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Prowse, who played Darth Vader in original movies, dies at 85

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

David Prowse, the celebrated bodybuilder and film star who provided the hulking, imposing frame of Darth Vader as the original actor to play the iconic “Star Wars” villain, has died. He was 85.

The English actor’s death was announced by his agency Sunday morning.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and (millions) of fans around the world, to announce that our client DAVE PROWSE M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85,” Bowington Management shared in a tweet.

Agent Thomas Bowington told NBC News that Prowse died following a short battle with an illness, which was not disclosed.

The 6-foot-7 Prowse gave the brooding physical performance of Vader in the original trilogy of From Page One

The formal transition to the Biden administration began last week, and Trump said Thursday he would “certainly” vacate office Jan. 20 as required, after the Electoral College puts the victory next month.

In the Fox interview, however, the whether any particular date – including Dec. 14, when electors meet in their respective states to cast ballots, or even Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 – would mark an end to his insistence that he, not Biden, had prevailed.

The former vice president’s margin of victory in the popular vote has surpassed 6 million, and his projected Electoral College tally of 306 far exceeds the 270 required.

“I don’t want to give you an actual date,” Trump said when Fox interviewer Maria Bartiromo asked at what point he might admit legal defeat.

Throughout the interview, he alternately resignation, declaring that “my mind will not change in six months” but also portraying himself as a victim of nefarious forces who “for the most part . . . got away with it.”

Trump’s refusal to concede the election in the face of a definitive loss has prompted many Senate Republicans to take more and more contorted public positions to avoid contradicting the president’s

Appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of the Senate GOP leadership, refused to refer to Biden as the president-elect.

“The president-elect will be the president-elect when the electors vote for him,” he said.

Blunt said of Biden taking office: “We are certainly moving forward to happen on January “Star Wars” movies, while James Earl Jones did the voice for the mask-wearing, armored character.

Prowse’s face is never seen in the “Star Wars” films in which he appeared: “A New Hope” (1977), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983). A moment showing Vader remove his helmet in “Return of the Jedi” saw actor Sebastian Shaw briefly portray the redeemed Sith lord.

But Prowse’s legacy looms large as the first actor to embody what many consider the greatest movie villain of all time.

Before his acting career took off, Prowse was a British weightlifting champion who also worked with celebrities as a trainer.

Prowse was later the subject of a 2015 documentary about his life and career titled “I Am

Trump: Interview

expected seal on Biden’s

president refused to say

telegraphed defiance and

victory claims.

as if that is what is going Your Father.” the 20th.” He also suggested, however, that the president’s backers might withhold formal acceptance of Biden’s victory for at least another month, until the House and Senate convene Jan. 6 for a joint session to count electoral votes.

With more than seven weeks remaining in office, Trump has signaled no sense of urgency on the raging Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 266,000 Americans. Public health experts expressed alarm again Sunday about the twin perils of colder weather and infections spread by holiday travel and gatherings.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases specialist, said on “Meet the Press” that “what we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December, (is) that we might see a surge superimposed upon that surge that we’re already in.”

Another member of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, said on the same program that “we’re entering this post-Thanksgiving surge with three, four and 10 times as much disease across the country” as the period after Memorial Day.

“And so that’s what worries us the most,” she said.

In another arena, some former senior figures in the national security establishment are warning the country faces a perilous time before Biden assumes office.

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday he was “actually very concerned about the Trump loyalists who have now gone to work in the Pentagon” in the wake of Trump firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper by tweet after the election.

“Over the course of 50 or 60 days you can do something constructive, but you can do something that’s really destructive,” Mullen said on NBC.

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By contrast, about half of current renters moved into their current residence in 2017 or later.

Furthermore, a long period of low housing inventory has driven up prices and made it more difficult for the average worker to afford a home.

Data from Zillow shows that the current median home price nationwide is $256,663, pricing many Americans out of the housing market. Vaccine From Page One certainly” will be vaccinating portions in the first by the end of December.

“If we can hang together as a country and do these kinds of things to blunt these surges until we get a substantial proportion of the population through this,” he said. “There really is light at the end of the tunnel.”

United Airlines Holdings Inc. began operating to position doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for quick distribution once approved, Dow Jones reported. A week ago, the chief executive officer of CVS Health Corp. said the pharmacy chain is ready to quickly vaccinate residents at thousands of long-term care facilities.

“It’s pretty much decided” that residents and staff of such care facilities, and health care workers in general, will be the first groups to get access to vaccines, former FDA administrator Scott Gottlieb said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“There’s about 20 million health care workers who might be eligible, and about 3 million residents of long-term care facilities and staff of those facilities. Those will be the first group of patients who get access to From Page One Geranmayeh, an Iran expert and deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council for Foreign Relations, could box Biden in as he takes office – or even result in a military conflagration in the waning days of Trump’s tenure.

“The Iranians are aware that there are mines set for them,” Geranmayeh said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that Trump left in 2018. “This is exactly the playbook that proponents of been trying to advocate: that there need to be moves that make it much more difficult for Biden to reenter the deal and for Iran to engage the U.S. in diplomacy.”

As a result, the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani must balance internal voices demanding vengeance even as it hopes to weather the seven weeks until Biden is sworn in.

On Friday afternoon, as Iranians were enjoying the first day of their weekend amid coronavirus restrictions, Fakhrizadeh was in a car heading down a highway near the resort town of Absad, some 35 miles east of Tehran. There, a car loaded with explosives

The national median household income for a homeowner is $81,988, nearly twice the median household income of a renter ($42,479).

