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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, the unassuming, bespectacled, red-headed keyboardist who for more than 40 years added his synth sounds to Depeche Mode hits like “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “Personal Jesus,” has died at age 60.
Depeche Mode announced the death of founding member Fletcher on its official social media pages.
A person close to the band said Fletcher died Thursday from natural causes at his home in the United Kingdom. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher,” the band’s posts said. “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint.”
Fletcher formed the group that would become giants of British electro-pop along with fellow synthesizer players Vince Clarke and Martin Gore, and lead singer Dave Gahan, in Basildon, England in 1980.
The band would break out a year later with their debut album “Speak and Spell,” which opened with the modest hit “New Life” and closed with one of the band’s enduring hits, “Just Can’t Get Enough.”
Clarke would leave the group and be replaced by Alan Wilder after the album.
The group would find international success with 1984’s “Some Great Reward” and the single “People are People,” and their prominence would only grow throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Fletcher would lend his keyboards to classic albums including “Music for the Masses,” “Black Celebration” and “Violator.”
The first of these led to a world tour that brought a live album, a documentary, and a legendary concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, that represented the pinnacle of the band’s prominence.
A fan of soccer team Chelsea FC with a penchant for chess, Fletcher assumed a low-profile in the group. He did not sing or write songs, and his face never as familiar as those of his bandmates.
“Martin’s the songwriter, Alan’s the good musician, Dave’s the vocalist, and I bum around,” he said in the tour documentary, “101.”
But Fletch was a uniting figure and often the tiebreaking vote in the squabbles of his more famous bandmates.
He also occasionally played bass in the band.
Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Gahan, Fletcher and Gore had to accept the honor remotely along with all the other inductees in the pandemic year. As usual, Fletcher let his bandmates do nearly all the talking.
His death leaves Gahan and Gore as the only permanent members.
Fletcher’s musical peers paid him tribute as word of his death spread.
“His keyboard sounds crafted not just Depeche Mode’s sonic approach but shifted the direction of Techno, EDM, Downtempo, Triphop, & Electronica. Crucial loss,” Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid tweeted.
The Pet Shop Boys said on Twitter that he was “a warm, friendly and funny person who loved electronic music.”
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark tweeted that he was a “beautiful person in an amazing band.”
The eldest of four siblings, Fletcher was born in Basildon and raised in Nottingham, England.
He became childhood friends with Clarke, and with singer Alison Moyet, who would form Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) with Clarke after he left Depeche Mode.
“Since we were 10,” Moyet tweeted Thursday. “Same estate. Class mates to label mates. He who kept faith with all the old gang and they with him. It doesn’t compute. Fletch. I have no words.”
As teens, Fletcher and Clarke would form the short-lived group “No Romance.”
With Gore, who Fletcher met at a pub in Basildon in 1980, they formed the trio Composition of Sound, with all three playing synthesizer. Gahan was recruited into the group later in the year, and the name was changed to Depeche Mode.
Fletcher would remain with the group until his death, though reported struggles with depression in 1994 spurred him to sit out part of a tour.
He started his own record label, Toast Hawaii, in 2002, releasing an album by the band CLIENT.
Fletcher would perform DJ sets at the band’s live shows, which he continued to do at festivals and clubs after he and CLIENT parted ways.
Fletcher is survived by his wife of nearly 30 years Gráinne Mullan, and their children Megan and Joe.
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/depeche-mode-founding-keyboardist-andy-fletcher-dies-at-60/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:18 | en | 0.980744 |
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will require statewide recertification of condominiums over three stories tall under new legislation Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Thursday as a response to the Surfside building collapse that killed 98 people.
But while the measure was hailed by lawmakers, the senator who represents Surfside, Democrat Jason Pizzo, warns there’s a lot more to do — and the state doesn’t have enough structural engineers to handle the workload required to make sure all the state’s high-rise condominiums are safe.
“Tell your nieces and daughters and sons to go study engineering,” Pizzo said.
The governor’s signature came the day after the House unanimously passed the bill during a special session originally called to address skyrocketing property insurance rates. The condominium safety bill was added to the agenda Tuesday and immediately passed by the Senate.
Recertification will be required after 30 years, or 25 years if the building is within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the coast, and every 10 years thereafter. The Champlain Towers South was 40 years old and was going through the 40-year-recertification process required by Miami-Dade County when it collapsed last June.
At the time, Miami-Dade and Broward counties were the only two of the state’s 67 that had condominium recertification programs.
There are more than 1.5 million condominium units in Florida operated by nearly 28,000 associations, according to a legislative analysis conducted earlier this year, Of those, more than 912,000 are older than 30 years and are the home to more than 2 million residents.
Pizzo said there are about 650 certified structural engineers in Florida. And there’s a high demand for them on new construction alone. Most of the provisions of the law will take effect in 2024, so there is some time to prepare, Pizzo said.
“We’re going to be back in regular session at least one more time before any of this really kicks in, which gives ample time to tweak, amend, hear from the public and people on the ground,” said Pizzo, who is hosting a public forum on the new law with other legislators next month.
He said that the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation doesn’t have enough staff to handle condo regulation.
“They’re operating on bare bones,” he said. “When it comes to life safety issues, I’m just not comfortable that the same agency that licenses manicurists are also licensing engineers for buildings … They need to be well resourced.”
The bill would require that condominium associations have sufficient reserves to pay for major repairs and conduct a study of the reserves every decade. It would also require condominium associations to provide inspection reports to owners, and if structural repairs are needed, work must begin within a year of the report.
Similar legislation failed during the regular session that ended in March.
Meanwhile, a final settlement agreement is expected Friday that will pay at least $96 million to homeowners with condos in the Surfside building but whose families suffered no loss of life.
The condominium legislation was attached to a bill that would forbid insurers from automatically denying coverage because of a roof’s age if the roof is less than 15 years old. Homeowners with roofs 15 years or older would be allowed to get an inspection before insurers deny them coverage.
While some Democratic lawmakers complained that the special session on insurance didn’t go far enough to help relieve homeowners, they did praise the addition of the condominium safety legislation. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/desantis-signs-bill-addressing-safety-after-condo-collapse/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:26 | en | 0.966152 |
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Reactions to the death of “Goodfellas” star Ray Liotta:
“I’m absolutely shocked and devastated by the sudden, unexpected death of Ray Liotta. He was so uniquely gifted, so adventurous, so courageous as an actor. Playing Henry Hill in Good Fellas was a tall order, because the character had so many different facets, so many complicated layers, and Ray was in almost every scene of a long, tough shoot. He absolutely amazed me, and I’ll always be proud of the work we did together on that picture.” —Director Martin Scorsese in a statement.
“I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.” — Lorraine Bracco, who played Liotta’s wife in “Goodfellas,” via Twitter.
“I was very saddened to learn of Ray’s passing. He is way too way young to have left us.” — Robert De Niro, in a statement.
“Devastated to hear the news of Ray Liotta’s passing. While he leaves an incredible legacy, he’ll always be ‘Shoeless Joe Jackson’ in my heart. What happened that moment in the film was real. God gave us that stunt. Now God has Ray.” — Kevin Costner on Twitter. He included a clip from the film of Liotta hitting a home run off him.
“I can’t believe Ray Liotta has passed away. He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favorite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace.” — Seth Rogen, who worked with Liotta on 2009’s “Observe and Report,” via Twitter.
“Ray Liotta has died. What a gentle human. His work as an actor showed his complexity as a human. A beautiful artist. We made the lovely film, Dominic and Eugene in 1986. Sad news.” — Jamie Lee Curtis on Instagram.
“I feel so lucky to have squared off against this legend in one of his final roles. The scenes we did together were among the all time highlights of my acting career. He was dangerous, unpredictable, hilarious, and generous with his praise for other actors. Too soon.” — Actor Alessandro Nivola, star of “The Many Saints of Newark,” one of Liotta’s final films.
“This is a massive, unexpected shock. I have been an admirer of Ray’s work since I saw him in ‘Something Wild,’ a movie he wrenched by the tail. I was so glad he worked on ‘The Many Saints of Newark’… Ray was also a very warm and humorous person. A really superior actor. We all felt we lucked out having him on that movie.” — “Many Saints of Newark” director and “Sopranos” creator David Chase, in a statement.
“Ray Liotta. Man. Just met dude for the first time last year. GREAT actor. Nice to have had a chance to say that to him.” —Actor Jeffrey Wright, via Twitter. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/goodfellas-co-stars-many-others-pay-tribute-to-ray-liotta/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:32 | en | 0.979189 |
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has told the head of the United Nations that Turkey is directly challenging its sovereignty over islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, and pursuing a hostile and “revisionist” policy that is destabilizing the region.
The four-page letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, dated May 25 and signed by Greece’s permanent U.N. representative, Maria Theofili, was seen by The Associated Press on Thursday.
“Greece solemnly calls upon Turkey to stop questioning Greece’s sovereignty over its Aegean islands, in particular through legally baseless and historically false assertions (and) to abstain from threatening Greece with war,” the letter reads.
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over sea boundaries, but the disagreement flared in 2020 as oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean intensified.
Turkey is demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, maintaining the action is required under 20th century treaties that ceded sovereignty of the islands to Greece. The Greek government calls the demand a deliberate misinterpretation and has accused Turkey, a fellow NATO member, of stepping up hostile actions in the area.
“Highly threatening acts by Turkey (include) repeated overflights of Greek territory by fighter jets in contravention to international law,” the letter said.
The Greek-Turkish dispute largely centers around oil-and-gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, specifically around Greek islands near Turkey’s coastline.
A Turkish survey mission two years ago triggered a tense naval stand-off that Western allies had warned ran the risk of escalating into a military conflict.
In response to the energy crisis worsened by the war in Ukraine, Greece has pledged to temporarily reverse a coal phase-out and step up hydrocarbon exploration along its western coastline. ___
Follow Gatopoulos on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/greece-tells-un-that-turkey-is-challenging-its-sovereignty/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:39 | en | 0.943018 |
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Irma Garcia’s family was already reeling from her death in the Texas school shooting that targeted her fourth grade classroom and killed her co-teacher and 19 students.
Then, a mere two days after the attack, her grieving husband collapsed and died at home from a heart attack, a family member said.
Joe Garcia, 50, dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas, and returned home, where he “pretty much just fell over” and died, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times.
Married for 24 years, the couple had four children.
Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to grasp that while the couple’s oldest son trained for combat in the Marine Corps, it was his mother who was shot to death.
“Stuff like this should not be happening in schools,” he told the newspaper.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcia’s death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday.
The motive for the massacre — the nation’s deadliest school shooting since the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut — remained under investigation, with authorities saying the 18-year-old gunman had no known criminal or mental health history.
The rampage rocked a country already weary from gun violence and shattered the community of Uvalde, a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border.
The Garcias loved to barbecue, 48-year-old Irma wrote in an online letter to her students at Robb Elementary School. She enjoyed listening to music and traveling to Concan, a community along the Frio River about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Uvalde.
The couple’s oldest child, Cristian, is a Marine. The couple’s other son, Jose, attends Texas State University. Their eldest daughter, Lyliana, is a high school sophomore, while her younger sister is in the seventh grade.
The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Garcia’s 23rd year of teaching — all of it at Robb. She was previously named the school’s teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University.
For five years, Garcia co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed.
The suspect, Salvador Ramos, was inside the classroom for more than an hour before he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, authorities said.
“Mrs. Irma Garcia was my mentor when I began teaching,” her colleague Allison McCullough wrote when Garcia was named teacher of the year. “The wealth of knowledge and patience that she showed me was life changing.”
___
Associated Press journalist Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.
___
More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/grieving-husband-dies-after-wife-is-slain-in-texas-rampage/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:46 | en | 0.980858 |
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LONDON (AP) — Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell won the International Booker Prize on Thursday for “Tomb of Sand,” a vibrant novel with a boundary-crossing 80-year-old heroine.
Originally written in Hindi, it’s the first book in any Indian language to win the high-profile award, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. The 50,000-pound ($63,000) prize money will be split between New Delhi-based Shree and Rockwell, who lives in Vermont.
Translator Frank Wynne, who chaired the judging panel, said the judges “overwhelmingly” chose “Tomb of Sand” after “a very passionate debate.”
The book tells the story of an octogenarian widow who dares to cast off convention and confront the ghosts of her experiences during the subcontinent’s tumultuous 1947 partition into India and Pakistan.
Wynne said that despite confronting traumatic events, “it is an extraordinarily exuberant and incredibly playful book.”
“It manages to take issues of great seriousness — bereavement, loss, death — and conjure up an extraordinary choir, almost a cacophony, of voices,” he said.
“It is extraordinarily fun and it is extraordinarily funny.”
Shree’s book beat five other finalists including Polish Nobel literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk, Claudia Piñeiro of Argentina and South Korean author Bora Chung to be awarded the prize at a ceremony in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded every year to a translated work of fiction published in the U.K. or Ireland. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction.
The prize was set up to boost the profile of fiction in other languages — which accounts for only a small share of books published in Britain — and to salute the often unacknowledged work of literary translators.
Wynne said the prize aimed to show that at “literature in translation is not some form of cod liver oil that is supposed to be good for you.”
“Tomb of Sand” is published in Britain by small publisher Tilted Axis Press. It was founded by translator Deborah Smith — who won the 2016 International Booker for translating Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” — to publish books from Asia.
The novel has not yet been published in the United States, but Wynne said he expected that to change with “a flurry of offers” after its Booker victory.
In Britain, “I would be gobsmacked if it didn’t increase its sales by more than 1,000% in the next week,” Wynne said. “Possibly more.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/indian-novel-tomb-of-sand-wins-international-booker-prize/ | 2022-05-27T18:11:54 | en | 0.964878 |
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The International Organization for Migration says up to 600 people attempting to reach Europe by sea from Tunisia and Libya have gone missing during the first three months of 2022, the highest figure since 2014.
In the latest tragedy, according to Tunisian authorities, a wooden boat carrying over 100 people capsized early Tuesday near the island of Kerkennah in southeastern Tunisia due to bad weather. The IOM said Wednesday that 30 people from that boat were rescued but 75 are still missing.
Tunisian navy and coast guard units continued to comb the area on Thursday where the tragedy occurred.
On Wednesday, dozens of migrants fell into the water as they struggled to cling to an upturned boat off the coast of Tunisia. Some 110 people were rescued by the non-governmental organization Open Arms.
Alice Sironi, head of migrant protection at the IOM, told The Associated Press that the central Mediterranean migration route, which runs between Libya and Tunisia across the sea, remains particularly deadly.
“In addition to our humanitarian role to take care of the survivors in terms of accommodation and food, we are committed to strengthening the capacities of the Tunisian authorities to come to the aid of boats in distress,” said Sironi.
According to Mourad Torki, a spokesperson for the courts of Sfax, the capital of the region, only one body has been recovered so far from Tuesday’s capsize, suggesting there is little hope of finding survivors.
“Generally, it takes several days for the corpses to be washed up by the sea,” Torki told the AP.
___
Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/iom-up-to-600-missing-at-sea-in-3-months-in-central-med/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:01 | en | 0.965069 |
CANNES, France (AP) — “Shoplifters” director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to the Cannes Film Festival with “Broker,” another tale of misfits from society’s margins.
This time, the film centers on the use of a “baby box,” a controversial method of anonymously dropping off newborns to be cared for by others used in Japan, South Korea and other parts of the world.
“In Japan, the biggest criticism was that the baby box was making it too easy for the mothers to give up on their responsibility to raise the child. But, on the other hand, some people said that these boxes were actually saving lives because otherwise, the children might die,” he said. “I just thought that was an interesting argument to base a film on.”
The director says his interest in the issue dates back to 2013. “When I was making ‘Like Father, Like Son.’ I researched the Japanese adoption system and it was then that I learned that Kumamoto Prefecture had Japan’s only baby box. So I got interested in that and started to research it. And I learned that Korea had the same kind of baby box, but that they had about 10 times as many babies put in baby boxes in Korea as in Japan,” he said.
“And then in 2016, I came up with the idea for a short plot based on the Korean baby box with Song Kang-ho, starring as a broker.”
Alongside Song (“Snowpiercer,” “Parasite,” “The Throne”), the South Korean drama also stars Bae Doona (“The Host,” “Jupiter Ascending,” “Cloud Atlas”), Gang Dong-won (“Secret Reunion,” “The Priests”), and South Korean singer-songwriter Lee Ji-eun, known as IU.
“Broker” marks the director’s sixth time competing for the Palme d’Or. He was first nominated for Cannes’ top prize in 2001 for “Distance,” then again in 2004 for “Nobody Knows,” in 2013 and for “Our Little Sister” in 2015.
The Japanese director won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2013 for “Like Father, Like Son” and won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 festival for his highly-acclaimed movie, “Shoplifters.”
Single mothers have long faced stigma in South Korea because pregnancy when out of wedlock is considered inappropriate. They are often pressured and shamed into giving up their children because of deeply sexist and conservative culture, birth registration laws stacked against them, and a largely privatized adoption industry.
“They can find themselves disadvantaged by the system,” he said. “And the mother is the easiest one to criticize because the father isn’t there anymore. So he escapes the criticism.”
When asked whether the film poses a question about what it means to be a family today, Kore-eda called the tale “the story of a pseudo-family.”
“But more important in this case is the two women who have chosen not to be mothers. They are at the center of the story, as well as this life that has been thrown away. So, for me, in this case, life was more central to the film than the family.”
___
For more Cannes Film Festival coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival. | https://www.ktsm.com/entertainment-news/director-kore-eda-returns-to-cannes-with-film-about-baby-box/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:07 | en | 0.976892 |
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill criminalizing normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel. The legislation says that violation of the law is punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment.
The law was approved with 275 lawmakers voting in favor of it in the 329-seat assembly. A parliament statement said the legislation is “a true reflection of the will of the people.”
Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections last year, called for Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this “”great achievement.” Hundreds later gathered in central Baghdad, chanting anti-Israel slogans.
It was unclear how the law will be implemented as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country’s formation in 1948; the two nations have no diplomatic relations. The legislation also entails risks for companies working in Iraq and found to be in violation of the bill.
The United States said it was deeply disturbed by the Iraqi legislation. “In addition to jeopardizing freedom of expression and promoting an environment of antisemitism, this legislation stands in stark contrast to progress Iraq’s neighbors have made by building bridges and normalizing relations with Israel, creating new opportunities for people throughout the region,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles towards the northern city of Irbil in the Kurdish-run north, saying it was targeting an Israeli intelligence base.
The home of Baz Karim, the CEO of the oil company KAR GROUP, was heavily damaged in the attack. KAR has been accused in the past of quietly selling oil to Israel.
A report by the Iraqi parliament’s fact-finding committee said it found no evidence to support Iranian accusations of an Israeli spy base in Irbil. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/iraqi-lawmakers-pass-bill-criminalizing-any-ties-with-israel/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:08 | en | 0.962455 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Quentin Tarantino’s next book is a nonfiction dispatch from a lifelong movie fanatic.
“Cinema Speculation,” to be published Oct. 25, will center on “The Getaway” and other films from the 1970s that influenced him during childhood. The book, announced Friday by Harper, comes a year after his best-selling novelization of his movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Harper is calling “Cinema Speculation” a combination of “film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history.” Tarantino, 59, is also known for such movies as “Pulp Fiction,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “Django Unchained.” He has previously cited such ’70s films as “Jaws,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Carrie” as among his favorites. | https://www.ktsm.com/entertainment-news/quentin-tarantino-book-cinema-speculation-to-land-oct-25/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:13 | en | 0.978698 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Biden administration to use a higher estimate, challenged by Republican-led states, for calculating damages to people and the environment from greenhouse gas emissions.
The justices did not comment in refusing to put back in place an order from a federal judge in Louisiana that had blocked the administration from putting greater emphasis on potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for polluting industries.
The approach uses the “social cost of carbon” to calculate future climate damages to justify tougher restrictions for fossil fuels, transportation and other industries.
The federal appeals court in New Orleans put the order on hold and Louisiana led nine states in asking the high court to in to intervene.
The justices’ refusal to do so allows the administration to use an interim standard of $51 in damages per ton of carbon dioxide emitted while it works to update and possibly increase the cost per ton. The $51 figure was used by the Obama administration before the Trump administration cut it to $7.
By itself, the estimate does not impose any new requirements, but it could be used to justify tougher rules. The states would be free to challenge any new regulations. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/justices-wont-block-biden-policy-on-social-cost-of-carbon/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:15 | en | 0.924984 |
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The suspect in a Texas mass shooting that resulted in 19 students and two teachers dead talked about school shootings and guns via social media apps, the Texas Department of Public Safety Texas Director Steven McCraw said during a news conference Friday,
“I want to correct something that was said early on in the investigation,” McCraw started, referring to Gov. Greg Abbott’s statements earlier this week that the shooter posted on Facebook prior to shooting and injuring his grandmother, and then again prior to entering the school. “That did not happen, it was actually on a message.”
McCraw walked through the suspect’s “digital footprint” for the first time Friday. He gave the following timeline:
- Sept. 2021: The suspect asked his sister to help him buy a gun, she refused.
- Feb. 2022: In a group of four people on Instagram messenger, “it was discussed that Ramos being a school shooter.”
- March 2022: In a group of four people on Instagram messenger, “he discussed him buying a gun.”
- March 2022: McCraw says in another four-person chat, someone messaged, “word on the street is you are buying a gun.” McCraw says the suspect responded: “Just bought something.”
- March 2022: Suspect posted on Instagram saying, “10 more days.” Someone commented and said, “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?” The suspect replied, “No, and stop asking dumb questions and you’ll see.”
It is unclear at this point if the DPS director misspoke and listed March as the dates in which the suspect posted instead of May, which would better line up with the events of the shooting.
McCraw also said they are looking into the possibility the suspect was talking about violence in video game chat rooms.
“We’re looking at other people, absolutely, anybody who has been in contact, we’re looking at anything,” McCraw said. “People that may have known something … and may have been involved in some chatroom gaming along with him so there’s nobody that we’re not going to talk to and look at.”
The state of Texas does not currently have a red flag law, which generally allows law enforcement or family to petition a judge to remove someone’s guns for a period of time if that person is deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
“We need everyone, when we have a threat to life like that to take it seriously and report it,” McCraw said. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/dps-texas-shooter-discussed-school-shootings-guns-on-social-media/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:19 | en | 0.984363 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Biden administration has released the lease terms for offshore wind projects that would place hundreds of turbines in California’s coastal waters — the first such project off the nation’s Pacific coast.
The two projects along the state’s northern and central coasts are envisioned to generate up to 4.5 gigawatts of wind energy. That’s enough to power about 1.5 million homes, the U.S. Department of the Interior said Thursday. Wind turbines could eventually cover up to 583 square miles (1,150 square kilometers) of land off the coast.
The federal government will take public comment starting Tuesday for 60 days about the terms of the leases, which include requirements for engaging with tribes, fisheries and other ocean users as well as negotiating labor agreements for construction. Bidders could get extra credit for agreeing to invest in workforce training or supply chain development for offshore wind.
Changes could be made before the lease sale officially opens. Even after the leases are awarded, the projects must clear environmental and other reviews and it will likely take years before any turbines are up and running.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of generating 30 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2030 to help the nation reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and meet climate change goals. Today the country produces about 118 gigawatts of wind power annually, but most comes from turbines in the center of the country, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Offshore wind projects currently exist off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia.
“Today, we are taking another step toward unlocking the immense potential of offshore wind energy (off) our nation’s west coast to help combat the effects of climate change while creating good-paying jobs,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a news release.
In California, three lease areas have been proposed near Morro Bay on California’s central coast, a small city driven by tourism and the fishing industry, which catches tuna and swordfish in the area. Some fishermen are concerned the projects could negatively effect coastal ecosystems. The two other lease areas are located off the coast along northern California’s Humboldt Bay.
The fishing industry has not been given an opportunity to offer input on where wind turbines can be placed to minimize harm to the seafood industry, said Mike Conroy, executive director of The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
“The fishing industry is not opposed to offshore wind projects. What we are opposed to is a process that tells us where these turbines will go,” he said in an emailed statement.
California has set a goal of producing 100% of its electricity from sources that don’t emit greenhouse gases by 2045. The state got about 11% of its electricity from wind power in 2020 through a mix of in-state generation and imports from other states, according to the California Energy Commission.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom supports the plan for offshore development in the state’s coastal waters. He included $20 million in last year’s state budget to support such projects.
David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, said the state looks forward to working with tribal governments and other affected groups “to ensure the responsible development of this important clean energy resource.”
Other proposed offshore wind projects would dot the coastlines off Maine, New York, the Carolinas, Oregon, the Gulf of Mexico and the Central Atlantic. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/lease-terms-for-california-offshore-wind-projects-released/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:22 | en | 0.951864 |
BERLIN (AP) — Two climbers were killed Friday and nine others injured by falling blocks of ice in the Alps in southern Switzerland, police said.
Police in Valais canton (state) were alerted shortly after 6 a.m. to the emergency in the Grand-Combin massif. Seven rescue helicopters were dispatched.
Seventeen climbers, in different groups, were in the area when the ice blocks broke off at an altitude of 3,400 meters (11,150 feet). Two people — a 40-year-old French woman and a 65-year-old Spanish man — died at the scene.
Police said another nine people were taken to hospitals in Sion and Lausanne, and that two of them were seriously hurt. Other climbers were evacuated by helicopter. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/2-killed-9-injured-in-ice-fall-in-southern-swiss-alps/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:25 | en | 0.993577 |
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, made a visit to a memorial site for the victims involved in the deadly elementary school shooting in Texas.
Meghan placed white flowers tied with a purple ribbon at a memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse on Thursday. She paid her respects after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
The Duchess of Sussex lives in California with her husband Prince Harry and their two children. She took the trip to Texas in a personal capacity as a mother to offer her condolences and support in person to a “community experiencing unimaginable grief,” according to her spokesperson.
Meghan left the flowers at the memorial and stood with her arms crossed while she looked at the memorials.
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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/meghan-pays-respect-to-texas-school-shooting-victims/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:29 | en | 0.967778 |
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Four Albanian women and nine children, all related to Albanians who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, are being repatriated from a Syrian camp, a Kurdish official from northeast Syria said Friday.
Abdul-Karim Omar, an official who negotiates with countries on the return of their citizens, tweeted that, “13 Albanians (4 women and 9 children) of the families of ISIS organization were handed over to an official Albanian government delegation.”
He also posted a photo with Albania’s anti-terror department chief Alban Dautaj.
The Albanian government did not confirm the report, but an official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the repatriated Albanians were expected to land late Friday night.
Twenty-five other Albanian women and children whose husbands and fathers joined Islamic State terror group and most often have been killed in the fighting have been brought back home in three previous missions, the last one in July 2021.
Authorities have not specified the number of Albanians still in detention camps in Syria, only saying they have been identified. Their relatives in Albania say 52 children are still in Syria, including the 13 being repatriated Friday.
A few hundred Albanians joined the Islamic State and other groups fighting in Syria and Iraq in the early 2010s. Many were killed, and their widows and children are stuck in Syrian camps.
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Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
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Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon contributed. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/4-albanian-women-9-children-to-be-repatriated-from-syria/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:31 | en | 0.975724 |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — To drive, or not to drive? This Memorial Day weekend, with surging gas prices that are redefining pain at the pump, that is the question for many Americans as a new COVID-19 surge also spreads across the country.
For Marvin Harper, of Phoenix, his family’s weekend travel plans are a double punch to the wallet. His college-age son and daughter each have a soccer tournament in Southern California and Colorado, respectively. He and his daughter will fly to Denver, rather than drive, because of the cost of fuel, while his wife and son will go to California in her SUV.
“My mother-in-law’s going with my wife and son to split that cost because it’s just too much on our household,” said Harper, as he filled up the tank of his truck at a Phoenix QuikTrip. “We can’t afford both of us to drive. That’s the bottom line … Gas prices are killing our household.”
For some, that’s exactly what’s caused them to rethink their holiday plans, making them opt for a staycation in their backyard to limit the damage to their wallets.
Laura Dena and her sons would typically go to Southern California around Memorial Day weekend to escape Arizona’s scorching heat. This year, because it takes at least $100 to fill up her truck, they’re staying home.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Dena while waiting in line in 90-degree heat for a pump at a Costco in Phoenix. “It’s upsetting, but there’s not much we can do. We have to pay the price.”
The average gas price in the U.S. on Thursday was $4.60 per gallon, according to AAA figures. In California, it topped $6. The high price of oil — largely because many buyers are refusing to purchase Russian oil because of its invasion of Ukraine — is the main cause of the steep gasoline prices.
Americans aren’t the only ones weighing their options as the summer travel season begins. Across the European Union’s 27 countries, gasoline has risen 40% from a year ago, to the equivalent of $8.40 a gallon.
Rising prices in the U.S. coincide with a COVID-19 surge that has led to case counts that are as high as they’ve been since mid-February, and those figures are likely a major undercount because of unreported positive home test results and asymptomatic infections.
Still, 2 1/2 years of pandemic life has many people hitting the road or taking to the skies, despite the surge. AAA estimates that 39.2 million people in the U.S. will travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more from home during the holiday weekend.
Those projections —- which include travel by car, plane and other modes of transportation like trains or cruise ships — are up 8.3% from 2021 and would bring Memorial Day travel volumes close to 2017 levels. The estimates are still below pre-pandemic 2019 levels, a peak year for travel.
About 88% of those 39.2 million travelers — a record number — are expected to go by car over the long weekend even as gas prices remain high, according to AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross.
In California — despite being home to the nation’s highest gas prices — the state’s nonprofit tourism agency also predicts a busy summer for the Golden State, beginning this weekend.
Ryan Becker, Visit California’s spokesperson, said his agency is seeing a lot of “pent-up demand” because of the pandemic: “I want to get out, I want to travel. I’ve had to put my anniversary trip on hold, I’ve had to put my 40th birthday trip on hold.”
Outdoorsy, an online rental marketplace for RVs and camper vans, is noticing that its renters have changed their plans over the course of the pandemic. Early on, people would rent an RV to travel cross-country safely to visit family. Now, they’re back to using the RVs as a cost-effective way for a vacation tethered to nature.
“I think everyone needs a vacation, I really do,” Outdoorsy co-founder Jen Young said. “Have we ever lived through a more stressful, challenging — mentally and physically and spiritually — time in our lives?”
Others shrug off the stress of the added travel costs because it’s out of their control. At a Chevron station in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Ricardo Estrada tried to guess how much the $6.49 a gallon price would run him in total for his Nissan work van.
“I’ll go with between 60 and 70 bucks,” the heating and air-conditioning technician speculated, eyeing the display as the price went up and up.
Estrada — just missing his guess when the pump registered $71.61 for 11 gallons of regular grade — has been forced to raise his business fees for customers to overcome the gas prices. He’ll be working over the holiday weekend but has a vacation planned in Arizona next month.
He’s flying, but only because of convenience, not cost.
But with airline tickets prices up, too — AAA found that the average lowest airfare for this weekend is 6% higher than last year — that’s not a sure bet, either.
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Tang reported from Phoenix. Associated Press video journalist Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/more-memorial-day-travel-expected-despite-high-gas-prices/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:34 | en | 0.970824 |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina reported a case of the monkeypox virus on Friday in a man who recently traveled to Spain. It also reported a suspected case of the rare virus in another person.
A man from the province of Buenos Aires has monkeypox, Argentina’s health ministry said in a statement.
An official in the ministry earlier confirmed the positive case but said health authorities were waiting to finish sequencing the virus before making the official announcement.
It is the first time the presence of the virus has been confirmed in Latin America during this latest outbreak in countries around the world that are not usually known to have outbreaks.
The sequencing of the virus revealed a high degree of similarity with monkeypox from western Africa, as has been the case with the new infections around the world, Argentina’s Health Ministry said.
