Ukrainian culture is booming amid the war with Russia. That’s despite the constant rocket attacks and damage to almost 500 heritage sites, according to UNESCO. Experts say Ukrainians have never been as interested in their own culture as they are now. As Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, almost any event is sold out, especially in the capital. (Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets )
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Business
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Senate committee advances Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nomination to be health secretary
Washington — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, cleared his first hurdle on Tuesday to become the nation’s top health official when the senate finance committee voted to advance his nomination for a floor vote.
Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed.
His nomination now will face a full senate vote, despite concerns about the work he’s done to sow doubts around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers.
To gain control of the $1.7 trillion Health and Human Services agency, Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is also a physician and sits on the finance committee, voted to advance Kennedy’s confirmation. Last week, during Kennedy’s hearings, Cassidy repeatedly implored Kennedy to reject a disproven theory that vaccines cause autism, to no avail. He ended the hearing by saying he was “struggling” with the vote.
“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are all seen as potential no votes, too, because they voted against President Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.
In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, McConnell declined to say how he would vote on Kennedy’s nomination but reiterated “vaccines are critically important.”
Democrats, meanwhile, continue to raise alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers if confirmed as health secretary.
“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Kennedy.
Kennedy said he’ll give his son all of the referral fees in legal cases against vaccine makers, including the fees he gets from referring clients in a case against Merck. Kennedy told the committee he’s referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the past three years.
As secretary, Kennedy will oversee vaccine recommendations and public health campaigns for the $1.7 trillion agency, which is also responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.
Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support to Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration. Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods. Trump and Kennedy have branded the movement as “Make America Healthy Again.”
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France pitches AI summit as ‘wake-up call’ for Europe
PARIS — France hosts top tech players next week at an artificial intelligence summit meant as a “wake-up call” for Europe as it struggles with AI challenges from the United States and China.
Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital on February 10 and 11 in the sumptuous Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.
In the run-up, President Emmanuel Macron will on Feb. 4 visit research centers applying AI to science and health, before hosting scientists and Nobel Prize winners at his Elysee Palace residence on Wednesday.
A wider science conference will be held at the Polytechnique engineering school on Thursday and Friday.
“The summit comes at exactly the right time for this wake-up call for France and Europe, and to show we are in position” to take advantage of the technology, an official in Macron’s office told reporters.
In recent weeks, Washington’s announcement of $500 billion in investment to build up AI infrastructure and the release of a frugal but powerful generative AI model by Chinese firm DeepSeek have focused minds in Europe.
France must “not let this revolution pass it by,” Macron’s office said.
Attendees at the summit will include Sam Altman, head of OpenAI — the firm that brought generative models to public consciousness in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT.
Google boss Sundar Pichai and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, who leads the company’s DeepMind AI research unit, will also come, alongside Arthur Mensch, founder of French AI developer Mistral.
The Elysee has said there are “talks” on hosting DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, and has yet to clarify whether X owner Elon Musk — who has his own generative initiative, xAI — has accepted an invitation.
Nor is it clear who will attend from the United States and China, with the French presidency saying only “very high level” representatives will come.
Confirmed guests from Europe include European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
‘Stoke confidence’
The tone of the AI summit will be “neither catastrophizing, nor naive,” Macron’s AI envoy Anne Bouverot told AFP.
Hosting the conference is also an opportunity for Paris to show off its own AI ecosystem, which numbers around 750 companies.
Macron’s office has said the summit would see the announcement of “massive” investments along the lines of his annual “Choose France” business conference, at which $15.4 billion of inward investment were pledged in 2024.
Beyond the economic opportunities, AI’s impact on culture including artistic creativity and news production will be discussed in a side-event over the weekend.
Debates open to the public, such as that one, are aimed at showing off “positive use cases for AI” to “stoke confidence and speed up adoption” of the technology, said France’s digital minister Clara Chappaz.
For now, the French public is skeptical of AI, with 79 percent of respondents telling pollsters Ifop they were “concerned” about the technology in a recent survey.
More ‘inclusive’ AI?
Paris says it also hopes the summit can help kick off its vision of a more ethical and accessible and less resource-intensive AI.
At present, “the AI under development is pushed by a few large players from a few countries,” Bouverot said, whereas France wants “to promote more inclusive development.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to co-host the Paris summit, in a push to bring governments on board.
One of the summit’s aims is the establishment of a public-interest foundation for which Paris aims to raise $2.5 billion over five years.
The effort would be “a public-private partnership between various governments, businesses and philanthropic foundations from different countries,” Macron’s office said.
Paris hopes at the summit to chart different efforts at AI governance around the world and gather commitments for environmentally sustainable AI — although no binding mechanism is planned for now.
“There are lots of big principles emerging around responsible, trustworthy AI, but it’s not clear or easy to implement for the engineers in technical terms,” said Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde, director of the geopolitical technology center at the French Institute for International Relations.
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1714 Stradivarius violin could become most expensive instrument ever auctioned
NEW YORK — A violin made by the famed Antonio Stradivari in 1714 has the potential to become the most expensive musical instrument ever sold when it goes up for auction Friday at Sotheby’s in New York.
The auction house is estimating the value of the “Joachim-Ma Stradivarius” at $12 million to $18 million. If it sells at the top end of that range, it could best the $15.9 million paid in 2011 for another Stradivarius, the “Lady Blunt,” made in 1721 and named by Guinness World Records as the most expensive instrument ever sold at auction.
Mari-Claudia Jimenez, Sotheby’s Americas president and head of global business, said Stradivari made the violin during his “Golden Period,” which began around 1700 and was marked by an improvement in his craftmanship.
“So, this is the peak of his output,” Jimenez said. “This is the best violin of this era.”
Sotheby’s says the violin’s preservation is remarkable, and its ownership history extraordinary.
It’s named for two of its famed owners — violin virtuosos Joseph Joachim of Hungary, who lived from 1831 to 1907, and Si-Hon Ma, who was born in China in 1926, moved to the U.S. in 1948 and died 2009.
It is believed that legendary composer Johannes Brahms was influenced by the Joachim-Ma when he wrote his “Violin Concerto in D Major” because of its rich, resonant tone, and that Joachim played that violin during the concerto’s 1879 premiere, according to Sotheby’s.
Ma acquired the violin in 1969, and his estate gifted it to the New England Conservatory in Boston after his death. Ma attended the conservatory, where he earned a master’s degree in 1950. The conservatory is now putting the violin up for auction, with all the proceeds going to student scholarships.
