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Two Canadian authors compete for Baillie Gifford non-fiction ‘winner of winners’ prize

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Two Canadian books are competing to be named the best-ever winner of Britain’s leading non-fiction book prize.The Baillie Gifford Prize is marking its 25th year with a Winner of Winners prize, in which six of the 24 past winners of the award are up against each other. The books by Canadians on the list are Wade Davis’ mountaineering odyssey “Into the Silence” and Margaret MacMillan’s history of the post-First World War peace talks, “Paris 1919.”Also on the short list announced Thursday vying for the 25,000-pound (CAD$40,000) purse are three books from the U.S. and one from Britain.The prize was launched in 1999 to reward English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.The winner will be announced April 27 at a ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland.The eclectic short list also includes cultural kaleidoscope “One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time” by Craig Brown.The U.S. finalists ar...

US stocks rise modestly as worries linger on interest rates

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose modestly on Wall Street Thursday as markets remain anxious about the prospect of more aggressive action by the Federal Reserve to fight inflation. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66 points, or 0.2% to 32,864 and the Nasdaq rose 0.3%.Energy stocks were among the biggest gainers as U.S. crude oil prices rose 1%. Exxon Mobil rose 1.5%.The gains follow two days of testimony before Congress by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who said the central bank was prepared to continue making big interest rate increases if necessary. Fears about a persistently aggressive Fed have been weighing on major indexes, all of which are on track for weekly losses.The Fed’s inflation-fighting policies risk slowing the economy too much and pushing it into a recession, while also going too far in softening a strong labor market and putting many people out of work.A government report on Thursday showed that the number of Americ...

Europe struggles to make progress in migration quagmire

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe continued its decade-old struggle Thursday to devise a migration system that would both better protect its extensive borders and avoid tragedies like last month’s shipwreck off Italy, which killed at least 70 migrants.Interior ministers from the European Union’s 27 members remained mired in technical talks that aim to revamp the bloc’s migration and asylum system by spring 2024 — at the earliest.“As you can see, this is not moving fast enough when we look at the tragic events in Italy a few days ago,” said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.In Europe, humanitarian tragedies and the plight of people fleeing persecution in countries like Afghanistan and Syria often take second seat to populist rhetoric about overcrowding, loss of national identity and the cost of housing migrants. Every now and then though, a disaster like the Feb. 26 sinking off southern Italy’s Cutro beach briefly focuses minds again. Italy’s government is even having ...

Oscars producers have one main goal: Keep you entertained

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

The opening of the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday is going to be a “moment,” the show’s producers promise. They won’t say what exactly it is – A montage? A Billy Crystal-inspired skit where Jimmy Kimmel pretends to be in all the best picture nominees? A secret performance? Tom Cruise landing a jet atop the Dolby Theatre? It will not, however, include Lady Gaga — the best original song nominee is currently in the midst of production on the “Joker” sequel.But Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, this year’s executive producers and showrunners, are certain that it’s going to pull audiences in and keep them engaged for the duration.Both Weiss and Kirshner are live television veterans. They’ve done the Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, the Super Bowl and even a presidential inauguration. But the Oscars is a first for Kirshner.“There’s only a few shows on the bucket list,” Kirshner said. “I needed to go for the awards show EGOT.”Still, it’s a job not everyone is cut out for. One might even wonder wh...

Indonesia landslide death toll hits 32; 22 still missing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Rescue workers recovered more bodies buried under tons of mud following a landslide that crashed onto a hilly village on Indonesia’s remote Natuna islands, bringing the death toll to 32, officials said Thursday.The landslide, triggered by torrential downpours, plunged down surrounding hills on Monday, burying 30 houses in Genting village on a tiny remote island in the Natuna archipelago at the edge of the South China Sea, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.Authorities have deployed nearly 700 rescuers, including police and military, with heavy equipment to search for 22 people still missing who were apparently trapped in houses that were buried under the landslide, which was 4 meters (13 feet) deep, said Abdul Rahman, who heads Natuna’s search and rescue agency.“Improved weather allowed us to recover more bodies,” Rahman said in a video statement.Eight people were pulled out alive with injuries, three of whom are in critical con...

