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A story of atonement: Former Heat player Meyers Leonard’s path from anti-Semitic slur to rabbinical embrace as Miami’s playoff opponent

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

This was not how Meyers Leonard envisioned his return.Foremost, because he never wanted to leave.And yet in the wake of the shame of a single unfortunate, hurtful, ignorant moment two years ago, the former Miami Heat center returns with the Milwaukee Bucks for NBA playoff games in Miami as a study of one of the core tenets of the very culture he unwittingly disparaged.As a study in atonement.“Judaism is about second chances,” Rabbi Pinny Andrusier, director of the Chabad of Southwest Broward, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week when asked about Leonard. “We have Yom Kippur once a year.”As in the religion’s Day of Atonement.“But our prayers, for those unfamiliar, every single morning we acknowledge that during this day, in the morning since last night, in the afternoon since this morning, we might have done something to offend a fellow person or God,” Andrusier said. “We’re always asking for forgiveness.”As did Leo...

Young core of Orioles’ rotation displaying potential amid scoreless streak: ‘Bright futures ahead’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

Through the first few weeks of the season, the Orioles were being carried by their offense.Long balls by Ryan Mountcastle, consistent production from Adley Rutschman and frozen ropes from Austin Hays and Jorge Mateo were keeping the Orioles afloat as the club’s pitching staff, mostly its rotation, floundered.Not anymore.The Orioles, winners of three straight for the first time this season, haven’t allowed a run in 26 consecutive innings behind their young core of starting pitchers: Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer.“I think it’s baseball. You’re not gonna throw a shutout and score 10 runs every game,” Bradish said Wednesday after he pitched six scoreless innings in Baltimore’s 4-0 win over the Washington Nationals. “To be able to pick up the offense, when they’re going through a little lull — or vice versa — I think that just makes for a good team.”The young core, which could even include Tyler Wel...

The Chicago White Sox are off to a slow start — and the schedule only gets tougher: ‘It’s definitely a challenge’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

The upcoming schedule does not provide much relief for the Chicago White Sox., who have limped to a 7-12 start.First is the Tampa Bay Rays, who at 16-3 have the best record in baseball. Their season-opening winning streak ended at 13 on April 14 with a 6-3 loss to Toronto. The Blue Jays, who took two of three in that series, are 11-8 and trail the Rays by five games in the loaded American League East.The Rays and Blue Jays are up next for the Sox.“It’s definitely a challenge,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said after Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. “But we’ve got to play baseball. It doesn’t matter who we are playingagainst. A Major League Baseball game is a Major League Baseball game. We just have to go out there and prepare and compete.”The six-game trip begins Friday with the first of three against the Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.“They’re good teams but we’ve faced other good teams,...

Calling beer Champagne leaves French producers frothing

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The guardians of Champagne will let no one take the name of the bubbly beverage in vain, not even a U.S. beer behemoth.For years, Miller High Life used the “Champagne of beers” slogan. This week, that appropriation became impossible to swallow.At the request of the trade body defending the interests of houses and growers of the northeastern French sparkling wine, Belgian customs crushed more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life advertised as such.The Comité Champagne asked for the destruction of a shipment of 2,352 cans on the grounds that the century-old motto used by the American brewery infringes the protected designation of origin “Champagne.”The consignment was intercepted in the Belgian port of Antwerp in early February, a spokesperson at the Belgian Customs Administration said on Friday, and was destined for Germany. Belgian customs declined to say who had ordered the beers.The buyer in Germany “was informed and did not contest the decision,” the trade organiza...

Weekend need to know: Cherry blossoms, Earth Day, Leafs Game 3; TTC/road closures

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

Parts of the city will be dressed in light pink and white as cherry blossoms are in peak bloom this weekend.Several Earth Day events are also happening throughout the weekend to demonstrate support for environmental conservation.It’s also Game 3 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning.There are some subway closures and late openings this scheduled, as well as ongoing road closures. Scroll below for those details.Here’s what’s happening this weekend:Cherry BlossomsIt’s that time of year where groups of people flock to High Park to take photos of the cherry blossoms, also known as Sakura trees.Many of High Park’s Sakura trees are roughly 60 years old. They were gifted to the people of Toronto in 1959 by the Japanese ambassador to Canada on behalf of Tokyo, in appreciation of Toronto accepting relocated Japanese Canadians following the Second World War.Something to keep in mind when visiting the blossoms are the signs at the park, urging people n...