Authorities have revealed little about the patient beyond saying he traveled to Spain from April 28 through May 16 and had symptoms compatible with monkeypox, including lesions and a fever, on Sunday.
The man is being treated for his symptoms. All of his close contacts are being monitored and none have presented any symptoms to date, the Health Ministry said.
Health authorities in Argentina also reported an additional suspected case of the virus in a resident of Spain who is currently visiting the province of Buenos Aires and has no ties to the first case.
The man presented lesions compatible with monkeypox on Thursday, a day after arriving in the country.
“The patient is in good general health, isolated and receiving symptomatic treatment,” the Health Ministry added. None of his close contacts have yet to present any symptoms.
Nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have recently been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the disease, the World Health Organization said on Friday. But that looked to be an undercount.
Spain has emerged as an epicenter of this recent outbreak and health authorities confirmed on Friday there were 98 confirmed cases in the country. The United Kingdom has reported 106 confirmed cases while Portugal said Friday the number of people with monkeypox had increased to 74.
Cases have also been reported in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and Italy, among others.
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Associated Press journalist Maria Cheng in London contributed. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/argentina-reports-case-of-monkeypox-man-traveled-from-spain/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:37 | en | 0.980257 |
VILLA CLARA, Cuba (AP) — Some of the more than 840 Haitians who tried to reach the United States in a boat but ended up in Cuba said Thursday that they fled violence in their country and were charged thousands of dollars by smugglers who ushered them onto a dilapidated boat and later abandoned them at sea.
It is the largest single arrival of people from Haiti on the Cuban coast amid an increasing exodus caused by gang violence and other problems there.
“They deceived us. In my case (a trafficker) told me that the boat was going to have 200 or 300 people, and on a big boat it is normal. But when you’re on board, you don’t know how many people are going to appear,” said Maximaud Cherizard, a 34-year-old engineer who traveled with a 7-year-old son, his wife and his sister.
“We were ashamed when we arrived″ in Cuba, Cherizard said. The boat was so packed that some people were on the vessel’s roof, he said.
The 842 people were rescued Tuesday by the Cuban coast guard and other government services in the vicinity of Caibarien in Villa Clara province, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of the capital, Havana. They were taken to a temporary center in a former summer camp and were in isolation as a health precaution.
According to the account of at least three migrants with whom the AP spoke, the group left Tortuga Island in northern Haiti after waiting there for almost two months for the trip. News of the supposed opportunity to go to Florida had spread spread by word of mouth and some people said they paid $4,000 each for a spot on the boat.
They were taken in a small boat to the larger one early Saturday morning and their phones were taken away by smugglers, who alleged the signal would make them detectable by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the migrants.
Cherizard said he had been shown a picture of a cruise liner that was going to take the migrants, a promise that he realized was false when he saw the dilapidated boat. He and other migrants said they did not see a name on the vessel.
Cherizard said he and his family were placed in a cabin with others with little access to the rest of the vessel. When the captain abandoned ship at sea early Tuesday morning, they learned that some migrants had tried to take control of the boat in an attempt to reach their destination.
Another migrant, 19-year-old Joyce Paul, said the captain had left in a smaller vessel and the one the migrants were on began to lean. The Haitians signaled with flashlights towards the Cuban coast to be rescued.
In the days at sea, 15 people threw themselves into the water as conditions grew more desperate, according to Paul.
There were 70 children, including infants, among the migrants, Cuban authorities reported.
“In Haiti, there is no future for babies,” said Loverie Horat, the 30-year-old mother of a 24-day-old infant. She told The Associated Press that she and her husband boarded the boat after leaving Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Her comments in Creole were translated into Spanish by Cherizard.
Migrants said that insecurity and poverty in Haiti forced them to flee. Paul, the 19-year-old, said that gang members had killed his two sisters.
“You can’t go out on the street″ because of the violence, Cherizard said.
Due to sea currents and winds, some smugglers’ vessels aiming to reach the United States end up on Cuban coasts. Not all arrivals are officially reported, although in recent months authorities in Havana have acknowledged an increase in arrivals. Migrants are usually returned to their home countries in accordance with binational agreements.
The Haitians arrived in Cuba at a time when the island itself is suffering from a severe economic crisis with food, medicine and fuel shortages and high emigration to the United States.
“Humanitarian aid has been a real challenge,” said Andy Borges, a member of the Civil Protection office of the municipality of Corralillo, where the Haitian camp is based.
U.S. Coast Guard crews have intercepted some 4,500 Haitian migrants since October last year. Many tried to land on the Florida coast in overloaded boats. More than 3,000 of those migrants have been intercepted since mid-March, indicating the pace has quickened this spring.
‘’We don’t want to go back to Haiti,” said 30-year-old Leverie Horat one of the Haitian migrants who hoped to reach the United States but ended up in Cuba.
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Rodríguez reported from Havana. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/no-future-for-babies-842-us-bound-haitians-end-up-in-cuba/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:41 | en | 0.987649 |
Posted: May 27, 2022 / 07:36 AM MDT Updated: May 27, 2022 / 07:36 AM MDT SHARE BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina reports Latin America’s first confirmed case of monkeypox. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/argentina-reports-latin-americas-first-confirmed-case-of-monkeypox/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:47 | en | 0.838839 |
HOUSTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association begins its annual convention in Houston on Friday, and leaders of the powerful gun-rights lobbying group are gearing up to “reflect on” — and deflect any blame for — the deadly shooting earlier this week of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Former President Donald Trump and other leading Republicans are scheduled to address the three-day firearms marketing and advocacy event, which is expected to draw protesters fed up with gun violence.
Some scheduled speakers and performers have backed out, including two Texas lawmakers and “American Pie” singer Don McLean, who said “it would be disrespectful” to go ahead with his act in the aftermath of the country’s latest mass shooting.
While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws, NRA board member Phil Journey said the focus should be on better mental health care and trying to prevent gun violence. He said he wouldn’t support banning or limiting access to firearms.
The NRA said in an online statement that people attending the gun show will “reflect on” the Uvalde school shooting, “pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure.”
People planning to attend picked up registration badges Thursday and shopped for NRA souvenirs, such as T-shirts that say “Suns Out Guns Out.” Police already had set up metal barriers across the street from the convention center, at a park where protesters are expected to gather Friday.
Gary Francis traveled with his wife and friends from Racine, Wisconsin, to attend the NRA meeting. He said he opposed any gun control regulations in response to the Uvalde shooting.
“What happened there is obviously tragic,” he said. “But the NRA had nothing to do with it. The people who come here had nothing to do with it.”
Texas has experienced a series of mass shootings in recent years. During that time, the Republican-led Legislature and governor have relaxed gun laws.
There is precedent for the NRA to gather amid local mourning and controversy. The organization went ahead with a shortened version of its 1999 meeting in Denver roughly a week after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. Actor Charlton Heston, the NRA president at that time, told attendees that “horrible acts” shouldn’t become opportunities to limit constitutional rights and he denounced critics for casting NRA members as “villains.”
Rocky Marshall, a former NRA board member, said that although the tragedy in Uvalde “does put the meeting in a bad light,” that’s not a reason to cancel it. Marshall said gun-rights advocates and opponents can perhaps reduce gun violence if they focus on factors such as mental illness or school security.
“Throwing rocks at the NRA, that doesn’t solve the next mass shooting,” he said. “Throwing rocks at the people that hate guns, that doesn’t solve the next mass shooting.”
But country music singer Larry Gatlin, who pulled out of planned appearance at the event, said he hopes “the NRA will rethink some of its outdated and ill-thought-out positions.”
“While I agree with most of the positions held by the NRA, I have come to believe that, while background checks would not stop every madman with a gun, it is at the very least a step in the right direction,” Gatlin said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the NRA’s leaders “are contributing to the problem of gun violence and not trying to solve it.” She accused them of representing the interests of gun manufacturers, “who are marketing weapons of war to young adults.”
Two Republican Texas lawmakers who had been scheduled speak Friday — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw — are no longer attending due to what their staffs said were changes in their schedules.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, both Republicans, were listed as speakers, and Trump said Wednesday that he still intends to attend. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, also is sticking to her plans to speak Friday at the NRA event.
Though personal firearms are allowed at the convention, the NRA said guns would not be permitted during the session featuring Trump because of Secret Service security protocols.
Several groups have said they planned to stage protests outside of the convention center.
“This is not the time or the place to have this convention,” said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, a Houston-based civil rights group that plans to participate in protests. “We must not just have thoughts and prayers from legislators, but rather we need action to address this public health crisis that is affecting our communities.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said the city is obligated to host the NRA event, which has been under contract for more than two years. But he urged politicians to skip it.
“You can’t pray and send condolences on one day and then be going and championing guns on the next. That’s wrong,” Turner said.
Shannon Watts, the founder of gun-control group Moms Demand Action, said she was not surprised the NRA is not canceling its meeting.
“The real question now is which elected officials will choose to side with violence and go kiss the ring in Houston this weekend instead of siding with communities crying out for public safety,” Watts said.
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David A. Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/nra-stages-marketing-event-as-texas-mourns-school-shooting/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:49 | en | 0.977156 |
MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration has renewed a license partially exempting Chevron from sanctions on Venezuela so it can keep operating in the oil-rich, socialist-run nation.
The license issued Friday by the U.S. Treasury Department allows the California-based Chevron and other U.S. companies to perform only basic upkeep of wells it operates jointly with state-run oil giant PDVSA, dashing the hopes of those who wanted to see a resumption of exports to ease pricing pressure at American pumps.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and ensuing international sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry have led the Biden administration to reconsider longstanding policies isolating two other oil powers: Venezuela and Iran.
In March, three senior Biden officials traveled to Caracas to meet with President Nicolás Maduro to try to lure him back to negotiations with the U.S.-backed opposition and release several Americans imprisoned for years. Their carrot: the possible lifting of crippling oil sanctions imposed in 2019 after Maduro breezed into a second term following elections considered undemocratic by the U.S. and dozens of allies.
While Maduro has welcomed the surprise outreach, joking that he wanted to soon travel to New York to attend a salsa festival, there’s been little progress since.
Meanwhile, opposition hardliners and even some Democrats in Congress have accused the administration of bending over backward to appease an oil despot for little gain because of Venezuela’s diminished importance in global energy markets.
Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves but due to mismanagement, and more recently U.S. sanctions, production has been declining steadily from the 3.5 million barrels per day when Hugo Chávez took power in 1999. In April, output stood at barely 700,000 barrels per day — the lowest level in decades.
Chevron, which has been operating in Venezuela since the 1920s, had been pushing for an expanded license that would allow it to resume exports and stem the growing influence of oil companies from China, Russia, Iran and other U.S. adversaries.
—
Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/biden-renews-chevron-license-to-bypass-venezuela-sanctions/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:53 | en | 0.949399 |
"ABBA Voyage" is certainly a trip.Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup last performed live, audiences can once again see ABBA onstage in an innovative digital concert where past and future collide.The show opens to the public in London on Friday, the day after a red-carpet premiere attended by superfans, celebrities and Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The guests of honor were pop royalty — the four members of ABBA, appearing in public together for the first time in years.They were in the audience, though. Onstage at the specially built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena next to east London's Olympic Park were a 10-piece live backing band and a digital ABBA, created using motion capture and other technology by Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects firm founded by "Star Wars" director George Lucas.The voices and movements are the real Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — choreographed by Britain's Wayne McGregor — but the performers onstage are digital avatars, inevitably dubbed "ABBA-tars." In unsettlingly realistic detail, they depict the band members as they looked in their 1970s heyday — beards on the men, flowing locks on the women, velour pantsuits all around.The result is both high tech and high camp, a glittery supernova of stupefying technology, 1970s nostalgia and pop music genius.For many in the audience, it was almost like being taken back in time to watch ABBA perform classics including "Mamma Mia," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "SOS" and "Dancing Queen." The peppy 90-minute set also includes tracks from "Voyage," the reunion album the band released last year.It's a fusion of tribute act and 3D concert movie that transcends that description. At times it was possible to forget this wasn't a live performance, though when the backing singers stepped forward to belt out "Does Your Mother Know," a surge of live-music energy shot through the arena. The four band members — two married couples during ABBA's heyday, though now long divorced — got a rapturous ovation when they took a bow at the end of Thursday's show, 50 years after they formed ABBA, and 40 years after they stopped performing live.Watching one's younger self perform must be a strange sensation, but the band members, now in their 70s, said they were delighted by the show."I never knew I had such amazing moves," Ulvaeus said.Lyngstad agreed: "I thought I was quite good, but I'm even better."Ulvaeus said the audience reaction was the most gratifying part of the experience."There's an emotional connection between the avatars and the audience," he said. "That's the fantastic thing."Producers bill the show as "revolutionary." Time will tell. Like the first audiences to watch a talking motion picture a century ago, attendees may leave wondering whether they are watching a gimmick, or the future.The Times of London reviewer Will Hodgkinson judged the show "essentially an ABBA singalong with added sound and light show," though he called the effect "captivating." Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis called the concert "jaw-dropping" and said "it's so successful that it's hard not to imagine other artists following suit."Gimmick or genius, "ABBA Voyage" is booking in London until May 2023, with a world tour planned after that.The fans who attended Thursday's show are just delighted ABBA is back."I'm so excited," said Kristina Hagman, a Swede who has been a fan since the 1970s."I was bullied so much because you were not allowed to like ABBA at that time, because it was so commercial," she said. "But now we are taking revenge."
LONDON — "ABBA Voyage" is certainly a trip.
Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup last performed live, audiences can once again see ABBA onstage in an innovative digital concert where past and future collide.
The show opens to the public in London on Friday, the day after a red-carpet premiere attended by superfans, celebrities and Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The guests of honor were pop royalty — the four members of ABBA, appearing in public together for the first time in years.
They were in the audience, though. Onstage at the specially built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena next to east London's Olympic Park were a 10-piece live backing band and a digital ABBA, created using motion capture and other technology by Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects firm founded by "Star Wars" director George Lucas.
The voices and movements are the real Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — choreographed by Britain's Wayne McGregor — but the performers onstage are digital avatars, inevitably dubbed "ABBA-tars." In unsettlingly realistic detail, they depict the band members as they looked in their 1970s heyday — beards on the men, flowing locks on the women, velour pantsuits all around.
The result is both high tech and high camp, a glittery supernova of stupefying technology, 1970s nostalgia and pop music genius.
For many in the audience, it was almost like being taken back in time to watch ABBA perform classics including "Mamma Mia," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "SOS" and "Dancing Queen." The peppy 90-minute set also includes tracks from "Voyage," the reunion album the band released last year.
It's a fusion of tribute act and 3D concert movie that transcends that description. At times it was possible to forget this wasn't a live performance, though when the backing singers stepped forward to belt out "Does Your Mother Know," a surge of live-music energy shot through the arena.
The four band members — two married couples during ABBA's heyday, though now long divorced — got a rapturous ovation when they took a bow at the end of Thursday's show, 50 years after they formed ABBA, and 40 years after they stopped performing live.
Watching one's younger self perform must be a strange sensation, but the band members, now in their 70s, said they were delighted by the show.
"I never knew I had such amazing moves," Ulvaeus said.
Lyngstad agreed: "I thought I was quite good, but I'm even better."
Ulvaeus said the audience reaction was the most gratifying part of the experience.
"There's an emotional connection between the avatars and the audience," he said. "That's the fantastic thing."
Producers bill the show as "revolutionary." Time will tell. Like the first audiences to watch a talking motion picture a century ago, attendees may leave wondering whether they are watching a gimmick, or the future.
The Times of London reviewer Will Hodgkinson judged the show "essentially an ABBA singalong with added sound and light show," though he called the effect "captivating." Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis called the concert "jaw-dropping" and said "it's so successful that it's hard not to imagine other artists following suit."
Alberto Pezzali
Members of ABBA, from left, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson arrive for the ABBA Voyage concert at the ABBA Arena in London, Thursday May 26, 2022.
Gimmick or genius, "ABBA Voyage" is booking in London until May 2023, with a world tour planned after that.
The fans who attended Thursday's show are just delighted ABBA is back.
"I'm so excited," said Kristina Hagman, a Swede who has been a fan since the 1970s.
"I was bullied so much because you were not allowed to like ABBA at that time, because it was so commercial," she said. "But now we are taking revenge." | https://www.4029tv.com/article/abba-return-digital-stage-show/40123785 | 2022-05-27T18:12:57 | en | 0.969398 |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — About 400 workers at Planned Parenthood offices in five states said Thursday they plan to unionize as their employer deals with the potential loss of business in states where abortions may become illegal if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Workers for Planned Parenthood North Central States in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota said they have signed cards showing majority support for unionization, and on Thursday they formally filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, said Ashley Schmidt, a training and development specialist for Nebraska and western Iowa.
They plan to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union that has about 1 million members in 29 states, including doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians. SEIU locals represent Planned Parenthood workers in other regions, including those serving Oregon and Washington, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Union organizing in a variety of fields has gained momentum recently after a decades of decline in union membership in the U.S. The Biden administration has been supportive of efforts to expand unions, and organizers have worked to establish unions at companies including Amazon, Starbucks, outdoors retailer REI and Google parent company Alphabet.
The Planned Parenthood workers seeking to join the union in the Midwest include nurses, education outreach workers, community organizers and other nonmanagement employees at 28 clinics in the five states. They provide services such as reproductive care, cancer screening and abortions.
On a call with reporters Thursday, employees discussed concerns about unequal pay for similar positions in different locations, lower pay than other health care providers, high turnover due to exhaustion and burnout, and a feeling that management doesn’t always listen to worker concerns.
“Unfortunately, I have seen many of these people move on after their ideas and concerns went unheard by the executive team for far too long. Across our affiliate both clinical and administrative staff are overworked, underpaid and undervalued,” said Sadie Brewer, a registered nurse who provides abortion services at a St. Paul, Minnesota, clinic.
Molly Gage, a human resources vice president for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said the organization prioritizes autonomy and choice in people’s personal lives and respects that same right for workers.
“We support our employees, and it’s up to them to decide if and how they want to be represented by a union. We look forward to continuing the conversation with staff about how we can best serve patients throughout this pivotal moment for abortion access,” Gage said in a statement.
Workers began discussing unionizing last year, before a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion surfaced indicating the court may allow states to ban or strictly limit abortion availability, said April Clark, a registered nurse and a senior training specialist at an eastern Iowa clinic.
Clark said the potential for changes in abortion law makes joining the union more important for workers.
“We know it means we’re going to be faced with stress not only for patients but for staff in the upcoming months if Roe does get overturned,” she said. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/planned-parenthood-workers-in-5-midwest-states-seek-union/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:57 | en | 0.955889 |
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The biggest convoy of aid since Ethiopia’s government declared a unilateral “humanitarian cease-fire” in the country’s long-encircled Tigray region two months ago has departed for Tigray, a U.N. official told The Associated Press, as the conflict gripping Africa’s second most populous nation continued to ease.
A convoy of 215 trucks of food aid left the capital of the neighboring Afar region on Friday and is due to arrive in the Tigray capital on Saturday. An AP witness observed many of the trucks lining the road outside Semera on Thursday as they waited for clearance to leave.
But aid workers say much more is needed. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that 500 trucks a week are required to feed the 5.2 million people in Tigray who need food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance but have been largely denied it for almost a year.
Ethiopia’s government in March declared the humanitarian cease-fire to allow aid to reach Tigray, whose leaders have been engaged in a war against federal forces and their allies since November 2020, with thousands of people killed. In response, the Tigray forces said they would observe a cessation of hostilities.
Initially, aid was slow to arrive, with a handful of trucks reaching Tigray in the first weeks of the truce, prompting the Tigray side to accuse the government of reneging. But the number of aid trucks has increased sharply since the Tigray forces announced their withdrawal from parts of Afar in late April.
Humanitarian workers say federal authorities have now eased restrictions previously imposed on aid to the region. Tigray has been largely cut off from the world since Tigray forces recaptured the regional capital, Mekele, in June 2021, a situation the European Union’s humanitarian chief likened to a “siege.”
The United States has warned that 700,000 people in Tigray could face famine because of restrictions on aid. A survey by Tigray’s regional health bureau recently found that at least 1,900 children under age 5 died from malnutrition between June last year and April 1.
Tigray’s banking services, road links and telecommunications remain down.
But for humanitarian aid, the only delivery issues that remain are operational ones including the number of trucks available and how quickly partners can organize aid, the U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
However, the official said four trucks carrying high-energy biscuits were recently turned back by customs officials, who claimed the biscuits could be used to feed Tigray forces. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/biggest-aid-convoy-since-cease-fire-nears-ethiopias-tigray/ | 2022-05-27T18:12:59 | en | 0.971734 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A woman in West Virginia fatally shot a man who began firing an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd of people that had gathered for a party, authorities said.
Dennis Butler, 37, was killed Wednesday night after he pulled out the rifle and began shooting at dozens of people attending the birthday-graduation party outside an apartment complex in the city of Charleston, police said in a statement.
The woman, who was attending the party, drew a pistol and fired, killing Butler, the statement said. No one at the party was injured.
“Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night,” Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett told news outlets Thursday.
Butler was at the apartment complex earlier in the evening in a vehicle and had been warned to slow down because children were playing, police said. They said he left, but returned later, parked in front of the complex and began firing.
After fatally shooting Butler, the woman waited along with several witnesses for police to arrive, and all have cooperated with the investigation, authorities said.
Hazelett said no charges would be filed against the woman. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/police-woman-killed-man-who-fired-rifle-into-party-crowd/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:05 | en | 0.988601 |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April it raised concerns from the U.S. and its allies that Beijing may be seeking a military outpost in the South Pacific, an area of traditional American naval dominance.
But China upped the ante further this week, reaching out to the Solomon Islands and nine other island nations with a sweeping security proposal that, even if only partially realized, could give it a presence in the Pacific much nearer Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and on the doorstep of the strategic American territory of Guam.
China insists its proposals are targeted at regional stability and economic growth, but experts and governments fear that beneath the surface, it is a brazen attempt to expand its influence in a strategically critical area.
David Panuelo, the president of Micronesia, one of the nations targeted by China, warned the others against signing on, saying it “threatens to bring a new Cold War at best, and a world war at worst.”
“Aside from the impacts on our sovereignty … it increases the chances of China getting into conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States and New Zealand on the day when Beijing decides to invade Taiwan,” Panuelo warned in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, noting China has not ruled out using force to take the self-governing island, which it claims as its own territory.
A draft of the proposal obtained by The Associated Press shows that China wants to train Pacific police officers, team up on “traditional and non-traditional security” and expand law enforcement cooperation.
China also wants to jointly develop a marine plan for fisheries, and raises the possibility of a free trade area with the Pacific nations.
It targets Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Niue and Micronesia — and pointedly leaves out the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu, all of which recognize Taiwan as a country.
Like many other nations, the U.S. has a “one China” policy, which does not recognize Taiwan, but also opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo.
The islands dot a vast area of ocean between the continental United States and Asia, and were a center of the Pacific Theater fighting during World War II following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
After the U.S. fleet decisively beat Imperial Japan’s navy at the Battle of Midway in 1942, it embarked upon a campaign to take them back from Japan, starting with the invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and including fierce battles for the Tarawa atoll, now part of Kiribati, Peleliu, which is one of the Palau islands, and Guam.
Though the nearest is thousands of kilometers (miles) from Taiwan, they are nonetheless strategically important to China, should it invade the island.
From a military perspective, a Chinese presence on some of the Pacific islands would mean a better ability to delay U.S. naval assets and disrupt supply lines in case of a conflict, said Euan Graham, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.
“You only have to look at a map to deduce the basic logic of what China is up to,” he said.
“This is prime real estate. Most of it is water, but if you connect up those islands, archipelagos, that’s an island chain that runs between Australia and the United States, between Australia and Japan.”
China dispatched its top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, this week to visit seven of the island nations and hold virtual talks with the other three in the hope they will endorse the agreement on May 30 at a meeting in Fiji.
The diplomatic blitz comes just after regional powerhouse Australia ushered in a new government, and Beijing may have decided to act now to try to catch new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese off guard, Graham said.
“This follows a period of shadowboxing between Australia and the United States and China for the last few years, in which there were clear suspicions that China was indirectly trying to make inroads through dual-use and infrastructure investment deals, but not doing so in an overt government-to-government way,” he said.
“Now this is China in the most visible, high-level way literally on a door-knocking tour of the region to try and lock in whatever gains it can.”
Albanese, however, was sworn into office in record time so he could take part in meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan in Tokyo, and swiftly dispatched Foreign Minister Penny Wong to Fiji in her first week on the job.
“We need to respond to this because this is China seeking to increase its influence in the region of the world where Australia has been the security partner of choice since the Second World War,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Albanese said that “Australia dropped the ball” in its relations with the islands, largely over outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s stance climate change, and pledged to reengage with them. Many of the low-lying Pacific islands consider climate change their most pressing and existential threat, while Morrison continued to be a big supporter of Australia’s coal industry.
“We need to be offering more support and, otherwise, we can see the consequences with the deal that was done with the Solomons,” he said. “We know that China sees that as the first of many.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin defended his country’s proposal this week, saying it “is based on the principle of mutual benefit, win-win cooperation, openness and inclusiveness.”
“Our relations are not exclusive or posing a threat to any third party, and should not be interfered with by third parties,” he said.
Wang started his tour Thursday in the Solomon Islands, where a news conference was restricted to selected media and only one question was permitted of him, from China’s state-owned CCTV broadcaster.
On Friday he was in Kiribati, where the government announced in November it plans to end a commercial fishing ban in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Already, there are fears that China’s proposal may give its massive commercial fishing fleet unfettered access to the fragile grounds, said Anna Powles, a senior lecturer in security studies at New Zealand’s Massey University.
There are also concerns that any kind of base for Chinese commercial fishing fleets in Kiribati could also be used as an additional hub for Beijing’s surveillance activities, she said.
The Solomon Islands and Kiribati both shifted their allegiances from Taiwan to mainland China in 2019, and are seen as among the most amenable to China’s proposal. Vanuatu is also seen as likely in that camp, having just signed a contract with China for a runway extension at its Pekoa airport.
But Powles said Panuelo’s letter echoed strong overall concerns about the Chinese proposal, and that there are “significant areas of concern” about many areas, including the increased engagement in fisheries and the security cooperation agreements.
“It will only change things if countries agree to adopt this communique, and it doesn’t sound like people are particularly happy about it,” she said.
Graham said he did not think any country would see the Chinese proposal as a need to choose either Beijing or the West, but that even if a few countries signed on it could have significant effects.
“If they could get the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu, that right there is some pretty important real estate,” he said. “From a purely geostrategic point of view that would change the odds, that would dramatically alter Australia’s future defense planning.”
In his letter, Panuelo stressed to the others that Micronesia would reject the proposal.
“Geopolitics like these are the kind of game where the only winning move is not to play,” he said.
___
Rising reported from Bangkok. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/chinas-pacific-plan-seen-as-regional-strategic-game-changer/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:05 | en | 0.965209 |
At long last, jury gets closing arguments in Depp-Heard trial
Johnny Depp’s lawyers asked a jury Friday “to give Mr. Depp his life back” by finding that his ex-wife, Amber Heard, committed libel.
Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” lawyer Camille Vasquez told the jury in closing arguments.
Depp is hoping the six-week trial will help restore his reputation, though it has turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage, with broadcast cameras in the courtroom capturing every twist to an increasingly rapt audience as fans weighed in on social media and lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats.
“This case for Mr. Depp has never been about money,” said Depp lawyer Benjamin Chew. “It is about Mr. Depp's reputation and freeing him from the prison in which he has lived for the last six years.”
Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn, said the lawsuit is not about Depp’s reputation but is part of an ongoing smear campaign Depp launched after Heard filed for divorce.
“In Mr. Depp’s world, you don't leave Mr. Depp,” he said. “If you do, he will start a campaign of global humiliation against you.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia's Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.
Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim against Depp after his lawyer called her allegations a hoax.
Depp says he never struck Heard and that she concocted the abuse allegations to gain an advantage in divorce proceedings. He has said he was often physically attacked by Heard.
“There is an abuser in this courtroom, but it is not Mr. Depp,” Vasquez said.
Heard testified about more than a dozen episodes of physical and sexual assault that she said Depp inflicted on her.
Vasquez, in her closing, noted that Heard had to revise her testimony about the first time she said she was struck. Heard said Depp hit her after she inadvertently laughed at one of his tattoos. Heard initially said it happened in 2013 — after a fairy-tale year of courtship and romance — but later corrected herself to say it happened in 2012, very early in their relationship.
“Now in this courtroom she has suddenly erased an entire year of magic,” Vasquez said.
Jurors have seen multiple photos of Heard with marks and bruises on her face, but some photos show only mild redness, and others show more severe bruising.
Vasquez accused Heard of doctoring the photos and said evidence that Heard has embellished some of her injuries is proof that all her claims of abuse are unfounded.
“You either believe all of it, or none of it,” she said. “Either she is a victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything.”
In Heard's closing, Rottenborn said the nitpicking over Heard's evidence of abuse ignores the fact there's overwhelming evidence on her behalf and sends a dangerous message to domestic-violence victims.
“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn't happen,” Rottenborn said. “If you did take pictures, they’re fake. If you didn't tell your friends, they're lying. If you did tell your friends, they’re part of the hoax.”
When the jury deliberates, it will have to focus not only on whether there was abuse but also whether Heard's op-ed piece can be considered legally defamatory. The article itself focuses mostly on policy questions of domestic violence, but Depp's lawyer point to two passages in the article, as well as an online headline that they say defamed Depp.
In the first passage Heard writes that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath.” Depp's lawyers call it a clear reference to Depp, given that Heard publicly accused Depp of domestic violence in 2016 — two years before she wrote the article.
In a second passage she states “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
The online headline reads “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath.”
“She didn't mention his name. She didn't have to,” Chew said. “Everyone knew exactly who and what Ms. Heard was talking about.”
Heard's lawyers Heard can't be held liable for the headline because she didn't write it, and that the two passages in the article are not about the abuse allegations themselves but how Heard's life changed after she made them. | https://www.4029tv.com/article/closing-arguments-depp-heard-trial/40122870 | 2022-05-27T18:13:07 | en | 0.983429 |
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Travelers to Cyprus will no longer be required to show either a valid COVID-19 vaccination or a recovery certificate and won’t need to produce a negative recent COVID-19 test of June 1, the Cypriot government said Friday.
The government also decided to abolish a requirement to wear face masks in all indoor areas in Cyprus as of June 1 with the exception of hospitals, nursing homes and other indoor medical facilities.
Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said the decision to lift COVID-19 screening requirements at airports signals the tourism-reliant island nation is ready to return to normality.
Over 10% of the island’s gross domestic product comes directly from tourism. Authorities are hopeful that a post-pandemic desire for travel will boost arrivals to Cyprus significantly, despite the loss of a significant number of Russian and Ukrainian holidaymakers as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Karousos said the estimate of travelers arriving in Cyprus in May will be more than three-quarters of the same month in 2019, when arrivals hit a record yearly high.
“Not only will we meet the target we had set regarding flight capacity and overall passenger numbers, we will surpass it,” he said.
___
Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/cyprus-gets-rid-of-required-covid-19-tests-for-visitors/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:12 | en | 0.937248 |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish lawmakers on Thursday approved removing a controversial disciplinary body within Poland’s top court that the right-wing government has used to sanction outspoken judges and which has drawn condemnation from the European Union.
Poland’s government expects the removal of the divisive Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court to end its drawn-out spat with the EU, paving the way for an agreement that will result in Brussels’ disbursing billions of euros of frozen recovery funds for Poland.
The vote in the lower house was 231-208 with 13 abstentions. The ruling coalition was for the move while the opposition was against it, saying the changes are largely cosmetic.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in parliament before the vote that EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected to sign the agreement in Warsaw on June 2, to approve the key points or “milestones” in the government’s aligning of the judiciary rules with EU standards.
