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Dispute centered around redevelopment of historic Tokyo park, iconic stadiums

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — About 1,500 trees were cut down to build the $1.4 billion National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics.Almost two years after the Games ended, the graceful stadium sits largely unused, has no major tenant, and could cost taxpayers a reported $15 million annually in upkeep. In the interim, the Tokyo Games have been sullied by a string of bribery scandals and insider deals.Building new sports facilities is again at the heart of a redevelopment plan for one of Tokyo’s most beloved green areas. And Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is as the center, as she was in promoting the Olympics.This time it’s a famous baseball stadium and an adjacent rugby ground in a historic park area known as Jingu Gaien. The stadiums are to be razed and rebuilt, making way for a pair of nearly 200-meter (650-foot) skyscrapers and a commercial makeover. The project highlights the ties among the main actors: the governor, the realty developer Mitsui Fudosan, and Meiji Jingu, a religious organization that own...

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warns of China threats during Taiwan visit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warned of the economic and political threats to the West posed by China during a visit Wednesday to Beijing’s democratic rival Taiwan.Truss is the first former British prime minister since Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s to visit the self-governing island republic that China claims as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary. Still a sitting member of the House of Commons, Truss follows a growing list of elected representatives and former officials from the U.S., EU nations and elsewhere who have visited Taiwan to show their defiance of China’s threats and attempts to cut off the island and its high-tech economy from the international community. “There are those who say they don’t want another Cold War. But this is not a choice we are in a position to make. Because China has already embarked on a self-reliance drive, whether we want to decouple from their economy or not,” Truss said in an addres...

Australia: Truck driver charged after 7 children seriously injured in collision with school bus

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A truck driver was charged Wednesday after seven children were hospitalized with serious injuries when he rear-ended a school bus on the outskirts of Melbourne in southeastern Australia, officials said.The dump truck the 52-year-old man was driving hit the back of a school bus carrying 45 students and caused it to overturn Tuesday afternoon at an intersection in Eynesbury, a semi-rural community west of Melbourne, police said. Head injuries, arm amputations and suspected spinal injuries were reported by a hospital official.The truck driver, whose name has not been made public, was charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury, a police statement said.He will appear via a video link in the Melbourne Magistrates Court later Wednesday, police said.Police Superintendent Michael Cruse said more charges were likely.“Speed will be considered as well as part of the investigation,” Cruse told reporters.Cruse paid tribute to passersby and the ...

US seeks multiple life sentences for NYC bike path killer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Relatives of eight people killed in a Halloween terror attack on a New York City bike path as well as those who were injured are expected to speak at a Wednesday sentencing hearing for an Islamic extremist who prosecutors say deserves multiple life sentences.Sayfullo Saipov’s sentencing in Manhattan federal court comes after a jury in March rejected the death penalty for the Uzbekistan citizen and onetime New Jersey resident, leaving him with a mandatory life sentence.Prosecutors urged Judge Vernon S. Broderick to impose a sentence of eight consecutive life sentences — one for each death — and an additional 260 years in prison, according to a presentence submission.“Saipov is an unabashed terrorist — a proud murderer who deserves no leniency and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” prosecutors wrote.“After months of planning a vicious terrorist attack, Saipov got what he wanted: brutal carnage of innocent people, lives and families ...

Black Californians hope state reparations don’t become another broken promise

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco resident Pia Harris hopes for reparations in her lifetime. But the nonprofit program director is not confident that California lawmakers will turn the recommendations of a first-in-the-nation task force into concrete legislation given pushback from opponents who say slavery was a thing of the past.It frustrates Harris, 45, that reparations opponents won’t acknowledge that life for Black people did not improve with the abolition of chattel slavery in 1865. Black families have been unable to accumulate wealth through property ownership and higher education. Black boys and teenagers are still told to watch out for law enforcement, and Black businesses struggle to get loans, she said.“I want them to stop acting like it’s so far removed, and it’s not currently happening,” said Harris of the lingering effects of slavery and discrimination. “I want them to understand that we’re still going through things now as a community. It’s not — it hasn’t been ...