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Stars, athletes bring buzz to New Orleans before Super Bowl
LOS ANGELES — The Super Bowl isn’t just a game on Sunday, it’ll involve a nearly weeklong spectacle taking over New Orleans with non-stop entertainment leading up to the big showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
While the Chiefs and Eagles gear up for their championship rematch, the Big Easy will be the epicenter for star-studded concerts, exclusive parties, a comedy show, and guest lists filled with A-listers. From Post Malone, Cardi B to Shaquille O’Neal, the city will be buzzing long before Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs attempt a monumental three-peat.
“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be different than other Super Bowls,” said O’Neal, who will host his popular carnival-themed Shaq’s Fun House on Friday night. It’s a hot ticket — starting at $199 — for the NBA legend’s over-the-top festival event featuring headline performances from Ludacris, John Summit and O’Neal under his stage name DJ Diesel.
O’Neal’s event will feature several attractions including a Ferris wheel, circus performers and premium bar. This will be somewhat of a homecoming week for O’Neal, who played college hoops at Louisiana State University and visits Louisiana about four times a year.
For Flavor Flav, he wants to help lift morale in New Orleans following the aftermath of the terror attack that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.
“This is going to be special. I’m here to uplift spirits,” said Flav, who will perform at Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate along with Diplo and Cowboy Mouth on Sunday afternoon. It’s free for general admission with paid upgraded experiences for $49.99 and $349 for a VIP ticket.
“I’m getting on the turntables to make people party and have a good time,” he said.
Along with those events, here’s a look at some of the invite-only and public events during a busy Super Bowl week:
Fanatics party
Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Super Bowl party is impossible to get into without an invite. The star-studded affair on Saturday afternoon is strictly for the who’s who of sports and entertainment.
Rubin, the founder and CEO of Fanatics, will likely be front and center, taking in performances from Post Malone, Travis Scott, Don Tolliver and many more.
The expected attendees include big names such as Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Lil Baby, Tiffany Haddish and Tom Brady.
Madden Bowl
Just like EA Sports’ iconic phrase, “It’s in the game,” Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton and Shaboozey will literally be in the game at the Madden Bowl.
The trio is set to separately take the stage Friday night, bringing the hype before the competition kicks off.
“I can’t wait to keep this party going,” Shaboozey said.
Along with performances, the event will include the Madden NFL 25 Championship Series in front of a live audience — where two of the world’s best players will travel to New Orleans for their share of the $1 million prize pool.
Double up for some, triple duties for others
The Madden Bowl won’t be the only stage where Stapleton will showcase his powerhouse vocals. The country star is set to headline the SiriusXM and Pandora concert Thursday night.
Stapleton’s performance will air on SiriusXM’s Chris Stapleton Radio, an exclusive channel curated and presented by him and his band. Pandora listeners can access the Chris Stapleton Radio station.
After Ludacris takes the stage at Shaq’s Fun House on Friday, the rapper will perform Sunday at On Location’s Super Bowl pregame party. He’ll be joined by rock band The Revivalists at the Club 67 and Touchdown Club just outside the Caesars Superdome for One Location — a premium hospitality provider of the NFL.
Post Malone will be making moves too. He’s scheduled to perform at three different events. Along with Fanatics, the superstar artist will hit the stage at the Bud Light Backyard Tour on Friday, then he’s set to headline the YouTube Tailgate Concert on Sunday near the Superdome.
Diplo will perform at parties for Sports Illustrated and Maxim along with Guy Fieri’s tailgate event.
Gospel celebration
Bill Bellamy and Rocsi Diaz will bring some gospel flavor to the Big Easy.
The tandem will host the Super Bowl Soulful Celebration on Wednesday night. The lineup includes some of music’s best from The Isley Brothers, Muni Long, Yolanda Adams, Tori Kelly and Jonathan McReynolds.
Other performances include New Orleans natives Master P, Big Freedia, Lucky Daye and Trombone Shorty. The NFL Players Choir will also participate.
“Hosting the Super Bowl Soulful Celebration is like hitting the trifecta: music, faith, and football all in one show,” Bellamy said. “I’m excited to bring some laughs, some energy and to be part of this incredible night with an amazing lineup.”
Michael Strahan, an NFL Hall of Famer and Good Morning America co-anchor, will receive the Lifetime of Inspiration award. He called the honor “truly special.”
New Orleans Saints player Cameron Jordan will be given the community award while Los Angeles Rams star rookie Jared Verse will be honored with the rising star award.
Timbaland and Maxim
Super producer Timbaland will bring his massive hits into New Orleans with the help of Maxim.
Timbaland will perform at a special concert at the Maxim Saints & Sinners Big Game Party on Saturday. The show will include performances from DJ Loud Luxury, Plastik Funk, DJ unKommon and former NFL player Le’Veon Bell.
DJ unKommon and Diplo will be featured performers at a pregame party Friday.
Other concerts
Captain Morgan will transform Bourbon Street into Rum Street with the help of T-Pain, who will headline a concert Saturday night.
On the same night, Cardi B is expected to perform at the “Cardi Gras,” 50 Cent will hold the Super Bold Comedy Block Party with standups from Bill Bellamy, Chico Bean and DC Young Fly.
Dom Dolla and Diplo will perform at the Sports Illustrated Party.
On Friday, Nelly and the Chainsmokers are set to perform at h.wood Homecoming and the Draft Kings event. Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochosinco” Johnson will do an in-person podcast called the Nightcap NSFW Tour.
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Uganda begins Ebola vaccine trial
Uganda began a vaccine trial Monday against the Sudan strain of Ebola that has killed one person in the outbreak declared last week.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday in a post on the X social media platform that the trial was “initiated with record speed, only three days since the outbreak was declared, while ensuring full compliance with international and national regulatory and ethical requirements.”
Officials have not identified the vaccine manufacturer that is providing the East African country with access to more than 2,000 doses of the candidate vaccine.
WHO is supporting Uganda’s response to the outbreak with a $1 million allocation from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
So far, there has been only one death attributed to the virus — a nurse who worked at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Two more cases were confirmed on Monday. The Associated Press reported they were members of the nurse’s family.
The nurse sought treatment at several hospitals and had also consulted with a traditional healer before tests confirmed an Ebola diagnosis, according to authorities.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa said in a statement after the outbreak was confirmed, “We welcome the prompt declaration of this outbreak, and as a comprehensive response is being established, we are supporting the government and partners to scale up measures to quicky identify cases, isolate and provide care, curb the spread of the virus and protect the population.”
Uganda’s Health Ministry has identified at least 234 of the nurse’s contacts, according to the AP. Containing the virus could prove challenging in Kampala with its population of 4 million people.
The symptoms of Ebola, an often-fatal disease, include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health care workers and family members caring for someone with Ebola are at high risk for contracting the disease.