Warsaw’s relations with Brussels have grown tense under the current government, largely due to the control it has taken of the judiciary, placing loyalists at top bodies and punishing judges who protested those moves.
The moves – which were met with massive street protests – were initiated by the justice minister, whose small party within the ruling coalition secures it a narrow majority in parliament.
Ties with Brussels have warmed up as Poland has taken an active role in supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Russia’s invasion. Poland has taken in some 3.6 million refugees from Ukraine, and the government has been pushing for EU funds to accommodate and integrate them.
The new regulations approved by the lower house, or Sejm, amend the law on Poland’s Supreme Court to remove its Disciplinary Chamber. The European Court of Justice last year found the chamber to be in violation of the EU’s rule of law principles, urged Poland to remove it and fined Poland 1 million euros per day as long as the body continues.
Critics say the change is superficial and misleading, because the controversial body is to be replaced with a professional responsibility chamber at the Supreme Court whose members will be chosen by the president.
Also, the recent appointment of a government loyalist to a top regulatory body, the National council for the Judiciary, suggests the ruling team wants to maintain its control, critics say.
The new judicial regulations still need approval from the Senate, where the opposition has a narrow edge, and from President Andrzej Duda, who is their chief author.
It was not clear if these approvals would be granted before June 2. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/polish-lawmakers-back-removing-judicial-body-eu-criticized/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:12 | en | 0.966813 |
Federal judge dismisses Trump's lawsuit against New York AG, allowing investigation to continue
A federal judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, allowing her civil investigation into his business practices to continue.
In a 43-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes said she based her decision on case law that, in most cases, bars federal judges from interfering in state-level investigations.
Sannes’ ruling came a day after a New York appeals court ruled that Trump must answer questions under oath in James’ probe, upholding a lower-court ruling requiring him to sit for a deposition.
"In a big victory, a federal court has dismissed Donald Trump’s baseless lawsuit to stop my office’s investigation into his and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings," James said in a tweet. "Frivolous lawsuits won’t stop us from completing our lawful, legitimate investigation."
A message seeking comment was left with Trump's lawyers.
Trump sued James in December, just after she issued a subpoena for his testimony, resorting to a familiar but seldom successful strategy in an attempt to end the three-year investigation.
Through his lawyers, the Republican former president alleged that the probe was political in nature and that James, a Democrat, had violated his constitutional rights in a "thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates."
James responded that Trump’s lawsuit was a sudden "collateral attack" on her investigation and that there was no legal basis for it and no evidence to support his claim that the probe is purely political.
At a May 13 hearing that precipitated Sannes' ruling Friday, a lawyer for James' office said the probe is winding down and that evidence from it could support legal action against the former president, his company, or both.
The lawyer, Andrew Amer, said "there's clearly been a substantial amount of evidence amassed that could support the filing of an enforcement proceeding," although a final determination on filing such an action has not been made.
Amer, a special litigation counsel in James' office, said the office is "nearing the end" of the civil investigation, which James has said uncovered evidence Trump's company misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses on financial statements for more than a decade. | https://www.4029tv.com/article/judge-dismisses-trumps-lawsuit/40128366 | 2022-05-27T18:13:17 | en | 0.979785 |
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A former employee with the Danish police has been charged with hacking and attempted hacking of 140 employees’ mobile phones, and accessing more than 100 cases of investigative material, investigators said Friday.
The material included images of child pornography and photos belonging to a large number of private citizens, police on the central Denmark island of Funen said in a statement. It was unclear how he accessed the material and whether the man was a police officer or a civilian employee.
The man faces charges of sexual harassment, hacking, abusing his position and possessing child pornography. If found guilty, he faces fines or up to six years in jail.
His victims include former colleagues, friends and acquaintances and random individuals from whom he bought used hard drives “from which he recovered and acquired private and humiliating content,” police said.
On top of that, police said that about 140 employees had their mobile phones hacked at least once. Some cell phones were hacked up to 30 times. He also took pictures of a female colleague through a keyhole to a changing room at the police station.
The man, who was not named in line with Danish policy, allegedly committed the offenses from both his workplace and his home, over a long period of time before he was arrested on March 29, police said in a statement.
No date for a trial was announced.
The man’s defense lawyer, Henrik Garlik, declined to say how his client will plead, the Ekstra Bladet newspaper reported. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/ex-danish-police-employee-charged-in-huge-hacking-case/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:19 | en | 0.98395 |
DETROIT (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed former California pollution regulator Steven Cliff to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
President Joe Biden’s pick to run the agency was confirmed by consent without objections or a formal roll call vote.
Cliff takes over the road safety agency at a critical time, about a week after it estimated that nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number in 16 years.
The 10.5% jump over 2020 numbers was the largest percentage increase since the agency began its fatality data collection system in 1975.
Risky driving behaviors during the pandemic, such as speeding and less frequent use of seat belts, exacerbated the problem as people began to venture out more in 2021 for out-of-state and other road trips, analysts said.
Cliff told the Senate Commerce Committee in December that he would work to adopt regulations such as those urging seat belt use, and would implement mandates under the new infrastructure law to reduce drunken driving.
“I am committed to turning this around,” Cliff said, referring to the crash trend.
He said the infrastructure law will help by increasing NHTSA’s budget by 50%, with money used to boost staffing and improve U.S. data collection to understand where and how crashes happen.
Cliff has been serving as NHTSA’s deputy administrator at a time the agency has undertaken a rewrite of vehicle fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also has ordered automakers to report crashes involving automated driving systems, and it opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driver-assist system due to crashes into parked emergency vehicles.
A message was left Thursday seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. Tesla has said in the past that neither its “Full Self-Driving” nor its Autopilot systems are fully autonomous and that drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
NHTSA, which sets vehicle safety standards, finds safety defects, manages recalls and helps to develop government fuel economy requirements, has been without a confirmed administrator since Mark Rosekind left at the end of 2016. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/senate-confirms-steven-cliff-to-lead-highway-safety-agency/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:20 | en | 0.971851 |
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — (AP) — Widespread flooding in the South American country of Suriname has isolated communities, devastated crops and shuttered schools and businesses, according to authorities.
Heavy rains in recent days battered the country’s interior and southern regions, where farms and electrical and water purification infrastructures are under water, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said late Thursday.
The agency said Suriname’s southern region is only accessible by aircraft or boat for now, and that further flooding is possible given ongoing intense rainfall. It added that concerns are growing over the lack of food and potable water, as well as the presence of sewage and a growing number of mosquitos that could lead to an outbreak in illnesses. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/heavy-floods-damage-crops-cut-off-communities-in-suriname/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:26 | en | 0.959747 |
Turn your yard into an outdoor oasis this Memorial Day, saving big in the process.The best patio dining tables are the ones that perfectly fit your outdoor space while providing seating for every member of your household. And there are plenty of options this weekend.Memorial Day is one of the best times of the year to save big. Some of the nation's biggest retailers are offering big discounts on outdoor sectionals, lounge chairs, tables, lighting, seating and more.Below, we break down some of the best deals right now and in-store for Memorial Day weekend.Can't see the below deals? Click here.WAYFAIRWayfair is offering Memorial Day savings of up to 70% off some items, including outdoor furniture. Click here to view all of Wayfair's Memorial Day sales.The retailer is offering discounts on outdoor furniture and accessories to fit almost any outdoor space. Some of the highlights include:Save $200 on the Merton Wicker/Rattan 6 - Person Seating Group with CushionsNearly 50% off this Hogans Wicker/Rattan 4 - Person Seating Group with Cushions Lounge in style with this Hartington Plastic Folding Adirondack Chair, now listed at 34% off Save 23% on this Rectangular 6 - Person 32.25'' Long Dining Set with CushionsThis massive Nyasia 180'' x 108'' Rectangular Market Umbrella is now listed at only $151.99 Click here to view all Memorial Day deals from Wayfair on outdoor furniture.AMAZONRetail giant Amazon is also offering Memorial Day deals on pretty much everything under the sun — including outdoor and patio furniture. Click here to view all of Amazon's Memorial Day deals. Hammocks, seating groups, outdoor rugs and sofas are on sale, many with big savings this weekend. Big savings on seating sets, including this 28'' Round Glass Metal Table with Gray Rattan Edging and 2 Gray Rattan Stack Chairs Save $50 on this set of two rocking chairs with side tableLooking for outdoor storage? Get big savings on this 20 gallon plastic deck box, perfect to store anythingLooking for something a bit more modern? Save $75 on this Flash Furniture modern patio chair with cushionsClick here to view all Amazon deals on outdoor furniture and accessories. HOME DEPOTHome Depot has some amazing savings for Memorial Day weekend on outdoor furniture -- in some cases cutting prices in half! Click here to view all Memorial Day deals from Home Depot.Save $741 on the New Vultros Gray 7-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Set with Blue CushionsSave $360 on the Megon Holly Gray 5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Sofa Set with Denim Blue CushionsSave $90 on the New Vultros Gray 5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Set with Blue CushionsSave $801 on the Megon Holly 6-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Fire Pit Seating Sofa Set with Denim Blue CushionsSave $790 on the Deep seating High End 8-Piece Gray Wicker Outdoor Sectional Set with Extra Thick Gray CushionsWALMARTWalmart has an entire selection of outdoor furniture, with deep discounts on Memorial Day.Click here to view all Memorial Day deals on patio furniture. Fire pits, sectionals, pillows and more are all on sale.
Turn your yard into an outdoor oasis this Memorial Day, saving big in the process.
The best patio dining tables are the ones that perfectly fit your outdoor space while providing seating for every member of your household. And there are plenty of options this weekend.
Memorial Day is one of the best times of the year to save big. Some of the nation's biggest retailers are offering big discounts on outdoor sectionals, lounge chairs, tables, lighting, seating and more.
Below, we break down some of the best deals right now and in-store for Memorial Day weekend.
Can't see the below deals? Click here.
WAYFAIR
Wayfair is offering Memorial Day savings of up to 70% off some items, including outdoor furniture.
Click here to view all of Wayfair's Memorial Day sales.
The retailer is offering discounts on outdoor furniture and accessories to fit almost any outdoor space. Some of the highlights include:
Wayfair Memorial Day deals: Outdoor furniture
H4-Person Seating Group
wayfair.com
$214.99
Hogans Wicker/Rattan 4 - Person Seating Group with Cushions [variation_tag_Cushion Color:Brown]
6 -Person Seating Group
wayfair.com
$709.99
Espresso Frame/Cream White Cushion Merton Wicker/Rattan 6 - Person Seating Group with Cushions
6 -Person Dining Set with Cushions
Black Hartington Plastic Folding Adirondack Chair
Rectangular Market Umbrella
wayfair.com
$151.99
Nyasia 180'' x 108'' Rectangular Market Umbrella
Bistro Set with Cushions
wayfair.com
$344.99
Round 2 - Person 27.5'' Long Bistro Set with Cushions
Foxborough Chaise Lounge Set
wayfair.com
Foxborough Chaise Lounge Set with Cushions and Table
Jonathon 3 Pieces Dining Set
Click here to view all Memorial Day deals from Wayfair on outdoor furniture.
AMAZON
Retail giant Amazon is also offering Memorial Day deals on pretty much everything under the sun — including outdoor and patio furniture.
Click here to view all of Amazon's Memorial Day deals.
Hammocks, seating groups, outdoor rugs and sofas are on sale, many with big savings this weekend.
Amazon Memorial Day sales: Outdoor furniture
28'' Round Glass Metal Table 2 Gray Rattan Stack Chairs
2 Rocking Chairs with Side Table
amazon.com
Flash Furniture Winston Set of 2 Rocking Chairs with Side Table - Black Poly Resin - Weather Resistant
Flash Furniture 120 Gallon Plastic Deck Box
amazon.com
Flash Furniture 120 Gallon Plastic Deck Box - All-Weather Patio Storage and Organization for Throw Pillows, Pool Toys or Garden Tools
Flash Furniture Modern Patio Chair With Cushions
amazon.com
$448.79
Flash Furniture Modern Patio Chair With Cushions - Contemporary Black Frame and Teak Accented Arms - Beige Cushions - Zippered Removable Covers
Flash Furniture Charlestown Poly Resin Adirondack Chair
amazon.com
$210.10
Flash Furniture Charlestown Poly Resin Adirondack Chair - Slate Gray - All Weather - Indoor/Outdoor
Vivere Double Polyester Hammock
amazon.com
Vivere Double Polyester Hammock with Space Saving Steel Stand, Techno (450 lb Capacity - Premium Carry Bag Included)
Outdoor Porch Swing, 2 Seater with Stand, Natural
amazon.com
Furinno Tioman Hardwood Patio / Garden / Outdoor Porch Swing, 2 Seater with Stand, Natural
Keter 2 Pack Alpine Adirondack Resin Outdoor Furniture Patio Chairs
amazon.com
$323.99
Keter 2 Pack Alpine Adirondack Resin Outdoor Furniture Patio Chairs with Cup Holder-Perfect for Beach, Pool, and Fire Pit Seating, Dark Grey
Click here to view all Amazon deals on outdoor furniture and accessories.
HOME DEPOT
Home Depot has some amazing savings for Memorial Day weekend on outdoor furniture -- in some cases cutting prices in half!
Click here to view all Memorial Day deals from Home Depot.
Home Depot Memorial Day sales: Outdoor furniture
7-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Set
homedepot.com
$1,283.99
New Vultros Gray 7-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Set with Blue Cushions
Gray 5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Set
homedepot.com
$879.00
Megon Holly Gray 5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Sofa Set with Denim Blue Cushions
5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Set
homedepot.com
$879.99
New Vultros Gray 5-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Conversation Seating Set with Blue Cushions
Megon Holly 6-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Fire Pit Seating Sofa Set
homedepot.com
$1,289.00
Megon Holly 6-Piece Wicker Outdoor Patio Fire Pit Seating Sofa Set with Denim Blue Cushions
Deep seating High End 8-Piece Gray Wicker Outdoor Sectional Set with Extra Thick Gray Cushions
11 ft. Round Solar LED Aluminum 360-Degree Rotation Cantilever Offset Outdoor Patio Umbrella with Base in Gray
homedepot.com
$569.99
11 ft. Round Solar LED Aluminum 360-Degree Rotation Cantilever Offset Outdoor Patio Umbrella with Base in Gray
WALMART
Walmart has an entire selection of outdoor furniture, with deep discounts on Memorial Day.
Click here to view all Memorial Day deals on patio furniture.
Fire pits, sectionals, pillows and more are all on sale.
Walmart Memorial Day sales: Outdoor furniture
4-Piece Wood Conversation Set
walmart.com
$998.00
Better Homes & Gardens Braxton 4-Piece Wood Conversation Set
4-Piece Sectional Sofa Set
walmart.com
$449.00
Mainstays Asher Springs Outdoor 4-Piece Sectional Sofa Set
Mainstays Zero-Gravity Steel Porch Swing - Red/Black
Better Homes & Gardens Harbor City Patio Fire Pit Dining Table
Outdoor Wood-Burning Fire Pit
walmart.com
$22.00
Mainstays 26" Metal Round Outdoor Wood-Burning Fire Pit
Hard Top Gazebo with Netting, Black | https://www.4029tv.com/article/memorial-day-sale-outdoor-patio-furniture-2022/40126202 | 2022-05-27T18:13:27 | en | 0.858154 |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers Friday in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf, officials said. The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens’ assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker this week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington’s crushing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The raid marks the first major incident at sea in months as tensions remain high between Iran and the West over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. As Tehran enriches more uranium, closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before, worries mount that negotiators won’t find a way back to the accord — raising the risk of a wider war.
The Guard issued a statement announcing the seizures, accusing the tankers of unspecified violations.
Greece’s Foreign Ministry said it made a strong demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Athens over the “violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” in the Persian Gulf. “These acts effectively amount to acts of piracy,” a ministry statement said.
The ministry called for the immediate release of the vessels and their crews, and said these acts would have “particularly negative consequences” in bilateral relations and in Iran’s relations with the European Union, of which Greece is a member.
The ministry’s statement said that earlier Friday, an Iranian helicopter landed on the Greek-flagged Delta Poseidon in international waters, some 22 nautical miles off the coast of Iran.
“Armed men then took the crew captive,” it said, adding that two Greek nationals were among the crew.
“A similar incident has been reported on another Greek-flagged vessel, that was carrying seven Greek citizens, close to the coast of Iran,” the ministry said.
A Greek official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the attack with a journalist, identified the second ship as the Prudent Warrior. Its manager, Polembros Shipping in Greece, earlier said the company was “cooperating with the authorities and making every possible effort to address the situation effectively.”
Greek officials did not identify the nationalities of the other crew onboard the vessels.
Both vessels had come from Iraq’s Basra oil terminal, likely loaded with crude, according to tracking data from MarineTraffic.com.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said it appeared the two ships had come close to — but not into — Iranian territorial waters Friday. After the hijacking, they drifted into Iranian waters. The ships also had turned off their tracking devices, another red flag, the official said. However, neither had issued a mayday or a call for help, the official said.
Iran had threatened to take “punitive action” earlier Friday over Athens being involved in the U.S. seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in Greek waters.
Nour News, a website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the threat just as shipping news site Lloyd’s List said it believed two Greek tankers had been seized in the Persian Gulf. Quoting anonymous industry sources, Lloyd’s reported that the two ships had been boarded after Iranian military helicopters approached them on Friday afternoon.
The seizures came after Greece helped the U.S. seize crude oil aboard an Iranian-flagged tanker this week.
A Greek official said Thursday the move followed a “judicial intervention by U.S. authorities concerning the ship’s cargo.” The oil was “to be handed over” off the port of Karystos on the Aegean Sea island of Evia.
The official, who asked not to be identified in order to discuss the case, did not provide further details. A Justice Department spokesman in Washington and the U.S. Embassy in Athens declined to comment Thursday.
Iran’s seizure on Friday was the latest in a string of hijackings and explosions to roil a region that includes the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil passes.
The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.
Iranian hijackers also stormed and briefly captured a Panama-flagged asphalt tanker off the United Arab Emirates last year, as well as briefly seizing and holding a Vietnamese tanker in November.
Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the region’s volatile waters. Meanwhile, the Guard is building a massive new support ship near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as it tries to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international energy supplies and beyond, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press.
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Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/iran-seizes-2-greek-tankers-in-persian-gulf-tensions-spike/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:32 | en | 0.962266 |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Thursday that he will quickly prepare an economic reform program and seek approval from the International Monetary Fund — because global inflation and the financial impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on other countries could limit their ability to help the island nation.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that officials have reached agreement on basic reforms concepts with the IMF and that he plans to have the economic reform program ready within two weeks. After it is finalized, an IMF delegation will visit Sri Lanka to evaluate the program.
“I have placed my special attention on this because of the present global situation, the war in Ukraine and global inflation. From what we can see a number of countries may have to face economic problems like ours,” Wickremesinghe said.
He added: “At the moment the United States and the Europe are spending a lot on the war and there is a possibility of the aid given to us being reduced.”
Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in a foreign debt default. The country announced last month that it is suspending nearly $ 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about $25 billion due through 2026. Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt stands at $51 billion.
The IMF said in a statement Thursday said that a team remotely concluded initial discussions about Sri Lanka’s reform plan on Tuesday.
“The team made good progress in assessing the economic situation and in identifying policy priorities to be taken going forward,” the statement said.
The statement added that discussions focused on restoring fiscal sustainability while protecting the vulnerable and poor; ensuring monetary policy credibility and exchange rate regimes; preserving financial sector stability; and structural reforms to enhance economic growth and strengthen governance.
“We expect that these discussions will help the authorities formulate their reform program,” the IMF said.
Sri Lanka’s former finance minister Ali Sabry has said that badly timed tax cuts led to a reduction in government revenue, reducing the country’s ability to borrow and releasing existing reserves to maintain the US dollar at a fixed rate against the local currency — and that those factors triggered the foreign currency crisis. Also the COVID-19 pandemic nearly severely reduced tourism revenue, one of the country’s economic lifelines.
The economic crisis has caused a reduction of imports of goods and industrial raw material, prompting an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper and even matches.
Sri Lankans for months have been forced to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas.
Protesters have occupied the entrance to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office for nearly 50 days, demanding his resignation because they blame him and his powerful, and politically connected family for the economic crises.
The protests have nearly dismantled the powerful Rajapaksa political dynasty after the president’s brother resigned as prime minister amid countrywide violence earlier this month, when his supporters attacked peaceful protesters. Two of the president’s other siblings and nephew resigned from their Cabinet posts.
Wickremesinghe has promised to propose constitutional changes to curtail presidential powers, strengthen Parliament and resolve Sri Lanka’s economic difficulties. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/sri-lanka-pm-stresses-urgency-for-economic-reform-plan/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:33 | en | 0.952663 |
NRA opens gun convention in Texas after school massacre
The National Rifle Association begins its annual convention in Houston on Friday, and leaders of the powerful gun-rights lobbying group are gearing up to "reflect on" — and deflect any blame for — the deadly shooting earlier this week of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Former President Donald Trump and other leading Republicans are scheduled to address the three-day firearms marketing and advocacy event, which is expected to draw protesters fed up with gun violence.
Some scheduled speakers and performers have backed out, including two Texas lawmakers and "American Pie" singer Don McLean, who said "it would be disrespectful" to go ahead with his act in the aftermath of the country's latest mass shooting.
While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws, NRA board member Phil Journey said the focus should be on better mental health care and trying to prevent gun violence. He said he wouldn't support banning or limiting access to firearms.
The NRA said in an online statement that people attending the gun show will "reflect on" the Uvalde school shooting, "pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."
People planning to attend picked up registration badges Thursday and shopped for NRA souvenirs, such as T-shirts that say "Suns Out Guns Out." Police already had set up metal barriers across the street from the convention center, at a park where protesters are expected to gather Friday.
Gary Francis traveled with his wife and friends from Racine, Wisconsin, to attend the NRA meeting. He said he opposed any gun control regulations in response to the Uvalde shooting.
"What happened there is obviously tragic," he said. "But the NRA had nothing to do with it. The people who come here had nothing to do with it."
Texas has experienced a series of mass shootings in recent years. During that time, the Republican-led Legislature and governor have relaxed gun laws.
There is precedent for the NRA to gather amid local mourning and controversy. The organization went ahead with a shortened version of its 1999 meeting in Denver roughly a week after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. Actor Charlton Heston, the NRA president at that time, told attendees that "horrible acts" shouldn't become opportunities to limit constitutional rights and he denounced critics for casting NRA members as "villains."
Rocky Marshall, a former NRA board member, said that although the tragedy in Uvalde "does put the meeting in a bad light," that's not a reason to cancel it. Marshall said gun-rights advocates and opponents can perhaps reduce gun violence if they focus on factors such as mental illness or school security.
"Throwing rocks at the NRA, that doesn't solve the next mass shooting," he said. "Throwing rocks at the people that hate guns, that doesn't solve the next mass shooting."
But country music singer Larry Gatlin, who pulled out of planned appearance at the event, said he hopes "the NRA will rethink some of its outdated and ill-thought-out positions."
"While I agree with most of the positions held by the NRA, I have come to believe that, while background checks would not stop every madman with a gun, it is at the very least a step in the right direction," Gatlin said.
Country singers Lee Greenwood and Larry Stewart also withdrew, Variety reported.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the NRA's leaders "are contributing to the problem of gun violence and not trying to solve it." She accused them of representing the interests of gun manufacturers, "who are marketing weapons of war to young adults."
Two Republican Texas lawmakers who had been scheduled speak Friday — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw — are no longer attending due to what their staffs said were changes in their schedules.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was slated to attend, will instead address the convention by prerecorded video, his spokesman told The Dallas Morning News.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was listed as a speaker, and Trump said Wednesday that he still intends to attend. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, also is sticking to her plans to speak Friday at the NRA event.
Though personal firearms are allowed at the convention, the NRA said guns would not be permitted during the session featuring Trump because of Secret Service security protocols.
Several groups have said they planned to stage protests outside of the convention center.
"This is not the time or the place to have this convention," said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, a Houston-based civil rights group that plans to participate in protests. "We must not just have thoughts and prayers from legislators, but rather we need action to address this public health crisis that is affecting our communities."
Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who is challenging Abbott in the 2022 Texas governor's race, said he would be attending a protest outside the convention Friday.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said the city is obligated to host the NRA event, which has been under contract for more than two years. But he urged politicians to skip it.
"You can't pray and send condolences on one day and then be going and championing guns on the next. That's wrong," Turner said.
Shannon Watts, the founder of gun-control group Moms Demand Action, said she was not surprised the NRA is not canceling its meeting.
"The real question now is which elected officials will choose to side with violence and go kiss the ring in Houston this weekend instead of siding with communities crying out for public safety," Watts said.
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David A. Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. | https://www.4029tv.com/article/nra-convention-texas-school-massacre/40122760 | 2022-05-27T18:13:38 | en | 0.980962 |
The Kremlin-backed leader of Russia’s southern province of Chechnya has posted a video in which he warns that Poland could be next after Ukraine.
Ramzan Kadyrov, who is famous for his bluster, said in the video he posted to his official Telegram page that Ukraine was “a done deal” and that “if an order is given after Ukraine, we’ll show you (Poland) what you’re made of in six seconds.”
Poland, which borders Ukraine, has provided its neighbor with weapons and other aid since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. It has also welcomed in millions of Ukrainian refugees.
Kadyrov later urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “finally come to his senses and accept the conditions offered by our president (Vladimir Putin).”
Kadyrov has repeatedly used social media to boast about Chechen fighters’ alleged performance against Ukrainian troops and to make other unconfirmed statements about the war in Ukraine.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— ‘Relentless’: Russia squeezes Ukrainian strongholds in east
— West mulls having Russian oligarchs buy way out of sanctions
— Russia blames the West for global food crisis as it blocks Ukraine ports
— US wins latest legal battle to seize Russian yacht in Fiji
— US general: No need to add ground forces in Sweden, Finland
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Ukraine should remove sea mines from areas near its ports to allow safe shipping.
Putin made the statement in Friday’s call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, according to the Kremlin readout of the conversation. It said that Putin and Nehammer “had a detailed exchange of views on issues regarding food security” with Putin rejecting Western claims that Russia’s action that exacerbated a global food crisis.
The Kremlin noted that “Putin emphasized that attempts to blame Russia for difficulties regarding shipments of agricultural products to global markets are unfounded.” It added that the Russian leader “gave a detailed explanation of the real roots behind those problems that emerged, in particular, because of the U.S. and the EU sanctions against Russia.”
The U.S. and other Western allies have rejected the Russian demand for the sanctions to be lifted and accused Moscow of blocking grain supplies from Ukraine to global markets — accusations the Kremlin has denied.
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LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russian forces are making “palpable progress” in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv’s forces need long-range rocket launchers and other military support.
Britain’s defense ministry said Friday that Moscow’s troops have recently captured several villages as they attempt to surround Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region, but do not yet have full control of the region.
Johnson told news agency Bloomberg that Russian President Vladimir Putin “at great cost to himself and Russian military is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas, he’s continuing to make gradual, slow but I’m afraid palpable progress.”
He said that “therefore it is absolutely vital that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily.”
Johnson said long-range multiple-launch rocket systems, or MLRSs, “would enable them to defend themselves against this very brutal Russian artillery.”
Britain possesses some of the systems, but Johnson did not say whether the U.K. would send any to Ukraine.
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PRAGUE — The U.K.’s top diplomat says countries supporting Ukraine have to be “ready for the long haul” and there should be no talk of “appeasing” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said after meeting her Czech counterpart in Prague Friday that “we need to make sure that Ukraine wins and that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again.”
She said that “there should be no talk of cease-fires, or appeasing Putin.”
Truss says that Ukraine needs to receive more heavy weapons and gradually get upgraded to get “NATO-standard equipment.” She said that “at the moment, they’re using a lot of ex-Soviet equipment. We need to make sure they’re able to defend themselves into the future.”
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BUDAPEST, Hungary — A U.S. lawmaker is urging the Biden administration to consider imposing sanctions on some Hungarian companies in an effort to pressure Budapest to agree to a European Union embargo on Russian oil.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi urged him to “consider all tools including sanctions” to ensure that Hungary — a member of the EU and NATO — gets on board with the proposal.
The EU has for weeks has sought to forge a consensus on a new sanctions package that would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has held up negotiations and threatened a veto of the plan, arguing it would devastate Hungary’s economy and lead to energy insecurity.
In his letter to Blinken, Krishnamoorthi wrote that the EU’s proposed embargo would “significantly increase financial pressure on Russia’s economy and Putin’s war machine.”
If Orban continues to stall EU negotations, he wrote, “the Biden Administration should consider implementing sanctions against companies in Hungary that continue to do business with Russian oil exporters.”
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ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister says Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to alleviate his country’s security concerns to overcome Ankara’s objections to their NATO membership bid.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that delegations from the two Nordic countries have returned home with Turkey’s demands after a visit this week and Ankara is awaiting their answers.
The countries’ membership bids require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants that Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.
Cavusoglu said that “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”
He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security concerns but … everyone also needs to understand Turkey’s legitimate security concerns.”
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ROME — Italian Premier Mario Draghi has discussed the emerging food crisis in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Draghi’s office said that the call Thursday “focused on the situation in Ukraine and … efforts to find a shared solution to the ongoing food crisis and its serious repercussions on the world’s poorest countries.”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, endangering world food supplies. Many of those ports are now also heavily mined.
Russia also is a significant grain exporter. Moscow pressed the West on Thursday to lift sanctions against Russia, seeking to shift the blame for the food crisis.
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BERLIN — Germany’s development minister has traveled to Ukraine to pledge further civilian support and discuss the country’s rebuilding.
Svenja Schulze is the second German minister to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion started. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited on May 10 and reopened the country’s embassy in Kyiv.
Schulze’s ministry said she planned to meet Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other senior officials in Kyiv on Friday.
It said the talks will address immediate aid to address the problems Ukraine faces now and “strategic questions” related to rebuilding the country.
Schulze said in a statement that “we must already lay now the foundations for internationally coordinated support for the rebuilding of a free and democratic Ukraine” and Germany will contribute.
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MOSCOW — Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claim to have taken control of Lyman, a town in the Donetsk region. There has been no confirmation yet from Ukrainian officials.
The military of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic said on Telegram that rebel forces, supported by the Russian troops, as of Friday “have liberated and taken full control of 220 settlements, including Lyman.”
Lyman, which had a pre-war population of over 20,000, is a large railway hub in the Donetsk region, north of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, cities that remain under Ukrainian control.
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MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced that it is expelling five Croatian diplomats in response to “unfriendly steps” taken by Zagreb to reduce the size of Russia’s diplomatic mission there.
The ministry said in an statement that it summoned Croatian ambassador Tomislav Car on Friday. It said it “expressed a strong protest in connection with the groundless attempts of the Croatian authorities to blame Russia for war crimes in Ukraine and the provision of military assistance by the Croatian side to the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”
Last month, Croatia expelled 18 Russian diplomats.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s foreign minister is pleading with Western nations to provide Kyiv with heavy weapons to enable it to push Russian forces back.
Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday night tweeted a video of himself answering questions submitted on Twitter and said: “We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us it’s the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we won’t be able to push them back.”
Kuleba said that the situation in the east of the country, where the Russian forces are on the offensive, “is as dire as people say.”
He added: “I would even say it’s even worse than people say. We need weapons. If you really care for Ukraine, weapons, weapons and weapons again,” the minister stressed.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian regional governor says that four people have been killed in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk over the past 24 hours by Russian shelling. One more person was killed by a Russian shell in the village of Komushuvakha.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote in a Telegram post Friday that “the residents of Sievierodonetsk have forgotten when was the last time there was silence in the city for at least half an hour.” He said that “the Russians are pounding residential neighborhoods relentlessly.”
