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Spalletti confirms he’s leaving Serie A champion Napoli and taking year off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Luciano Spalletti has confirmed he is leaving Serie A champion Napoli and will not coach next season.“I need to take a year off. I’m a bit tired and I want to be with my daughter Matilde,” Spalletti said on the sidelines of a transfer market symposium on Monday.Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis revealed on RAI state TV on Sunday that Spalletti requested a sabbatical year.“He’s a free man. After 50 years in the film business, when someone comes to you and says, ‘I’ve given my all, a part of my life is ending, I still have a contract with you but I would prefer to take a sabbatical year,’ what do you do? Do you stand in his way?” De Laurentiis posed. “You’ve got to be generous in life. … He’s given a lot and I thank him for that. Now it’s only fair that he does what he wants to do.”In his second season at Napoli, the 64-year-old Spalletti coached the team to its first Serie A title in 33 years. They won with five rounds to spare.Spalletti still has one more m...

Remains of a World War II airman identified nearly 80 years after his death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

(CNN) — An Army Air Forces member who was killed 80 years ago during World War II has been identified and accounted for, and will be laid to rest in his Illinois hometown days after Memorial Day.Tech. Sgt. James Howie, who was 24 at the time, was a radio operator on a B-24 Liberator bomber on August 1, 1943, when it was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed north of Bucharest, Romania, during Operation Tidal Wave, the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.After the war, Howie’s remains were never identified, the agency said. His remains, along with the remains of other unidentified comrades, were buried as “unknowns” in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania, the agency said.It’s estimated that more than 81,500 Americans remain missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and other conflicts. More than 41,000 of those missing are presumed lost at sea, according ...

Sharon couple celebrates 75th wedding anniversary, share secrets to a successful marriage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

A couple from Sharon recently celebrated a major milestone, marking their 75th wedding anniversary while surrounded by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.Sonny and Charlotte Freedman married on May 26, 1948, and on Friday, May 26, 2023, with Sonny just turning 99 and Charlotte now 94, they celebrated their diamond anniversary.They told 7NEWS it’s a love story that started in the 1940’s.“He was reading a comic book, and I said to him ‘Is that all you have to do on a Friday night?’ and he said ‘Can you think of anything better?'” Charlotte recalled. “I said ‘Yes!’ and that was it. And the next week, he called me.”Sonny met Charlotte when he came home from serving overseas during World War II. It was an instant connection, and Sonny knew.“I would like to stay in touch with her,” he said. They vowed early to stay in touch, bonding quickly over their shared love of dancing.“I like jitt...

Pedro Pascal says he got an eye infection from fans recreating his ‘Game of Thrones’ death scene

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

(CNN) — When it comes to weird fan interactions, Pedro Pascal wins.During roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Pascal had a chat with Jeff Bridges, Kieran Culkin, Damson Idris, Michael Imperioli, and Evan Peters.Talk turned to some interesting encounters with viewers of their shows. Pascal shared that because of how his “Game of Thrones” character Oberyn Martell died, “people were super into taking selfies with their thumbs in my eyes.”“And at first, I was so earnest and happy about the success of the character in the show, I’d let them,” he said. “And then I remember getting a bit of an eye infection.”Yikes!During the fourth season of the hit HBO series, Pascal’s character is killed by Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane (played by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), who gouges his eyes out before cracking his skull. (HBO is owned by CNN’s parent company)Culkin, who stars in “Succession,” upon hearing Pascal’s story quipped, “Wow that’s a lot of trust.”Pascal has gone on to other...

Celtics watched 2004 Red Sox documentary to inspire their own comeback: ‘It was beautiful’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

When the Celtics went down in an 0-3 series hole last week in the Eastern Conference Finals, they were in need of some inspiration.They turned to the Red Sox.The C’s looked hopeless. They were in a spot no team in NBA history had overcome in 150 tries. It was the same position the Red Sox found themselves in 2004, when they roared back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the rival Yankees in the ALCS, the first time it had been done in MLB history.So, after their Game 3 loss in Miami, and sometime before Game 4, the Celtics got together and watched ESPN’s “Four Days in October” documentary, which chronicled the Red Sox’ historic comeback.“It was beautiful,” Marcus Smart said Monday morning at Celtics shootaround. “It was definitely special to watch, special to witness and to be able to have an opportunity to go out there and have our own 2004 ride.”The Celtics, of course, reeled off three consecutive victories to give themselves a chance at the same history on Monday night at TD Garden. The...