WHO said Ebola “is transmitted to people from wild animals (such as fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates) and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g., bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.”
Ebola’s fatality rate is around 50%, WHO said on its website, but it also said that fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in some outbreaks.
The outbreak in Uganda is the first Ebola outbreak since U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
Some information was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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Bird flu pandemic potential in US worries scientists, farmers
The recent outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the U.S. and the potential for it to mutate has raised concerns among the scientific community that it could result in human-to-human transmission and a new pandemic. Farmers are also concerned about the potential impacts on their livelihood. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Film director found guilty of sexual assault in France’s first big #MeToo trial
Paris — Film director found guilty of sexual assault in France’s first big #MeToo trial
PARIS (AP) — A Paris court found a filmmaker guilty of sexual assault on French actor Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s, in the country’s first big #MeToo trial.
Filmmaker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced Monday to two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet plus a two-year suspended sentence. Ruggia had denied any wrongdoing.
Haenel, now 35, was the first top actor in France to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse after the #MeToo movement broke out. In 2019, she accused Ruggia of having repeatedly touched her inappropriately during and after filming of the movie “Les Diables,” or “The Devils,” in the early 2000s.
Haenel appeared relieved, breathing deeply, as Monday’s verdict was being released. She was applauded by some women’s rights activists as she left the courtroom.
The court ruled that Ruggia “took advantage of the dominant position” he had on Haenel at the time. “During quasi-weekly meetings at your home for over three years you had sexualized gestures and attitudes,” as Haenel was “gradually isolated” from her loved ones, the court said in a statement.
Ruggia’s lawyer said her client would appeal.
He “maintains that he has never touched Adèle Haenel,” the lawyer, Fanny Colin, said. “Sentenced in these conditions and on the sole basis of her words seems to us not only unjustified but dangerous.”
Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” has in recent years vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response to sexual abuse in French filmmaking.
At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director. Polanski is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
In 2023, Haenel, announced she was quitting the French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors.” She published an open letter in which she said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.”
While #MeToo initially struggled to find traction in France, some other actors and film industry workers have since spoken out.
French renowned actor Judith Godrèche attended Monday’s verdict at the Paris courthouse. “It was a very moving and a very important moment that reminded me of things that, in my case, may go unpunished,” she told reporters with tears in her eyes.
Last year, Godrèche accused film director Benoît Jacquot of having raped and physically abused her in a six-year relationship that began when she was 14 years old. Jacquot, who has more than 50 director credits in film and television, was handed preliminary charges of rape, sexual assault and violence in July 2024.
Godrèche is also accusing another film director, Jacques Doillon, of sexual abuse while he was directing a film when she was 15.
Both Jacquot and Doillon have denied the allegations.
In a separate case, French actor Gérard Depardieu is to go on trial in March on charges of sexually assaulting two women on a film set.
Depardieu, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of using “violence, coercion, surprise or threat” in the alleged sexual assaults that prosecutors say took place in 2021 on the set of “Les Volets verts,” or “The Green Shutters.”
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Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the Grammys
LOS ANGELES — Chappell Roan was named best new artist at the 2025 Grammys.
She read a speech from a notebook, beginning by addressing her fellow nominees. “BRAT was the best night of my life this year,” she said, as her hat fell off her head, referencing Charli xcx.
Then her speech changed course. She directed her attention to major labels and the music industry, instructing them to “offer a living wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists.” Then she described getting signed as a minor, getting dropped and entering the workforce during COVID-19 with no work experience and no health care. She asked them to treat artists like “valuable employees.”
“Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” she concluded her speech. “Thank you.”
In one of the biggest moments of the evening so far, Taylor Swift presented the award for best country album at the 2025 Grammys to Beyoncé for her groundbreaking “Cowboy Carter.”
“I really was not expecting this. Wow,” she started her speech. “Genre is a cold word to keep us in our place as artists … I’m still in shock. Thank you so much for this honor.”
A little bit of the wild west, a little bit of West Hollywood. Chappell Roan brought a rocking version of her “Pink Pony Club” to the 2025 Grammy stage. Joined by a posse of dancing clown cowboys, she sang from atop a giant pink horse.
The Grammys are airing live on CBS and Paramount+. Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers can also watch live and on demand.
The first televised award of the 2025 Grammy Awards went to Doechii for best rap album for “Alligator Bites Never Heal.”
The tears were immediate. “This category was introduced in 1989. Two women have won, Lauryn Hill —” she said, correcting herself. “Three women have won. Lauryn Hill, Cardi B and Doechii.”
It was Doechii’s first Grammy. Her heartfelt speech came after the show opened with several references to the Los Angeles-area wildfires that have devastated the city but put the spotlight on the city’s resiliency. The Grammys kicked off Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in high spirits, drawing attention to first responders and the resilience of the music community.
Host Trevor Noah’s opening speech was dedicated to those affected by the fires, promising a show that not only celebrates them, but one that also celebrates “the city that brought us so much of that music.” The Grammys have also allotted ad time to be used by local businesses affected by the fires.
On a stage set up to look like the mountains of Los Angeles, the LA born-and-raised Billie Eilish and her brother/collaborator Finneas performed her hit “Birds of a Feather.” It was one of a number of ways the show seeks to salute the city. “We love you LA,” she told the crowd at the end of the set.
The show kicked off with a powerful opening performance of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” by Dawes — whose members were directly affected by the Eaton fire — backed by John Legend, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent.
Later, Sabrina Carpenter launched into a medley of her biggest singles of the last year — a jazzy rendition of “Espresso” into “Please, Please, Please,” with a brief “Espresso” reprise.
Most of the best new artist nominees took part in a medley performance: Khruangbin with “May Ninth,” Benson Boone with “Beautiful Things,” Doechii launching “Catfish” into “Denial Is a River,” Teddy Swims doing “Lose Control,” Shaboozey with “Good News” into “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and RAYE with “Oscar Winning Tears.”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith led the crowd in a short singalong of their hit “Under the Bridge,” reminding the crowd to “support their friends and neighbors as they rebuild their lives,” said Kiedis. Then they presented the best pop vocal album award to Carpenter for “Short n’ Sweet.”
“I really wasn’t expecting this,” she said. “This is, woo, my first Grammy so I’m going to cry.” (She’s now won two, but the earlier award was handed out a pre-telecast ceremony that many artists don’t attend.)
First time winners were abundant
An exciting, early theme of the 67th Grammy Awards? First time winners.
During Sunday’s Premiere Ceremony, a pre-telecast show hosted by songwriter Justin Tranter, some of the biggest names in pop like Carpenter and Charli xcx won their first Grammys, as did Música Mexicana star Carin León, French metal band Gojira and country folk artist Sierra Ferrell.