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said on Thursday that 60% of the city’s residential buildings have been destroyed, and about 85-90% have been damaged and require major repairs.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The United States has won the latest round of a legal battle to seize a $325-million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, with the case now appearing headed for the Pacific nation’s top court.
The case has highlighted the thorny legal ground the U.S. finds itself on as it tries to seize assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. Those intentions are welcomed by many governments and citizens who oppose the war in Ukraine, but some actions are raising questions about how far U.S. jurisdiction extends.
Fiji’s Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed an appeal by Feizal Haniff, who represents the company that legally owns the superyacht Amadea. Haniff had argued the U.S. had no jurisdiction under Fiji’s mutual assistance laws to seize the vessel, at least until a court sorted out who really owned the Amadea.
Haniff said he now plans to take the case to Fiji’s Supreme Court and will apply for a court order to stop U.S. agents sailing the Amadea from Fiji before the appeal is heard.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. general nominated to take over European Command has told senators that Sweden and Finland’s push to join NATO won’t require adding more U.S. ground forces into either country. But Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said Thursday that military exercises and occasional American troop rotations will probably increase.
Cavoli, who currently serves as head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said the increased military focus will probably continue to be on eastern Europe — where nations are more worried about potential Russian aggression and any spillover of the war on Ukraine.
Cavoli told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing that “The center of gravity of NATO forces has shifted eastward.” He said that “depending on the outcome of the conflict, we may have to continue that for some time.”
Cavoli was asked about the U.S. troop presence in Europe, which has grown from fewer than 80,000 to about 102,000 since the buildup to Russia’s invasion. He said the increase had no ties to the more recent move by Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/live-updates-ukraine-4-more-killed-in-sievierodonetsk/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:38 | en | 0.961024 |
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Monday morning at Robb Elementary School, a line of graduating high school seniors in maroon caps and gowns paid a visit to the children to offer smiles, high fives and encouragement that one day, if they studied hard enough, they could graduate too.
Notably missing from those Uvalde High School seniors was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who had frequently skipped class and was not set to graduate. The next day, he shot his grandmother and then went to the school alone with an AR-style rifle and fatally shot 19 children and two teachers for reasons authorities are still at a loss to explain.
State police say Ramos had no criminal record, no history of mental illness treatment and no obvious signs he was a danger to this tight-knit, largely Latino community 85 miles west of San Antonio.
But those who knew him saw increasing signs of isolation, outbursts and aggression. And there were a series of cryptic social media messages — including to apparently random teenage girls in Germany and California — that offered photos of rifles, ammo and hints of his desire to hurt and kill.
“He always seemed to take his anger out on the most innocent person in the room,” said 17-year-old Crystal Foutz, who attended school with Ramos and worked with him at the fast-food chain Whataburger. “He would get angry at people thinking he wasn’t OK. He was just always super odd.”
Most chilling were a series of messages on the social platform Yubo just before Tuesday’s shooting that may have come too late to prevent the violence. Investigators are examining texts they believe Ramos sent to a 15-year-old German girl, including one minutes before the massacre warning that he was about “to shoot up a elementary school,” according to a law enforcement official not authorized to discuss the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Instagram photos posted under his moniker TheBiggestOpp showed him in front of a mirror taking a selfie and one of a gun magazine in his lap.
Earlier this month, Ramos tagged a photo of two long guns to an Instagram user with more than 10,000 followers and asked her to share the picture.
“I barely know you and u tag me in a picture with some guns,” replied the Instagram user, a young woman in California. “It’s just scary.”
On May 17, a day after he turned 18, he visited a gun store to buy an AR-style rifle. He bought a second one a few days later.
On the day of the shooting, Ramos replied that he’s “got a lil secret,” according to the exchange of messages posted publicly. He later typed: “I’m about to.”
A TikTok account with the same selfie photo and username included a chilling line in its profile: “Kids be scared IRL,” short for “in real life.”
Neighbors and classmates say that in recent years Ramos got into fights with his mother repeatedly, including times when the police were called in.
Some of them say that the seeds of Ramos’ descent to mass murder may have started many years ago as a child who always had trouble fitting in with others, was an occasional target of bullies and then turned into one himself.
One childhood friend recalled a time Ramos admitted to cutting his own face with knives for fun. The same friend, Santos Valdez Jr., 18, told The Washington Post that Ramos would drive around at night egging cars and shooting random people with a BB gun. About a year ago, he said, Ramos posted a “wish list” on social media of automatic rifles.
Foutz, the former classmate, said Ramos had become increasingly withdrawn in recent months, having “slowly fallen off” from attending school, and got into angry disputes with her ex-boyfriend and a couple at Whataburger.
“He wasn’t a big guy,” she told AP. “He just had this ego. Like he was invincible.”
“He was really a loner, and the people he did hang out with stopped hanging with him because of those things,” she said.
On the morning of the shooting, Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street from Ramos and his grandmother, heard a shot as he was puttering around in his yard. He ran to the front and saw Ramos speed away in a truck and his grandmother bloodied coming toward him, pleading for help.
Ramos’ grandmother emerged covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, this is what he did. He shot me.’”
Minutes later, Ramos crashed the truck in a drainage ditch near the school and began an assault that would go on for more than an hour before he was finally gunned down himself by authorities.
Foutz said that unlike other mass shooters, who gave no sign of their intentions, Ramos was sending out signals that should have been caught.
“Looking at it now, he’s textbook,” she said. “It could have been prevented. It should have been prevented.”
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Condon and Mustian reported from New York. AP writers Acacia Coronado in Uvalde, Michael Balsamo and Amanda Seitz in Washington, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/texas-shooter-sent-warning-signs-messages-mostly-too-late/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:41 | en | 0.985413 |
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to alleviate his country’s security concerns to overcome Ankara’s objections to their NATO membership bid.
Delegations from the two Nordic countries have returned home with documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror groups, after a visit this week and Ankara is awaiting their answers, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.
The countries’ membership bids require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants that Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.
Cavusoglu said that “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”
He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security concerns but … everyone also needs to understand Turkey’s legitimate security concerns.” Turkey was requesting that NATO include combating terrorism in its “Strategic Concepts,” the minister said.
Turkey’s top diplomat was speaking in a joint news conference with his Polish and Romanian counterparts in Istanbul.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said: “There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger.” Romania’s foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate the collective defense and our security.”
Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms support” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.
The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/nato-turkey-urges-concrete-steps-from-sweden-finland/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:44 | en | 0.966205 |
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 1,250 Thai workers who sewed bras for brands Victoria’s Secret, Lane Bryant and Torrid — and who were laid off last year without their legally required severance — have received 281 million baht ($8.3 million) in compensation, according to worker rights groups Solidarity Center and the Worker Rights Consortium.
The compensation will be financed by Victoria’s Secret via a loan arrangement with the workers’ former employer, and comes after a 13-month effort. The workers are represented by the Triumph International Union, which is affiliated with the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand.
Private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which owns the Lane Bryant and Torrid brands, did not contribute, according to the groups. Sycamore couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The Solidarity Center said it was the largest settlement related to wage theft at a garment factory.
After the Brilliant Alliance factory shuttered in March 2021, the Thai government ordered its owner, Hong Kong-based Clover Group, to pay severance within 30 days, according to the worker rights groups. Clover refused, telling the factory’s workers it had no money, and they should agree to wait 10 years to be paid in full.
The union then launched a campaign demanding their severance pay. The Worker Rights Consortium and the Solidarity Center worked with Victoria’s Secret and Sycamore, pressing that the workers should be paid. After months of efforts, including campaigning by Clean Clothes Campaign, and other nonprofit worker advocacy organizations, Clover agreed to pay the workers and Victoria’s Secret committed to finance the payments, via a loan to Clover.
Last week, all workers received their severance, in addition to more than $1 million in interest, per Thai law.
Victoria’s Secret said in a statement Thursday that it is “unwavering in its commitment to doing the right thing” for the workers whose livelihoods were impacted by the closure of the Brilliant Alliance Thailand factory.
“While the workers impacted by the closure were not our employees and our merchandise was not produced in the factory at the time of the closure, we were committed to ensuring the factory owners satisfied their obligation to their workers,” Victoria’s Secret said.
David Welsh, Thailand country director of the Solidarity Center, called the settlement a “huge victory” for the garment workers.
“Low-wage garment workers left destitute by injustice meted out by global supply chains is nothing new,” he said. ”What’s new is they did not accept their fate — and won.”
Welsh said he hopes the settlement will become a model for the type of domestic, governmental, international and brand involvement to resolve future cases where garment workers are left in similarly desperate straits. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/thai-garment-workers-win-8-3m-in-back-pay-after-layoffs/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:48 | en | 0.970708 |
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The new president of the Italian Conference of Bishops on Friday said he would launch an independent inquiry on sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Italy, but the announcement disappointed victims advocates because it will only go back 20 years.
The Italian church is coming under mountain pressure to confront its legacy of clerical sexual abuse. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who was appointed this week by Pope Francis, said the investigation will limit its scope to two decades in order to be “more accurate and accountable.”
Zuppi promised a report would be delivered by Nov. 18 by a panel of independent experts selected among university professors.
“We are starting from them (the victims),’’ Zuppi told a news conference. “It is clear that their suffering drives us, and it should stimulate us to give responses that are trustworthy and serious.”
Victims’ advocates say the initiative does not go far enough. They want investigations to span 50 years, and they want to be directly involved in drafting the report.
Francesco Zanardi, founder of Rete L’Abuso (Abuse Network), one of Italy’s main victims’ advocacy groups, said most of the victims report the abuse only after decades have passed.
“The maturation of a trauma takes between 30, 35 or 40 years, when it goes well,’’ Zanardi told reporters in Rome. “I, for example, spoke about my trauma (when I was) 40 years old … more than 30 years went by … this says that 20 years is not enough.”
The Italian Catholic Church is one of the few in Western Europe that has not opened its archives to independent researchers to establish the scope of abuse and cover-up in recent decades.
Whether by government mandate, parliamentary investigation or church initiation, such reports in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France have shown systematic problems that allowed thousands of children to be abused by Catholic priests. The churches in Spain and Portugal have recently agreed to launch similar investigations.
By Zanardi’s count, 164 priests are under investigation for abuse in Italy and another 162 have been convicted. His group has gathered information another 161 new cases that have come to light this year. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/new-head-of-italian-bishops-launches-sex-abuse-query/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:50 | en | 0.972178 |
Twitter shareholders have filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of engaged in “unlawful conduct” aimed at sowing doubt about his bid to buy the social media company.
The lawsuit filed late Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims the billionaire Tesla CEO has sought to drive down Twitter’s stock price because he wants to walk away from the deal or negotiate a substantially lower purchase price.
San Francisco-based Twitter is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which seeks class action status as well as compensation for damages.
A representative for Musk did not immediately respond to a message for comment on Thursday. Twitter declined to comment.
Musk last month offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, but later said the deal can’t go forward until the company provides information about how many accounts on the platform are spam or bots.
The lawsuit notes, however, that Musk waived due diligence for his “take it or leave it” offer to buy Twitter. That means he waived his right to look at the company’s non-public finances.
In addition, the problem of bots and fake accounts on Twitter is nothing new. The company paid $809.5 million last year to settle claims it was overstating its growth rate and monthly user figures. Twitter has also disclosed its bot estimates to the Securities and Exchange Commission for years, while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low.
To fund some of the acquisition, Musk has been selling Tesla stock and shares in the electric carmaker have lost nearly a third of their value since the deal was announced on April 25.
In response to the plunging value of Tesla’s shares, the Twitter shareholders’ lawsuit claims Musk has been denigrating Twitter, violating both the non-disparagement and non-disclosure clauses of his contract with the company.
“In doing so, Musk hoped to drive down Twitter’s stock price and then use that as a pretext to attempt to re-negotiate the buyout,” according to the lawsuit.
Twitter’s shares closed Thursday at $39.54, 27% below Musk’s $54.20 offer price.
Before announcing his bid to buy Twitter, Musk disclosed in early April that he had bought a 9% stake in the company. But the lawsuit says Musk did not disclose the stake within the timeframe required by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And the lawsuit says his eventual disclosure of the stake to the SEC was “false and misleading” because he used a form meant for “passive investors” — which Musk at the time was not, because he had been offered a position on Twitter’s board and was interested in buying the company.
Musk benefited by more than $156 million from his failure to disclose his increased stake on time, since Twitter’s stock price could have been higher had investors known Musk was increasing his holdings, the lawsuit claims.
“By delaying his disclosure of his stake in Twitter, Musk engaged in market manipulation and bought Twitter stock at an artificially low price,” the lawsuit says. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/twitter-shareholders-sue-musk-say-he-deflated-stock-price/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:56 | en | 0.986982 |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A documentary about discrimination within the ranks of Dutch police has sparked a national conversation in the Netherlands about racism, with many officers and others hoping it will finally bring about change.
“The Blue Family,” or “De Blauwe Familie” in Dutch, discusses a culture of bullying and fear in the national police force. It premiered on Dutch television Monday, timed around the second anniversary this week of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police.
“There is no way back,” Peris Conrad, one of the officers featured in the film, told The Associated Press.
Born in the former Dutch colony Surinam, Conrad dreamed of being a police officer as a child. He moved to the Netherlands when he was 4 years old, and after a stint in the military, became a security guard.
While in that job, he had an encounter with police officers who were looking for information about crime in the Surinamese community. The officers encouraged him to join the force himself, which he did, ultimately spending 26 years in service.
But Conrad, who is Black, recalled how in his first year at the police academy, colleagues hung a picture of him with cell bars drawn on it. The caption read: “Our monkey in a cage.”
Police leaders received an early showing of the film and promised action.
“The personal stories make it painfully clear how great the impact is (of the racism), and how long it will last,” Police Chief Henk van Essen said in a statement. “We all have something to do; not just executives, but all 65,000 colleagues. Because safety outside starts with safety inside.”
“There is no room for racism and discrimination in our police,” Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz told Dutch talk show “RTL Boulevard.”
The Dutch parliament voted by a large majority this week to place police leaders under stricter supervision, citing the suicides in recent years of three officers who had complained about discrimination.
Last year, a Dutch newspaper published messages from police group chats that showed officers making racial slurs and joking about killing non-white people. “One less Turk” one officer wrote, in response to the slaying of a 16-year-old girl who was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend in her high school’s bicycle shed.
As in other countries, the problems in the Netherlands have a long history. A 1998 report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs said discrimination was driving out police officers with a “migration” background – defined as having at least one parent born abroad.
While 24% of the Dutch population meets that definition, only 14% of the police force does. The National Police Corps employs some 65,000 people, and around 40,000 work as officers.
Margot Snijders has spent 30 years on the national force, including a number of years working on diversity and inclusion efforts. After years of frustration, she took a step back from that role.
“People don’t trust us, and they don’t want to work for us,” Snijders, who also appears in “The Blue Family,” told The Associated Press.
George Floyd’s death in the U.S. two years ago prompted protests against racial injustice in the Netherlands and around the world. Controle Alt Delete, an advocacy organization that pushes for better law enforcement practices, wanted to highlight problems within the Dutch police force.
The group brought on board filmmakers Maria Mok and Meral Uslu to direct and produce the documentary, which was backed by Dutch public broadcaster KRO-NCRV.
Problems with racism, as well as discrimination against women and members of the LGBTQ community, are widespread and systemic within police ranks, said Jan Struijs, the chairperson of the country’s largest police union.
Struijs also took part in the film. “I hope this is a historic turning point,” he told the AP.
The first article of the country’s constitution, which is displayed on posters in every police station, outlaws discrimination against any group. The Dutch consider themselves to be some of the most open-minded, tolerant people in the world.
There’s been no significant criticism of the “The Blue Family,” those involved in the documentary welcomed the response to it.
“I have been saying the same things for years, only now do they get a positive reaction,” Snijders said.
The Dutch police union is calling for better mental health counseling for officers and more accountability for ones who make racist jokes.
Conrad sees a need for widespread change, both in policy and leadership.
In the meantime, he’s forbidden his 20-year-old son from joining the force.
“I don’t want him to experience this,” he said. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/racism-in-the-ranks-dutch-police-film-spurs-conversation/ | 2022-05-27T18:13:56 | en | 0.976596 |
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russia-backed separatists claimed they captured a railway hub in eastern Ukraine as Moscow’s forces pushed to gain more ground Friday by pounding another Ukrainian-held area where authorities say 1,500 people have died since the war’s start.
With Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region showing incremental progress, Ukrainian officials characterized the battle as grave and renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without that, the foreign minister warned, Ukrainian forces won’t be able to stop Russia’s advance on the east.
Some European leaders sought dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin toward ending a war — now in its 93rd day — with global economic repercussions, while Britain’s foreign minister worked to rally the West’s continued support for Ukraine.
“There should be no talk of cease-fires, or appeasing Putin. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins. And that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
But in Ukraine’s east, Russia does have the upper hand. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled some territory for eight years.
“Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night,” Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. “The city is being systematically destroyed — 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged.”
At least 1,500 people have died in Sievierodonetsk because of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, he said. About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city — down from a pre-war population of about 100,000, he said. Those remaining are huddled in shelters, largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine.
Volunteers hoped to evacuate about 100 people Friday from a smaller city just to Sievierodonetsk’s south. It was a painstaking process: Many of the evacuees from Bakhmut were elderly or infirm and needed to be carried out of apartment buildings in soft stretchers and wheelchairs.
Minibuses and vans zipped through the city, picking up dozens for the first leg of a long journey west by car or train.
“Bakhmut is a high-risk area right now,” said Mark Poppert, an American volunteer working with British charity RefugEase. “We’re trying to get as many people out as we can.”
In Donetsk, the other Donbas province, the Russia-backed rebels said Friday they took over Lyman, a large railway hub north of two more key cities still under Ukrainian control.
“We lost Lyman,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged Thursday night. However, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its soldiers countered Russian attempts to push them completely out of the city.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces have taken advantage of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive in the east, bringing in up to a dozen additional battalion tactical groups.
Throwing so much muscle at the offensive, though, could backfire by seriously depleting Russia’s arsenal. Echoing an assessment from the British Defense Ministry, Zhdanov said Russia was deploying 50-year-old T-62 tanks, “which means that the second army of the world has run out of modernized equipment.”
Mykola Sunhurovskyi, an analyst at Kyiv’s Razumkov Center, said that going forward, “It is in Putin’s interests to solidify the situation that has developed today at the front, biting off from Ukraine what there is still strength for, and secure this line of contact as a position in (eventual) negotiations.”
As Ukraine’s hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations: “We need heavy weapons. … Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we won’t be able to push them back.”
In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had some harsh words for the European Union, which has not agreed on a sixth round of sanctions that includes an embargo on Russian oil. Hungary, one of Moscow’s closest allies in the EU, is obstructing the deal.
“Every day of delay, weakness, various disputes or proposals to ‘appease’ the aggressor at the expense of the victim is (results in) new killed Ukrainians,” he said. “And new threats to everyone on our continent.”
Zelenskyy said Russia’s offensive in the Donbas could leave its communities in ashes, and he accused Moscow of “an obvious policy of genocide” through mass deportations and killings of civilians.
On Thursday, Russian shelling of Kharkiv, a northeastern city that has been under assault while Ukrainian forces keep the invading troops out, killed nine people, including a father and his 5-month-old baby, the president said.
AP reporters saw the bodies of at least two dead men and four wounded at a central subway station, where the victims were taken as shelling continued outside.
To the north, neighboring Belarus announced Friday that it was sending troops toward the Ukrainian border, raising concerns in Ukraine’s military command. Russia used Belarus as a staging ground before it invaded Ukraine.
European leaders have been speaking with Putin about easing the growing global food crisis exacerbated by Kyiv’s inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products while under attack.
Italian Premier Mario Draghi said there were no breakthroughs during his Thursday conversation with Putin about unblocking Ukrainian ports.
“If you are asking me if there are openings for peace, the answer is no,” Draghi told reporters.
Moscow has sought to shift the blame for the food crisis to the West, calling upon its leaders to lift existing sanctions.
Putin told Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday that Ukraine should remove Black Sea mines to allow safe shipping, according to a Kremlin readout of their conversation; Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the mines near Ukraine’s ports.
Nehammer’s office said the two leaders also discussed a prisoner exchange and that Putin indicated efforts to arrange one would be “intensified.”
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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and AP journalists around the world contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/relentless-russia-squeezes-ukrainian-strongholds-in-east/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:03 | en | 0.96423 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday he is ashamed the United States is “becoming desensitized to the murder of children” and that action is needed now to prevent more lives from being lost in school shootings like the one in Uvalde, Texas.
Cardona spoke at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing two days after a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle stormed into an elementary school and killed 19 children and two teachers. The massacre, which followed the fatal of shootings of 10 people this month at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, has revived the debate over gun control.
On Thursday, the committee chairman, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., opened the hearing by holding a moment of silence in memory of those who had died in Texas.
While the hearing was on the Education Department’s budget and priorities, Cardona started his testimony by addressing the shooting.
“After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after each of these and other massacres, we as educators did our best to look parents in their eyes and assure them that we’ll do everything to protect their babies,” Cardona said, referencing school shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and Florida.
But he said all the actions taken in response to those earlier school shootings — including active shooter drills, online early detection tools and more secure building entrances and perimeters — “are no match for what we’re up against.”
Providing no specifics, he said, “we need action now” to protect America’s children. “Let’s not normalize this,” he said. “Let’s use every ounce of influence that we have to get something done to help prevent this from happening again.”
Cardona told lawmakers that he would be “failing you as secretary of education if I didn’t tell you I was ashamed, I am, that we as a country are becoming desensitized to the murder of children. I’d be failing you as secretary of education if I didn’t use this platform to say that students and teachers and school leaders are scared.”
The Cabinet member did not go as far as his boss, President Joe Biden, who in an emotional address said Tuesday, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”
Biden previously had called for a ban on assault-style weapons, tougher federal background check requirements and laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental health problems.
The fight over guns has been split largely on party lines. Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on gun safety.
Rather than regulate guns, some Republicans have proposed arming teachers to deter school shootings.
Cardona rejected that.
“And the solution of arming teachers, in my opinion, is further disrespect to a profession that’s already beleaguered and not feeling the support of so many folks,” he said.
Scott, in his opening remarks, called school shootings “too common of an occurrence” in America.
“We could have prevented a lot of these if elected leaders valued children and families more than guns,” he said. “Instead, time and time again, Congress has failed to enact any sensible or widely supported proposals to respond to these tragedies and prevent another one from happening.”
But Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the top Republican on the committee, cautioned against a quick rush to action.
“We must be thoughtful about how we discuss and handle school safety and mental health issues,” Foxx said. “Federal changes should not be made in haste.”
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Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report.
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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/us-education-chief-seeks-action-to-prevent-school-shootings/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:03 | en | 0.972726 |
BEIJING (AP) — On a balmy Sunday night, residents of an upscale Shanghai compound took to the streets to decry lockdown restrictions imposed by their community. By the following morning, they were free to leave.
The triumphant story quickly spread on chat groups across the Chinese city this week, sparking one question in the minds of those who remained under lockdown: Shouldn’t we do the same?
By the end of the week, other groups of residents had confronted management in their complexes, and some had won at least a partial release.
While it’s unclear how widespread they are, the incidents reflect the frustration that has built up after more than seven weeks of lockdown, even as the number of new daily cases has fallen to a few hundred in a city of 25 million people.
They also are a reminder of the power of China’s neighborhood committees that the ruling Communist Party relies on to spread propaganda messages, enforce its decisions and even settle personal disputes. Such committees and the residential committees under them have become the target of complaints, especially after some in Shanghai and other cities refused to allow residents out even after official restrictions were relaxed.
More than 21 million people in Shanghai are now in “precaution zones,” the least restrictive category. In theory, they are free to go out. In practice, the decision is up to their residential committees, resulting in a kaleidoscope of arbitrary rules.
Some are allowed out, but only for a few hours with a specially issued pass for one day or certain days of the week. Some places permit only one person per household to leave. Others forbid people to leave at all.
“We have already been given at least three different dates when we are going to reopen, and none of them were real,” said Weronika Truszczynska, a graduate student from Poland who posted vlogs about her experience.
“The residential committee told us you can wait a week, we are going to reopen probably on June 1st,” she said. “No one believed it.”
Two days after the Sunday night breakout at the upscale Huixianju compound, more than a dozen residents of Truszczynska’s complex confronted their managers on a rainy Tuesday,
The residents, who were mostly Chinese, demanded to be allowed to leave without time limits or restrictions on how many per household. After the demands were not met, some returned to protest a second day. This time, four police officers stood watch.
On Thursday afternoon, community representatives knocked on the doors of each resident with a new policy: Write their name and apartment number on a list, take a temperature check, scan a barcode — and they were free to leave.
“We got the possibility of going out just because we were brave enough to protest,” Truszczynska said of her fellow residents.
The Shanghai lockdown has also prompted resistance from people being taken away to quarantine and workers required to sleep at their workplaces. Videos on social media showed what were said to be employees of a factory operated by Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc. trying to force their way out of the facility in early May.
The party’s strict anti-virus campaign has been aided by an urban environment in which hundreds of millions of people in China live in gated apartment compounds or walled neighborhoods that can be easily blocked off.
The front line for enforcement are the neighborhood committees that are responsible for keeping track of every resident in every urban household nationwide and enforcing public health and sanitation rules.
Many tend to err on the side of over-enforcement, aware of the example made of public officials who are fired or criticized for failing in their pandemic prevention duties.
The importance of neighborhood committees dwindled in the 1990s as the Communist Party relaxed restrictions on the movement of citizens, but they have been undergoing a resurgence in an ongoing tightening of societal controls under President Xi Jinping.
The incident at Huixianju prompted others to speak out. In a series of videos that circulated this week, about two dozen people march toward the Western Nanjing Road Police Station, chanting “Respect the law, give me back my life.”
Residents of a compound in Jing’an district saw the gates of neighboring compounds open over the past month — yet theirs remained locked. On Wednesday, about two dozen gathered at the gate, calling out to speak with a representative.
“I want to understand what are the neighborhood leaders planning?” one woman asks in a video of the incident. Another woman chimes in: “Are you making progress?” A third resident points out that they should be free by now, since the compound has been case-free for a while. “Didn’t they say on television that things are opening up? We saw it on television,” an older man says.
The next day, the community issued one-day passes — residents were allowed out for two hours on Friday, with no word on what would happen after that.
Shanghai authorities have declared a June target for life to return to normal. But some people aren’t waiting, pushing the boundaries bit by bit.
On Thursday night, more than a dozen young people gathered for a street concert in the same district where Sunday’s protest took place. Video of the last song, “Tomorrow will be better,” was shared widely on social media.
A police car parked nearby with its flashing red and blue lights and headlights on. As the final song drew to a close, an officer wearing a face shield strode toward the group and said, “OK you’ve had enough fun. It’s time to go back.” The crowd dispersed.
___
Associated Press researcher Si Chen in Shanghai and writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/shanghai-lockdown-residents-demand-release-and-some-get-it/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:09 | en | 0.978477 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweden and Finland’s push to join NATO won’t require adding more U.S. ground forces into either country, the U.S. general nominated to take over European Command told senators Thursday. But Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said military exercises and occasional American troop rotations will probably increase.
Cavoli, who currently serves as head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said the increased military focus will probably continue to be on eastern Europe — where nations are more worried about potential Russian aggression and any spillover of the war on Ukraine.
“The center of gravity of NATO forces has shifted eastward,” Cavoli told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing. “Depending on the outcome of the conflict, we may have to continue that for some time.”
Cavoli was asked about the U.S. troop presence in Europe, which has grown from fewer than 80,000 to about 102,000 since the buildup to Russia’s invasion. He said the increase had no ties to the more recent move by Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership.
Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week in one of the most significant geopolitical consequences of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Cavoli noted that the U.S already has strong military ties with both countries, and that additional exercises and other engagements are likely to grow.
If confirmed, Cavoli will be key as the Pentagon assesses its military structure across Europe. Defense officials have noted that historic troop concentrations in Germany, Italy and Britain may well shift and spread out into other eastern nations, such as Poland and the Baltics.
Eastern European countries have been clamoring for more U.S. weapons and troops, as a hedge against Russia. Cavoli said the U.S. also has to continue to strike a delicate balance and ensure its actions in Europe don’t inflame relations with Russia and spark a broader conflict.
“One must not shy away from activity to stay strong and outline our priorities,” he said, but the U.S. also must be careful “not to overdue that and create a problem where there wasn’t one.”
Cavoli’s nomination to be the top U.S. commander in Europe includes the job of NATO Supreme Allied Commander, which gives him a critical role in the Russian war on Ukraine. Committee members voiced support for his nomination, which is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate.
Cavoli has extensive expertise on Russia. He served as a foreign area officer with a concentration on Eurasia, spent time in Russia, and speaks Russian, Italian and French. He was also the director for Russia on the Joint Staff. He would replace Gen. Tod Wolters, who currently heads European Command but is finishing his three-year tour there. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/us-general-no-need-to-add-ground-forces-in-sweden-finland/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:10 | en | 0.977573 |
MADRID (AP) — With one of Europe’s largest gay pride celebrations right around the corner, Spain’s LGBTQ community is worried that the outbreaks of monkeypox on the continent could lead to an increase in homophobic sentiment based on misunderstandings of the disease.
Spanish health authorities said Friday there were now 98 confirmed cases in the country, the highest number in Europe. The tally includes one woman, the region of Madrid said Friday. The World Health Organization has reported nearly 200 cases of monkeypox in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease.
Health authorities have centered their investigations on links between a Gay Pride event in the Canary Islands that drew 80,000 people earlier this month, and cases linked to a Madrid sauna.
But some people, particularly gay and bisexual men, believe there is a touch of homophobic hysteria in the wider public’s reaction to the rare outbreak outside of Africa, where it has long been endemic.
Most of the known cases in Europe have been among men who have sex with men, according to authorities in Britain, Spain, Germany and Portugal. A top adviser to the World Health Organization said the outbreak was likely triggered by sexual activity at two recent mass events in Europe.
The outbreak in Spain comes in the run-up to Madrid’s Gay Pride celebration in July. It is expected to draw large crowds, unlike the last two years’ events, which were scaled down or canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions. Organizers say the city’s last pre-pandemic Pride celebration, in 2019, drew roughly 1.6 million revelers, though police put the figure at around 400,000.
“Pride is a huge party, it is a moment to make our voice be heard, that brings lots of people together,” Mario Blázquez, coordinator of health programs for the LGBTQ group COGAM in Madrid, told The Associated Press.
Blázquez is worried that Pride celebrations could be endangered by overzealous restrictions driven in part by prejudice and in part by the fears of another public health emergency on top of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t know what will happen. We don’t know what the level of transmission of the virus will be or what legal measures could be taken. And then what stigma could be generated by these legal measures that sometimes are discriminatory,” he said.
But beyond the Pride March, Blázquez is worried that society could make the same mistake it did at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, when the focus on the disease among gay men obscured its spread among the wider population.
“This is a disease that any member of the population can get,” Blázquez said. “We are facing an outbreak that unfortunately once again has hit LGBTQ people, and especially gay and bisexual men. What’s happening is somewhat similar to the first cases of HIV.”
Health authorities have reported cases in Europe, North America, Israel and Australia. It’s a surprising outbreak of a disease that rarely appears outside Africa, where it has remained a serious health threat since the first cases in human were discovered in the 1970s.
Experts say anyone can be infected through close contact with a sick person, their clothing or bedsheets. Most people recover within two to four weeks without needing hospitalization. However, the WHO says in recent times 3-6% of cases were fatal.
Health officials around the world are keeping watch for more cases because, for the first time, the disease appears to be spreading among people who didn’t travel to Africa. They stress, however, that the risk to the general population is low.
As of Thursday, Italy had confirmed 10 cases of Monkeypox, some but not all in people who had traveled to Spain’s Canary Islands.
