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The Supreme Court recently decided a case on the balance between trademark rights and free speech, especially when parody products are at issue.
The case addressed something less lofty: whiskey and dog feces.
VIP Products makes a line of dog chew toys called “Silly Squeakers,” which parodies famous commercial products. One rubber toy replicates a Jack Daniel’s bottle with a few changes. The bottle bears the brand name “Bad Spaniels” instead of “Jack Daniels.” Instead of calling it “Old No. 7,” it uses the subtitle “The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet.”
Jack Daniel’s Properties, the whiskey maker, was not amused. It demanded that VIP Products stop selling the toy. VIP Products preemptively sued Jack Daniel’s Properties, seeking a declaration that it did no wrong. Jack Daniel’s Properties countersued, claiming trademark infringement.
The federal trial court ruled for Jack Daniel’s Properties. In doing so, it refused a request by VIP Products to apply a special doctrine to exonerate it. That doctrine, called the “Rogers test,” is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card used by people who make expressive works to defeat trademark claims made against them.
VIP Products appealed, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision. It held the Rogers test applies because Bad Spaniels is an expressive product since it parodies the famous Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle.
The Supreme Court took the case and decided it this June. The Court held that the get-out-of-jail-free card – the Rogers test – couldn’t shield defendants from trademark-infringement liability when they use an allegedly infringing name as a business, product or service name, all of which are trademarks.
This doesn’t mean Jack Daniel’s Properties will win the case. It still has to prove infringement.
When trademarks conflict with each other, the more recent user has to stop. Trademarks conflict (infringement in legal lingo) when the similarity of the trademarks and associated goods or services is such that a material fraction of the public might be confused about whether there is a relationship between them.
Parody can be a successful defense to a trademark-infringement claim, but it’s tough to prove. A successful parody does two things: it calls to mind the famous trademark and makes fun of it in such a way that the public will understand that the humor source isn’t the trademark owner. For example, Bad Spaniels would be a legally successful parody if people get the reference to Jack Daniel’s and intuit that Jack Daniel’s didn’t make the toy because there is no way it would associate its whiskey with dog excriment.
To complete the picture, here’s how the Rogers test works: It grants artistic works nearly bulletproof protection from trademark infringement claims. The doctrine arose from a case concerning a movie called “Ginger & Fred” by the famous director Federico Fellini. (In this case, Fellini didn’t have permission from Ginger Rogers, whose name is referenced in the title. Fred Astaire was already dead.)
The case developed a legal doctrine that unauthorized artistic usages of trademarks deserve special free speech protection. The language of the doctrine is complex, but it effectively holds that if the defendant establishes that its work is artistic, it probably wins, even if there is some chance that a fraction of the public will be confused as to whether the new user is related to the well-known trademark.
VIP Products argued it should benefit from the Rogers test because its chew toy is a parody, which is a form of expression. The Supreme Court declined to opine on whether the Rogers test is legitimate but held that, regardless, it doesn’t apply when the defendant uses as its business, product or service name (i.e., trademark) the term that is attacked as a trademark infringement.
What are the implications of this case?
It strengthens the hand of trademark owners, especially famous trademarks. It effectively takes away the get-out-of-jail-free card – the Rogers test – from the makers of parody products. But, as noted above, the trademark owner still has to win the trademark-infringement lawsuit.
Conversely, people who make parody products must carefully craft them to ensure the public understands they aren’t related to the skewered famous trademark owner. And because this decision strengthens the position of trademark owners, expect them to be more willing to litigate against unauthorized references they dislike. That’s expensive to defend against.
As for Bad Spaniels, I think Jack Daniel’s has no interest in burying the hatchet, but it faces a serious parody defense when the case resumes. Speaking of burying, why did the dog bury the whisky bottle in the backyard? Because he thought “on the rocks” meant underground!
Richmond-area business expansions, openings and closings
88 Street Food
Urban Myth Street Food
Revel Market & Bar
Rams House Bar + Kitchen
Stanley's
Popshelf
P.T. Hastings Seafood
Killa Dillas
Genova’s Pizza Station & Take Out Kitchen
The Veil Brewing Co.'s new taproom
Luxe New American Bar & Grill
Wok This Way
Eggs Up Grill
Mayu Sushi & Thai
Max’s on Broad
RICH Nail Lounge
Sycamore Jewelers, Midlothian
Mi Casita Restaurant
Ironclad Coffee
Grit Coffee
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware
Boiling Crab Richmond
Blue Cow Ice Cream Co.
Suzy Sno
Diablo Doughnuts RVA
The Brass Tap
Graybo's Sports Cards
Blue Ridge Cyclery
BigWife's
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
CarLotz
Acacia Midtown
Zoom Room Richmond
Torchy's Tacos
Planet Fitness
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers
Three Notch'd Brewing
Retail or Resell
Marshalls
Raising Cane's
My Favorite Muffin
Mattress King
Anthony's on the Hill
The Mill on MacArthur
John B. Farmer is a lawyer with Leading-Edge Law Group PLC, which specializes in intellectual property law. He can be reached at www.leadingedgelaw.com. | https://richmond.com/zzstyling/column/when-trademark-rights-collide-with-free-speech-which-wins/article_fb60e138-2736-11ee-a199-f75715eb9fa6.html | 2023-07-29T12:47:01 | 1 | https://richmond.com/zzstyling/column/when-trademark-rights-collide-with-free-speech-which-wins/article_fb60e138-2736-11ee-a199-f75715eb9fa6.html |
Eddie McCarthy was watching the local TV news when he suddenly saw a familiar face on the screen: one of his high school math students.
McCarthy, 35, said he didn’t know much about Roman, other than he was quiet and the only freshman in his geometry class at Whitmer Senior High School in Toledo.
“He always turned his work in on time, and he was definitely one of my best students,” McCarthy said. “But I didn’t realize he’d been going through something this serious.”
McCarthy, a father of two young children, said after seeing the plea from Roman’s mother, Jamie Redd, in February he decided he would get a blood test to see if he might be a potential match.
Roman’s kidneys were failing, and if he didn’t find a living donor, he would end up on dialysis, meaning treatments lasting up five hours, three days a week, with possible side effects including low blood pressure and nausea. Roman would likely have to wait three to five years for a deceased donor kidney, if he was able to live that long, because of the more than 92,000 people on the national kidney donor waiting list.
Roman’s health problems started when he was a year old and diagnosed with branchiootorenal syndrome after he’d developed small pits on the sides of his ears. The condition often leads to hearing loss and kidney disease. Roman needed a hearing aid when he was 5, his mother said.
“Doctors told us that by the time he was 10, he would likely need a new kidney,” she said. “Every birthday was bittersweet, knowing that Roman was getting closer to needing a kidney transplant.”
Roman’s dad, Dan McCormick, said it was painful to see his son grow weaker as time went on, especially when he could no longer play soccer, his favorite sport. He and Redd divorced when Roman was 1.
“We’ve always co-parented and worked together for what was best for Roman,” McCormick said. “When his kidney function dropped to 20 percent in junior high, we knew it was time for him to get a new kidney.”
His parents began an all-out search for a living donor when Roman was in 8th grade, creating a website, putting the word out on Facebook and telling anyone within earshot that their son was in acute need of a kidney. Several people volunteered to get tested, but none worked out, Redd said.
Then in February, their stroke of luck came after McCarthy saw them on the local news.
“I thought it would be hard to see this kid at school every day knowing he needed a kidney, without knowing whether I was a match,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said he got a blood test at a local clinic and learned that his blood type was O positive like Roman’s.
“I decided to keep going from there,” he said.
He soon went to the University of Michigan Transplant Center in Ann Arbor, which is about an hour’s drive from Toledo. The hospital was handling additional testing for people who had Roman’s blood type.
“I talked it over with my wife, Mindy, and she was a little surprised, but she was also supportive of me pursuing it and doing more tests,” McCarthy said.
At the end of June, he received word that he would be a great donor match for Roman.
“I haven’t done the math, but I’m glad the odds worked out,” McCarthy said. “A little bit of pain was something I decided I could endure to prevent a kid from going on dialysis or possibly dying.”
Throughout the testing process, McCarthy decided not to reach out to Roman’s parents or let them know he was a potential match. He didn’t want to get their hopes up.
When the hospital determined in June that the surgery was a go, staff called Redd and McCormick to let them know there was an anonymous donor. When they got the news, they said, they both began to weep.
Then there was another round of tears when McCarthy called the parents to reveal he was the donor.
“I talked to Roman’s dad first and told him, ‘You guys have a donor — it’s Roman’s geometry teacher,” McCarthy said, referring to himself. “Then I called his mom. I’d have to say they were both a little shocked."
Roman’s parents went to the school several days later to meet McCarthy. McCormick said what he remembers most from that day was enveloping McCarthy in a big bear hug.
“We were all so relieved and appreciative that he’d put himself in our shoes and did what he felt he needed to do,” McCormick said.
Roman said he was also stunned to learn that his math teacher would be his kidney donor.
“He’s a cool teacher — he sometimes gets out his guitar and plays it for us,” Roman said. “But I wasn’t expecting him to donate a kidney after I got decent grades in his class.”
On July 19, Roman was wheeled into an operating room at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, which is connected to the University of Michigan Medical Center, where McCarthy was having his kidney removed. Each of the surgeries took about 2½ hours, according to their surgeons.
“Eddie is doing great and was able to go home the day after the surgery,” said McCarthy’s surgeon, Randall Sung.
“Living donation shows the best of us as people,” Sung said. "Most of the time, living donors like Eddie will get something out of this themselves. It’s a positive thing that boosts self-identity and self-esteem.”
Roman’s transplant went smoothly, and he was discharged from the hospital on July 26, said his surgeon, Michael Englesbe.
“It couldn’t have gone better — he’s thriving, and his new kidney is functioning like a Mercedes convertible,” Englesbe said. “He’s pretty much back to being a normal 15-year-old kid.”
Roman will be on medication for the rest of his life to prevent his body from rejecting his new kidney, and he will probably need a new kidney in about 20 years, said Redd, noting that friends started a GoFundMe account for her son to help pay medical expenses that weren’t covered by insurance. McCarthy’s expenses were covered in full by the University of Michigan Transplant Center.
“Everyone in our family will forever be grateful for what Eddie did,” Redd said. “We hope that his gift will give hope to others who are going through what we did, and that they’ll also find donors.”
McCarthy said he won’t have Roman in his class this fall, but he is looking forward to giving him a high-five in the hallway.
“It will be pretty crazy when I watch him walk by,” he said. “I’ll be able to say, ‘There goes my kidney.’” | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/29/teacher-student-kidney-donor-mccarthy/ | 2023-07-29T12:47:47 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/29/teacher-student-kidney-donor-mccarthy/ |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:48:27 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
How to Watch NASCAR, F1, IndyCar & More: Auto Racing Streaming Live - Saturday, July 29
Published: Jul. 29, 2023 at 6:44 AM EDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
Need more auto racing in your life? Well, you're in luck. The race slate on Saturday, July 29 includes Formula 1, Formula E, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series, and NHRA Drag Racing action that can be watched on Fubo. For a complete list, along with information on how to watch or live stream it all, check out the article below.
Watch even more racing action with ESPN+!
Auto Racing Streaming Live Today
Watch Formula 1: Belgium Grand Prix - Sprint Shootout
- Series: Formula 1
- Game Time: 5:55 AM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch Formula 1: Belgium Grand Prix - Sprint
- Series: Formula 1
- Game Time: 10:25 AM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch Formula E: Round 15: London - Race
- Series: Formula E
- Game Time: 11:30 AM ET
- TV Channel: CBS Sports Network
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch NHRA Drag Racing: DENSO Sonoma Nationals - Qualifying
- Series: NHRA Drag Racing
- Game Time: 12:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: FOX Sports Networks
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch Formula E: Hankook London E-Prix
- Series: Formula E
- Game Time: 12:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: CBS
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch NASCAR Cup Series: Cook Out 400 - Qualifying
- Series: NASCAR Cup Series
- Game Time: 12:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: USA Network
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series: Henry 180
- Series: NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series
- Game Time: 3:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: NBC
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series: Road America 180
- Series: NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series
- Game Time: 3:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: NBC
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Worldwide Express 250
- Series: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
- Game Time: 7:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: FOX Sports Networks
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Make sure you're following along with racing action all year long on Fubo and ESPN+!
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/auto-racing-live-stream/ | 2023-07-29T12:48:33 | 1 | https://www.wymt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/auto-racing-live-stream/ |
BEIJING, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of English education experts and scholars from all over the world assembled in Macao on Friday for a three-day event to explore new opportunities for global cooperation in English education brought by China's development.
The 2023 Global English Education China Assembly, an online-and-offline event that opened at the City University of Macau (CityU), attracted over 1,600 experts, front-line educators and scholars from more than 20 countries and regions. Participants were mainly from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Thailand, Russia, Singapore, Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
They shared their insights to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and discussed the most recent trends in English language teaching.
The event's theme is "New opportunities for the world with new advances in China's development: Opening up new prospects in English education cooperation worldwide", and features nine keynote speeches and 23 parallel sessions.
This year's assembly is hosted by China Daily and Shanghai International Studies University, and co-hosted by the Macao SAR Government Education and Youth Development Bureau, and organized by CityU and China Daily's 21st Century English Education Media.
For the first time, the assembly, which started in 2018, was held in Macao — one of the engine cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This location echoes the Outline Development Plan for the GBA released in 2019, which set out to, among other goals, build the region as a model area for high-quality education and promote opening up education to the world.
At the event's opening ceremony, Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, highlighted that 2023 marks the 10th year since President Xi Jinping put forward both the idea of "building a community with a shared future for mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative.
It is, therefore, appropriate that for the first time, the conference this year has moved out of the Chinese mainland to Macao where East meets West and multiple cultures blend, Qu said.
He said he believes the event will catalyze many innovative outcomes. Qu further said that English education could be a bridge to promote high-quality development of the BRI and people-to-people cultural exchanges could provide momentum for "building a community with a shared future for mankind".
He urged the audience to cultivate talent in order to bolster the promotion of the three global initiatives brought forward by Xi — the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
Qu also said China attaches great importance to education and cultural exchange. Xi, in his several correspondences with foreign students studying in China, has encouraged the latter to see with their own eyes the development of China and tell the world about what they have seen, to boost people-to-people bonding and friendship between their countries and China.
Zha Mingjian, vice-president of Shanghai International Studies University, said development in recent times has brought many opportunities as well as challenges. In this context, the English education sector in China has the responsibility to serve as a vital bridge for English education globally.
Opening education more extensively to the outside world will significantly strengthen China's efforts to modernize education in the new era, Zha said.
Svetlana V. Sannikova, coordination council chairperson of the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia, said the Macao event offers a high-end international academic platform where teachers can learn many practical ideas and methods to improve their English teaching skills.
On Friday, the event's organizer and CityU jointly established the Belt and Road English Education Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Exchange Base, which will use English education as a means to promote cultural exchanges and people-to-people bonding in countries and regions participating in the BRI.
The GBA Exchange Base will also strive to promote high-quality development in the BRI landscape.
Liu Jun, rector of CityU and president of the International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and Zeng Qingkai, editor-in-chief of 21st Century English Education Media, were the signatories of the document for the establishment of the base.
Among the several dignitaries who graced Friday's opening ceremony were Ao Ieong U, secretary for social affairs and culture of the Macao SAR government, participating in the event on behalf of Macao SAR Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng; Yan Zhichan, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR; Liu Xianfa, commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Macao SAR; Kong Chimeng, director of the Macao SAR government Education and Youth Development Bureau; and Chan Meng-kam, chairman of the council of CityU.
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SOURCE China Daily | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ | 2023-07-29T12:48:43 | 1 | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ |
ODESSA, Ukraine, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ukrainian entrepreneur, Vadim Novynskyi has announced a donation of up to $1 million to help restore the Transfiguration Church in Odessa, Ukraine that was seriously damaged during rocket attacks on Sunday, July 23. The destruction of one of the most beautiful Ukrainian churches, which was erected by the founders of Odessa at the end of the 18th century is a true tragedy. This cathedral was the center of the spiritual life of Odessa.
This is not the first time the church has been destroyed. In 1936, the Bolsheviks destroyed the cathedral and it was restored in the early 2000's after tens of thousands of ordinary people participated in the restoration with their donations.
"I sincerely mourn with the inhabitants of Odessa and I want to assure them and all the people of Ukraine that this cathedral will be rebuilt and the people of Odessa will once again be able to worship and seek community in this hallowed place," said Vadim Novynskyi. "In the days of war and persecution of the Church, it is very important to be able to protect and revive the shrines of Orthodoxy, demonstrating faith, unity and mutual support. After all, the true Orthodox Church is based on these principles."
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SOURCE Vadym Novynskyi | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ | 2023-07-29T12:48:47 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ |
QUEENS (WABC) -- A teen swimmer has died after sparking a massive and urgent search by helicopters and drones Friday night when he went missing in the waters off a Queens beach.
The victim, identified as Amadou Thiam, was rushed to Coney Island Hospital after beachgoers spotted his body at Jacob Riis Park.
He was later pronounced dead, according to officials.
The victim was with four other friends cooling off when he got trapped in a heavy rip current on Friday.
They had just called off a search that lasted for hours after the teen disappeared in the heavy rip current in the Rockaways.
Divers raced to the surf after the swimmer washed back near where he had disappeared hours earlier.
It was Dominic Nixon and his friends who spotted the 19-year-old.
"I just kept seeing a little shadow out the water - something," Nixon said.
Harold Miles was there when a group of five teens ran into the water but only four returned.
"They all just ran in - these two brothers were going in, and one was going further than the other and the other was like 'I'm turning around, that's too far for me,' and turned around to go back...and looked for his brother, he was gone," Miles said.
"No matter if you can swim or not, you're not stronger than water," Nixon said.
This is the second swimmer who went missing in two days. On Thursday, a teen went missing in the waters off Coney Island. As of Friday night, he was still missing.
Jacob Riis Park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Lifeguards are on duty daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
ALSO READ | City investigating 'unique' crane fire, collapse in Manhattan
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Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply. | https://abc7ny.com/nyc-missing-swimmer-queens-jacob-riis-park/13567911/ | 2023-07-29T12:49:51 | 1 | https://abc7ny.com/nyc-missing-swimmer-queens-jacob-riis-park/13567911/ |
Golden Chick, boxing champion “Shock” Foster teaming up for back-to-school drive
Published 12:20 am Friday, July 28, 2023
O’Shaquie Foster knows some teachers work from the front of the classroom.
“The teachers who came and gave that one-on-one assistance and broke it down for me are the ones I took a liking to,” he recalls. “Sometimes you need that step-by-step, and once you have it, you got it. Those are the ones I like.”
Foster, better known to a growing number of boxing fans across the country as “Shock,” remembers growing up in schools and neighborhoods of Orange.
He said the older guys didn’t have the opportunity to give back as much, so he always wanted to return for the children and community.
Foster was able to create opportunities to give back by excelling in his chosen profession — boxing.
He won a surprisingly easy unanimous decision victory Feb. 11 over Rey Vargas of Mexico to claim the vacant WBC Super Featherweight World Championship at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Foster (20-2, 11 KOs), fighting at 130 pounds, handed Vargas his first defeat and put the City of Orange on the prize-fighting map.
With success comes opportunity, which is allowing Foster to host his inaugural SCHOOL SLAMDOWN: Back-to-School Drive from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 5 at Golden Chick, 1716 N. 16th St. in Orange.
Event organizers told Orange Newsmedia the fun includes giveaways of more than 200 meals and 100 backpacks with school supplies.
Foster is also going to bring signed boxing gloves and boxing trunks he previously fought in for a raffle.
Another fundraising raffle for Golden Chick gift cards is planned.
“We’re going to have jump houses, popcorn, sno-cone machines, everything,” Foster said. “I wanted to make it a big event for the kids who have to go back to school. This is something I have always wanted to do. Growing up we didn’t get it as much.
“My whole family helps run the store. There is a family connection. All of my cousins work here. Honestly, I didn’t know where I would do it, so they came up with the idea.”
Foster wants everyone to come whether you live in the city limits or not.
According to the champ, he didn’t grow up with everything and knows children and teens in his shoes want to have a person to look up to or something to look forward to.
“That is what I am trying to give the kids — hope,” he said.
The City of Orange honored Foster April 1 with a parade celebrating his championship performance.
It meant the world to him, Foster said, to see many in the city come out to celebrate.
“I feel like Orange made me stronger, as it is a small city and not too many people make it out,” he said.” It made me hungrier to go to tournaments when I was younger and being the smallest team there and everybody not knowing you. They are cheering on everyone else, and it made me want it more to bring so more life to the city.”
Boxing fans of Foster’s won’t have to wait too much longer.
He is hoping to fight in Houston on Sept. 9, but it is still in the works and could be pushed back to October.
That will be a special time for Foster, who is hoping to lead a cancer walk in Orange at the same time in honor of his mother, Christie Williams, who died due to complications from cancer when he was 12 years old.
“We are just trying to do whatever we can to bring life to the community,” he said.
The final message from organizers of the back-to-school event is “Help make a difference in students’ lives. Kindly consider donating school supplies at our store. Your generosity will support local students on their educational journey.”
For more information, email Ednishiaj14@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: Stay with Orange Newsmedia for continuing coverage of O’Shaquie “Shock” Foster, who breaks down why he is at the top of his game professionally, with plans for so much more. | https://www.orangeleader.com/2023/07/28/golden-chick-boxing-champion-shock-foster-teaming-up-for-back-to-school-drive/ | 2023-07-29T12:50:36 | 1 | https://www.orangeleader.com/2023/07/28/golden-chick-boxing-champion-shock-foster-teaming-up-for-back-to-school-drive/ |
SPORTSNaamans walk-off win sets up rematch with M-O-T for Delaware state Little League title William BretzgerNaamans and M-O-T line up for the national anthem before Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans players, including Max Fox (left) are pumped before the start of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Isaac Aulick throws in the first inning in Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Mason Guth throws in the first inning of his start in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Kevin Koerner throws to first for an out in the first inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Ayden Markiewicz handles a throw home too late to get Naamans' Matt Robinette as Robinette scores in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Josh Stiebel delivers a pitch in the second inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Jude Sawyer gathers himself after hitting the deck on an inside pitch in the second inning in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Abram Judy gets a second-inning base hit in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Nick Rubino throws to first for an out in the third inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' catcher Vinny Alfieri is excited after a three-pitch inning in Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T shortstop Paul Doherty (left) throws to first for a third-inning out as second baseman Kevin Koerner watches in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Matt Robinette is hit on the helmet by a pitch but is unhurt in the third inning of Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Max Fox stays off a high pitch in the third inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Lee Santoro is safe at second as Naamans' Jude Sawyer (5) and Matt Robinette misconnect on a double play try in the fourth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans, holding on to a 1-0 lead, gathers before their at-bats in the fifth inning of their 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T centerfielder Charlie Koch tracks down a Naamans' drive in the fifth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Nolan Gordon gets set after reaching base in the fifth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Nathan Collins watches his sac fly get deep enough to bring in the tying run in the top of the sixth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Abram Judy catches a sac fly that brought in the tying run for M-O-T in the top of the sixth inning in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Charlie Koch ties the game at 1-1 on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning of Naamans' eventual 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Lee Santoro reacts after he reached second on the sac fly that scored the tying run in the sixth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Nathan Collins (9) is greeted by teammates Ayden Markiewicz (center) and Colton Murray after Collins got the tying-RBI in the sixth inning of Naamans' eventual 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Max Fox reacts after his team got out of a threat in the top of sixth inning - although allowing the tying run - in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalM-O-T's Jordyn Brown throws in the sixth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Justin Tetrick gets a bunt down with a runner on second base but the ball rolls foul in the sixth inning of Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Matt Robinette get the game-winning walk-off hit in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Will Stewart hits the brakes rounding third from second base on a hit as he represents the walk-off run in Naamans' 2-1 win in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. Stewart took home when the throw from the outfield went awry at the plate, giving Naaman the victory. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Will Stewart crosses home plate with the walk-off winning run in Naamans' 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Will Stewart celebrates after scoring from second on a walk-off hit to give Naamans' a 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Josh Stiebel (left) rushes to celebrate with Matt Robinette after Robinette's walk-off RBI gave Naamans a 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Matt Robinette evades his teammates' rush to celebrate after his walk-off RBI gave Naamans a 2-1 win against M-O-T in the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News JournalNaamans' Matt Robinette and the rest of the Naamans squad turn for home and the post game handshakes after after his walk-off RBI gave Naamans' a 2-1 win against M-O-T iin the state Little League Major Division championship at Nanticoke Little League in Seaford, Friday, July 28, 2023. The two teams will play again Saturday evening to determine who will be the state champion and represent Delaware at the regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.William Bretzger/Delaware News Journal | https://www.delawareonline.com/picture-gallery/sports/2023/07/29/delaware-little-league-naamans-win-rematch-with-m-o-t-for-state-championship-title/12300480002/ | 2023-07-29T12:50:52 | 1 | https://www.delawareonline.com/picture-gallery/sports/2023/07/29/delaware-little-league-naamans-win-rematch-with-m-o-t-for-state-championship-title/12300480002/ |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:50:52 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
Audiences have had their first look at a much-anticipated Hollywood production that was largely filmed in Louisiana.
The trailer for "57 Seconds," a science fiction thriller starring Josh Hutcherson and Morgan Freeman, was released this week. Filmed in Lafayette in 2022 and based on the E.C. Tubbs story "Fallen Angel," the story centers around tech blogger Franklin Fausti (Hutcherson) who finds a mysterious ring that allows him to travel 57 seconds into the past. With its power, he seeks revenge against a pharmaceutical company that caused his sister's death.
