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England wins toss and will field in Cricket World Cup match against India

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to field first in its Cricket World Cup match on Sunday against India.India is flying high – the only unbeaten team in the competition thus far. The hosts sit second on the points’ table with 10 points from five games. It trails South Africa – equal on points after six games – on net run-rate.England, meanwhile, is 10th on the table. The 2019 champions sunk to last spot again on Saturday evening as the Netherlands beat Bangladesh.It has a mere two points from only one win in five games – the worst run for a defending champion since 1999. Australia in 1992 is the only other defending champion to lose four (or more) matches in a World Cup.England has only beaten Bangladesh and still trails them on run-rate. It has lost to New Zealand, Afghanistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is still unavailable for India and is nursing a left ankle injury. In his absence, the hosts have gone with a ...

UN says thousands of people broke into Gaza aid warehouses to take food and other ‘basic survival items’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — UN says thousands of people broke into Gaza aid warehouses to take food and other ‘basic survival items’.Source

Famosos reaccionan a la muerte del actor Matthew Perry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

(CNN Español) — La muerte del actor Matthew Perry, quien había alcanzado la fama y un lugar en el panteón de la cultura pop por interpretar al personaje de Chandler Bing en la serie “Friends” (1994-2004), generó reacciones de pesar entre muchas personalidades del mundo del espectáculo.Perry falleció este sábado 28 de octubre a los 54 años, confirmó CNN a través de Warner Bros. Television Group.“Estamos devastados por el fallecimiento de nuestro querido amigo Matthew Perry. Matthew era un actor increíblemente talentoso y una parte indeleble de la familia de Warner Bros. Television Group. El impacto de su genio cómico se sintió en todo el mundo y su legado vivirá en los corazones de muchas personas. Este es un día desgarrador y enviamos nuestro amor a su familia, a sus seres queridos y a todos sus devotos fans”, dijo Warner Bros. Television en un comunicado.“Friends” fue una producción de Warner Bros. Television, propiedad de la empresa matriz de CNN, War...

Russia says it shot down 36 Ukrainian drones as fighting grinds on in Ukraine’s east

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian air defense shot down over 30 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula overnight Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday.“The air defense systems in place destroyed 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the Black Sea and the northwestern part of the Crimean peninsula,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.Local authorities in the southern Krasnodar region bordering the Black Sea said that a fire broke out at an oil refinery in the early hours of Sunday, but did not specify the cause. “The reasons for the incident are being established,” a statement from local authorities said, amid claims in local media outlets that the fire had been caused by a drone strike or debris from a downed drone.Drone strikes and shelling on the Russian border regions and Moscow-annexed Crimea are a regular occurrence. Ukrainian officials never acknowledge responsibility for attacks on Russian territory or the Crimean peninsula.In Ukraine, the country...

Erwin Chemerinsky: How new House Speaker Mike Johnson tried again and again to overturn Biden’s election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

In less than 15 months, Congress will count and certify the votes from the electoral college. It is truly frightening that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from the far right of the Republican Party, might have a prominent role in the process.If Republicans keep control of the House in the November 2024 elections, it seems likely they will keep Johnson as speaker given their bitter divisions and difficulty in selecting someone for the position after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster. Johnson was the primary proponent in the House of a way to overturn the 2020 election and keep Donald Trump in the presidency. He can be expected to do the same in 2024 if Trump is the Republican nominee and loses to President Joe Biden.Johnson, a lawyer, led the House Republicans in promoting a baseless legal theory that state legislatures have sole power to select and appoint electors. This so-called “independent state legislature” theory maintains that a state legislature can allocate its e...

Author and historian delves into history of Forest Lake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

When he was young, historian and author Justin Brink would make his dad, Kevin, drive him up and down the streets of Forest Lake in the family’s 1989 Chevy Celebrity on self-directed history tours.“I had a dime-store camera, and I would take pictures of buildings and street intersections,” Brink said. “We even stopped traffic at a main intersection once — just so I could get the right shot. I was a strange kid.”Brink recently published his first book, “Images of America: Forest Lake.” The 128-page book is packed with photos and stories curated by Brink, the president of the Forest Lake Historical Society.One early settler featured in the book is Swiss immigrant Gotthard Rahm, who arrived in Forest Lake around 1875 and served as the town’s election clerk, treasurer and supervisor. He and his wife, Marie, had three children, and they lived on about 150 acres that abutted the northwest corner of First Lake and included the outlet of the Sunrise River. Sadly, the family’s time in Forest...