“Regarding the question of sexual transmission, I believe that we cannot yet define this strictly as a sexually transmitted disease,” said Dr. Andrea Antinori, Director of Viral Immunodeficiencies at Spallanzani hospital in Rome. “So I would avoid identifying this disease as a sexually transmitted disease at the moment.”
“We are facing a new wave (of monkeypox) that is different from how we have historically known it,” Antinori added.
Spain’s health minister, Carolina Darias, said Wednesday that her government decided to opt into the European Union’s collective purchase of monkeypox vaccine, which like the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed based on each participating country’s population. She said government health experts are considering how to use the vaccine once it is more widely available.
Amos García, president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, recommended that the vaccine should only be given to people who have had direct contact with an infected person and who are vulnerable to infection, not to the general population.
“We are talking about a disease that does not have a large potential to become an epidemic,” García said, adding that most Spaniards over 40 should be protected by smallpox vaccines that were regularly administered decades ago.
____
Ciarán Giles in Madrid, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona and Trisha Thomas Rome contributed to this report. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/spanish-lgbtq-groups-wary-of-monkeypox-stigma-as-pride-nears/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:16 | en | 0.96941 |
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The asphhyxiation death of a Black man shown in a video being held by two officers of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police inside an SUV’s smoke-filled trunk is sparking outrage among Brazilians.
Images of the police stop Tuesday in Umbauba, in the northeastern state of Sergipe, show the officers forcibly keeping Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, in the back of their police vehicle as a dense cloud of white smoke, which appears to be tear gas, emerges from the SUV.
The man can be heard screaming and his legs, which stick out of the SUV, kick for a time, until they eventually stop moving. The officers seem undisturbed by onlookers surrounding them.
Social media erupted over the images, and dozens of people gathered to protest Wednesday in Umbauba, where they blocked a road and burned tires.
“The population is outraged,” a man can be heard saying in a video of the protest posted on Twitter. “They murdered the guy!” another told the crowd through a loudspeaker.
In a statement, the Federal Highway Police said the man had displayed aggressive behavior and was “actively resisting” the officers who pulled him over. The agents immobilized him, the statement said, then used “instruments of lesser offensive potential” to contain him.
The stataements says Santos fell ill as he was being transported to a police precinct and was taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed.
A preliminary autopsy concluded the man died of respiratory failure due to “mechanical asphyxia,” George Fernandes, a spokesperson for Sergipe state’s forensic institute, told The Associated Press.
The incident “shocked Brazilian society due to the level of its brutality, exposing the institution’s lack of preparedness to guarantee that its agents obey basic procedures,” the Brazilian Public Security Forum, an independent group, said in a statement.
President Jair Bolsonaro said he would find out from the Federal Highway Police what happened. He also mentioned a separate incident two weeks ago when a man shot two on-duty highway officers.
The Federal Police opened an investigation. The forensic institute must submit its final, more in-depth report to the Federal Police within 10 days.
The incident comes just days after officers of the highway police participated in an operation in Rio de Janeiro that left more than 20 people dead. Police have said they had no choice but to use lethal force, but accounts from residents published in local media have raised doubts on that claim. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/video-of-brazil-cops-gassing-man-draws-fury-after-his-death/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:18 | en | 0.968224 |
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In the farming village where Dhireesha Kudithipudi was born in southern India, most of the girls were married by their teenage years.
But Kudithipudi’s mother, who had a high school diploma, encouraged her daughter’s academic studies. And her father, an electrical foreman, introduced her to the technology he encountered in his travels.
The homegrown motivation helped her decide to pursue degrees in computer and electrical engineering that led her to San Antonio, where she leads a group of researchers attempting to build artificial intelligence — computer systems that can adapt and learn how to perform tasks like humans.
“We see A.I. as technology that is going to help humans,” she says. “Whether we accept it or not, these A.I. systems are everywhere around us, when you’re doing your Netflix search or buying something on Amazon or Target. A.I. is around us already in ways that we don’t see or realize.”
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From her post as director of the Matrix: AI Consortium For Human Well-Being at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the 43 year old has another goal: recruiting diverse talent from San Antonio.
“It hits home for me, since I’m first-generation,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to train these students and equip them with skills.”
Since its inception two years ago, Matrix has pulled together researchers from various academic disciplines from UTSA, UT Health San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomedical Research Institute. Their mission: “To conduct transformative research in the design, use, and deployment of A.I. that enhances human life, and to offer rigorous research training opportunities that transcend disciplinary boundaries,” according to its 2021 annual report.
Kudithipudi leads the charge on classified and non-classified research for clients including the U.S. Air Force and Sandia National Labs in New Mexico, and Xilinx, a tech and semiconductor manufacturing company in California that was just acquired by AMD.
“This is a very unique time that we are in right now with A.I. technology because we are working with industry,” she said. “We are helping them solve these problems, and the students are able to be on the front end.”
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The Matrix consortium
The Matrix consortium is made up of researchers and professors from a wide range of academic fields. They include medical engineering, neurology, computer science, mathematics, infectious disease, geological sciences, urban planning, modern languages, radiology, automation, psychology, and others.
“We are trying to bring researchers, scientists and students together under one umbrella to design and deploy A.I. solutions to help human well-being in any form that we can help boost human performance, help humans perform tasks more efficiently,” she said.
And Kudithipudi is focused on recruiting diverse talent from San Antonio.
She noted that just 5 percent of the current A.I. workforce in the U.S. is from underrepresented groups. That means Matrix has an opportunity to reach young people on a campus where more than 65 percent of the student population comes from such groups.
Her outreach has found many avenues. Kudithipudi has been an advisor for Project Lovelace, a program offering opportunities for young women in STEM fields to engage in research and participate in seminars and workshops. Under her leadership, Matrix also hosts educational programs for students and the public. Every fall and spring semester, A.I. researchers give seminars on algorithms, theory, systems and autonomy.
Matrix has also partnered with MISI Dreamport and BigBear.ai, both from Maryland, to run a symposium on A.I. and quantum computing to discuss how the technologies will fundamentally change how people interact with data.
Matrix next is partnering with the City of San Antonio Research & Development League to collaborate on innovation-related projects for the community.
Rearing a researcher
Kudithipudi recalled her mom “had big dreams” for her as she was growing up in southern India,
And her father — her “role model” — bought Kudithipudi her first computer when she was in the sixth grade, a rarity in the farming village. He also gave her and her younger brother Atari-branded video games. They were told to figure out how to play the games without instruction manuals.
“Our father gave us the opportunities to look beyond where we were,” she said.
When she finished high school, the family moved to the city of Hyderabad — now known as a tech capital in south-central India.
Following her father’s professional path, she received her bachelor of technology degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Acharya Nagarjuna University in 1998.
“It was hardcore designing and thinking about power grids and hands-on technology,” she said. She wasn’t thinking about A.I. at the time.
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Between 1999 and 2002, she pursued her master’s degree in computer engineering at Wright State University in Ohio. While her interest was in building hardware for computer chips, she took a course in neural networks, which involved studying computer systems that reflect the behavior of the human brain to recognize patterns in datasets.
In 2002, she was accepted to a post-doctorate program for electrical and computer engineering at UTSA. “I was working still on hardware design but trying to make systems low-power and energy efficient,” she said.
But in her second year of the PhD program, she read a paper from MIT professor Ron Weiss, a pioneer in synthetic biology. Its work, using DNA synthesis and gene sequencing, is making cells to increase food production, combat disease and generate energy, as some examples.
“He showed how computing happens in biology,” she said, adding that she went to local biology professors to work on such a project. She was willing to extend her studies to do so, but found no one was working on the subject.
Kudithipudi next worked as a professor from 2006 to 2019 at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She was still interested in designing energy-efficient computing but shifted into biology, again. This time, she was looking at how brains process information and thinking about how she could bring that processing into computing. As director of the Neuromorphic AI (Nu.AI) Lab there, her research team created A.I. platforms inspired by the brain that had continual learning abilities.
For the fall of 2019, UTSA recruited seven researchers as part of a “cluster hiring initiative in A.I.,” according to the university. That year, Kudithipudi was brought onto campus to lead Matrix and serve as the Robert F. McDermott Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Today, Kudithipudi lives with her husband, Surendar, an engineer she calls “her rock.” Together, they are raising two boys, ages 12 and 9.
Typically, she does not bring her work home. But she laughed talking about how she brought “circuits” to her younger son for his birthday. “I made them build circuits with Play-Doh and the kids had a blast,” she said, noting that she was introducing her children to forms of tech, just as her father did for her.
In the lab
On a recent afternoon, Kudithipudi sat in her Neuromorphic A.I. Lab — one of about 25 labs tied to Matrix on the UTSA campus.
Its name explains its function: “Neuromorphic” refers to a method of computer engineering focused on designing hardware and software modeled on the human brain and nervous systems.
“The lab is interested in designing the next generation of A.I. systems that can solve complicated and natural tasks similar to what humans do,” she said. “We want to do that in the most energy efficient way.”
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As Kudithipudi explains it, computers are better at number-crunching while humans excel at recognizing patterns.
Her team “is trying to give the ability to machines that do not have the natural strength of pattern recognition, organic problem-solving and anomaly detection,” she said. And they’re trying to figure out how to make computers learn over the course of many years, as humans do. “Lifelong learning is a grand challenge of A.I.,” she added.
Nearby, lab researchers work with an A.I. model called “Neurogenesis” that’s learning continuously without forgetting, a contracted project for the Department of Defense.
They design 3D computer simulations then use code to connect the model to a so-called agent: a digital drone, robot on Mars or something anthropomorphic like a spider. Then, they gave the agent a task and watch how it interacts with the environment.
Kudithipudi oversaw researchers who programmed a digital spider to perform several tasks. In one, a big spider was trained to chase a small spider around a maze. After about 50 tries, the smaller spider learned how to get away from its predator.
In such projects, researchers input data and tweak algorithms to modify the A.I.’s behavior to perform the task. They say it’s like evolution.
“When we are babies, we are learning the language — the names of things — and what is dangerous and what is OK to touch. A lot of these things we learn in our early stages of life and then we use that knowledge for the rest of our lives,” Kudithipudi said. “It’s kind of similar with A.I.”
‘That’s the future’
Researchers make the models non-application specific. The goal is for the A.I. system to learn a sequential task, for example. Then, a client like the Department of Defense can use the system for any number of tasks.
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“Whether it’s in a battlefield, or some other applications we cannot talk about,” Kudithipudi said.
The researchers are trying to improve the speed at which an A.I. system learns to cut down on power generation and ultimately cost for real-world applications.
“The hardware is a computer chip that can go into autonomous vehicles, drones, sensors, or satellites in space,” Kudithipudi said.
She called “dire” the need for it to operate with low power.
“You would want more and features on your cell phone in the coming years,” Kudithipudi said. “Currently, a lot of A.I. models on your cell phones, like facial recognition. ... That’s the future we are working toward: to bring this technology in compact form to the users.”
Such challenges drive her professionally.
“Early on in my career, I was working on the research problems,” she said. “But I’ve realized what makes me feel content or happy to go to work is to see the solutions that we are building are making a difference in the world.”
eric.killelea@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/UTSA-researcher-feels-responsibility-17203305.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:23 | en | 0.970476 |
LONDON (AP) — “ABBA Voyage” is certainly a trip.
Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup last performed live, audiences can once again see ABBA onstage in an innovative digital concert where past and future collide.
The show opens to the public in London on Friday, the day after a red-carpet premiere attended by superfans, celebrities and Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The guests of honor were pop royalty — the four members of ABBA, appearing in public together for the first time in years.
They were in the audience, though. Onstage at the specially built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena next to east London’s Olympic Park were a 10-piece live backing band and a digital ABBA, created using motion capture and other technology by Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects firm founded by “Star Wars” director George Lucas.
The voices and movements are the real Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — choreographed by Britain’s Wayne McGregor — but the performers onstage are digital avatars, inevitably dubbed “ABBA-tars.” In unsettlingly realistic detail, they depict the band members as they looked in their 1970s heyday — beards on the men, flowing locks on the women, velour pantsuits all around.
The result is both high tech and high camp, a glittery supernova of stupefying technology, 1970s nostalgia and pop music genius.
For many in the audience, it was almost like being taken back in time to watch ABBA perform classics including “Mamma Mia,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “SOS” and “Dancing Queen.” The peppy 90-minute set also includes tracks from “Voyage,” the reunion album the band released last year.
It’s a fusion of tribute act and 3D concert movie that transcends that description. At times it was possible to forget this wasn’t a live performance, though when the backing singers stepped forward to belt out “Does Your Mother Know,” a surge of live-music energy shot through the arena.
The four band members — two married couples during ABBA’s heyday, though now long divorced — got a rapturous ovation when they took a bow at the end of Thursday’s show, 50 years after they formed ABBA, and 40 years after they stopped performing live.
Watching one’s younger self perform must be a strange sensation, but the band members, now in their 70s, said they were delighted by the show.
“I never knew I had such amazing moves,” Ulvaeus said.
Lyngstad agreed: “I thought I was quite good, but I’m even better.”
Ulvaeus said the audience reaction was the most gratifying part of the experience.
“There’s an emotional connection between the avatars and the audience,” he said. “That’s the fantastic thing.”
Producers bill the show as “revolutionary.” Time will tell. Like the first audiences to watch a talking motion picture a century ago, attendees may leave wondering whether they are watching a gimmick, or the future.
The Times of London reviewer Will Hodgkinson judged the show “essentially an ABBA singalong with added sound and light show,” though he called the effect “captivating.” Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis called the concert “jaw-dropping” and said “it’s so successful that it’s hard not to imagine other artists following suit.”
Gimmick or genius, “ABBA Voyage” is booking in London until May 2023, with a world tour planned after that.
The fans who attended Thursday’s show are just delighted ABBA is back.
“I’m so excited,” said Kristina Hagman, a Swede who has been a fan since the 1970s.
“I was bullied so much because you were not allowed to like ABBA at that time, because it was so commercial,” she said. “But now we are taking revenge.” | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/stars-and-royalty-watch-abbas-return-in-digital-stage-show/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:22 | en | 0.962302 |
Elsewhere Garden Bar & Eatery, a popular River Walk Museum Reach, is adding a second location on a sprawling 6 acres on San Antonio’s Northwest Side.
Elsewhere’s future location, which will include a 45-foot Ferris wheel and a secret garden speakeasy, will likely open sometime next year, said owner and nightclub operator Terrin Fuhrmann.
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The bar and restaurant will be located near Loop 1604 and Northwest Military Drive and will feature immersive art installations, a Victorian-style greenhouse for private events and weddings, a dog park, a kid area and a small, Hobbit-like home similar to what you would find in “Lord of the Rings.”
“I really want it to be this immersive experience,” Fuhrmann told the Express-News. “When you walk in from the parking lot, you’ll walk through a tunnel of flowers and ivy and then it opens up into this big space and there you see the Ferris wheel and the greenhouse in the background.”
Two years ago, Fuhrmann and business partner Nolan Ellis took over the riverside property on 103 E. Jones Ave. held by The Luxury, a fast-casual restaurant by chef Andrew Weissman.
Elsewhere’s second location will mirror the garden oasis-like atmosphere of its Museum Reach location along the San Antonio River, Fuhrmann said. Lush landscaping, shaded structures, and live music are in the design plans. Visitors to Elsewhere will actually be able to ride the Ferris wheel.
The new location will also feature a larger kitchen that will offer an expanded menu that goes beyond the burgers, chicken sandwiches and other fare found at its first location, Fuhrmann said.
“It’s all about the experience, not just a ‘oh, let’s go to this restaurant or let’s grab a beer here,’” Fuhrmann said. “It’s more experience over everything.”
timothy.fanning@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/food/restaurants/article/Elsewhere-second-location-northwest-side-17195944.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:24 | en | 0.927856 |
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FREDERICKSBURG — The sinking of the USS Indianapolis by two torpedoes launched from an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine in the waning days of World War II was the worst sea disaster in U.S. naval history. Yet all most people know about the catastrophe is what they saw during one memorable scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film “Jaws.”
About midway through the picture, the grizzled shark hunter Quint, played by Robert Shaw, reveals that he was a sailor on the Indianapolis. “So, 1,100 men went in the water,” he growls, “316 men came out. The sharks took the rest.”
The story he tells is true, yet the sinking, which occurred just after midnight on July 30, 1945 and resulted in the loss of almost 900 souls, is an often-forgotten chapter in the history of the war. Marilyn Henry is attempting to redress this heartbreaking oversight one photo at a time.
Henry was at the May 17-20 reunion of the crew’s families and survivors hosted by the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization. Since 1960, the group has held reunions in the city of Indianapolis first every five years and then annually. This was the first time the reunion was held elsewhere, as the group tries to spread the story of the disaster to the rest of the country
While setting up a small table in a meeting room at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Henry explained that although a list of the crew members’ names exists, there are no known photos of many of them. So she was there to promote Project 888, a special effort by the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization to locate photos of 364 men who were aboard the ship when it sank.
“The Navy did take pictures of enlistees, but we’ve been told the photos were ‘not kept,’ ” she said, adding vocal air quotes. Her husband’s father, Lt. Cmdr. Earl Henry Jr., went down with the ship.
“Even after all these years, we hear from children and grandchildren who are still hurting, who want to know, what happened to my daddy, my granddaddy? Could we at least have a picture of him?”
She said it’s important to find photos of every last man not only for these relatives, but also so their sacrifices are not forgotten and their stories can be passed down to future generations. Plans call for the photos to be posted on an online database, and they will be added to a new, updated edition of the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization’s keepsake book “USS Indianapolis CA35: Commemorating 75 Years 1945-2020,” which currently contains photos and short bios of all the crew members they have information on.
With help from military officials, amateur sleuths and others, Project 888 has, for the past year, been searching for missing images of these men in high school yearbooks, local newspaper clippings and websites like ancestry.com. She estimated it will take them another year to find them all.
The toll on survivors
Project 888
• To learn more about the effort, see what crew photos are missing and for tips on hunting down such photos, visit ussindianapolis.org/project-888.
• To submit a photo, go to ussindianapolis.com/final-crew-info-submission-form or email the photo to Project888@USSIndianapolis.org.
• To learn more about the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization or to buy a copy of its book, "USS Indianapolis CA35: Commemorating 75 Years 1945-2020," visit ussindianapolis.com.
The Fredericksburg reunion attracted 172 attendees and, because of the pandemic, was the first held in person in nearly three years. In addition to the Project 888 display, the four-day event included a presentation of the rescue and recovery of the Indianapolis, the unveiling of a USS Indianapolis exhibit in the museum’s Memorial Courtyard and a living history re-enactment of the Battle of Okinawa, complete with blank firing weapons, explosions and an M2-2 flamethrower.
But it was memorable, even historic, for another reason, as well. It was attended by the last two survivors of the Indianapolis crew: Harold Bray Jr., 94, who lives in Benicia, Calif., and Cletus Lebow, 98, from Amarillo.
When the two old salts met in the museum lobby, Lebow in a wheelchair, Bray still spry, they did what most would do when meeting an old friend they’ve known for more than 70 years but haven’t seen in a while: they asked after each other’s health and their families. The usual.
Many survivors credit luck, god or their faith for making it out of the water alive. Bray, who still drives, walks daily and enjoys meeting his buddies for morning coffee, is more pragmatic.
“I knew how to swim,” he said. “If you didn’t know how to swim, you were out of luck, ’cause there was no room on the rafts.”
He also credits his age and his naivete. A 17-year-old seaman second class, he said he simply never considered that he might die.
“I went with the flow and did what I had to do to stay alive,” he said.
After the torpedoed the ship went down, nearly 900 crew members, many grievously burned or otherwise injured, spent five nights and four days afloat in the Philippine Sea, battling thirst, exposure, exhaustion and attacks by ravenous sharks. Hundreds succumbed and, in the end, only 316 were pulled from the water alive.
The ordeal drove many to insanity and beyond.
Some, convinced there was food and drink beneath the ocean waves, threw off their life vests and left the relative safety of the rafts and floating nets to swim to their deaths. Others, thinking their fellow crew members were Japanese soldiers, attacked, and in some cases, killed them. Many gave in to the temptation to drink seawater.
Frederick Smith, who lives in Kinsgwood outside Houston, said his late grandfather Dennis Smith told him that after jumping in the water as the Indy went down, he grabbed a crate of potatoes to stay afloat until he found a life vest from one of the many dead bodies in the water.
“He said that if he knew how long he’d be in the water, he’d have kept those potatoes,” he said. Later, as his grandfather watched the hungry sharks circling below, the 6-foot-2 fireman second class would pull his legs up to his chest so they wouldn’t look so enticing.
“He told me you didn’t have to worry until you could see the whites of the sharks’ bellies, which meant they were about to attack,” Smith said. “A guy next to him was taken by a shark, and they brushed against his legs several times.”
Too hard to talk about
The experience was so dreadful, many of the survivors didn’t talk about it for years afterward.
Harold Bray’s son, Harold Bray III, and his daughter-in-law accompanied him to the reunion. The younger Bray said he knew little about his father and the Indianapolis until 1975 when he was in the eight or ninth grade and the movie “Jaws” came out.
“I kind of knew about the Indianapolis, but he never talked about it,” he said.
Harold Bray Sr. was a police officer back then, and when the other officers started talking about the movie and that one scene in particular, he barked, “I ain’t going to see that, I lived it.” Soon afterward he agreed to do his first-ever interview about the experience with a local reporter.
The only person Alma Perez Guajardo’s father would talk to about his experience was her brother, who was also in the military. “I guess they understood each other,” she said.
Guajardo, who lives in Canyon Lake, had to learn about it from letters and other items belonging to Seaman Basilio Perez that her grandmother kept, and by attending survivor reunions like the one in Fredericksburg.
“Most of the crew my father knew on the ship died,” she said. “But during one of the reunions a few years ago, I was sitting next to this this guy at one of the dinners, and when I showed him a picture of my father, he said, ‘I knew him, we played cards together.’ ”
The disaster’s history and legacy
The ship has been in the news at least twice in recent years. In 2017, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen spearheaded an expedition that discovered the Indianapolis on the ocean floor. And in 2020 the ship’s crew were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Launched in 1932, the Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser, both nimble and fast and as long as two football fields. Before the war, it served as the ship of state for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conflict, the Indy became the flagship of the Navy’s 5th Fleet and earned 10 battle stars for its involvement in campaigns at Okinawa, Iwo Jima and the Marianas Islands, among others.
In 1945 the ship was sent on a top-secret mission to deliver key components of Little Boy, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, to the island of Tinian in the Marianas. The mission was so confidential that the ship’s commander, Captain Charles McVay wasn’t told what he was ferrying.
“The crew was betting on what was in the mysterious crate that was brought onboard,” said Sara Vladic who, with co-author Lynn Vincent, wrote the definitive account of the ship and its sinking, “Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man.” “Guesses included scented toilet paper for (General Douglas) MacArthur and Rita Hayworth’s underwear.”
After delivering its precious cargo, the ship was headed unaccompanied to Leyte in the Philippines when it was torpedoed by an Imperial Japanese Navy sub. Because the mission was so secret, Navy officials didn’t know the ship had sunk and it wasn’t until a PV-1 pilot happened to notice an oil slick from the ship on the water’s surface that the survivors were spotted.
One of the rescue pilots said spotting the slick was a “one-in-a-billion” event.
Not long after being rescued, McVay, in what many came to believe was a case of scapegoating, was court-martialed for failing to order the ship to zigzag to avoid being attacked. He was exonerated in 2000, thanks in part to the unceasing efforts of his crew and others to reverse what they saw as a grave injustice.
The vindication came too late for McVay, however. He took his own life in 1968.
rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini | https://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/article/USS-Indianapolis-Legacy-Organization-hunting-for-17203512.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:25 | en | 0.980881 |
Which metal watering can is best?
Most plants need gentle watering and require you to monitor the amount of water given closely. You can’t fill up a pitcher and drown it. It would help if you used a good watering can. The sprinkler heads of these cans enable the gentle and controlled pour that plants demand.
The best metal watering can is the Behrens Steel Watering Can. It has a large capacity, easy-grip handles and a beautiful rustic design.
What to know before you buy a metal watering can
Metal vs. plastic
Metal watering cans are better than plastic in many ways, but that doesn’t mean they’re better for you.
- Durability: Metal is more durable than plastic. If you want a can that will last for years, go with metal.
- Weight: Metal is heavier than plastic, and it only gets worse once the can is full. If you have many plants to water, it may be best to go with a light plastic can.
- Decoration: Metal cans have an inherently rustic aesthetic, while plastic cans look more modern. Plastic cans also tend to have more design options.
- Cost: Metal cans tend to be more expensive than plastic cans of similar size. If you’re on a tight budget, consider plastic instead.
Function vs. design
Most metal watering cans may be used as normal, no matter their design. However, more expensive cans may emphasize aesthetics over ease of use, flow speed, capacity and other function-forward aspects. The more expensive the can, the more likely it is to place form over function.
Capacity
Metal watering cans typically have capacities between half a gallon and 3 gallons, with most having 1 to 2.5 gallons. The more plants you have to water, the larger your can should be to avoid unnecessary refills. Remember that higher capacities will also be heavy and hard to carry when full.
What to look for in a quality metal watering can
Head
Metal watering cans have many types of heads, and the best depends on your situation. For example, one can have a removable sprinkler head so you can switch between “rain” pours and straight pours down the spout. Another can have a pressurized spout to mist large areas at once.
Handle
Metal watering cans have one or two handles.
- One-handled cans: Those with only a handle on the back are better for those with few plants to water. It makes the can lighter and easier to fill, plus easier to store.
- Two-handled cans: Those with a top and back handle are better for those with many plants to water. It gives you multiple ways to carry it and makes it easier to control the pour.
How much you can expect to spend on a metal watering can
Metal watering cans typically cost $20-$200. Most cans will cost $50 or less, while midrange ones with advanced features or large capacities can cost up to $100. Cans that cost more than $100 can be used as normal but are usually meant just for display.
Metal watering can FAQ
Why can’t I use a pitcher to water my plants?
A. Technically, you can. You just won’t be watering your plants as well as possible for a few reasons.
- Force: Pitchers quickly fill a glass. If you aren’t careful when using a pitcher, you can harm your plants, especially delicate flowers and budding plants, in a deluge.
- Moderation: If the soil becomes too wet, the roots can suffocate. It’s easy to overwater your plants with a pitcher.
- Spread: Plants absorb water in the soil through their roots. The best way to water them is to spread the water across the soil around them, not dump water on top of them. Watering cans are designed to help facilitate this spread.
Does the temperature of my water matter?
A. Yes and no. You can use water that doesn’t fall too far into the extremes of cold and hot without issue. If you test the water and it feels uncomfortable to you, it will also feel uncomfortable to your plants.
What’s the best metal watering can to buy?
Top metal watering can
What you need to know: This is strong, roomy and easy to carry and tip.
What you’ll love: It’s made of durable, rust- and weather-resistant steel with a vintage rustic design that will delight for years to come. If the can becomes damaged or simply ages past its prime, it’s fully recyclable. It comes in 2-, 2.5- and 3-gallon capacities.
What you should consider: The sprinkler head can’t be removed, and it takes more time for water to sprinkle out than a few consumers preferred. It’s heavy when full.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
Top metal watering can for the money
Kibaga Beautiful Galvanized Watering Can
What you need to know: This small watering can is excellent for indoor plants or mini flowerbeds.
What you’ll love: The design is just as much for function as for fashion. In fact, you can even use it as an attractive pot. It holds 0.66 gallons and the double handles make it easy to hold and control water flow.
What you should consider: There’s a collection of metal inside that can slow the flow of water — this may be a negative or a positive depending on your plants and their needs.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: If you’re tired of the same silvery metal look, check out this can’s range of designs.
What you’ll love: It still offers the classic silvery metal style, but it also offers copper, greenish-bronze and black-and-orange looks. It holds a gallon of water and the sprinkler head is removable should you wish to use it in a spout-only form.
What you should consider: A few purchasers had issues with leaks around the bottom of the handle. Others received dented, scratched or otherwise damaged cans.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/best-metal-watering-can/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:25 | en | 0.935275 |
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UVALDE - “I’m not going to try to make you feel better about what has happened,” the Rev. Michael Marsh told a crowd of about 150 people at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on Thursday evening.
“It is too soon for comfort,” he said. “I’m going to talk about the only two things that can really be talked about. Suffering and love ... the two great realities of this day and the past two days.”
Two days earlier, Salvador Ramos, 18, had barged through the west entrance of Robb Elementary School to shoot and kill 19 children and two teachers.
The pain was still palpable at the limestone church.
Every few minutes a couple or a family would walk past 21 white paper bags, each containing a candle, that lined the entryway. At 6 p.m. the sun was still blazing as they ascended the stairs, took a pamphlet and entered the cool sanctuary, itself glowing with candlelight.
Her voice cracking, Estelle Dubose, 86, a member of the congregation, spoke of the children, teachers and families affected by Tuesday’s massacre. She has lived in Uvalde since she was 15, attended high school there, met her husband and loved the tight knit community enough to stick around.
For such a place, the tragedy seemed unimaginable, she said.
“This is just the sweetest little town… we all know everybody. I didn’t know all the children but I knew their parents,” Dubose said. “I can’t help but cry. I mean, these babies, I was just thinking at home how scared they must have been.”
Attendees of all ages, including parents with school-age children still in uniforms, made their way through the pews.
After the sermon and a couple of hymns, the priest read the names of each of the lost children and teachers as memorial candles were lit for each of them.
“It’s awful, a nightmare,” said Laura Downing, a life-long Uvalde resident, who has three young children that attend an elementary school a mile away from the scene of the shooting. “You are just paralyzed. You don’t know what is going to come next.”
“There is no such thing as someone else’s kid,” she added. “They are all our little teammates and friends and family.”
Sharon Carson, 65, also a Uvalde native, spoke of her disappointment that politicians and the media quickly grafted policy debates onto the town’s horror. Some have not stopped to consider people’s pain, she said.
“There’s a time and a place to present your side… and this is not it,” Carson said. “It’s not right. It’s not fair and it’s disheartening. It’s wrong. It’s just wrong.”
Carson was greeted by Dubose outside the church with a big hug. They mourned together for a couple of seconds before walking in to hear the sermon.
“Today you and I are experiencing the brokenness that follows from having loved deeply and passionately,” Marsh told the crowd. “We are suffering because we love and we continue to love.”
“Look at the outpouring our suffering is drawing to one another throughout this community, the nation, the world,” he said. “I don’t want to ever get over this love, but my belief and my hope and even my experience say that we can get through this suffering.”
claire.bryan@express-news.net
danya.perez@express-news.net | @DanyaPH | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Evening-prayers-Uvalde-17203552.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:26 | en | 0.978287 |
LONDON (AP) — When Mick North’s 5-year-old daughter was gunned down at her school, he vowed through his grief that it must never happen again.
And it hasn’t — in Britain, at least. The 1996 massacre of 16 elementary school students in Dunblane, Scotland led to a ban on owning handguns in the U.K. While Britain is not immune to gun violence, there have been no school shootings in the quarter century since.
The United States’ deep-rooted gun culture makes similar action unlikely in the wake of the killing of 19 students and two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas.
North, who helped set up Britain’s Gun Control Network after his daughter Sophie was killed, said his reaction to the Uvalde killings was “shock, but no surprise.” He knows like few others just what the Uvalde families are going through, but says “my sympathy is not going to make them feel better. And it’s just dreadful. It’s just dreadful.”
North’s life was shattered on March 13, 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton entered the gym at Dunblane Primary School in central Scotland, where a class of 5 and 6-year-olds was assembled. The 43-year-old former Scout leader killed 16 children and a teacher with four handguns before shooting himself. Another 12 children and two teachers were wounded.
