AP

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The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.

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A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first time that the shot will be produced in Africa, Pfizer announced Wednesday.A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first time that the shot will be produced in Africa, Pfizer announced Wednesday.

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U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.

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Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on Tuesday joined the crowded Democratic field for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, vying to become the first African American from Wisconsin to serve in the Senate.

Entertainment

Chance the Rapper’s filmmaker aspirations are coming into fruition with his concert film “Magnificent Coloring World,” which premieres Aug. 13 in select AMC Theatres.

Pacific Gas & Electric equipment may have been involved in the start of the big Dixie Fire burning in the Sierra Nevada, the nation’s largest utility reported to California regulators.

A Florida man told police officers he was “teaching it a lesson” when he tried to throw a live alligator he had stolen from a miniature golf course onto the roof of a beachside cocktail lounge, authorities said.

Entertainment

A judge ordered former Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers star Richard Sherman released from jail without bail Thursday following his arrest on suspicion of trying to break in to his in-laws’ home.

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Los Angeles County residents will again be required to wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status, while the University of California system said that students, faculty and staff must be inoculated against the coronavirus to return to campuses.

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Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that it is recalling five of its sunscreen products after some samples were found to contain low levels of benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with repeated exposure.

Entertainment

Devin Booker scored 31 points, Chris Paul had 23 and the Suns beat Milwaukee 118-108 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 series lead.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday asked people and businesses in the nation’s most populous state to voluntarily cut how much water they use by 15% as the Western United States weathers a drought that is rapidly emptying reservoirs relied on for agriculture, drinking water and fish habitat.