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UFC, WWE combine to form $21.4 billion sports entertainment company

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN | AP Business WriterWWE and the company that runs Ultimate Fighting Championship will combine to create a $21.4 billion sports entertainment company.A new publicly traded company will house the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment brands, with Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. taking a 51% controlling interest in the new company. Existing WWE shareholders will hold a 49% stake.The companies put the enterprise value of UFC at $12.1 billion and WWE’s value at $9.3 billion.The new business, which does not yet have a name, will be lead by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. Vince McMahon, executive chairman at WWE, will serve in the same role at the new company. Dana White will continue as president of UFC and Nick Khan will be president at WWE.“Together, we will be a $21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fanbase of more than a billion people and an exciting growth opportunity,” McMahon said in a prepared statement Monday.He also provided some ide...

Pentagon Tries to Cast Bank Runs as National Security Threat

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

The next time banks need a bailout, they’ll have a new argument for why it’s necessary: national security.In recent months, the Pentagon has moved to provide loans, guarantees, and other financial instruments to technology companies it considers crucial to national security — a step beyond the grants and contracts it normally employs. So when Silicon Valley Bank threatened to fail in March following a bank run, the defense agency advocated for government intervention to insure the investments. The Pentagon had even scrambled to prepare multiple plans to get cash to affected companies if necessary, reporting by Defense One revealed.Their interest in Silicon Valley Bank stems from the Pentagon’s brand-new office, the Office of Strategic Capital. According to the Wall Street Journal, the secretary of defense established the OSC in December specifically to counteract the investment power of adversaries like China in U.S. technologies, and to secure separate funding for companies whose p...

It’s Embiid vs. Doncic for scoring title in NBA’s final week

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

For the second time, the NBA will have an international player as its scoring champion.It will be the second time in as many years.Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid — who was born in Cameroon — is on the cusp of becoming a back-to-back scoring champion, though he and Dallas’ Luka Doncic might take that race down to the wire.Embiid opened up a bit of breathing room on Sunday, when he had 28 points in the 76ers’ loss to Milwaukee while Doncic — who is from Slovenia — scored 28 in the Mavericks’ overtime loss to Atlanta.Embiid now has 2,110 points in 64 games; that’s an average of 32.97 per game. Doncic has 2,096 points, also in 64 games; that’s an average of 32.75 per game.Philadelphia has four games remaining, Dallas has three. No NBA games were being played Monday, with the league taking off the day of the NCAA men’s Division I championship game.Portland’s Damian Lillard is third in the scoring race at 32.2 points per game. He’ll finish at that average, because the Trail Blazers have...

Stocks are mixed, S&P 500 inches lower as oil prices jump

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets around the world are mixed Monday, as a jump in oil prices threatens to add upward pressure on inflation. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 191 points, or 0.6%, at 33,465, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% lower. It’s the first day of the year’s second quarter for markets, and a more than 5% jump in oil prices is denting one of the main themes that helped stocks rise in the first quarter: that turmoil in the banking system and a continued slowdown in inflation could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to take it easier soon on their hikes to interest rates. The Fed has already jacked rates up at a feverish pace over the last year in hopes of undercutting high inflation. Higher rates can do that by slowing the economy, but they risk causing a recession later on.They also drag down prices for stocks, bonds and other investments. That’s a factor that helped c...

Encuesta CNN: la mayoría de los estadounidenses aprueba la acusación a Trump

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

(CNN) — El 60% de los estadounidenses aprueba la acusación contra el expresidente Donald Trump, según una nueva encuesta de CNN realizada por SSRS tras la noticia de que un jurado investigador de Nueva York votó a favor de acusarlo en relación con supuestos pagos de dinero por silencio realizados a la actriz de cine para adultos Stormy Daniels.Alrededor de tres cuartas partes de los estadounidenses dicen que la política jugó al menos algún papel en la decisión de acusar a Trump, incluido el 52% que dijo que jugó un papel importante.Los independientes se alinean mayoritariamente a favor de la acusación: el 62% la aprueba y el 38% la desaprueba. Los demócratas son casi universales en su apoyo a la acusación (el 94% la aprueba, incluido el 71% que la aprueba firmemente), con los republicanos menos unificados en la oposición (el 79% la desaprueba, con un 54% que la desaprueba firmemente).Aunque las opiniones sobre la acusación están divididas en función de los partidos, la encuest...

