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Tourist boat capsizes in southern India, at least 22 dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — A double-decker boat carrying more than 30 passengers capsized off a beach in southern India on Sunday night, and more than 22 people including children died, officials said.Police officer Abdul Nazar said the rescue teams were expecting to recover more bodies from inside the boat. He said authorities were investigating what caused the tourist boat to overturn near Thoovaltheeram beach in Tanur, a coastal town in Kerala state’s Malappuram district.The dead included children who had come for a ride on the boat during their school vacation, Sports Minister V Abdurahiman told the Press Trust of India news agency, adding that four people in critical condition were admitted to a hospital. The state’s chief minister, who will visit the area Monday, tweeted his condolences to the victims’ families and urged the district’s authorities to oversee the rescue.Monday has been declared a day of official mourning, PTI reported, quoting a government statement. Pr...

Cummings, Cochrane among musicians who say they’ll play Lightfoot tribute: friend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

ORILLIA — Plans for a star-studded night of music celebrating the legacy of Gordon Lightfoot are already taking shape, according to his longtime friend and concert promoter.Bernie Fiedler says several prominent Canadian musicians who counted themselves among Lightfoot’s friends, including Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane and Murray McLauchlan, have already committed to performing at a tribute show.Fiedler says while it’s too early to predict when the event might happen, he hopes it’ll take place at Toronto’s Massey Hall, a venue Lightfoot frequented.He says he’d like the show to include Lightfoot’s original band as the accompaniment “if they’re willing.”Fiedler outlined the details at a public visitation for the folk singer on Sunday in his hometown of Orillia, Ont., where an estimated 2,400 fans attended.The “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” singer died last week at 84.“His last words to me wer...

Congress eyes new rules for tech: What’s under consideration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Should TikTok be banned? Should younger children be prevented from engaging with social media? Can the government make sure private information is secure? What about brand new artificial intelligence interfaces? Or should users be regulating themselves, leaving the government out of it?Tech regulation has been gathering momentum on Capitol Hill amid concerns about China’s ownership of TikTok and as parents are growing increasingly worried about the effects of social media on a post-pandemic mental health crisis. Noting that many young people are struggling, President Joe Biden said in his February State of the Union speech that “it’s time” to pass bipartisan legislation to impose stricter limits on the collection of personal data and ban targeted advertising to children. “We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit,” Biden said. Lawmakers have introduced a slew of bipartisan bills to regulat...

‘My career of 280 years’: Biden jokes off 2024 age concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden served in the Senate for 270 years. He used to be three years older than his sister Valerie, but now has 20 years on her. And the fourth U.S. president — whom Biden affectionally calls “Jimmy” Madison — is a good friend.All kidding aside, the 80-year-old Biden will tell you, he is at the end of his career, not the beginning. He’s been doing this for a long time. And he’s gotten a “hell of a lot of wisdom” over those years, making him deserving of a second term.As Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, embarks on his reelection campaign, he is increasingly musing aloud about his advanced age, cracking self-deprecating jokes and framing his decades in public life as a plus, hoping to convince voters his age is an asset rather than a vulnerability.In short, he’s trying to own it. “I stand here humbled being the first sitting president of the United States to have an opportunity to speak at Ebenezer Sunday service,” Biden said in January at ...

Stock market today: Asian shares start week with gains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Monday after a widespread rally on Wall Street partly spurred by Apple’s report of better profit than expected. Tokyo’s benchmark fell as markets reopened after several days of holidays, while markets in China advanced. A report showed hiring accelerated across the economy by much more than expected last month. The government’s jobs report also showed workers won bigger pay raises than expected. Such trends helped calm worries that a recession is looming, even as time grows short on reaching an agreement on the U.S. government debt ceiling, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “But anxiety is building early this time and shifted into high gear last week after Secretary Yellen warned that a default could occur as soon as June 1,” he said. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shed 0.7% to 28,951.08. Reopening after a weeklong holiday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.8% to 20,199.67 and the Shanghai Composite index su...

It’s Pulitzer Prize day, honoring journalism’s best work

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Pulitzer Prizes will be awarded Monday to honor outstanding journalism during a violent year that included Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, mass shootings that targeted an elementary school and supermarket, and communities beset with floods and flames fueled by climate change.The winners will be announced during a livestream beginning at 3 p.m. EDT.The Pulitzers honor the best stories in journalism from 2022 in 15 categories, as well as eight arts categories focused on books, music and theater.The public service prize winner receives a gold medal. All other winners receive $15,000.The prizes were established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and first awarded in 1917.The Associated Press

Opera review: Minnesota Opera stages a disquieting Don Giovanni

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

As the civil rape case against former president Donald Trump heads to its conclusion, the Minnesota Opera opens its no holds barred production of “Don Giovanni,” about a rich nobleman who rapes, lies and kills with abandon in an unrepentant descent into hubris.Opening night took place on Saturday, May 6, with Mario Antonio Marra taking the reins as conductor, filling in for the Grammy award-winning conductor Karen Kamensek.Views on sexual assault and consent have no doubt evolved since “Don Giovanni” premiered in 1787, though as evidenced by E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit and Trump’s own recorded “grab ‘em by the p—” statement, societal opinions on these topics still vary widely.Seth Carico as Don Giovanni and Sara Gartland as Donna Elvira in the Minnesota Opera’s production of “Don Giovanni,” which runs May 6–21, 2023 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. (Cory Weaver / Minnesota Opera)Back in the 18th century, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and l...

Fostering a need: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe seeks to increase number of foster families

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

Five years ago, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe had more than 70 licensed foster homes.Today, that number has fallen to about 40. Most are already caring for children, or are licensed only to care for relatives.Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. (Courtesy / Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe via MPR News)That means some kids are being sent to non-Native foster homes or facilities outside the community — a problem rooted in historical trauma, Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin said during her annual State of the Band speech in January.“For our oldest generation of band members living today, there were boarding schools that stripped our children of their culture, identity and caused generational trauma,” Benjamin said. “Today, our youngest generation face a similar loss of culture when they are sent to foster homes outside of the band.”The need for foster families comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide on a challenge to a federal law that aims to keep Nat...

Why official Tony Brothers issued Nikola Jokic a technical foul after altercation with Suns owner Mat Ishbia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

PHOENIX — In the second quarter of Denver’s Western Conference Semifinal Game 4 loss to Phoenix, Nikola Jokic and Suns owner Mat Ishbia made contact after a loose ball ended up out of bounds along the baseline.Ishbia, who recently purchased the franchise, had the ball in his hands and Jokic tried to take it away from him. Ishbia resisted, and the result included Jokic’s elbow making contact with Ishbia and the owner dramatically flailing himself backward.The officiating crew led by Tony Brothers ultimately issued Jokic an unsportsmanlike technical foul but did not eject him from the game. Ishbia was not removed from the arena or asked to move from his seat.Nuggets coach Michael Malone and players including Jokic insisted the two-time MVP did nothing wrong. Malone was incredulous that his superstar got a technical at all, while forward Aaron Gordon called Ishbia’s actions “super lame.”Jokic said he thought the league was supposed to protect players...

Kiszla: Nikola Jokic and Suns owner tussle. A suspension is in order. Mat Ishbia should be sat in a corner until he learns how to behave at playoff game.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

PHOENIX — Can we call it a wild and crazy night in the desert, when Nuggets center Nikola Jokic scored a career-high 53 points, but by far his most memorable shot knocked billionaire Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia on his entitled, flopping keister?And now, after Jokic got hit with a technical foul for his role in the confrontation, this classic basketball playoff series could be decided on whether the NBA decides to forgive Jokic or suspend him for tussling with Ishbia.“They’re not going to protect me? They’re going to protect the fan?” Jokic said Sunday, when his confrontation with Ishbia overshadowed both his record-setting performance and the Suns’ 129-124 victory.Well, a suspension is indeed in order.Ishbia shouldn’t be allowed back in the arena for an NBA playoff game until he learns how to behave.“I think it’s crazy that Nikola got a technical foul in the situation,” said Malone, after Phoenix again rode the magnificence of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker to lev...