Associated Press stories, Page 985
UFC, WWE combine to form $21.4B sports entertainment company
WWE is saying goodbye to existing as a family-run business as it joins with the company that runs Ultimate Fighting Championship to create a $21.4 billion sports entertainment company. The deal announced Monday between Endeavor and World Wrestling Entertainment, on the heels of its biggest event of the year, catapults...
Finland to join NATO military alliance this week, chief says
BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Finland will become the 31st member of the military alliance on Tuesday. “From tomorrow, Finland will be a full member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. Stoltenberg said that Turkey, the last country to have ratified Finland’s membership, will hand its...
Snoop Dogg steps in at last second during WrestleMania
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Leave it to Snoop Dogg to emerge as the Most Valuable Performer of WrestleMania 39. During a weekend that saw World Wrestling Entertainment set a two-night attendance record for their signature event, the company on the verge of being sold and Roman Reigns remaining the undisputed champion,...
Zelenskyy to visit Warsaw to meet with Poles, Ukrainians
WARSAW, Poland — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will pay a visit to Warsaw this week that will include talks with political leaders and a meeting with regular Ukrainians and Poles, Polish officials announced on Monday. Zelenskyy will be accompanied by his wife, Olena Zelenska, for the visit, scheduled for Wednesday....
Ex-principal of Jewish school found guilty of sexual abuse
MELBOURNE, Australia — The former principal of a Jewish girls school in Australia was found guilty Monday of sexually abusing two students, ending a nine-year legal battle that strained relations between the Australian and Israeli governments while antagonizing Australia’s Jewish community. Malka Leifer, 56, a Tel Aviv-born mother of eight,...
Brooks Koepka hangs on to win LIV event ahead of Masters
ORLANDO, Fla. — Brooks Koepka became the first multiple winner in LIV Golf when he closed with a 3-under-par 68, making a 4-foot par putt on the final hole for a one-shot victory over Sebastian Munoz. LIV Golf-Orlando came one week before Koepka and 17 other players in the Saudi-funded...
Kelsea Ballerini honors shooting victims at CMT Music Awards
NASHVILLE — Country singer Kelsea Ballerini opened the CMT Music Awards with a tribute to victims of a school shooting while sharing in that community’s grief, then danced alongside drag artists as states across the country consider legally limiting drag show performances, Ballerini, a co-host of the annual awards show...
Tesla sales rise 36% in first quarter, following price cuts
DETROIT — Tesla’s first-quarter vehicle sales rose 36% after the company cut prices twice in a bid to stimulate demand. The electric car, SUV and heavy truck maker said it delivered 422,875 vehicles worldwide from January to March, up from just over 310,000 a year ago. But the increase fell...
Kyle Larson keeps Hendrick, Chevrolet in NASCAR driver’s seat
Kyle Larson pulled away on a restart with 14 laps to go and easily won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday. Larson started the final green flag run with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Josh Berry to his outside and beat Berry into the first turn. Berry, who...
Corey Conners wins Valero Texas Open for 2nd time in 5 years
SAN ANTONIO — Corey Conners won the Valero Texas Open for the second time in five years Sunday for his second PGA Tour title, closing with a 4-under-par 68 for a one-stroke victory over rookie Sam Stevens. Also the 2019 winner, Conners had a 15-under 273 total on TPC San...
LSU wins 1st NCAA championship, beating Clark and IowaVideo
DALLAS — Kim Mulkey had tears of joy streaming down her face as she guided LSU to it first national championship. Her Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa, 102-85, on Sunday and win the first basketball title in school history. The victory made Mulkey...
Transfer portal lifts UConn, San Diego State to NCAA finalVideo
HOUSTON — Dan Hurley knew in the wake of a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament last year that his Connecticut team had to find more perimeter punch to surround his top NBA prospects and match opponents. Similarly, Brian Dutcher quickly went about luring a new point guard to San...
Augusta National has Sunday unlike any other at MastersVideo
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Mark O’Meara is reminded every year how meaningful it was to win the Masters. O’Meara was on the practice green Sunday at Augusta National, 25 years removed from his birdie-birdie finish to win his first major. Now he is 66 and plays the PGA Tour Champions only...
Trump to deliver remarks Tuesday night after his arraignment
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks Tuesday night in Florida after his scheduled arraignment in New York on charges related to hush money payments, his campaign announced Sunday. Trump will hold the event at his Mar-a-Lago club after returning from Manhattan, where he is expected to...
Saudis, other oil giants announce surprise production cuts
Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide. Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers as his country wages war on...
Explosion in Russian cafe kills prominent military bloggerVideo
An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city Sunday, killing a well-known military blogger and strident supporter of the war in Ukraine. Some reports said a bomb was embedded in a bust of the blogger that was given to him as a gift. Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky...
Blinken: Russia must immediately free 2 detained Americans
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged his Russian counterpart, in a rare phone call between the diplomats since the Ukraine war, to immediately release a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained last week as well as another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan, the State Department said Sunday. In...
‘Dungeons & Dragons’ opens with $38.5M, takes down John Wick
NEW YORK — Riding terrific reviews and a strong word-of-mouth, the role playing game adaptation “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” opened with $38.5 million in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, stealing the top box-office perch from “John Wick: Chapter 4.” The...
Twitter pulls check mark from main New York Times account
Twitter has removed the verification check mark on the main account of The New York Times, one of CEO Elon Musk’s most despised news organizations. The removal comes as many of Twitter’s high-profile users are bracing for the loss of the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and...
Trump indictment ends decades of perceived invincibility
NEW YORK — When Donald Trump steps before a judge this coming week to be arraigned in a New York courtroom, it will not only mark the first time a former U.S. president has faced criminal charges. It will also be a reckoning for a man long nicknamed “Teflon Don,”...
32 dead as tornadoes torment from Arkansas to DelawareVideo
WYNNE, Ark. — Residents across a wide swath of the U.S. raced Sunday to assess the destruction from fierce storms that spawned possibly dozens of tornadoes from the South and the Midwest into the Northeast, killing at least 32 people. The storms tore a path through the Arkansas capital and...
Ex-Arkansas GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson is running for president
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Asa Hutchinson, who recently completed two terms as Arkansas governor, said Sunday he will seek the Republican presidential nomination, positioning himself as an alternative to Donald Trump just days after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in New York. Hutchinson said Trump should...
UConn puts Final Four beatdown on Miami
HOUSTON — Nobody was guarding UConn’s best player. So Adama Sanogo spun the ball to get his fingers just right, set his feet behind the 3-point line and splashed in the shot. Then, less than a minute later, he did it again. It was as much basketball clinic as highlight...
Rose Zhang holds on to win Augusta Women’s Amateur in playoff
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rose Zhang has won enough to realize that rarely does something so meaningful ever come so easily. The Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the final piece to her brilliant amateur career, meant the world to her. It turned out to be her toughest test. Staked to a five-shot...
Butler’s buzzer-beater sends San Diego State to title gameVideo
HOUSTON — Lamont Butler made a jumper at the buzzer, sending San Diego State to its first national championship game with a 72-71 win over fellow mid-major Florida Atlantic in the Final Four on Saturday night. “It’s unbelievable,” Butler said. “This is what I came here to do. I’m glad...
