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NASCAR suspends driver Noah Gragson for liking an insensitive meme with George Floyd’s face

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — Driver Noah Gragson has been suspended indefinitely by NASCAR and Legacy Motor Club due to liking an insensitive meme with a photo of George Floyd’s face.“I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media,” Gragson posted Saturday. “I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.”Floyd, who was Black, died in 2020 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. His death sparked mass protests around the world and forced a national reckoning on racial injustice.Josh Berry will be in the No. 42 Chevrolet in Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway to replace Gragson.NASCAR said Gragson violated the member conduct of its rule book, without providing details.“His actions do not represent the values of our team,” Legacy Motor Club said in a statement.The 25-year-old Gragson, who is fr...

Josef Newgarden chasing 1st IndyCar win at his hometown race in Nashville

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Josef Newgarden can cap a week that started with Tennessee naming a day after him by taking a big step closer to a third IndyCar Series championship. Standing in his way is the Music City Grand Prix on Sunday. This is his home race, which has proven quite a challenge the past two years. “It’s a unique opportunity in that I only get one shot of that every year,” Newgarden said. “Kind of like the Indy 500.”Newgarden won the Indianapolis 500 in May, and he’s tied with points leader Alex Palou with four wins this season by sweeping the doubleheader in Iowa for Team Penske in the series’ last stop. The issue for the Tennessee native is all his wins, pushing his career total to 29, have come on ovals while Nashville is a long road course. Newgarden’s best finish here came last year when he started and finished sixth. This 2.1-mile race with 11 turns around the downtown streets of Nashville has proven very challenging for all drivers wi...

1 dead in Denver crash Friday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- One person died after a crash involving two motorists late Friday, according to the Denver Police Department.Police said the crash occurred in the area of West Colfax Avenue and North Newton Street.An adult female was taken to a local hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

YouTuber, Twitch streamer Kai Cenat faces charges of inciting riot after thousands cause mayhem in NYC

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Social media influencer Kai Cenat is facing charges of inciting a riot and promoting an unlawful gathering in New York City, after the online streamer drew thousands of his followers, many of them teenagers, with promises of giving away electronics, including a new PlayStation. The event produced chaos, with dozens of people arrested — some jumping atop vehicles, hurling bottles and throwing punches.Cenat was released early Saturday from police custody after being issued a desk appearance ticket, which is issued by police to require a suspect to appear in court to answer charges. A police spokesperson said he is to appear in court on Aug. 18.The mayhem in New York City’s Union Square Friday afternoon put further focus on the hold social media influencers have on the people who follow and fawn over them.“Our children cannot be raised by social media,” Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday during a press briefing on an unrelated crime.Police said they arrested 65 ...

St. Louis police protesters begin picking up checks in $4.9 million settlement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Some of the people who were arrested during a 2017 protest over the acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith have started receiving their share of a $4.9 million settlement the city agreed to this year.The first checks were distributed Friday to some of the 84 people covered by the settlement. Their lawsuit had claimed the protesters’ rights were violated when they were caught in a police “kettle” as officers surrounded and arrested everyone in the area. Three people who filed individual lawsuits also settled for $85,000 each. The city denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which promises payouts between $28,000 and more than $150,000. Dekita Roberts told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she initially thought it might be a scam when she first got the call about the settlement.“It was just a shock and a surprise,” said Roberts, adding that she wants to invest some of the money and try to set some aside for her children.An...

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain urge citizens to leave Lebanon after Palestinian refugee camp clashes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Bahrain called on its citizens Saturday to leave Lebanon “for their own safety” hours after Saudi Arabia did the same without giving a reason.The decision by the two Gulf nations came after days of fighting in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon between members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group and militants of Islamic groups.The four days of fighting in Ein el-Hilweh camp near the southern port city of Sidon has left 13 people dead and dozens wounded.Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said Bahrainis should abide by the government’s previous decisions to avoid travel to Lebanon.The Saudi embassy in Beirut posted a statement late Friday night on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling on its citizens to avoid going to areas where there are “armed conflicts” and also to leave Lebanon quickly. The Associated Press

McConnell is warmly embraced by Kentucky Republicans amid questions about his health

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell received a rousing welcome from the party faithful Saturday at a high-profile home-state political gathering amid renewed scrutiny of his health after the 81-year-old lawmaker froze up midsentence during a recent Capitol Hill news conference. “This is my 28th Fancy Farm, and I want to assure you it’s not my last,” McConnell said at the top of his breakfast speech before the annual picnic that is the traditional jumping off point for the fall campaign season. It was his only reference, however vague, to his health.McConnell, who is widely regarded as the main architect of the GOP’s rise to power in Kentucky, arrived to a prolonged standing ovation and promoted the candidacy of a protege running for governor this year.McConnell has been a fixture on the stage at Fancy Farm, where he long has relished jousting with Democrats. His health has drawn increased attention since he briefly left his own news conference in Washi...

New York City high school student charged with hate-motived murder in killing of gay dancer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Police have arrested a 17-year-old high school student on a hate-motived murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a professional dancer during an altercation between two groups of friends at a New York City gas station last weekend.Police took the teenager into custody Friday in connection with the killing of the 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, who was gay. Authorities declined to release the defendant’s name.“Parents lost a child, a child, to something that was clearly a hate crime,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, said Saturday during a news conference outside the Brooklyn gas station where Sibley was killed July 29.The stabbing occurred after the two groups got into a confrontation at one of the gas pumps, where Sibley was dancing with his friends to a Beyoncé song. Authorities said Sibley’s group was being taunted by the other group before the confrontation ended in violence.Beyoncé would later pay tribute to Sibley on her website.Security camera ...

Palestinian shooting attack in downtown Tel Aviv kills Israeli security guard

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman on Saturday opened fire in central Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli security guard before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.The attack came a day after a settler rampage in the occupied West Bank killed one Palestinian, deepening the spiral of violence that has gripped the region for the past year and a half.Late Saturday, officials from Ichilov Hospital identified the Tel Aviv security guard who was killed as 42-year-old Chen Amir. Police identified the gunman as 27-year-old Kamel Abu Bakr, from a village near the flashpoint city of Jenin in the northern West Bank.Jenin’s refugee camp last month was the site of the largest Israeli offensive in the West Bank in nearly two decades. Twelve Palestinians, including at least eight militants, and one Israeli soldier, were killed in the fighting, which forced thousands to flee their homes and left large swaths of the camp in ruins. lsraeli police said that Amir and another officer no...

Tugboat sinks in Egypt’s Suez Canal after colliding with tanker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:06 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A tugboat sank Saturday in Egypt’s Suez Canal after it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged tanker, the waterway’s authorities said.In a statement, the Suez Canal Authority, which oversees the operation of the key water passage, said its teams were working to recover the tugboat after it launched an operation to save the seven-person crew. It did not mention whether the movement of other ships transporting through the canal had been affected.The canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas, sees periodic groundings of mega-large transport ships that go through it, many of them traveling between China and Europe and the Western Hemisphere. Tugboats help guide ships passing through.The tanker involved in Saturday’s collision, the authority said, was the Hong Kong-flagged tanker Chinagas Legend, which it said was now waiting in Port Said.In March 2021 a skyscraper-sized container ship, the Panama-flagged Ever Given, ran aground in a single-lane stretch of ...