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Prosecutors widen case against polygamous sect leader, adding child pornography charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Prosecutors have widened their case against the leader of a small polygamous group that resides near the Utah-Arizona border, adding child pornography charges and detailing his sexual encounters with children he took as wives in new charges filed earlier this month.Sam Bateman is accused of making child pornography in a superseding indictment filed recently. The May 18 document also provides new details about how he took wives as young as 9 years old as he worked to win followers in at least four states to start his own small offshoot group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.The FLDS is itself a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, but it abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it.The indictment adds to a raft of charges filed against Bateman last year. In December, prosecutors ch...

Dudamel in surprise move resigns from Paris Opéra 2 years into 6-year contract

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

Gustavo Dudamel announced his resignation as music director of the Paris Opéra on Thursday, a surprise decision two seasons into a six-year contract scheduled to run through the 2026-27 season.A 42-year-old Venezuelan who lives in Madrid, Dudamel was hired in February by the New York Philharmonic as its music director starting with the 2026-27 season. He has been music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, a tenure that will end after 17 seasons when Dudamel starts in New York.“It is with a heavy heart, and after long consideration, that I announce my resignation as music director of the Paris Opéra in order to spend more time with my family,” Dudamel said in a statement Thursday.His early exit from Paris at the end of the current season in August could free the conductor for additional engagements in New York, where Jaap van Zweden leaves after the 2023-24 season, his sixth as music director.“I have no plans other than to be with my loved ones, to whom I am deeply gr...

US senator hopes Serbia adopts Russia sanctions as Serb spy chief travels to Moscow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A U.S. senator on Thursday said he hopes Serbia would adopt Western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, telling the Balkan country that “there is no future” in an alliance with Moscow. “Russia’s invasion has been an absolute disaster and my belief is that Russia is ultimately going to lose this conflict,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) told reporters in the Serbian capital Belgrade. Serbia is the only country in Europe that has not imposed any sanctions on Russia.“The future for Serbia is with the European Union and with the United States not with Russia,” Murphy said. “There is no future with Russia. They (Russia) are going to be devastated, a permanent pariah internationally after this invasion.”Though Serbia is formally seeking EU membership and has condemned the invasion at the United Nations, Belgrade has maintained its historically friendly relations with Moscow. Murphy’s visit to Belgrade came as Serbia’s staunchly pro-Russian inte...

Tennessee’s transgender care exclusions are discriminatory, a federal lawsuit alleges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s decision to exclude gender-affirming care for its employees is unconstitutional and discriminatory, according to a federal lawsuit brought by two people who were denied such services while working for the state.Attorneys representing Gerda Zinner, 30, and Story VanNess, 38, say the two were denied even though their medical teams deemed the services medically necessary. Zinner still works for the state as an academic adviser but VanNess has since left her position as a special education teacher after unsuccessfully appealing her case.“Tennessee’s public employee health benefits program has unlawfully deprived plaintiffs of coverage for essential medical services because of the plaintiffs’ sex and because they are transgender,” stated the 50-page complaint filed Tuesday. Zinner “feels that her life is on hold” because she now must live with “unmet healthcare needs,” her lawyers wrote. Meanwhile, VanNess’ attorneys said she spent all her ...

Tina Turner created a career on her terms, not defined by her trauma

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In 1976, a young Tina Turner, bloodied and beaten by her husband and musical partner Ike Turner, fled in the dark across a Dallas freeway dodging trucks and cars with only pennies in her pocket.That moment when she decided she’d had enough of the physical, sexual and emotional abuse was a turning point for the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” who would go on to have a musical renaissance in the 1980s. After the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and worldwide star died Wednesday at 83, tributes often remarked on her courage in the face of horrifying violence. But her story of surviving and thriving was so much more than a comeback, cultural and domestic abuse experts say. Turner’s reclaiming of her career and her humanity on her own terms made her a pioneering Black woman who refused to be defined by abuse. Turner detailed that night in her 2021 documentary, “Tina,” describing the euphoria she felt: “I was very proud. I felt strong. I had never done this.” Sh...

Cannes turns up the glamour as Queen Latifah hosts the amfAR gala. Watch the red carpet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

ANTIBES, France (AP) — The attention at the Cannes Film Festival turns Thursday to the glitzy amfAR gala to raise money for AIDS research.Queen Latifah is hosting the lavish bash that will collect millions through its auction of one-of-a-kind items and experiences. The evening’s co-chairs include Angela Bassett, Robert De Niro and Scarlett Johansson. Halsey, Gladys Knight, Adam Lambert and Bebe Rexha are expected to perform at the 29th edition.The nearly two weeks of Cannes red carpets provide numerous standout fashion moments. This year’s edition hasn’t disappointed, with Helen Mirren sporting blue hair on opening night, Johansson and other stars of Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” looking glamorous and Adriana Lima, Karlie Kloss and other celebrities getting decked out for the “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” premiere.The Associated Press is livestreaming the arrivals at amfAR on YouTube beginning at 1 p.m. EDT.Stars attending the nearby Cannes festiva...

Ontario program to pay smart thermostat owners for summer temperature control

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

Ontario is rolling out an energy conservation program that will pay residents with smart thermostats to lower their air conditioning during certain periods in the summer.Residential customers who sign up for the Peak Perks program will receive a $75 prepaid credit card in exchange for giving their smart thermostat manufacturer secure access to the device.There would be up to 10 times during peak periods of electricity consumption between June and September during which their thermostat would be adjusted two to four degrees.The government says the adjustment would typically last for no more than three hours, wouldn’t be on weekends or holidays, and participants can opt out of any temperature change.Related: Ontario introduces ‘ultra low’ overnight hydro rate. What you need to knowThe Progressive Conservatives cancelled a number of energy conservation programs early in their first term in government, and critics have said their new $342-million suite of programs does...

Threat of US credit downgrade looms over debt ceiling talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With one of three major rating agencies warning that America’s AAA credit is at risk, the stakes are growing in the standoff in Washington over raising the nation’s debt limit.On Wednesday night, the rating agency Fitch put the nation’s credit on “Rating Watch Negative,” which amounts to a warning that it might downgrade the U.S. credit as a result of the impasse. The government reached the $31.4 trillion debt limit in January, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has resorted to “extraordinary measures’’ since then to keep paying the bills. But Yellen has warned that Treasury will likely run out of money to meet all its obligations as soon as June 1, which is being described as the “X-date.”In a statement, Fitch said, “We believe risks have risen that the debt limit will not be raised or suspended before the X-date and consequently that the government could begin to miss payments on some of its obligations.”At the same time, Fitch characterized the likelihood...

Calls for unity dominate Africa Day celebrations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Calls for unity dominated Thursday’s 60th anniversary celebrations for the continent-wide organization preceding the African Union (AU) that represented 55 member states. But critics say the AU has become a paper tiger where there’s plenty of talk, but not much much real clout to enforce its mandate. Africa Day events across the continent honored the founding of the AU’s predecessor – The Organization of African Unity (OAU) — whose original purpose was to fight colonialism before evolving in 2002 to incorporate the aims of defending it’s members sovereignty and independence as well as encouraging their socio-economic integration. In Addis Ababa where the AU is seated, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed underscored that unity is “no more a catchphrase but a means of survival” in an increasingly complex world. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed Abiy, appealing for unity and to “uphold the bonds that frame our desti...

Former Mozambique finance minister loses last appeal, set for extradition to US over $2B scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nearly five years after he was arrested at a South African airport, Mozambique’s former finance minister has lost a last-ditch court appeal and faces extradition to the United States over a $2 billion corruption scandal related to loans to Mozambican state-owned companies.U.S. prosecutors allege that Manuel Chang, Mozambique’s finance minister from 2005 to 2015, was involved in a scheme that ultimately defrauded American and international investors. The huge sums of money leant by international banks to Mozambique — and guaranteed by the Mozambique government — were meant for a series of maritime projects but disappeared in bribes, kickbacks and other illegal payments, it’s alleged.Chang is accused of receiving about $17 million in bribes in the “hidden debts” scandal. He was indicted in the Eastern District Court of New York in 2018.The more than $2 billion was meant to be for the purchase of naval vessels, the building and maintenance of shipy...