Public horror at the slaughter, and campaigning by bereaved families that put pressure on politicians, brought about rapid change to Britain’s gun laws.
Soon after the carnage, a small group of local mothers launched what became the “Snowdrop Campaign” — named after the only flower in bloom at that time of spring — and began a petition demanding a ban on the private ownership of handguns.
The movement quickly gained momentum across the country, and campaigners eventually took boxes full of paper signed by some 750,000 people to politicians in London.
“I think our strength was in numbers,” said Rosemary Hunter, one of the campaign’s founders. Her 3-year-old daughter was at nursery in Dunblane when the shooting occurred. Hunter said “the mood in the country was so overwhelmingly in support of the change that it was not difficult to overcome” opposition from gun advocates.
“I don’t know how you translate that to a country where there are more guns than people,” Hunter said of the United States. “In many ways it’s quite overwhelming to think that people are going through what we went through here in our town. And it’s happened so, so many times.”
Like Uvalde, Dunblane is a small town, where many of the 9,000 residents know one another. For those who lived there in 1996 — including tennis star Andy Murray, then a 9-year-old pupil at Dunblane Primary School — the pain has never completely faded. Murray responded to the Texas shooting with a tweet labelling it “madness.”
The year after the shooting, and with the support of both Conservative and Labour politicians, Parliament passed new laws to ban private ownership of almost all handguns in Britain. Gun owners surrendered more than 160,000 weapons under a government buyback program.
Britain had banned semiautomatic weapons a decade earlier after a 1987 shooting rampage in Hungerford, England that left 16 adults dead. People can still own shotguns and rifles with a license.
Other countries have also responded to mass shootings by toughening laws. Canada imposed stricter checks on gun buyers and clamped down on military-style weapons — though did not ban them — after the 1989 slaying of 14 female students by a misogynist killer at L’Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal.
A month after Dunblane, a gunman armed with two semiautomatic assault rifles killed 35 people and wounded another 23 in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Within two weeks, Australia’s federal and state governments had agreed to standardize gun laws with a primary aim of getting rapid-fire weapons out of public hands.
In the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there had been 11 mass gun homicides in Australia, defined as at least four dead victims. Since then, there have been three such shootings.
But for the pain in Texas to translate into a national reckoning with gun violence would take a major political shift in the United States, where the right to bear arms is embedded in the Constitution and efforts to tighten laws after past massacres have foundered.
“Nothing has happened (in the U.S.) since Columbine and the other school shootings that followed shortly after Dunblane, when we started being asked, ‘Well, what would you recommend Americans do?’” North said. “We thought, well, follow our example. Try and change and tighten gun legislation after a tragedy. But it never happened.”
While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws — with Biden stating that “the Second Amendment is not absolute” — Republican politicians and the National Rifle Association say issues such as mental health are the problem, not access to firearms.
Jack Crozier, 28, lost his sister Emma in the Dunblane attack and now campaigns for gun control. He has traveled to the U.S. to meet American activists and thinks change will have to come from young people, like the survivors of a 2018 school shooting that killed 14 students and three staff in Parkland, Florida.
“Kids are not willing to grow up like this and go to school in fear anymore,” he said. “The kids in Parkland are now studying in universities and college, and they are the youth campaigners that can change things.”
He said the families in Uvalde “have the support of every single family in Dunblane.”
“The people of Dunblane stand with you.” | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/uks-dunblane-grieves-for-uvalde-fears-nothing-will-change/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:29 | en | 0.978688 |
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The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety criticized the police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District on Friday, saying he acted too slowly in responding to the elementary school gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 children.
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the incident commander — identified by the San Antonio Express-News as Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo — believed the situation was no longer an active shooter, but that of a barricaded suspect.
But 911 calls, reviewed by Texas Rangers, reveal that at least two people inside the Robb Elementary School classroom called police and reported that there were children inside who were alive.
LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school shooting
Meanwhile, the shooting continued periodically.
“With the benefit of hindsight, of course it was not the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision.”
He said once the shooting continued, the incident commander — who he did not identify directly — should have switched back to an active-shooter response.
“When there’s an active shooter, the rules change,” McCraw added.
Meanwhile, inside the classroom, children made terrified calls to 911, whispering and asking for help.
“The incident commander inside believed they needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that point,” McCraw said.
“That’s why BORTAC was requested as soon on scene,” he said, referring to the special team of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents who breached the classroom.
Active-shooter training requires officers to act, McCraw said.
“We don’t care what agency you're from, you don't have to have a leader on the scene,” McCraw said. “Every officer lines up, stacks up, goes and finds where those rounds are being fired — and keeps shooting until the subject is dead.”
This is a developing story. Check ExpressNews.com later in the day for updates.
'Profound grief and broken hearts': 19 students killed in Uvalde shooting
Uvalde gunman barricaded himself one classroom, then killed 19 children at Robb Elementary School
Robb Elementary School shooting: Remembering the victims
How to talk to your kids about the Uvalde school shooting
Uvalde school shooting: Teen gunman bought AR-15 style rifle day after he turned 18
Grandfather of alleged Uvalde gunman tells ABC he didn’t know grandson had weapons
Beto O'Rourke confronts Abbott during news conference on Uvalde mass shooting: 'This is on you'
Matthew McConaughey responds to Uvalde school shooting, which is in his hometown: 'We are failing'
'Not today.' GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales refuses to debate gun policy with Gayle King after Uvalde
San Antonio hospitals called on to help save victims of Uvalde school shooting | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Texas-police-Uvalde-school-shooting-17203584.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:32 | en | 0.97312 |
Which solar power bank is best?
A power bank is a nifty gadget to have if you know that a wall socket or charging adapter won’t be available for some time. For example, when you go on a five-day hike over a section of the Appalachian Trail, you know that an electrical outlet will be a luxury.
But even regular power banks go flat and must be recharged to use them again. With no socket in sight to charge your phone or power bank, the best solution is to hook up your gadgets to a solar power bank. The QiSa 38,800mAh Solar Power Bank With Dual 3.1A Outputs is an excellent option; it’s waterproof and features a built-in flashlight.
What to know before you buy a solar power bank
Understand how it works
As the name implies, a solar power bank relies on the power of the sun to recharge. While it also can recharge through a USB cable like a regular battery, that isn’t always possible. So, to ensure that you always have power available, it comes with a series of small solar panels to soak up the rays. The panels are much smaller than those on sustainable-energy houses, but the principle is the same.
Battery charging time
As you would expect, the more solar panels you have, the faster the power bank charges. But if you are out in the woods, you definitely don’t want to carry an extra bag just for additional panels. So, the charging time is much slower than regular charging through a USB. Typically, you can expect to get a full charge after leaving it in sunlight for about 24 hours.
It needs direct sunlight — and lots of it
The charging time of a solar power bank is related to how many or how big the solar panels are, but direct sunlight is crucial. The tiny photoelectric cells are made from monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon and perform best in bright, direct sunlight. The panels still deliver a charge if they are in the shade or it’s overcast, but at a reduced charging capacity.
What to look for in a quality solar power bank
Simultaneous connections
Taking so long to fully charge, you probably want to make the best of the situation by plugging as many devices into it as possible. That is why a good-quality solar charger handles three or four simultaneous connections. But you must consider which charging connections your devices use, as solar power banks often only support one or two types. The most common are a micro USB connection for Android phones and a Lightning connection for Apple devices.
The capacity of the battery
Solar power banks aren’t that much different from regular battery packs when it comes to capacity. Measured in milliampere-hours, the capacity relates to how much of a charge it can hold when full. For example, an iPhone 13 has a 3,227mAh battery. A power bank with a maximum capacity of 6,000mAh should recharge the phone almost twice. Naturally, the larger the capacity, the more times it can recharge a device. A good-quality power bank has a capacity of at least 10,000mAh.
Adjustable solar panels
With the entire power bank reliant on direct sunlight, it is critical that you have as many solar panels as possible. While basic power banks have one flat panel on their bodies, a good-quality solar battery has multiple. Some are extendable or fold out, so you can adjust the panel according to the sun’s position.
How much you can expect to spend on a solar power bank
The price of a solar power bank depends on the capacity of the battery and the technology of the solar panels. A basic model with an average capacity costs $20-$30, while a power bank with fold-out panels and a higher capacity costs $40-$80.
Solar power bank FAQ
What’s the difference between a solar power bank and a mobile charger?
A. While the two gadgets work on the same technological principle, a power bank stores the electrical charge in a battery. A solar mobile charger doesn’t have a built-in battery and charges a mobile device directly through sunlight.
Can you use a mobile charger to recharge a solar power bank?
A. Yes, in theory, that should be possible. It would be the same principle as using the sun to charge the power bank while it’s connected to a secondary USB charger. The best advice is to check the manual if recharging from two simultaneous sources is possible.
What’s the best solar power bank to buy?
Top solar power bank
QiSa 38,800mAh Solar Power Bank With Dual 3.1A Outputs
What you need to know: This power bank has an enormous battery capacity that can recharge an iPhone 13 more than 10 times.
What you’ll love: The four high-conversion solar charging panels provide a continuous 12-watt charge, and they are adjustable to make the most of the sun’s movement.
What you should consider: It has two USB ports and wireless charging, so only three devices can recharge at the same time.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top solar power bank for the money
HSL 30,000mAh Portable Solar Charger
What you need to know: With a built-in flashlight and a cable for Android and Apple devices, this 30,000mAh power bank can recharge everybody’s mobile phones.
What you’ll love: In addition to the cables, the power bank has a Qi-compatible wireless charger, with the solar panel on the opposite side. It is waterproof, dustproof and secured in rugged housing.
What you should consider: The drop-proof protection makes this power bank larger than most.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Blavor 10,000mAh Qi-Compatible Solar Power Bank
What you need to know: No cable? No problem, as this power bank has a Qi-compatible wireless surface to charge most devices.
What you’ll love: The solar power bank is made from rugged plastic that is drop-proof and has a built-in flashlight. The battery capacity is enough to recharge any modern phone a few times.
What you should consider: The panels are relatively small, so it will take longer to reach a full charge.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/charging-power-br/best-solar-power-bank/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:32 | en | 0.931735 |
BERLIN (AP) — Officials from the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced Friday that they will aim to largely end greenhouse gas emissions from their power sectors by 2035, making it highly unlikely that those countries will burn coal for electricity beyond that date.
Ministers from the G-7 countries meeting in Berlin also announced a target to have a “highly decarbonized road sector by 2030,” meaning that electric vehicles would dominate new car sales by the end of the decade.
And in a move aimed at ending the recurring conflict between rich and poor nations during international climate talks, the G-7 recognized for the first time the need to provide developing countries with additional financial aid to cope with the loss and damage caused by global warming.
The agreements, which will be put to leaders next month at the G-7 summit in Elmau, Germany, were largely welcomed by climate activists.
“The 2035 target for power sector decarbonisation is a real breakthrough. In practice, this means countries need to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest,” said Luca Bergamaschi, director of Rome-based campaign group ECCO.
Coal is a heavily polluting fossil fuel that’s responsible for a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. While there are ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, experts say it is almost impossible to reduce it to zero, meaning it will likely have to be the first fossil fuel to be phased out.
G-7 members Britain, France and Italy have already set themselves deadlines to stop burning coal for electricity in the next few years. Germany and Canada are aiming for 2030; Japan wants more time; while the Biden administration has set a target of ending fossil fuel use for electricity generation in the United States by 2035.
A common target would put pressure on other major polluters to follow suit and build on the compromise deal reached at last year’s U.N. climate summit, where nations committed merely to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal — with no fixed date.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called the agreements reached in Berlin “very comprehensive and forward-leaning.”
“I think it will help lay the groundwork for what has to happen at the G-20,” he told The Associated Press, referring to a meeting later this year of the broader Group of 20 leading and emerging economies, who are responsible for 80% of global emissions.
Getting all G-20 countries to sign on to the ambitious targets set by some of the most advanced economies will be difficult, as countries such as China, India and Indonesia remain heavily reliant on coal.
Under pressure to step up their financial aid to poor nations, the G-7 ministers in Berlin said they recognized that “action and support for vulnerable countries, populations and vulnerable groups need to be further scaled up.”
This includes governments and companies “providing enhanced support regarding averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change,” they said.
Developing countries have for years demanded a clear commitment that they will receive funds to cope with the destruction wrought by climate change. Wealthy nations have resisted the idea, however, for fear of being held liable for costly disasters linked to their emissions.
“After years of roadblocks, the G-7 finally recognize that they need to financially support poor countries in addressing climate-related losses and damages,” said David Ryfisch of the Berlin-based environmental campaign group Germanwatch.
“But that recognition is not enough, they need to put actual money on the table,” he added. “It is now up to (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz to mobilize significant financial commitments by leaders at the Elmau summit.”
Germany’s energy and climate minister, Robert Habeck, said the 40-page communique couldn’t hide the fact that G-7 countries had long been laggards on combating global warming.
“But we’re trying to make up for those things that didn’t go so well in the past,” he said. “Including on climate finance.”
Speaking at a former coal depot, later converted into a gas storage facility and now home to clean energy startups, Habeck also highlighted the pledge by G-7 countries to end what he called the “absurdity” of fossil fuel subsidies in the coming years.
Separately, the United States and Germany signed an agreement Friday to deepen their bilateral cooperation on shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The deal will see the two countries work together to develop and deploy technologies that will speed up that clean energy transition, particularly in the area of offshore wind power, zero-emissions vehicles and hydrogen.
The U.S. and Germany pledged to also collaborate on promoting ambitious climate policies and energy security worldwide.
Kerry said both countries aim to reap the benefits of shifting to clean energy early, through the creation of new jobs and opportunities for businesses in the growing market for renewables.
Such markets depend on common standards of what hydrogen can be classified as “green,” for example. Officials will now work on reaching a common definition to ensure that hydrogen produced on one side of the Atlantic can be sold on the other side.
Habeck said the agreement reflected the urgency of tackling global warming. Scientists have said steep emissions cuts need to happen worldwide this decade if the goals set in the 2015 Paris climate accord are to be met.
“Time is literally running out,” Habeck said, calling climate change “the challenge of our political generation.”
___
Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/us-germany-to-boost-cooperation-on-shift-to-clean-energy/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:35 | en | 0.959171 |
Which fabric defuzzer is best?
Pilling and fuzzing is a sad fact of many clothes and fabric-covered furniture. Even blankets and curtains can pill and fuzz over time, especially after being washed. It’s possible to clean these offending lumps by hand, but that could take hours and you’re likely to damage your items without surgeon-steady hands. Fabric defuzzers are easier and much safer to use.
The best fabric defuzzer is the Conair Fabric Shaver. It’s battery-operated and perfectly sized for traveling or use around the home.
What to know before you buy a fabric defuzzer
Power source
Fabric defuzzers are powered via outlet, batteries or both.
- Outlet-powered defuzzers are more powerful but the cord can get in the way and make it tricky to use.
- Battery-powered defuzzers are easier to wield but usually lack the size and power for frequent use. Some use replaceable batteries, while others have built-in rechargeable batteries.
- Mix-powered defuzzers usually have rechargeable batteries but can be operated while charging. Double-check your manual to see if this is safe. Attempting it without explicit approval may cause damage to the battery and other parts of the defuzzer.
Shaving area size
Fabric defuzzers typically have small shaving heads of roughly 2 to 3 inches. Shaving head size is usually linked to the power of the defuzzer, with larger heads having more power. If you infrequently clean one or two articles at a time, a 2-inch head should be plenty. If you need to regularly clean a great deal of fabric, consider a 2.5- to 3-inch head.
What’s included
Basic fabric defuzzers only include what you need to get started. Pricer models can include a range of accessories. Some accessories include:
- Cleaning brushes to keep the defuzzer running at optimal efficiency.
- Storage solutions such as bags or, better yet, boxes that are big enough to hold all your accessories.
- Spare blades for when yours become too dull.
- A cap to protect the shaving head when in storage.
What to look for in a quality fabric defuzzer
Blade height
Basic fabric defuzzers only have one blade height, which makes them effective on a narrow range of fabrics. Better defuzzers have as many as three heights that are easily swapped between for maximum efficiency.
Speed settings
Similar to blade height, adjustable speeds let you tackle tougher fabrics faster or delicate fabrics slower. Better defuzzers have two or three speed settings.
Lint collection
A fabric defuzzer’s lint collection system has two variables.
- Detachable vs. built-in: The best defuzzers have a detachable compartment. Simply slide it out and dump. Built-in compartments can be harder to empty for a few reasons, such as the cord getting in the way or having an odd emptying angle.
- Size: The bigger the compartment’s size, the less you need to stop and empty it. Unless you’re shopping for a travel defuzzer, go with the biggest you can find.
How much you can expect to spend on a fabric defuzzer
Fabric defuzzers typically cost $5-$60. If you rarely need it, then $5-$10 defuzzers should be fine — otherwise, look for a midrange defuzzer for $15-$20. The best and most accessory-laden defuzzers usually run $30-$60.
Fabric defuzzer FAQ
How do I use a fabric defuzzer?
A. First, check the manual and set your fabric defuzzer to the height and speed settings you should be using on the type of fabric you’re about to clean. Next, stretch your fabric out flat on a hard surface — if you’re cleaning furniture with nonremovable fabric, try to keep the material taut. Then, slowly and gently rub the defuzzer around your fabric — a circular motion is often most effective.
Is a fabric defuzzer likely to damage my fabrics?
A. So long as you’re using it correctly, damage to your fabrics is unlikely to happen. The most important aspect to check is if your shaving head is properly covering the blades.
Can I use a fabric defuzzer on something made by hand?
A. Yes, handmade items should be perfectly safe — so long as you are using the appropriate or approximate settings as defined in your user manual.
What’s the best fabric defuzzer to buy?
Top fabric defuzzer
What you need to know: It’s great for both at-home and travel use.
What you’ll love: It’s battery-operated with either replaceable or built-in rechargeable batteries. The 2-inch shaver head uses a honeycomb design to protect your fingers and has three adjustable heights to tackle various fabrics. It comes in six colors, including black, white and powder blue.
What you should consider: The lint catcher is on the small side. You need to empty it frequently when cleaning more than one item.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon, Kohl’s and Macy’s
Top fabric defuzzer for the money
Beautural Fabric Shaver And Lint Remover
What you need to know: If you only need a fabric defuzzer on rare occasions, this is for you.
What you’ll love: The shaving head can be used with or without the cover and can be set between three heights and two speeds. It comes with two replacement blades and uses a safety lock to prevent damage while changing or cleaning the blades.
What you should consider: A few customers reported the battery cover slides off too easily.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Alwayslux EasyLint Professional Sweater Shaver
What you need to know: It’s a capable machine meant for extended and frequent use.
What you’ll love: It uses a powerful 5-watt motor and an extra-large shave head to chew through the piling and fuzz on your fabrics. Included with the defuzzer are a storage case, spare blades, a cleaning brush and a 69-inch power cord. Alwayslux offers a lifetime guarantee.
What you should consider: It’s expensive. A few purchasers were unhappy with the amount of noise it makes.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/home-br/laundering-fabric-care-br/best-fabric-defuzzer/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:39 | en | 0.936617 |
DJIBO, Burkina Faso (AP) — African leaders gathered for a summit Friday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to address growing humanitarian needs on the continent, which is also facing increased violent extremism, climate change challenges and a run of military coups.
Leaders called for increased mobilization to resolve a humanitarian crisis that has left millions displaced and more than 280 million suffering from malnourishment.
For people in Djibo, a town in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, any help can’t come soon enough.
The city in the Sahel region — the large expanse below the Sahara Desert — has been besieged since February by jihadis who prevent people and goods from moving in or out and cut water supplies. Few truckers want to run the jihadist gauntlet. Residents are suffering with no food or water, animals are dying and the price of grain has spiked.
“The goods are not arriving anymore here. Animal and agricultural production is not possible because the people cannot go back to their villages,” U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator Barbara Manzi told The Associated Press from Djibo this week. “Unless (a solution) is found, it’s going to be really a tragedy for the entire group of people that are here.”
Djibo has been at the epicenter of the violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people. While Djibo — and Soum province where the town is located — experienced periods of calm, such as during a makeshift ceasefire between jihadis and the government surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the truce didn’t last.
Since November, insecurity in the region has increased. Jihadis have destroyed water infrastructure in the town and lined much of Djibo’s perimeter with explosives, blockading the city, say locals.
The town’s population has swollen from 60,000 to 300,000 over the last few years as people flee the countryside to escape the violence.
Blockading cities is a tactic used by jihadis to assert dominance and could also be an attempt to get Burkina Faso’s new military junta, which seized power in January, to backtrack on promises to eliminate the jihadis, said Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory, a group that provides intelligence analysis.
“Militants resort to blockading when they see an opportunity to gain incentives in negotiating with the government and simultaneously send a message to their base that they are in control. It’s a bargaining card and a winning one,” he said.
A U.N. team flew in briefly to assess the situation. The AP was the first foreign media to visit the town in more than a year.
“Today there is nothing to buy here. Even if you have cash, there is nothing to buy. We came here with four donkeys and goats and some of them died because of hunger. We were forced to sell the rest of the animals and unfortunately prices of animals have decreased,” said cattle owner Mamoudou Oumarou.
The 53-year-old father of 13 fled his village in February and said the blockade in Djibo has prevented people from coming to the market to buy and sell cattle, decreasing demand and lowering prices for the animals by half.
Before the violence, Djibo had one of the biggest and most vital cattle markets in the Sahel and was a bustling economic hub. Some 600 trucks used to enter Djibo monthly, now it’s less than 70, said Alpha Ousmane Dao, director of Seracom, a local aid group in Djibo.
Burkina Faso is facing its worst hunger crisis in six years, more than 630,000 people are on the brink of starvation, according to the UN.
As a result of Djibo’s blockade, the World Food Program has been unable to deliver food to the town since December and stocks are running out, said Antoine Renard, country director for the World Food Program in Burkina Faso.
Efforts to end the blockade through dialogue have had mixed results. At the end of April, the emir of Djibo met with Burkina Faso’s top jihadist, Jafar Dicko, to negotiate lifting the siege. However, little progress has been made since then.
Locals say the jihadis have eased restrictions in some areas allowing freer movement, but that the army is now preventing people from bringing food out of Djibo to the surrounding villages for fear it will go to the jihadis.
The army denied the allegations.
Meanwhile residents in Djibo say they’re risking their lives just trying to survive.
Dadou Sadou searches for wood and water in the middle of the night outside of Djibo, when she says the jihadis are not around.
“We no longer have animals, we don’t have food to buy in the market … If you have children, you don’t have a choice,” she said. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/we-dont-have-food-african-leaders-meet-as-crises-grow/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:41 | en | 0.972638 |
AUSTIN – Just a few months after leading Iowa State to a surprising Sweet Sixteen appearance, reigning Big 12 freshman of the year Tyrese Hunter announced he is transferring to Texas.
Texas forwards Christian Bishop, Brock Cunningham will return for 2022-23 season
Hunter, a tenacious 6-foot-1 guard, averaged 11 points on 39.1 percent shooting, 4.9 assists, three rebounds, two steals and 1.1 3s per game last season. He helped a Cyclones team picked to finish last in the Big 12 improve from 2-22 (0-18 Big 12) in 2020-21 to 22-13 (7-11 Big 12) during his lone season in Ames, Iowa.
In his first NCAA tournament appearance, Hunter put up 23 points and hit seven 3s to lead 11th-seeded Iowa State past sixth-seeded LSU, 59-54. Over three tournament games, he averaged 13.3 points, five assists, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 steals.
What Marcus Carr's return means for Texas basketball
At Texas, Hunter will team with incoming five-star freshman point guard Arterio Morris, fifth-year senior Marcus Carr, four-star freshman Rowan Brumbaugh and New Mexico State transfer Sir’Jabari Rice in the backcourt.
Twitter: @NRmoyle | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/longhorns/article/Big-12-freshman-of-the-year-Tyrese-Hunter-17203677.php | 2022-05-27T18:14:43 | en | 0.936948 |
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease, but described the epidemic as “containable” and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited vaccines and drugs available worldwide.
During a public briefing on Friday, the U.N. health agency said there are still many unanswered questions about what triggered the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox outside of Africa, but there is no evidence that any genetic changes in the virus are responsible.
“The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behaviour,” said Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s director of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Earlier this week, a top adviser to WHO said the outbreak in Europe, U.S., Israel, Australia and beyond was likely linked to sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium. That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates, and outbreaks haven’t spilled across borders.
Although WHO said nearly 200 monkeypox cases have been reported, that seemed a likely undercount. On Friday, Spanish authorities said the number of cases there had risen to 98, including one woman, whose infection is “directly related” to a chain of transmission that had been previously limited to men, according to officials in the region of Madrid.
U.K. officials added 16 more cases to their monkeypox tally, making Britain’s total 106, while Portugal said its caseload jumped to 74 cases. And authorities in Argentina on Friday reported a monkeypox case in a man from Buenos Aires, marking Latin America’s first infection. Officials said the man had traveled recently to Spain and now had symptoms consistent with monkeypox, including lesions and a fever.
Doctors in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere have noted that the majority of infections to date have been in gay and bisexual men, or men who have sex with men. The disease is no more likely to affect people because of their sexual orientation and scientists warn the virus could infect others if transmission isn’t curbed.
WHO’s Briand said that based on how past outbreaks of the disease in Africa have evolved, the current situation appeared “containable.”
Still, she said WHO expected to see more cases reported in the future, noting “we don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg (or) if there are many more cases that are undetected in communities,” she said.
As countries including Britain, Germany, Canada and the U.S. begin evaluating how smallpox vaccines might be used to stem the outbreak, WHO said its expert group was assessing the evidence and would provide guidance soon.
Dr. Rosamund Lewis, head of WHO’s smallpox department, said that “there is no need for mass vaccination,” explaining that monkeypox does not spread easily and typically requires skin-to-skin contact for transmission. No vaccines have been specifically developed against monkeypox, but WHO estimates that smallpox vaccines are about 85% effective.
She said countries with vaccine supplies could consider them for those at high risk of the disease, like close contacts of patients or health workers, but that monkeypox could mostly be controlled by isolating contacts and continued epidemiological investigations.
Given the limited global supply of smallpox vaccines, WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan said the agency would be working with its member countries to potentially develop a centrally controlled stockpile, similar to the ones it has helped manage to distribute during outbreaks of yellow fever, meningitis, and cholera in countries that can’t afford them.
“We’re talking about providing vaccines for a targeted vaccination campaign, for targeted therapeutics,” Ryan said. “So the volumes don’t necessarily need to be big, but every country may need access to a small amount of vaccine.”
Most monkeypox patients experience only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body.
____
Ashifa Kassam in Madrid, and Daniel Politi in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/who-nearly-200-cases-of-monkeypox-in-more-than-20-countries/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:47 | en | 0.964695 |
Which Under Armour football cleats are best?
Football is a sport that’s all about speed, agility and skill. Without the proper footwear, you won’t be able to reach your opponents on defense or avoid them on offense. Most Under Armour football cleats provide more than enough support and grip, and they also offer top-of-the-line cleats for those willing to pay up.
The best Under Armour football cleats are the Under Armour Men’s Highlight MC Football Cleats. They provide top-notch ankle support, traction and have plenty of foam padding to absorb the shocks of running.
What to know before you buy Under Armour football cleats
Upper
There are three types of uppers found in Under Armour football cleats.
- Low-top uppers end just below the ankle. They have the widest range of motion. They’re good for players who need to go fast and change direction often.
- Mid-top uppers end in the middle of the ankle. They have a moderate range of motion and provide some ankle support. They’re good for players who do a bit of everything.
- High-top uppers extend past the ankle. They have a minimal range of motion but excellent ankle support. They’re perfect for defensive players.
Midsole
The midsole should be cushioned for shock absorption and have enough flexibility to bend with the foot as you run.
Outsole
The outsole is what the cleats attach to. It should be stiff and durable as it takes the most beating during a season.
What to look for in quality Under Armour football cleats
Material
Under Armour football cleats are typically made of leather or synthetics.
- Leather is more expensive but forms closely to your feet once broken in. It also provides better movement and comfort. Most leather cleats still use some synthetic material.
- Synthetics are more affordable but aren’t as flexible or durable. These cleats should last you through a season, but you may need another pair next year.
Cleat types
There are four types of cleats, or studs, found on the outsole.
- Hard cleats are made of long, stiff plastic. They can be a little uncomfortable but they dig deep into the ground for the best traction.
- Rubber cleats are shorter studs made of, well, rubber. They’re more comfortable but aren’t as high-performing. Most children’s cleats use rubber.
- Turf cleats are short rubber studs designed specifically for maximum traction when there’s no ground to pierce, such as the artificial turf for which they’re named.
- Removable cleats are footwear with cleats you can remove. You can swap any kind of cleat in and out as needed based on the field of play. As such, they’re popular with traveling players. They’re also the most expensive.
How much you can expect to spend on Under Armour football cleats
Under Armour football cleats typically cost $50-$150. Low-end Under Armour cleats, which still perform better than the average cleat, cost around $50. Midrange cleats cost around $100 and the best cost around $150.
Under Armour football cleats FAQ
Can I wear soccer cleats instead when playing football?
A. Technically, yes, just as you can technically wear baseball or other types of cleats. However, these cleats give wearers the edge in the matching sport. For example, soccer cleats have no studs near the toe, so they can’t catch the ground on a kick. Football cleats have studs all over the shoe for maximum traction when running.
What’s the best way to clean Under Armour football cleats?
A. First, knock off any loose dirt, grass and other debris. Secondly, use a dry cloth to wipe off any remaining debris you can. Thirdly, use a damp cloth soaked in some warm water and laundry detergent to remove the last pieces of stubborn grime.
How do I dry Under Armour football cleats?
A. First, never run your cleats through a clothes dryer — this can break the dryer and damage your cleats. You also shouldn’t use any direct heat, including the sun, as it could damage the material. Instead, stuff your cleats with anything that can draw the excess moisture out with newspaper, paper towels or hand towels.
What are the best Under Armour football cleats to buy?
Top Under Armour football cleats
Under Armour Men’s Highlight MC Football Cleats
What you need to know: These top-dollar cleats are designed to push you to your best performance.
What you’ll love: These shoes use a high-top upper that you can fold down to provide customized support and comfort. The collar is laceless and uses straps for a custom fit. A high-rebound foam insole provides good shock absorption. It comes in sizes 8-16 and in four colors.
What you should consider: A few consumers reported a longer than usual break-in time. Others found them to run a little narrow.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Top Under Armour football cleats for the money
Under Armour Men’s Highlight Franchise Football Cleats
What you need to know: These budget cleats are more than enough to leave your opponents in the dust.
What you’ll love: The tongue uses open-holed mesh for maximum breathability on hot days without sacrificing grip and support. A die-cut rubber-like insole provides excellent durability. Rubber-molded cleats have excellent traction on any surface with minimal added weight to the shoe. It comes in sizes 8.5 to 14
What you should consider: A few customers reported these to run narrow and small. Others wished there was a little more padding, saying they could feel the cleats underfoot.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Worth checking out
Under Armour Women’s Blur Smoke MC Football Cleats
What you need to know: These ultralight cleats are designed specifically for women.
What you’ll love: The insole uses a high-rebound foam for premium shock absorption and comfort. It’s exceptionally light at only 8.5 ounces and has an ultra-breathable upper.
What you should consider: There’s no ankle support. If they aren’t tied tightly, they could slip off during an intense play.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/football-br/best-under-armour-football-cleats/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:46 | en | 0.937724 |
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Making false threats of school violence on social media is no joke. It is a topic taken extremely seriously, now more than ever considering the tragic events of this week in Uvalde, Texas.
Under Texas Penal Code Section 42.06, false threats which place a person in fear of imminent bodily injury or cause a law enforcement agency to respond and involve a school campus, are a state jail felony.
