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$1.55 billion Mega Millions prize balloons as 31 drawings pass without a winner

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — There is no mystery why the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to $1.55 billion, making it the third-largest ever ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing.The prize has ballooned because no one has matched the game’s six winning numbers since April 18, amounting to 31 straight drawings without a big winner. The nearly four-month-long unlucky streak could be all the sweeter for the person who finally lands the top prize, which is inching toward the record lottery jackpot of $2.04 billion won in 2022 by a player in California.“It’s a fun thing,” said Merlin Smith, a retired real estate appraiser who stopped Monday at a gasoline station in Minneapolis to buy five tickets. “But if you’re depending on winning, you’d be disappointed a lot.”WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR SOMEONE TO WIN?It has been a long stretch of jackpot futility, but Tuesday night’s 32nd straight drawing since the last winner still isn’t a record. The longest run for a Mega Millions ja...

UN appeal judges toss out plan to set up procedure to hear evidence against Rwandan genocide suspect

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges on Monday threw out a decision by a United Nations court to set up a procedure to hear evidence against an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect who was declared unfit to face trial.The decision likely means that Félicien Kabuga’s trial, which started last year in The Hague, will never be completed. The judges acknowledged this would be a blow to victims and survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.Judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals halted Kabuga’s trial in June because he has dementia and could not properly participate in the proceedings.Kabuga, who is in his late 80s, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead. He is in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague.After declaring him unfit to stand trial, judges said they would set up “an alternative finding procedure th...

NATO and the EU send aid to Slovenia after floods that killed at least 6 and left many homeless

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and the trans-Atlantic alliance’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said.“I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said.On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU’s Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil ...

Belarus begins military drills near its border with Poland and Lithuania as tensions heighten

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus began military exercises Monday near its border with Poland and Lithuania, a move coming with tensions already heightened with the two NATO members over Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries moving to Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia.Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges. Leaders of the two NATO nations have said they are braced for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in a sensitive area where both countries border Belarus as well as the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. They commented early in August after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space. Belarusian authorities denied their helicopters entered Poland. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the drills that began Monday are base...

William Friedkin, Oscar winning director of ‘The Exorcist’ and The French Connection,’ dead at 87

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

William Friedkin, the Oscar winning director who became a top filmmaker in his 30s with the gripping “The French Connection” and the horrifying “The Exorcist” and struggled in the following decades to match his early success has died. He was 87.Friedkin, who won the best director Oscar for “The French Connection,” died Monday in Los Angeles, Marcia Franklin, his executive assistant for 24 years, told The Associated Press on behalf of his family and wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing.“The French Connection,” based on a true story, deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police Detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funneling heroin into the United States. It contains one of the most thrilling chase scenes ever filmed.Doyle, played by Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning performance, barely misses making the arrest on a subway train, then hurries to his police car to follow the train as it emerges on an elevat...

Russia criticizes the talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the war in Ukraine after Moscow not invited

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited.Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.But without Russia’s participation and without taking into account Moscow’s interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. It repeated previous assurances that Russia is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.He said on X, formerly known ...

Liberty freshman football player Tajh Boyd, 19, dies

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Liberty University says freshman football player Tajh Boyd, 19, has died.The school identified Boyd as an offensive lineman from Chesapeake, Virginia. It did not indicate when Boyd died or the cause, and calls and a text message were not returned.In the announcement, athletic director Ian McCaw and first-year football coach Jamey Caldwell said Boyd joined the football program “as recently as January” and added “Our thoughts and prayers are with Tajh’s family, his teammates and friends, our football coaching staff, as well as our entire athletics department and the greater Liberty University community. We grieve together as a family and will seek guidance, comfort and understanding from the Lord during these difficult times.”Conference USA, which Liberty is joining this season, also issued a release, saying “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of @LibertyFootball student-athlete Tajh Boyd. Our thoughts are with the Boyd family and Flames nation during...

Authorities assess damage after flooding from glacial dam outburst in Alaska’s capital

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Raging waters that ate away at riverbanks, destroyed at least two buildings and undermined others continued to recede Monday in Alaska’s capital city after a glacial dam outburst over the weekend, authorities said. Levels along the Mendenhall River had begun falling by Sunday but the city said the banks of the river remained unstable. Onlookers gathered on a bridge over the river and along the banks of the swollen Mendenhall Lake to take photos and videos Sunday. A home was propped precariously along the eroded river bank as milky-colored water whisked past. The city said it was working to assess damages.There were no reports of any injuries or deaths.Such glacial outburst floods occur when glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes. A study released earlier this year found such floods pose a risk to about 15 million people around the globe, more than half of them in India, Pakistan, Peru and China. Suicide Basin — a side basin of t...

President Biden hosts Astros, says he can relate to Dusty Baker, oldest manager to win World Series

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — At 73, Dusty Baker became the oldest manager ever to win the World Series when the Houston Astros took the title last year. On Monday at a White House celebration for the team, President Joe Biden said he could relate. “People counted you out saying you were past your prime. Hell, I know something about that,” joked Biden, who in 2020 became the oldest president ever elected, at age 77. Biden, now 80, is running for reelection in 2024. Baker has been around the game for decades. He won a World Series as a player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had been to the Fall Classic twice before as a manager. He finally got his first title in his 25th season as a manager. The win came 20 years after a near-miss, when he came within five outs while guiding the San Francisco Giants.“I remember rooting for him as a kid, and I was older than he was,” Biden quipped. Baker, now 74, spent the past three seasons with the Astros after they hired him to help the team regain cred...

MedWatch Daily Digest: A new COVID variant has emerged — and more

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:44:45 GMT

For Monday, Aug. 7, WGN’s Dina Bair has new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch New COVID variant emerges prominent in UKThe variant, nicknamed Eris, is a descendant of omicron.  The World Health Organization has been monitoring it closely for two and a half weeks. The variant was first detected in the United Kingdom last Monday but now accounts for one in seven Covid cases. It's now the UK's second most prevalent variant.  The World Health Organization is urging countries not to let down their guard, even though vaccines and prior infection better protect people. New blood donation guidelinesMore gay men will be able to donate blood under new government guidelines the Red Cross is adopting beginning Monday, Aug. 7.Restrictions on donating blood date back to the early days of the AIDS epidemic, as they were designed to protect the blood supply from HIV.Since then, there have been advances in HIV detection, but restrictions remained and...