The film received financial assistance from the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority and state film tax credits.
One of the film's producers, Griff Furst, has strong ties to Lafayette. Previously involved in about 20 movies in the area, he also once owned a house in the city. According to Louisiana Economic Development, between 2019 and 2021 Furst was involved with four movies in Lafayette that spent in excess of $2 million in the state.
The movie also stars Lovie Simone, Greg Germann, Bevin Bru and Sammi Rotib.
The trailer is available to view on YouTube. "57 Seconds" is scheduled to be released Sept. 29. | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/trailer-for-louisiana-filmed-57-seconds-released/article_03f6f5f4-2d5d-11ee-958f-a735a569b6b2.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:09 | 0 | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/trailer-for-louisiana-filmed-57-seconds-released/article_03f6f5f4-2d5d-11ee-958f-a735a569b6b2.html |
History has been getting roughed up lately. But it fought back this week, aided by a president who has seen a lot of it.
The monument, set to occupy three locations, will establish an observable physical fact, the better to preserve and honor an historical fact. If the message of monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial is, more or less, Behold the great man, the message of the Till monument will be slightly different: It happened. Deal with it.
Millions of Americans emphatically do not want to deal with it. In the days leading up to Biden’s announcement, Republican attorneys general from 13 states sent a letter to the nearly all-White ranks of Fortune 100 CEOs. The Republicans threatened “serious legal consequences” for executives if their companies seek to ameliorate racial disadvantage through programs or philosophies that acknowledge there might be something awry, possibly even systemic, in racial disparities of wealth and power.
One of the letter’s Republican signatories is Lynn Fitch, attorney general of Mississippi, the state that spawned both Till’s killers and the local jury that blessed their violence. Fitch was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1961, between the killing of Till, in Money, Mississippi, in 1955, and the murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. She was 2 years old at the time of the murders of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964.
Thankfully, all such traces of unpleasantness have vanished for Fitch, whose wealthy family’s plantation features the home of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general famous for torturing Black Union soldiers and founding the Ku Klux Klan. Fitch’s father paid to move the structure to his property and carefully restore it.
Median household income for Black residents in Mississippi is less than 60% of the median for White residents. With racial equality achieved at home, Fitch is looking elsewhere, wielding the power of the state to combat “overt and pervasive racial discrimination” against the White people who can’t get ahead in corporate America.
There is pathos in these efforts. It was a straightforward matter for the White Citizens Council to extol the virtues of White supremacy and facilitate murder in its sacred honor. White privilege is a trickier game now, requiring the maintenance of racial stratification under the guise of commitment to a colorblind society. Unwilling to acknowledge racism’s reach, yet loath to indulge in stereotypes, Republicans are at a loss to explain the vast disparity between White and Black wealth. What drives this curious phenomenon? Apparently, it’s the residue that remains after systemic disadvantage evaporates.
Conservatives are working hard to reconfigure the past, but they pay a cost. Florida officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis, look awfully dim banning books and defending a hackish public education curriculum asserting that American slaves learned valuable skills in bondage. But minimizing the depravity of slavery, and erasing the long tail of racism, helps preserve the fantasies, and policies, of White innocence that buffer the haves against the aspirations of the have-so-much-less. If you can distort the past, you can gaslight the present.
If the manufacture, finance and consumption of cotton is a foundation of the modern capitalist world and its wealth, the question what is owed can’t help but assert itself. There are children in posh schools in Boston, London and New York whose family fortunes were built on the lacerated backs of slaves whose progeny now live across town. Does that matter? If so, what is to be done about it? If it doesn’t matter, why so much huffing and puffing to bury the truth?
What is owed is not the only, or necessarily even most important, question. And the past is not the only arena. Contemporary racial politics is very much about contemporary public and political space, too. The ultimate affront of Barack Obama’s presidency wasn’t his expansion of access to health care. It was that a Black man took up so very much space, at the center of the public stage.
DeSantis, the 13 attorneys general and their cohorts seek to preserve center stage for those who traditionally occupied it. Yet Blacks, Native Americans, women, LGBTQ Americans and others keep butting into the picture. Donald Trump was mocked for his pathetic affirmation of Frederick Douglass as someone who’s “done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.” But Trump’s ignorance was a distillation of his creed. Why should Trump know anything about Douglass? Douglass was Black.
Biden understands that the battle over history is a battle for the future. “At a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we’re making it clear — crystal, crystal clear — while darkness and denialism can hide much, they erase nothing,” Biden said during a White House event with members of the Till family. The politics of highlighting Mamie Till-Mobley, along with her son, aren’t hard to fathom: Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party.
A few conservative truth-tellers — evangelical leader Russell Moore is one who comes to mind — seem eager to lead their reluctant brethren to the promised land, where no one mistakes MAGA’s racial aggression for sappy victimhood. Their path leads to places like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice — the lynching memorial — in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Till memorial will likely be another such destination, a place to face the past instead of lie about it. Maybe there, in the silent memory of Emmett Till’s mangled body, we can begin to dispense with another lie — the notion that slavery was the “original sin” of America’s founding. No God imprinted such horror at birth. No human action was foreordained. Every crime was a decision.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
• Outrage Is Currency and RFK Jr. Really Stirs It Up: F.D. Flam
• New York Republicans Have Found Something to Fight For: Jonathan Bernstein
• The Message in ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Is Clear: Francis Wilkinson
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering U.S. politics and policy. Previously, he was an editor for the Week, a writer for Rolling Stone, a communications consultant and a political media strategist.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/emmett-till-monument-has-a-message-some-refuse-to-hear/5bfaed84-2e0a-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:09 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/emmett-till-monument-has-a-message-some-refuse-to-hear/5bfaed84-2e0a-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:52:09 | 0 | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
BEIJING, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of English education experts and scholars from all over the world assembled in Macao on Friday for a three-day event to explore new opportunities for global cooperation in English education brought by China's development.
The 2023 Global English Education China Assembly, an online-and-offline event that opened at the City University of Macau (CityU), attracted over 1,600 experts, front-line educators and scholars from more than 20 countries and regions. Participants were mainly from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Thailand, Russia, Singapore, Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
They shared their insights to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and discussed the most recent trends in English language teaching.
The event's theme is "New opportunities for the world with new advances in China's development: Opening up new prospects in English education cooperation worldwide", and features nine keynote speeches and 23 parallel sessions.
This year's assembly is hosted by China Daily and Shanghai International Studies University, and co-hosted by the Macao SAR Government Education and Youth Development Bureau, and organized by CityU and China Daily's 21st Century English Education Media.
For the first time, the assembly, which started in 2018, was held in Macao — one of the engine cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This location echoes the Outline Development Plan for the GBA released in 2019, which set out to, among other goals, build the region as a model area for high-quality education and promote opening up education to the world.
At the event's opening ceremony, Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, highlighted that 2023 marks the 10th year since President Xi Jinping put forward both the idea of "building a community with a shared future for mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative.
It is, therefore, appropriate that for the first time, the conference this year has moved out of the Chinese mainland to Macao where East meets West and multiple cultures blend, Qu said.
He said he believes the event will catalyze many innovative outcomes. Qu further said that English education could be a bridge to promote high-quality development of the BRI and people-to-people cultural exchanges could provide momentum for "building a community with a shared future for mankind".
He urged the audience to cultivate talent in order to bolster the promotion of the three global initiatives brought forward by Xi — the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
Qu also said China attaches great importance to education and cultural exchange. Xi, in his several correspondences with foreign students studying in China, has encouraged the latter to see with their own eyes the development of China and tell the world about what they have seen, to boost people-to-people bonding and friendship between their countries and China.
Zha Mingjian, vice-president of Shanghai International Studies University, said development in recent times has brought many opportunities as well as challenges. In this context, the English education sector in China has the responsibility to serve as a vital bridge for English education globally.
Opening education more extensively to the outside world will significantly strengthen China's efforts to modernize education in the new era, Zha said.
Svetlana V. Sannikova, coordination council chairperson of the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia, said the Macao event offers a high-end international academic platform where teachers can learn many practical ideas and methods to improve their English teaching skills.
On Friday, the event's organizer and CityU jointly established the Belt and Road English Education Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Exchange Base, which will use English education as a means to promote cultural exchanges and people-to-people bonding in countries and regions participating in the BRI.
The GBA Exchange Base will also strive to promote high-quality development in the BRI landscape.
Liu Jun, rector of CityU and president of the International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and Zeng Qingkai, editor-in-chief of 21st Century English Education Media, were the signatories of the document for the establishment of the base.
Among the several dignitaries who graced Friday's opening ceremony were Ao Ieong U, secretary for social affairs and culture of the Macao SAR government, participating in the event on behalf of Macao SAR Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng; Yan Zhichan, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR; Liu Xianfa, commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Macao SAR; Kong Chimeng, director of the Macao SAR government Education and Youth Development Bureau; and Chan Meng-kam, chairman of the council of CityU.
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SOURCE China Daily | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ | 2023-07-29T12:52:16 | 0 | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ |
Jason Belmonte’s feats in the sport of 10-pin bowling inevitably earn him comparisons with athletes who have dominated their chosen fields of play. His 15 majors in the Professional Bowling Association tour, four more than the next most successful bowler ever, puts him on a par with Tiger Woods. His 15-year ascendancy on the PBA circuit invites correlation with Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. And his ability to turn success on the lanes into merchandizing goals is reminiscent of Michael Jordan.
But for more meaningful parallels to Belmonte’s impact on his sport — the way he has revolutionized the way it is played — you have to go back almost exactly 50 years, to when a pair of American tennis prodigies changed how millions around the world would hold a racket. In 1973, the successes — and the charisma — of Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors legitimized the double-handed backhand in the eyes of players and coaches everywhere.
Until then, the convention had been for players who used both hands as children, compensating for the weakness of their young wrists and arms, to change to the single-handed backhand as adults. Often, those who made the switch suffered a drop off in the quality of their play; disheartened, many drifted away from the game altogether. My late father sometimes claimed, plausibly but improbably, that it was the only reason he never turned pro.
Evert and Connors changed the norm, allowing countless players to become competitive, whether as amateurs or professionals. More players stayed in the game longer, generating a dividend of who knows how many billions of dollars in court fees and coaching lessons the world over.
It also reaped millions in prize money for Evert and Connors, and hundreds of millions for two-handed champions who came after them. A generation later, a clear majority of the world’s best players were using the technique; by 2014, Stan Wawrinka’s single-handed backhand made him a distinct oddity among winners of Grand Slam tournaments.
Like Evert and Connors, Belmonte shook up bowling when he brought his two-handed style to the PBA from his native Australia in 2008, when he was 24. Like them, too, his success allowed many players to hold on to the technique that had served them well in childhood, when the bowling balls, which run between 6 and 16 pounds, had weighed heavy on their arms. (Belmonte himself was a toddler when he first picked up a 10-pound ball, at a bowling center his parents owned in the town of Orange, a four-hour drive inland from Sydney.)
But Belmonte’s influence has been far quicker to spread and take root. Tom Clark, the PBA’s commissioner, reckons two-handed bowlers now make up 40% of entrants in youth tournaments. “We’re not too far away from the day when they will be the majority,” he said.
As with tennis, the technique is becoming de rigueur for the best players of the next generation. At last year’s PBA juniors competition, nine of the 10 boys finalists bowled like “Belmo,” as the Australian is known to his fans. But the player most likely to assume his mantle as the sport’s biggest star is 13-year-old Bella Love Castillo, who is not only a two-handed bowler but — wouldn’t you just know it — an Instagram influencer, to boot.
The jury’s out on whether the two-handed technique bestows a special advantage. Players who use it seem to be able to generate tremendous spin on the ball and a powerful hook, which is bowling lingo for the curve at which the ball hits the pins. But E.J. Tackett, the single-handed player who is leading the PBA tour, generates as much spin as the average double-hander — and there’s nothing wrong with his hook, either. Unlike, say, the Fosbury Flop in high jumping, the two-handed bowling style has not killed off the traditional version.
For the PBA’s Clark, the secret sauce to Belmonte’s success is made not by his hands but in his head: “The strength of his mind, especially in the clutch, is something that gets missed by people who only look at his technique. But his No. 1 skill is his mental game.”
That mental strength allowed Belmonte to surpass the other bowler who deployed the two-handed technique when he first got to the PBA, Osku Palermaa of Finland, as well as the entire roster of traditionalists. Along with his 15 major titles, Belmonte has seven PBA Player of the Year awards. But arguably the greatest testament to the powers of his mind is his career haul of perfect 300 games — in which a player scores 12 consecutive strikes. There is no greater demonstration of skill and nerve, and most top players will go their entire careers without achieving it even once in competitive, televised tournament play: Belmonte has done it a record three times, most recently in June.
It is a safe bet that he will acquire several more titles and break more records before he retires. He reckons he can be competitive for 10 to 12 more years but isn’t sure he’ll keep going that long. “I still feel pure joy when I lace ’em to compete,” he said. “But when I stop feeling the adrenaline rush for the first hit, I’ll quit the next week.”
The sport as a whole will hope that week is a long way away. The combination of Belmonte’s success and star quality has been crucial to the revival in bowling’s popularity, both as a recreation and as a competitive sport. “Kids look at him on national TV, winning these big checks — and they think, ‘This is a viable professional career,’” said Lev Ekster, chief strategy officer at Bowlero Corp., which owns the PBA as well as more than 325 bowling centers, most of them in the US. “There’s a reason bowling is one of the fastest-growing high school sports in the country.”
It helps that Belmonte has also been promoting the game — and himself — outside the lanes by dreaming up stunts like bowling out of a NASCAR car traveling at 140 mph and performing trick shots for Dude Perfect, the sports/comedy group that has nearly 60 million subscribers on YouTube. “I love to think up creative ways (to draw an audience),” he said. “And I’m also thinking of the future, and how to monetize my brand after the ball stops striking.”
Arguably most important of all, Belmonte has been instrumental in raising bowling’s profile on television. When the PBA was negotiating TV rights to the tour with Fox in 2018, “one of the big discussions was about the excitement Jason was bringing to the game,” Ekster said. Although most games are on the cable channel Fox Sports 1, more and more are featured on the broadcast network. TV ratings are up 14% this year, as the Australian dukes it out with a pair of Americans, Tackett and Anthony Simonsen (another two-hander), for another Player of the Year title.
At this rate, it won’t be long before Belmonte becomes the template for outstanding athletes in other sports.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering foreign affairs. Previously, he was editor in chief at Hindustan Times, managing editor at Quartz and international editor at Time.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/jason-belmonte-s-two-handed-bowling-technique-puts-a-new-spin-on-the-sport/5bef5ef6-2e0a-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:17 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/jason-belmonte-s-two-handed-bowling-technique-puts-a-new-spin-on-the-sport/5bef5ef6-2e0a-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Saturday that Sri Lanka is a key partner in a Tokyo-led initiative aimed at building security and economic cooperation around the Indo-Pacific but also at countering an increasingly assertive China.
The initiative, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March includes Japan’s assistance to emerging economies, support for maritime security, a provision of coast guard patrol boats and equipment and other infrastructure cooperation.
Last year Sri Lanka, which owed $51 billion in foreign debt, became the first Asia-Pacific country since the late 1990s to default, sparking an economic crisis.
While Japan is Sri Lanka’s largest creditor, about 10% of its debt is held by China, which lent Colombo billions to build sea ports, airports and power plants as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. In March, China agreed to offer Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on loan repayments.
Hayashi said that he conveyed expectations for further progress in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process. He welcomed Sri Lanka’s efforts under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which includes anti-corruption measures and transparency in the policy-making process.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Sabry said that he, along with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, invited Japan to resume investment projects already in the pipeline and to consider fresh investments in sectors such as power generation, ports and highways, and dedicated investment zones, as well as in the green and digital economy.
Over many decades, Japan became one of Sri Lanka’s key donors, carrying out key projects under concessionary terms. However, relations between the two countries came under strain after Wickremesinghe’s predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa unilaterally scrapped a Japan-funded light railway project following his election in 2019.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has already approved a proposal to restart the railway project.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in July 2022 amid angry public protects over the country’s worst economic crisis. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/sri-lanka-japan-indo-pacific-hayashi-china/57a7e4f0-2e08-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:17 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/29/sri-lanka-japan-indo-pacific-hayashi-china/57a7e4f0-2e08-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
ODESSA, Ukraine, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ukrainian entrepreneur, Vadim Novynskyi has announced a donation of up to $1 million to help restore the Transfiguration Church in Odessa, Ukraine that was seriously damaged during rocket attacks on Sunday, July 23. The destruction of one of the most beautiful Ukrainian churches, which was erected by the founders of Odessa at the end of the 18th century is a true tragedy. This cathedral was the center of the spiritual life of Odessa.
This is not the first time the church has been destroyed. In 1936, the Bolsheviks destroyed the cathedral and it was restored in the early 2000's after tens of thousands of ordinary people participated in the restoration with their donations.
"I sincerely mourn with the inhabitants of Odessa and I want to assure them and all the people of Ukraine that this cathedral will be rebuilt and the people of Odessa will once again be able to worship and seek community in this hallowed place," said Vadim Novynskyi. "In the days of war and persecution of the Church, it is very important to be able to protect and revive the shrines of Orthodoxy, demonstrating faith, unity and mutual support. After all, the true Orthodox Church is based on these principles."
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SOURCE Vadym Novynskyi | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ | 2023-07-29T12:52:17 | 1 | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ |
Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America.
“People are yearning for something greater than themselves — beyond their own understanding,” said Jack Grogger, a chaplain for the Los Angeles Angels and a longtime Southern California fire captain who has aided many people in their gravest moments.
That search for something bigger, he said, can take on many forms, from following a religion to crafting a self-driven purpose to believing in, of course, angels.
“For a lot of people, angels are a lot safer to worship,” said Grogger, who also pastors a nondenominational church in Orange, California, and is a chaplain for the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks.
People turn to angels for comfort, he said. They are familiar, regularly showing up in pop culture as well as in the Bible. Comparably, worshipping Jesus is far more involved; when Grogger preaches about angels it is with the context that they are part of God’s kingdom.
American’s belief in angels (69%) is about on par with belief in heaven and the power of prayer, but bested by belief in God or a higher power (79%). Fewer U.S. adults believe in the devil or Satan (56%), astrology (34%), reincarnation (34%), and that physical things can have spiritual energies, such as plants, rivers or crystals (42%).
The widespread acceptance of angels shown in the AP-NORC poll makes sense to Susan Garrett, an angel expert and New Testament professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky. It tracks with historical surveys, she said, adding that the U.S. remains a faith-filled country even as more Americans reject organized religion.
But if the devil is in the details, so are people’s understandings of angels.
“They’re very malleable,” Garrett said of angels. “You can have any one of a number of quite different worldviews in terms of your understanding of how the cosmos is arranged, whether there’s spirit beings, whether there’s life after death, whether there’s a God … and still find a place for angels in that worldview.”
Talk of angels, Garrett said, is often also about something else, like the ways God interacts with the world and other hard-to-articulate ideas.
The large number of U.S. adults who say they believe in angels includes 84% of those with a religious affiliation — 94% of evangelical Protestants, 81% of mainline Protestants and 82% of Catholics — and 33% of those without one. And of those angel-believing religiously unaffiliated, that includes 2% of atheists, 25% of agnostics and 50% of those identified as “nothing in particular.”
The broad acceptance is what fascinates San Francisco-based witch and author Devin Hunter: Angels show up independently in different religions and traditions, making them part of the fabric that unites humanity.
“We’re all getting to the same conclusion,” said Hunter, who spent 16 years as a professional medium, and started communicating as a child with what he believed were angels.
Hunter estimates that a belief in angels applies to about half of those practicing modern witchcraft today, and for some who don’t believe, their rejection is often rooted in the religious trauma they experienced growing up.
“Angels become a very big deal” for long-time practitioners who’ve made occultism their primary focus, said Hunter, an angel-loving occultist. “We cannot escape them in any way, shape or form.”
Jennifer Goodwin of Oviedo, Florida, also is among the roughly seven in 10 U.S. adults who say they believe in angels. She isn’t sure if God exists and rejects the afterlife dichotomy of heaven and hell, but the recent deaths of her parents solidified her views on these celestial beings.
Goodwin believes her parents are still keeping an eye on the family — not in any physical way or as a supernatural apparition, but that they manifest in those moments when she feels a general sense of comfort.
“I think that they are around us, but it’s in a way that we can’t understand,” Goodwin said. “I don’t know what else to call it except an angel.”
Angels mean different things to different people, and the idea of loved ones becoming heavenly angels after death is neither an unusual belief nor a universally held one.
In his reading of Scripture as an evangelical Protestant, Grogger said he believes angels are something else entirely — they have never been human and are on another level in heaven’s hierarchy. “We are higher than angels,” he said. “We do not become an angel.”
Angels do interact with humans though, said Grogger, but what “that looks like we’re not 100% sure.” They worship God who created this angelic legion of unknown numbers, he said, adding that evangelicals often attribute the demonic forces in the world to the angels who fell from heaven when the devil rebelled.
The Western ideas about angels can be traced through the Bible — and to the worldviews of its monotheistic authors, Garrett said. Those beliefs have changed and developed for millennia, influenced by cultures, theologians and even the ancient polytheistic beliefs that came before the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, she said.
“There are sort of lines of continuity from the Bible that you can trace all the way up to the New Age movement,” said Susan Garrett, who wrote “No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus.”
The angels in the Bible do God’s bidding, and angelic violence is one part of their job description, said Esther Hamori, author of the upcoming book, “God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible.”
“The angels of the Bible are just as likely to assassinate individuals and slaughter entire populations as they are to offer help and protect and deliver,” said Hamori. She doesn’t believe in these angels, but studies them as a Hebrew Bible professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York where she teaches a popular “Monster Heaven” class.
“They’re just God’s obedient soldiers doing the task at hand, and sometimes that task is in human beings’ best interests, and sometimes it’s not,” she said.
The perception that angels act angelic and look like the idyllic, winged figurines atop Christmas trees could be attributed to an early centuries belief that people are assigned one good angel and one bad — or have a good and bad spirit to guide them, Garrett said.
This idea shows up on the shoulders of cartoon characters and is likely what Abraham Lincoln was alluding to in his famous appeal for unity when he referenced “the better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural address, she said.
“It’s also tied in with ideas about guardian angels, which again, very ancient views that got developed over the centuries,” Garrett said.
For Sheila Avery of Chicago, angels are protectors, capable of keeping someone from harm. Avery, who belongs to a nondenominational church, credits them with those moments like when a person’s plans fall through, but ultimately it saves them from being in the thick of an unexpected disaster.
“They turn on the news and a terrible tragedy happened at that particular place,” Avery said, suggesting it was an “angel that was probably watching over them.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/29/religion-poll-belief-angels-devil/c544e4e4-2e09-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:18 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/29/religion-poll-belief-angels-devil/c544e4e4-2e09-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
FUKUOKA, Japan — Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjoestroem broke her own world record in the 50-meter freestyle on Saturday, swimming a time of 23.61 seconds in a semifinal heat at the World Aquatics Championships.
Sjoestroem has now won 20 individual medals at the world championships to tie Michael Phelps. Relays are not included in the count. She has 11 gold in world championships.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/29/swimming-world-championships-sjoestroem/4770e952-2e07-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:19 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/29/swimming-world-championships-sjoestroem/4770e952-2e07-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Two-time reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen edged out rookie driver Oscar Piastri by just .011 seconds to take pole position for the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix later Saturday.
Piastri has been in good form recently and the McLaren driver shot to the top of the leaderboard on his last run, only for Verstappen to typically find extra pace from his Red Bull.
“Simply lovely,” Verstappen said on team radio. “Not easy with this weather.”
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. starts the sprint from third ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc, with McLaren’s Lando Norris fifth, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly sixth and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton going from seventh. It was a disappointing session for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who qualified eighth.
This is the third of six scheduled sprint races this season, with Perez winning in Azerbaijan and Verstappen winning in Austria. The top eight drivers all score points.
Skies had cleared when drivers set out in Q1, the first part of qualifying, but some spray was still flying off the tarmac and reducing visibility in some sections. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll pushed too hard in the final seconds of Q2 and slid off into the barriers, mangling his right tire and bringing out a red flag. His teammate Fernando Alonso was on his out lap when the crash happened and couldn’t set a time, meaning he also failed to make into Q3.
Heavy rain had also impacted Friday’s running at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which is nestled in a forest amid the Ardennes countryside and is often impacted by gloomy weather.
Verstappen also set the fastest time in qualifying for Sunday’s main race, but Leclerc will start from pole because of Verstappen’s five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. He begins Sunday’s race from sixth, but that will not bother Verstappen considering he won here last year from 14th.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/2023/07/29/formula-one-belgium-sprint-race/8e78b6a8-2e08-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:29 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/2023/07/29/formula-one-belgium-sprint-race/8e78b6a8-2e08-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
BRISBANE, Australia — Veterans Eugénie Le Sommer and Wendie Renard revived France’s Women’s World Cup hopes with a goal each in a 2-1 win over Brazil on Saturday to give Les Bleues the lead in Group F.
Sakina Karchaoui’s long floating ball into the area found Kadidiatou Diani, who headed back across to Le Sommer to finish off from directly in front.
Unlike a lackluster 0-0 opening draw against Jamaica, the French started with high tempo and had the better of the early exchanges.