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, receives Ms. Foundation’s Woman of Vision Award

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, encouraged women to find inspiration to fight for equity as she accepted the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Award Tuesday night, with Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown.“It’s never too late to start,” Meghan said at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. “You can be the visionary of your own life… There is still so much work to be done.”Her acceptance speech closed out the Ms. Foundation for Women’s annual gala, part of the nation’s oldest women’s foundation celebration of its 50th anniversary. The gala also kicked off the foundation’s largest fundraising campaign ever — $100 million over the next 12 months — that will be used to further the organization’s equity-centered initiatives and its mission of advancing women’s collective power. The foundation is already more than halfway to its goal. It announced that the late photographer and philanthropist Lucia Woods Lindley donated $50 million, the largest be...

Anthony Davis to Rui Hachimura matchup change won’t be Lakers’ only adjustment vs. Nikola Jokic: “Several other things that we didn’t unveil tonight”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

Maybe the Lakers actually will attempt kidnapping Nikola Jokic at some point during this series.First-year Los Angeles coach Darvin Ham quipped before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals that the best strategy to defend Denver’s two-time MVP is to “catch him coming out of his house.” The Lakers didn’t deploy that trick in a 132-126 Nuggets win Tuesday night. But if Ham’s postgame comments indicated anything, it’s that anything is on the table — from the now-familiar coverages of Game 1 to the mysteries still up Ham’s sleeve.“It’s not any one coverage that you’re going to be able to stay in versus that kid,” Ham said. “There’s no one person that’s going to stop him. It has to be done by committee. … You have to switch up matchups at times and you have to switch up coverages. We didn’t want to go too deep into the in-game adjustments. You know, it’s still that ultimate chess...

Nuggets’ Jamal Murray scores 31 points in Game 1 win despite lingering ear infection: “We need that from our leader.”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

Jamal Murray left his locker room stall, a jar of watermelon chunks in his hand, and let out a long, deep sigh.Having already scored 31 points on 12-of-20 shooting in Tuesday’s Game 1 win over the Lakers, Murray had one more obligation to fulfill: his postgame media.With a stuffy nose and a coarse voice, Murray said his current status was “manageable.”“I got an ear infection on Saturday,” Murray said. “You know how ear infections are. They hurt a lot.”Before erupting for those 31 points, second only to Nikola Jokic’s 34, Murray didn’t practice in the days leading up to Tuesday’s series opener. Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Murray came to the team’s practice facility, watched film, studied personnel and then went home. They didn’t want him practicing. They wanted him resting.“I sometimes marvel at the kid,” Malone said, lauding his toughness and explaining that as soon as the ball tipped, Murray blocked out whatever impediments the earache was causing.“He showed up and performed ...

Kiszla: This Nikola Jokic 34-21-14 triple double against Lakers was for that trio of ESPN dunderheads Mark Jackson, Kendrick Perkins and Stephen A Smith

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

These are not your grandfather’s Nuggets. In a basketball city haunted by the ghosts of nearly 50 years of playoff failure, Nikola Jokic and his teammates refused to run and hide when LeBron James dared them to be spooked by to the Los Angeles Lakers’ championship mystique.After blowing all but a nervous fraction of a 21-point lead, the Nuggets held off L.A. for a 132-126 victory in the series-opener of the Western Conference Finals at Ball Arena.“I don’t think there was any panic, there was poise,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Tuesday, when asked how his team survived a furious second-half comeback by the Lakers.Well, poise and a whole lot of Nikola Jokic.There’s only one difference between King James and the Joker. According to Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who has been a teammate of both superstars. “I feel like the only difference is that Bron can jump higher than Jokic.”Oh, yeah?“That’s really offensive,...

High-speed pursuit suspect evades authorities in L.A. County

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:42 GMT

Officers with the California Highway were in pursuit of a driver wanted for traveling at a high rate of speed in Los Angeles County. Authorities initiated the pursuit while the driver was on the westbound 91 Freeway, approaching Vermont Avenue. The suspect was clocked at speeds of 110 miles per hour, while blacking out the vehicle's headlights. After exiting the freeway, footage from Sky5 showed the suspect again speeding on surfaces, blowing through stoplights and driving erratically. As the suspect continued to stay on surface streets, officials with CHP pulled out of the pursuit and officers with the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately pick up the chase. Pursuit suspect in a white sedan evading authorities in L.A. County. The suspect was last seen traveling near Angeles Vista Boulevard and Knoll Crest Avenue in View Park with no law enforcement units nearby.