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Brad Pitt accused of ‘looting’ Chateau Miraval’s assets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

By Alli Rosenbloom and Chloe Melas | CNNAn ongoing legal dispute over a French estate and winery Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie formerly owned together continues to escalate.In a new court filing obtained by CNN, Jolie’s former investment company Nouvel accuses Pitt and “co-conspirators” of attempting to retain control of Château Miraval by “stripping” and “looting” its assets. Nouvel is seeking at least $350 million in damages.“Pitt wasted the company’s assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations, building and rebuilding a staircase four times, and spending millions to restore a recording studio,” the document filed Monday states.Attorneys for Nouvel claim in the filing that Pitt’s “misconduct” escalated after Jolie sold Nouvel in October 2021 to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group, controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler.“Incensed that Jolie sold Nouvel to Stoli rather than him, Pitt has acted like a petulan...

Warriors executive leaves Golden State for WNBA GM job

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

LAS VEGAS — After nearly a decade with the Warriors, Nick U’Ren is stepping away from the Bay to take a job as the Phoenix Mercury’s next general manager.U’Ren, the Warriors executive director of basketball operations who suggested a crucial adjustment that swayed the 2015 NBA Finals in favor of Golden State, is set to start his new job in October at the end of the WNBA season. He’ll replace long-time general manager Jim Pitman, who plans to retire at the end of this season.U’Ren, a Phoenix native, has spent the last nine seasons with the Warriors and steadily earned his way up the rankings. He worked closely with coach Steve Kerr as a special assistant to the head coach and director of coaching operations and also served as the manager of advanced scouting. U’Ren was only 28 when he famously proposed the Warriors start Andre Iguodala instead of Andrew Bogut, a move that eventually made all the difference for Golden State, who beat the Cleve...

Ukraine war: Analysis shows Russia has lost nearly 50,000 soldiers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

By Erika Kinetz | Associated PressBRUSSELS — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead.Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine.To do so, they relied on a statistical concept popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on inheritance records and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men under age 50 died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal.Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side’s casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers. Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media...

Comedian Sarah Silverman sues Bay Area tech firms over AI book capture

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

Comedian and author Sarah Silverman is suing social media giant Meta and ChatGPT pioneer OpenAI in a pair of related lawsuits accusing the high-profile Bay Area technology companies of breaking state and federal laws by using her memoir “The Bedwetter” as fodder for their artificial intelligence products.Silverman and two novelists claim Menlo Park-based Meta and San Francisco-based OpenAI violated copyright and other laws by ingesting their books — and those of thousands of other authors — to train their artificial intelligence software.Both companies copied works protected by copyright law, including books by Silverman, Pennsylvania author Richard Kadrey and Massachusetts writer Christopher Golden “without consent, without credit, and without compensation,” according to the lawsuits filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.OpenAI, which sells ChatGPT via subscription, and Meta, which according to Silverman’s lawsuit is planning...

San Francisco police union defends mass arrest at skateboard 'hill bomb' event

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- This summer's "Dolores Hill Bomb," an unsanctioned event where skateboarders take over a steep city street, escalated into a riot and mass arrest of more than 100 people.The counter-culture skateboarding event turned ugly. And in the wake of Saturday evening's melee, city leaders are sparring over who escalated the event into chaos. Mayor London Breed is backing police, stating, "No one at this event was arrested for skateboarding." Breed added, "This was an unpermitted event that has led to serious problems in the past, including property destruction and physical injury. The last time it was held, someone died." The San Francisco Police Department's chief and union are strongly defending tactics used by officers. Police officers had to take action to protect fearful residents in the Mission District neighborhood, according to SFPD, the chief, and the union. The San Francisco Police Officers Association wrote, "The violence and chaos on our streets had nothin...

Oakland tenants displaced from New Year's Eve flood protest at landlord's home

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

(BCN) -- A group of tenants who have been displaced for more than half a year from an East Oakland apartment complex protested at their landlord's Oakland home on Sunday morning. Tenants at Oakland's Coliseum Connections apartment building were displaced after a flood on New Year's Eve rendered it uninhabitable. Damage from the flood occurred mainly in the garage area, but the building also sustained damage to the electrical system. Tenants have been shuffled from hotel to hotel, with some families sharing one room without a kitchen, according to a press release from the Coliseum Connections Tenant Association, which works alongside the local tenants union Tenant and Neighborhood Councils. About two-thirds of the apartments' households have children. Family contracts COVID on board Ruby Princess cruise "We are not staying in hotel rooms for pleasure," said Faviola Abendano, a Coliseum Connections tenant in the press release. "There's only so much a 9-5 job can cover." Th...