Medicaid coverage for new moms gaining support in GOP states

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of refusing to expand Medicaid benefits for new moms, Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states are now reversing course and trumpeting that coverage as central to their conservative, anti-abortion agenda.The shift in GOP support for postpartum Medicaid coverage is occurring in some states that have severely limited or outlawed abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last June. The effort also comes as federal protections guaranteeing people stay continuously enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to expire in a few weeks. Deep-red Mississippi on Tuesday became the latest state to require Medicaid to provide a full year of coverage for low-income mothers after giving birth. Days earlier, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves declared the policy was part of the state’s “new pro-life agenda.”Extended postpartum coverage had been rejected three times by the state’s lawmakers since 2021 ...

Anxiety, fear fill West Virginia’s transgender-health clinic

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The tiny clinic where physicians prescribe hormones and other medications to transgender teenagers shares the same campus where West Virginia kids travel to receive treatments for rare cancer, heart surgery and other health care difficult to get anywhere else.In a rural state purported to have the highest number of transgender youths per capita and some of the nation’s worst health outcomes, West Virginia University Medicine doctors say transgender health care is just as essential as the other lifesaving services they provide. But it could soon be banned. Ignoring doctors’ pleas, lawmakers are preparing to vote this week on a bill that would outlaw certain health care for transgender minors, including hormone therapy and fully reversible medication that suspends the physical changes of puberty, buying patients and parents time to make future decisions about hormones.“There’s a lot of anxiety and fear in our exam rooms right now,” said...

Contentious German church reform assembly opens last meeting

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Catholic bishops and lay representatives gathered on Thursday for the final meeting of a potentially groundbreaking reform assembly that has been marked by tensions between liberalizers and conservatives and is drawing increasingly open opposition from the Vatican.The German process, dubbed the “Synodal Path,” was launched in 2019 in response to the sex abuse crisis that has rocked the church in Germany and many other countries and has been a major factor in large numbers of people leaving the church.The synodal assembly, meeting in Frankfurt from Thursday through Saturday, brings together 230 representatives of Catholic life in Germany.Its fifth and final gathering is expected to discuss proposals that include blessings by priests for same-sex couples, female deacons and a role for the faithful in choosing bishops.Any decisions, however, need the approval of two-thirds of the 67 German bishops — and that may prove a high bar in view of internal divisions and...

WATCH: Procession held for fallen Chicago officer to church for funeral services

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who was killed in the line of duty will be laid to rest Thursday.Officers from across the country are expected to be present for the funeral of Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso.32-year-old Andres Vasquez-Lasso, courtesy CPDA funeral procession will begin at 9:30 a.m., leaving from Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn, located at 4727 West 103rd Street. The processional will head to St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel at 7740 South Western Avenue, where a funeral mass service will be held.Expect rolling street closures today for the funeral of Chicago Police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso, who was killed in the line of duty last week while responding to a domestic disturbance on Chicago’s South Side.There will be two processions today for the service. DETAILS: pic.twitter.com/I4JW9ZSPqP— Sarah Jindra (@SarahJindra) March 9, 2023The 19th Ward alderperson is asking the community to line the streets during the procession to honor the fallen officer.Vasquez...

Suburban man charged in Wisconsin woman's death 23 years ago

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:16:19 GMT

RACINE, Wis. (AP) — DNA and genetic testing have led to the arrest of an Illinois man in the 23-year-old strangling death of a woman in southeastern Wisconsin, police said Wednesday.Lucas Alonso, 66, of Zion, Illinois, was detained in Racine on Monday and charged with first-degree homicide in the slaying of 37-year-old Linda Fields, Racine police said. Her body was found under a low-hanging pine tree branch in the front yard of a home on Feb. 24, 2000.DNA from Fields' body matched Alonso, investigators said.Alonso told investigators he and Fields were having an intimate moment along the lakefront, a confrontation ensued, and he choked Fields. He claimed he believed Fields was alive as he walked away because she was yelling at him. Man accused of battering CTA employee, damaging attendant booth Alonso made his first court appearance Wednesday and his bail was set at $1 million. It wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney who might comment on his behalf.