They weren’t the only ones: Veterans took home trophies, as did former President Jimmy Carter. He won a posthumous Grammy Award for narrating “Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration,” recordings from his final Sunday School lessons delivered at Maranatha Baptist Church in Georgia. It was his fourth Grammy win.
Soon afterward, Charli xcx also won her first two Grammys, in the best pop dance recording category for “Von Dutch” and best dance/electronic album for “BRAT.”
Amy Allen won the songwriter of the year, non-classical, a Grammy category that has only existed for three years. She is the first woman to ever win. Tobias Jesso Jr. won in 2023 and Theron Thomas won in 2024.
“The child in me … is screaming and crying and laughing at the absurdity of this moment,” Allen started her speech. “We are the engine that fuels the entire music industry,” she said of songwriters past and present.
Ferrell won her first Grammys for Americana performance, Americana roots song, Americana album, and American roots performance. She pulled an acceptance speech out of scepter. “Honestly this is kind of hilarious,” she joked after returning to the stage for a third time. “Yikes!” she started her fourth acceptance speech.
Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and other music giants recognized
Leading nominee Beyoncé won her first award of the day for her song featuring Miley Cyrus, “II Most Wanted.” It took home the country duo/group performance during the Grammy’s Premiere Ceremony, where a whopping 85 awards will be handed out. It marks Beyoncé’s first win in a country category.
Kenrick Lamar’s ubiquitous “Not Like Us” was an early winner, receiving trophies for music video, rap song and rap performance. It marks his seventh time winning in the latter category.
The Beatles’ “Now and Then,” which used AI technology, took home best rock performance. Sean Lennon accepted the award on behalf of his father John Lennon. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best band of all time,” he said of the Beatles. “Play the Beatles’ music for your kids. I feel like the world can’t afford to forget.”
Who’s nominated at the 2025 Grammys
Beyoncé leads the Grammy nods with 11 thanks to her acclaimed “Cowboy Carter” album, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. She’s also been the most decorated artist, having earned 32 trophies across her career.
Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli xcx follow with seven nominations.
Taylor Swift and first-time nominees Carpenter and Roan boast six nominations each.
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Late President Jimmy Carter wins posthumous Grammy
Los Angeles — Former President Jimmy Carter has won a posthumous Grammy award.
Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, died in December at age 100. Prior to his passing, Carter was nominated in the audio book, narration, and storytelling recording category at the 2025 Grammys for “Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration,” recordings from his final Sunday School lessons delivered at Maranatha Baptist Church in Georgia. Musicians Darius Rucker, Lee Ann Rimes and Jon Batiste are featured on the record.
It’s Carter’s fourth Grammy. His posthumous Grammy joins his three previous ones for spoken word album.
If the former president won before his death, he would’ve become the oldest Grammy award winner in history.
Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, received the award on his behalf. “Having his words captured in this way for my family and for the world is truly remarkable,” he said in an acceptance speech. “Thank you to the academy.”
In the category, Jimmy Carter beat out Barbra Streisand, George Clinton, Dolly Parton and producer Guy Oldfield.
If Streisand had won instead of Carter, it would have been her first Grammy win in 38 years.
Currently, the oldest person to win a Grammy was 97-year-old Pinetop Perkins in 2011.
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Gerber recalls baby teething sticks over possible choking hazard
Arlington, Virginia — A baby food maker is recalling edible sticks meant to ease teething pain over a possible choking hazard.
Gerber announced Friday that it was recalling and discontinuing its brand of “Sooth N Chew” teething sticks after receiving customer complaints about choking. The company said one emergency room visit had been reported.
The teething sticks are edible teethers marketed to parents and guardians of children six months and older. They come in strawberry-apple and banana flavors.
Gerber said it was working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the recall.
Customers who bought the teething sticks should return them to stores where they were purchased for a refund, the company said.
Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a health care provider. For any additional support needed, Gerber is available 24/7 at 1-800-4-GERBER (1-800-443-7237).
The company says it is working with the U.S. FDA on this recall and will cooperate with them fully.
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Uganda set to begin Ebola vaccine trial after new outbreak kills nurse
Kampala, Uganda — Ugandan officials are preparing to deploy a trial vaccine as part of efforts to stem an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, a top health official said Sunday.
A range of scientists are developing research protocols relating to the planned deployment of more than 2,000 doses of a candidate vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola, said Pontiano Kaleebu, executive director of Uganda Virus Research Institute.
“Protocol is being accelerated” to get all the necessary regulatory approvals, he said. “This vaccine is not yet licensed.”
The World Health Organization said in a statement that its support to Uganda’s response to the outbreak includes access to 2,160 doses of trial vaccine.
“Research teams have been deployed to the field to work along with the surveillance teams as approvals are awaited,” the WHO statement said.
The candidate vaccine as well as candidate treatments are being made available through clinical trial protocols to further test for efficacy and safety, it said.
The vaccine maker wasn’t immediately known. There are no approved vaccines for the Sudan strain of Ebola that killed a nurse employed at Kampala’s main referral hospital. The man died on Wednesday and authorities declared an outbreak the next day.
Officials are still investigating the source of the outbreak, and there has been no other confirmed case.
Uganda has had access to candidate vaccine doses since the end of an Ebola outbreak in September 2022 that killed at least 55 people. Ugandan officials ran out of time to begin a vaccine study when that outbreak, in central Uganda, was declared over about four months later, Kaleebu said.
A trial vaccine known as rVSV-ZEBOV, used to vaccinate 3,000 people at risk of infection during an outbreak of the Zaire strain of Ebola in eastern Congo between 2018 and 2020, proved effective in containing the spread of the disease there.
Uganda has had multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed hundreds. The 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people, the disease’s largest death toll.
Tracing contacts is also key to stemming the spread of Ebola, which manifests as a viral hemorrhagic fever.
At least 44 contacts of the victim in the current outbreak have been identified, including 30 health workers and patients, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Health.
Confirmation of Ebola in Uganda is the latest in a series of outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fevers in the east African region. Tanzania declared an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg disease earlier this month, while in December Rwanda announced that its own outbreak of Marburg was over. The ongoing Marburg outbreak in northern Tanzania’s Kagera region has killed at least two people, according to local health authorities.
Kampala’s outbreak could prove difficult to respond to, because the city has a highly mobile population of about 4 million. The nurse who died had sought treatment at a hospital just outside Kampala and later traveled to Mbale, in the country’s east, where he was admitted to a public hospital. Health authorities said the man also sought the services of a traditional healer.
Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
Scientists don’t know the natural reservoir of Ebola, but they suspect the first person infected in an outbreak acquired the virus through contact with an infected animal or eating its raw meat.
Ebola was discovered in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, where it occurred in a village near the Ebola River, after which the disease is named.
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US woman with Down syndrome earns Master of Fine Arts
Rachel Handlin is an example of what’s possible when someone pursues their dreams. Handlin may be the first person on the planet with Down syndrome to earn a Master of Fine Arts. She also had her first public solo photo exhibit in Manhattan. Anna Nelson has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vladimir Badikov.
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‘Dog Man’ bites off $36 million, taking No. 1 at box office
New York — DreamWorks Animation’s “Dog Man” fetched $36 million in ticket sales at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it the biggest debut yet in 2025.
It was a big opening for the Universal Pictures release adapted from the popular graphic novel series by author Dav Pilkey. The big-screen launch for the cartoon canine was produced for a modest $40 million, meaning it will easily coast through a profitable run. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.
Only one animated film before has had a better January launch: 2016’s “Kung Fu Panda 3.” “Dog Man,” though, was soft overseas, collecting $4.2 million from 29 international markets. The voice cast of the Peter Hastings-directed movie is led by Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery and Isla Fisher.
Family movies last year buoyed the box office, with PG-rated films accounting for $2.9 billion, or 33% of all ticket revenue, according to data firm Comscore. So far, they’re lifting 2025, too. The Walt Disney Co.’s December release “Mufasa: The Lion King” topped the weekend box office three times in January. In its seventh week of release, “Mufasa” held in third place with another $6.1 million, bringing its global tally to $653 million.
“The PG animation family film wave that was so prevalent in ’24 continues in ’25,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.
The horror comedy “Companion,” from Warner Bros. and New Line, also opened well, with $9.5 million in 3,285 locations. Drew Hancock’s sci-fi tinged film set in the near future is about a group of friends on a weekend lakeside getaway.
“Companion,” starring Sophie Thatcher (“Heretic”), was lightly marketed and made for just $10 million. It will depend on glowing reviews (94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong word of mouth (a “B+” CinemaScore) to keep drawing moviegoers in the coming weeks.
Last week’s top film, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk,” dropped steeply in its second weekend. The action thriller starring Mark Wahlberg fell to fifth place with $5.6 million. Domestically, it has collected $20.9 million for Lionsgate.
One of the early year’s standout successes has been Sony Pictures’ “One of Them Days,” the R-rated comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. Though comedies have had a hard time in theaters in recent years, “One of Them Days” has proven the exception. The well-reviewed movie earned $5.6 million over the weekend, bringing its three-week total to $34.5 million – a stellar result for a movie that cost $14 million to make.
Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
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“Dog Man,” $36 million.
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“Companion,” $9.5 million.
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“Mufasa,” $6.1 million.
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“One of Them Days,” $6 million.
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“Flight Risk” $5.6 million.
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“Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $3.2 million.
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“Moana 2,” $2.8 million.
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“A Complete Unknown,” $2.2 million.
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“The Brutalist,” $1.9 million.
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“Den of Thieves: Pantera,” $1.6 million.
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Japan launches navigation satellite on new flagship rocket
TOKYO — Japan’s space agency said Sunday it successfully launched a navigation satellite on its new flagship H3 rocket as the country seeks to have a more precise location positioning system of its own.
The H3 rocket carrying the Michibiki 6 satellite lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on a southwestern Japanese island.
Everything went smoothly and the satellite successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 29 minutes after the liftoff, said Makoto Arita, H3 project manager for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
Officials said it is expected to reach its targeted geospatial orbit in about two weeks.
Japan currently has the quasi-zenith satellite system, or QZSS, with four satellites for a regional navigation system that first went into operation in 2018. The Michibiki 6 will be the fifth of its network.
Michibiki’s signals are used to supplement American GPS and will further improve positioning data for smartphones, car and maritime navigation and drones.
Japan plans to launch two more navigation satellites to have a seven-satellite system by March 2026 to have a more precise global positioning capability without relying on foreign services, including the U.S., according to the Japan Science and Technology Agency. By the late 2030s, Japan plans to have an 11-satellite network.
Sunday’s launch, delayed by a day due to the weather, was the fourth consecutive successful flight for the H3 system after a shocking failed debut attempt last year when the rocket had to be destroyed with its payload.
Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to its space program and national security and has been developing two new flagship rockets as successors to the mainstay H2A series — the larger H3 and a much smaller Epsilon system. It hopes to cater to diverse customer needs and improve its position in the growing satellite launch market.
your ads here!Beyonce competes for the big prize – again – at Sunday’s Grammys
LOS ANGELES — The Grammy Awards take center stage in Los Angeles on Sunday at a celebration that will honor the best of music while acknowledging the deadly wildfires that scarred a hub of the industry.
Beyonce will compete for the top Grammy prize of album of the year with her country record “Cowboy Carter.” The superstar singer has never won the album trophy despite winning 32 career Grammys, more than any other musician.
Also in the running for album of the year are megastar Taylor Swift for “The Tortured Poets Department” and Billie Eilish for “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”
The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS starting at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Monday) from the Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles. Comedian Trevor Noah returns to host the telecast, which will be part awards show, part fundraiser for musicians and others impacted by the recent fires. Hundreds of people in the music business were among those who lost homes in the disaster.
“It will be a little tricky to pull off, but I’m starting to think they’re going to be able to do it,” said Paul Grein, awards editor at music publication Billboard. With the fires under control, “people can take a breather and express gratitude and relief that we made it through that.”
Eilish and best new artist nominees Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims are among the night’s scheduled performers. The show will feature a tribute to Quincy Jones, the prolific music producer who died in November.
At last year’s Grammys, Beyonce’s husband and rapper Jay-Z argued that voters had not given proper recognition to Black artists including his wife. Grammy winners are chosen by the 13,000 singers, songwriters, producers, engineers and others who make up the Recording Academy.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than anyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” Jay-Z said on stage.
“Cowboy Carter” was viewed by experts and fans as a reclamation and homage to an overlooked legacy of Black Americans within country music and culture. It became the first album by a Black woman to land at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart when it was released last spring.
The Beyonce album was snubbed, however, by voters for the Country Music Awards in their nominations in September.
The “Cowboy Carter” nomination is Beyonce’s fifth entry in the album of the year category. Swift has won the honor a record four times, including last year for “Midnights.”
Beyonce leads all Grammy nominees this year with 11 nods, followed by Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone with seven nominations each. Swift landed six nominations and will present one of the night’s awards.