But the Brazilians, coming off a thumping 4-0 opening win over Panama, met them for energy, helped by the majority of an almost 50,000 crowd.
Debinha equalized in the 58th, finishing off a quick passing movement into the area, controlling the ball with the outside of her leg then firing in a right-footed shot.
Le Sommer was replaced in the 66th Vicki Becho to add some extra speed to the French attack.
Leticia pushed a hard strike over the crossbar to keep Brazil level and Selma Bacha hit the side netting with her shot from the right in the 75th, unable to break the deadlock for France.
Renard, who was a doubtful start after picking an injury in the opening game, stepped up when the French most needed it.
The veteran defender was unmarked in perfect position in the 83rd to meet a corner with a header that she nudged powerfully into the top right of the net.
France has four points, one more than Brazil ahead of the last group games on Wednesday. The French will play Panama in Sydney, and Brazil will take on Jamaica in Melbourne.
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/29/womens-world-cup-france-brazil-match-summary/470a5c64-2e0c-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:35 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/29/womens-world-cup-france-brazil-match-summary/470a5c64-2e0c-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Walsh Blouin Scholars conduct carbon-emission research at Catholic churches in the UK
Blouin Scholars' carbon-footprint findings, recommendations will be presented to the Youngstown Diocese in the fall
- England has about 3,000 Catholic churches and chapels
- Walsh Blouin Scholars program offers four years of in-depth study
- Students' recommendations put to use by UK dioceses
NORTH CANTON − In his 2015 encyclical letter, "Laudato Si," Pope Francis essentially writes that the health of the environment and care for the world's poor are inextricably linked.
In keeping with the pontiff's view, a team of Walsh University's Brother Francis Blouin Scholars traveled to the United Kingdom this summer to help four Catholic dioceses measure their carbon footprint and make recommendations for ways they can become carbon-neutral.
A "carbon footprint" is the measurement of carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gasses produced by the consumption of fossil fuels by individuals, groups or institutions. Greenhouse gases, which can be man-made or natural, trap and release heat, which is beneficial to growth. However, too much results in increased climate temperature.
Founded in 2012, Blouin Scholars Program is named after late Brother Francis Blouin, Walsh's first president and a member of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, who founded Walsh in 1960.
Areas of study in the four-year curriculum include global health care, genocide, reconciliation and justice, technology and social entrepreneurship, education, equity and justice, water access and quality, human trafficking and mental health.
Blouin Scholars fight hungerWalsh students launch campus kitchen to help feed Stark County hungry
The UK team's cohort, or specific area of study, focuses on food, hunger and sustainability.
In conjunction with Professor Roland Daw's Guardians of Creation Project at St. Mary’s University in Twickenhamled, England, the 21 students calculated the carbon footprints in the dioceses of Bristol, Northampton, Portsmouth and the Archdiocese of Birmingham. They also worked with the Catholic Diocese of Salford, the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, and Oxford University's Laudato Si Research Institute, which was created in response to the pope's encyclical.
"They were given an Excel spreadsheet that had several hundred locations with energy usage, and then they had to calculate how, with a conversion factor, how that calculated into an overall footprint," said Walsh Associate Business Professor and adviser Karen Stock, who accompanied the students to England. "So, once they had that baseline, then the dioceses were able to look at ways they can reduce that footprint."
The students' recommendations were varied, from "smart" meters, to replacing windows to new roofing.
"But that was all secondary," Stock said. "The primary focus was to determine where we are today, so we know how we can improve."
Stock said that prior to traveling to England, the students did some advance research; however because some of the data was not available, they had to improvise.
"What missing data there was, they had to make assumptions about, and troubleshoot with Dr. Daw and the faculty that we brought with us so that could help them go back and deliver their final work," Stock said. "It's a real-world skill because you're not always given 100% instruction on what to do and how you need to do it. So, the pre-work was important to build skills, but we really didn't know until we were there what the exact project would entail. It was up to the students to meet the challenge. Typically, a study-abroad trip involves things that are similar to study in the U.S. We wanted to make this a richer experience where they had hands-on work to do, that would have an impact."
The scholars were divided into teams that were balanced according to their skills and talents.
"We tried to mix it up," Stock said. "But it really was up to the students to go out and meet with (church officials) and act as consultants and find out what the needs were, and deliver back."
The people behind the numbers
Nursing student Hannah Olszewski, an incoming senior, said the project helped her to stretch her skill set.
"For me, it was really transformational," she said. "I'm a nursing major, so the whole world of business and Excel spreadsheets was new to me, was way out of things I normally do. So, it was really interesting to me to see the interdisciplinary approach, what we were able to accomplish with all of us being different majors and having different specialties."
She noted that the British seem fairly united that climate change is real problem, compared to the U.S., where a person's views on the issue often depends on their politics.
Olszewski added that for her, the trip was about more than the science.
"One thing that really got talked about in our group was seeing the humanity behind what we were doing," she said. "We weren't just dealing with numbers and carbon accounting, which I didn't fully understand until this trip. But we were dealing with the impact that this has on people. 'Laudato Si,' the document that Pope Francis wrote, talks about the common call for us to care for our creation because it's our home. I think, in this work, we were able to see the direct impact that we have; how we can make changes, and the ways in which we can be inspired to come together, even from different cultures literally across the world."
Blouin Scholars and incoming seniors MaryBeth Edmundson, a professional writing major, and Anthony DiGicacomo, who's studying supply-chain management, were on the same research team in the Clifton Diocese.
"Our diocese really wanted us to focus, along with the carbon footprint, on what they could do practically to become a more sustainable diocese as a whole," Edmundson said. "One of the biggest things that we wanted to focus on that was attainable financially and culturally, was actually making changes within the behaviors of the people in the parishes, so not only doing small things like reminding them to turn off the lights, but actually really having a more sustainable mindset, so drawing back to what Hannah said about the people behind the project."
DiGiacomo said there were some parishioners who didn't think much could be done because many of the churches were historic buildings. While there, the students also visited a food bank, and several historical churches and cathedrals.
"They never thought they could do anything to them, but we showed them graphs of how the big projects they did that really saved them money, and it was kind of an assurance to them that this stuff actually does work, that there are ways to work around, like changing the windows, or changing the way they heat it," DiGiacomo said. "So, it was really making them see clearly that it can actually work."
DiGiacomo, who is familiar with spreadsheets because of his major, said his team produced a year-by-year carbon footprint for their diocese, which didn't have that information.
Nick Morris, the Blouin Scholars Program faculty director, said the carbon footprint project is in keeping with what the Blouin Scholars do. There are plans for the students to present an adopted plan this fall to the Diocese of Youngtown's Office of Peace and Justice based on their research in the UK.
Public scholars
"What our students just did was essentially position themselves as public scholars," Morris said. "And they're taking what they've learned from an academic or scholarly perspective, and are contributing back to the community. They've taken domestic trips outside of Ohio, come back, and worked that with new knowledge, and now they have international experience. They're now prepared to come back to the Diocese of Youngstown as experts on this topic, which is entirely different than just simply being service-oriented students. They're coming in with expert experience, with a global perspective and a very Catholic perspective on how to address these types of issues."
Norris, who also accompanied the scholars, said the project also examined the extended carbon footprint of a diocese.
"So, if we're talking about a carbon footprint and sustainability from a faith perspective, we have to also think about how the church communicates and carries that culture beyond its doors and its building facilities," he said.
To address this, the students created fliers that the churches distributed at Masses featuring a QR code so parishioners could find their personal carbon footprint, and a second code if they wanted to share that information with their diocese.
"So, in this way, they'd be actually able to capture what sort of carbon footprint their parishioners have," Morris said. "So, again, kind of extending that culture of sustainability beyond the measurements or required components that are part of the goal of being carbon-neutral, and looking at how their mission of building faith in the community is actually moving forward. It seemed to be well-received."
Stock noted that the two-week project took a year to plan, adding that they've heard from universities in other countries interested in duplicating it.
Morris said the UK project has transformed the students.
"They've gone from being students interested in service, to students who are competent in service-learning, to leaders in service and now contributing members of public scholarship," he said.
To learn more about the Blouin Scholars program, contact Morris at 330-490-7600 or nmorris@walsh.edu.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2023/07/29/walsh-students-conduct-carbon-emission-research-for-churches-in-the-uk/70432690007/ | 2023-07-29T12:52:38 | 1 | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2023/07/29/walsh-students-conduct-carbon-emission-research-for-churches-in-the-uk/70432690007/ |
Consumers have many choices when it comes to sunscreen, but it can be confusing to know which product to use and how best to wear it. The best sunscreen, experts say, is the one you’ll wear every day.
Chemical, mineral or tinted? Picking a sunscreen can be confusing.
The benefits of wearing sunscreen are well-known, but many people don’t do it as thoroughly or as regularly as they should
In the United States, rates of new skin cancer have been on the rise for the past two decades, affecting people of every age and race. The good news is that while skin cancer is the most common cancer among Americans, experts say it’s also the most preventable.
Here’s what to know about choosing the best sunscreen for your needs and how to wear it: | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/07/29/sunscreen-safety-spf-uva-uvb-cancer/ | 2023-07-29T12:52:41 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/07/29/sunscreen-safety-spf-uva-uvb-cancer/ |
NEW DELHI — A group of Indian opposition lawmakers on Saturday visited a remote northeastern state where deadly ethnic clashes have killed at least 130 people, in a bid to pressure the government to take action against the violence which began in May.
The conflict in Manipur has become a global issue due to the scale of violence, said Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Congress party. “Our delegation is here to express solidarity with the people of Manipur in this time of distress. The top priority now is to restore normalcy as soon as possible,” he added.
Tucked in the mountains on the border with Myanmar, Manipur is on the brink of a civil war. Mobs have rampaged through villages, torching houses and buildings. The conflict was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand by mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.
After arriving in the state capital, Imphal, the lawmakers went to Churachandpur district, where they visited two relief camps and spoke to community leaders.
The conflict has triggered an impasse in India's Parliament, as opposition members demand a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence roiling the state. On Wednesday, the opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government. This means the government will soon face a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which is likely to be defeated, as Modi’s party and its allies have a clear majority.
But opposition leaders say the move could at least force Modi to speak on the conflict and open a debate.
Two weeks ago, Modi broke more than two months of public silence over the conflict in Manipur when he condemned the mob assaults on two women in the state who were paraded naked - but he did not directly refer to the larger violence. He has also not visited the state, which is ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, since the violence broke out.
Both houses of Parliament were adjourned at various times last week as the opposition stopped proceedings with their demand for a statement from Modi.
Despite a heavy army presence and a visit earlier by the home minister, when he met with both communities, the deadly clashes have persisted.
The violence in Manipur and the assault on the two women triggered protests across the country last week. In Manipur, thousands held a sit-in protest recently and called for the firing of Biren Singh, the top elected official in the state, who also belongs to Modi’s party.
The European Parliament also recently adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India’s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as “interference” in its internal affairs. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/29/manipur-conflict-india-modi-ethnic-clashes/435c217a-2e06-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:47 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/29/manipur-conflict-india-modi-ethnic-clashes/435c217a-2e06-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Tomatoes are a staple in any home cook’s vegetable arsenal, even though they’re technically a fruit. Whether you mix them into a paste, cut them into salad-ready cubes or eat them whole, they’re a key component in literally thousands of dishes. The only thing they can’t do? Last for a long time without help.
Most foodies know that summer is prime time for buying tomatoes at your grocery store, but there’s a solution that can extend their lifespan by months: Put them in the freezer.
Most people don’t think of preserving fresh tomatoes in the freezer, and there’s usually a good reason for that. If you don’t prep them before tossing them in, the fibers in the tomato can break down, giving them a mushy texture and robbing them of flavor. The secret is chilling them in an uncovered bowl or on a sheet pan, then sealing them up for the long haul after they’ve gone through the initial freeze.
Mind you, they won’t be quite the same texture, and will be better suited to using in a sauce or stew than eaten whole. If that’s your plan, you’ll also want to blanche them before freezing. For those not familiar with the technique, blanching means simply boiling things for a short while, then cooling them quickly. Not only will this curb the enzyme action that causes tomatoes to lose their flavor, it will also let the skins peel right off.
Here are the basic steps to follow for whole tomatoes:
- Wash them thoroughly under cold water, then wipe them completely dry with a cloth or paper towel.
- Cut off the stems, or any remnant of the stems (that little “belly button” that tomatoes often have at the top).
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, then add the tomatoes. Remove them after a short while — anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute.
- Place the tomatoes in an ice bath or run them under cold water. If you want to remove the skins at this point, you’ll find they should peel off easily.
- Dry off the tomatoes again and put them into a bowl or some other container with no lid. Put them into the freezer.
- Once they’re completely frozen (which should take no more than 3 hours), transfer them into a plastic bag or some other closed container, being careful to squeeze out as much air as you can.
If you already know you’re using the tomatoes for a sauce or gravy, you can liquefy them ahead of time. The process is much the same:
- Repeat the first four steps above.
- Slice your tomatoes (preferably peeled) into fourths.
- Let them simmer in a saucepan for at least five minutes.
- Liquefy them with a tomato press, or put them into a blender.
- Put the juice or paste into an airtight container, leaving an inch or two of space under the lid.
- Put the container into the freezer.
And there you have it! No matter what state they’re in, your tomatoes should last for up to eight months. It’s always a good idea to put a date on the container so that you can make sure they don’t overstay their welcome in the freezer. Also, resist the urge to season your tomatoes before you put them in storage. Onion, garlic and many herbs will undergo changes in flavor at different rates when frozen, so it’s best to use those when fresh.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.kgun9.com/how-to-freeze-tomatoes-so-they-last-for-months | 2023-07-29T12:52:49 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/how-to-freeze-tomatoes-so-they-last-for-months |
ROME — Pope Francis will make a two-day trip to Marseille, France, in late September, adding to a flurry of trips the 86-year-old pontiff will soon be making only weeks after leaving hospital following abdominal surgery.
On his second day in Marseille, Francis will meet with the bishops and in late afternoon preside at Mass in the city’s soccer stadium.
Francis heads on Aug. 2 to Lisbon, Portugal, on a five-day trip centered around a Catholic youth jamboree. While in Portugal, he’ll make a helicopter trip to Fatima, site of a popular shrine to the Virgin Mary.
Then on Aug. 31, he is scheduled to fly to Mongolia for the first-ever visit by a pontiff to that Asian country, which has a tiny Catholic community.
Three trips in a span of two months will test how well Francis has rebounded from abdominal surgery in June to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring from previous surgeries. In 2021, Francis underwent in Rome surgery to receive a section of his bowel that had narrowed. Earlier this year, Francis was hospitalized to receive antibiotics intravenously to treat bronchitis.
His pilgrimage to Marseille begins in the afternoon on Sept. 22. Upon arrival at Marseille’s airport, Francis will be officially welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official Vatican schedule.
Francis and diocesan clergy will have a prayer service in the city’s Notre Dame de la Garde basilica. Early that evening, the pope will preside at what the Vatican calls a “moment of reflection with religious leaders” near a memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea.
During his papacy, Francis has repeatedly decried the loss of migrants’ lives in the Mediterranean while attempting to cross the sea in smugglers’ unseaworthy vessels launched from the shores of northern Africa.
On his final day in Marseille, the pope’s schedule begins at the archbishop’s residence with a private meeting with people struggling with economic problems. Before heading to the stadium for Mass, Francis will meet with Macron for talks, an exchange of gifts and an official photo opportunity, the Vatican said. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/29/pope-francis-marseille-france/64fa085c-2e05-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-29T12:52:53 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/29/pope-francis-marseille-france/64fa085c-2e05-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Durham Police Department is searching for two missing children: Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch.
Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch, 7, is approximately 4 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 41 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last in a pink/coral lace dress with white ruffle socks and black shoes with bows in the back with diamonds. Her hair is braided with clear beads.
Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch is 8 years old. She is approximately 4 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 105 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last wearing a layered floral dress mostly lavender with some pink and white with a shiny silver belt, and white sandals with braids across top. Her hair is also braided with clear beads
The missing girls are believed to be with: Garrett Hatch.
Hatch is described as a 34-year-old man, 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 230 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was seen wearing white pants, a black, white and pink block shirt, and black shoes. He has long dreads.
The missing girls were last seen at South Central Church of Christ, 2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., in Raleigh.
Anyone with information is asked to please call the Durham Police Department immediately at (919) 560-4440, or call 911 or* HP.
ABC11 is tracking crime and safety across Durham, Raleigh and in your neighborhood | https://abc11.com/amber-alert-missing-girls-makayla-grace-gnije-hatch-kaylee-amira/13568027/ | 2023-07-29T12:54:17 | 0 | https://abc11.com/amber-alert-missing-girls-makayla-grace-gnije-hatch-kaylee-amira/13568027/ |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:54:37 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
Cardinals vs. Cubs: Betting Trends, Odds, Records Against the Run Line, Home/Road Splits
Cody Bellinger and the Chicago Cubs take the field on Saturday at Busch Stadium against Adam Wainwright, who is starting for the St. Louis Cardinals. First pitch will be at 7:15 PM ET for the third game of a four-game series.
The Cubs are listed as +105 moneyline underdogs in this matchup with the favored Cardinals (-125). The contest's total is set at 9.5 runs.
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Cardinals vs. Cubs Odds & Info
- Date: Saturday, July 29, 2023
- Time: 7:15 PM ET
- TV: BSMW
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Venue: Busch Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
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Cardinals Recent Betting Performance
- The Cardinals have played as the favorite four times over their past 10 games and lost each of those contests.
- In their last 10 games with a total, the Cardinals and their opponents have combined to hit the over five times.
- Oddsmakers have not set a spread for any of the Cardinals' last 10 games.
Cardinals Betting Records & Stats
- The Cardinals are 22-30 in games they were listed as the moneyline favorite (winning 42.3% of those games).
- St. Louis has a 19-25 record (winning 43.2% of its games) when it has played as moneyline favorites of -125 or shorter.
- The Cardinals have a 55.6% chance to win this game based on the moneyline's implied probability.
- St. Louis has played in 102 games with a set over/under, and have combined with its opponents to go over the total 52 times (52-46-4).
- The Cardinals have collected a 1-7-0 record ATS this season.
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Cardinals Splits
Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/cardinals-vs-cubs-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ | 2023-07-29T12:54:43 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/cardinals-vs-cubs-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ |
The 2023 Formula 1 World Championship continues this weekend with round 13, the Belgian Grand Prix, which takes place at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit and will see the Saturday Sprint race return.
The Spa circuit is nestled within the beautiful Ardennes hills and features a long, unrelenting track that serves as a stern test for car and driver. The average speed approaches 145 mph, making it one of the fastest laps of the season, and drivers experience over 5 g in some of the turns, such as Turn 10, known as Pouhon. The cars also run at full throttle for almost 80% of the lap.
Stretching 4.35 miles, Spa has the longest track on the calendar, resulting in the race lasting only 44 laps—the lowest on the calendar. The track is so big that it’s not unusual to have varying weather conditions at different parts. For example, rain at one end and sunshine at the other. The current forecast calls for heavy rain throughout the weekend, which has already resulted in some calls for the race to possibly be canceled.
The first and third sectors at Spa feature long straights and flat-out sections, but the second sector is twisty. This makes it challenging to find the right balance and set-up compromise, particularly with the wing level.
The track surface is on the abrasive side, meaning tires get quite the workout. Pirelli has nominated its mid-range compounds: the C2 as the White hard, C3 as the Yellow medium, and C4 as the Red soft.
The Belgian round will mark 2023’s third running of the Saturday Sprint race, after the Azerbaijan and Austrian Grands Prix. This season, the Sprint race has been made a standalone event rather than the qualifier for the main race, as was previously the case. It still has championship points on the table for both drivers and teams, however.
The round is the last stop before the summer break and will see some teams run upgrades, including Mercedes-Benz AMG whose cars will feature a new design for the side pods.
Going into the weekend, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen leads the 2023 Drivers’ Championship with 281 points. Fellow Red Bull driver Perez is second with 171 points and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso is third with 139 points. In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull leads with 452 points, versus the 223 of Mercedes and 184 of Aston Martin in second and third places. Last year’s winner in Belgium was Verstappen, driving for Red Bull.
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- 2023 F1 standings: Verstappen grows title lead while McLaren shows resurgence | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/2023-f1-belgian-grand-prix-preview/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:15 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/2023-f1-belgian-grand-prix-preview/ |
Anyone looking to take delivery of Lamborghini’s Revuelto supercar better be prepared to wait (or pay hefty markups on the used market) as the car’s production run for the next two years is already allocated, the automaker announced this week.
Despite an upgrade to Lamborghini’s plant in Sant’Agata Bolognese to accommodate more automated processes, production of the Revuelto is still very much a hands-on affair, with plenty of traditional handcrafted skills retained, ensuring production will remain limited. According to Lamborghini, around 500 staff are dedicated to the car’s production.
The Revuelto was revealed in March as the successor to the Aventador. It’s Lamborghini’s first plug-in hybrid and is powered by a sophisticated setup combining a newly developed V-12 and three electric motors for a combined output of 1,000 hp.
The Revuelto isn’t just an Aventador with more power, though. It represents a ground-up redesign that in addition to electrification includes a new carbon-fiber tub, a new 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and that new V-12.
Lamborghini quotes performance numbers of 2.5 seconds in the 0-62 mph run and a top speed of 218 mph.
Lamborghini hasn’t announcing pricing for the Revuelto in the U.S., but in other markets the car is priced from 500,000 euros (approximately $548,700). Deliveries are scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Lamborghini’s Urus will be the automaker’s next plug-in hybrid. The SUV will go the electrified route starting in the first half of 2024. A plug-in hybrid successor to the Huracán will then arrive toward the end of 2024. Further out, Lamborghini plans to launch an electric vehicle in 2028. It was confirmed by the automaker in April as a 2+2 grand tourer.
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- “Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn” debuts Aug. 25—watch the trailer | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/lamborghini-revuelto-already-sold-out-for-next-2-years/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:22 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/lamborghini-revuelto-already-sold-out-for-next-2-years/ |
Mercedes-Benz has introduced an update to its mid-size van family to help keep the vehicles fresh until the arrival of successor models based on a dedicated electric vehicle platform later this decade.
The sole mid-size van Mercedes currently sells in the U.S. is the Metris. In other markets, the Metris is known as the Vito and is sold alongside a luxury version called the V-Class. The Vito and V-Class also come in electric form, known as the eVito and EQV respectively.
While the Vito has been updated, there are no plans to bring it to the U.S. as an updated Metris. The current Metris is still available to U.S. buyers but will be phased out later this year.
The updates to the mid-size van family include tweaks to the exterior styling highlighted by an enlarged grille and new light signatures for the headlights. There’s also a new dash design that adopts a single panel integrating both a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch infotainment screen in the plush V-Class and EQV. In the Vito and eVito commercial models, the dash sticks to analog gauges with a 5.5-inch screen in the center, plus a 10.3-inch infotainment screen. Buyers also have five new colors to choose from, along with various wheel patterns ranging from 17-19 inches in diameter.
Mercedes has also added new digital services and safety features, one of which is an updated Active Brake Assist feature that now functions in intersections. Active Brake Assist is a collision warning system that supports the driver by automatically adding extra braking pressure when necessary, and activating automatic emergency braking if the driver fails to apply the brakes.
No change has been made to the powertrains meaning buyers have a series of diesels to choose from, including 4- and 6-cylinder options, plus an electric powertrain in the eVito and EQV.
While the U.S. will soon lose the Metris, Mercedes in May said it will bring a luxury mid-size van to this market later this decade. It will be based on the new Van.EA platform. The dedicated EV platform will spawn its first model in 2026, though Mercedes hasn’t revealed the model’s identity.
Mercedes said it expects electric vans to account for 50% of its van sales by 2030.
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- 2024 Porsche Panamera spy shots and video | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/mercedes-updates-v-class-ahead-of-dedicated-ev-successors-arrival/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:29 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/mercedes-updates-v-class-ahead-of-dedicated-ev-successors-arrival/ |
Porsche earlier this week revealed more than just a first look at its lounge-like road-trip fast-charging stations, to be laid out along some top routes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Within details for these design-savvy charging oases there was a bigger technology reveal: Its EVs in the future, it hinted, may charge above 300 kw and perhaps closer to 400 kw.
That message came within how the automaker explained the charging hardware situated at these Porsche Charging Lounges. They’ll be “perfectly tailored to the requirements of Porsche drivers on long journeys,” the company explained. That means a current max charge power of 300 kw from the Alpitronic hardware at those stations, it explained, but it then stated: “By the start of next year, 400 kw per charging point should be possible.”
Since its launch, the Porsche Taycan has been capable of 800-volt DC fast-charging up to 270 kw—made more reproducible for 2022—offering a 5-80% charge in as little as 22.5 minutes.
The 2024 Porsche Macan Electric, which is due to go on sale in the first half of 2024 and built on the PPE platform jointly developed by Porsche and Audi, will inherit the Taycan’s 800-volt charging. But Porsche has suggested that PPE may be capable of a bit more.
While the Macan may stretch closer to 300 kw, it has to be another future vehicle that fast-charges at an even higher rate, taking advantage of those 400-kw connectors.
But the charger announcement may be teasing a product that’s yet to come and farther in the future. Will that be the Boxster-inspired electric sports car, which might include the 718 badge; a production version of the 900-volt Mission X concept the brand recently revealed; or another new EV from the sports-car brand? Or all of the above?
Porsche has said that by 2030 over 80% of the vehicles it delivers globally will be fully electric—although it’s suggested that the last gasoline model it will make will be the 911.
