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Largest ruby ever to come to auction sells for record-breaking $34.8 million

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

(CNN) — A 55.22-carat ruby has become both the largest and most valuable gem of its kind ever to sell at auction, netting $34.8 million on Thursday.The stone went under the hammer in New York in June, less than a year after Canadian firm Fura Gems discovered it at one of the company’s mines in Mozambique.Ahead of the sale, Sotheby’s described the jewel as “exceedingly rare” and “the most valuable and important” ruby ever to come to market. It was named Estrela de Fura — or Star of Fura in Mozambique’s official language, Portuguese.Although record gemstone sales are dominated by diamonds — colored ones, in particular — rubies are also considered among the world’s rarest and most valuable gemstones. The previous auction record for a ruby was set by the Sunrise Ruby, a 25.59-carat stone found in Myanmar that fetched $30.3 million in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015.Estrela de Fura was cut from a rough stone that made headlines when it was unearthed by miners last July. Originally weighing ...

Greta Thunberg marks final school strike for climate: ‘The fight has only just begun’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

Greta Thunberg went on a school strike for the climate for the last time on Friday, nearly five years after first sitting down in front of Sweden’s parliament with a hand-drawn sign.Her protest went on to inspire the Fridays for Future movement, which at its peak saw millions take to the streets to call for more climate action. The Swedish activist wrote on Twitter that Friday was her graduation day, “which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate.” But the movement isn’t done, she added. “We’re still here, and we aren’t planning on going anywhere. Much has changed since we started, and yet we have much further to go. We are still moving in the wrong direction.”Thunberg started skipping class to protest outside Stockholm’s Riksdag in August 2018, holding a sign with the slogan Skolstrejk för klimatet — “school strike for climate.”“When I started striking in 2018 I could never have expected that it would lead to anything,” she wrote on ...

Red Sox comfortable with handling of pitcher Matt Dermody after learning of 2021 homophobic tweet

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Boston Red Sox believe they took the proper steps after learning about a homophobic tweet made by pitcher Matt Dermody two years ago.Dermody, who was brought up from Triple-A Worcester to make his first major league start Thursday night against the Guardians, made the social media post in 2021. It has since been deleted, but captured screenshots continue to circulate.The Red Sox said they were unaware of Dermody’s tweet when the 32-year-old signed with the club in January. Once they learned of it, team officials met with Dermody, who went through mandatory anti-discrimination and harassment training in March.“What Matt posted in 2021 was hurtful — and we addressed this with him when we learned about it after he joined the Red Sox in 2023,” team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said in a statement. “We cannot dictate the religious beliefs or political views of our players and employees, but we do require they treat people in our organization ...

Baltimore native Haywood Highsmith Jr. would not take no for an answer on path from Curley to NBA Finals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

Even as he watched Nikola Jokic carve the court with surgical passes and Bam Adebayo float in jumper after jumper, Jeff Van Gundy made a point of talking about Haywood Highsmith Jr.“I like Highsmith,” said the ESPN analyst and former NBA coach, not known for dispensing empty praise. “I like his readiness. I like his ability to make shots. And defensively, he’s active and solid.”If only the NBA Finals audience watching Game 1 between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets knew how improbable it was that Highsmith, a Baltimore native, was raining buckets — 18 points in 23 minutes — against the best players in the world.“It gives me chills every time I think about it,” said Danny Sancomb, Highsmith’s college coach. “Because I know his journey. It hasn’t been an easy path.”“No one believed in me” ranks among our most hackneyed sports cliches. But it’s literally true that no one watching Highsmith ...

Howie Carr: Dems fume because they can’t blame Trump for wildfires

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

There’s only one thing missing from this week’s climate apocalypse that would make it 100% perfect for Democrats.That missing ingredient is… Donald J. Trump.God knows the Democrats and state-run media (but I repeat myself) are thrashing about, trying to find some possible way, no matter how far-fetched, to blame Bad Clouds on POTUS. Thus far they appear to be flailing.What Trump says in all those Internet memes to Republicans now applies to Democrats as well:“Do you miss me yet?”Having a crisis – especially a “climate crisis” – without Trump to blame it on is like having a mocktail instead of a cocktail, a near beer instead of a real beer. For the media, a Trump-less catastrophe is as unsatisfying as “mostly-peaceful rioting” without looting or Molotov cocktails.The smoke is bad, but seriously, is it any worse than the weed odors wafting up from every bleeping street corner in blue America, puffed out by all the student-loan deadbeats and illegal immigrants loitering while awaiting ...