Man who drove into pedestrians in Berlin convicted of murder

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has convicted a 30-year-old man who drove into groups of pedestrians in Berlin last year of one count of murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, ordering him to be permanently held in a psychiatric hospital.The Berlin regional court concluded that the driver, a German citizen born in Armenia, was in a psychotic state when he drove onto the sidewalk in a popular shopping district in the west of the capital in June, killing a teacher and injuring eleven students on a school trip. A pregnant woman, a teenage girl and two men were also injured.The driver was detained by passers-by before being arrested by police.The court also banned the man from driving for life.The Associated Press

Credit Suisse investors sue after facing billions in losses

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A group of Credit Suisse investors have sued Swiss financial regulators after a government-engineered takeover of the struggling bank by rival UBS left them with billions in losses.The investors are contesting an order by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or FINMA, that wiped out about 16 billion Swiss francs ($17.3 billion) in higher-risk Credit Suisse bonds as part of an emergency rescue last month, lawyers said Friday.The hastily arranged, $3.25 billion deal prevented the downfall of Switzerland’s second-largest bank after its stock plunged and customers rushed to pull out their money amid fears about long-running troubles at Credit Suisse and upheaval in the global financial system after the collapse of two U.S. banks.“FINMA’s decision undermines international confidence in the legal certainty and reliability of the Swiss financial center,” said Thomas Werlen, managing partner in Switzerland for law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sull...

China FM: Taiwan, foreign supporters ‘playing with fire’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister warned Taiwan and its supporters on Friday that they are “playing with fire” if they go against Beijing’s demand to exert control over the self-governing island democracy.Qin Gang’s remarks came at the end of a speech espousing China’s contribution to the global economy and the interests of developing nations, in which he repeatedly praised Communist Party Secretary General Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative.The concept is the latest of China’s moves to position its single-party political system, with its claim to social stability and economic growth, as an alternative to the Western liberal approach that largely defines international relations.Toward the end of his speech in the financial hub of Shanghai, Qin turned to what China calls the “Taiwan problem.” While China has taken a consistently hard-line position on Taiwan, it has usually delegated threatening statements to spokespeople or lower-lever diplomats speaking throug...

Family joins rescued Indian climber being treated in Nepal

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An Indian climber who was rescued after spending three days trapped in a 300-meter (980-foot) -deep crevasse on Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest mountain, was joined by his family at a hospital in Nepal where he is receiving treatment.Anurag Maloo fell into the crevasse on Monday. After several attempts, he was finally rescued on Thursday and is being treated in Kathmandu, the capital. His condition has not been released.Members of Maloo’s family flew to Kathmandu to join him at the hospital. His parents, who live in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, were distraught when they heard the news Monday that their son was missing. They told the Indian Express newspaper that Maloo, 34, was climbing Annapurna and was at Camp 3 of the four camps on the mountain when he was asked to descend due to poor health, which is common during the difficult climb. “While coming down, he slipped and fell in a crevasse between Camp 3 and Camp 2,” his fath...

UN’s weather agency: 2022 was nasty, deadly, costly and hot

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:03:48 GMT

Looking back at 2022’s weather with months of analysis, the World Meteorological Organization said last year really was as bad as it seemed when people were muddling through it. And about as bad as it gets — until more warming kicks in.Killer floods, droughts and heat waves hit around the world, costing many billions of dollars. Global ocean heat and acidity levels hit record highs and Antarctic sea ice and European Alps glaciers reached record low amounts, according to the United Nations’ climate agency’s State of Global Climate 2022 report released Friday.While levels have been higher before human civilization, global sea height and the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane in the air reached highest modern recorded amounts. The key glaciers that scientists use as a health check for the world shrank by more than 1.3 meters (51 inches) in just one year and for the first time in history no snow survived the summer melt season on Switzerland’s gla...