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Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

By JOCELYN NOVECK (AP National Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — No script? No problem!There was plenty of uncertainty in the run-up to this year’s Tony Awards, which at one point seemed unlikely to happen at all because of the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.But the ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday night. The event was scriptless, to honor a compromise with striking writers, but chock-full of high-spirited Broadway performances drawing raucous cheers from an audience clearly thrilled just to be there at all. It was a night of triumph for the small-scale but huge-hearted musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager with a rare aging disease, but also a night notable for inclusion: Two nonbinary performers, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, made history by winning their respective acting categories. The ceremony also touched on the specter of antisemitism in very different places: World War II Europe, with best play winner “Leopoldstadt,” an...

Jeffrey Epstein victims settle sex trafficking lawsuit against JPMorgan for $290 million

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

By KEN SWEET and MICHELLE CHAPMAN (AP Business Writers)JPMorgan Chase announced a tentative $290 million settlement Monday with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the bank of being the financial conduit that allowed the financier to continue operating a sex trafficking operation. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He was found dead in jail in August of that year, at age 66. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November sought to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage girls and young women. A related lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.The proposed settlement comes roughly two weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in a deposition for the case, where he denied knowing about Epstein and his crimes until the financier was ar...

Utah woman accused of killing husband then writing grief book for kids requests bail

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Attorneys for a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death, and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, argued in court on Monday she should be released on bail for the duration of her trial.Kouri Richins, 33, is charged with murder and drug possession and listened intently as prosecutors questioned the lead detective investigating her husband’s death. As a rapt gallery made up of locals, including employees of Eric Richins’ construction company, sat behind her, Richins grabbed tissues and inhaled deeply as detective Jeff O’Driscoll testified about the drugs authorities believe were used to kill him. She kneeled her head and was crying when they talked about finding him “cold to the touch.”Prosecutors say in court documents that Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for her husband, Eric Richins, amid marital disputes and fights over a mult...

Many Quebec fire evacuees being allowed to return home as situation improves: premier

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

MONTREAL — Thousands of Quebecers who were forced by out-of-control wildfires to evacuate their towns and cities are starting to return home as the situation improves.Those returning home today include the approximately 7,500 residents of Chibougamau, 500 kilometres northwest of Quebec City, and several Indigenous communities.Premier François Legault told a news conference today there should be fewer than 4,000 evacuees remaining by the end of the day, down from a peak of more than 13,500 on Friday.  He says the northwestern Quebec town of Lebel-sur-Quévillon remains under evacuation, as does Normétal, where firefighters managed on Sunday to contain a blaze that had come within 500 metres of the town.Legault says there are now more than 1,200 people fighting fires across the province, including reinforcements from New Brunswick and France.Quebec has been having a record wildfire season with 449 fires to date, including 130 burning as of this morning.This report by The Canadian Press...

Vancouver container port places second-last on global efficiency ranking

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

The Port of Vancouver placed second-to-last on a global ranking of hundreds of container ports, after some cargo ships waited weeks to unload their cargo last year.Compiled by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, the container port performance index lists Vancouver at No. 347 out of 348 — and dead last for ports of similar size.The study uses vessel wait times as an indicator of overall efficiency.Vancouver Fraser Port Authority spokesman Alex Munro says strong consumer demand drove a surge of imports to ports all along the North American West Coast in 2021 and 2022, causing congestion that has eased since December.In 2022, container volumes at the Vancouver port fell by four per cent year over year amid softer consumer demand and overstocked inventories, but last year’s total still marked its third-highest amount on record.Full container yards and a lack of storage space at distribution hubs meant cargo vessels sat at anchor for roughly 10 days on average in the f...

S&P/TSX composite down as price of oil falls below US$70 a barrel, U.S. stocks higher

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was down slightly in late-morning trading as the price of oil fell below US$70 per barrel and losses in the energy helped lead the Toronto stock market lower.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 18.45 points at 19,873.61.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 17.28 points at 33,894.06. The S&P 500 index was up 8.98 points at 4,307.84, while the Nasdaq composite was up 78.87 points at 13,338.01.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.82 cents US compared with 74.96 cents US on Friday.The July crude contract was down US$2.26 at US$67.91 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.23 per mmBTU.The August gold contract was down US$8.40 at US$1,968.80 an ounce and the July copper contract was down three cents at US$3.76 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Vatican court convicts climate activists for damaging statue, fines them more than 28,000 euros

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican court convicted two environmental activists of aggravated damage Monday and ordered them to pay more than 28,000 euros (US$30,000) in restitution after they glued their hands to the base of an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest to draw attention to climate change.The two members of the Last Generation environmental activist group, Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, also received a nine-month suspended sentence and were fined 1,620 euros apiece. A third activist on trial with them, Laura Zorzini, was fined 120 euros.The trial stemmed from an Aug. 18 protest in the Vatican Museums, during which Viero and Goffi glued their hands to the base of the Laocoon statue, one of the most important ancient works in the collection that is believed to date from the 1st century B.C. They hung up a banner reading “Last Generation: No gas and no carbon,” as Zorzini filmed them. Their action was part of a wave of Last Generation and related activist protests aro...

Analysis: Novak Djokovic has 23 Slams, so is he the GOAT? He leaves that debate to others

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The query was swift and direct. Novak Djokovic’s reply was slow, thoughtful and revelatory, delivered in paragraphs.“How does it feel,” a reporter wanted to know, “to be the greatest male player in history?”First, a quick bit of background: Djokovic’s championship at the 2023 French Open, earned via a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5 victory over Casper Ruud on Sunday that included a so-so start and then a cascade of brilliance, provided his 23rd Grand Slam title.No man has won as many. After spending his entire career trying to accumulate as much hardware as rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Djokovic now stands alone atop the list. He had been tied at 22 with Nadal; Federer, who announced his retirement last year, has 20.So, now, back to that question. For years, as that so-called Big Three dominated men’s tennis, the debate has swirled over which should be considered the “GOAT” — “Greatest of All-Time.”Federer has his backers. So does Nadal. Djokovic, too.There are those who wa...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts ahead of Fed, inflation data

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting on Wall Street Monday ahead of a big week for central banks and interest rates around the world.The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading, coming off its fourth straight winning week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 31 points, or 0.1%, at 33,908, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.Stocks were mixed, with the S&P 500 nearly evenly split between winners and losers. Cruise operator Carnival rode a 12.7% upswell as analysts upgraded its stock on signs demand remains steady for the industry and that pricing is holding up. Nasdaq, the exchange company that’s pushing more into technology, fell 11.7% after saying it would buy Adenza, a risk management and regulatory software provider, for $10.5 billion in cash and stock.The U.S. stock market is near its highest level since April 2022 on hopes the economy may avoid a recession and the Federal Reserve may soon take it easier on its hikes to interest...

Iraq urges countries to repatriate their citizens from camp housing families of extremist IS group

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:48:41 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq urged countries on Monday to repatriate their citizens from a sprawling camp in Syria housing tens of thousands linked to the extremist Islamic State group, saying it has become a “source for terrorism.”The statements were made during a conference in Baghdad discussing al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Iraqi officials, the U.N. representative in Iraq, some members of the international coalition fighting IS and ambassadors of several countries were present.Al-Hol Camp — named after a town near the Iraqi border — is an open wound left by Syria’s 12-year conflict. Tens of thousands of people were taken to the facility after the extremist group’s defeat in Syria in March 2019.The camp holds about 51,000 people, the vast majority women and children, including the wives, widows and other family members of IS militants, mostly Syrians and Iraqis. There are also around 8,000 women and children from 60 other nationalities who live in a part of the camp known as the An...