Skywatch: Chilling under the thrilling November sky    

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

The best news for stargazers in November is that nights are much longer you can start your stargazing much earlier with the end of daylight-saving time. Sure it’s cooler but don’t let that stop you. It’s too good of a show to miss!Jupiter and Saturn are the biggest attractions in the evening sky this month. Jupiter really steals the show. It’s tremendously bright as it pops out in the low eastern sky during evening twilight. It’s overwhelmingly the brightest starlight object in the evening sky. The Jovian giant makes its closest approach to Earth in 2023 this Friday when it’ll be just over 370 million miles away. Jupiter is also in what astronomers call opposition because Jupiter and the sun are on opposite sides of the sky. That means Jupiter rises at sunset and sets at sunrise, gracing our heavens all night long.(Mike Lynch)With a small telescope, you should see up to four of Jupiter’s moons dancing around the 88,000-mile-wide planet in orbital periods of two to 17 days. On ...

Readers and writers: The story behind a classic musical, and the one behind sweet potato pie

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

Judy Garland and Gene Kelly for grownups, twins and pumpkin pie for the Littles. A good way to start a new month of reading.(Courtesy of University Press of Mississippi)“C’Mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock”: by David Fantle and Tom Johnson: foreword by Savion Glover. (University Press of Mississippi, $35).The back story of how this film starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in their third and final pairing was brought to the screen contains enough drama, heartache, and genuine selflessness to fuel the plots of a score of MGM melodramas. It took a herculean effort and the bottomless empathy of Kelly, co-stars Phil Silvers, Eddie Bracken, Carleton Carpenter, and director Charles Walters to “pull” a performance out of a drug-addled and emotionally spent Garland… — from “Summer Stock”It’s 1950 and MGM Film Studios is the premier producer of musical films starring top talent such as Judy Garland and dancer Gene Kelly, wh...

Literary calendar for week of Oct. 29

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

PATRICK BARB: Introduces “Pre-Approved for Haunting,” in conversation with Katrina Monroe. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.STEACY EASTON:  Presents “Why Tammy Wynette Matters.” 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.LITERATURE LOVERS’ NIGHT OUT: Hosts Julie Schumacher (“The English Experience”), Jimin Han (“The Apology”), Daniel Hornsby (“Sucker”), and Jocelyn Cole/Sharon Nagel, writing as Juneau Black (“Twilight Falls”), at two events. 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, Hopkins Activity Center, 33 14th Ave. N., Hopkins. $15.Hosted by Cream and Amber. 11 a.m. luncheon Saturday, Nov. 4, Grand Banquet Hall, 301 Second St. S., Stillwater, presented by Valley Bookseller of Stillwater. Contact the stores for more information.LITERARY BRIDGES: With readers Jeanne Lutz, Diane Jarvenpa, Hardy Coleman, Frank Gioia and Jim Bohen, including a farewell to Donna Is...

7 candidates vie for 4 seats on St. Paul school board

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:49 GMT

Seven candidates have lined up for four seats on the St. Paul school board, which oversees the second-largest school district in the state.St. Paul Public Schools educates some 33,000 students across 68 schools, a number that has fallen from roughly 37,000 students over the past decade. Parents have blamed declining enrollment on school start times, competition from a growing number of charter schools and the difficulties of navigating a pandemic that beginning in 2020 forced kids into more than a year of online learning.Questions around school safety, school consolidations and declining high school graduation rates also loom over the school district, which entered the pandemic in 2020 at the same time as a teachers strike. Then there’s growing financial pressure as inflationary costs rise while enrollment declines, triggering a recent series of budget outreach events.Despite the district’s challenges, many families remain fiercely loyal to their school and to the distri...