Beyonce’s other Grammy nods include record and song of the year for single “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
Competitors for song of the year, an award for songwriters, are Eilish for “Birds of a Feather,” Carpenter for “Please Please Please” and Roan for “Good Luck, Babe!”
In record of the year, nominees include Carpenter’s “Espresso” and Swift’s duet with Post Malone, “Fortnight.”
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Couple challenges Vatican bank’s ban on workplace marriages
ROME — Pope Francis has long urged couples to marry and have babies rather than dogs. And he has long championed the rights of workers and held up labor itself as the foundation of human dignity. So it has come as something of a surprise to many in the Holy See that the Vatican bank fired a newlywed couple, with three young children between them, after a new internal bank regulation went into effect barring workplace marriages.
The apparent contradiction between what the pope preaches and what his Vatican practices isn’t lost on Silvia Carlucci and Domenico Fabiani, who on Thursday challenged the ban in a wrongful termination lawsuit before the Vatican tribunal.
During the hearing, presiding Judge Venerando Marano asked if the two sides would consider a settlement. The couple is open to a deal but the bank refused, said the couple’s attorney Laura Sgro. A new hearing was scheduled for March 14.
Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the couple told The Associated Press this week that they never once considered calling off their Aug. 31, 2024, nuptials after learning of the new regulation. And they said they couldn’t contemplate the bank’s suggestion that one of them quit to avoid running afoul of the new rule, because of financial obligations to their children, former spouses and new mortgage.
“I thought for sure there might have been an intervention by the Holy Father, who rightly gives so much emphasis and value to the role of the family,” Fabiani said in the office of his lawyer, with Carlucci by his side. “And yet here we find a family that works there and now finds itself on the street.”
Grasping for her husband’s hand, Carlucci was more blunt: “There’s a great contrast between what truly happens (in the Vatican) and what is promoted.”
A tipping point in employee discontent
The plight of the 41-year-olds, who between them worked for 25 years at the Institute for Religious Works, as the bank is known, has captured the attention of many in the Vatican, where employment has long been a coveted mark of status in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy.
A Vatican job comes with real benefits: tax-free income, access to a duty-free gas station, supermarket, pharmacy and department store and if lucky, access to below-market rents in some of the Holy See’s palazzi in Rome.
But for the past several years, amid a financial crisis that has resulted in hiring freezes, cuts to overtime, seniority bonuses and other benefits, employee discontent seems to be on the rise, with the Carlucci-Fabiani case something of a tipping point in a system where truly independent legal recourse doesn’t exist.
The Association of Lay Vatican Employees, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union, has taken up the couple’s cause, issuing an online solidarity appeal on their behalf. It has asserted that the new rule violates basic human rights as well as the Vatican’s fundamental laws and the church’s canon law, which in the Vatican take legal precedence over internal regulations.
“While we are confident that God will provide for them and their children, we cannot silence the voice of our conscience that recognizes the traits of injustice and lack of charity in the measure that affected these two former colleagues,” the online appeal reads. “The application of a regulation, while necessary in the governance of any institution, cannot fail to take into account the fact that any institution is made up of people and stands by virtue of the activity and professionalism of these same people.”
The unusual role of the Vatican bank The Institute for Religious Works, or IOR as it is known, is a peculiar institution, created in 1942 to help the church carry out its charitable mission while enabling Vatican embassies and religious orders in far-flung parts of the world to send and receive money when commercial banking might be problematic.
Located in a tower just steps inside Vatican City, the bank was long mired in scandal but spent over a decade cleaning up its books and ridding itself of its reputation as an offshore tax haven.
The reforms slimmed down its client base to around 12,300 customers among Vatican offices, employees, religious orders and embassies, who are served by a staff of around 100 at its lone Vatican branch.
According to the couple, the bank management announced a new personnel policy on May 2, laying out criteria for employment that said marriage between an IOR employee and another bank employee, or anyone else who works in the Vatican City State, was cause for termination.
The change shocked them: Three months earlier, they had told bank management of their plans to wed after securing the Catholic decrees of nullity for their previous marriages.
Carlucci got an advance on her yearly bonus to help secure their mortgage. They had formally publicized their pending nuptials in Rome city hall and their respective parishes. “They congratulated us, ‘A wedding, how wonderful this marriage. Great job, you made it,'” Carlucci recalls her superiors telling her.
But now, the couple doesn’t even have access to Italian unemployment benefits because of the nature of their termination, she said.
Couple’s employment terminated
The bank has strongly defended its policy as being consistent with best bank practices to promote transparency and impartiality and avoid conflicts of interest. It says it actually delayed implementing the policy until the last of five married couples in its workforce had retired in March.
With such a small staff and one branch, “this rule is in fact essential to prevent both inevitable professional conflicts of interest between the aspiring spouses concerned, as well as the emergence of possible familistic management doubts among its customers or the general public,” it said in a statement.
And yet anyone familiar with the Vatican knows plenty of married partners who work in the city state, not necessarily in the same department but among the 4,500 people employed by the Holy See.
While expressing “deep regret,” the bank said it had “reached the difficult decision” to terminate the couple’s employment on Oct. 1, a month after their church wedding. It is unclear why the bank didn’t just terminate one of the two. A transfer to an unrelated Vatican office wasn’t possible under the terms of the new regulation.
The pope seems aware morale is low
The couple had written to Francis personally, hoping he might intervene, but received no reply. Francis though seems keenly aware that employee morale is low and that times are tough for families. He recently approved the opening of the Vatican’s first day-care center, as well as a “baby bonus” of an extra 300 euros a month for Vatican employees with three or more children.
During his annual Christmas greetings to Vatican personnel last month, dedicated to the theme of family and work, Francis urged employees to talk to their managers if they have problems.
“If anyone has any special difficulties, please speak up, tell the people in charge, because we want to solve all difficulties,” Francis told the Dec. 21 audience, attended by far fewer people than in past years. “And this is done by dialogue and not by shouting or being silent.”
Carlucci would like her job back but says her new marriage and blended family matter more. “For us, family is at the basis of our entire lives, so no matter what happens and despite everything, we have won,” she said.
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UK to become 1st country to criminalize AI child abuse tools
LONDON — Britain will become the first country to introduce laws against AI tools used to generate sexual abuse images, the government announced Saturday.
The government will make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate sexualized images of children, punishable by up to five years in prison, interior minister Yvette Cooper revealed.
It will also be illegal to possess AI “pedophile manuals” which teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse children, punishable by up to three years in prison.
“We know that sick predators’ activities online often lead to them carrying out the most horrific abuse in person,” said Cooper.
