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‘A Haunting in Venice’ lacks spirit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

A third Agatha Christie adaptation from actor-director Kenneth Branagh, “A Haunting in Venice” is the weakest entry in the series, which has really been not much to brag about. “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017) made a healthy $352 million worldwide. But “Death on the Nile” (2022) made less than half that. In this installment, Christie’s fussy Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Branagh, sporting a mustache in need of a leash) lives in postwar, post-Mussolini Venice in 1947 in self-imposed exile and retirement. Smart-mouthed, famous American author of mysteries Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) shows up to rattle his windows and get Poirot, whose first name she insists on pronouncing with the “H,” jump-started by introducing him, a “non-believer,” to the “spiritualist” Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).The spiritualist has been hired by the distraught former opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, “Yellowstone”) to make contact with her rece...

Dear Abby: Sober 12 years, but mom harps on mistakes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for more than 12 years. My road to sobriety has been long and dark, but I am proud of turning my life around and staying sober. My problem is how my mother treats me about it. She keeps reminding me of all the mistakes I made and the people I hurt when I was still drinking.I also struggle with manic depression and have a hard enough time forgiving myself for my past actions, let alone having someone continually bring up every single one. I try every day to be a better person, and I’m an open book when it comes to my life and flaws.My mother constantly accuses me of falling into my old habits and says I’m lying about it, even though she’s been given truth and proof that I’m not. My long-term boyfriend and other family members can vouch for me. It’s to the point where she’s so in my head and cruel with the things she says that I’m spiraling back into depression, which is taking a t...

As all eyes are fixated on Pennsylvania manhunt, a DC murder suspect is on the run and off the radar

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — While the nation has been transfixed by the two-week manhunt for escaped prisoner Danelo Souza Cavalcante in Pennsylvania, another fugitive drama has been playing out in the nation’s capital with comparatively minimal attention. Christopher Haynes has been on the run for a week, since escaping from police custody at George Washington University Hospital on Sept. 6. Haynes, 30, had been arrested earlier in the day on murder charges relating to an Aug. 12 shooting in the district. His escape prompted a several-hour shelter-in-place order last week for the entire GW campus and brief roadblocks on nearby streets.Cavalcante, a 34-year-old Brazilian national who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, was captured Wednesday morning in southeastern Pennsylvania after an extended pursuit that received wall-to-wall live coverage. Haynes is still at large and awaits a trial.The contrast between the two manhunts has been stark: while the national media has tracked...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher after US inflation data ease rate hike worries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

NEW YORK — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after a highly anticipated report showed inflation accelerated across the U.S. in August, but not by much more than expected. The subdued increase in prices eased worries over the likelihood of another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, leading Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 to surge 1.2% to 33,104.79.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.2% to 17,969.38 on renewed concern over China’s property sector. Major real estate developer Country Garden’s Hong Kong-traded shares sank 4.6% ahead of a deadline for a bond repayment. The Shanghai Composite index was flat, at 3,124.43, while Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 2,556.60. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5% to 7,189.70. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 4,467.44 after flipping between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2% to 34,575.53, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to 13,813.59.The inflation rep...

At the University of North Carolina, two shootings 30 years apart show how much has changed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

Three decades ago, as a University of North Carolina student, he covered a deadly shooting for the school newspaper. Last month, as a journalism professor at the same school, Ryan Thornburg kept his students safe during a lockdown — after another shooting. In some ways, the era of campus shootings has come full circle. Other UNC-Chapel Hill alumni who remember the 1995 tragedy now have children enrolled at their alma mater, where an associate professor was shot to death Aug. 28 (and a where a second brief lockdown was imposed on Wednesday). But vast changes in the way information spreads make their recent experiences less like replays and more like double exposures: new technology, new emotions superimposed upon the same setting.Twenty-eight years ago, there was no way for university officials to alert the entire community that a gunman had opened fire on the edge of campus, killing two people and wounding two others. E-mail existed but wasn’t widespread. Calling home meant long-dis...