Editorial: In search of a new home, the Bears play hardball. Just leave taxpayers out of it.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

Monsters of the Midway? Not lately. At least, not on the field after a 3-14 season that bestowed upon Chicago’s beloved Bears the ignominious distinction of being the worst the NFL has to offer.Off the field, however, they’re showing aggressiveness reminiscent of their yesteryear glory days.The Bears’ bid to build a stadium-anchored megadevelopment in northwest suburban Arlington Heights recently got jolted by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s decision to assess the former Arlington International Racecourse site — now property of the Bears — at $197 million, roughly the price the team paid to buy the land from Churchill Downs and a far cry from the property’s 2021 assessment of $33 million.If Kaegi’s assessment stands, the Bears would be walloped by massive property tax bills. In Cook County, homeowners and businesses are accustomed to getting waylaid by hefty property tax increases year after year, so Bears leadership shouldn’t...

Archbishop of Canterbury urges Anglican Church of Uganda to reject anti-homosexuality law

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The archbishop of Canterbury has urged the Anglican Church of Uganda to reject the country’s new anti-homosexuality law, saying its support for the legislation was a “fundamental departure” from the global Anglican movement’s commitment to protect the dignity of all people.Archbishop Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said Friday that he had written to Ugandan Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba to express his “grief and dismay” over the Ugandan church’s position on the law.“Supporting such legislation is a fundamental departure from our commitment to uphold the freedom and dignity of all people,” Welby said in a statement. “There is no justification for any province of the Anglican Communion to support such laws: not in our resolutions, not in our teachings, and not in the Gospel we share.”Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni late last month signed legislation that includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as sexual r...

Palestinians say Israeli troops kill man at West Bank checkpoint; Israel says he attacked a soldier

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank Friday, and the military said the man attacked a solider before he was shot.The army said the man arrived at the checkpoint near Ramallah city in a stolen vehicle, attacked the soldier that was inspecting his papers and tried to steal his weapon. Another soldier shot the alleged Palestinian assailant. The soldier was lightly wounded.The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Mahdi Biadsa, 29. His body is being held by the Israeli military, which said it was investigating the incident and whether it was a criminal attack or part of a wave of rising violence.At least 118 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally. But stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence have also been killed.Me...

Israeli troops fire tear gas to disperse protesters along Lebanon border

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse scores of protesters who pelted the troops with stones along the border with Lebanon Friday, leaving some Lebanese demonstrators and troops suffering breathing problems.The tension on the edge of the Lebanese border village of Kfar Chouba began earlier this week over the Israeli military digging in the area that Lebanon claims.On Wednesday, a Lebanese villager tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer from digging a trench along the border. Once the villager’s legs were covered with sand as the bulldozer moved ahead, U.N. peacekeepers jumped in and convinced the driver to move back. Videos of the elderly man with his legs stuck in the sand dune went viral on social media. Israel ended an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon when its troops withdrew from the area in May 2000.Friday’s protest took place on the edge of Kfar Chouba hills, which Beirut says is Lebanese land occupied by Israel. Kfar Chouba hills and ...

NATO hopeful Sweden charges man with attempting to extort money for group outlawed in Turkey

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:40 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish prosecutors charged a Turkish man Friday with “attempted aggravated extortion, an aggravated weapons offense and attempted terrorist financing,” saying he was acting on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.Swedish media noted it was the first time that someone in Sweden was prosecuted for alleged terrorist financing of the party. Also known as PKK, it has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.Turkey has refused to approve Sweden’s request to join NATO, accusing the Swedish government of not doing enough to crack down on PKK members and others whom Ankara considers extremists. The military alliance wants to admit Sweden before a NATO summit next month in Vilnius, Lithuania.All existing members must ratify a candidate country’s accession protocol before it can join the trans-Atlantic alliance. Turkey and Hungary are the only two me...