Column: ‘Succession’ series finale: The Roys’ desires and anxieties always outweighed critiques of their influence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

Pour one out for the Roy siblings, who take their leave of the TV landscape as unhappy and misguided as they were when “Succession” premiered on HBO in 2018.The show became an obsession for many, inviting audiences into an inner sanctum of lavish settings and private planes at their beck and call — and where viperous family dynamics reigned supreme. Sometimes the violence was literal, like a prestige Punch and Judy show — it certainly looked like Kendall was about to gouge his brother’s eyes in the finale’s eleventh-hour showdown — becoming a physical manifestation of the spiritual violence they were forever inflicting upon one another.Their excessive net worth was handed down to them by Daddy. Their magnificent incompetence? Courtesy of Daddy, as well. Logan Roy’s real legacy wasn’t the billion dollar corporation he built, but the sons and a daughter he dumped into the world like a carton of battered, unwanted dolls missing tufts of hair. Congratulations?The show’s driving force wa...

Ouch. April saw a sharper uptick in inflation, new data shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

A month ago, federal data showed relatively flat prices from February to March. Friday’s fresh figures tell a different story.This month’s personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) suggests that inflation rose more sharply in April than in the preceding two months. The PCE increased 0.4% in April after rising 0.1% in March and 0.3% in February, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report released Friday.The PCE measures consumer spending by tracking prices that U.S. consumers are currently paying for goods and services. The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases new PCE data on a monthly basis.This month’s report found that:Annually, the PCE price index rose 4.4% in April, compared to 4.2% in March.On an annual basis, prices for goods increased 2.1% in April, while prices for services increased 5.5%. In March, on an annual basis, the prices of goods increased 1.6%, while prices for services swelled 5.5%.Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.4% from March to ...

Boston Police sending extra officers to North Station area for Game 7 at TD Garden

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

With a historic Game 7 at TD Garden Monday night, Boston Police said the department will be sending extra officers to the North Station area to “ensure the Celtics game will be a safe and enjoyable event for all.”The Celtics are looking to clinch a second straight appearance in the NBA Finals, and they’re trying to become the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series — 19 years after the Red Sox became the first-ever MLB team to do that against the Yankees.In Saturday night’s Game 6 against the Miami Heat, the Celtics won on a miraculous buzzer beater to force a Game 7.“The BPD will deploy additional officers in the North Station area to ensure the Celtics game will be a safe and enjoyable event for all,” Boston Police tweeted on Monday.“We suggest fans use public transportation to get to/from the game,” BPD added. “As always, we urge people to report any suspicious behavior to police.”...

Site of Oakland warehouse fire that killed 36 sold to community group

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A converted artists’ warehouse in Oakland that burned down in 2016, killing 36 people, was quietly razed this month in preparation for possible development into badly needed low-income housing. The property that housed the Ghost Ship warehouse was acquired by The Unity Council, a nonprofit community development organization based in Oakland. The council’s CEO Chris Iglesias told the Bay Area News Group last week that they plan to move forward with care, knowing how sensitive the issue is for the families of those who died when a fire broke out in the warehouse during a Dec. 2, 2016, electronic music party. “We just want to be really, really thoughtful in this process and just understand what a tragic event this was to them,” he said. No cause was determined in the fire, but a likely electrical overload filled the warehouse with smoke and flames that quickly trapped partygoers inside. The building had been illegally converted into a live-work space ...

New Democrat MP says she is target of foreign interference by China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:10 GMT

OTTAWA — New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan says Canada’s spy agency has told her she is an ongoing target of the Chinese government.The Vancouver member of Parliament says she was briefed Friday by the Canadian Security Intelligence ServiceShe says CSIS informed her she was singled out by China in the 2019 federal election and that she remains a target because of her criticism of the Chinese government.Kwan says she cannot reveal specifics of Beijing’s alleged actions without breaking security laws.She says she will continue to speak out on behalf of immigrants, the diaspora community and human rights.Kwan is the latest MP to say she has received a CSIS briefing about being singled out by the Chinese government.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2023. The Canadian Press