New England has been roiled by wild weather including a likely tornado. Next up is Hurricane Lee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — Hurricane Lee looks poised to wallop New England later this week even as the region still deals with the impact of days of wild weather that produced torrential rain, flooding, sinkholes and a likely tornado.A hurricane watch stretches from Stonington, Maine to the U.S.-Canadian border, where hurricane conditions, heavy rainfall and coastal flooding are possible Friday night and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday night. Areas from Watch Hill, Rhode Island, to Stonington, Maine — including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket — are under a tropical storm watch. A storm surge watch has also been issued for Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket with the potential for life-threatening flooding there late Friday and Saturday.The looming arrival of the hurricane threatened to unleash more violent storms on a region that earlier in the week saw 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain that fall over six hours and on Wednesday saw communities in Massachu...

On the road again: Commuting makes a comeback as employers try to put pandemic in the rearview

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — If you think U.S. roads have gotten busier on your morning commute, you’re not alone.The rate of workers driving to their jobs creeped upwards nationwide last year, as did those who carpool to work by car, truck or van. The mean commuting time jumped by almost a minute in 2022 from the previous year, as more businesses ended full-time remote work, a sign that post-pandemic life edged closer in 2022 to what it was before COVID-19.The rate of people working from home dropped from almost 18% in 2021 to 15.2% in 2022, according to new survey data on life in America released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey covers commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service, and employment, among other topics.Mark Behrens, a human resources data analyst in Orlando working for a Fortune 500 company, started driving to his office in March 2022 after working from home for two years because of the pandemic. M...

Firefighters fear PFAS in their gear could be contributing to rising cancer cases

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Boston firefighter Daniel Ranahan had heard about colleagues getting cancer but he was stunned when doctors discovered a large tumor in his chest.He was only 30 and had been in the Boston Fire Department less than a decade. But as he investigated his diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October 2020 and sought successful treatment, he learned he and others wore gear that contained the toxic industrial compound PFAS.“You always hear about the dangers. You just never think it’s going be you,” said Ranahan, who stopped working due to the cancer and is among thousands of firefighters nationwide who sued PFAS manufacturers and companies that make firefighting gear and foam, seeking damages for their exposure.“These guys put this on day in and day out to protect neighborhoods and wherever they are working,” he said. The multi-layered coats and pants worn by firefighters have become the latest battleground over PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances. It’...

Wisconsin Senate to vote on firing state’s nonpartisan top elections official

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate was set to vote Thursday on firing the battleground state’s top elections official — a move that was denounced by Democrats as illegitimate and is expected to draw a legal battle.Nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plan to rig the 2020 vote in Wisconsin. GOP leaders have vowed to oust her before the 2024 presidential election.Election observers have voiced concerns that replacing Wolfe with a less experienced administrator or continuing to dispute her position could create greater instability in a high-stakes presidential race where election workers expect to face unrelenting pressure, harassment and threats.The bipartisan elections commission deadlocked in June on a vote to nominate Wolfe for a second four-year term. Three Republicans voted to nominate her and three ...

Paintings on pesos illustrate Argentina’s currency and inflation woes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:56 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A jaguar lies beside George Washington. The United States’ first president holds a rifle with one hand as he rests the other on the dead Argentine predator.The backdrop is a U.S. dollar and an Argentine 500-peso note joined like a book, a clear allusion to the rapid depreciation of the local currency, the peso. That has made it difficult for Argentines to make ends meet. The peso has depreciated around 60% compared to the U.S. dollar over the past year. It has occurred in parallel to one of the world’s highest inflation rates. Together, the economic travails have have bolstered an anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump.As millions of Argentines express dismay and anger, a group of artists is seeking to show the economic damage the best way they know how, with art. And as they express themselves, the artwork increases the value of the increasingly worthless bills they use as material. It’s one of the starkest illust...