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Mattel reports spike in sales thanks to Barbie and Hot Wheels

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

New York (CNN) — Mattel is still riding Barbie’s pink blockbuster wave.The toy manufacturer reported a 9% rise in its net sales to $1.92 billion in the third quarter of 2023, fueled by Barbie’s success and Hot Wheels toys, even while company profits faced pressure on other fronts.Worldwide gross billings, or the amount invoiced to customers, for dolls rose 27%, bringing in $885 million to Mattel in the third quarter. Meanwhile, vehicles — mainly driven by Hot Wheels — rose 18% to $519 million compared to the same quarter a year ago.However, the company remained tepid about its outlook as the global toy industry faced headwinds. Mattel expected its full year sales to match 2022, at $5.4 billion. The wider economy is still shaky, it said.“The company is operating in a challenging macro-economic environment with higher volatility, including inflation, that may impact consumer demand,” the company’s earnings release said.The company reported $146.3 million in net income during the quart...

Liz Truss urges Rishi Sunak to ‘reconsider’ China’s AI summit invite

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

LONDON — Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss demanded her successor Rishi Sunak “reconsider” China’s invite to the U.K.’s upcoming summit on artificial intelligence.Ahead of next week’s global gathering on AI safety, Truss said Thursday she was “deeply disturbed” that representatives from the Chinese government have been asked to attend.“The regime in Beijing has a fundamentally different attitude to the West about AI, seeing it as a means of state control and a tool for national security,” Truss warned in a letter also published on X, formerly Twitter.The intervention from Truss comes hours after Sunak — who replaced her in No.10 Downing Street after an eventful and short stint in office last year — confirmed that China had been invited to the summit, saying it was the right thing to do.“There can be no serious strategy for AI without at least trying to engage all of the world’s leading AI powers,” Sunak said.Chinese officials have been invited to attend both ...

Maine’s governor says at least 18 people were killed and 13 were injured in shootings in Lewiston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Maine’s governor says at least 18 people were killed and 13 were injured in shootings in Maine. Gov. Janet Mills made the remarks at a press conference Thursday.A man shot and killed the victims at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents stayed locked in their homes Thursday under a shelter-in-place advisory.Mills said the shooting suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous.“This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security,” she said.A police bulletin identified Card, 40, as a person of interest in the attack in Lewiston that sent panicked bowlers scrambling behind pins, into corners and a back room when shots rang out around 7 p.m. Wednesday. Card was described as a firearms instructor believed to be in the U.S. Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Sac...

Police continue to scour small Maine community where vehicle of interest was found after Lewiston mass shootings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

Lisbon, MAINE (WHDH) – Residents in Lisbon, Maine have been warned to be on alert and stay in their homes after the vehicle belonging to a suspect in a series of mass shootings in nearby Lewiston was found in their town Wednesday night.Heavily armed police officers could be seen fanned out around the area after the vehicle belonging to Robert Card, 40, was found abandoned in the area of Main and Mill Street in Lisbon Falls, near a boat launch.Tactical teams could be seen gearing up near the launch while authorities kept Route 196 sealed off to traffic Thursday morning, as helicopters and drones searched from above while ground teams combed through the area.Speaking with reporters, Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee explained how his department had been receiving calls throughout the night, and that he encouraged residents to stay indoors and continue to report anything suspicious.“We’ve had everything from people calling about, you know, noises in the basement, noises ...

Fantasy Fixer: Week 8

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

7’s Morey Hershgordon has the inside scoop on who to start and sit this week in Fantasy Fixer. Go set your lineups!

Sam Bankman-Fried awaits chance to tell his side of story in epic cryptocurrency exchange collapse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors in the case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried rested on Thursday, setting the stage for him to testify about how his multibillion dollar cryptocurrency empire collapsed, causing billions of dollars in losses that prosecutors blame on his extravagant spending on investments, donations and a lavish lifestyle.His testimony was likely to begin by afternoon, a day after his lawyer told a Manhattan federal court judge that his client planned to testify in his defense. Defense lawyers estimated that they would question him for about five hours after brief testimony from two other witnesses.After prosecutors rested Thursday, defense lawyers immediately asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to acquit Bankman-Fried on the grounds that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence. The judge rejected the request.The California entrepreneur has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges accusing him of diverting billions of dollars from his clients and investors to m...

Police in Illinois fatally shoot sledgehammer-wielding man after reported domestic assault

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. (AP) — A man who allegedly attacked two relatives with a sledgehammer in suburban Chicago was fatally shot by police after he charged at officers.Officers in Round Lake Beach responded about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday to a domestic violence report and removed two injured women from an open garage.The suspect armed with the sledgehammer charged at officers and first was shot with a stun gun, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force said.He continued toward the officers when at least one officer shot him with his service weapon. The man later died at a hospital. His name was not immediately released.The injured women are believed to be his mother and an aunt. They were taken to a hospital, police said.“Both victims had very serious head and facial injuries consistent with being struck with a blunt force object,” task force spokesman Christopher Covelli said.Round Lake Beach is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Chicago.The Associated Press

María Corina Machado is winner of Venezuela opposition primary that government has denounced

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan government critic María Corina Machado was declared the winner Thursday of an opposition-organized primary to choose a presidential candidate, in polling last weekend that was denounced by the self-proclaimed socialist government as illegitimate.The voting Sunday organized by the National Primary Commission drew more than 2.4 million voters in Venezuela and abroad and was aimed at choosing a candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro next year.But despite some assurances by Maduro’s government that the opposition would be allowed to choose a candidate, it has cast heavy doubt on any outcome of the weekend primary. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into primary organizers on charges including fraud and usurping authority, and on top of that the government has official banned Machado from running for office.Still, the opposition primary commission declared Machado the winner Thursday in an event before opposition leaders and ...

Pakistan’s ex-leader Nawaz Sharif regains right to appeal convictions, opening a path to election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A federal court in Pakistan’s capital on Thursday restored the right of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to appeal his 2018 convictions in two graft cases, officials said, less than a week after he returned home from four years of self-imposed exile in London. The decision by the Islamabad High Court was a boost for Sharif ahead of parliamentary elections due in January.If the court overturns his convictions in the coming weeks, Sharif would be eligible to run for a seat in parliament, and analysts say his Pakistan Muslim League party could also return to power.Sharif stepped down as prime minister in 2017 over corruption charges. In July 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the anti-graft tribunal in a case involving the purchase of luxury apartments in London. In December of the same year, he was sentenced to a further seven years by a different court in a separate corruption case. His party called the verdict a “black stain” on the justice syst...

Palestinian activist is expelled by Israeli forces from his home in a volatile West Bank city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:43 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops expelled a prominent Palestinian activist from his home in a West Bank city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after he hosted a foreign journalist and a well-known Israeli activist.Critics accused the military of using the cover of the Israel-Hamas war to expel Issa Amro from volatile Hebron, the only city in the West Bank where Jewish settlers live among Palestinians. The military had no immediate comment.Amro said the journalist came to his house in Hebron to gather material for an article about the situation in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war nearly three weeks ago, after a brutal rampage by Hamas gunmen from Gaza in Israeli border communities.In the West Bank, the Israeli military stepped up arrest raids in pursuit of Hamas militants, and dozens of Palestinians, including several minors, were killed, most in clashes with troops, but also during protests and in attacks by Jewish settlers, according ...