Dortmund defender Schlotterbeck out with muscle tear

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck will be out “for the time being” with a muscle tear he picked up in the 4-2 loss to title rival Bayern Munich, the club said Monday.Schlotterbeck went off in the 44th minute on Saturday as Dortmund was knocked off the top spot in the Bundesliga.“The diagnosis is now confirmed: the 23-year-old suffered a muscle fiber tear with tendon involvement in Munich and will therefore not be at BVB’s disposal for the time being,” Dortmund said. Schlotterbeck has played all 37 games of Dortmund’s season so far across all competitions. The 23-year-old central defender has played nine games for Germany including two at the World Cup.___More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

After March Madness, women’s pro basketball options are slim

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — March Madness may have been the last time for fans to see many of the talented college women players compete.Players’ options for professional basketball careers are limited, whether in the U.S. or overseas — the jobs just aren’t there.“You can be a great college player and not make a WNBA roster,” ESPN WNBA analyst LaChina Robinson said. “You’re not only competing with players that are currently on roster, but also a ton of women’s basketball players overseas that have been honing their skills and waiting for opportunity to break into the WNBA.”The numbers paint a challenging picture.— There are only 12 WNBA teams and 144 roster spots with most of those being filled by returning players.— Over the past six seasons, 64% of players drafted made WNBA rosters according to basketball website ‘Beyond Women’s Sports’. The high mark was 28 of the 36 draftees in 2019. The low was only 20 the year before.Even if a player does get into the league, it’s a battle...

Grains mostly higher, Livestock lower

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Grain futures were mostly higher Monday in early trading on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat for May gained 13.25 cents at $7.0325 a bushel; May corn rose 12.50 cents at $6.65 a bushel; May oats fell 9 cents at $3.5750 a bushel; while May soybeans advanced 36.50 cents at 15.2525 a bushel.Beef and pork were lower on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.Apr. live cattle was off .15 cent at $1.6787 a pound; Apr. feeder cattle lost 3.25 cents at $1.9812 a pound; Apr. lean hogs lost 1.10 cents at $.7470 a pound.Source

Review: Nicole Chung’s new memoir about her parents’ deaths

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

“A Living Remedy,” by Nicole Chung (Ecco)In 2018, Nicole Chung published the bestseller, “All You Can Ever Know,” about being put up for adoption by her Korean parents and raised by a white couple in rural Oregon. With a few years of finishing the book, her adoptive parents were dead, her dad at 67 and her mom at 68. The latter occurred at the start of the pandemic, when it was all but impossible for Chung, who by then had a husband and two young children of her own, to spend time with her.Now Chung, 41, a magazine writer who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, has written a follow-up memoir, “A Living Remedy,” about the unbearable grief of watching one parent, then the other, die, and her debilitating guilt about not being able to do more to help them.When Chung was growing up, her dad managed pizza restaurants and her mom worked mostly office jobs. They had limited or no health insurance, and when he became gravely ill, he was too young for Medicare and too proud to apply for disa...

Martha’s Table hosting new spring fundraiser

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:50 GMT

One of Kingston’s food charities is kicking off what they hope becomes an annual fundraiser in the city.This year the fundraiser is coming at a time when Martha’s needs funds to support the expansion of the charity’s operating space after they managed to purchase the other half of their semi-detached building in December of last year. That space was previously a doctor’s office, and so requires renovations in order to turn the interior into an open space fit for hosting in person breakfast, lunch and eventually, dinner. Executive Director Ronda Candy said they opened up part of the space as a warming centre during the winter in order to utilize what they had, but they’re looking forward to being able to bring more socializing back to Martha’s mission. While the charity had been able to raise and save enough over the years to support capital expansion and the purchase of this building, more fundraising is now needed to help with the renovations and...