That said, a model that might take advantage of a 400-kw connector might top out higher than the Lucid Air, which reaches a max just over 300 kw, and the GMC Hummer EV with the largest dual-layer pack, which can at times pull the full power from a 350-kw connector.
Such a model tapping the potential of a 400-kw connector might not be coming until 2025 or 2026, but when it does, then Porsche looks prepared with the infrastructure.
The Taycan is already approaching its intended gas-station refueling times—if the infrastructure’s there. With some carefully planned charging stops, one crossed the U.S. last year at real-world highway speeds with just 2.5 hours of charging.
As for those lounges, Porsche aims to place them close to “busy routes with significant traffic flow,” make them open 24/7, barrier-free, and part of the Ionity network, and provide centralized billing and a very comfortable environment. If the images provided, showing woodgrain finishes, bright interiors, workout areas, and rooftop solar cells are any indication, it looks like a very pleasant environment compared to the edge of the Walmart parking lot or strip-mall access road.
Although Porsche has no plans to build these charging oases in the U.S. as of yet, fellow VW Group entity Electrify America offers 350-kw connectors at many of its 809 U.S. fast-charging locations. And the national fast-charging network set to be bankrolled by seven automakers, announced earlier this week, with 350-kw connectors as a baseline, will help support these even-faster-charging EVs.
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- 2018-2023 Nissan Leaf EV recalled for cruise-control acceleration flaw | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/porsche-hints-a-future-ev-may-utilize-400-kw-fast-charging/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:36 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/porsche-hints-a-future-ev-may-utilize-400-kw-fast-charging/ |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:44 | 0 | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
Tesla is ramping up efforts to open showrooms on tribal lands where it can sell directly to consumers, circumventing laws in states that bar vehicle manufacturers from also being retailers in favor of the dealership model.
Mohegan Sun, a casino and entertainment complex in Connecticut owned by the federally recognized Mohegan Tribe, announced this week that the California-based electric automaker will open a showroom with a sales and delivery center this fall on its sovereign property where the state’s law doesn’t apply.
The news comes after another new Tesla showroom was announced in June, set to open in 2025 on lands of the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York.
“I think it was a move that made complete sense,” said Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, which has lobbied for years to change Connecticut’s law.
“It is just surprising that it took this long, because Tesla had really tried, along with Lucid and Rivian,” she said, referring to two other electric carmakers. “Anything that puts more electric vehicles on the road is a good thing for the public.”
Brown noted that lawmakers with car dealerships that are active in their districts, no matter their political affiliation, have traditionally opposed bills allowing direct-to-consumer sales.
The Connecticut Automotive Retail Association, which has opposed such bills for years, says there needs to be a balance between respecting tribal sovereignty and “maintaining a level playing field” for all car dealerships in the state.
“We respect the Mohegan Tribe’s sovereignty and the unique circumstance in which they operate their businesses on Tribal land but we strongly believe that this does not change the discussion about Tesla and other EV manufacturers with direct-to-consumer sales, and we continue to oppose that model,” Hayden Reynolds, the association’s chairperson, said in a statement. “Connecticut’s dealer franchise laws benefit consumers and provide a competitive marketplace.”
Over the years in numerous states, Tesla has sought and been denied dealership licenses, pushed for law changes and challenged decisions in courts. The company scored a victory earlier this year when Delaware’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling upholding a decision by state officials to prohibit Tesla from selling its cars to directly customers.
At least 16 states have effectively changed their laws to allow Tesla and other direct-to-consumer manufacturers to sell there, said Jeff Aiosa, executive director of the Connecticut dealers association. He doesn’t foresee Connecticut changing its law, noting that 32 “original equipment manufacturers,” a list that includes major car companies like Toyota and Ford, currently abide by it.
“It’s not fair to have an unlevel playing field when all the other manufacturers abide by the state franchise laws and Tesla wants this exception to go around the law,” he said. “I would suggest their pivoting to the sovereign nation is representative of them not wanting to abide by the law.”
Tesla opened its first store as well as a repair shop on Native American land in 2021 in New Mexico. The facility, built in Nambé Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, marked the first time the company partnered with a tribe to get around state laws, though the idea had been in the works for years.
Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico, predicted at the time that states that are home to tribal nations and also have laws banning direct car sales by manufacturers would likely follow New Mexico’s lead.
“I don’t believe at all that this will be the last,” he said.
Tesla’s facility at Mohegan Sun, dubbed the Tesla Sales & Delivery Center, will be located at a shopping and dining pavilion within the sprawling casino complex. Customers will be able to test drive models around the resort. and gamblers will be able to use their loyalty rewards toward Tesla purchases.
Tesla also plans to exhibit its solar and storage products at the location. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-automaker-tesla-is-opening-more-showrooms-on-tribal-lands-to-avoid-state-laws-barring-direct-sales/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:50 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-automaker-tesla-is-opening-more-showrooms-on-tribal-lands-to-avoid-state-laws-barring-direct-sales/ |
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s banking sector could withstand a severe economic downturn without depleting their financial buffers against losses, the European Central Bank said Friday.
A survey of 98 large and medium-sized banks done by the ECB’s supervisory arm in conjunction with the European Banking Authority showed that even in the most adverse scenario — a fall of almost 10% in economic outpoint over three years — banks would still have enough capital to cover losses and then some.
The stress test was not a pass-fail exercise for banks in the 20 countries that use the euro currency. Rather, results for individual banks will be used by banking regulators in determining how much capital they need to hold in reserve.
Banks are crucial to the European economy because companies get most of their financing from them, instead of from financial markets — the opposite of the situation in the U.S.
The ECB took over supervision of the biggest banks after the eurozone debt crisis more than a decade ago, when bank losses led to heavy bailout costs for governments. National supervisors were perceived to have been less than vigilant on developing risks.
Scrutiny of bank finances has grown after the failure of three U.S. banks amid rising interest rates that led to losses on investments and mass withdrawal of deposits. The financial turmoil then hit Credit Suisse, a globally significant bank that had long-running problems, leading the Swiss government to engineer an emergency takeover by rival UBS to prevent further banking chaos.
Switzerland is not part of the European Union, where some of the safeguards instituted after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis were more widely applied. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-europes-banks-could-survive-a-drastic-economic-downturn-stress-test-shows/ | 2023-07-29T12:56:57 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-europes-banks-could-survive-a-drastic-economic-downturn-stress-test-shows/ |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:00 | 1 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
TOKYO (AP) — An official in charge of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant says the upcoming release of treated radioactive water into the sea more than 12 years after the reactors’ meltdown marks “a milestone,” but is still only an initial step in a daunting decades-long decommissioning process.
Junichi Matsumoto, the corporate officer in charge of treated water management for Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, also pledged to conduct careful sampling and analysis of the water to make sure its release is safely carried out in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency standards.
The water is being treated with what’s called an Advanced Liquid Processing System, which can reduce the amounts of more than 60 selected radionuclides to government-set releasable levels, except for tritium, which the government and TEPCO say is safe for humans if consumed in small amounts.
“The release of the ALPS-treated water into the sea is a major milestone for us, as well as for the decommissioning of the plant,” Matsumoto said in an interview with The Associated Press at TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo.
“In order to steadily advance decommissioning, the ever-growing amounts of water was a pressing issue that we could not put off, and we had a sense of crisis,” said Matsumoto, a nuclear engineering expert. “We still have to tackle far more challenging and higher-risk operations such as removal of melted debris and spent fuel” from the damaged reactors, he said.
Another task for TEPCO is combatting the damage to the reputation of Fukushima fisheries caused by the water release, he said.
A massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and contaminating their cooling water, which has since leaked continuously. The water is collected, filtered and stored in around 1,000 tanks, which will reach their capacity in early 2024.
Large amounts of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information about its status, but it remains largely unknown.
The government and TEPCO say the water must be removed to make room for the plant’s decommissioning, and to prevent accidental leaks from the tanks because much of the water is still contaminated and needs retreatment.
The release plan has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and diplomatic issue.
Matsumoto said the key to gaining understanding is to patiently explain the situation by providing scientific evidence.
“It is difficult, but we hope to make it as easy to understand as possible,” he said. “If we describe (the water release) in one word, it’s safe.”
“As the operator responsible for the accident, we must admit TEPCO is a company that is not fully trusted. We must keep up the effort and sincerely respond to any concern,” Matsumoto said. “It is our responsibility to demonstrate we can carry out the water release as planned, and that’s how we can regain public trust.”
The government said the release is set to start this summer but hasn’t set the date amid protests. TEPCO has obtained safety permits for all of the equipment needed for the release and is currently carrying out training so the water release team can begin work at any time, Matsumoto said.
“It’s not like just turning a faucet to run tap water,” he said.
Scientists generally agree that the environmental impact of the treated wastewater would be negligible, but some call for more attention to dozens of low-dose radionuclides that remain in it, saying data on their long-term effects on the environment and marine life are insufficient and the water requires close scrutiny.
The treated water will be diluted with massive amounts of seawater and will be released gradually over many years.
Matsumoto acknowledged that treated water that came in contact with the damaged nuclear fuel contains radionuclides such as uranium and plutonium that are not in water that is routinely released from healthy nuclear plants around the world.
He said the total concentration of radionuclides in the water meets government standards after treatment, and after dilution the wastewater will be fully safe and have a minimal environmental impact, according to the IAEA, which has provided assistance in evaluating the release plan.
Matsumoto said he has struggled to manage the massive amounts of contaminated water to keep it from escaping into the environment and safely stored at the plant since the accident.
There were instances in which plant workers had no other choice but to dump some into the sea or temporarily put it inside a basement or in temporary water tanks, Matsumoto recalled.
Now, after taking measures to minimize the seeping of rainwater and groundwater into the reactor buildings and establishing a stable water management system, the amount of contaminated water has come down to less than one-fifth of what it used to be, he said. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-fukushima-plant-official-says-the-coming-release-of-treated-water-a-milestone-for-decommissioning/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:05 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-fukushima-plant-official-says-the-coming-release-of-treated-water-a-milestone-for-decommissioning/ |
BEIJING, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of English education experts and scholars from all over the world assembled in Macao on Friday for a three-day event to explore new opportunities for global cooperation in English education brought by China's development.
The 2023 Global English Education China Assembly, an online-and-offline event that opened at the City University of Macau (CityU), attracted over 1,600 experts, front-line educators and scholars from more than 20 countries and regions. Participants were mainly from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Thailand, Russia, Singapore, Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
They shared their insights to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and discussed the most recent trends in English language teaching.
The event's theme is "New opportunities for the world with new advances in China's development: Opening up new prospects in English education cooperation worldwide", and features nine keynote speeches and 23 parallel sessions.
This year's assembly is hosted by China Daily and Shanghai International Studies University, and co-hosted by the Macao SAR Government Education and Youth Development Bureau, and organized by CityU and China Daily's 21st Century English Education Media.
For the first time, the assembly, which started in 2018, was held in Macao — one of the engine cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This location echoes the Outline Development Plan for the GBA released in 2019, which set out to, among other goals, build the region as a model area for high-quality education and promote opening up education to the world.
At the event's opening ceremony, Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, highlighted that 2023 marks the 10th year since President Xi Jinping put forward both the idea of "building a community with a shared future for mankind" and the Belt and Road Initiative.
It is, therefore, appropriate that for the first time, the conference this year has moved out of the Chinese mainland to Macao where East meets West and multiple cultures blend, Qu said.
He said he believes the event will catalyze many innovative outcomes. Qu further said that English education could be a bridge to promote high-quality development of the BRI and people-to-people cultural exchanges could provide momentum for "building a community with a shared future for mankind".
He urged the audience to cultivate talent in order to bolster the promotion of the three global initiatives brought forward by Xi — the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
Qu also said China attaches great importance to education and cultural exchange. Xi, in his several correspondences with foreign students studying in China, has encouraged the latter to see with their own eyes the development of China and tell the world about what they have seen, to boost people-to-people bonding and friendship between their countries and China.
Zha Mingjian, vice-president of Shanghai International Studies University, said development in recent times has brought many opportunities as well as challenges. In this context, the English education sector in China has the responsibility to serve as a vital bridge for English education globally.
Opening education more extensively to the outside world will significantly strengthen China's efforts to modernize education in the new era, Zha said.
Svetlana V. Sannikova, coordination council chairperson of the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia, said the Macao event offers a high-end international academic platform where teachers can learn many practical ideas and methods to improve their English teaching skills.
On Friday, the event's organizer and CityU jointly established the Belt and Road English Education Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Exchange Base, which will use English education as a means to promote cultural exchanges and people-to-people bonding in countries and regions participating in the BRI.
The GBA Exchange Base will also strive to promote high-quality development in the BRI landscape.
Liu Jun, rector of CityU and president of the International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and Zeng Qingkai, editor-in-chief of 21st Century English Education Media, were the signatories of the document for the establishment of the base.
Among the several dignitaries who graced Friday's opening ceremony were Ao Ieong U, secretary for social affairs and culture of the Macao SAR government, participating in the event on behalf of Macao SAR Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng; Yan Zhichan, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR; Liu Xianfa, commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Macao SAR; Kong Chimeng, director of the Macao SAR government Education and Youth Development Bureau; and Chan Meng-kam, chairman of the council of CityU.
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SOURCE China Daily | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:07 | 1 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/experts-foresee-china-role-english-learning/ |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A merger that would have created one of the largest health service companies in the Upper Midwest has been scrapped.
Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Sanford Health announced Thursday that they would not proceed with the merger they had been discussing since late last year. It would have created a system with more than 50 hospitals and about 78,000 employees.
This is the second time in a decade that the two companies considered a merger but failed to complete it, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The latest attempt drew fierce opposition at the University of Minnesota, which has a partnership with Fairview. The university sold its teaching hospital to Fairview in 1997 and opposed the idea of an out-of-state entity owning the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. The merged system would have been based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s largest city.
Statements from the two companies’ CEOs stated that without support from stakeholders, it was determined that the merger couldn’t move forward.
The companies first considered merging in 2013 but met with strong political opposition.
Minnesota lawmakers this spring gave the state attorney general additional power to scrutinize health care mergers, including the Sanford-Fairview proposal.
The affiliation between Fairview and the University of Minnesota includes financial support from Fairview for the school’s academic medicine mission. This agreement continues through 2026, but both parties have an option to signal by the end of this year if they want to end the partnership. Fairview has said the current agreements are not financially sustainable. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-merger-talks-end-between-large-health-care-systems-in-minnesota-south-dakota/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:12 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-merger-talks-end-between-large-health-care-systems-in-minnesota-south-dakota/ |
ODESSA, Ukraine, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ukrainian entrepreneur, Vadim Novynskyi has announced a donation of up to $1 million to help restore the Transfiguration Church in Odessa, Ukraine that was seriously damaged during rocket attacks on Sunday, July 23. The destruction of one of the most beautiful Ukrainian churches, which was erected by the founders of Odessa at the end of the 18th century is a true tragedy. This cathedral was the center of the spiritual life of Odessa.
This is not the first time the church has been destroyed. In 1936, the Bolsheviks destroyed the cathedral and it was restored in the early 2000's after tens of thousands of ordinary people participated in the restoration with their donations.
"I sincerely mourn with the inhabitants of Odessa and I want to assure them and all the people of Ukraine that this cathedral will be rebuilt and the people of Odessa will once again be able to worship and seek community in this hallowed place," said Vadim Novynskyi. "In the days of war and persecution of the Church, it is very important to be able to protect and revive the shrines of Orthodoxy, demonstrating faith, unity and mutual support. After all, the true Orthodox Church is based on these principles."
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SOURCE Vadym Novynskyi | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:20 | 1 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/restoration-transfiguration-chuch-odessa-ukraine-by-ukrainian-entrepreneur-vadym-novynskyi/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Procter & Gamble reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits and revenue, showing that the appetite for established brands like Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper is still strong even as the consumer products company pushes up prices.
P&G increased prices by about 7% across various brands from the same period last year, less than the 10% increase in third quarter. Global volume fell 1% in the quarter, however, still an improvement over a 3% drop in volume during the third quarter, and a 6% drop in the second quarter.
During a call with analysts Friday, Chairman and CEO Jon Moeller said higher prices are tied to company innovations and aren’t going away.
Examples include Cruiser 360 diapers, made for babies that move around a lot. Sales have increased 33% over the past 12 months, according to Andre Schulten, the company’s chief financial officer. And a detox body wash sold in China called Safeguard goes for twice the market average price. Sales have almost doubled in the past year.
“When you have a strong innovation program, it compels consumers to try even better performing products,” Moeller said.
During the fourth quarter prices for fabric care, as well as home and health care, went up 6% and grooming products rose 9%. Beauty items rose 8%.
Pricing has been a boost to sales growth in nearly all of P&G’s past 51 quarters, Moeller said.
The easing of volume declines may be encouraging news for P&G and other producers after recent evidence of a pushback by shoppers to seemingly relentless price hikes coming from a broad spectrum of retailers and companies the make products for them.
Conagra Brands, which makes Slim Jim beef jerky, Duncan Hines cake mix and more, said this month that smaller price increases have not translated to higher sales volume. The company raised prices 15% in the quarter before that and it didn’t dent demand.
Also this month, PepsiCo said higher prices lifted the company’s revenue in the second quarter but snack food volumes fell 3% in the April-June period, while beverage volumes dropped 1%. The company said that price increases could start to moderate in the second half of this year.
Overall inflation continues to slow and on Friday, the U.S. reported that the consumer price index, which is followed closely because it accounts for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps, rose in June at the slowest pace in more than two years.
Procter & Gamble Co., based in Cincinnati, reported net income of $3.39 billion, or $1.37 per share, in the quarter ended June 30. That compares with $3.06 billion, or $1.21 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Sales rose 5% to $20.6 billion from $19.51 billion in the quarter.
Analysts were expecting $1.32 per share on sales of $20.01 billion, according to FactSet.
P&G expects fiscal 2024 sales growth in the range of 3% to 4% versus the prior year. The company expects organic sales growth, which excludes deals and currency moves, to be in the range of 4% to 5%.
P&G expects net earnings per share growth in the range of 6% to 9% for the current year. This outlook equates to a range of $6.25 to $6.43 per share, with a mid-point estimate of $6.34, or an increase of 7.5%. Analysts were expecting $6.37 per share.
Shares rose more than 3% Friday.
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Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-pgs-better-than-expected-4q-results-show-consumers-appetite-for-iconic-brands-despite-price-hikes/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:19 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-pgs-better-than-expected-4q-results-show-consumers-appetite-for-iconic-brands-despite-price-hikes/ |
Twins vs. Royals: Betting Trends, Odds, Records Against the Run Line, Home/Road Splits
Edouard Julien and Maikel Garcia will look to continue their recent offensive production when the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals play at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, at 7:10 PM ET.
The Royals are listed as +140 moneyline underdogs for this matchup with the favored Twins (-165). The over/under is 10 runs for the matchup (with -105 odds to go over and -115 odds to go under).
Rep your team with officially licensed Twins gear! Head to Fanatics to find jerseys, shirts, and much more.
Twins vs. Royals Odds & Info
- Date: Saturday, July 29, 2023
- Time: 7:10 PM ET
- TV: BSKC
- Location: Kansas City, Missouri
- Venue: Kauffman Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Bet with King of Sportsbooks and use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers! Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Twins Recent Betting Performance
- The Twins have played as the favorite in seven of their past 10 games and won four of those contests.
- When it comes to hitting the over, the Twins and their opponents are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games with a total.
- Sportsbooks have not set a spread for any of the Twins' last 10 games. In three straight games, Minnesota and its opponent have topped the over/under, with the average total established by oddsmakers in that stretch being 8.7 runs.
Discover More About This Game
Twins Betting Records & Stats
- The Twins have won 61.2% of the games this season when they were favored on the moneyline (41-26).
- Minnesota has gone 14-10 (winning 58.3% of its games) when it has played as moneyline favorites of -165 or shorter.
- Based on this contest's moneyline, the Twins' implied win probability is 62.3%.
- Minnesota has combined with opponents to go over the total 50 times this season for a 50-49-6 record against the over/under.
- The Twins have a 4-7-0 record ATS this season (covering only 36.4% of the time).
Check out the latest odds and place your bets on and the with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Twins Splits
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/twins-vs-royals-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:22 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/twins-vs-royals-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The fate of U.S. trucking company Yellow Corp. isn’t looking good.
After years of financial struggles, Yellow is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy and seeing customers leave in large numbers — heightening risk for future liquidation. While no official decision has been announced by the company, the prospect of bankruptcy has renewed attention around Yellow’s ongoing negotiations with unionized workers, a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government and other bills the trucker has racked up over time.
Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has some 30,000 employees across the country.
Here’s what you need to know.
Not yet. But industry experts suspect that a bankruptcy filing could come any day now.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the company could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week — with some noting that a significant amount of customers have already started to leave the carrier.
Meanwhile, according to FreightWaves, employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet later reported, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”
According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. As of this week, he estimates that number is down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.
With customers leaving — as well reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups earlier this week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Jindel told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.
“The likelihood of them surviving and remaining solvent diminishes really by the day,” added Bruce Chan, a research director at investment banking firm Stifel.
Yellow media contacts did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’ requests for comment on Friday. In a Wednesday statement to The Journal, the company said it was continuing “to prepare for a range of contingencies.” On Thursday, Yellow said it was in talks with multiple parties about selling its third-party logistics organization.
Even if Yellow was able to sell its logistics firm, it would “not generate a sufficient amount of cash to keep them operational on any sort of permanent basis,” Chan said. “Without a major equity injection, it would be very difficult for them to survive.”
As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.
In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow’s “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.”
The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.
Yellow’s current finances and prospect of bankruptcy “is probably two decades in the making,” Chan said, pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s. “At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore.”
In May, Yellow reported a loss of $54.6 million, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.
A Wednesday investors note from financial service firm Stephens estimated that Yellow could be burning between $9 million and $10 million each day. Using a liquidity disclosure from earlier this month, Yellow had roughly $100 million in cash at the end of June, the note added — estimating that the company has been burning through increasing amounts of money through July.
“It is reasonable to believe that the Company could breach its $35 mil. liquidity requirement at any moment,” Stephens analyst Jack Atkins and associate Grant Smith wrote.
The reports of bankruptcy preparations arrive just days after a strike from the Teamsters, which represents Yellow’s 22,000 unionized workers, was averted.
A series of heated exchanges have built up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company’s survival. The Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” — with general president Sean O’Brien pointing to Yellow’s “decades of gross mismanagement,” which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan.
On Sunday, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, averting a strike — and giving Yellow “30 days to pay its bills,” notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15, the union said. While the strike didn’t occur, talks of a walkout may have caused some Yellow customers to pull back, Chan said.
Talks between Yellow and the Teamsters, which also represents UPS’s unionized workers, are ongoing. The current contract expires in March 2024.
“The financial struggles of Yellow are not related to the union and the contracts,” Jindel said, pointing to management’s responsibility around its services and prices. He added the union wages from Yellow are “lower than any competitor.”
If Yellow files for bankruptcy and customers continue to take their shipments to other carriers, like FedEx or ABF Freight, prices will go up.
Yellow’s prices have historically been the cheapest compared to other carriers, Jindel said. “That’s why they obviously were not making money,” he added. “And while there is capacity with the other LTL carriers to handle the diversions from Yellow, it will come at a high price for (current shippers and customers) of Yellow.”
Chan adds that we’re in an interesting time for the LTL marketplace — noting that, if Yellow declares bankruptcy and liquidates, “the freight would find a home” with other carriers, which may not have been true in recent years.
“It may take time, but there’s room for it to be absorbed,” he said. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:27 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two taxi drivers have been arrested in the Mexican city of Cancun for assaulting a van carrying foreign tourists, prosecutors said Friday.
The events in the Caribbean coast resort on Thursday were the latest in a months-long string of assaults on vehicles that medallion-cab drivers suspect of being operated by ride-hailing apps such as Uber.
Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said such behavior will not be tolerated.
“Strong action will be taken to ensure that the state is a safe destination for local inhabitants and visitors,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Local residents posted video on social media showing at least two uniformed cab drivers bashing a Chevy Suburban with poles and other objects.
The van driver attempts to escape with the vehicle’s tailgate open, according to the footage, and the tourists’ luggage spills into the street. Three women can later be seen retrieving their luggage from the street.
“What are you doing?” cries one woman in English as belligerent cabbies mill around the scene, carrying what looked like improvised cudgels. “That is not okay.”
A local business owner who filmed the incident invited the women to take refuge in her store. The video shows the taxi drivers chasing the driver of the Suburban down the street until he reached a police officer.
The state prosecutors’ office said two taxi drivers were charged with robbery, and causing damage and injuries.
Local media reported the Suburban was not run through a ride-hailing app but by a local, non-medallion limousine service. Past incidents of taxi drivers attacking private vehicles in Cancun were based on the mistaken assumption they were Uber cars.
Cancun residents organized a boycott of medallion taxis in January following a week of blockades and violent incidents by drivers protesting the ride-hailing app Uber.
Road blockades, stone throwing and cabbies physically getting in the way had prevented tourists from boarding Uber vehicles. The U.S. issued a travel advisory warning that “past disputes between these services and local taxi unions have occasionally turned violent, resulting in injuries to U.S. citizens in some instances.”
Ride-hailing app s were blocked in Cancun until January, when a court granted an injunction allowing Uber to operate. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-two-taxi-drivers-arrested-in-mexican-resort-of-cancun-for-assaulting-van-carrying-foreign-tourists/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:35 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-two-taxi-drivers-arrested-in-mexican-resort-of-cancun-for-assaulting-van-carrying-foreign-tourists/ |
Dangerous July heat will was still the main weather story in Alabama on Saturday, and heat advisories remain in effect for parts of the state.