The new laws are “designed to keep our children safe online as technologies evolve. It is vital that we tackle child sexual abuse online as well as offline,” she added.
“Children will be protected from the growing threat of predators generating AI images and from online sexual abuse as the U.K. becomes the first country in the world to create new AI sexual abuse offences,” said a government statement.
AI tools are being used to generate child sexual abuse images by “nudeifying” real life images of children or by “stitching the faces of other children onto existing images,” said the government.
The new laws will also criminalize “predators who run websites designed for other pedophiles to share vile child sexual abuse content or advice on how to groom children,” punishable by up to ten years in prison, said the government.
The measures will be introduced as part of the Crime and Policing Bill when it comes to parliament.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has warned of the growing number of sexual abuse AI images of children being produced.
Over a 30-day period in 2024, IWF analysts identified 3,512 AI child abuse images on a single dark web site.
The number of the most serious category of images also rose by 10% in a year, it found.
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US says life-saving HIV treatment can continue during aid pause
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department said Saturday that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — the world’s leading HIV initiative — was covered by a waiver for life-saving humanitarian assistance during a 90-day pause in foreign aid.
Just hours after taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump ordered the pause so foreign aid contributions could be reviewed to see if they align with his “America First” foreign policy. The U.S. is the world’s largest aid donor.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially issued a waiver for emergency food aid and then Tuesday for life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence help. However, the lack of detail in Trump’s order and the ensuing waivers has left aid groups confused as to whether their work can continue.
So, Saturday the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy issued a memo, seen by Reuters, clarifying that PEPFAR was covered by the Jan. 28 memo and spelling out what activities were allowed.
These include life-saving HIV care and treatment services, including testing and counseling, prevention and treatment of infections including tuberculosis (TB), laboratory services, and procurement and supply chain for commodities/medicines. It also allows prevention of mother-to-child transmission services.
“Any other activities not specifically mentioned in this guidance may not be resumed without express approval,” it said.
More than 20 million people living with HIV, who represent two-thirds of all people living with the disease receiving treatment globally, are directly supported by PEPFAR.
Under Trump’s foreign aid pause, all payments by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) stopped Tuesday — for the first time since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1 — and have not resumed, according to U.S. Treasury data. On Monday USAID paid out $8 million and last week a total of $545 million.
The Trump administration is also moving to strip a slimmed-down USAID of its independence and put it under State Department control, two sources familiar with the discussions said Friday, in what would be a significant overhaul of how Washington allocates U.S. foreign aid.
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Mushers, dogs braved Alaska winter to deliver lifesaving serum 100 years ago
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — The Alaska Gold Rush town of Nome faced a bleak winter. It was hundreds of miles from anywhere, cut off by the frozen sea and unrelenting blizzards, and under siege from a contagious disease known as the “strangling angel” for the way it suffocated children.
Now, 100 years later, Nome is remembering its saviors — the sled dogs and mushers who raced for more than five days through hypothermia, frostbite, gale-force winds and blinding whiteouts to deliver lifesaving serum and free the community from the grip of diphtheria.
Among the events celebrating the centennial of the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy” are lectures, a dog-food drive and a reenactment of the final leg of the relay, all organized by the Nome Kennel Club.
Alaskans honor ‘heroic effort’
“There’s a lot of fluff around celebrations like this, but we wanted to remember the mushers and their dogs who have been at the center of this heroic effort and … spotlight mushing as a still-viable thing for the state of Alaska,” said Diana Haecker, a kennel club board member and co-owner of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, The Nome Nugget.
“People just dropped whatever they were doing,” she said. “These mushers got their teams ready and went, even though it was really cold and challenging conditions on the trail.”
Other communities are also marking the anniversary — including the village of Nenana, where the relay began, and Cleveland, Ohio, where the serum run’s most famous participant, a husky mix named Balto, is stuffed and displayed at a museum.
Jonathan Hayes, a Maine resident who has been working to preserve the genetic line of sled dogs driven on the run by famed musher Leonhard Seppala, is recreating the trip. Hayes left Nenana on Monday with 16 Seppala Siberian sled dogs, registered descendants of Seppala’s team.
A race to save lives
Diphtheria is an airborne disease that causes a thick, suffocating film on the back of the throat; it was once a leading cause of death for children. The antitoxin used to treat it was developed in 1890, and a vaccine in 1923; it is now exceedingly rare in the U.S.
Nome, western Alaska’s largest community, had about 1,400 residents a century ago. Its most recent supply ship had arrived the previous fall, before the Bering Sea froze, without any doses of the antitoxin. Those the local doctor, Curtis Welch, had were outdated, but he wasn’t worried. He hadn’t seen a case of diphtheria in the 18 years he had practiced in the area.
Within months, that changed. In a telegram, Welch pleaded with the U.S. Public Health Service to send serum: “An epidemic of diphtheria is almost inevitable here.”
The first death was a 3-year-old boy on January 20, 1925, followed the next day by a 7-year-old girl. By the end of the month, there were more than 20 confirmed cases. The city was placed under quarantine.
West Coast hospitals had antitoxin doses, but it would take time to get them to Seattle, Washington, and then onto a ship for Seward, Alaska, an ice-free port south of Anchorage, Alaska. In the meantime, enough for 30 people was found at an Anchorage hospital.
It still had to get to Nome. Airplanes with open-air cockpits were ruled out as unsuited for the weather. There were no roads or trains that reached Nome.
Instead, officials shipped the serum by rail to Nenana in interior Alaska, some 1,086 kilometers (675 miles) from Nome via the frozen Yukon River and mail trails.
Thanks to Alaska’s new telegraph lines and the spread of radio, the nation followed along, captivated, as 20 mushers — many of them Alaska Natives — with more than 150 dogs relayed the serum to Nome. They battled deep snow, whiteouts so severe they couldn’t see the dogs in front of them, and life-threatening temperatures that plunged at times to minus minus 51 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit).
The antitoxin was transported in glass vials covered with padded quilts. Not a single vial broke.
Seppala, a Norwegian settler, left from Nome to meet the supply near the halfway point and begin the journey back. His team, led by his dog Togo, traveled more than 320 kilometers (250 miles) of the relay, including a treacherous stretch across frozen Norton Sound.
After about 5 1/2 days, the serum reached its destination on February 2, 1925. A banner front-page headline in the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed “Dogs victors over blizzard in battle to succor stricken Nome.”
The official record listed five deaths and 29 illnesses. It’s likely the toll was higher; Alaska Natives were not accurately tracked.
Balto gains fame
Seppala and Togo missed the limelight that went to his assistant, Gunnar Kaasen, who drove the dog team led by Balto into Nome. Balto was another of Seppala’s dogs, but was used to only haul freight after he was deemed too slow to be on a competitive team.
