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NEW YORK (AP) — For more than 150 years, horse-drawn carriages have been trotting through Manhattan’s Central Park, weathering the arrival of the automobile, years of criticism from animal rights activists and even a mayoral administration that vowed to ban the tourist activity. But now the influential nonprofit that manages the 843-acre park — and has previously stayed out of the debate — has now thrown its support behind a proposal to wind down the industry as early as next summer.The Central Park Conservancy argued in an Aug. 12 letter to the City Council that horse carriages have an outsized…

OnlyFans, a NSFW social network for creators has become a cash cow for its owner Leonid Radvinsky who earned $701 million in dividends last year alone.© 2022 Bloomberg Finance LP Leonid Radvinsky, the billionaire owner of Onlyfans, earned more than $1.9 million a day from the site in 2024. That’s after OnlyFans’ parent company, Fenix International, paid Radvinsky a record $701 million in dividends, according to corporate filings shared by the company on Friday. Radvinsky has now earned some $1.8 billion in pretax dividends since buying the British startup from its founders Tim Stokely and his father Guy Stokely in…

Lucrative endorsements and a stake in shoe brand On have made the Swiss star just the seventh athlete in the three-comma club—and a food tech investment may serve up another payday. In 2019, Roger Federer stood at center court in Basel, Switzerland, with gold confetti raining from above and tears streaming down his face. The show of emotion was natural after a straight-sets victory in the final at his hometown tournament, the Swiss Indoors, where he had once served as a ball boy. But it also seemed to reflect a growing awareness that, at age 38, he might not have…

NEW YORK (AP) — Fall books mean more than literary fiction. The top releases this season range from a fairy tale newly told to memoirs about a famous writer’s indomitable mother and life after marriage to a famous rock star. Some books were a decade or more in the making, while former Vice President Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” was finished in a matter of months.Here are 10 new books to look for.“Hansel and Gretel,” Stephen KingYou may think you know the Grimms’ fairy tale about two children lost in the woods. But a new edition this fall promises a fresh…

NEW YORK (AP) — In the decade since she published her acclaimed debut novel, “The Turner House,” Angela Flournoy has confronted a few delays, welcome and otherwise, en route to completing her second book: her first child, a pandemic, speaking engagements, the occasional essay and, throughout, the challenges of creating a work of imagination.“With nonfiction, you’re usually doing it on a deadline, there’s a constraint of time, and when it’s over, it’s over,” says Flournoy, whose novel “The Wilderness” is out this fall. “When you’re working with facts, they’re not really malleable. But with novels I create the reality. And…

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — On the Mercator projection, one of the world’s most popular maps, Greenland and Africa appear to be about the same size. But on the Equal Earth projection showing continents in their true proportions, 14 Greenlands would easily fit inside the African continent.Criticism that the Mercator projection does not accurately reflect Africa’s real size is not new. However, a recent campaign by African advocacy groups is gaining momentum online as it urges organizations and schools to adopt the Equal Earth projection, which they say more accurately displays the size of the continent of more than 1.4 billion…

BERLIN (AP) — In a secluded lot next to a former gasworks in suburban Berlin, Martin Rötzel is breathing new life into a tradition of centuries past: the monastery garden.Rötzel’s Monk Garden is home to between 150 and 200 types of herbs, leaves and trees including many that are unlikely to be found at any German supermarket. There are numerous varieties of mint, oregano and cilantro, hyssop and New Zealand spinach, four-leaf sorrel, yarrow and a local variety of tarragon.Rötzel has built Monk Garden as a business since 2022, delivering to high-end restaurants that want flavorsome local plants for their…

TOKYO (AP) — Clad in an elegant kimono of pale green, tea ceremony instructor Keiko Kaneko uses a tiny wooden spoon to place a speck of matcha into a porcelain bowl.She froths up the special powdered Japanese green tea with a bamboo whisk after pouring hot water with a ladle from a pot simmering over hot coal.Her solemn, dance-like movements celebrate a Zenlike transient moment, solitude broken up by the ritualistic sharing of a drink. No wonder Kaneko and others serious about “sado,” or “the way of tea,” are a bit taken aback by how matcha is suddenly popping up…

ADAMS, Nebraska (AP) — A World War II veteran from Nebraska believed to be America’s last surviving “ace” pilot because he shot down five enemy planes has died at age 103.Donald McPherson served as a Navy fighter pilot aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the Pacific theater, where he engaged Japanese forces during the final years of the war. He earned the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his serviceHowever, his daughter Beth Delabar said his loved ones always felt McPherson preferred a legacy reflecting his dedication to faith, family and community instead of his wartime…

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando officials on Thursday denounced the overnight removal of a rainbow-colored crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub where 49 people were gunned down, saying it was part of an attack on LGBTQ lives by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the painting over by state workers of the crosswalk with rainbow colors often associated with LGBTQ pride was “callous” and “a cruel political act.” The massacre at the LGBTQ-friendly nightclub in 2016 was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history at the time.“This crosswalk not only enhanced safety and visibility for the large…