The National Weather Service said the heat index, or “feels like” temperature, could reach as high as 108 degrees in parts of Alabama today -- and Sunday too.
Heat advisories will be in effect until Sunday night for most of north and central Alabama. South Alabama will be hot as well, but there are no heat advisories in effect for those areas.
Air temperatures are expected to climb into the mid- to upper 90s across much of Alabama both Saturday and Sunday. Those temperatures combined with the July humidity will make it feel much hotter, and it will be easier for heat-related illnesses to sneak up on you.
Saturday’s high temperature forecast is at the top of this post. Below is the forecast for Sunday:
Here is a look at the heat advisories in effect for Alabama this weekend:
NORTH ALABAMA
* Heat advisory from noon until 7 p.m. Saturday for Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Morgan and Cullman counties.
The National Weather Service said heat index values of up to 108 are expected.
CENTRAL ALABAMA
* Heat advisory until 9 p.m. Sunday for Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Winston, Walker, Blount, Etowah, Calhoun, Cherokee, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Sumter, Greene, Hale, Perry, Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Marengo, Dallas, Autauga, Lowndes, Elmore, Montgomery, Macon, Bullock, Pike and Barbour counties.
The National Weather Service said heat index values up to 108 are expected.
* Heat advisory from 11 a.m. Saturday until 9 p.m. Sunday for Cleburne, Clay, Randolph, Chambers, Lee and Russell counties.
Afternoon heat index values up to 106 will be possible in those areas.
More hot weather is in store for Alabama next week, but forecasters think humidity levels could be a touch lower on Monday and Tuesday for parts of Alabama.
The weather service will also be on the lookout to the northwest for clusters of storms, or mesoscale convective systems, in case they can hold together long enough to make it into the state. | https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/it-could-feel-like-108-degrees-this-weekend-in-alabama.html | 2023-07-29T12:57:42 | 0 | https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/it-could-feel-like-108-degrees-this-weekend-in-alabama.html |
Historic Gulfport bakery preps fan-fave brownies for city’s anniversary
GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - As Gulfport prepares to celebrate its 125th anniversary Saturday, city leaders are buying up one historic bakery’s beloved brownies for the occasion.
It was a busy Friday at Quality Bakery, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for owner Danielle White.
“I’m usually on a wing and a prayer,” she said.
Her recipe for success is hard work, contagious laughter and a family legacy well worth keeping alive.
“I don’t get to wake up in the morning and say, ‘I don’t want to go’. We just do it,” White said. “And I think that goes along with how I was raised.”
Her great-grandparents opened Quality Bakery 74 years ago.
Four generations later, White is not only maintaining the business, but it’s still booming.
“They know when I walk in where I’m from because I come here that much,” customer Jeanne Lenes said.
She traveled with her mother from Austin, Texas Friday just for White’s brownies.
“My mom, she used to come here when she was a little girl to get brownies and cookies, and we were just talking about that yesterday because we were like, ‘I need to come get my brownies’,” Lenes said. “They are thriving because of not only who they are but what they serve. It’s good.”
From birthday and wedding cakes to Thanksgiving and Christmas desserts and everything in between, it’s also the community connection that White loves.
“We have been a part of family gatherings for generations, and I think that is an extremely special, special thing,” she said.
For the first time in history, Quality Bakery is expanding into a new city. White is soon opening a new location in Wiggins.
However, the favored shop in Downtown Gulfport is not uprooting.
“This building is Quality Bakery through and through, and we will just never leave Gulfport, not at all,” White said.
Click here to subscribe to WLOX News on YouTube: Keep up with South Mississippi news, sports, and local events on our YouTube channel!
Copyright 2023 WLOX. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/28/historic-gulfport-bakery-preps-fan-fave-brownies-citys-anniversary/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:42 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/28/historic-gulfport-bakery-preps-fan-fave-brownies-citys-anniversary/ |
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government wants to raise the fuel economy of new vehicles 18% by the 2032 model year so the fleet would average about 43.5 miles per gallon in real world driving.
The proposed numbers were released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which eventually will adopt final mileage requirements.
Currently the fleet of new vehicles must average 36.75 mpg by 2026 under corporate average fuel economy standards adopted by the administration of President Joe Biden, who reversed a rollback made by former President Donald Trump.
The highway safety agency says it will try to line up its regulations so they match the Environmental Protection Agency’s reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But if there are discrepancies, automakers likely will have to follow the most stringent regulation.
In the byzantine world of government regulation, both agencies essentially are responsible for setting fuel economy requirements since the fastest way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to burn less gasoline.
“I want to make clear that EPA and NHTSA will coordinate to optimize the effectiveness of both agency standards while minimizing compliance costs,” NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson said.
A large auto industry trade group which includes General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and others said requirements from the agencies should be lined up. “If an automaker complies with EPA’s yet-to-be-finalized greenhouse gas emissions rules, they shouldn’t be at risk of violating CAFE rules (from NHTSA) and subject to civil penalties,” John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement.
However the alliance has said the EPA’s proposed cut in carbon emissions will require a huge increase in electric vehicle sales that’s not attainable by 2032. The EPA says the industry can reach the greenhouse gas emissions goals if 67% of new vehicles sold in 2032 are electric. Currently, EVs make up about 7% of new vehicle sales.
NHTSA said its proposal includes a 2% annual improvement in fuel mileage for passenger cars, and a 4% increase for light trucks. It’s proposing a 10% improvement per year for commercial pickup trucks and work vans. Automakers can meet the requirements with a mix of electric vehicles, gas-electric hybrids and efficiency improvements in gas and diesel vehicles.
The agency says the new regulations will save more than $50 billion on fuel over the vehicles’ lifetimes and save more than 88 billion gallons of gasoline through 2050 if NHTSA’s preferred alternative is adopted. The standards would cut new-vehicle fuel consumption nearly in half by the 2035 model year, and benefits will exceed costs by $18 billion, the agency said.
NHTSA will take comments from the public for 60 days before drafting a final regulation. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:42 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ |
Two arrested, one suspect at large following drive-by shooting in Gulfport
GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Bruce Ellis Lowery, 18, and one 16-year-old are under arrest and charged with three counts of aggravated assault each following a drive-by shooting Monday afternoon.
According to a press release sent out by Gulfport PD, officers were first dispatched to the scene in the 100 block of Faust Drive at around 4:45 p.m. Investigators found that Lowery and the 16-year-old had fired a gun multiple times, striking a nearby house. The pair fled the scene before officers arrived.
Both were sent to the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, where they are being held in lieu of $750,000 bonds.
During the course of the investigation, 17-year-old Alphonso Jerome Elzy Jr. was also developed as a suspect in the drive-by. Elzy is described as a black male around 5′8″ weighing 150 lbs. with brown eyes and black hair. He currently has an active felony warrant through Gulfport PD and is considered armed and dangerous.
Those with information regarding this incident or on the whereabouts of Elzy are urged to contact Gulfport PD at 228-868-5959 or Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
Click here to subscribe to WLOX News on YouTube: Keep up with South Mississippi news, sports, and local events on our YouTube channel!
Copyright 2023 WLOX. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/28/two-arrested-one-suspect-large-following-drive-by-shooting-gulfport/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:49 | 1 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/28/two-arrested-one-suspect-large-following-drive-by-shooting-gulfport/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two weeks into the the actors strike, Max Greenfield is urging the studios and their CEOs to return to the bargaining table.
“Be the heroes, come to the table, make a deal,” said Greenfield, who co-stars in the CBS sitcom “The Neighborhood.” “My hope is these guys get organized and have a real conversation with both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA so that we can get to a resolution,” he said, referencing the unions for the writers and actors, respectively.
Greenfield spoke at a charity ping pong event at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, joined by his co-star Cedric the Entertainer.
“We struck because our deal was up and it’s time to adjust to what has changed in the business. To make a minor adjustment feels disproportionate to what has obviously changed in a massive, massive way,” Greenfield said. “Until we feel like we’re getting fair compensation and we feel like we’re protected, this is going to continue to go on.”
Bryan Cranston, who had fiery words for Disney CEO Bob Iger at a New York rally on Tuesday, acknowledged things are “going very, very slowly.”
“Until we’re able to get back to the table, which we are more than willing to do and we’ve told them so, we want to keep talking through this strike,” he said. “We want to end this as soon as possible.”
On July 14, actors joined striking screenwriters who walked out in May. The stoppage has shuttered nearly all film and television production.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America are striking for fair pay and protections involving the use of artificial intelligence, among other issues.
There has reportedly been no negotiating between the unions and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers since shortly after the actors hit the picket lines.
“I think when people realize that the artists are the people that are making this and nothing is going to get made without the actors and the writers, maybe that will force a little more flexibility in the negotiations,” Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck said.
Actor and entrepreneur Danny Trejo urged the studios to look beyond Hollywood’s highest-paid actors and consider the financial plight of those working behind the scenes.
“One of the problems is people on top are making a lot of money right now and they don’t want to share,” he said. “We’ve got people that are in SAG that can’t even afford to live in LA. It’s like, wait a minute guys, we got to just be fair.
“Figure if one of your kids was trying to get into the movies and was working as an extra or just made it into SAG, they couldn’t live in LA,” Trejo said, imagining the offspring of a Hollywood CEO. “Oh no wait, yes they could. They could live in Beverly (expletive) Hills with you, punk.”
Trejo filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy earlier this year and owes over $2 million in back taxes to the IRS, according to a report by KABC-TV.
“I make good money, but right now I’m buried in taxes, so I have to work that out,” he said. “This strike is killing me. I can’t pay what I’m supposed to be paying for my taxes, so man, imagine the guy that’s making $18 an hour and not working all the time.”
Actor Holly Robinson-Peete, a SAG member since 1977, said it’s important for the actors’ union to communicate the economic issues behind the strike.
“We’re not just a bunch of spoiled people that want more and we’re greedy,” she said. “The majority of our union are people who are not working very often, can’t really make a living at this. It’s going to take an incredible amount of patience and messaging, and we just got to stick to it.” | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-actor-max-greenfield-urges-studio-ceos-to-be-the-heroes-and-make-a-deal-in-hollywood-strikes/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:49 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-actor-max-greenfield-urges-studio-ceos-to-be-the-heroes-and-make-a-deal-in-hollywood-strikes/ |
5 charged in connection to drive-by shooting in Hickory
HICKORY, Miss. (WTOK) - Five people have been charged in connection to a drive-by shooting in Hickory last week.
According to Hickory Police Chief Pete Pierman, the shooting happened last Saturday, July 22 at a home in the 400 block of Emanuel Street.
The home and a vehicle outside were hit with gunfire. Pierman says no-one was injured.
The men charged connection to this shooting are Dartavious Moseley, Joshual Barlow, Chance Culpepper, Damian Martin and Mylan McDonald.
Barlow was out on bond for capital murder charges.
Moseley’s bond has been set at $250, 000. The other’s bonds will be set Saturday, July 29.
Pierman says this is an ongoing investigation. Hickory Police Department is leading the investigation with help from the Newton County Sheriff’s Department.
Copyright 2023 WTOK. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/29/5-charged-connection-drive-by-shooting-hickory/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:55 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/29/5-charged-connection-drive-by-shooting-hickory/ |
DALLAS (AP) — The combat boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore while playing the wisecracking surgeon Hawkeye on the beloved television series “M-A-S-H” sold at auction Friday for $125,000.
Alda held onto the boots and dog tags for more than 40 years after the show ended but decided to sell them through Heritage Auctions in Dallas to raise money for his center dedicated to helping scientists and doctors communicate better.
The buyer’s name wasn’t released.
Alda, 87, said he wore the boots and dog tags for the 11-season run of the show about a Korean War medical unit. His character, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, was a talented surgeon who helped ease the stress of working in a war zone with quips and practical jokes. The show’s final episode, which aired in 1983 and was written and directed by Alda, was the most watched TV show in U.S. history.
The boots and dog tags, given to him by the costume department, “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show,” said Alda, who won five Emmys for his work on the sitcom.
Alda said auctioning off the dog tags and boots now made sense. “I saw this as a chance to put them to work again,” he said.
The money raised from the auction will go to the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York, which aims to help scientists and doctors communicate better through the use of improvisational exercises and other strategies.
_____
Associated Press writer Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction-for-125000-that-will-go-to-charity/ | 2023-07-29T12:57:57 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction-for-125000-that-will-go-to-charity/ |
Neshoba County Fair closes out 134th year
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (WTOK) - The Neshoba County Fair came to a close Friday after 7 days of family fun. What’s known as Mississippi’s Giant House Party is checking off another successful year in Philadelphia.
There was horse racing, live music, a huge turnout for political speaking, and even a new edition of cornhole.
News 11 spoke with fair manager Kevin Cheatham who said this was one of the most attended fairs in its history. He said there was an increase of 5,000 visitors compared to previous years.
Cheatham along with other fairgoers share what this week has meant to them.
“A combination of the horse races today. With the Jim Dance Memorial Race, and Morris Therrel Race, so horse racing has been an outstanding venue for us. The carnival has been great for us this year as well. All the entertainers at night. We’ve had high praise for our entertainers at night. So overall just a great fair,” said Cheatham.
“One of my favorite parts about the fair is probably hanging out with friends and family at the cabin and just seeing new faces and old faces that I’ve seen before,” said Fair Attendee, Savannah Peters/
“I really like the band and float bombing everybody and hanging out with my friends,” said Fair Attendee, Thomas Luke.
Cheatham said the goal is to provide a safe family and friendly atmosphere every year.
Copyright 2023 WTOK. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/29/neshoba-county-fair-closes-out-134th-year/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:01 | 1 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/29/neshoba-county-fair-closes-out-134th-year/ |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A judge in Florida on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Gov. Ron DeSantis appointees against Disney’s efforts to neutralize the governor’s takeover of Disney World’s governing district.
The judge in state court in Orlando denied Disney’s motion in the lawsuit that says the company wrongly stripped appointees of powers over design and construction at Disney World when it made agreements with predecessors, who were supporters.
The case is one of two lawsuits stemming from the takeover, which was retaliation for the company’s public opposition to the so-called Don’t Say Gay legislation championed by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers. In the other lawsuit, in federal court in Tallahassee, Disney says DeSantis violated the company’s free speech rights.
The governor has touted his yearlong feud with Disney in his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, often accusing the entertainment giant of being too “woke.” Disney has accused the governor of violating its First Amendment rights.
Attorneys for Disney had argued that any decision in state court would be moot since the Republican-controlled Legislature already has passed a law voiding agreements that the company made with a prior governing board made up of Disney supporters that gave design and construction powers to the company.
The entertainment giant had asked that the state court case be put on hold if it’s not dismissed until the federal lawsuit in Tallahassee was resolved since they covered the same ground and that lawsuit was filed first.
In that case, Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in an effort to stop the takeover, saying the governor was violating the company’s free speech and “weaponizing the power of government to punish private business.”
DeSantis wasn’t a party in the state court lawsuit.
The fight between DeSantis and Disney began last year after the company, facing significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Florida lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. But before the new board came in, the company made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and construction.
In response, DeSantis and Florida lawmakers passed the legislation that repealed those agreements.
Disney announced in May that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development. Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the giant Walt Disney World theme park resort.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-judge-refuses-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-disneys-efforts-to-neutralize-governing-district-takeover/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:04 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-judge-refuses-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-disneys-efforts-to-neutralize-governing-district-takeover/ |
The 75th Emmy Awards are the latest production to be put on pause due to the Hollywood strikes and will not air as planned in September.
A person familiar with the postponement plans but not authorized to speak publicly pending an official announcement confirmed the delay Friday. No information about a new date was immediately available.
The Emmy Awards were scheduled to be broadcast on Fox on Sept. 18. Rules laid out by the actors’ union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, say stars cannot campaign for the Emmys or attend awards shows while on strike.
Writers are also not permitted to work on awards shows until the strike ends.
Whenever the next Emmy Awards are held, HBO will walk in as the leading contender. The network is up for 74 awards for three of its top shows: “ Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us.”
“Ted Lasso” has the most comedy category nominations with 21, including best comedy series and best actor for Jason Sudeikis.
Roughly 65,000 SAG-AFTRA actors and 11,500 Writers Guild of America screenwriters are on strike, calling for better pay, structure with residual payments and protection from the use of artificial intelligence. | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:11 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ |
(CNN) — Jadarrius Rose, the unarmed Black man who was attacked by a police dog in Ohio on July 4, described being “terrified” and fearing for his life during the assault in an interview with CNN.
Rose, 23, was driving a commercial semi-truck when he failed to pull over for an inspector trying to stop him for a missing mud flap, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol case report and footage released by the agency.
When Rose kept driving, the inspector called for backup. Then, video released by authorities shows police pursuing Rose, who does eventually pull over but does not exit the truck.
Rose told CNN that he first called his mother from the truck. “She told me if I know I didn’t do anything wrong, to pull over, so that’s what I did,” he said. Looking in his rearview mirror, he saw responding police officers “had guns pointed at me, so I didn’t feel safe at all.”
He then called 911 to ask what he should do. “I was just trying to figure out if they could help me,” he said. “I was scared, i didn’t understand why they had guns pointed at me, I didn’t know the reason for them pulling me over at the time.”
Rose, still on the phone with 911, said he drove back on the highway, continuing what became a three-county pursuit.
Rose said the 911 operator instructed him to follow officers’ directions, so he ultimately pulled over and exited the truck with his hands up. He said that while a state trooper instructed him to walk toward him, a police officer from the Circleview Police Department told him to “stay on the ground or you’ll get bit” – conflicting instructions that left him unsure what to do.
“I just stopped in the middle, because I didn’t know what was gonna happen,” he said. “I was afraid that something would happen, and it did happen.”
Despite repeated warnings from a state trooper to not release the K-9, former officer Ryan Speakman turned the dog on Rose. It’s not clear if Speakman heard the trooper’s warnings.
Video shows that at the moment of the dog attack, Rose was on his knees.
Speakman was fired by the Circleville Police Department after a review of the incident.
“When the dog was biting me I just was terrified,” Rose said. “I thought I was going to lose my life. I was in pain. I really couldn’t see what the other officers was doing because the dog was biting me and I was just in fear of my life. And I just was screaming in pain, and I just didn’t want to die. Like, I didn’t want to die in the hands of police.”
Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who has previously represented Randy Cox, Ajike Owens, and the family of George Floyd, is representing Rose.
Describing the video showing the dog attack Rose, Crump said, “He’s trying to do whatever he can do to survive the stop. That’s what Black people want to do when they interact with police, just survive.”
“He’s putting his hands up, he’s trying to do everything they said, he’s trying to do everything they tell him to do, putting your hands up is the universal sign of surrender, but yet that officer still orders the dog to attack him.”
Crump and Nana Watson, president of the Columbus branch of the NAACP, both reflected on the optics of a dog being unleashed on a Black man.
“This harkens back to the 1960s when unarmed Black people, who are not a threat at all, to the police, are still attacked by police dogs,” said Crump. “It’s disturbing that this officer did that in light of all the cameras that he knew was out there.”
A police review board is investigating the incident. Its findings are expected to be released next week, the mayor and police chief said.
‘What if I’m next?’
For Rose’s mother Carla Jones, his frantic phone call immediately summoned images of other Black people who have been the victims of police violence.
“I was nervous out of my mind,” she told CNN. “I was scared that he was gonna be killed.”
“I thought about Tyre Nichols,” she said, referencing the Black driver who died after being beaten by Memphis police in January. Crump is also representing Nichols’ family.
“I was like, I don’t wanna lose my son,” Jones said. “I thought about that incident. What if I’m next?”
Crump also pointed out the parallels between Rose’s case and Nichols’. Rose is originally from Memphis, he said.
“It’s the fear of most Black people in America, that when the police pull them over, that it’s possible that they could be the next hashtag,” said the attorney. “And the fact that they live in Memphis, Tennessee, where Tyre Nichols, an unarmed black motorist was completely compliant, but yet he got brutalized to the point of where he lost his life.”
Crump said the Rose family is exploring legal remedies, including suing the Circleville Police Department.
The Circleville PD fired Speakman 22 days after the July 4 incident, following a Use of Force Review Board investigation.
Chief Shawn Baer said in a statement that Speakman’s actions “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers.”
In the same statement, the department said it’s “policy for the use of canines was followed in the apprehension and arrest.”
Rose was treated for dog bites at a hospital and didn’t need stitches, he told CNN. He’s seeing a psychologist to help process that day.
He has been charged with failure to comply, a felony. The family hopes the charge will be dropped. Rose was also terminated by Western Express, the trucking company, on the day of his arrest, according to Crump.
“Jadarrius Rose represents many young Black men in America,” the lawyer said. “Trying to do the right thing, trying to be gainfully employed, trying to just mind his business, but yet, why would they pull those many guns on him over a missing mud flap?”
Jones said that above all else, she is “grateful” that her son survived.
“So thankful that my son is still living because he could have went another way – he could have been another tale,” she said.
“So I’m thankful and I’m just grateful to God, that God kept him.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/i-thought-i-was-going-to-lose-my-life-jadarrius-rose-describes-being-attacked-by/article_0a923bf4-d48f-56b1-ab15-ed4c1b2de571.html | 2023-07-29T12:58:18 | 0 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/i-thought-i-was-going-to-lose-my-life-jadarrius-rose-describes-being-attacked-by/article_0a923bf4-d48f-56b1-ab15-ed4c1b2de571.html |
NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Travis Scott has released “Utopia,” his first album in five years and his first major release since 10 people died at his 2021 Astroworld music festival.
The star-studded 19-track “Utopia” features Beyoncé, SZA, Drake, Sampha, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Future, Bon Iver, James Blake, Kid Cudi, 21 Savage, and many more.
The LP, Scott’s fourth full-length, was originally announced back in 2020 and follows 2018’s “Astroworld.” In November 2019, 10 people died as a result of compression asphyxia during a massive crowd surge during Scott’s Astroworld festival. A grand jury declined to file charges against Scott earlier this year.
Also Friday, Houston police released files that showed that some workers were concerned about the crowd conditions at the show. The 1,300-page report also included a summary of an interview with Scott in which he said he did not hear calls from the crowd to stop the show.
The first track from the album, the popetón -adjacent “K-pop”, was released on July 21 and features the Weeknd and Bad Bunny. The release spans genres — an eclectic mix of autotune ambient ballads (“My Eyes”), ferocious bars (“Looove”), futuristic trap (“Lost Forever,” Telekinesis”), and beyond.
In addition to the album, Scott hosted a one-night-only release of his feature film, “Circus Maximus” at select theaters on Thursday night.
“Utopia” was originally scheduled to be celebrated with a livestreamed concert at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, but was canceled due to “complex production issues,” Live Nation said in a statement. | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-travis-scott-drops-utopia-his-first-album-since-the-astroworld-festival-tragedy/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:18 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-travis-scott-drops-utopia-his-first-album-since-the-astroworld-festival-tragedy/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are demanding the release of a transcript from a new FBI witness that they say contradicts Republicans’ claims in the expanding congressional inquiry into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on House Oversight Committee, sent a letter Friday to Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, asking him to produce the transcribed interview this month with an FBI agent who worked on the investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings. The witness was interviewed on July 17.
“This failure to release a transcript is the latest in your troubling pattern of concealing key evidence in order to advance a false and distorted narrative about your ‘investigation of Joe Biden’ that has not only failed to develop any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden but has, in fact, uncovered substantial evidence to the contrary,” Raskin wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The Maryland lawmaker claimed the closed-door interview with the unidentified agent conducted by committee staff “directly undermined” testimony released by Republicans last month from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department interfered with their yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden.
Republicans said the transcript will be released but is not yet ready. “The transcript is going through the normal review process where the witness reviews it and makes any corrections needed,” the GOP majority tweeted Thursday night. “Once that process has been completed, we will release it.”
House rules allow only the majority party to release transcribed interviews from a committee investigation, meaning minority Democrats have no direct power over the matter.
Raskin says in the letter that it is unusual for the release of a transcript to take this long. However, it is not unusual for committee staff to handle whistleblowers cautiously and keep sensitive information tightly held.
The letter from Raskin comes days after Hunter Biden’s plea deal in a criminal case unraveled during a court hearing. A federal judge in the case raised concerns about the terms of the agreement. Republicans like Comer claimed vindication, having slammed the agreement as a “sweetheart deal.”
“The judge did the obvious thing, they put a pause on the plea deal, so I think that was progress,” Comer said Wednesday. “I think it adds credibility to what we’re doing.”
The president’s youngest son was charged last month with two misdemeanor crimes of failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes on over $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018. He had been expected to plead guilty Wednesday after he made an agreement with prosecutors, who wanted two years of probation.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Hunter Biden remains under active investigation, but would not reveal details. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-democrats-claim-the-gop-is-withholding-evidence-contradicting-claims-in-hunter-biden-probe/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:25 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-democrats-claim-the-gop-is-withholding-evidence-contradicting-claims-in-hunter-biden-probe/ |
A program in Oklahoma uses art to re-integrate women recently released from prison By Elizabeth Caldwell Published July 29, 2023 at 8:00 AM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Women who are soon to be released from prison in Oklahoma get help with the transition by focusing on the arts. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/a-program-in-oklahoma-uses-art-to-re-integrate-women-recently-released-from-prison | 2023-07-29T12:58:27 | 1 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/a-program-in-oklahoma-uses-art-to-re-integrate-women-recently-released-from-prison |
Cherry Whiskey Fest
TRAVERSE CITY — The annual Cherry Whiskey Fest goes from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Traverse City Whiskey Co. Tickets are $23 at cherrywhiskeyfest.com.
