief when she learned that her son was one of the alleged victims of an Ontario man accused of selling lethal substances to people who took their own lives. Now, months after her son’s death in March, the 46-year-old said she’s reached a calmer space and is only seeking answers from Kenneth Law, who was charged this week with 14 counts of second-degree murder.“I have never experienced my heart break the way that it has this year … there was definitely anger and an onset of ‘who’s at fault for this,’ but now I want to sit in a place of forgiveness, not retribution,” Prosser said in a phone interview. “I actually would like to know more about (Law). What’s his story, how did he get there.”Police have alleged that 58-year-old Law, who is from Mississauga, Ont., ran several websites that were used to sell sodium nitrite and other items that can be used for self-harm, shipping them to...

Mark Wahlberg on his action-comedy ‘The Family Plan’ and his dreams for Hollywood 2.0

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

Mark Wahlberg knows as well as any parent that it’s hard to find a movie everyone in the household wants to watch – especially with teenagers around. It’s part of the reason he latched on to “The Family Plan,” a charming action-comedy about a former assassin turned suburban dad whose past catches up with him. It’s streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday.“You always have movies that parents can go to with the kids and they’ll tolerate them because the kids really want to see it or vice versa,” Wahlberg told the AP. “But this really felt like it was a movie that actually was for the whole family.”Early in “The Family Plan,” his character is attacked in a grocery store and he must fend off the assailant with his 10-month-old in a baby-carrier on his chest. With his minivan cover blown, he then must convince his wife and teenagers to embark on a cross-country road trip to outrun the danger that he’s also desperately trying to keep secret from them.The grocery store fight with the baby ne...

British teenager who went missing 6 years ago in Spain is found in southwest France, reports say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A British teenager who went missing six years ago on a family holiday in Spain has been found in southwestern France, French media reported on Thursday. Broadcasters BFMTV and TF1 cited the prosecutors’ office in Toulouse as saying that Alex Batty, 17, has been found. BFMTV said a delivery driver spotted the adolescent looking lost and haggard by the side of a road and drove him to a police station. TF1 said he was found on Wednesday.The Toulouse prosecutors’ office did not immediately respond to after-hours questions sent by email and text message by The Associated Press. In the United Kingdom, the Greater Manchester Police said officers from Batty’s hometown of Oldham are in contact with French authorities to establish the authenticity of the reports.The force said his mother, Melanie Batty, and his grandfather, David Batty, are wanted in connection with the teenager’s disappearance and that their whereabouts are unknown. He traveled with them ...

Court voids fine given to Russian activist for criticizing war and sends case back to prosecutors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Russia on Thursday overturned a fine handed to a veteran human rights advocate for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sent Oleg Orlov’s case back to prosecutors, who have sought to imprison him for three years instead. Orlov, co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, was convicted of publicly “discrediting” the Russian military after he posted on Facebook an article he wrote that denounced the invasion of Ukraine. He has rejected the charge as politically motivated. The Moscow City Court’s voiding of the fine did not represent a decision in his favor bur rather another step in a years-long, unrelenting crackdown on dissent in Russia that the Kremlin ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022. In October, a lower court fined Orlov 150,000 rubles (about $1,500 at the time), which is a significantly milder punishment compared to lengthy prison terms some other Russians have gott...

Hungry, thirsty and humiliated: Israel’s mass arrest campaign sows fear in northern Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians across the northern Gaza Strip, separating families and forcing men to strip to their underwear before trucking some to a detention camp on the beach, where they spent hours, in some cases days, subjected to hunger and cold, according to human rights activists, distraught relatives and released detainees themselves.Palestinians detained in the shattered town of Beit Lahiya, the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya and neighborhoods of Gaza City said they were bound, blindfolded and bundled into the backs of trucks. Some said they were taken to the camp at an undisclosed location, nearly naked and with little water.“We were treated like cattle, they even wrote numbers on our hands,” said Ibrahim Lubbad, a 30-year-old computer engineer arrested in Beit Lahiya on Dec. 7 with a dozen other family members and held overnight. “We could feel their hatred.” The roundups have laid bare an emerging t...

Set of 6 Messi World Cup shirts sells for $7.8 million at auction in New York

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Six jerseys worn by soccer superstar Lionel Messi during Argentina’s winning run at last year’s World Cup sold Thursday for $7.8 million, the auction house Sotheby’s announced.The final price for the shirts, each worn during the first half of one of Argentina’s games at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, is the highest price for an item of sports memorabilia this year, Sotheby’s said.Argentina defeated France in a penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw in the World Cup final, winning its third World Cup.The victory, in which Messi scored two of Argentina’s three goals, represented a crowning moment for one of the sport’s greatest-ever players.“These historic shirts are not only a tangible reminder of one of the most important moments in the history of sports, but are principally connected to the pinnacle moment in the career of the most decorated football player in history,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectible...

Former Michigan GOP chair testifies in false electors preliminary examinations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:13:27 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s former state GOP chair testified Thursday that she approved a document saying the state’s Republican electors would cast votes for then-President Donald Trump if Michigan’s 2020 election results were overturned.But Laura Cox said that document was ceremonial in nature and required a triggering event such as a court overturning Joe Biden’s win.Cox’s testimony came on the second day of a preliminary hearing in the case against 15 of the Republicans, who face charges including forgery for allegedly serving as false electors. A state police captain and Michigan’s elections director testified on Wednesday. Investigators say the group signed a document during a meeting at the Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, falsely stating they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified electors.” Cox testified that conversations about assembling a slate of Republican electors began early that December, and that she approved anot...