The County Attorney’s Office takes threats of violence against schools, teachers, and children very seriously and prosecutes the cases referred to their office to the fullest extent of the law.
According to the Texas Penal Code Section 42.06, a person commits a crime when:
(a) A person commits an offense if he knowingly initiates, communicates or circulates a report of a present, past, or future bombing, fire, offense, or other emergency that he knows is false or baseless and that would ordinarily:
(1) cause action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies;
(2) place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury; or
(3) prevent or interrupt the occupation of a building, room, place of assembly, place to which the public has access, or aircraft, automobile, or other mode of conveyance.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the false report is of an emergency involving a public or private institution of higher education or involving a public primary or secondary school, public communications, public transportation, public water, gas, or power supply or other public service, in which event the offense is a state jail felony.
Residents are urged to report threats of violence against students or teachers calling the school police or 9-1-1, and to save the evidence by taking a picture or video.
For local and breaking news, sports, weather alerts, video and more, download the FREE KTSM 9 News App from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/juveniles-to-get-more-serious-punishment-for-false-threats/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:53 | en | 0.930633 |
Which badminton set is best?
Badminton isn’t as popular as it was during the height of its glory, but plenty of people still enjoy the sport to this day. It’s similar to tennis in that you need a net and some rackets, but different in that you need special feathered balls called shuttlecocks, and it takes much less space to play.
Badminton sets, such as the Baden Champions Badminton Set with its regulation-sized nylon net, include all of these things so that up to four people can play together.
What to know before you buy a badminton set
What’s included
Badminton sets can include a variety of items.
- Rackets and shuttlecocks: All badminton sets include at least two rackets and one shuttlecock at a minimum. Most sets include four rackets to play doubles games and two or more shuttlecocks.
- Nets: Nets are common in badminton sets but not always included. If they are in the set, everything needed to set the net up will also be included such as poles and guidewires.
- Cases: Most sets are packaged inside a storage and travel case. If you plan on traveling with the set, make sure it includes a good case. If you’re only using it at home, it’s fine to buy one without a case.
- Boundary markers: A rare inclusion to be sure, but a welcome one. Boundary markers make it much easier to define the playing field, but they aren’t usually necessary for friendly games.
Multi-sport compatibility
Some badminton sets are designed with other yard games in mind, such as volleyball or lawn tennis. These sets may use nets that you can use interchangeably, or they may include every piece of gear needed to play multiple sports.
What to look for in a quality badminton set
Racket
Better rackets are set apart by their weight, string tension and grip circumference.
- Weight: The lighter the racket, the easier it is to control. As such, most badminton sets include light or medium-weight rackets.
- String tension: It may seem incorrect, but the higher the string tension, the less power is transferred to the shuttlecock. As such, most sets use rackets with medium to high string tension. However, this also makes them more likely to break.
- Grip circumference: Thicker grips make for more power, while thinner grips make for more control. Most sets use rackets that walk the line between the two.
Net
If a net is included, it can either be freestanding or tethered. Both have their pros and cons.
- Freestanding nets are much easier to set up. Just plop the poles down and stretch the net out. However, they are equally easy to knock over.
- Tethered nets require more effort to set up as you need to string multiple guidelines out to hold it steady. You also can’t use them indoors. However, once properly set up, they aren’t going anywhere.
How much you can expect to spend on a badminton set
Badminton sets typically cost $20-$250. Basic sets usually cost $50 or less, though they may not be regulation size. Average sets usually cost up to $100, while professional-grade sets can cost up to $250.
Badminton set FAQ
Is badminton a good game for children?
A. Absolutely. All it takes to play badminton is a good attitude and reasonable eye-hand coordination. Typically, children as young as 5 can play and have a wonderful time. However, you may want to consider playing one-on-one or two-on-two situations with kids so that you don’t see rackets slammed into other kids instead of the shuttlecock.
Can a badminton net be safely left outside?
A. That depends on your badminton set. Most sets include nets made of nylon and poles made of plastic, both of which are naturally weather-resistant. If your set includes metal poles you may want to take it down if inclement weather is on the way.
Is badminton dangerous to play?
A. All sports have some kind of risk attached, and badminton is no different. That said, badminton tends to be a safer sport than most. Outside the usual risks of harm from strenuous activity, there are risks of errant smacks from a racket, getting pinged by a shuttlecock and tripping over or stepping on guidewires and stakes.
What’s the best badminton set to buy?
Top badminton set
What you need to know: This is a great set for any backyard.
What you’ll love: Included is a regulation-sized nylon net with accompanying poles and guidelines, four rackets, three shuttlecocks, a boundary line and a carrying case. The vibrant orange color makes everything easy to see in any light. Most consumers found it quick and easy to set up.
What you should consider: A few consumers disliked the bottom of the poles having flat disks — it makes the net usable on any ground, but you can’t insert them into the ground for extra stability.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Top badminton set for the money
What you need to know: This set is dirt cheap and easy to use for traveling.
What you’ll love: Included is an all-weather net with accompanying poles and guidelines, four rackets, two shuttlecocks and a carrying case. The set comes in four levels of increasingly higher quality. It’s quick to set up and take down and is easy to store away.
What you should consider: A few customers had issues with the lower-end set’s rackets, especially with the strings. Others found the net poles and shuttlecocks to be on the flimsy side.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: These rackets and shuttlecocks are perfect for those who already have a net.
What you’ll love: Included are four rackets with a large carrying bag that fits all four and a tube of six shuttlecocks. Each racquet is made of graphite and comes in a different color — black, white, pink and either purple or green, depending on the set.
What you should consider: This set is meant for backyard shenanigans, not professional-level play. A few purchasers noted the rackets aren’t as durable as they could be.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/recreational-sports-br/best-badminton-set/ | 2022-05-27T18:14:54 | en | 0.956351 |
TAYLOR COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – The Mesquite Heat fire reached 82% containment Thursday, on day 10 of its burning in rural Taylor County.
The size of the fire remained the same at just less than 11,000 acres in size, according to a release from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Crews reported finding ‘hotspots in the interior on the northern and western sides’ with their drone, but said there was no threat to containment.
Firefighters will continue to increase containment, patrol and mop up hotspots over Memorial Day weekend.
The forest service said Saturday’s weather of expected hotter and drier conditions could lead to ‘near critical fire weather concerns.’
Latest fire map:
More than 150 members of fire personnel from across the Big Country, and even out-of-state assistance, has been working tirelessly for the past 10 days to control and extinguish the Mesquite Heat fire. Resources also include a Type 3 helicopter, five fire engines and five dozers.
The Mesquite Heat Fire began May 17 and has destroyed at least 27 homes and countless other structures.
A cause of this fire has yet to be determined or released. Stick with BigCountryHomepage.com for the latest information. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/mesquite-heat-fire-reaches-82-containment/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:00 | en | 0.951708 |
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brittany Altomare rallied to beat top-seeded Minjee Lee 2 and 1 on Thursday in hot conditions at Shadow Creek in the second round of group play in the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
Three down after five holes and again after seven in triple-digit heat, Altomare cut her deficit to one at the turn with a birdie on No. 8 and an eagle on the par-5 ninth. The American pulled even with a par on the par-4 12th and took a 2-up lead with birdies on 13 and 14. She halved the next three with pars to end the match.
“I didn’t start off the way that I wanted to but, if I’ve learned anything from Solheim the last couple years, it’s you just can’t give up because you never know what’s going to happen in match play,” Altomare said.
The winners of the 16 four-player groups will advance to single elimination at the conclusion of round-robin play Friday. Altomare (1-1) will face Youngin Chun (0-2) on Friday, and Lee (1-1) will play Caroline Masson (2-0). Masson beat Chun 2 and 1.
Lee is trying to win for the second straight event after taking the Founders Cup on May 15 in New Jersey. The Australian is ranked fourth in the world.
“I wouldn’t say intimidated, but I just knew I had to play well,” Altomare said. “Obviously, she’s playing great and she’s an amazing player. There is not enough words to describe her golf game.”
Jodi Ewart Shadoff followed her opening 6-and-5 victory over defending champion Ally Ewing with a 3-and-2 decision over So Yeon Ryu (0-2). Ewing beat Jasmine Suwannapura (1-1) 3 and 2.
Madelene Sagstrom, Hye-Jin Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Carlota Ciganda, Tiffany Chan, Jenny Shin, Lilia Vu, Gaby Lopez and Paula Reto also were 2-0.
Sagstrom edged Wei-Ling Hsu 1 up, Choi beat Aditi Ashok 3 and 2, Ji topped Las Vegas resident Danielle Kang 2 and 1, Ciganda beat Pauline Roussin-Bouchard 3 and 1, Reto topped Yealimi Noh 3 and 2, Chan defeated Alison Lee 4 and 3, Shin routed Hannah Green 5 and 3, Vu edged Ariya Jutanugarn 2 and 1, and Lopez topped Cheyenne Knight 3 and 2. Kang is 0-2.
Chevron Championship winner Jennifer Kupcho improved to 1-1, edging Lauren Stephenson 3 and 2. | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/altomare-beats-top-seeded-lee-in-lpga-match-play/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:02 | en | 0.921975 |
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Tuesday should have been a day of triumph for 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez. Instead, it was the day she died.
Maite was among 19 grade school students who, along with two teachers, were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in the southwestern Texas town of Uvalde. The 18-year-old gunman also died.
Maite liked and excelled at physical education — after her death, her teacher texted her mother to say she was very competitive at kickball and ran faster than all the boys.
She had always been a straight-A student until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to cancel in-person classes. Zoom didn’t work well for Maite — she got all Fs. But with school back in session, Maite rebounded — all As and Bs. She was among the honor roll students recognized at an assembly Tuesday morning.
“She worked hard, I only encouraged her,” her mother, Ana Rodríguez, said in an interview Thursday at her dining room table, which displayed a bouquet of red roses, the honor roll certificate and photos of Maite.
Hours later, Maite was gone. Her mother described her as “focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy.”
As a kindergartner, Maite said she wanted to be a marine biologist and held firmly to that goal. She researched a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and told her mother she was set on studying there.
“She was just so driven. She was definitely special. She was going to be something, she was going to be something very, very special,” Rodríguez said.
Jacklyn Cazares, who would have turned 10 on June 10, was a tough-minded “firecracker” who wanted to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb Elementary School.
“They are all gone now,” Javier Cazares said. “All her little best friends were killed too.”
Despite her young age, Jacklyn was tough-minded and compassionate.
“She had a voice,” her father said. “She didn’t like bullies, she didn’t like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart.”
“She was a character, a little firecracker.”
Cazares drove his daughter to school Tuesday for the awards ceremony. About 90 minutes later, the family got a call about an active shooter.
“I drove like a bat out of hell,” he said. “My baby was in trouble.”
“There was more than 100 people out there waiting. It was chaotic,” he said of the scene at the school. He grew impatient with the police response and even raised the idea of rushing inside with other bystanders.
Cazares said his niece followed an ambulance to the hospital and saw Jacklyn being taken inside. The entire family soon arrived and pressed hospital officials for information for nearly three hours. They begged, cried and showed photos of Jacklyn. Finally, a pastor, police officer and a doctor came to them.
“My wife asked the question, ‘Is she alive or is she passed?’” Cazares said. “They were like, ‘No, she’s gone.’”
Ryan Ramirez also rushed to Robb Elementary when he heard about the shooting, hoping to find his daughter, Alithia, and take her home, KTRK-TV reported. But Alithia, too, was among the victims.
Ramirez’s Facebook page includes a photo, now shown around the world, of the little girl wearing the multi-colored T-shirt that announced she was out of “single digits” after turning 10 years old. The same photo was posted again Wednesday with no words, but with Alithia wearing angel wings.
The grief only grew Thursday with confirmation that the brokenhearted husband of one of the slain teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, had died.
Joe Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. He “pretty much just fell over” after returning home and died of a heart attack, his nephew John Martinez told the newspaper.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcia’s death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday.
Married for 24 years, the couple shared four children. In a post on the school’s website at the start of the school year introducing herself to her class, Irma Garcia wrote of her love of barbecue, listening to music and taking “country cruises” to the nearby town of Concan.
The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Irma’s 23rd year of teaching — all of it at Robb Elementary School. She had been previously named the school’s teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University.
For five years, Irma had co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed.
Mireles also posted on the site as the school year began, noting she had been teaching 17 years. She cited her “supportive, fun, and loving family.”
“Welcome to the 4th grade! We have a wonderful year ahead of us!” she wrote.
Two of the victims had hoped to skip school that day.
Carmelo Quiroz’s grandson, Jayce Luevanos, 10, had begged to go along with his grandmother on Tuesday as she accompanied her great-granddaughter’s kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jayce it didn’t make sense to skip school so close to the end of the year. Besides, Jayce liked school.
“That’s why my wife is hurting so much, because he wanted to go to San Antonio,” Quiroz told USA Today. “He was so sad he couldn’t go. Maybe if he would have gone, he’d be here.”
Jayce’s cousin, 10-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero, also wanted to miss school that day. Jailah’s mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully told Univision that Jailah seemed to sense something bad was going to happen.
Jailah’s friend, Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, also was killed and her aunt noted Neveah’s first name is heaven spelled backward. In a Facebook posting, Yvonne White described Nevaeh and Jailah as “Our Angels.”
Two men who responded to the shooting discovered their own children among the victims.
Uvalde County Sheriff’s Deputy Felix Rubio and his wife had been at the school Tuesday morning to celebrate with their daughter, 10-year-old Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, since the fourth-grader had made honor roll with all A’s and received a good citizen award.
In a Facebook post, Kimberly Rubio wrote: “We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye.”
Medical assistant Angel Garza also hurried to the school and immediately found a girl covered in blood among the terrified children streaming out of the building.
“I’m not hurt. He shot my best friend,” the girl told Garza when he offered help. “She’s not breathing. She was just trying to call the cops.”
Her friend was Amerie Jo Garza — Angel Garza’s stepdaughter.
Amerie was a happy child who made the honor roll and loved to paint, draw and work in clay. “She was very creative,” said her grandmother Dora Mendoza. “She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers she would draw them.”
GoFundMe pages were set up for many of the victims, including one on behalf of all victims that has raised more than $3.7 million.
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This story has been corrected to show Lexi’s last name is Rubio, not Aniyah.
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Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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Find more of the AP’s coverage of the Uvalde school shooting at https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/day-of-triumph-turned-to-day-of-tragedy-for-honor-student/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:06 | en | 0.98871 |
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PARIS (AP) — Grand Slam losses by high-ranked, well-known and accomplished players to, well, lower-ranked, lesser-known and less-accomplished opponents offer a rare opportunity for those unheralded winners to enjoy the spotlight.
And for the first time in nearly a half-century, just three of the top 10 seeds in the French Open women’s draw made it to the round of 32.
So meet Leolia Jeanjean: age 26; from Montpellier, France; ranked 227th; a wild-card entry after never before being a Slam participant; seemingly destined as a kid for great things in tennis, so much so that there were sponsorship deals before she was old enough to attend high school, until, that is, an injured knee derailed things. She left the sport for a couple of years, wound up moving to the U.S., where she played college tennis at Baylor, then Arkansas, then Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, while pursuing her studies in finance. At Lynn, she went unbeaten in singles and doubles, so it occurred to her maybe a professional career was worth a try.
Good choice for Jeanjean. Bad one for her foes so far at Roland Garros, including Karolina Pliskova, a two-time major finalist and the No. 8 seed, who was unable to offer much resistance Thursday and was beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Jeanjean in the second round on Thursday.
“Even me, I don’t have an explanation. I don’t even realize what’s happening,” Jeanjean said. “It’s my first Grand Slam. I thought I would have lost in the first round in two sets — and I found myself beating a top-10 player. So, honestly, I have nothing else to say. I don’t really know how it’s possible.”
A year ago at this time, she was ranked outside the top 800 and winning hundreds of dollars at low-level International Tennis Federation events. No matter what happens in her next match, she’ll leave Paris with at least 125,000 euros ($135,000).
“When I stopped playing when I was young, I just wanted to give myself another chance,” Jeanjean said. “because in my head, since I was good when I was like 14, 15, I’m like, ‘Why can’t I be good 10 years later?’ So that’s why, yeah, I (took a) chance. And so far it’s working.”
Asked whether he also was stunned by it all, Jeanjean’s coach of three months, Thomas Delgado, quickly replied, straight-faced: “No.” And then he chuckled, before continuing: “Well, yes, I am. … On one side, I’m surprised she did it. But on the other, I knew she could.”
No. 9 Danielle Collins, the Australian Open runner-up in January, departed, too, eliminated by 50th-ranked Shelby Rogers 6-4, 6-3 in a matchup between Americans.
According to the WTA, the previous time three or fewer top-10 women’s seeds got to the French Open’s round of 32 was in 1976; in those days, only eight players were seeded to begin with in a field of 64, half of the current tournament size.
Pliskova and Collins joined No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova — the 2021 champion who was beaten in the first round Monday, then pulled out of doubles, because she tested positive for COVID-19 — No. 4 Maria Sakkari, No. 5 Anett Kontaveit, No. 6 Ons Jabeur and No. 10 Garbiñe Muguruza, who all were gone by Wednesday.
The remaining trio, all in the top half of the bracket, won second-round matches Thursday: No. 1 Iga Swiatek ran her winning streak to 30 matches, the longest in women’s tennis since Serena Williams had a 34-match run in 2013, by overwhelming Alison Riske 6-0, 6-2; No. 3 Paula Badosa recovered from a mid-match lapse to get past Kaja Juvan 7-5, 3-6, 6-2; No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka defeated Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3.
“I could feel like, ‘Wow, this is good, because they are losing.’ But in this case, I’m more like, ‘OK, pay attention, because anything can happen,’” said Badosa, a quarterfinalist in Paris a year ago. “You saw it today.”
The men’s draw certainly has seen some excitement — including five-set victories after being match point down for both No. 3 Alexander Zverev and No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday — but all 12 of the highest seeds advanced to the third round, the first time that’s happened at the French Open since 2009, according to the ATP.
No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros last year, saved four set points after falling behind 6-2 in the last tiebreaker before putting away 134th-ranked qualifier Zdenek Kolar 6-3, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6) in a 4-hour, 6-minute tussle Thursday night.
Kolar never had won a tour-level match until this week, but his relentless ball-tracking left Tsitsipas acknowledging at the end: “He drove me crazy. Yeah, it was really frustrating. … Not easy. Not easy.”
Pliskova has been ranked No. 1, was the runner-up at Wimbledon last year and the U.S. Open in 2016 and reached the Roland Garros semifinals in 2017.
“One thing is, of course, how I played,” Pliskova said, “and I think (the) other thing is how she played.”
Jeanjean trailed 2-1 before collecting nine consecutive games, displaying some of the strategic smarts that Delgado praised as one of her greatest attributes, saying: “She knows where to play, how to play, when to play.”
Always has. Caroline Garcia, a French player who used to be ranked No. 4, knew Jeanjean way back when. They were doubles teammates at a series of youth events in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Italy in 2010, when Garcia was 16 and Jeanjean was 14.
“She was like the best of the best when she was 10, 12, and everyone thought she was going to be unbelievable. And then she completely disappeared. … Now, she makes her way again,” Garcia said, “and she can prove to everyone, like, if you believe it, you can do it.”
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More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/at-surprise-filled-french-open-tennis-prodigy-makes-good/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:09 | en | 0.971262 |
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A woman charged in Idaho with killing her two youngest children and her new husband’s previous wife will be tried alongside her husband and their trial has been delayed until early next year because the judge says that will give her lawyers enough time to effectively prepare a defense.
Judge Steven Boyce on Thursday ruled that delaying Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial another 90 days to Jan. 9 would not violate her rights for a speedy trial.
Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell have pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if they are convicted.
The Daybells are charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.
Idaho law enforcement began investigating the Daybells in November 2019 after extended family members reported the children were missing. While the children were missing, police said the couple lied about the children’s whereabouts. Their bodies were found buried later on Chad Daybell’s property in rural Idaho.
Chad and Lori Daybell married just two weeks after his previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly. Tammy Daybell’s death was initially reported as “natural causes,” but investigators had her body exhumed after growing suspicious when Chad Daybell quickly remarried.
Lori Vallow Daybell is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Arizona in connection with the death of her previous husband. Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Lori Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defense. Cox later died of what police said was natural causes.
Vallow in April entered a “not guilty” plea and invoked her right to a speedy trial, which legally needed to take place by October. That complicated plans for a combined trial for her and her husband.
On May 19, prosecutors asked that Vallow’s trial be postponed until Jan. 9. Prosecutors expressed concern that if Vallow was separately in October that an “improper severance” would happen with the couple’s cases.
Boyce also expressed concern whether Vallow’s recently appointed attorneys had enough time to prepare for the trial and said the 90-day delay would give them more. He noted that prosecutors have worked on the case since 2020. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/idaho-trial-for-chad-and-lori-daybell-delayed-to-january/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:12 | en | 0.987625 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/dallas-mavericks/articles/39627646 | 2022-05-27T18:15:13 | en | 0.738227 |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many voters in heavily Democratic Los Angeles are seething over rising crime and homelessness and that could prompt the city to take a turn to the political right for the first time in decades.
One of the leading candidates for mayor is Rick Caruso, a pro-business billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat who sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and is promising to expand spending on police, not defund them.
At another time, the high-end mall and resort developer would seem an unlikely choice to potentially lead the nation’s second-most populous city, where democratic socialist Bernie Sanders was the runaway winner in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. A progressive City Hall has embraced so-called sanctuary city protections for people who entered the U.S. illegally and “Green New Deal” climate policies.
But these are fraught times in Los Angeles, with more than 40,000 people living in trash-strewn homeless encampments and rusty RVs, distress over brazen smash-and-grab robberies and home invasions while inflation and taxes are gouging wallets — gas in a region built on car travel has cracked $6 a gallon. Rents and home prices have soared.
Caruso is spending millions of his estimated $4.3 billion fortune to finance a seemingly nonstop display of TV and online ads to tap into voter angst. At issue is whether enough people will embrace his plans to add 1,500 police officers and promises to get unhoused people off the streets, while not recoiling from his vast wealth.
Twelve names are on the ballot for the primary election that ends June 7, though several candidates have dropped out and the race is shaping up as a fight between Caruso and Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, who was on then-President elect Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president.
If no candidate clears 50% — which is likely with a crowded ballot — the top two finishers advance to a November runoff. Bass could become the first woman to hold the office and the second Black person.
Bass and Caruso are not well known in a city that can be notoriously indifferent to local politics.
“Part of this is going to be how people feel about them as they get to know them better. We don’t know the answer to that,” said veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who thinks voters are looking for solutions for homelessness and crime, not obsessing with past political affiliations. The contest is technically nonpartisan.
Bass, 68, is a favorite of the party’s progressive wing, while Caruso, 63, is a political shape-shifter who calls himself a “centrist, pro-jobs, pro-public safety Democrat.”
According to government records, he was a Republican for over two decades before becoming an independent in 2011. Caruso changed back to Republican in 2016 — a year when he served as California campaign co-chair for Republican John Kasich’s presidential bid — and then to independent again in 2019. He became a Democrat shortly before entering the mayor’s race in February.
He’s donated to candidates in both parties, which has led to criticism from Democrats who point to his financial support for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, among others. And he’s been routinely attacked for an opulent lifestyle, including owning a 9-bedroom yacht.
The mayor’s race is one of several competitive contests in the state’s primary where political loyalties are being tested by questions about the direction of California’s dominant Democratic Party, which holds every statewide office and commanding margins in the Legislature and congressional delegation.
Voters in San Francisco are considering whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a Democrat who critics say has failed to prosecute repeat offenders, while Democratic state Attorney General Rob Bonta is facing several challengers who assert he favors criminal justice reform over crime victims, which he disputes.
A looming question in Los Angeles is who will show up. About 80% of voters didn’t cast ballots when outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti was reelected in 2017.
There is a deep dismay with government across Los Angeles. A major challenge for Caruso, Bass and other rivals — including city Councilman Kevin de Leon, a former Democratic leader in the state Senate — will be convincing voters change is possible.
A case in point: Gas station owner Wignesh Kandavel. He says his complaints have gone unheard for years about homeless people setting up campsites around a freeway overpass just steps from his pumps and convenience market.
Sagging tents and trash are cleared from time to time, only to have homeless people return again. He says drug use is rampant, shoplifting a constant problem and panhandling at the freeway exits a daily routine.
The Nigerian immigrant and registered Republican who came to the U.S. in search of a better life has lost interest in the election and doesn’t see any candidate as credible.
“The whole system is gone,” Kandavel said.
Caruso’s ascendancy in the race — polls show him closely matched with Bass — has alarmed longtime Democrats who are attacking him as a poseur trying to buy the job. His campaign has raised about $30 million, most of it his money.
There is the expected competition over celebrity endorsements — Earvin “Magic” Johnson is backing Bass, while Caruso has Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow behind him. Already, the rivalry is taking on a nasty edge, particularly in ads from groups supporting the candidates.
Bass’ commercials recall her work as a physician’s assistant during the crack epidemic and her time in Congress and the Legislature. But the police union that endorsed Caruso is running ads that attempt to link Bass to a federal corruption case involving her longtime friend, suspended city Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. She calls the ads lies.
Caruso’s advertising touts his immigrant grandparents, philanthropic endeavors and promise to work for $1 a year. But ads being run by an independent group backing Bass and funded by unions and former Disney studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg depict Caruso as an L.A. version of former President Donald Trump who is attempting to conceal an “extreme” record.
Retired public defender Paul Enright said he was undecided in the mayor’s race but turned off by Caruso’s spending spree that totals more than the other candidates combined. A Democrat who supports public financing for campaigns, he is leaning toward Bass or de Leon.
It’s a “classic example of how money talks,” Enright said. | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/liberal-los-angeles-could-take-right-turn-in-mayors-race/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:18 | en | 0.963968 |
TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — Drake Batherson scored on a power play 43 seconds into overtime to give Canada a 4-3 comeback victory over Sweden on Thursday night in the world hockey quarterfinals.
In the semifinals Saturday, defending champion Canada will face the Czech Republic, and the United States will play Finland. The Czech Republic beat Germany 4-1, the United States topped Switzerland 3-0, and Finland beat Slovakia 4-2.
Canada overcame a 3-0 deficit in the third period. Ryan Graves scored 1:21 into the period and Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matt Barzal connected 30 seconds apart late in regulation.
After William Nylander was called for tripping 25 seconds into overtime, Batherson fired a sharp-angle shot behind goalie Linus Ullmark from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
“Obviously, being down 3-0 going into the third period was not what we planned, but we were able to get that goal early in the third,” Batherson said. “I was frustrated that I took a penalty, and to be honest I thought we were going to have a hard time coming back, but we never gave up.”
Nylander, Carl Klingbergr and Max Friberg scored for Sweden.
Chris Driedger stopped 16 shots for Canada. Ullmark made 38 saves for Sweden.
In the United States’ victory, Ben Meyers scored twice, Adam Gaudette added a goal and Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves.
Marko Anttila scored twice to help Finland beat Slovakia. David Krejci, David Pastrnak, Roman Cervenka and Jiri Smejkal scored in the Czech Republic’s victory over Germany. | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/canada-rallies-in-3rd-tops-sweden-4-3-in-ot-in-world-hockey/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:17 | en | 0.955381 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/dallas-mavericks/articles/39627692 | 2022-05-27T18:15:19 | en | 0.738227 |
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Nearly 20 officers stood for about 45 minutes in the hallway outside the adjoining Texas classrooms where the gunman killed students and teachers this week before U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the door to confront and kill him, authorities said Friday.
At least some of the 911 calls made during the Tuesday attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde came from inside one of the connected classrooms where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was holed up, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said during a contentious news conference.
The commander at the scene believed Ramos was barricaded inside the and that the children were not at risk, McCraw said.
“It was the wrong decision,” he said.
McCraw released new details about the attack in which Ramos killed 19 children teachers, though his motive remains unclear.
The Border Patrol agents eventually used a master key to open the locked door of the classroom where they confronted and killed Ramos, he said.
There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but that shots were “sporadic” for much of the 48 minutes when officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if or how many children died during that time.
Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including a girl who pleaded: “Please send the police now,” McCraw said.
Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman.
It was 11:28 a.m. Tuesday when Ramos’ Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle.
Twelve minutes after that, authorities say, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth-grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims.
But it wasn’t until 12:58 p.m. that law enforcement radio chatter said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over.
What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of the town of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement’s response to Tuesday’s rampage.
“They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. “We didn’t see that.”
Friday’s briefing came only after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information.
According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, After crashing his truck, Ramos fired on two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said.
Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a school district police officer was not inside the school when Ramos arrived. When that officer did respond, he unknowingly drove past Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and firing at the building, McCraw said.
At 11:33 p.m., Ramos entered the school through a rear door that had been propped open and fired more than 100 rounds into a pair of classrooms, McCraw said.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine said investigators haven’t yet determined why the door was propped open.
Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Within 15 minutes, as many as 19 officers from different agencies had assembled in the hallway, taking sporadic fire from Ramos, who was holed up in a classroom.
Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. They had raced to the school from nearly 70 miles (113 kilometers) away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet Friday.
But the police commander inside the building decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said.
The crisis came to an end after a group of Border Patrol tactical officers entered the school at 12:45 p.m., said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. They engaged in a shootout with the gunman, who was holed up in the fourth-grade classroom. Moments before 1 p.m., he was dead.
Ken Trump, president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services, said the length of the timeline raised questions.
“Based on best practices, it’s very difficult to understand why there were any types of delays, particularly when you get into reports of 40 minutes and up of going in to neutralize that shooter,” he said.
The motive for the massacre — the nation’s deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago — remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.
During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses.
“Go in there! Go in there!” women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street.
Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner: “There were more of them. There was just one of him.”
Cazares said that when he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said.
As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot.
“A lot of us were arguing with the police, ‘You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs.’ Their response was, ‘We can’t do our jobs because you guys are interfering,’” Cazares said.
Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International, which works to make schools safer, cautioned that it’s hard to get a clear understanding of the facts soon after a shooting.
“The information we have a couple of weeks after an event is usually quite different than what we get in the first day or two. And even that is usually quite inaccurate,” Dorn said. For catastrophic events, “you’re usually eight to 12 months out before you really have a decent picture.”
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Bleiberg reported from Dallas.
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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/questions-arise-over-police-delays-with-gunman-inside-school/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:24 | en | 0.982145 |
BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum wants experience to be the Celtics’ guide as they return home with a chance to wrap up their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2010.
Tatum was a rookie during Boston’s run to Eastern Conference finals in 2018, when it grabbed a 3-2 series lead over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He also remembers what it felt like as the Celtics watched James unravel their dreams with a 46-point performance in the Cavaliers’ Game 6 win, followed by a 35-point effort in Cleveland’s decisive Game 7 victory at TD Garden.
Boston again has a 3-2 conference finals lead, this time over the top-seeded Miami Heat with Game 6 set for Friday.
Tatum said this feels different.
“I’m a lot better. (Jaylen Brown) is. We’re just older. And we’ve been through those tough times,” Tatum said. “But the mindset and the talk that we had after the game was we were down 3-2 last time (in semifinals vs. Bucks) and had to go on the road to win Game 6 and we did. So we can’t think that it’s over with.”
Tatum wants to see Boston maintain the mentality of the underdog.
“We need to go back home like we’re down 3-2. With that sense of urgency that it’s a must-win game,” he said. “Not relaxing because we’re up. … The job’s just not finished yet.”
The Celtics do seem to be facing a Heat team that over the past two games hasn’t come close to resembling the one that won Games 1 and 3.
All-Star Jimmy Butler insists he’s fine but appears to be at least slowed by the right knee inflammation that sidelined him during the second half of Miami’s Game 3 win. Over the past two games, he’s scored just 19 points while shooting 7 of 32 from the field.
