Actor Skeet Ulrich says he chose to exit "Riverdale" as he "got bored creatively" while working on the series.
Ulrich played the role of FP Jones, the father of Cole Sprouse's Jughead Jones in The CW drama based on the characters of Archie Comics.
In an Instagram Live video, the actor opened up about his exit from the show.
"I'm leaving 'Riverdale' because I got bored creatively. How's that? That's the most honest answer," Ulrich said.
Besides Ulrich, his co-star Marisol Nichols, who plays Veronica Lodge's mother Hermione, also announced her departure from "Riverdale" in February.
The duo will not appear as series regulars in the fifth season of the hit series.
The network is keeping the premieres of new and returning shows on hold until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, "Riverdale" is eyeing a season five return in January.

Skeet Ulrich left 'Riverdale' because he was 'bored'

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Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a small-town writer who is struggling to get a break in Bollywood in his next "Ghoomketu" and he says the role reminded him of his own time as an aspiring actor in the film industry.
A National School of Drama graduate, the actor hailing from Uttar Pradesh's Budhana started working in films from 1999 in minor roles.
In 2012, the tide turned for him with films like "Kahaani" and "Gangs of Wasseypur" which put him in the mainstream cinema space.
His credits across films and web include "Badlapur", "Kick", "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", "Manto" and "Sacred Games".
"I had also come from a small town to Mumbai and I felt people here are 'to the point'. It took time for me to adjust. Mumbai is advanced, fast paced and for people like us, it takes time to get into this groove.
"One has to struggle a lot initially as I wasn't able to match the way things are here. The kind of struggle the writer has faced in the movie, I have also struggled a lot in the film industry as .

'Ghoomketu' reminded me of my struggle days in Bollywood, says Nawazuddin Siddiqui

A leading Indian-American global venture capitalist has hosted a virtual fundraiser for former US vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive presidential nominee of the opposition Democratic Party.
Deven Parekh, who is the managing director of Insight Partners, was joined by Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, Blair Effron, founder of Centerview Partners, and former ambassador Jane Hartley, in hosting the high-profile fundraiser for Biden for some top 25 Wall Street donors.
With the two key endorsements, decks are now clear for a direct contest between Biden, 77 and the 73-year-old incumbent President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in the November 2020 presidential polls.
In his brief five minutes of remarks, Biden focused on how unprepared President Trump was to handle the health and economic consequences brought forth by the coronavirus pandemic.
Acknowledging the anxious times the country is living in, especially New Yorkers, Biden told donors he appreciates how ...

Indian-American venture capitalist hosts virtual fundraiser for Biden

There is a 9 out of 10 chance that India will make the trip Down Under for a four-Test series later this year, Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts said trying to downplay the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
CA is currently under lot of financial stress and is desperate to have the India series, scheduled in  which will fill its coffers with AUD 300 million from broadcast rights after body had to cut costs due to the pandemic. The series is scheduled between October and January 2021.
"I guess there's no such thing as certainty in today's world so I can't say 10 (out of 10), but I'm going to say nine out of 10," Roberts told News Corp.
"With the variable being, who would know whether we can have crowds  I'd be really surprised if we can't get the Indian tour away.
"But I wouldn't, hand on heart suggest we'll have full crowds from the start. We'll just have to see how that goes," the under-pressure chief executive said.
However, when it comes to away tours, ...

On scale of 10, chance of India touring Australia is 9, says CA CEO Roberts

President Donald Trump won at least a temporary reprieve from the Supreme Court earlier this week in keeping secret grand jury materials from the Russia investigation away from Democratic lawmakers.
The president and his administration are counting on the justices for more help to stymie other investigations and lawsuits.
The high court is weighing Trump's bid to block subpoenas for his tax, banking and financial records. It will soon be asked by the administration to kill a lawsuit alleging that Trump is illegally profiting from his luxury hotel near the White House. And a dispute over Congress' demand for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn also could find its way to the justices before long.
Trump has predicted that the court with a conservative majority that includes two of his appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, would be more sympathetic than lower courts that have repeatedly ruled against him.
And his administration has sought the court's ...

Trump counting on Supreme Court to block probes, lawsuits

A Hollywood moment for NBA legend Kobe Bryant proved a big draw in a Beverly Hills auction of sport memorabilia, his handprints in concrete selling for $75,000.
Julien's Auctions said the handprints were tests that were made by Bryant in 2011, when he became the first athlete to leave his prints alongside those of some of Hollywood's biggest stars in the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
The item fetched more than 18 times its presale estimate of $4,000-6,000.
Other highlights of the Julien's auction included a full uniform worn by Bryant during the 1999-2000 NBA Finals and embroidered with an official NBA logo under a black band worn in remembrance of Wilt Chamberlain that sold for $43,750 -- more than four times its estimate of $10,000.
Bryant, who won five NBA titles in a 20-year career with the Lakers, died in a helicopter crash in January that also claimed the life of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
Memorabilia of his career is fetching ...

Bryant items fetch premium prices, Trout card sets record

Boxing could be back on in Las Vegas in June, with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to consider bout applications at a May 27 meeting.
The meeting, which will be via telephone rather than in-person as coronavirus social distancing measures remain in place, will be the NSAC's first since it shut down all combat sports in the state on March 14.
The meeting agenda lists consideration of formal protocols for protecting fighters and their camps from COVID-19 "for events held without the presence of a live audience."
The commissioners will also consider an application from Dana White's mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship to hold bouts in Vegas on May 30 and June 6.
And they will consider a request from Bob Arum's Top Rank to stage a boxing fight card on June 9 at the MGM Grand.
Approval of the applications will depend on whether the commission decides it can remove or modify the restrictions it imposed after Nevada governor Steve Sisolak closed the state, including all ...

Nevada officials mull return of boxing in Las Vegas

IndyCar updated a 2020 schedule hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, confirming cancellation of races at Richmond and Toronto.
The open-wheel racing series is still scheduled to open its campaign on June 6 on the 1.5-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway.
But the race at Richmond, Virginia, scheduled for June 27 has been axed, and officials confirmed that the July 12 race in Toronto, already postponed, was cancelled.
The series will now feature a second race at Road America, the iconic track at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in a double-header July 11 and 12.
That's a switch from the track's previously scheduled race in June and makes the second race on the calendar the GMR Grand Prix on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4.
The season will conclude on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 25. St. Pete had been set to host the season opener on March 15 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought global sports to a virtual standstill.

IndyCar updates coronavirus-hit schedule

The baseball players' association gave management a wide-ranging response to a 67-page proposed set of protocols for a season to be played during the coronavirus pandemic.
Management had presented the union and the 30 teams the proposed draft last Friday.
The union said Thursday it addressed: protections for high-risk players, access to pre- and postgame therapies, testing frequency, protocols for positive tests, in-stadium medical personnel and sanitization procedures.
Players viewed many of the concepts in the original draft as over-the-top, such as arriving in uniform at the ballparks, a prohibition on them leaving without team permission and a ban on guests other than immediate family members. Players also objected to a ban on the use of showers and hydrotherapy.
The union wants more frequent testing than management's proposed multiple times per week."
MLB is expected to make an economic proposal to the union within a few days. MLB hopes to start the season by early July.

Baseball players respond to MLB on virus protocols

The NFL is considering adding a booth umpire and a senior technology adviser to the referee to assist the officiating crew.
The league also is looking at other rules changes, including an alternative to the onside kick.
NFL clubs received a list of potential rules changes on Thursday. Owners will vote on the proposals at the upcoming league meeting to be held by video conference on May 28.
The league's competition committee told teams last month it supports studying ways to determine how officiating personnel who have access to a video feed could help on-field officials. A booth umpire would serve as an eighth game official.
If owners don't approve adding a booth umpire and/or a senior technology adviser, the league could test a version of both rules in the preseason for possible future implementation.
The proposal that would give teams another option instead of an onside kick permits a team to maintain possession of the ball after a score by substituting one offensive play. The ...

