Starting Lineup figures, iconic toys conceived by Pat McInally, returning in September

Associated Press
Germany's Scholz lauds the proposed new EU leadership and pushes for a decision this week
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lauded the European Union's proposed leadership for the coming years as the basis for “a good European future” and urged his fellow national leaders Wednesday to agree on the package at a summit this week. Three mainstream political groups have agreed that German conservative Ursula von der Leyen should get a second term as the president of the EU's executive Commission, while former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, a socialist, should take the helm of the European Council, the forum where the 27 member countries are represented.
USA TODAY
From photo op to out-of-state flights, Gov. Noem jets around nation as South Dakota floods
With a disaster rivaling the 2011 Missouri River Flood in her home state, Gov. Kristi Noem is making time to fly for out-of-state appearances at GOP campaign events.
AFP
ICC convicts Timbuktu jihad police chief of war crimes
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted a jihadist police chief of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during a reign of terror in the fabled Malian city of Timbuktu.Also known as "Abou Fadl", Ag Ghaly is wanted on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Timbuktu, the ICC said.
Associated Press
Episcopal Church is electing a successor to Michael Curry, its first African American leader
The Episcopal Church, at its General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, is scheduled to elect a new leader Wednesday to replace Michael Curry, who for the past nine years has served as the first African American presiding bishop of the 239-year-old denomination. There are five nominees for presiding bishop, who serves as the Episcopalians’ chief pastor, president and CEO. —Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez of the Diocese of Pennsylvania (which encompasses Philadelphia and four nearby counties).
NBC News
Progressives form 'Global Migration' caucus to reshape U.S. immigration debate
House progressives are forming a new caucus to focus the U.S. immigration debate on fixing causes of migration rather than controlling the southern border.
Time
The Coming Great Conflict
Ray Dalio writes about the five big, interrelated forces that drive how domestic and world orders change
Associated Press
The Vatican stands trial in London as a British financier seeks to clear his name in a property deal
The Vatican was forced to stand trial in a London court Wednesday, as a British financier sought to recover from the harm he said he suffered to his reputation as a result of a Vatican investigation into its 350 million euro (around $375 million) investment in a London property. A Vatican tribunal has already convicted Raffaele Mincione of embezzlement and related charges, and sentenced him to more than five years in prison, for his role in the London deal.
Yahoo Finance
Stock market today: US futures in holding pattern as investors watch for cues
Investors are wondering whether the recent rough ride for stocks is a sign of a coming retreat.
CNN
Julian Assange is back in Australia a free man. Here’s what we know about his US plea deal
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pled guilty to a single espionage charge in front on a US judge Wednesday and walked free after his 12-year battle against extradition to the United States ended in a plea deal.
AFP
US reporter Evan Gershkovich on trial in Russia
US reporter Evan Gershkovich's closed-door espionage trial in Russia began Wednesday, 15 months after he was arrested on charges that he, his newspaper and the White House reject as false.He has already spent almost 15 months in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison since his arrest.
Reuters
Bank of Italy signals potentially illegal transfers from Italian accounts to Russia in 2023
The Bank of Italy reported potentially illegal bank transfers last year from Italian accounts to Russia, channelled through other countries in order to avoid Western sanctions, the central bank said in a document published on Wednesday. Western powers imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which have since been gradually tightened. European Union countries adopted a 14th package of sanctions against Moscow earlier this week.
AFP
Designer vestments and furniture for Paris's reborn Notre-Dame
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is getting a modern makeover for its reopening in December, with designer furniture and colourful priestly vestments created by a top fashion designer. The diocese said Notre-Dame will be able to accommodate 2,500 people at once and 40,000 per day.
AFP
Fears new 'most dangerous' mpox strain could cross borders
A new deadlier strain of mpox that transmits more easily between people is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of Congo and may have already spread to neighbouring countries, researchers have warned.Out of 384 people who died from all mpox strains in DR Congo this year, more than 60 percent were children, according to the World Health Organization.
Reuters
Summer heat brings new misery to Palestinians in Israel's Gaza campaign
Sweltering summer weather is worsening conditions in Gaza where nearly all the 2.3 million inhabitants have been driven from their homes by Israel's military campaign and where there is almost no electricity and little clean water. Families living in tents, in crowded shelters in U.N. schools or crammed into private homes, face the rising summer temperatures without air condition, showers or a functioning health system amid rising rates of malnutrition and disease. In a school classroom shared as a shelter among different families in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, Amal Nsair, 38, is worried that the rising heat and humidity and the increase in mosquitoes and other insects will harm their health.
Associated Press
Saipan, placid island setting for Assange's last battle, is briefly mobbed — and bemused by the fuss
It was a peculiar setting to the final act in a legal drama that has now spanned the globe: a rural Western Pacific island, where visitors are usually tourists — attracted by laid-back resorts, snorkeling, diving and golf — and the furthermost reach of the United States. When Julian Assange stepped from a car Wednesday to enter the Saipan courthouse, from which he would emerge hours later a free man, it was against a backdrop that could have adorned a travel brochure. If the location felt bizarre to Assange, his sudden arrival — along with dozens of reporters from news outlets across the world — was equally startling to the 43,000 residents of the largest island and capital of the Northern Marianas, a territory of the United States.
AFP
AI takes centre stage as Mobile World Congress Shanghai kicks off
From phones that can detect deepfake scams to autonomous intelligent vehicles, the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence took centre stage as Mobile World Congress Shanghai kicked off Wednesday.Smart device brand Honor on Wednesday unveiled technology it said could detect deepfake scam calls and warn the phone's owner in real-time.
AFP
Sri Lanka seals partial debt deal after financial crash
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka said Wednesday it had clinched a restructuring deal with a majority of bilateral lenders covering up to $5.8 billion in debt, a key step towards recovery after a 2022 financial crash."Sri Lanka reached a final restructuring agreement for $5.8 billion of debt with its bilateral lenders' Official Creditor Committee (OCC) in Paris, France," the statement read, without giving further details.
CNN
Biden pardons veterans convicted under military law banning gay sex
President Joe Biden is expected to pardon US veterans who were convicted by the military over a 60-year period under a military law that banned gay sex, three US officials told CNN.
Associated Press
Fed up with the UK Conservatives, some voters turn to the anti-immigration Reform party for answers
CLACTON-ON-SEA, England (AP) — Dorothy Carr is fed up with how things are run in her hometown. It’s impossible to get a doctor's appointment through Britain's state-run health care system. Like many others in Clacton-on-Sea — a town on England's southeast coast where many older, white voters used to staunchly support the governing Conservatives — the retiree feels a deep sense of disillusionment with the party.
CNN
‘This is the blood of my son’: While Israel hailed rescue of four hostages, Palestinians recall the horrors
On the day that Israel rescued four hostages, its forces allegedly attacked a Palestinian family’s home in Nuseirat camp, central Gaza, and killed a child.

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