Summer may be sizzling, but Maryland has already kicked off a back-to-school drive to help kids in need

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

School office supplies on board.(Getty Images/iStockphoto/targovcom) School office supplies on board.(Getty Images/iStockphoto/targovcom) School supplies may not be top of mind for families right now, but Maryland state agencies and a local nonprofit have come up with a back-to-school shopping list they hope residents will consider.Starting this week, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the State Board of Education are working with the Boys & Girls Club Maryland Alliance to collect school supplies for students across the state so they’ll be ready for the upcoming school year.From July 10 through July 28, school supplies can be dropped off at specified MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration branch office...

Review: On ‘Playa Saturno,’ Rauw Alejando’s futuristic reggaeton reaches new heights

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Playa Saturno” by Rauw Alejandro (Sony Music Latin/Duars Entertainment)Puerto Rican musician Rauw Alejandro has always had his eye on the future — taking familiar genres and contorting them into something novel.At the beginning of his career, that meant R&B-informed reggaeton when the rest of the industry leaned into “popetón,” a tried-and-true pop formula. Alejandro takes dem bow, the four-on-the-floor, three-beat percussive pattern that lays the foundation for many Urbano Latino genres (that’s the “boom-chk-boom-chk” to the untrained ear), and manages to stretch the sound into new, experimental heights. And maybe to the furthest corners of the galaxy, as his extraterrestrial concept album suggests.Released as a surprise spinoff to his 2022 album “Saturno”, Alejandro’s fourth full-length, “Playa Saturno,” is an idyllic soundtrack for a beach party in outer space, a collection of songs that demonstrate Alejandro’s keen ear and respect for those performers who...

Adultos de la tercera edad pueden aplicar para viviendas asequibles en el condado Fairfax

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

Pagar una renta hoy en día es difícil para todos, mucho más para las personas de la tercera edad que aún batallando con las limitadas oportunidades de empleo han tenido que adaptarse a seguir pagando altas sumas de dinero para poder tener un lugar donde vivir. En el condado Fairfax, hay una oportunidad para que ellos puedan beneficiarse de viviendas dignas a bajo costo.Aunque no puede ocultar su elegancia y ganas de seguir adelante, Paulina Máximo Pérez  es una de las residentes del DMV a la que pagar una vivienda digna se le ha hecho una tarea imposible. “No alcanza. Y ahorita me había enfermado mucho, mucho y se quedó mi trabajo”, dijo Máximo Pérez.La señora mexicana llegó a la región hace 17 años. Ahora tiene 74 años y está buscando empleo para poder costear sus gastos. Detalló que vive en una habitación en la que paga $800 mensuales–algo que considera elevado en relación a sus ingresos.“Me gustaría vivir mejor…mejor de la vida que tengo ahorita, porque ahorita pue...

Niña muere al atragantarse con comida en un Costco

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:12 GMT

KENNEWICK, Washington.- Una niña de 4 años murió en el hospital Kadlec después de atragantarse con lo que pareció ser un hot dog en la tienda Costco de esta comunidad, el domingo por la tarde. Según el forense del condado Benton, Bill Leach, la niña estaba a unos días de cumplir cinco años.El incidente de asfixia fue “fuertemente presenciado” en la tienda por múltiples testigos, según el forense Leach. Por esa razón no fue programada una autopsia. El personal de emergencia retiró un “tazón de comida” de la escena.Según Ben Shearer, del Departamento de Bomberos de Pasco, el Departamento de Bomberos de Kennewick respondió al incidente, pero hasta ahora no ha hecho ningún comentario o informe.NonStop Local contactó al Costco local para hacer comentarios, pero le dijeron que la tienda “no tiene comentarios en este momento”. Un representante de Costco Wholesale no estuvo disponible para hacer comentarios.La tienda cerró el domingo tras el incidente, pe...