Back-to-school event
BENZONIA — A back-to-school event goes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday at Benzonia Congregational Church.
Vision to Learn offers free eye exams, the Department of Health and Human Services provides school supplies and Benzie Area Christian Neighbors donates underwear and sweatshirts. The Father Fred Foundation provides free shoes. Registration: 231-947-2055.
Entertainment series
MANISTEE — Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts is continuing its “Talks, Tunes & Tours” series at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Ramsdell Theatre.
Elana Warsen presents “Vermicomposting” about using worms in gardening.
The free series also includes Dyllan Walker’s talk “Everyday Outdoor Recreation” Aug. 8 and Peg Connor’s travel tips Aug. 15.
Tasting events
LAKE LEELANAU — Peninsula Provisions is offering a wine and food tasting from 2-5 p.m. Wednesday. Admission is $15.
A free wine tasting goes from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 5.
Guitarist performs
KALEVA — Guitarist and songwriter Luke Winslow-King is performing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Northern Natural Cider House.
Cost is $20 at MyNorthTickets.com. Contact: 231-889-0064.
Polish festival set
BOYNE FALLS — The annual Boyne Falls Polish Festival is Thursday through Aug. 6.
Thursday includes live music, bingo and a car show. Friday events are the Youth Parade, bingo, polka music and Bump-N-Run. Saturday features the Grand Royale Parade, bingo, music and a cornhole tournament. The festival ends Sunday with Mass, bingo, music and the 4-Wheel Drive Mud Run.
Beverage tent fundraiser
ELK RAPIDS — Amvets Post 114 is hosting the annual beverage tent Aug. 3-4 during Elk Rapids Harbor Days.
The tent opens at 6 p.m. Thursday and includes live music and a food truck.
Admission is $20 through Eventbrite.com or at the door. All proceeds go to Amvets Post 114 and the Amvets Veterans in Crisis Fund.
Weekly live music
SUTTONS BAY — Shady Lane Cellars will continue its free Friday Night Live series from 5:30-8:30 p.m. each week.
The Andrew Lutes Duo performs Aug. 4. Other shows: Eliza Thorp on Aug. 11, Elizabeth Landry on Aug. 18 and Kevin Johnson on Aug. 25.
Fundraiser race
ALPENA — Northland Area Federal Credit Union announces the inaugural Reel Fun Northland Challenge Aug. 5 at Duck Park.
The Single Kayak Sprint Race begins at 9 a.m. Aug. 5 on Thunder Bay River. Carnival games, live music, food trucks and lumberjack shows are available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Kayak entry is $25. Puppy race entry is $10. Proceeds go to Thunder Bay River Center, Friends Together and Alpena Animal Control. To register or with questions, contact reelfunnorthlandchallenge@gmail.com.
Paella on the Patio
SUTTONS BAY — Paella on the Patio goes from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 5 at Shady Lane Cellars.
Sav Buist, from The Accidentals, performs. Come at 5 p.m. for a cooking demonstration.
General admission is $10 and paella is $20. Purchase at https://www.exploretock.com/shadylanecellars.
Simply Give campaign
TRAVERSE CITY — Northwest Food Coalition’s member pantries benefit from the Simply Give program at Meijer stores in Acme and Traverse City through Sept. 30.
Customers can purchase a $10 Simply Give donation card in stores or add cards to their online orders. Also, Meijer plans to double match any cards purchased on Aug. 12. Each donation card is converted into a food-only gift card for area pantries. | https://www.record-eagle.com/news/food/food-in-brief-07-29-2023/article_dd79079a-2a24-11ee-92ef-73e04878fae7.html | 2023-07-29T12:58:27 | 0 | https://www.record-eagle.com/news/food/food-in-brief-07-29-2023/article_dd79079a-2a24-11ee-92ef-73e04878fae7.html |
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with a resident of Odesa, Ukraine about what the last several days — and nights — have been like, under repeated attack from Russian missiles and drones.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with a resident of Odesa, Ukraine about what the last several days — and nights — have been like, under repeated attack from Russian missiles and drones.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/a-resident-of-odesa-ukraine-describes-life-amid-russian-missile-and-drone-strikes | 2023-07-29T12:58:33 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/a-resident-of-odesa-ukraine-describes-life-amid-russian-missile-and-drone-strikes |
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court Friday to reverse a federal judge’s decision to keep his hush-money criminal case in a New York state court that the former president claims is “very unfair” to him.
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last week rejected his bid to move the case to federal court, where his lawyers were primed to argue he was immune from prosecution.
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, but Hellerstein ruled that the hush-money case involved a personal matter, not presidential duties.
Trump’s appeal notice came at the end of another busy week of legal action for the twice-indicted Republican as he seeks a return to the White House in next year’s election. On Thursday, he was indicted on new criminal charges in a separate case in federal court in Florida involving allegations that he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the hush-money case and fought to keep it in state court, declined to comment on Trump’s appeal.
Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 in state court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements made to his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen for his role in paying $130,000 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Cohen also arranged for the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair, which the supermarket tabloid then squelched in a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Trump denied having sexual encounters with either woman. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
He is scheduled to stand trial in state court on March 25, 2024. In the meantime, his lawyers have asked the state court judge presiding over the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, to step aside, arguing that he’s biased in part because his daughter does political consulting work for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals. Trump has referred to Merchan as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters.” The judge has yet to rule on the request.
In seeking to try the hush-money case tried in federal court, Trump’s lawyers have argued that some of his alleged conduct amounted to official presidential duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president, including checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.
Moving the case from state court to federal court would have significant legal and practical consequences for Trump. In federal court, for example, his lawyers could then try to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that federal officials have immunity from prosecution over actions taken as part of their official job duties.
A shift to federal court would also mean a more politically diverse jury pool — drawing not only from heavily Democratic Manhattan, where Trump is wildly unpopular, but also from suburban counties north of the city where he has more political support. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:32 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/ |
Gene X Hwang knew his days on Twitter as @x were numbered.
"Elon had been kind of tweeting about X previously," Hwang said. "So I kind of knew, you know, I had an inkling that this was going to happen. I didn't really know when."
Since 2007, Hwang's username on the site was @x — but after Elon Musk renamed the social media platform to X earlier this week, it was only a matter of time before the company commandeered the handle.
The news came shortly after Hwang had competed in a pinball tournament in Canada.
"So when I landed and fired up my phone, I just got all these messages and I was like: 'What is what is going on?' "
Hwang received an email from the company explaining that his account data would be preserved, and he'd get a new handle. It offered Hwang merchandise, a tour of its offices and a meeting with company management as compensation.
Hwang's account is one of the latest casualties in the chaos following Musk's takeover of the social media company. On Monday, Twitter's iconic blue bird logo was replaced with the letter "X."
Our headquarters tonight pic.twitter.com/GO6yY8R7fO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2023
The rebrand is the company's next step in creating what Musk has called "the everything app." Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino envision the platform becoming a U.S. parallel to WeChat — a hub for communication, banking and commerce that's become a part of everyday life in China.
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 23, 2023
But experts are skeptical X will be able to become an "everything app."
"I'm not sure he has enough trust from his user base to get people to actually exchange money or attach any type of financial institution to his app," Jennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University, told NPR.
Hwang is among those who have been looking for Twitter alternatives.
"I've been checking out, you know, other options like Threads and Mastodon and Bluesky," he said. "I'm still on Twitter for now, but ... it's changed a lot. So we'll see how much longer I'm on there."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/after-rebranding-x-took-x-from-its-original-twitter-owner-and-offered-him-merch | 2023-07-29T12:58:39 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/after-rebranding-x-took-x-from-its-original-twitter-owner-and-offered-him-merch |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Japan and South Korea next month for a summit at Camp David, the White House announced Friday.
The Aug. 18 meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is the latest sign of warming relations between Japan and South Korea as they move to set aside generations of tensions and mistrust while the United States deepens its commitment to Asia.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the leaders “will discuss expanding trilateral cooperation across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.” Expected topics include the threat posed by North Korea and ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with the Pacific Islands.
The invitation spun out of a brief photo-op that the three leaders had at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. The Biden administration has been urging stronger economic and defense ties between South Korea and Japan as it looks to bolster the region against China’s assertive territorial moves, as well as to secure their cooperation to support Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-president-biden-to-host-the-leaders-of-japan-and-korean-for-an-august-summit-at-camp-david/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:39 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-president-biden-to-host-the-leaders-of-japan-and-korean-for-an-august-summit-at-camp-david/ |
Flor Marte knows someone will die. She knows when and how, because it came to her in a dream. That's her gift – all the women in the Marte family have one.
But Flor refuses to share who the dream is about. Instead, she insists on throwing herself a living wake, a reason for the entire family to come together and celebrate their lives. That's the starting point for Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel for adults, Family Lore.
Acevedo grew up in Harlem, with summer visits to the Dominican Republic, and aspirations of becoming a rapper – until a literature teacher invited her to join an after-school poetry club.
She attended reluctantly; but what she found in spoken word performance broke her world and the possibilities of language wide open.
"I think for folks who maybe have felt it difficult to occupy their bodies and take up space and demand attention, to have three minutes where that is the requirement is really powerful," she says.
Acevedo went on to become a National Poetry Slam champion and earn degrees in performing arts and creative writing. After college, she taught language arts in Prince George's County, Maryland. Teaching, she says, is its own kind of performance – one where the audience doesn't always want to be there. But her students were struggling in other ways.
"So many of my young people weren't at grade level, but they'd also not encountered literature that they felt reflected them," she says. "Trying to meet some of those students where they were was really a kickoff for my writing."
So Acevedo began writing young adult books. The Poet X, her first novel about a Dominican-American teen finding her voice through poetry, won a National Book Award in 2018.
Pivoting to a new audience
Now, with Family Lore, Acevedo turns her attention to adult readers.
"I think the way this pushes forward her work and the growing body of Dominican-American literature is how deeply she writes into the interiors of her women characters," says author Naima Coster, who read an early draft of the novel.
The story is told through memories, out of order, sometimes a memory within a different memory. Acevedo jumps from the Dominican countryside to Santo Domingo to New York, as sisters Matilde, Flor, Pastora and Camila – along with younger generation Ona and Yadi – reflect on their childhoods and teenage romances and the secrets that bind them all together. Though the Marte women grow older together, their relationships do not get easier.
"What does it mean if these women have really just had a different experience of their mother?" says Acevedo. "And how that different experience of their mother automatically will create a schism, because now it's like, 'You don't remember her the way I remember her, and because of that, I can't trust you."
There are infidelities, miscarriages, childhood love affairs and therapeutic dance classes. Acevedo explains that she needed to tell this story in a non-linear format, in the way memories surface and warp; the way family gossip is passed on from person to person, in a roundabout way.
Returning to the body
That format, she says, was more suited for adult readers; and writing for adults also allowed her to be candid about bodies: how they move, change, excite, disappoint.
"The generation I was raised by felt like their relationship to their body was very othered," Acevedo says. "When I speak to my cousins, when I think about myself, it's been a return to desire, a return to the gut, a return to health in a way that isn't necessarily about size but is about: who am I in this vessel and how do I love it?"
That tension is felt especially by the younger Marte women, whose supernatural gifts radiate from within. Ona has a self-described "alpha vagina," Yadi has a special taste for sour limes.
Naima Coster says it's easy to feel pressure to write about marginalized communities as clean-cut, exemplary characters. But Family Lore relishes in airing out the Marte family's dirty laundry– in showing Afro-Dominican women as full, complicated protagonists.
"It feels major, the way she writes about the ways that these women misunderstand each other, but still love each other," she says.
Acevedo says those themes – family, home, Blackness, power – will be in every book she writes, "because those are the questions that haunt me."
Family Lore reads like the feeling of getting older and no longer having moms and aunts lower their voices when you enter the room – like finally being privy to what makes a family flawed and perfect.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/in-family-lore-award-winning-ya-author-elizabeth-acevedo-turns-to-adult-readers | 2023-07-29T12:58:46 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/in-family-lore-award-winning-ya-author-elizabeth-acevedo-turns-to-adult-readers |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said he is “fine” since he froze up midsentence during a press conference on Wednesday. And now his office is trying to tamp down speculation that he might not fill out his term as leader because of his health.
In a statement, his office said McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues and “plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do.”
The statement, first reported by Politico, comes after McConnell, 81, has suffered health problems in recent months. At his weekly press conference this week, he froze and stared vacantly for about 20 seconds before his GOP colleagues standing behind him grabbed his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office. He later returned to the news conference and answered questions as if nothing had happened.
When asked about the episode, he said he was “fine,” a statement he repeated in a hallway to reporters later that day. Neither McConnell nor his office would answer questions about whether he got medical help afterward.
Even as McConnell tried to brush off the concerns, the episode raised new questions among his colleagues about his health and also whether McConnell, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has served as Republican leader since 2007, might soon step aside from his leadership post.
He was elected to a two-year term as leader in January by a large majority of his conference, despite an insurgent challenge from Florida Sen. Rick Scott. He would be up for re-election as leader again after the 2024 elections.
By then, he will have to decide also if he wants to run again for another Senate term. He is up for re-election in 2026.
In March, McConnell suffered a concussion and a broken rib after falling and hitting his head after a dinner event at a hotel. He didn’t return to the Senate for almost six weeks. He has been using a wheelchair in the airport while commuting back and forth to Kentucky. And his speech has recently sounded more halting.
But McConnell, famously reticent and often private about his personal life and health, has said very little about what is going on.
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said after Wednesday’s episode that McConnell’s job as leader calls for more transparency than it would for others.
“We should find out, you know, fairly soon what happened and how serious it is,” Cramer said. “But I don’t have to tell you, Mitch is also, as an individual, a pretty private guy. So we’ll see.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he talked to McConnell on Wednesday night and he seemed “strong and alert.” But he said what happened at the news conference on Wednesday was disturbing to watch.
“Mitch is strong, he’s stubborn as a mule,” Cruz said. “My prayers are with them. I hope that — we’re going into the August recess — I hope he has time to fully recuperate.”
GOP senators who are seen as potential successors have been cautious in their reaction.
“He’s fine, he’s back to work,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican and one of the senators standing behind McConnell when he froze up.
“I support Senator McConnell as long as he wants to serve as leader,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, another potential replacement.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican and a former orthopedic surgeon, guided McConnell back to his office to rest during the news conference. Afterwards, he told reporters that he has been concerned since McConnell was injured earlier this year, “and I continue to be concerned.”
Barrasso then added: “I said I was concerned when he fell and hit his head a number of months ago and was hospitalized. And I think he’s made a remarkable recovery, he’s doing a great job leading our conference and was able to answer every question the press asked him today.”
Several other GOP senators projected confidence in the Republican leader.
“I do have confidence in his leadership,” said Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis. “At lunch yesterday, he spoke. He was completely on his game using numbers that were pulled out of his head and he was completely with it. So I don’t know what precipitated the freeze, but he’ll be careful to evaluate his own capabilities.”
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said he was “a little concerned” after the news conference.
“He said that he got a little overheated, a little dehydrated,” said Marshall, who is also a doctor. “That’s what it looks like to me. I can tell you, he’s got a strong, strong voice in our conference. He’s providing steady leadership. And I think he’s doing a great job as leader.”
McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in climbing stairs. In addition to his fall in March, he also tripped and fell four years ago at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery.
The Republican leader carried on with his full schedule after the episode on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with his Republican counterpart at an event Wednesday evening for Major League Baseball owners.
“I said I’m so glad you’re here,” Schumer said. “And he made a very good speech.”
The Republican leader is one of several senators who have been absent due to health issues this year. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, 90, was out of the Senate for more than two months as she recovered from a bout of shingles. And Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., 53, took leave for several weeks to get treatment for clinical depression.
—-
Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro and AP videojournalist Mike Pesoli contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:47 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ |
A visit to the Paris suburb where riots first broke out in France, following the police killing of a young man of North African descent.
Copyright 2023 NPR
A visit to the Paris suburb where riots first broke out in France, following the police killing of a young man of North African descent.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/in-the-paris-suburb-where-riots-erupted-protests-have-died-down-but-anger-remains | 2023-07-29T12:58:52 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/in-the-paris-suburb-where-riots-erupted-protests-have-died-down-but-anger-remains |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin is refusing to apologize after he yelled and cursed at high school-aged Senate pages during a late night tour of the Capitol this week, eliciting a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, speaking in a round of interviews Friday on Wisconsin conservative talk radio, did not refute reports of his actions or back down from what he did.
Van Orden used a profanity to describe the pages as lazy and and another to order them off the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday night, according to a report in the online political newsletter PunchBowl News. The pages were laying down to take photos in the Rotunda, according to the publication.
“I’m not going to apologize for making sure that anybody — I don’t care who you are and who you’re related to — defiles this House,” Van Orden said on “The Dan O’Donnell Show.” “It’s not going to happen on my watch, man.”
Van Orden said he was protecting the integrity of the Capitol Rotunda because it served as a field hospital during the Civil War and it’s where presidents have lain in state upon their deaths. He said the young people he confronted were “goofing off” and that Democrats were making it an issue.
“Would this be an issue if those young people did not have political connections?” Van Orden said on “The Jay Weber Show.” “Why do you think this is an issue, pal?”
A former Navy SEAL who was outside of the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Van Orden also appeared to embrace the presence of alcohol in his office the same evening he encountered the pages. Images were posted on social media showing bottles of liquor and beer cans on a desk in his office. Van Orden said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that the alcohol was from constituents.
And his spokeswoman Anna Kelly posted: “As the Congressman says, once you cross the threshold to our office, you are in Wisconsin!” She followed that with a beer mug emoji.
Van Orden represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a GOP-leaning jurisdiction that comprises parts of central, southwestern and western Wisconsin, including moderate exurbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
On Thursday evening, just before the Senate left for its August recess, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rebuked Van Orden’s behavior and thanked the pages, high school-age students who serve as helpers and messengers around the Senate. Several of the pages were sitting on the Senate floor at the time, smiling and nodding as dozens of senators stood and gave them a standing ovation.
Without mentioning Van Orden by name, Schumer said he was “shocked” to hear about the behavior of a member of the House Republican majority and “further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people.” He noted that Thursday was the final day for this class of pages.
“They’re here when we need them,” Schumer said. “And they have served this institution with grace.”
McConnell said he associated himself with Schumer’s words. “Everybody on this side of the aisle feels exactly the same way,” he said.
When asked about McConnell’s rebuke, Van Orden said Friday “I don’t know what it was because I honestly have not tracked any of this stuff.”
Van Orden was elected to Congress in 2022 after a losing bid in 2020. He has insisted that he did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and on Friday again condemned those who did, calling them “buffoons.” That didn’t stop fellow Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, from invoking the Jan. 6 attack in criticizing Van Orden.
“Wonder if he told that to his fellow insurrectionists, who were beating police officers on the same ground?” Pocan said on X.
Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat who is running to challenge Van Orden in 2024, called him an embarrassment and a hypocrite. She called Van Orden a “serial harasser” and referenced an incident in June 2021 when Van Orden was upset about a display of LGBTQ+ books at a southwestern Wisconsin library and yelled at a teenager who was working there.
“For someone to perhaps drunkenly, and definitely belligerently, yell at these kids for enjoying our nation’s Capitol is just stupid,” Pocan said Friday. “He would be best to say it was stupid and just move on.”
___
EDITORS’ NOTE: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of “The Dan O’Donnell Show.”
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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-senate-rebukes-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ | 2023-07-29T12:58:54 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-senate-rebukes-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ |
Indigenous communities in Taiwan celebrate summer with the harvest festival By Emily Feng Published July 29, 2023 at 8:05 AM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email A visit to a harvest festival in Taiwan, a celebration of summer by the island's indigenous communities. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/indigenous-communities-in-taiwan-celebrate-summer-with-the-harvest-festival | 2023-07-29T12:58:58 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/indigenous-communities-in-taiwan-celebrate-summer-with-the-harvest-festival |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Pentagon official has attacked this week’s widely watched congressional hearing on UFOs, calling the claims “insulting” to employees who are investigating sightings and accusing a key witness of not cooperating with the official U.S. government investigation.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick’s letter, published on his personal LinkedIn page and circulated Friday across social media, criticizes much of the testimony from a retired Air Force intelligence officer that energized believers in extraterrestrial life and produced headlines around the world.
Retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch testified Wednesday that the U.S. has concealed what he called a “multi-decade” program to collect and reverse-engineer “UAPs,” or unidentified aerial phenomena, the official government term for UFOs.
Part of what the U.S. has recovered, Grusch testified, were non-human “biologics,” which he said he had not seen but had learned about from “people with direct knowledge of the program.”
A career intelligence officer, Kirkpatrick was named a year ago to lead the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, which was intended to centralize investigations into UAPs. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have been pushed by Congress in recent years to better investigate reports of devices flying at unusual speeds or trajectories as a national security concern.
Kirkpatrick wrote the letter Thursday and the Defense Department confirmed Friday that he posted it in a personal capacity. Kirkpatrick declined to comment on the letter Friday.
He writes in part, “I cannot let yesterday’s hearing pass without sharing how insulting it was to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community who chose to join AARO, many with not unreasonable anxieties about the career risks this would entail.”
“They are truth-seekers, as am I,” Kirkpatrick said. “But you certainly would not get that impression from yesterday’s hearing.”
In a separate statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough denied other allegations made by Grusch before a House Oversight subcommittee.
The Pentagon “has no information that any individual has been harmed or killed as a result of providing information” about UFO objects, Gough said. Nor has the Pentagon discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
Kirkpatrick wrote, “AARO has yet to find any credible evidence to support the allegations of any reverse engineering program for non-human technology.”
He had briefed reporters in December that the Pentagon was investigating “several hundreds” of new reports following a push to have pilots and others come forward with any sightings.
Kirkpatrick wrote in his letter that allegations of “retaliation, to include physical assault and hints of murder, are extraordinarily serious, which is why law enforcement is a critical member of the AARO team, specifically to address and take swift action should anyone come forward with such claims.”
“Yet, contrary to assertions made in the hearing, the central source of those allegations has refused to speak with AARO,” Kirkpatrick said. He did not explicitly name Grusch, who alleged he faced retaliation and declined to answer when a congressman asked him if anyone had been murdered to hide information about UFOs.
Messages left at a phone number and email address for Grusch were not returned Friday. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-the-ufo-congressional-hearing-was-insulting-to-us-employees-a-top-pentagon-official-says/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:01 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-the-ufo-congressional-hearing-was-insulting-to-us-employees-a-top-pentagon-official-says/ |
At a time of increasing isolation for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage, he just concluded a summit with leaders from Africa.
Copyright 2023 NPR
At a time of increasing isolation for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage, he just concluded a summit with leaders from Africa.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/isolated-by-the-west-putin-hosted-a-summit-for-leaders-from-africa-in-st-petersburg | 2023-07-29T12:59:04 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/isolated-by-the-west-putin-hosted-a-summit-for-leaders-from-africa-in-st-petersburg |
The Mega Millions jackpot grew to a whopping $1.05 billion after no ticket matched all six numbers in Friday night's draw. The last winning ticket was sold on April 18.
The next drawing for the grand prize, which is currently equal to the fourth-largest Mega Millions jackpot to date, is on Tuesday. A lump-sum payment would be an estimated $528 million.
Friday's jackpot was $940 million, and had been growing steadily, finally passing the $1 billion mark after 29 straight draws without someone matching all six winning numbers.
Just last week, a winning ticket for a $1.08 billion Powerball drawing was sold in Los Angeles, but the winner is still unknown.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions are slim — just about 1 in 302.6 million.
The largest Mega Millions winning jackpot was sold in South Carolina in 2018 — a massive $1.537 billion.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/mega-millions-jackpot-passes-1-billion-after-no-one-draws-all-6-winning-numbers | 2023-07-29T12:59:07 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/mega-millions-jackpot-passes-1-billion-after-no-one-draws-all-6-winning-numbers |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administration’s first major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China.
The White House said Friday the package would include defense, education and training for the Taiwanese. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring the Pentagon and White House to speed weapons to Taiwan. The goals are to help it counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.
While Chinese diplomats protested the move, Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. said the administration’s decision to pull arms and other materiel from its stores provided “an important tool to support Taiwan’s self-defense.” In a statement, it pledged to work with the United States to maintain “peace, stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense also expressed its appreciation in a statement that thanked “the U.S. for its firm commitment to Taiwan’s security.”
The package is in addition to nearly $19 billion in military sales of F-16s and other major weapons systems that the U.S. has approved for Taiwan. Delivery of those weapons has been hampered by supply chain issues that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been exacerbated by the global defense industrial base pressures created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The difference is that this aid is part of a presidential authority approved by Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales. This gets weapons delivered faster than providing funding for new weapons.
The Pentagon has used a similar authority to get billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine.
Taiwan split from China in 1949 amid civil war. Chinese President Xi Jinping maintains China’s right to take over the now self-ruled island, by force if necessary. China has accused the U.S. of turning Taiwan into a “powder keg” through the billions of dollars in weapons sales it has pledged.
The U.S. maintains a “One China” policy under which it does not recognize Taiwan’s as an independent country and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island in deference to Beijing. However, U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”
Getting stockpiles of weapons to Taiwan now, before an attack begins, is one of the lessons the U.S. has learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks told The Associated Press earlier this year.