As a result of geographic differences across these factors, homeownership rates vary significantly by location.

At the state level, homeownership rates range from a low of 53.5 percent in New York to 73.4 percent in West Virginia.

Coastal states with expensive and densely populated urban areas, such as New York and California, tend to have some of the lowest homeownership rates in the country.

Many states in the it,” he said.

In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Fauci said Covid-19 jabs won’t be “centrally mandated” in the U.S., but that some local officials or employers might people vaccinated.

“Any individual group can mandate vaccines in certain ways,” he said. “Individual units, be they hospitals or other organizations, can do that. It’s within their right to say, if you want to work with us, you’re going to have to get a vaccine.”

Fauci said he has some concern about the overall anti-vaccination movement, but said the Covid-19 jab research process has been “scientifically sound.” blew up, and gunmen descended on Fakhizadeh, cutting him down security detail.

In its brazenness, the killing echoed other car bombings and motorcycle assassinations targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists. All have been part of a decadelong effort by Israel and the U.S. to hinder Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, analysts say.

Fakhrizadeh’s assassination followed a series at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility in July (authorities blamed sabotage; they have yet to reveal who they believe was behind it) as well as the operation targeting Soleimani while he was abroad.

A U.S. return to the nuclear accord – and the sanctions relief it may bring – is a priority for Iran. Over the last four years, sanctions have cratered its currency, cut off its economy from world markets and left its 82 million people facing poverty.

Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” urged everyone involved to “kind of lower the temperature.”

“The Iranians don’t want war with us. We don’t want to go to war with Iran,” said McRaven, who as head of U.S. special operations forces oversaw Midwest such as Minnesota and Wyoming are known for their affordable housing, and tend to have higher homeownership rates.

To find which cities have the lowest homeownership rates (and the most renters), researchers at Roofstock analyzed housing data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2019 American Community Survey one year estimates.

Cities were categorized by population size: small (100,000–149,999), midsize 150,000–349,999), and large (350,000 or more).

All housing data presented comes from 2019,

“The process of determining whether it works, tive has been independent, by independent bodies, and transparent,” he said.

In his NBC interview, Fauci said he fears the virus’ spread will surge in the coming weeks into December. “We might see a surge superimposed upon the surge “I don’t want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late to do something about this.”

Adams also implored Americans to help stop the virus’ spread in the months remaining before a vaccine is widely available by wearing masks

“It’s going to get worse over the next several the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

But, he said, “the Iranians are going to be in a to retaliate – I don’t see any way around it.”

So far, Iran’s leadership appears to have chosen the path of restraint.

In a televised Cabinet meeting Saturday, Rouhani said Iran would “respond to this crime at the proper time.”

“But the Iranian nation is wiser and smarter than to fall in the trap of the Zionists,” he said, in reference to Israel.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an English-language Twitter post that “all relevant administrators must seriously on their agenda: first to investigate this crime and firmly prosecute its perpetrators and its commanders, second to continue the martyr’s scientific and technological where he was active.”

Meanwhile, the country’s parliament passed a motion that would require Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to produce and store at least 264 pounds of uranium with 20% purity. If ratified, it would be another breaches of the nuclear deal that Tehran has pursued since Trump pulled out of the treaty. when the homeownership rate nationwide was 64.1% percent.

The report showed 22,125 owner occupied housing units in Fairfield and 15,185 renter occupied.

Nationally, owner occupied housing units total 78, 724, 862; renter occupied units are 44.077,990.

The median income for owners is about $82,000 and about $42,500 for renters.

The median home price nationwide is $256,663.

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Roofstock’s website: https://learn. roofstock.com/blog/lowest-

priority of the population

vaccinated, we can get

charter flights on Friday

Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Abaca Press/TNS Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview, Sunday, that he fears the coronavirus’ spread will surge in the coming weeks.

apply pressure to get

whether it’s safe and effec-

we’re already in,” he said.

and avoiding gatherings.

homeownership-rates. weeks,” Adams said, referring to the rates of infection, hospitalization and deaths resulting from the pandemic. “The actions we take over the next several days will determine how bad it’s going to get.”

Brett Giroir, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declined to recommend that all Americans who traveled or will travel during holidays quarantine afterward.

In an interview on CNN, Giroir said those who traveled should decrease unnecessary activities and quarantine only if they had close contact with someone known to

Iran: Some demanding vengeance

maximum pressure have

along with members of his

of mysterious explosions

position where they have

place two crucial matters efforts in all the sectors

step in the methodical have had Covid-19.

Still, there have been voices advocating a more forceful response, said Dina Esfandiary, a fellow at the Century Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

“The Rouhani administration understands there’s value in not escalating, in appearing strong but appearing reasonable,” she said.

“But there are pressures from hard-liners as well as moderates, who are fed up and saying, ‘Why are we just taking this? Why are we the ones respecting international norms when nobody else is?’ ”

And politically, there are factions within Iran that want to scuttle the reentry into the nuclear deal, said Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East fellow at the policy organization the German Marshall Fund – if only to stop Rouhani claiming any achievement before presidential elections in June.

The assassination was a humiliation for Iran’s security apparatus. After all, Fakhrizadeh – like Soleimani – was an officer in the country’s elite Republican Guards, and was presumably under their protection.

He had proved to be an elusive figure since a spate of assassinations between 2010 and 2012 struck four of his colleagues. (He survived an assassination attempt in 2008.)

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