Kyle Lowry has all but disappeared offensively since returning from a hamstring injury and reigning Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro has missed the past two games with a groin injury.
It’s all contributed to the Heat going from shooting an NBA-best 38% from the 3-point line during the regular season to just 29% in the conference finals.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter,” Butler said. “If I’m out there, I gotta do better. I gotta find a way to help us win and I haven’t been doing that. I’m fine, my knee is OK. I just gotta do better. It’s no excuse.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said his faith in his team remains strong.
“We’re still alive,” he said. “That’s all we’re thinking about right now. We have the kind of warriors that are gonna tape up, brace up, do whatever we gotta do to get ready for the next one and just embrace and enjoy that competition.”
HISTORY LESSON
There have been 333 times a best-of-seven NBA playoff series has been 3-2.
Of those, the team taking the 3-2 lead has gone on to win 83.8% of the time. But a team trailing has come back to win a series on at least two occasions in each of the past three years, including the Celtics and Mavericks in this year’s conference semifinals.
CLOSING IT OUT
The Celtics are 86-68 in closeout games. That includes a 48-19 record at home.
Jaylen Brown said they want to feed off the energy they know awaits them at the Garden. He said the message after Game 5 was simple.
“This is a great opportunity. Leave everything on the floor. You don’t want any feelings of regret,” he said. “Let’s come out Friday on our home floor and play the best version of basketball that we’ve played all season.
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/celtics-head-home-looking-to-close-out-top-seeded-heat/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:24 | en | 0.966634 |
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UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A young survivor of the massacre at a Texas elementary school said she covered herself with a friend’s blood and pretended to be dead while she waited for help to arrive.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she and a friend called 911 from her dead teacher’s phone Tuesday and waited for what felt like, to her, three hours for officers to arrive at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
The 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, was inside the school for more than an hour before he was shot to death by Border Patrol tactical officers. That’s according to top law enforcement officials who provided new details Thursday of a confusing and sometimes contradictory timeline that has angered and frustrated the parents and onlookers who had urged police to charge into the school.
The children who survived the attack, which killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers, described a festive, end-of-the-school-year day that quickly turned to terror.
Samuel Salinas, 10, told ABC’s “ Good Morning America ” that he and other classmates pretended to be dead after Ramos opened fire on the class. Samuel was struck by shrapnel in his thigh.
“He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids,” said Samuel, who was in Irma Garcia’s class. Garcia died in the attack and her husband, Joe Garcia, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack.
Gemma Lopez, 10, was in a classroom down the hall when Ramos entered the building. She told “Good Morning America” that a bullet came through her classroom wall before any lockdown was called.
Her best friend, Amerie Garza, died in the rampage.
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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/students-who-survived-texas-school-attack-describe-scene/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:30 | en | 0.979863 |
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PARIS (AP) — A player at the French Open was allowed to continue her match — and ended up winning it — after she threw her racket and it bounced into the stands, the latest in a series of episodes involving professional tennis players who take their anger out on their equipment.
Irina-Camelia Begu, a 31-year-old Romanian who is ranked 63rd, had just dropped the opening point of a game while trailing 2-0 in the third set at Court 13 against 30th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round at Roland Garros.
Begu walked to the sideline and chucked her racket, which went off the red clay and flew right behind chair umpire Anis Ressaissi’s seat, landing among spectators sitting courtside. There were gasps from fans and a child could be heard crying.
Play was delayed for five minutes while Ressaissi called for a Grand Slam supervisor, who came to the court and spoke to the official, then people in the crowd, and then both players.
Begu was warned for unsportsmanlike conduct but permitted to keep playing.
Later, a statement from tournament referee Remy Azemar emailed by the French tennis federation said the racket “brushed a young spectator,” who “turned out to be OK.” The statement added: “The Grand Slam supervisor spoke with the parents who were with the child; the parents confirmed that the child was fine and not injured.”
There was no immediate information about any possible punishment for Begu.
She won the first point after the break in action and ended up claiming six of the last eight games of the match for a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4 comeback victory to reach the third round at the French Open for the first time since 2019.
“It’s an embarrassing moment for me, so I don’t want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologize,” Begu said at her post-match news conference. “My whole career, I didn’t do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I’m just going to say again: Sorry for the incident and, yeah, it was just an embarrassing moment for me.”
Asked whether she thought she would be defaulted — in other words, prevented from continuing to play and forced to forfeit the match — Begu responded: “You hit the clay with the racket, but you never expect (it) to fly that much. It was, as I said, an embarrassing moment for me, and I just want to end it and not talk about it.”
When a reporter then wanted to know what the chair umpire or supervisor said to her, Begu said: “Again, can we move on? Because I will answer the same thing: I’m just saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ and that’s it.”
In the French Open’s first round, the seventh-seeded man, Andrey Rublev, reacted to losing the first set of an eventual victory by using his racket to smack a ball that ricocheted off the base of the chair umpire’s stand. The ball flew near one of the court groomers smoothing out the clay between sets.
Earlier this season, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev was put on probation for one year by the men’s ATP tour for violently hitting the chair umpire’s stand repeatedly with his racket following a loss in doubles at the Mexico Open in February. He also was fined $40,000 and forfeited more than $30,000 in prize money, along with all of the rankings points he earned at that tournament.
At the 2020 U.S. Open, No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic was defaulted when he inadvertently hit a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball after dropping a game in his fourth-round match.
As he walked to the sideline for a changeover, trailing Pablo Carreño Busta 6-5 in the first set, Djokovic smacked a ball behind him. The ball flew right at the line judge, who dropped to her knees at the back of the court and reached for her neck.
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More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/french-open-player-wins-after-thrown-racket-lands-in-stands/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:31 | en | 0.976429 |
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Several public school teachers in Rochester were put on leave after exchanging text messages that made “racist and demeaning” references to students, officials said Friday.
The Democrat and Chronicle reported the teachers worked at Enrico Fermi School 17, which has a large percentage of Black and Hispanic students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
“I am horrified at the racist and demeaning references and language used to describe children … our children! The staff members have been put on leave and the District will use all forms of available discipline up to and including termination,” Rochester City School District Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small said in a prepared statement.
Students discovered a series of texts, including one containing an obscenity that wished one girl would beat another up. Another obscene text suggested an automated call that insulted children and their parents, according to the newspaper.
The discovery comes weeks after Rochester school officials said they were investigating allegations that a white teacher told his seventh-grade class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery.
Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski said he did not know how many teachers had been accused in this latest episode.
“I want to make it clear that we strongly believe that everyone, and especially our students, are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said. “We are also committed to fairness and due process and the investigation is still ongoing.” | https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/upstate-new-york-teachers-put-on-leave-after-offensive-texts/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:36 | en | 0.979668 |
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Josh Hader escaped a ninth-inning jam in his 37th straight scoreless appearance and the Milwaukee Brewers held off the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 Thursday night for their third straight win.
Tyrone Taylor drove in a run for the seventh game game in a row and Luis Urías homered as the NL Central leaders increased their edge over the second-place Cardinals to 4 1/2 games.
“They definitely made me work and I had to grind for some pitches,” Hader said. “Fastball wasn’t locating the way I like it to, but at the end of the day I made the pitches when I needed to.”
Milwaukee first baseman Rowdy Tellez helped with his glove, ranging to catch five foul balls for outs. Overall, Brewers fielders caught seven foulouts.
Paul Goldschmidt homered and extended his hitting streak to 17 games for the Cardinals.
Hader, activated from the family medical emergency list earlier in the day, earned his 16th save in 16 tries this season. He gave up a leadoff single to Tommy Edman in the ninth and a one-out walk to Nolan Arenado before retiring Albert Pujols on a foul popup and Juan Yepez on a popout.
It marked Hader’s 30th consecutive save conversion. He hasn’t allowed a run since last July.
“We only play eight innings,” starter Eric Lauer said. “When you’ve got a guy that’s that good at the back end, the end of the game doesn’t seem like the end of the game. It’s like it’s already over, almost.”
Lauer (5-1) gave up two runs on four hits in the first two innings. His only blemish in his final three frames was a walk. He struck out one and walked four, throwing 96 pitches over five innings.
“It was like two different games,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I think he was at 58 pitches through two and only gives up two runs. Then he was very, very good the next three innings.”
Urías hit his fourth homer of the season, connecting with one out in the first off Adam Wainwright (5-4).
One out later, Andrew McCutchen hit the first of three consecutive singles by the Brewers and scored on Taylor’s hit.
Christian Yelich drove in a run in the second and McCutchen had an RBI hit in the fourth.
Wainwright gave up 10 hits and four runs in five innings with three of the Brewers’ runs coming with two outs. He dropped a decision for the first time in four games.
“It bugs me a lot,” said Wainwright, who surrendered four two-out runs in a 5-1 loss at Milwaukee on April 14. “I just got to do a better job with two outs. They’re doing a good job with their two-out approach on me too.”
Goldschmidt hit his eighth home run, a solo drive in the seventh off Trevor Gott that made it 4-3. He also singled and his hitting .457 with six homers during his streak.
The Cardinals scored twice in the first. Edman doubled for the first of his three hits, Pujols had an RBI single and Yepez had a sacrifice fly.
STREAKING
When Goldschmidt walked in the first, he extended his streak of reaching base to 31 consecutive games, the longest in the majors this year. It’s the longest streak for St. Louis since Matt Carpenter reached in 35 straight in 2018.
FOUL MOOD
Along with Tellez’s five grabs, catcher Omar Narváez and third baseman Jace Peterson each caught one foul ball for an out.
MOVES
Brewers: Optioned RHP Miguel Sánchez to Triple-A Nashville.
Cardinals: Optioned RHP Junior Fernández and C Iván Herrera to Triple-A Memphis. Recalled RHP Jake Woodford and RHP Kodi Whitley from Memphis. Activated C Yadier Molina from the bereavement list.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: Placed RHP Jordan Hicks (right forearm flexor) on the 15-day Injured List. … RHP Jack Flaherty (shoulder) threw 25 pitches to hitters in batting practice, manager Oliver Marmol said. On the 60-day IL, he’s eligible to return to the Cardinals in early June and could head soon to a minor league rehab assignment.
UP NEXT
Brewers: RHP Brandon Woodruff (5-2, 4.76) goes for his third consecutive win and his second against the Cardinals this year. He gave up three hits over five innings to get the win in a 5-1 win April 14 in Milwaukee.
Cardinals: RHP Dakota Hudson (3-2, 3.60) seeks his second win in his fifth start of May, during which he’s only made it out of the fifth inning once. He took the loss at Milwaukee on April 17, giving up four runs (three earned) on three hits in just three innings as the Brewers won 6-5.
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More AP MLB coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/hader-37th-straight-scoreless-appearance-brews-beat-cards/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:38 | en | 0.975312 |
Which Wi-Fi thermostat is best?
Thermostats are a great way of setting and regulating the temperature at home, but traditional ones don’t always work consistently. If you want something convenient and reliable, a Wi-Fi thermostat is the way to go. You can set the heating or cooling based on a schedule that matches your preference and even control it from your phone. The best device that pairs well with any smart home is the Google Nest 3rd Generation Learning Thermostat.
What to know before you buy a Wi-Fi thermostat
Benefits
All thermostats can adjust the temperature in a home. But with one that runs on Wi-Fi, you also get the following benefits:
- Remote access: Since they’re connected to the internet, you can remotely access the device and make adjustments to the settings as needed.
- Home and HVAC monitoring: More advanced models can send alerts to your phone if they detect any changes or errors. They can also adjust the temperature automatically, which is handy if you’re not home a lot or don’t have time.
- Precision control: Modern thermostats, including those that run on Wi-Fi, usually have more precise temperature control than traditional ones. Some come with sensors you can install in different rooms to monitor the temperature.
- Cost reduction: Due to the remote access and precision temperature control, these devices can cut down on the electricity bill. If you’re gone longer than planned, you can turn off or adjust the thermostat while out.
- Virtual assistant connection: Many are compatible with virtual assistants, such as Alexa or the Amazon Echo. With these, you can make changes to the device using your voice or a computer, smartphone or tablet.
Installation
Each thermostat comes with instructions on how to install it. Usually, this requires you to do the following:
- Check if there’s a C-wire since this is necessary to connect the thermostat to the HVAC system. Most thermostats have five wires, located behind the cover of the device.
- Turn off the HVAC system using the breaker panel.
- Remove the cover and backplate of your old thermostat.
- Connect the new backplate in its stead.
- Reconnect the wires and attach the new faceplate.
- Connect the device to your current internet network.
Potential issues
As with any smart home device, Wi-Fi thermostats can have a few problems, such as:
- Wire incompatibility: Without the right wires, you won’t be able to properly connect the thermostat to the HVAC system.
- Software glitches: Sometimes, the associated software can glitch or display an error when accessing the device remotely. Also, if there’s a power outage, it can cause the device to stop working temporarily.
- Installation: Depending on the setup and how many wires it has, it can be tricky to install a Wi-Fi thermostat. When in doubt, hire a professional to do it for you.
Also, if you have a single-zone heating HVAC system, it can be hard to regulate the heating or cooling throughout the house. This can be an issue if certain rooms in the house are often hotter or colder than others. One solution to this is to use a multi-zoned HVAC system instead since these let you regulate individual rooms better.
What to look for in a quality Wi-Fi thermostat
Programming
Modern Wi-Fi thermostats are highly customizable, meaning you can program them to do the following things:
- Control, monitor and regulate the indoor temperature throughout the home or in specific rooms.
- Maximize energy efficiency to cut costs.
- Set an automatic schedule based on when you want the device to be on or off.
- Connect with virtual assistants or other smart devices.
- Monitor changes at home when you’re away.
Compatibility
Most Wi-Fi thermostats come with an app, such as the Nest app, which you can use on a smartphone or tablet. With an app, you can access the device remotely and make quick changes to the schedule or temperature without hassle.
Some thermostats are compatible with different smart home devices, which is convenient if you want to use all your devices at once. Others only work within their brands.
Design
Most Wi-Fi thermostats have a minimalistic design. They’re usually round or square and come in white or black, though some come in other colors, such as pink or blue.
These devices also have a digital screen, often a touchscreen, with an LCD display. If you have a larger thermostat, you can program it directly using the screen. For smaller ones, you might need to connect through an app.
How much you can expect to spend on a Wi-Fi thermostat
A standard one costs $50-$150 and has all the essential features, such as programmable buttons and a touchscreen. More advanced ones cost $150-$300 but can connect with virtual assistants, monitor your home and send important notifications directly to your phone or tablet.
Wi-Fi thermostats FAQ
How much can I save with a Wi-Fi thermostat?
A. This depends on the device, the temperature, the environment and your schedule. Using a Nest thermostat, for example, can save you $100-$150 a year in energy costs.
Is there a difference between Wi-Fi and smart thermostats?
A. Both are similar, but smart thermostats don’t always need an internet connection to function. Some smart thermostats are also better at monitoring your schedule and determining when you’re home.
What’s the best Wi-Fi thermostat to buy?
Top Wi-Fi thermostat
Google Nest 3rd Generation Learning Thermostat
What you need to know: This easy-to-use device is energy-efficient and lets you monitor your HVAC system remotely.
What you’ll love: Compatible with Alexa, this programmable thermostat is easy to install and features auto-scheduling. It can connect to a Nest temperature sensor for further temperature monitoring and control. This remote-controlled device also sends alerts if it detects any issues with your heating and cooling system.
What you should consider: The temperature you set it at can vary slightly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Kohl’s
Top Wi-Fi thermostat for the money
What you need to know: With a handy digital display and sleek design, this thermostat is perfect for those who want something simple and functional.
What you’ll love: This programmable device has a Quick Schedule feature that lets you make changes from anywhere using a smart device. It’s Energy Star-certified, so it can help reduce energy costs, too, and it also works without a C-wire in some homes.
What you should consider: It’s not compatible with all HVAC systems.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Honeywell Home Wi-Fi Smart Color Thermostat
What you need to know: This device is easy to use and has an easy-to-read display that indicates the indoor and outdoor temperature, as well as other things such as the current humidity level.
What you’ll love: It has a touchscreen, making it easy to adjust the settings. It’s energy-efficient, intuitive and works with heat pumps with electric backup, hot water and steam and forced air systems.
What you should consider: It requires a C-wire to function.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes controlled long stretches of play, stayed aggressive and even got a breakthrough in a two-month struggle on the power play.
It was enough to secure another home playoff victory. Now they can turn their attention to trying to put away the New York Rangers, too.
Vincent Trocheck buried a short-handed goal, Teuvo Teravainen had a rare power-play score and the Hurricanes beat the Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night to take a 3-2 lead in the second-round series.
It was part of yet another strong home performance for the Metropolitan Division champions, who improved to 7-0 at home in the postseason.
“It was kind of the game that I’ve been waiting for,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve been playing OK, but tonight was good all the way around — more obviously how we want to play.”
Andrei Svechnikov also scored, beating Igor Shesterkin with a backhander on a breakaway midway through the third period as the Hurricanes protected their Game 5 lead.
The Hurricanes can advance to the Eastern Conference finals to face reigning two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay by winning Game 6 in New York on Saturday, though they are 0-5 away from PNC Arena so far despite tying for the NHL lead in regular-season road wins.
Now Carolina faces the challenge of putting away a team that has been resilient, even stubborn, when facing a series deficit. The Rangers rallied from a 3-1 hole to beat Pittsburgh in a seven-game first-round series, then lost the first two games against Carolina before fighting back to even at home.
“The way I look at it, we’ve played a lot of must-win games lately, and we’ve done a pretty good job,” said New York’s Ryan Strome, who had a second-period goal negated by a successful offsides challenge from Carolina.
“We’ve played some desperate hockey. … We seem to like being in this position a little bit.”
The Hurricanes sustained their aggressive style while giving the Rangers little room to operate, finishing with a 34-17 shot advantage to keep the pressure on Shesterkin while also easing the burden on Antti Raanta (16 saves) in Carolina’s net.
Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for New York, winning a first-period faceoff and then drifting to the left side for the putaway just six seconds into the man advantage. Shesterkin — a finalist for both the Vezina Trophy for the league’s top goalie and Hart Trophy for most valuable player — finished with 31 saves against a steady stream of work.
POWER PLAY
Carolina had been just 9 of 89 (10.1%) on the power play since late March. Yet after an 0 for 9 start in the series, the Hurricanes finally broke through with quick and crisp puck movement.
Rookie Seth Jarvis — who left briefly in the second with a bleeding mouth after being hit by Strome’s follow-through on a shot — zipped the puck to Teravainen for the left-side putaway to beat Shesterkin at 9:47 of the second for the 2-1 lead. It marked Carolina’s first goal with the man advantage since the final minutes of Game 6 in the first-round win against Boston.
“We had just kind of talked after the last game,” Teravainen said. “Just reset and start over and just we don’t have to think too much (of what’s) behind, keep thinking what’s going forward.”
ANOTHER SHORTIE
Carolina’s first goal came on special teams, too, though this on a perfectly executed short-handed rush off a turnover.
Jordan Staal carried the puck on the left side until Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller laid out to stop a pass, but Staal lifted the puck off the ice and over Miller’s legs to a charging-in Trocheck on the right side for the 1-0 lead at 12:57 of the first.
“The pass that Jordan made was incredible,” Trocheck said.
Carolina, which had a short-handed goal from defenseman Brendan Smith in the Game 2 win, has two short-handed goals in the same postseason series for the first time since 1992.
NEGATED
Strome appeared to have given the Rangers a 2-1 lead just five minutes into the second when he collected his own entry pass on the boards and beat Raanta. But on the review, linemate Andrew Copp was clearly across the blue line as he tried to tag back up.
“It definitely sucks, but that’s the way it goes,” Strome said. “It’s a rule. It’s cut and dry. It happens.”
LONG RUN
Carolina’s seven-game home winning streak is the longest in a postseason since Chicago won its first seven games in 2014, a run that ended in the conference finals.
SIREN SOUNDERS
Retired American soccer great Clint Dempsey sounded the pregame “storm warning” siren for the Hurricanes to take the ice.
NASCAR driver Harrison Burton sounded the siren for the first intermission, followed by North Carolina State football coach Dave Doeren — whose Wolfpack play across the parking lot from PNC Arena in Carter-Finley Stadium — for the second intermission.
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaronbeardap
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/hurricanes-win-game-5-push-rangers-to-brink-of-elimination/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:45 | en | 0.95257 |
Which national park scratch-off map is best?
United States national parks have some of the most spectacular views on the planet. Scratch-off maps for the parks let travelers relive their experiences repeatedly. If you have visited or plan to visit the U.S. national parks, a scratch-off map is a great way to organize and recall your adventures. These customizable maps come in multiple sizes and styles to suit every traveler’s needs. A great example of a map you can keep mounted at home is the Epic Adventure Maps U.S. National Park Scratch Off.
What to know before you buy a national park scratch-off map
Is it a gift?
If you intend to get a national park scratch-off map for yourself, you may want something you can keep long-term in a nice frame. However, if you have a friend who lives in a van and is about to embark on a journey, the smaller, portable scratch-off maps may be more appropriate. Many maps provide giftable packaging that doubles as a storage container. Additionally, the information for parks is unique to each map, so consider what the recipient needs to know about the national parks before deciding what to get.
Travel frequency
How often you travel could make a difference in the type of map you choose. If you are on the go, you might want a travel-sized scratch-off map. They are easy to keep track of and hold in a smaller pack. However, if you go on trips less frequently or have already been on many visits to the national parks, you might consider a map that can be framed; something that you only take out every so often to fill with more adventures.
Size
Whether you want your scratch-off map to fit in your wallet or framed and mounted in your living room, there is one for you. National park scratch-off maps range from 16 by 10 inches to around 15 by 24 inches. This could make the difference between having something poster-sized or a map that can fit into your laptop bag.
What to look for in a quality national park scratch-off map
Usability
National park scratch-off maps are made with quality materials and often come with their own tool to remove foil pieces. The foil is easily removed with a coin or guitar pic if a tool is not included. They can be handled with ease and are durable enough to have portions scratched off without poking through the map.
Easy to read
National parks are unique from one another and should stand out on the map. Prior to scratching off parks, they stand out as unvisited. You can easily identify where you need to remove the film for the parks you’ve seen. Once scratched off, parks are clearly defined and illustrated individually.
Visual appeal
Scratch-off maps are engaging, aesthetically pleasing and clean. They are a visual representation of your accomplishments that you can place on the mantle. They can be handled repeatedly as you visit more parks in the country and scratch off their places.
How much you can expect to spend on a national park scratch-off map
Most national park scratch-off maps range in price from $20-$30.
National park scratch-off map FAQ
How many national parks are in the U.S.?
A. There are 63 national parks in the United States as of 2022. This includes 423 sites across 84 million acres of land.
Which is the newest national park?
A. The New River Gorge, located in West Virginia, is the newest park. Established in 1978 and recognized as a park in the 2019 COVID-relief bill, it is a 53-mile stretch of land following the New River.
What’s the best national park scratch-off map to buy?
Top national park scratch-off map
Epic Adventure Maps U.S. National Park Scratch-Off
What you need to know: This is a poster-sized scratch-off map with a complete list of U.S. national parks.
What you’ll love: This is a decorative map with detailed visual representations of each U.S. national park. It’s durable and made with premium foil, and there is no need to use a corkboard or other backing.
What you should consider: This is a larger map and is not easy to take with you while traveling.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top national park scratch-off map for the money
Mappinners National Park Scratch-Off Map
What you need to know: This is a popular scratch-off travel map for those just beginning their national park journey.
What you’ll love: This travel-friendly map includes five popular places to stop at each park. It comes with a free decorative gift tube, so there is no need for a gift box. The gift tube cap also doubles as a scratch-off tool.
What you should consider: Some have complained that the map was not large enough to fit a standard poster frame.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Jetsettermaps Personalized National Parks Scratch-Off Map
What you need to know: This national park map includes hand-drawn park photos and a handy scratch-off tool.
What you’ll love: You can get this watercolor park map with gold or silver foil covers. They are hexagon-shaped to make them easier to scratch off without damaging the rest of the photo. You can use the tool included to mark states and parks you have visited.
What you should consider: This map is missing two national parks. There are only 61 on this map.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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A look at what’s happening around the majors on Friday:
___
V FOR VICTORY
Astros ace Justin Verlander has been as dominant as ever in his return from Tommy John surgery, going 6-1 with a 1.22 ERA in eight starts.
Verlander has a 19-inning scoreless streak and hasn’t allowed a run in his last three outings.
The 39-year-old righty didn’t pitch last season while recovering from his elbow operation. The eight-time All-Star is already 2-0 this year against the Mariners — he’ll face them again in Seattle as he tries to win his seventh straight decision overall.
Chris Flexen (1-6, 4.98) pitches the series opener for the Mariners. After throwing well but getting little run support to begin the season, he has struggled in giving up 14 earned runs in his past three starts.
HEALING UP
The Braves will see how right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is feeling after he was scratched from two starts because of tightness in his right quadriceps tightness.
Acuña is batting .292 with two homers, eight stolen bases and a .400 on-base average. The 24-year-old was sidelined for the second half of last season after tearing his knee.
The two-time All-Star and 2018 NL Rookie of the Year recently missed five games recently with right groin tightness.
Atlanta hosts the Marlins to begin the weekend.
RED ALERT
Kyle Farmer, Nick Senzel and the Cincinnati Reds look to keep their bats booming when they face the Giants at Great American Ball Park.
The Reds put up their highest run total since 1999 when they whacked the Cubs 20-5 on Thursday. Farmer homered and drove in five runs — he and Senzel each had four hits.
San Francisco starts a 10-game trip when lefty Carlos Rodón (4-3, 3.43 ERA) faces the Reds.
CARPE DIEM
A week after he was cut loose from his minor league team, three-time All-Star Matt Carpenter wound up back in the majors — and made an instant impact for the New York Yankees.
Ailing in a couple of spots, the team with the top record in baseball signed the 36-year-old Carpenter on Thursday. Hours later, he scored two runs as the Yankees won 7-2 at Tampa Bay.
The infielder recently was released by the Rangers’ Triple-A team. Carpenter hit .169 in 130 games for St. Louis last year; the previous season, he batted only .186 for the Cardinals.
Carpenter entered the lineup for a series opener at Tampa Bay as the designated hitter when center fielder Aaron Hicks was scratched with a tight hamstring. Aaron Judge was moved from DH to center. Infielder DJ LeMahieu is slowed by a sore left wrist and Josh Donaldson is on the COVID-19 injured list. Donaldson also is appealing a one-game suspension imposed by MLB for making an inappropriate comment to White Sox star Tim Anderson.
Carpenter drew a walk and was hit by a pitch in going 0 for 2.
“It happened fast and now I’m here and I couldn’t be more excited about it,” Carpenter said.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/leading-off-verlander-aims-for-7th-win-in-row-acuna-ailing/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:53 | en | 0.974881 |
Which Uncommon Goods lighting is best?
Lighting in a room is like frosting on a cake. Not only does it pull the design of the entire room together, but it also serves as a decorative finishing touch on any space.
If you’re looking for unique lighting that’s functional and beautiful, Uncommon Goods, which specializes in creative gifts and products for the home, has you covered. To feel more connected to loved ones across the globe (or across town), the Long Distance Friendship Lamp sends a glowing visual that you’re thinking of them. Simply tap the lamp to send light and wait to receive their radiant response.
What to know before you buy Uncommon Goods lighting
Type of lighting
Whether you are looking for table lamps, accent lights or pendant lighting, Uncommon Goods offers a variety. You’ll need a mix of lights to illuminate a room properly, so take the time to consider your needs before you buy.
Form vs. function
While some lamps from Uncommon Goods feature a more traditional design, other pieces are meant to be used less as lighting and more as art. You’ll need to decide if you’re looking for practical illumination or to center a lovely piece of design work.
Power source
Some Uncommon Goods lighting uses traditional outlets, but others have options. For instance, some can be powered with a simple USB cord, while others use batteries (or a combination of power sources).
What to look for in quality Uncommon Goods lighting
Quality craftsmanship
Uncommon Goods seeks out and represents many artisans and their handmade goods. Additionally, the online retailer creates its own products to fit the following guidelines:
- They fill a need or solve a problem.
- They are beautiful.
- They are unique.
- The workmanship is exceptional.
Uncommon Goods creates lights from the simple to the sublime, all made with unmatched quality craftsmanship.
Unique design
Designs are creative and original, either in their materials or their execution. They make exceptional gifts and keepsakes for people of all ages.
Commitment to community
Whether it’s through their charitable donations through Better to Give or their commitment to supporting individual artisans, Uncommon Goods demonstrates a commitment to the community.
Uncommon Goods:
- Donates $1 to charitable organizations for each purchase (double that for Uncommon Perks members)
- Uses recycled and sustainable packaging and materials
- Prints their catalog on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper
- Never uses leather, feathers or furs
How to design a room’s lighting
Designing a lighting plan can be challenging. These simple guidelines can help.
- Use different types of lighting: Aim for a mix of overhead, task and accent lights.
- Add light depending on the room’s direction: North-facing rooms are generally the darkest. You may need more light than other orientations.
- Add lights in the corners: Use up lights or sconces to banish shadows.
- Don’t rely on overheads: Overhead lighting can be harsh. Pendant fixtures and floor lamps are softer and more natural.
- Add dimmers: Dimmers can be useful when seasons — and natural light — change.
- Let lights reflect your style: If your style is fun and quirky, choose lights with shades and colors to match. Don’t be afraid to buy statement pieces.
How much you can expect to spend on Uncommon Goods lighting
You’ll find funky options at a wide range of prices. Expect to spend $20-$260.
Uncommon Goods lighting FAQ
What are Uncommon Perks?
A. Uncommon Perks are a membership option that costs less than $20, renews annually and provides the following benefits:
- Free standard shipping
- First look at sales and specials
- Double the donation to charity
A two-week trial is free, and you can cancel anytime to receive a prorated refund on your remaining balance.
What’s the story behind Uncommon Goods?
A. Daniel Bolotsky visited a craft fair in 1999 and decided to create a platform for artists and craftspeople to sell their unique pieces of art. From this humble beginning, Uncommon Goods has expanded, scouring the globe to find handcrafted, well-designed home goods and the artists who make them.
What is the best Uncommon Goods lighting to buy?
Top Uncommon Goods lighting
What you need to know: Hold your loved ones in the light with these glowing lamps.
What you’ll love: Buy a pair of lamps, connect to Wi-Fi and send your long-distance friends and family some light every time you touch your lamp. They can be strung together and assigned different colors for more than one person. They have a timer that you can set to fade off after a designated period.
What you should consider: These require a Wi-Fi connection and one-time access to a router.
Where to buy: Sold by Uncommon Goods
Top Uncommon Goods lighting for the money
Mini Color-Changing Cinema Lightbox
What you need to know: Put your name in lights with this mini marquee.
What you’ll love: It fits on a desktop and comes with 100 letters, numbers and characters. Additional blank tiles are also included. It’s 8 inches by 6 inches and less than 2 inches tall. It can be powered with batteries or by a USB cord. It’s also available in two other sizes.
What you should consider: It takes six AA batteries that drain very quickly. Powering with the USB cord is a more economical choice.
Where to buy: Sold by Uncommon Goods
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This is a great gift or accent piece for a child’s bedroom.
What you’ll love: The sterling silver octopus holds a crystal clear orb filled with special bioluminescent algae that light up with a gentle swish when the sun goes down. The orb is handblown. This kit includes a pouch of seawater from California plus a pouch of dinoflagellates that glow gently for up to six months.
What you should consider: Some users report that the algae did not glow for a full six months. Results may vary, but refills are available.
Where to buy: Sold by Uncommon Goods
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Suzannah Kolbeck writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktsm.com/reviews/br/home-br/lighting-br/best-uncommon-goods-lighting/ | 2022-05-27T18:15:54 | en | 0.931577 |
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