Ukraine “was more of a cold-start approach than the planned approach we have been working on for Taiwan, and we will apply those lessons,” Hicks said. Efforts to resupply Taiwan after a conflict erupted would be complicated because it is an island, she said.
China regularly sends warships and planes across the center line in the Taiwan Strait that provides a buffer between the sides, as well as into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, in an effort to intimidate the island’s 23 million people and wear down its military capabilities.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement that Beijing was “firmly opposed” to U.S. military ties with Taiwan. The U.S. should “stop selling arms to Taiwan” and “stop creating new factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Liu said. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-us-to-announce-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:08 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-us-to-announce-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ |
National parks and hiking trail networks around the country are facing dual pressures - crowds and changing weather. Preservationists in New Hampshire are painstakingly restoring one such trail.
Copyright 2023 NPR
National parks and hiking trail networks around the country are facing dual pressures - crowds and changing weather. Preservationists in New Hampshire are painstakingly restoring one such trail.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/preservationists-are-trying-to-restore-national-park-trails-destroyed-by-the-weather | 2023-07-29T12:59:13 | 1 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/preservationists-are-trying-to-restore-national-park-trails-destroyed-by-the-weather |
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on three additional charges in a case that accuses him of illegally possessing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, allegations that add fresh detail to the criminal case initially issued last month.
Here’s a look at the charges, the special counsel’s investigation and how Trump’s case differs from those of other politicians known to be in possession of classified documents:
WHAT ARE THE NEW CHARGES?
There are three new charges against Trump, as well as a new defendant in the case.
Prosecutors accuse the former president of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence,” and of inducing another person to do so. They say Trump asked a staffer — Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into his possession of classified documents.
Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira schemed with Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, to conceal the footage from investigators.
A third count also accuses Trump of willfully retaining national defense information related to a presentation about military activity in another country.
Investigators say Trump showed a classified document during July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort to the writer and publisher of the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Details about that document and the meeting were included in the original indictment, but none of the charges had related to it until now.
Trump had returned that document to the government on Jan. 17, 2022 — nearly a year after he left office, according to the indictment.
Trump was indicted last month on 37 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. The charges include counts of retaining classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements, among other crimes.
Trump is accused of keeping documents related to “nuclear weaponry in the United States” and the “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” along with documents from White House intelligence briefings, including some that detail the military capabilities of the U.S. and other countries, according to the indictment. Prosecutors alleged Trump showed off the documents to people who did not have security clearances to review them and later tried to conceal documents from his own lawyers as they sought to comply with federal demands to find and return documents.
The top charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
After leaving office in 2021, the former president showed someone working for his political action committee a map that detailed a military operation in a foreign country, prosecutors allege in the document. On another occasion that year, Trump showed a writer, a publisher and two of his staffers — none of whom had security clearances — a military plan of attack.
HOW IS TRUMP REACTING?
A Trump campaign statement dismissed the new charges as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.
In an interview Thursday night with Breitbart News, Trump called the superseding indictment “harassment,” repeating his insistence that his activities were “protected by the Presidential Records Act.”
On Friday, Trump and a dozen other Republicans seeking the 2024 presidential nomination were expected at an Iowa GOP event.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
De Oliveira is due in court in Florida on Monday.
Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the original 38-count indictment.
Their trial is currently scheduled for May 20, 2024 — deep into the presidential nominating calendar, and probably well after the Republican nominee is known — and it was unclear if the addition of a new defendant could result in a postponement.
Prosecutors, who had wanted the case to go to trial in December, wrote in a separate court filing Thursday that the new charges “should not disturb” the May trial date, “and the Special Counsel’s Office is taking steps related to discovery and security clearances to ensure that it does not do so.”
Trump’s lawyers have claimed that he can’t get a fair trial before the 2024 election.
HOW DID THIS CASE COME ABOUT?
Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration contacted representatives for Trump in spring 2021 when they realized that important material from his time in office was missing.
According to the Presidential Records Act, White House documents are considered property of the U.S. government and must be preserved.
A Trump representative told the National Archives in December 2021 that presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida home, later telling Justice Department officials that they contained “a lot” of classified material.
That May, the FBI and Justice Department issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents in Trump’s possession. Investigators who went to visit the property weeks later to collect the records were given roughly three dozen documents and a sworn statement from Trump’s lawyers attesting that the requested information had been returned.
But that assertion turned out to be false. With a search warrant, federal officials returned to Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and seized more than 33 boxes and containers totaling 11,000 documents from a storage room and an office, including 100 classified documents.
In all, roughly 300 documents with classification markings — including some at the top secret level — have been recovered from Trump since he left office in January 2021.
HOW DID A SPECIAL COUNSEL GET INVOLVED?
Last year, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland picked Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor with a background in public corruption probes, to lead investigations into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate, as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.
Smith’s appointment was a recognition by Garland of the politics involved in an investigation into a former president and current White House candidate. Garland himself was selected by Democratic President Joe Biden, whom Trump is seeking to challenge for the White House in 2024.
Special counsels are appointed in cases in which the Justice Department perceives itself as having a conflict or where it’s deemed to be in the public interest to have someone outside the government come in and take responsibility for a matter.
According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a special counsel must have “a reputation for integrity and impartial decision making,” as well as “an informed understanding of the criminal law and Department of Justice policies.”
DIDN’T BIDEN AND FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE HAVE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, TOO?
Yes, but the circumstances of their cases are vastly different from those involving Trump.
After classified documents were found at Biden’s think tank and Pence’s Indiana home, their lawyers notified authorities and quickly arranged for them to be handed over. They also authorized other searches by federal authorities to search for additional documents.
There is no indication either was aware of the existence of the records before they were found, and no evidence has so far emerged that Biden or Pence sought to conceal the discoveries. That’s important because the Justice Department historically looks for willfulness in deciding whether to bring criminal charges.
A special counsel was appointed earlier this year to probe how classified materials ended up at Biden’s Delaware home and former office. But even if the Justice Department were to find Biden’s case prosecutable on the evidence, its Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that a president is immune from prosecution during his time in office.
As for Pence, the Justice Department informed his legal team this month that it would not be pursuing criminal charges against him over his handling of the documents.
DOES A FEDERAL INDICTMENT PREVENT TRUMP FROM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT?
No. Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
And, as his indictment earlier this year in a New York hush-money case showed, criminal charges have historically been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after that indictment became public, smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-with-trump-newly-indicted-heres-what-to-know-about-the-documents-case-and-whats-next/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:16 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-with-trump-newly-indicted-heres-what-to-know-about-the-documents-case-and-whats-next/ |
The coup in Niger, this week, raises questions about the future of democratic leadership in the West African country. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Rama Yade of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center.
Copyright 2023 NPR
The coup in Niger, this week, raises questions about the future of democratic leadership in the West African country. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Rama Yade of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/the-coup-in-niger-is-a-blow-to-democracy-in-the-west-african-country | 2023-07-29T12:59:19 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-29/the-coup-in-niger-is-a-blow-to-democracy-in-the-west-african-country |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Four air crew members were missing after an Australian army helicopter ditched into waters off the Queensland state coast during joint military exercises with the United States, officials said Saturday.
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter went down near Lindeman Island, a Great Barrier Reef tourist resort, at about 11 p.m. Friday, exercise director Australian Army Brigadier Damian Hill said.
A search involving U.S., Canadian and Australian personnel was underway to find the crew who are all Australian men, officials said.
Debris that appeared to be from a helicopter had been recovered, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Douglas McDonald said.
The Taipan was taking part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial joint U.S.-Australian military exercise that is largely based in Queensland. This year’s exercise involves 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the helicopter ditched, which refers to an emergency landing on water.
“Defense exercises, which are so necessary for the readiness of our defense force, are serious. They carry risk,” Marles told reporters in Brisbane. “As we desperately hope for better news during the course of this day we are reminded about the gravity of the act which comes with wearing our nation’s uniform.”
Hill said the exercise was postponed on Saturday morning but had restarted limited activity later in the day. Australia had grounded its Taipan fleet as a precaution, Hill said.
It was the second emergency involving an Australian Taipan this year, after one ditched into the sea off the New South Wales state coast in March. That helicopter was taking part in a nighttime counterterrorism training exercise when it ran into trouble. All 10 passengers and crew members were rescued.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Brisbane for a meeting on Saturday and is due to travel with Marles to north Queensland on Sunday to see the exercise.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the missing air crew at the outset of a meeting with their Australian counterparts, Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
“It’s always tough when you have accidents in training, but … the reason that we train to such high standards is so that we can be successful and we can protect lives when we are called to answer any kind of crisis,” Austin said.
“Our guys tend to make this look easy and they make it look easy because they’re so well exercised and rehearsed and trained, and this is unfortunately a part of that, what it takes to get them to where we need them to be,” Austin added.
Blinken said, “We’re so grateful to them for their dedication, for their service, for everything they’ve been doing to stand up for the freedom that we share and that is what unites us more than anything else.”
Marles thanked the United States for their contribution to the search and rescue effort.
The missing helicopter had just dropped off two Australian commandos before it hit the water, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Australia announced in January that its army and navy would stop flying the European-built Taipans by December 2024, 13 years earlier than originally planned, because they had proven unreliable. They will be replaced by 40 U.S. Black Hawks. Marles said at the time the Lockheed Martin-designed Black Hawks “have a really good proven track record in terms of their reliability.”
Australia’s Taipans had been plagued by problems since the first helicopter arrived in the country in 2007.
Australia’s entire fleet of 47 Taipans was grounded in 2019 to fix a problem with their tail rotor blades. A year later, 27 Taipans were grounded because of a problem with doors.
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Find more of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-australias-coast/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:23 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-australias-coast/ |
A British court ruled Friday against London suburbs that tried to block a pollution tax on older cars as green policies become a hot political issue in the U.K. amid increasingly dramatic impacts of global climate change.
The High Court ruled that Mayor Sadiq Khan had the authority to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone, or ULEZ, which charges drivers of older gas and diesel vehicles 12.50 pounds ($16) a day they operate, to the city’s outskirts next month.
Five conservative councils challenged Khan’s right to impose the measure. They criticized the expansion to an area where there are fewer public transport options and people are more reliant on cars, and because of a disproportionate impact on lower-income drivers who can’t afford newer, cleaner cars.
Khan said the ruling would allow the expanded zone to take effect Aug. 29 and help reduce air pollution. He said he would also expand a program that provides financial assistance to some families and small businesses to scrap older cars.
“The ULEZ has already reduced toxic nitrogen dioxide air pollution by nearly half in central London and a fifth in inner London,” said Khan, a member of the Labour Party. “The coming expansion will see 5 million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air.”
The five councils that challenged the zone issued a joint statement saying they were “hugely disappointed”. While they accepted that Khan may have the legal right to implement the measure, they questioned whether it was morally right.
“It is evident that the mayor of London and (Transport for London) do not realize the damage the extension will have to the lives of residents and businesses in outer London as well as those outside of its borders,” the group said.
The city’s transportation agency said most gas vehicles under 16 years old and diesel vehicles less than 6 years old comply with the standard.
In April, a study from London City Hall found levels of nitrogen dioxide exceeded the legal limit in 14 of the city’s 32 boroughs. Khan argued he had a statutory responsibility to take measures to improve air quality.
Nine out of 10 cars on the road in outer London on an average day comply with standards, Transport for London said. The Royal Automobile Club said nearly 700,000 licensed cars in London are unlikely to comply.
Fury over the the ULEZ expansion was credited last week with helping Tories hold one of three seats in Parliament in a special election. Conservatives had been expected to lose all three but they retained their seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Interestingly, the emissions charge was first imposed in 2015 by then-Mayor Boris Johnson, the Conservative who went on to become prime minister before resigning last year amid several scandals and quitting Parliament last month. It was his House of Commons seat Tories retained in the by-election.
The issue has now caused a crisis for the Labour Party, which is seen as likely to return to power next year after being ousted by Conservatives in 2010.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said there was no doubt ULEZ cost them the Uxbridge election and said Khan should “reflect” on the policy.
Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was widely quoted this week in a New Statesman magazine interview in which he cautioned: “Don’t ask us to do a huge amount when frankly whatever we do in Britain is not really going to impact climate change.” The interview was conducted before the special elections.
The dust-up over how to control emissions comes as July is on target to be the hottest month in recorded human history and the effects of a warming planet can be seen in catastrophic wildfires, flooding and alarming ocean temperatures. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres this week declared: “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
While the by-election has caused consternation for Labour over how best to stick to a green agenda, it is also sparking a rethink for Conservatives who have been accused recently of backing away from pledges to combat climate change.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signaled this week he was open to revisiting net-zero policies, saying he’d take a pragmatic approach that didn’t add more hassles or costs to people’s lives. He caused confusion by not recommitting to a ban on gas and diesel cars by 2030, though cabinet minister Michael Gove later insisted that deadline was firm. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-pollution-tax-on-older-cars-can-be-extended-to-londons-suburbs-after-a-british-court-ruling/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:29 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-pollution-tax-on-older-cars-can-be-extended-to-londons-suburbs-after-a-british-court-ruling/ |
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you. | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/a-program-in-oklahoma-uses-art-to-re-integrate-women-recently-released-from-prison | 2023-07-29T12:59:34 | 1 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/a-program-in-oklahoma-uses-art-to-re-integrate-women-recently-released-from-prison |
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (Gray News) - An Amber Alert was issued for two endangered girls missing in North Carolina.
The Durham Police Department is searching for 7-year-old Makayla Grace Gnije Hatch and 8-year-old Kaylee Amira Grace Hatch. The two girls were last seen July 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Makayla is described to be 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs about 41 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Makayla was last seen wearing a pink and coral lace dress, white ruffle socks and black shoes.
Kaylee is described to be 4 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She has black braided hair with clear beads and brown eyes. Kaylee was last seen wearing a lavender, pink and white floral dress with a silver belt and white sandals.
The girls may be traveling with 34-year-old Garrett Hatch. He is described to be 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs about 230 pounds. He has black hair styled in long dreads and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a pink, black and white block shirt with white pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Durham Police Department 919-560-4440.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:34 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/amber-alert-issued-2-missing-girls-north-carolina/ |
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s authorities on Friday called on the country’s international allies to put pressure on Azerbaijan after accusing it of carrying out a three-day blockade of humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The accusations mark another flashpoint in the tense relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan which have fought over the breakaway region for decades.
The Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vahan Kostanyan, accused Azerbaijan of blocking the so-called Lachin Corridor and demanded international allies step in to allow 19 trucks with 400 tons of humanitarian aid to pass. According to Armenian authorities, the trucks have been stuck there since the evening of July 26.
“The additional pressure of our international partners on Baku is very important. We have heard statements from our various colleagues, but we don’t think this is enough,” he said.
Kostanyan previously also accused Azerbaijan of ignoring a ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering Azerbaijan authorities to ensure unimpeded movement in the Lachin Corridor, the only road from Armenia into Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ongoing dispute over the road has impeded food supplies to the region and aggravated tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars since the end of Soviet rule.
Nagorno-Karabakh had substantial autonomy under the Soviet Union and came under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in 1994 at the end of years of separatist fighting. Armenian forces also took sizable territory surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
In 2020, Azerbaijan regained most of that surrounding territory and pieces of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in a war which killed about 6,800 soldiers. Under a Russia-brokered armistice, transit along the Lachin Corridor was to continue under the guarantee of Russian peacekeepers.
According to Armenian media, trucks and foreign diplomats are currently in the village of Kornidzor on Armenia’s border with Nagorno-Karabakh, which is at one end of the Lachin Corridor.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said that it viewed Armenia’s attempt to send a convoy to Nagorno-Karabakh “under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid’” as a violation of Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty.” Azerbaijan also accuses Armenia of smuggling weapons into Nagorno-Karabakh.
The latest flare-up comes weeks following talks in Brussels and Washington aimed at calming tensions between the two countries after Azerbaijan opened a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor in April. At that point, the road had already been blocked for four months by demonstrators who were protesting what they claimed to be illegal mining and other ecological abuses by Armenians in the area. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-armenia-calls-on-allies-to-help-get-aid-to-nagorno-karabakh-during-tensions-with-azerbaijan/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:36 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-armenia-calls-on-allies-to-help-get-aid-to-nagorno-karabakh-during-tensions-with-azerbaijan/ |
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with a resident of Odesa, Ukraine about what the last several days — and nights — have been like, under repeated attack from Russian missiles and drones.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with a resident of Odesa, Ukraine about what the last several days — and nights — have been like, under repeated attack from Russian missiles and drones.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/a-resident-of-odesa-ukraine-describes-life-amid-russian-missile-and-drone-strikes | 2023-07-29T12:59:40 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/a-resident-of-odesa-ukraine-describes-life-amid-russian-missile-and-drone-strikes |
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners: Betting Trends, Odds, Records Against the Run Line, Home/Road Splits
The Seattle Mariners and Cal Raleigh will square off against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Corbin Carroll on Saturday at 8:10 PM ET, at Chase Field.
Oddsmakers list the Mariners as -125 moneyline favorites, while giving the underdog Diamondbacks +105 moneyline odds to win. The total is 9.5 runs for the game (with +100 odds to go over and -120 odds to go under).
Rep your team with officially licensed Diamondbacks gear! Head to Fanatics to find jerseys, shirts, and much more.
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Odds & Info
- Date: Saturday, July 29, 2023
- Time: 8:10 PM ET
- TV: ARID
- Location: Phoenix, Arizona
- Venue: Chase Field
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Bet with King of Sportsbooks and use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers! Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Diamondbacks Recent Betting Performance
- In five games as the underdog over the last 10 matchups, the Diamondbacks have a record of 2-3.
- In their last 10 games with an over/under, the Diamondbacks and their opponents have combined to eclipse the total five times.
- The last 10 Diamondbacks contests have not had a spread set by bookmakers.
Explore More About This Game
Diamondbacks Betting Records & Stats
- The Diamondbacks have been victorious in 25, or 47.2%, of the 53 contests they have been chosen as underdogs in this season.
- Arizona has a record of 16-21, a 43.2% win rate, when it's set as an underdog of +105 or more by oddsmakers this season.
- Bookmakers have implied with the moneyline set for this matchup that the Diamondbacks have a 48.8% chance of pulling out a win.
- Arizona and its opponents have hit the over in 47 of its 104 games with a total this season.
- The Diamondbacks have posted a record of 6-4-0 against the spread this season.
Check out the latest odds and place your bets on and the with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Diamondbacks Splits
Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diamondbacks-vs-mariners-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:41 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diamondbacks-vs-mariners-mlb-betting-trends-stats/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities in Alabama said Friday they filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway.
Carlee Russell was charged with false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident, both misdemeanors that carry up to a year in jail, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said. Russell turned herself in to jail Friday and was released on bond, he said.
“Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the loose using a small child as bait,” he said. “Numerous law enforcement agencies, both local and federal, began working tirelessly not only to bring Carlee home to her family but locate a kidnapper that we know now never existed. Many private citizens volunteered their time and energy in looking for a potential kidnapping victim that we know now was never in any danger.”
Derzis said he was frustrated that Russell was only being charged with two misdemeanors despite the panic and disruption she caused, but he said the law did not allow for enhanced charges.
Russell, 25, disappeared after calling 911 on July 13 to report a toddler wandering beside a stretch of interstate. She returned home two days later and told police she had been abducted and forced into a vehicle.
Her disappearance became a national news story. Images of the missing woman were shared broadly on social media.
“We don’t see this as a victimless crime,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said at a Friday news conference. “There are significant hours spent, resources expended as a result of this investigation.”
Marshall’s office was asked to handle the prosecution because of the attention the case received, Derzis said. Marshall said he intends to “fully prosecute” Russell and said his office will take into account the police investigation to see whether additional charges are warranted.
Russell, through her attorney, Emory Anthony, acknowledged earlier that she made the story up.
In a statement read by police on Monday, Anthony said Russell was not kidnapped, did not see a baby on the side of the road, did not leave the city and acted alone. He said Russell apologized and he asked for prayers and forgiveness as she “addresses her issues and attempts to move forward, understanding that she made a mistake in this matter.”
A message left Friday at Anthony’s office was not immediately returned.
Russell told detectives she was taken by a man who came out of the trees when she stopped to check on the child, put in a car and an 18-wheel truck, was blindfolded and was held at a home where a woman fed her cheese crackers, authorities said at a news conference last week. At some point, Russell said she was put in a vehicle again but managed to escape and run through the woods to her neighborhood.
“This story opened wounds for families whose loved ones really were victims of kidnappings,” Derzis said.
He said police have not determined where Russell went during the 49 hours she was missing. They plan to talk to the attorney general’s office about recovering some of the money spent on the investigation. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-authorities-charge-alabama-woman-who-acknowledged-fabricating-story-about-kidnapping-toddler/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:43 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-authorities-charge-alabama-woman-who-acknowledged-fabricating-story-about-kidnapping-toddler/ |
There are dueling efforts in Florida by activists on both sides of the abortion issue to insert language into the state constitution.
Copyright 2023 NPR
There are dueling efforts in Florida by activists on both sides of the abortion issue to insert language into the state constitution.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/activists-on-both-sides-of-the-abortion-issue-are-trying-to-change-floridas-constitution | 2023-07-29T12:59:46 | 1 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/activists-on-both-sides-of-the-abortion-issue-are-trying-to-change-floridas-constitution |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a 4-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with an Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, in 2018.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement. It was his first acknowledgement of the child.
“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
Hunter Biden’s paternity was established by DNA testing after Roberts sued for child support, and the two parties recently resolved outstanding child support issues. The president’s son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.
“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he wrote. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”
An attorney for Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.
Hunter Biden has four other children, including a son, Beau, born to his wife Melissa Cohen in 2020. He was named after the president’s late son who died of cancer in 2015, leaving behind two children.
Biden’s grandchildren have played a distinctive role in his presidency, often accompanying the president or first lady on trips and making regular visits to the White House. The president has also credited his grandchildren with persuading him to challenge then-President Donald Trump for the White House in 2020.
Biden’s statement was first reported by People Magazine. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:49 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ |
One of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S. is losing congregations over disputes over LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. (This story first aired on Morning Edition on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR
One of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S. is losing congregations over disputes over LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. (This story first aired on Morning Edition on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/congregations-leave-united-methodist-church-over-defiance-of-lgbtq-bans | 2023-07-29T12:59:52 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/congregations-leave-united-methodist-church-over-defiance-of-lgbtq-bans |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The new prosecutor in Oklahoma’s biggest county announced Friday she’s dropping criminal charges against seven police officers in three separate fatal shootings from 2020, including one in which five officers were charged with killing a 15-year-old boy outside a convenience store.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s predecessor and fellow Democrat, David Prater, had filed criminal charges against the police officers before leaving office. Behenna said she hired a use-of-force expert to examine the evidence, and her office spent hundreds of hours reviewing the three cases.
“Under Oklahoma law, these shootings were justified,” Behenna said at a news conference.
“This was not just a quick, spur-of-the-moment decision. This was a very difficult, very fact-intensive decision and review,” she said.
The charges were dismissed with prejudice, which means they are permanently dismissed and can’t be refiled, she said.
A former federal prosecutor and defense attorney from the suburb of Edmond, Behenna is the first woman elected top prosecutor in the state’s most populous county. She defeated conservative Republican Kevin Calvey last year to win a four-year term.
The most high-profile case dismissed Friday involved five Oklahoma City officers charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Stavian Rodriguez. The teen was shot on Nov. 23, 2020, by officers responding to reports of an attempted armed robbery at a convenience store.
TV news reports of the shooting showed video of the boy dropping a gun then reaching toward his waist before being shot.
Willard Paige, the investigator for the previous district attorney, said the officers fired live rounds “unnecessarily,” and that an autopsy determined Rodriguez suffered 13 gunshot wounds.
Initially charged in the shooting were officers Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, John Skuta and Brad Pemberton. All five have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
The teen’s mother, Cameo Holland, said in a statement that she intends to work to change the law to make it easier for police to be criminally charged.
“When the district attorney of Oklahoma County apologizes to your face for the justice system failing you, it’s clear we need changes in the law,” Holland said.
Behenna said Friday that she does not take these decisions lightly.
“These families are grieving,” she said. “No matter what this office does or says, these families are forever changed.”
Holland has a pending civil rights excessive force lawsuit against Oklahoma City and the five officers in federal court.
In another Oklahoma City case, Sgt. Clifford Holman was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 60-year-old Bennie Edward.
Holman, who is white, had responded to a call of a Black man harassing customers at a business in north Oklahoma City, according to a police affidavit by homicide detective Bryn Carter. When he arrived at the scene, Holman encountered Edwards, who was holding a knife and refusing officers’ commands to drop it, the affidavit states.
The shooting sparked days of protests and demonstrations by Black Lives Matter groups and other activists.
The third case involved The Village officer Chance Avery, who was charged with second-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of Christopher Pool.
Avery was called to the home by Pool’s wife, who was retrieving personal belongings, when Pool ran inside carrying a bat and was shot by Avery after refusing to drop it, police said.
Gary James, an attorney for Avery and Adams, one of the officers charged in the Rodriguez shooting, said he was “ecstatic” about Behenna’s decision.
“We’ve got seven police officers who were just doing their duty, and were placed in a position by all three of the deceased that they had to use deadly force,” James said.
Although criminal charges against police officers are not common, previous district attorney Prater — himself an ex-cop who served 16 years as the county’s top prosecutor — had secured criminal convictions against officers before.
In 2013, Del City police Capt. Randy Harrison was sentenced to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter after shooting an unarmed teenager in the back as he ran away following a scuffle.
In 2019, another Oklahoma City police sergeant, Keith Sweeney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed, suicidal man.