NFL looks at adding "booth umpire" and tech adviser for refs

It has been described as New Zealand cricket's darkest day, the 1955 Test against England when the Black Caps were skittled for just 26, a record low that still stands today.
Even 65 years later, the embarrassing score still rankles with New Zealand fans, who are always on alert during a major Test collapse and death-ride the batting team hoping the record falls.
"Frankly, as a New Zealand fan we'd be grateful for anyone to take this record away from us," Paul Ford, co-founder of Kiwi cricket supporters' group The Beige Brigade, told AFP.
"It's ignominious, it's shameful. It would be great if someone came along and scored 25 or fewer." The Test cricket landscape in 1955 was vastly different to today.
India had recorded their first Test victory only three years before, Pakistan debuted in the five-day game barely two years previously and Sri Lanka were still 27 years away from gaining Test status.
Australia and England were the undisputed heavyweights of the era with South Africa, the .

26 all out: the nightmare that still haunts New Zealand cricket

LPGA players will be free to decide whether or not they want to use a caddie when the tour gets up and running amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Players are being given the option of carrying their own golf bags for the remainder of the 2020 season as part of the LPGA Tour's new safety guidelines, the Golf Channel reported on Thursday.
The tour is scheduled to restart on July 23 at the Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio.
Many of the players don't want to commit to the same caddie for the entire season so individual tournaments often provide local ones.
"This temporary option is meant primarily to avoid the local caddie situation where a player may have health concerns working with someone who they don't know," said tour spokesperson Kelly Schultz.
"We fully expect the overwhelming number of players to be using caddies and are encouraging them to do so.
"Caddies are a critical part of LPGA tournaments and competitions and we will resume our mandatory policy in 2021." Schultz insisted it ..

LPGA players permitted to carry their own bags: report

There's no meaningful link between an athlete having a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) and winning an Olympic medal, a study unveiled by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found.
US tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and reigning Olympic and world all-around gymnastics champion Simone Biles are among athletes who have used TUEs, special permission to take otherwise banned substances for medical needs.
Their WADA medical data, including use of TUEs, was revealed publicly by a hacker in 2016.
The WADA study examined athletes with TUEs at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver, 2014 Sochi and 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to see if athletes with TUEs won more medals than those without.
"The number of athletes competing with valid TUEs (in individual competition) at the selected Games was less than 1%," said WADA medical director Dr. Alan Vernec said.
"The analysis suggests there's no meaningful association between competing with a TUE and the ...

WADA study: no meaningful link between TUEs, Olympic medals

It took seven years to settle on a plan for cleansing two rivers and floodplains polluted with dioxins from a Dow Chemical Co. plant in central Michigan. The work itself has lasted nearly twice as long, with plenty still to do.
Now, scientists and activists fear some of the progress may have washed away with floodwaters that overwhelmed two dams this week, chasing 11,000 people from homes in and near Midland, the company's headquarters city.
The Tittabawassee River flows past the Dow plant and eventually meets the Saginaw River, which continues into Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. That 50-mile stretch is tainted with dioxins  highly toxic compounds that researchers say can damage reproductive and immune systems and cause cancer. The area is on the federal Superfund list of hazardous sites.
Regulators and company officials said Thursday it was too early to tell whether the swollen river had damaged spots that had been repaired or swept pollutants farther downstream. Dow said it would inspect 

Flood raises fears of pollution at Michigan toxic waste site

China kicked off its delayed annual parliament session on Friday with the government avoiding to set any specific target for this year's GDP, citing uncertainties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, slowdown of the Chinese and global economies and the decline in international trade.
The National People's Congress (NPC) session with about 2,900 members began this morning at the Great Hall of People amid unprecedented security in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed 4,634 people in China, majority of them in Wuhan where the deadly virus emerged in December last year.
As of Thursday, the overall confirmed COVID-19 cases in China had reached 82,971, including 82 patients who were still being treated in hospitals, according to China's National Health Commission (NHC).
"I would like to point out that we have not set a specific target for economic growth this year," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in his 23-page work report submitted to the NPC, China's ...

China kicks off delayed parliament session, sets no annual GDP target due to COVID-19 crisis

Many Central Michigan residents remained cut off from their homes Thursday even as floodwaters receded, with senior citizens among the scores of displaced people staying in shelters after flooding overwhelmed two dams, submerged homes and washed out roads.
President Donald Trump, who was in Michigan to visit a Ford production plant, signed an emergency declaration authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
At Midland High School, 90% of people who slept in the school's gym were senior citizens, said shelter coordinator Jerry Wasserman. He said extra precautions were in place due to the combination of the guests' ages and the coronavirus pandemic.
We had to deal with COVID and then deal with their angst of what's happened to their house and their pets and all this Wasserman said Thursday.
In Midland, 61 people spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning in temporary shelters, according to city ...

Trump declares emergency for flooded Michigan communities

South Korea has reported 20 new coronavirus cases, including nine in the Seoul metropolitan area, as authorities scramble to stem transmissions while proceeding with a phased reopening of schools.
The figures announced Friday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought national totals to 11,142 cases and 264 deaths. Nine other new cases were linked to international arrivals.
South Korea was reporting around 500 new cases a day in early March but has since managed to stabilize infections with aggressive tracing and testing. Officials have eased social distancing measures and began reopening schools, starting with high school seniors on Wednesday.
But students at dozens of schools in Incheon, near Seoul, were sent back home after some tested positive after visiting a karaoke room or taking private classes from a virus carrier.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo pleaded with people Friday to avoid visiting karaoke rooms or computer gaming centers near schools to lower ...

South Korea reports 20 new virus cases

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has proved so popular during the coronavirus pandemic that it has prompted a change of leadership in the conservative opposition party just four months from a general election.
Todd Muller on Friday deposed Simon Bridges as leader of the National Party following two disastrous opinion polls for the party which indicated Ardern was headed for a huge victory in September.
Muller, 51, is not a household name in New Zealand but has support from other lawmakers and farmers. He was a manager at a kiwifruit company and a dairy company before he was first elected to Parliament in 2014. He had been acting as the opposition spokesperson for agriculture.
Before the pandemic hit, polling indicated the National Party and Ardern's Labour Party were running neck-and-neck. But Ardern's leadership since then has been praised, while Bridges' criticism of some of her actions appeared to be turning away even some of National's longtime supporters.
Ardern took ...

New Zealand party replaces leader to face Ardern in election

As many as six eminent Indian Americans have been named to the Biden-Sanders Unity task forces announced by former Vice President Joe Biden, who is the presumptive presidential nominee of the opposition Democratic Party.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy have been named co-chairs of the Health Care Task Force. The Unity Task Force is a result of the Sanders's endorsement of the Biden campaign.
Climate change activist Varshini Prakash from Boston is the youngest member of these task forces alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and environmental justice advocate Catherine Flowers.
Executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a leading organization focused on climate change among young people, she will serve on the Climate Change group. Former Secretary of State John Kerry is co-chair of this task force.
Legal luminary Chirag Bains has been named a co-chairs Criminal Justice Reform Task Force. Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita .

Six Indian Americans named to Biden-Sanders Unity task forces

China's state-owned and -directed enterprises are looking to exploit the current economic crisis by buying US and foreign companies, a bipartisan group of top American senators said on Thursday, urging the Trump Administration to counter China's international predatory economic behaviour.
"As we confront the current public health crisis, we must ensure countering the PRC's predatory economic behaviour both at home and abroad continues to feature in policy deliberations. It was important six months ago, remains important today, and must continue to be a US priority in the future, the senators wrote in a letter to the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Signatories to the letter were Senators Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Thom Tillis, Ben Sasse, John Cornyn, Tom Cotton and Jeff Merkley.
We write to express our concerns related to the People's Republic of China's (PRC) efforts to exploit the economic crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic to gain control of distressed companies or ...

Trump Admin urged to counter China's predatory economic behaviour

Top American lawmakers on Thursday said that the Chinese efforts to impose a new national security law on Hong Kong threatens to erode its autonomy and the freedom that Hongkongers cherish.
US President Donald Trump said that he will address the issue when it happens.
"I don't know what it is because nobody knows yet. If it happens, we'll address that issue very strongly, Trump told reporters when asked about his views on Chinese parliament poised to pass a national security law cracking down on Hong Kong.
We'll have to see what happens. I haven't seen it yet. I've got a little briefing. But I'll have a statement to make at the appropriate time. Hong Kong's been through a lot, Trump said in response to a question in Michigan where he was travelling.
However, top American lawmakers alleged that based on preliminary reports, the proposed law could criminalise protests and other freedoms under the guise of banning terrorism and foreign interference.
By proposing national security laws ...

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