Balto was immortalized in movies and with statues in New York’s Central Park and one in Anchorage intended as a tribute to all sled dogs. He received a bone-shaped key to the city of Los Angeles, where legendary movie actress Mary Pickford placed a wreath around his neck.
But he and several team members were eventually sold and kept in squalid conditions at a dime museum in Los Angeles. After learning of their plight, an Ohio businessman spearheaded an effort to raise money to bring them to Cleveland, a city in Ohio. After dying in 1933, Balto was mounted and placed on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Iditarod pays homage to run
Today, the most famous mushing event in the world is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which is not based on the serum run but on the Iditarod Trail, a supply route from Seward to Nome. Iditarod organizers are nevertheless marking the serum run’s centennial with a series of articles on its website and by selling replicas of the medallions each serum run musher received a century ago, race spokesperson Shannon Noonan said in an email. This year’s Iditarod starts March 1.
“The Serum Run demonstrated the critical role sled dogs played in the survival and communication of remote Alaskan communities, while the Iditarod has evolved into a celebration of that tradition and Alaska’s pioneering spirit,” Noonan said.
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New Zealand mountain is granted personhood, recognizing it as sacred for Maori
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.
Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Maori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island at 2,518 meters and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.
The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country’s government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.
How can a mountain be a person?
The law passed Thursday gives Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. Its legal personality has a name: Te Kahui Tupua, which the law views as “a living and indivisible whole.” It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, “incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements.”
A newly created entity will be “the face and voice” of the mountain, the law says, with four members from local Maori iwi, or tribes, and four members appointed by the country’s conservation minister.
Why is this mountain special?
“The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place,” Paul Goldsmith, the lawmaker responsible for the settlements between the government and Maori tribes, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday.
But colonizers of New Zealand in the 18th and 19th centuries took first the name of Taranaki and then the mountain itself. In 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the peak from his ship and named it Mount Egmont.
In 1840, Maori tribes and representatives of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi — New Zealand’s founding document — in which the Crown promised Maori would retain rights to their land and resources. But the Maori and English versions of the treaty differed — and Crown breaches of both began immediately.
In 1865, a vast swathe of Taranaki land, including the mountain, was confiscated to punish Maori for rebelling against the Crown. Over the next century hunting and sports groups had a say in the mountain’s management — but Maori did not.
“Traditional Maori practices associated with the mountain were banned while tourism was promoted,” Goldsmith said. But a Maori protest movement of the 1970s and ’80s has led to a surge of recognition for the Maori language, culture and rights in New Zealand law.
Redress has included billions of dollars in Treaty of Waitangi settlements — such as the agreement with the eight tribes of Taranaki, signed in 2023.
How will the mountain use its rights?
“Today, Taranaki, our maunga, our maunga tupuna, is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate,” said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the political party Te Pati Maori and a descendant of the Taranaki tribes, using a phrase that means ancestral mountain.
“We grew up knowing there was nothing anyone could do to make us any less connected,” she added.
The mountain’s legal rights are intended to uphold its health and wellbeing. They will be employed to stop forced sales, restore its traditional uses and allow conservation work to protect the native wildlife that flourishes there. Public access will remain.
Do other parts of New Zealand have personhood?
New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize natural features as people when a law passed in 2014 granted personhood to Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island. Government ownership ceased and the tribe Tuhoe became its guardian.
“Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure, and remote beauty,” the law begins, before describing its spiritual significance to Maori. In 2017, New Zealand recognized the Whanganui River as human, as part of a settlement with its local iwi.
How much support did the law receive?
The bill recognizing the mountain’s personhood was affirmed unanimously by Parliament’s 123 lawmakers. The vote was greeted by a ringing waiata — a Maori song — from the public gallery, packed with dozens who had traveled to the capital, Wellington, from Taranaki.
The unity provided brief respite in a tense period for race relations in New Zealand. In November, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament to protest a law that would reshape the Treaty of Waitangi by setting rigid legal definitions for each clause. Detractors say the law — which is not expected to pass — would strip Maori of legal rights and dramatically reverse progress from the past five decades.
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RFK Jr. vows to stop collecting from vaccine lawsuit if confirmed to Cabinet
WASHINGTON — Facing intense scrutiny from U.S. senators over his potential profit from vaccine lawsuits while serving as the nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that if he is confirmed he will not collect fees from litigation against the drugmakers of a cervical cancer vaccine.
Kennedy, who’s President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, told the Senate finance committee that he would amend his ethics disclosure after several senators, including Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and his cousin Caroline Kennedy raised concerns about his financial arrangement with the law firm representing patients who are claiming injuries from the vaccines.
“An amendment to my Ethics Agreement is in process, and it provides that I will divest my interest in this litigation,” Kennedy said in a written response to the committee.
Initially, Kennedy had told the committee that he would continue to accept referral fees in legal cases that don’t involve the U.S. government. That included an arrangement with a law firm that’s sued Merck over Gardasil, its human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. The deal earned Kennedy $850,000 last year, and he told senators he had referred hundreds of clients to the firm.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Warren outlined several ways in which Kennedy could make it easier to sue vaccine manufacturers.
“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said. “Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.”
The issue also may have been a concern for Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who is also a physician and is conflicted over his vote on Kennedy’s confirmation because of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.
The Republican president’s nominee is “financially vested in finding fault with vaccines,” Cassidy, the chair of the health committee, noted as he ended Thursday’s confirmation hearing.
Kennedy also stopped short of making other commitments, refusing to promise that he would not engage in lobbying Health and Human Services after his term ends.
Kennedy and his supporters have railed against that sort of activity, saying the “revolving door” of Washington — where federal officials trade public service jobs to influence government agencies while in the private sector — has undermined the U.S. public health system. He has criticized the practice at least a half-dozen times in social media posts over recent years.
Kennedy, who ran for president last year before dropping his bid and endorsing Trump, vowed in one post on social media platform X to “rein in lobbyists and slam shut the revolving door,” if elected president.
He first challenged President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination but then ran as an independent before striking a deal to endorse Trump in exchange for a promise to serve in a health policy role during a second Trump administration.
Now, after two days of hearings, his shot at that job is on the line with concerns about his anti-vaccine advocacy prompting nearly all Democrats to reject his nomination and a handful of Republicans who are at least considering doing the same.
If Democrats unanimously oppose Kennedy, he’ll need support from all but three Republicans. The Senate finance committee is expected to decide if he makes it to the Senate floor for a vote next week.
Kennedy’s response to the Senate committee was first reported by The New York Times.
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