Behenna said that in future cases involving police shootings, she will present evidence to a multi-county grand jury to make a decision on whether to file criminal charges, rather than making that decision herself.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley said the department has implemented “significant changes” since the fatal shootings, such as creating a training unit that has worked with every officer on de-escalation strategies. The chief’s statement Friday said officers are also provided with additional less-lethal equipment, like stun guns and weapons that deploy bean bags, as well as crisis-intervention training. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ | 2023-07-29T12:59:55 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ |
Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you. | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/if-you-see-a-hammerhead-worm-remember-salt-dont-slice | 2023-07-29T12:59:58 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/if-you-see-a-hammerhead-worm-remember-salt-dont-slice |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Racing will resume at Churchill Downs in September, with no changes being made after a review of surfaces and safety protocols in the wake of 12 horse deaths, including seven in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby in May.
The Louisville track suspended racing operations on June 7 and moved the rest of its spring meet to Ellis Park in western Kentucky at the recommendation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the sport’s national overseer.
Training continued at Churchill Downs during the track’s investigation.
Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen called the deaths “a series of unfortunate circumstances” and said the review “didn’t find anything fundamentally wrong or different about our track from previous years.”
“That, in a sense, can sometimes be unsatisfying,” he said. “But that’s business, and that’s sports.”
Two of the horse deaths occurred in undercard races on Derby day. Another five died later.
“The takeaway is, the track is very safe,” Carstanjen said Thursday on an earnings call with CDI investors.
“What we needed to do was spend some of this time in the interim, while we ran the rest of the (spring) meet at Ellis to just go soup to nuts through every single thing we do at the racetrack. There was nothing that jumped out as an apparent cause of the injuries, of the breakdowns; and, as we went through and rebuilt our processes from the ground up to check everything that we do to make extra sure, we didn’t find anything material.”
The track’s fall meet begins Sept. 14 and runs through Oct. 1.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-churchill-downs-to-resume-racing-at-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ | 2023-07-29T13:00:02 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-churchill-downs-to-resume-racing-at-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ |
Flor Marte knows someone will die. She knows when and how, because it came to her in a dream. That's her gift – all the women in the Marte family have one.
But Flor refuses to share who the dream is about. Instead, she insists on throwing herself a living wake, a reason for the entire family to come together and celebrate their lives. That's the starting point for Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel for adults, Family Lore.
Acevedo grew up in Harlem, with summer visits to the Dominican Republic, and aspirations of becoming a rapper – until a literature teacher invited her to join an after-school poetry club.
She attended reluctantly; but what she found in spoken word performance broke her world and the possibilities of language wide open.
"I think for folks who maybe have felt it difficult to occupy their bodies and take up space and demand attention, to have three minutes where that is the requirement is really powerful," she says.
Acevedo went on to become a National Poetry Slam champion and earn degrees in performing arts and creative writing. After college, she taught language arts in Prince George's County, Maryland. Teaching, she says, is its own kind of performance – one where the audience doesn't always want to be there. But her students were struggling in other ways.
"So many of my young people weren't at grade level, but they'd also not encountered literature that they felt reflected them," she says. "Trying to meet some of those students where they were was really a kickoff for my writing."
So Acevedo began writing young adult books. The Poet X, her first novel about a Dominican-American teen finding her voice through poetry, won a National Book Award in 2018.
Pivoting to a new audience
Now, with Family Lore, Acevedo turns her attention to adult readers.
"I think the way this pushes forward her work and the growing body of Dominican-American literature is how deeply she writes into the interiors of her women characters," says author Naima Coster, who read an early draft of the novel.
The story is told through memories, out of order, sometimes a memory within a different memory. Acevedo jumps from the Dominican countryside to Santo Domingo to New York, as sisters Matilde, Flor, Pastora and Camila – along with younger generation Ona and Yadi – reflect on their childhoods and teenage romances and the secrets that bind them all together. Though the Marte women grow older together, their relationships do not get easier.
"What does it mean if these women have really just had a different experience of their mother?" says Acevedo. "And how that different experience of their mother automatically will create a schism, because now it's like, 'You don't remember her the way I remember her, and because of that, I can't trust you."
There are infidelities, miscarriages, childhood love affairs and therapeutic dance classes. Acevedo explains that she needed to tell this story in a non-linear format, in the way memories surface and warp; the way family gossip is passed on from person to person, in a roundabout way.
Returning to the body
That format, she says, was more suited for adult readers; and writing for adults also allowed her to be candid about bodies: how they move, change, excite, disappoint.
"The generation I was raised by felt like their relationship to their body was very othered," Acevedo says. "When I speak to my cousins, when I think about myself, it's been a return to desire, a return to the gut, a return to health in a way that isn't necessarily about size but is about: who am I in this vessel and how do I love it?"
That tension is felt especially by the younger Marte women, whose supernatural gifts radiate from within. Ona has a self-described "alpha vagina," Yadi has a special taste for sour limes.
Naima Coster says it's easy to feel pressure to write about marginalized communities as clean-cut, exemplary characters. But Family Lore relishes in airing out the Marte family's dirty laundry– in showing Afro-Dominican women as full, complicated protagonists.
"It feels major, the way she writes about the ways that these women misunderstand each other, but still love each other," she says.
Acevedo says those themes – family, home, Blackness, power – will be in every book she writes, "because those are the questions that haunt me."
Family Lore reads like the feeling of getting older and no longer having moms and aunts lower their voices when you enter the room – like finally being privy to what makes a family flawed and perfect.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/in-family-lore-award-winning-ya-author-elizabeth-acevedo-turns-to-adult-readers | 2023-07-29T13:00:04 | 1 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/in-family-lore-award-winning-ya-author-elizabeth-acevedo-turns-to-adult-readers |
Tomatoes are a staple in any home cook’s vegetable arsenal, even though they’re technically a fruit. Whether you mix them into a paste, cut them into salad-ready cubes or eat them whole, they’re a key component in literally thousands of dishes. The only thing they can’t do? Last for a long time without help.
Most foodies know that summer is prime time for buying tomatoes at your grocery store, but there’s a solution that can extend their lifespan by months: Put them in the freezer.
Most people don’t think of preserving fresh tomatoes in the freezer, and there’s usually a good reason for that. If you don’t prep them before tossing them in, the fibers in the tomato can break down, giving them a mushy texture and robbing them of flavor. The secret is chilling them in an uncovered bowl or on a sheet pan, then sealing them up for the long haul after they’ve gone through the initial freeze.
Mind you, they won’t be quite the same texture, and will be better suited to using in a sauce or stew than eaten whole. If that’s your plan, you’ll also want to blanche them before freezing. For those not familiar with the technique, blanching means simply boiling things for a short while, then cooling them quickly. Not only will this curb the enzyme action that causes tomatoes to lose their flavor, it will also let the skins peel right off.
Here are the basic steps to follow for whole tomatoes:
- Wash them thoroughly under cold water, then wipe them completely dry with a cloth or paper towel.
- Cut off the stems, or any remnant of the stems (that little “belly button” that tomatoes often have at the top).
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, then add the tomatoes. Remove them after a short while — anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute.
- Place the tomatoes in an ice bath or run them under cold water. If you want to remove the skins at this point, you’ll find they should peel off easily.
- Dry off the tomatoes again and put them into a bowl or some other container with no lid. Put them into the freezer.
- Once they’re completely frozen (which should take no more than 3 hours), transfer them into a plastic bag or some other closed container, being careful to squeeze out as much air as you can.
If you already know you’re using the tomatoes for a sauce or gravy, you can liquefy them ahead of time. The process is much the same:
- Repeat the first four steps above.
- Slice your tomatoes (preferably peeled) into fourths.
- Let them simmer in a saucepan for at least five minutes.
- Liquefy them with a tomato press, or put them into a blender.
- Put the juice or paste into an airtight container, leaving an inch or two of space under the lid.
- Put the container into the freezer.
And there you have it! No matter what state they’re in, your tomatoes should last for up to eight months. It’s always a good idea to put a date on the container so that you can make sure they don’t overstay their welcome in the freezer. Also, resist the urge to season your tomatoes before you put them in storage. Onion, garlic and many herbs will undergo changes in flavor at different rates when frozen, so it’s best to use those when fresh.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.abc15.com/how-to-freeze-tomatoes-so-they-last-for-months | 2023-07-29T13:00:05 | 1 | https://www.abc15.com/how-to-freeze-tomatoes-so-they-last-for-months |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Ballots from Spaniards living abroad were counted Friday, and they gave a new twist to the inconclusive results from the general election.
The conservative Popular Party gained an additional seat from Madrid’s constituency late in the day at the expense of the Socialist Workers’ Party. That change gives the right-wing coalition of the PP and the far-right Vox party 172 seats in the lower house of parliament and drops left-wing forces to 171.
Forming a stable governing coalition will require one of the blocks to have the support of 176 lawmakers in the 350-seat body, and it’s not clear that either side will be able to obtain enough backing from smaller parties.
The country’s main political parties had been waiting for the count in the hope they might win seats from opponents and recompose the final picture. Results coming in from different constituencies during the day showed no changes across Spain — until Madrid added the last-gasp surprise.
The switch likely will make it even tougher to cobble together a government.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is considered the only leader with a chance to form a coalition, since the Popular Party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo is being shunned by other parties for allying with Vox.
But Sánchez does not have it easy. He needs help from secessionist parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia, and it could be politically risky to bid for support from the Catalan party Junts, which is headed by Carles Puigdemont, a leader of 2017’s failed secession bid in Catalonia.
His party has seven seats, but its goal of forcing Spain to allow a secession referendum is Catalonia is highly unpopular, including in Sánchez’s party.
The new parliament is to convene Aug. 17 and it will have three months to vote in a new prime minister. Otherwise, new elections would be called. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-count-of-ballots-from-spaniards-abroad-gives-edge-to-right-wing-block-and-deepens-the-stalemate/ | 2023-07-29T13:00:09 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-count-of-ballots-from-spaniards-abroad-gives-edge-to-right-wing-block-and-deepens-the-stalemate/ |
A visit to the Paris suburb where riots first broke out in France, following the police killing of a young man of North African descent.
Copyright 2023 NPR
A visit to the Paris suburb where riots first broke out in France, following the police killing of a young man of North African descent.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/in-the-paris-suburb-where-riots-erupted-protests-have-died-down-but-anger-remains | 2023-07-29T13:00:10 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/in-the-paris-suburb-where-riots-erupted-protests-have-died-down-but-anger-remains |
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you. | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/indigenous-communities-in-taiwan-celebrate-summer-with-the-harvest-festival | 2023-07-29T13:00:16 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/indigenous-communities-in-taiwan-celebrate-summer-with-the-harvest-festival |
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal trial for the man who fatally shot 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue approached its conclusion Friday as the defense, trying to persuade a jury to spare his life, pressed its case that mental illness spurred the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.
Robert Bowers, a 50 year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts for the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue. The jury has been hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial and will decide whether Bowers will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors have presented evidence that Bowers was motivated by his hatred of Jewish people when he opened fire at the synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, killing members of three congregations gathered for Sabbath worship and study. The defense argues Bowers has schizophrenia and acted out of a delusional belief that Jews were participating in a genocide of white people.
On Friday, a defense psychiatrist who met with Bowers 10 times for nearly 40 hours said Bowers saw himself as a soldier of God in a war in which Satan was trying to use Jewish people to bring about the end of the world. Dr. George Corvin, of Raleigh, N.C., said it was a delusion brought on by psychosis.
Corvin said Bowers continues to express delusional beliefs about Jews — “disgustingly so” — and that he is incapable of remorse. He said Bowers should be on anti-psychotic medication.
Bowers “has a belief that we’re at the end of a war that’s been going on for thousands of years,” Corvin testified. “He still envisions what he did as an unfortunate act of violence at the direction of God — that it will save lives. He believes he’s a tool for God. I know it sounds absurd. It’s psychotic.”
Corvin continued: “This is the result of a mental illness.”
Corvin was one of several defense experts who diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. A neurologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that Bowers has schizophrenia, saying Bowers has a personality disorder but is not delusional, and that mental illness did not appear to play a role in the attack. Prosecutors have noted Bowers spent six months planning the shooting.
Also testifying Friday were Bowers’ aunt and uncle.
The uncle, Clyde Munger, said he visited with Bowers in prison because “he is my nephew and I love him.” He said he prays for Bowers every morning.
The aunt, Patricia Fine, was expected to the final defense witness. She said Bowers had a difficult childhood from infancy, describing the house where he lived as unsafe. She said he was a sad child and that she “was convinced” he would take his own life. A defense expert previously described Bowers’ early life as deeply unstable and said he attempted suicide several times in his teens.
Fine’s testimony was scheduled to resume Monday, with closing arguments and jury deliberations expected to follow. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ | 2023-07-29T13:00:16 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ |
At a time of increasing isolation for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage, he just concluded a summit with leaders from Africa.
Copyright 2023 NPR
At a time of increasing isolation for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage, he just concluded a summit with leaders from Africa.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/isolated-by-the-west-putin-hosted-a-summit-for-leaders-from-africa-in-st-petersburg | 2023-07-29T13:00:23 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/isolated-by-the-west-putin-hosted-a-summit-for-leaders-from-africa-in-st-petersburg |
BENGALURU, India (AP) — The final meeting of climate and environment ministers from the world’s largest economies ended without an agreement or joint statement Friday despite pleas from leading figures for nations to show a united front on climate change as weather records shatter across the globe.
In a gathering in Chennai in India, ministers from the Group of 20 countries — who emit around 80% of the world’s planet-warming gases — failed to agree on four of 68 points of discussion.
A document published by the group shows countries did not agree on aiming to peak emissions by 2025, moving to clean energy and a tax on carbon as a way to reduce emissions.
“We couldn’t get a consensus but we agreed on a lot,” said Canada’s climate minister Steven Guilbeault at a virtual press conference after the meeting.
The ministers’ decisions will now be passed on to country leaders ahead of a summit in New Delhi in September this year. It will be the group’s last chance to issue a joint statement on climate this year.
On Thursday, the president of the upcoming United Nations climate talks Sultan al-Jaber and the U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell attended the Chennai meeting to urge countries to issue an ambitious statement that will make sure the world is on track to keep global warming within the agreed temperature limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
The world has currently warmed around 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times and effects are already being felt all over the world, with hosts India especially vulnerable. Earlier this year, more than 100 people died during a heat wave in the center of the country and last week at least 27 people died in western India due to landslides triggered by heavy rains.
Since India took over the G-20 presidency last December, none of the meetings that deal with various policy areas like foreign affairs, finance, energy and climate change have come out with a joint communique but their announcements may form part of a final document released at the leaders’ summit in September.
Earlier this month, a meeting of finance chiefs and central bank governors of the G-20 leading economies ended in Gandhinagar in the western state of Gujarat without a consensus because of differences between countries over the war in Ukraine.
Similarly, a meeting of energy ministers in Goa last week ended unsuccessfully with the final summary failing to mention a phase down of fossil fuels and ministers did not agree to raise ambition to treble renewable energy targets.
The meeting in Chennai was the last of four meetings of G-20 climate ministers. They had earlier met in Bengaluru, Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Mumbai.
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Follow Sibi Arasu on Twitter at @sibi123
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-g20-ministers-reach-agreement-on-most-but-not-all-climate-issues/ | 2023-07-29T13:00:23 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-g20-ministers-reach-agreement-on-most-but-not-all-climate-issues/ |
Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you. | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/lydia-kiesling-on-her-new-novel-mobility | 2023-07-29T13:00:29 | 0 | https://www.apr.org/2023-07-29/lydia-kiesling-on-her-new-novel-mobility |
ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Many were not just killed at home. They were killed by their homes.
Angela Eason had visited Brenda Odoms’ tidy mobile home before. It was a place where Odoms, who had many tragedies in her life, felt safe.
In March, a tornado ripped through this small Mississippi town and people in mobile or manufactured homes were hit the hardest. Inside a mobile morgue, Eason, the county coroner, examined Odoms’ gaping fatal head wound. Odoms was found just outside of her collapsed mobile home that was tossed around by a tornado. Blunt force trauma killed her.
“The one place she felt safe she was not,” Eason said. Fourteen people died in that Rolling Fork tornado, nine of them, including Odoms, were in uprooted manufactured or mobile homes.
Tornadoes in the United States are disproportionately killing more people in mobile or manufactured homes, especially in the South, often victimizing some of the most socially and economically vulnerable residents. Since 1996, tornadoes have killed 815 people in mobile or manufactured homes, representing 53% of all the people killed at home during a tornado, according to an Associated Press data analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tornado deaths. Meanwhile, less than 6% of America’s housing units are manufactured homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While the dangers of tornadoes to mobile homes have long been known, and there are ways to mitigate the risk, the percentage of total tornado deaths that happen in mobile homes has been increasing. Part of the problem is that federal housing rules that call for tougher manufactured home standards, including anchoring, only apply in hurricane zones, which is most of Florida and then several counties along the coast. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit.
Auburn University engineering professor David Roueche called manufactured homes in non-coastal places “death traps compared to most permanent homes” when it comes to tornadoes.
A DEADLY YEAR
The first tornado deaths this year were in Alabama in January, killing seven people, all in mobile homes. All but one were thrown at least 1,000 feet from their homes, with the seventh person thrown at least 500 feet, said Ernie Baggett, the former emergency management chief for Autauga County, Alabama. Less than 100 yards from where four of those people died was a permanent home that had little more than shingle damage, he said.
When the wind hits the mobile homes, “it’s like a house of cards. They just crumble,” Baggett said.
So far this year, at least 45 of the 74 people killed in the U.S. by tornadoes were in some form of manufactured housing when they died, according to NOAA data. Nine others died in site homes and the rest were killed in other places, such as in vehicles.
The manufactured housing industry — which disputes that there’s any disproportionate danger — insists on calling the structures manufactured homes if they are built after hurricane-based federal standards in 1976 and mobile homes if they are built before, saying age of the home matters. Federal housing officials use the term manufactured housing. Other people, including many researchers and residents, use the terms interchangeably.
More than 70% of the 8 million manufactured homes in America were built after 1976. Because a big chunk were built in the 1980s and early 1990s, 60% of all those homes were installed before increased federal standards were adopted in 1994, the industry’s trade group, Manufactured Housing Institute said.
TORNADOES DON’T HAVE TO BE DEADLY
Tornado experts say most tornadoes should be survivable.
“You just have to be in some structure that’s attached to the ground. And then no matter what the tornado throws at you, you have really good odds,” said NOAA social scientist Kim Klockow-McClain.
But in manufactured homes, even the weakest tornadoes are killing people in large numbers when they shouldn’t be, more than a dozen experts in meteorology, disasters and engineering told The AP.
More than 240 people in mobile homes in the past 28 years have died in tornadoes with winds of 135 mph or less, the three weakest of the six categories of twisters, the AP analysis found. That’s 79% of the deaths at home in the weaker tornadoes. It’s only in storms with winds higher than 165 mph where most of the at home deaths are in more permanent structures.
Auburn’s Roueche not only studies what happens in mobile homes during tornadoes, he grew up in one. What he sees over and over are mobile homes that fail from the bottom up because they are not secured enough to the ground, like permanent homes are.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A TORNADO
“The whole structure is rolling or flying through air. You’ve got dressers falling on top of you. You’ve got the entire structure that’s trying to crush you,” said Roueche.
That March evening in Rolling Fork, when the tornado roared through Ida Cartlidge remembered the air blowing so powerfully that she couldn’t breathe, the sounds of windows shattering and then utter mayhem.
“The only thing that’s holding a mobile home down are the little straps in the ground,” Cartlidge said. “It picked up the home one time, set it down. It picked it up again, set it down. It picked it up a third time, and we were in the air.”
The tornado hit Mildred Joyner’s mobile home so hard she felt the mobile home shake, heard the cracking sound of what she figured was her home coming apart and then she woke up in the hospital and her mother who was in the mobile home with her ended up paralyzed from the waist down.
The problem is worsening in the South because tornadoes have been moving more from the Great Plains to the mid-South in recent decades and will likely to continue to do so with climate change a possible factor, studies show. Alabama has the most tornado deaths by far.
Unlike the rest of the country, which usually has most manufactured housing in parks, the South has mobile homes scattered about the countryside in ones and twos, making central tornado shelters less effective and likely to be built, said Villanova University tornado expert Stephen Strader and Northern Illinois meteorology professor Walker Ashley.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ANCHORING
One thing scientists, emergency managers and the manufactured housing industry agree on is that anchoring mobile homes to the ground is key.
That requires expensive concrete or expensive tie down systems, said former Alabama emergency official Jonathan Gaddy, now a professor at Idaho State University.
“Why does that matter? Well, it explains why we haven’t fixed the problem with anchoring because nobody can fix the problem and still make money. That’s the bottom line,” Gaddy said.
“Anchoring matters and has been shown to be the difference between life or death,” Villanova’s Strader said in an email. “However, the MH industry seems disinterested in addressing this because it would make their homes more expensive.”
Manufactured Home Institute Chief Executive Officer Lesli Gooch said the industry is “very clear” about the importance of anchoring. “We also talk about making sure that a professional checks your anchoring systems on your manufactured home, especially on mobile homes built prior to (19)76,” she said.
“We’re very focused on making sure that there are minimum installation standards in the states,” Gooch said.
Northern Illinois’ Ashley said lack of state regulations and inspections, especially in much of the South, is a big problem.
Improvements in federal codes that went into effect in 1976, 1994 and 2008 make a big difference, Gooch said, arguing that the NOAA data the AP analyzed and that scientists use lump different ages of manufactured homes together and tar them with the problems of the oldest ones.
“I wouldn’t want your readers to misinterpret your data to suggest that living in a manufactured home is somehow more deadly than living in a site-built home because I would tell you that I don’t think that the data bears that out,” Gooch said.
Gooch pointed to manufactured homes in Florida, where tighter federal Housing and Urban Development safety rules apply because it is a hurricane wind zone. “Homes in Florida that are manufactured homes are performing better than what you see in the site-built world,” she said.
IT’S NOT GETTING BETTER
Several scientists and engineers said data, and history, show the situation has not improved.
“This is more of the handwaving- and misdirection-type statements that has come to represent the manufactured housing industry’s take on tornado and manufactured home safety,” Villanova’s Strader said in an email, with Northern Illinois’ Ashley agreeing.
“Our study of the Lee County Alabama EF4 tornado found that 19 of the 23 deaths were in manufactured homes (all built after 1994),” Strader said. “All of those deaths were due to a lack of anchoring or a floor-to-wall connection. There have been many prior studies that have illustrated that these homes are failing at lower wind loads than permanent homes.”
If Gooch were right, the percentage of tornado deaths in mobile homes would be going down with time and they are not, NOAA National Severe Storms Lab tornado scientist Harold Brooks said, presenting data that goes back to 1975. His data showed mobile home deaths between 1975 and 1984 were 43.6% of all at-home tornado deaths and the same figure was 63.2% for the past ten years through the end of May.
A contributing factor, Strader, Ashley and Roueche said, is that federal rules for anchoring only apply in hurricane zones, mostly in Florida. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit. Instead, they hit inland where the weakest federal standards are, they said. Most of tornado-prone areas, including almost all of Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Mississippi are in “Zone 1,” where safety and anchoring of mobile homes have the most lax standards.
“People are dying in new and old Zone 1 manufactured homes,” Roueche said in response to Gooch’s comments. Tornado homes throughout the country would be much safer if the coastal federal requirements applied everywhere, he said.
HURTING POOR PEOPLE MORE
One of the issues with mobile homes and tornadoes is that it is an intersection of risk and “different social vulnerability factors like poverty, even some issues pertaining to race, ethnicity, age,” NOAA’s Klockow said.
And it makes it harder for people to leave their mobile homes and head for a permanent shelter.
“I always think about the single mother who’s living in a manufactured home. It’s the middle of the night. She has three kids. Her car’s not starting correctly and all of a sudden here comes a tornado,” Strader said in an interview.
Officials tell her “to get to a storm shelter because our manufactured home isn’t safe,” Strader said. “Well, the problem there is that there’s all these factors up against them.”
Tornadoes pop down rapidly, which doesn’t allow meteorologists to give much warning, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. In many cases, the National Weather Service warns days in advance that the conditions are ripe for tornadoes, but that isn’t the same as warning that one has touched down.
University of Oklahoma social scientist Justin Sharpe, who studies disaster warnings, said with poor and disabled residents the key is to avoid warnings that simply say “get out now” and nothing else.
Instead, a couple hours before a tornado is possible, meteorologists should warn people to be packed up and ready to go at a moment’s notice later, Sharpe and Klockow-McClain said.
FINDING SAFER PLACES
A relatively new law in Alabama could help provide more shelters and be a model for other states. The law gives liability protection to buildings like churches and stores that open up in an emergency as a shelter if specifically-built shelters aren’t available.
When this year’s first deadly tornado struck just outside Montgomery, Alabama, Autauga County had about 30 minutes warning but no “safer places” to send people, the then-emergency chief, Baggett said. Seven people in mobile homes died.
The tornado continued into neighboring Elmore County, which had already set off its 30 warning sirens, used a mass notification system to make 16,772 calls to phones in the danger area and opened up 16 churches and other safer places.
People went into the temporary shelters. Homes were destroyed, but no one died.
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Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and video journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Borenstein reported from Washington and Fassett from Seattle.
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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein, Camille Fasset and Michael Goldberg on Twitter at @borenbears, @camfassett and @mikergoldberg.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ | 2023-07-29T13:00:29 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ |