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Tag: Associated Press

  • Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    [ad_1]

    As rural hospitals continue to struggle financially, a new type of hospital is slowly taking root, especially in the Southeast.

    What You Need To Know

    • Rural hospitals that close their inpatient care beds to offer emergency care can get federal funding and higher Medicare reimbursements

    • The federal government’s effort, which started in 2023, is seen as a solution for some struggling rural hospitals

    • It means rural patients might have to travel farther to receive inpatient care

    Rural emergency hospitals receive more than $3 million in federal funding a year and higher Medicare reimbursements in exchange for closing all inpatient beds and providing 24/7 emergency care. While that makes it easier for a hospital to stay open, experts say it doesn’t solve all of the challenges facing rural health care.

    People might have to travel farther for treatments for illnesses that require inpatient stays, like pneumonia or COVID-19. In some of the communities where hospitals have converted to the new designation, residents are confused about what kind of care they can receive. Plus, rural hospitals are hesitant to make the switch, because there’s no margin of error.

    “It’s ironic” that the facilities that might need the most help can’t afford to take the risk, said Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer at the National Rural Health Association.

    She pointed to having to give up certain services and benefits, such as a federal discount program for prescription drugs.

    The government, which classifies hospitals by type, rolled out the rural emergency option in January 2023. Only 19 hospitals across the U.S. received rural emergency hospital status last year, according to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

    The majority are in the South, but some are in the Midwest, and hospitals in Nebraska and Florida recently started to explore the option.

    The designation is aimed at a specific population, said George Pink, deputy director of the Sheps Center’s Rural Health Research Program, and that’s rural hospitals on the brink of closure with few people getting inpatient care already.

    Saving rural care

    That was the case for Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla, Georgia, which was the second rural emergency hospital established in the U.S.

    Weeks prior to converting, the hospital received at least $1 million in credit from the county so it could pay employees — money that county board of supervisors chairman Scott Carver doubted he’d see returned.

    “We operate on a $6 million budget for the county, so to extend that kind of line of credit was dangerous on our part to some degree,” he said. “But … we felt like we had to try.”

    Irwin County Hospital became a rural emergency hospital on Feb. 1, 2023. Quentin Whitwell, the hospital’s CEO, said it was an ideal candidate.

    “We’re still finding out what some of the impacts are, given that it’s a new thing,” said Whitwell, who through his company Progressive Health Systems owns and manages six hospitals in the Southeast, most of which are rural emergency hospitals or have applied for the designation. “But the change to a rural emergency hospital has transformed this hospital.”

    A combination of state programs and tax credits, plus the new designation, means the hospital has $4 million in the bank, Carver said. Simply put, the work was worth it to him.

    Traci Harper, a longtime Ocilla resident, isn’t so sure. About a year ago, she rushed her son to the hospital for emergency care for spinal meningitis.

    Because the new designation requires the hospital to transfer patients to larger hospitals within 24 hours, Harper’s son was sent to another in-state facility and three days later ended up getting the care he needed in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

    “That’s two hours away,” she said. “The whole time I could have taken him there myself, but nobody told me that.”

    ‘Barely surviving’

    Nebraska’s first rural emergency hospital opened in February in a city called Friend.

    Warren Memorial Hospital had reached a breaking point: Federal pandemic relief money had dried up. The city, which owns the hospital, had to start extending lines of credit so hospital employees could get paid. A major street repair project was even delayed, said Jared Chaffin, the hospital’s chief financial officer and one of three co-CEOs.

    “Back in the summer, we were barely surviving,” said Amy Thimm, the hospital’s vice president of clinical services and quality and co-CEO.

    Though residents expressed concerns at a September town hall about closing inpatient services, the importance of having emergency care outweighed other worries.

    “We have farmers and ranchers and people who don’t have the time to drive an hour to get care, so they’ll just go without,” said Ron Te Brink, co-CEO and chief information officer. “Rural health care is so extremely important to a lot of Nebraska communities like ours.”

    The first federal payment, about $270,000, arrived March 5. Chaffin projects the hospital’s revenue will be $6 million this year — more than it’s ever made.

    “That’s just insane, especially for our little hospital here,” he said. “We still have Mount Everest to climb, and we still have so much work ahead of us. The designation alone is not a savior for the hospital — it’s a lifeline.”

    Rural troubles

    That lifeline has proven difficult to hold onto for Alliance Healthcare System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, another one of Whitwell’s hospitals and the fourth facility in the country to convert.

    Months after being approved as a rural emergency hospital in March 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reneged on its decision.

    Hospital CEO Dr. Kenneth Williams told The Associated Press that the government said the hospital isn’t rural because it is less than an hour away from Memphis. A CMS spokesperson said the facility was “inadvertently certified.”

    The hospital has until April to transition back to full service, but many in the community of mostly retirees believe the hospital has closed, Williams said. Patient volume is at a record low. If the federal payments stop coming, Williams isn’t sure the hospital will survive.

    “We might have been closed if we hadn’t (become a rural emergency hospital), so … something had to be done,” he said. “Do I regret all of the issues that for some reason we’ve incurred that the other (hospitals) have not? I don’t know.”

    Though Alliance appears to be one of few facilities that have been hurt by converting to a rural emergency hospital, Pink said it’s too soon to know if the federal designation is a success.

    “If my intuition is correct, it will probably work well for some communities and it may not work well for others,” he said.

    Cochran-McClain said her organization is trying to work with Congress to change regulations that have been a barrier for rural facilities, like closing inpatient behavioral health beds that are already scarce.

    Brock Slabach, the National Rural Health Association’s chief operations officer, said over 30 facilities are interested in converting to rural emergency hospitals this year.

    As Whitwell sees it: “As this program evolves, there will be more people that I think will understand the value.” 

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    Associated Press

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  • Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    [ad_1]

    As rural hospitals continue to struggle financially, a new type of hospital is slowly taking root, especially in the Southeast.

    What You Need To Know

    • Rural hospitals that close their inpatient care beds to offer emergency care can get federal funding and higher Medicare reimbursements

    • The federal government’s effort, which started in 2023, is seen as a solution for some struggling rural hospitals

    • It means rural patients might have to travel farther to receive inpatient care

    Rural emergency hospitals receive more than $3 million in federal funding a year and higher Medicare reimbursements in exchange for closing all inpatient beds and providing 24/7 emergency care. While that makes it easier for a hospital to stay open, experts say it doesn’t solve all of the challenges facing rural health care.

    People might have to travel farther for treatments for illnesses that require inpatient stays, like pneumonia or COVID-19. In some of the communities where hospitals have converted to the new designation, residents are confused about what kind of care they can receive. Plus, rural hospitals are hesitant to make the switch, because there’s no margin of error.

    “It’s ironic” that the facilities that might need the most help can’t afford to take the risk, said Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer at the National Rural Health Association.

    She pointed to having to give up certain services and benefits, such as a federal discount program for prescription drugs.

    The government, which classifies hospitals by type, rolled out the rural emergency option in January 2023. Only 19 hospitals across the U.S. received rural emergency hospital status last year, according to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

    The majority are in the South, but some are in the Midwest, and hospitals in Nebraska and Florida recently started to explore the option.

    The designation is aimed at a specific population, said George Pink, deputy director of the Sheps Center’s Rural Health Research Program, and that’s rural hospitals on the brink of closure with few people getting inpatient care already.

    Saving rural care

    That was the case for Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla, Georgia, which was the second rural emergency hospital established in the U.S.

    Weeks prior to converting, the hospital received at least $1 million in credit from the county so it could pay employees — money that county board of supervisors chairman Scott Carver doubted he’d see returned.

    “We operate on a $6 million budget for the county, so to extend that kind of line of credit was dangerous on our part to some degree,” he said. “But … we felt like we had to try.”

    Irwin County Hospital became a rural emergency hospital on Feb. 1, 2023. Quentin Whitwell, the hospital’s CEO, said it was an ideal candidate.

    “We’re still finding out what some of the impacts are, given that it’s a new thing,” said Whitwell, who through his company Progressive Health Systems owns and manages six hospitals in the Southeast, most of which are rural emergency hospitals or have applied for the designation. “But the change to a rural emergency hospital has transformed this hospital.”

    A combination of state programs and tax credits, plus the new designation, means the hospital has $4 million in the bank, Carver said. Simply put, the work was worth it to him.

    Traci Harper, a longtime Ocilla resident, isn’t so sure. About a year ago, she rushed her son to the hospital for emergency care for spinal meningitis.

    Because the new designation requires the hospital to transfer patients to larger hospitals within 24 hours, Harper’s son was sent to another in-state facility and three days later ended up getting the care he needed in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

    “That’s two hours away,” she said. “The whole time I could have taken him there myself, but nobody told me that.”

    ‘Barely surviving’

    Nebraska’s first rural emergency hospital opened in February in a city called Friend.

    Warren Memorial Hospital had reached a breaking point: Federal pandemic relief money had dried up. The city, which owns the hospital, had to start extending lines of credit so hospital employees could get paid. A major street repair project was even delayed, said Jared Chaffin, the hospital’s chief financial officer and one of three co-CEOs.

    “Back in the summer, we were barely surviving,” said Amy Thimm, the hospital’s vice president of clinical services and quality and co-CEO.

    Though residents expressed concerns at a September town hall about closing inpatient services, the importance of having emergency care outweighed other worries.

    “We have farmers and ranchers and people who don’t have the time to drive an hour to get care, so they’ll just go without,” said Ron Te Brink, co-CEO and chief information officer. “Rural health care is so extremely important to a lot of Nebraska communities like ours.”

    The first federal payment, about $270,000, arrived March 5. Chaffin projects the hospital’s revenue will be $6 million this year — more than it’s ever made.

    “That’s just insane, especially for our little hospital here,” he said. “We still have Mount Everest to climb, and we still have so much work ahead of us. The designation alone is not a savior for the hospital — it’s a lifeline.”

    Rural troubles

    That lifeline has proven difficult to hold onto for Alliance Healthcare System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, another one of Whitwell’s hospitals and the fourth facility in the country to convert.

    Months after being approved as a rural emergency hospital in March 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reneged on its decision.

    Hospital CEO Dr. Kenneth Williams told The Associated Press that the government said the hospital isn’t rural because it is less than an hour away from Memphis. A CMS spokesperson said the facility was “inadvertently certified.”

    The hospital has until April to transition back to full service, but many in the community of mostly retirees believe the hospital has closed, Williams said. Patient volume is at a record low. If the federal payments stop coming, Williams isn’t sure the hospital will survive.

    “We might have been closed if we hadn’t (become a rural emergency hospital), so … something had to be done,” he said. “Do I regret all of the issues that for some reason we’ve incurred that the other (hospitals) have not? I don’t know.”

    Though Alliance appears to be one of few facilities that have been hurt by converting to a rural emergency hospital, Pink said it’s too soon to know if the federal designation is a success.

    “If my intuition is correct, it will probably work well for some communities and it may not work well for others,” he said.

    Cochran-McClain said her organization is trying to work with Congress to change regulations that have been a barrier for rural facilities, like closing inpatient behavioral health beds that are already scarce.

    Brock Slabach, the National Rural Health Association’s chief operations officer, said over 30 facilities are interested in converting to rural emergency hospitals this year.

    As Whitwell sees it: “As this program evolves, there will be more people that I think will understand the value.” 

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    Some rural hospitals shifting to emergency-only care

    [ad_1]

    As rural hospitals continue to struggle financially, a new type of hospital is slowly taking root, especially in the Southeast.

    What You Need To Know

    • Rural hospitals that close their inpatient care beds to offer emergency care can get federal funding and higher Medicare reimbursements

    • The federal government’s effort, which started in 2023, is seen as a solution for some struggling rural hospitals

    • It means rural patients might have to travel farther to receive inpatient care

    Rural emergency hospitals receive more than $3 million in federal funding a year and higher Medicare reimbursements in exchange for closing all inpatient beds and providing 24/7 emergency care. While that makes it easier for a hospital to stay open, experts say it doesn’t solve all of the challenges facing rural health care.

    People might have to travel farther for treatments for illnesses that require inpatient stays, like pneumonia or COVID-19. In some of the communities where hospitals have converted to the new designation, residents are confused about what kind of care they can receive. Plus, rural hospitals are hesitant to make the switch, because there’s no margin of error.

    “It’s ironic” that the facilities that might need the most help can’t afford to take the risk, said Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer at the National Rural Health Association.

    She pointed to having to give up certain services and benefits, such as a federal discount program for prescription drugs.

    The government, which classifies hospitals by type, rolled out the rural emergency option in January 2023. Only 19 hospitals across the U.S. received rural emergency hospital status last year, according to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

    The majority are in the South, but some are in the Midwest, and hospitals in Nebraska and Florida recently started to explore the option.

    The designation is aimed at a specific population, said George Pink, deputy director of the Sheps Center’s Rural Health Research Program, and that’s rural hospitals on the brink of closure with few people getting inpatient care already.

    Saving rural care

    That was the case for Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla, Georgia, which was the second rural emergency hospital established in the U.S.

    Weeks prior to converting, the hospital received at least $1 million in credit from the county so it could pay employees — money that county board of supervisors chairman Scott Carver doubted he’d see returned.

    “We operate on a $6 million budget for the county, so to extend that kind of line of credit was dangerous on our part to some degree,” he said. “But … we felt like we had to try.”

    Irwin County Hospital became a rural emergency hospital on Feb. 1, 2023. Quentin Whitwell, the hospital’s CEO, said it was an ideal candidate.

    “We’re still finding out what some of the impacts are, given that it’s a new thing,” said Whitwell, who through his company Progressive Health Systems owns and manages six hospitals in the Southeast, most of which are rural emergency hospitals or have applied for the designation. “But the change to a rural emergency hospital has transformed this hospital.”

    A combination of state programs and tax credits, plus the new designation, means the hospital has $4 million in the bank, Carver said. Simply put, the work was worth it to him.

    Traci Harper, a longtime Ocilla resident, isn’t so sure. About a year ago, she rushed her son to the hospital for emergency care for spinal meningitis.

    Because the new designation requires the hospital to transfer patients to larger hospitals within 24 hours, Harper’s son was sent to another in-state facility and three days later ended up getting the care he needed in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

    “That’s two hours away,” she said. “The whole time I could have taken him there myself, but nobody told me that.”

    ‘Barely surviving’

    Nebraska’s first rural emergency hospital opened in February in a city called Friend.

    Warren Memorial Hospital had reached a breaking point: Federal pandemic relief money had dried up. The city, which owns the hospital, had to start extending lines of credit so hospital employees could get paid. A major street repair project was even delayed, said Jared Chaffin, the hospital’s chief financial officer and one of three co-CEOs.

    “Back in the summer, we were barely surviving,” said Amy Thimm, the hospital’s vice president of clinical services and quality and co-CEO.

    Though residents expressed concerns at a September town hall about closing inpatient services, the importance of having emergency care outweighed other worries.

    “We have farmers and ranchers and people who don’t have the time to drive an hour to get care, so they’ll just go without,” said Ron Te Brink, co-CEO and chief information officer. “Rural health care is so extremely important to a lot of Nebraska communities like ours.”

    The first federal payment, about $270,000, arrived March 5. Chaffin projects the hospital’s revenue will be $6 million this year — more than it’s ever made.

    “That’s just insane, especially for our little hospital here,” he said. “We still have Mount Everest to climb, and we still have so much work ahead of us. The designation alone is not a savior for the hospital — it’s a lifeline.”

    Rural troubles

    That lifeline has proven difficult to hold onto for Alliance Healthcare System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, another one of Whitwell’s hospitals and the fourth facility in the country to convert.

    Months after being approved as a rural emergency hospital in March 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reneged on its decision.

    Hospital CEO Dr. Kenneth Williams told The Associated Press that the government said the hospital isn’t rural because it is less than an hour away from Memphis. A CMS spokesperson said the facility was “inadvertently certified.”

    The hospital has until April to transition back to full service, but many in the community of mostly retirees believe the hospital has closed, Williams said. Patient volume is at a record low. If the federal payments stop coming, Williams isn’t sure the hospital will survive.

    “We might have been closed if we hadn’t (become a rural emergency hospital), so … something had to be done,” he said. “Do I regret all of the issues that for some reason we’ve incurred that the other (hospitals) have not? I don’t know.”

    Though Alliance appears to be one of few facilities that have been hurt by converting to a rural emergency hospital, Pink said it’s too soon to know if the federal designation is a success.

    “If my intuition is correct, it will probably work well for some communities and it may not work well for others,” he said.

    Cochran-McClain said her organization is trying to work with Congress to change regulations that have been a barrier for rural facilities, like closing inpatient behavioral health beds that are already scarce.

    Brock Slabach, the National Rural Health Association’s chief operations officer, said over 30 facilities are interested in converting to rural emergency hospitals this year.

    As Whitwell sees it: “As this program evolves, there will be more people that I think will understand the value.” 

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    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Judge: DA or special prosecutor must step aside in Trump case

    Judge: DA or special prosecutor must step aside in Trump case

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    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must step aside from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump or remove the special prosecutor with whom she had a romantic relationship before the case can proceed, the judge overseeing it ruled Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • The judge in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others says Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must step aside or remove the special prosecutor with whom she had a romantic relationship before the case can proceed

    • Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade testified at a hearing last month they had engaged in a romantic relationship but rejected the idea Willis improperly benefited from it as lawyers for Trump and some of his co-defendants alleged

    • Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Friday he found the “allegations and evidence legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest,” but he found there remains an “appearance of impropriety”
    • An attorney for Trump said that while they respect the court’s ruling, they “believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade”

    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee did not find that Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounted to a conflict of interest that should disqualify her from the case. However, he said, the allegations created an “appearance of impropriety” that infected the prosecution team.

    “As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed,” the judge wrote.

    “Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”

    Willis hired Wade to lead the team to investigate and ultimately prosecute Trump and 18 others accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020. Willis and Wade testified at a hearing last month that they had engaged in a romantic relationship, but they rejected the idea that Willis improperly benefited from it, as lawyers for Trump and some of his co-defendants alleged.

    McAfee wrote that there was insufficient evidence that Willis had a personal stake in the prosecution. But he condemned what he described as a “tremendous” lapse in judgment and the “unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony.” Even so, he said dismissal of the case was not the appropriate remedy to “adequately dissipate the financial cloud of impropriety and potential untruthfulness found here.”

    McAfee found no showing that the due process rights of Trump and the other defendants had been violated or that the issues involved prejudiced them in any way. He also said the disqualification of a constitutional officer, like a district attorney, is not necessary “when a less drastic and sufficiently remedial option is available.”

    The judge said he believes that “Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices — even repeatedly — and it is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it.”

    An attorney for co-defendant Michael Roman asked McAfee to dismiss the indictment and prevent Willis and Wade and their offices from continuing to prosecute the case. The attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, alleged that Willis paid Wade large sums for his work and then improperly benefited from the prosecution of the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations for the two of them.

    Willis had insisted that the relationship created no financial or personal conflict of interest that justified removing her office from the case. She and Wade both testified that their relationship began in the spring of 2022 and ended in the summer of 2023. They both said that Willis either paid for things herself or used cash to reimburse Wade for travel expenses.

    An attorney for Trump said that while they respect the court’s ruling, they “believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade.”

    “We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place,” said Trump attorney Steve Sadow, who also alleged that Willis “played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism.”

    The sprawling indictment charges Trump and more than a dozen other defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The case uses a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

    Trump, Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee for 2024, has denied doing anything wrong and pleaded not guilty.

    Earlier this week, the judge dismissed some of the charges against Trump.

    The six challenged counts charged the defendants with soliciting public officers to violate their oaths. One count stemmed from a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” for him to win the election in the state.

    Another of the dismissed counts accused Trump of soliciting then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.

    McAfee said the counts did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.

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    Associated Press

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  • Gators’ Golden agrees to 2-year extension that includes raise, AP source says

    Gators’ Golden agrees to 2-year extension that includes raise, AP source says

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    GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida basketball coach Todd Golden has agreed to a two-year contract extension that includes a raise, a person familiar with negotiations said Thursday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Gators basketball coach Todd Golden has reached a two-year contract extension 

    • The new deal keeps him under contract with Florida through 2030

    • Golden is 37-27 in two seasons with the Gators

    • He has remade Florida into a high-scoring team since he signed in 2022

    The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the financial details still need to be approved by the university’s compensation committee. The additional two years would keep Golden under contract through 2030.

    Golden signed a six-year, $18 million contract in 2022, and made $3 million this season. He is 94-63 overall in five seasons, including three at San Francisco.

    The Gators (21-10, 11-7 Southeastern Conference) are the No. 6-seeded team at the league tournament in Nashville, Tenn., and play Georgia on Thursday night. Golden is 37-27 in two seasons in Gainesville and has Florida on the cusp of its first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years.

    Golden overhauled Florida’s roster before Year 2 through the transfer portal, adding first-team All-SEC point guard Zyon Pullin (UC Riverside) along with leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona) out of Lake Wales and Bartow and big men Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall) and Micah Handlogten (Marshall).

    Golden also found success on the recruiting trail with promising forwards Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. Condon was named to the SEC’s all-freshman team.

    Under Golden’s direction, Florida has its highest-scoring team in program history. Pullin is on pace to post the SEC’s best assist-to-turnover ratio (4.38 to 1) in any season, and Clayton (17 points per game) is locked into one of the top-25 scoring seasons in program history, while hitting at least three 3-pointers in 12 of 18 conference games.

    The Gators open SEC Tournament play at 9:30 tonight against Georgia. 

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    Associated Press

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  • North Carolina dominates Florida State 92-67 in ACC Tournament quarterfinals

    North Carolina dominates Florida State 92-67 in ACC Tournament quarterfinals

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    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Armando Bacot scored 14 points and grabbed 10 of his team’s 48 rebounds to Florida State’s 22, and fourth-ranked North Carolina rolled into the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals with a 92-67 victory Thursday.

    What You Need To Know

    • North Carolina overpowered Florida State 92-67 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals

    • RJ Davis scored 18 points and Armando Bacot had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar  Heels

    • The Seminoles’ Jamir Watkins, who scored 34 points Wednesday, was held to 12 points Thursday

    • Primo Spears led Florida State scorers with 17 points

    • North Carolina will play either Wake Forest or Pitt on Friday night

    Bacot got the double-double with a rebound on his final play before being pulled midway through the second half, and unanimous ACC player of the year RJ Davis scored a game-high 18 points.

    “Their effort, energy, attention to detail defensively was good,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “And for us to dominate the boards on both ends, I thought that was a huge key for us in allowing them to be successful out there.”

    Winning their sixth in a row, the Tar Heels flexed their muscles on the boards, at one point grabbing four offensive rebounds on the same possession late in the first half — a sequence Bacot described as “a ton of fun.” By halftime, the Seminoles had just six.

    “Rebounding is not about size and athleticism, it’s about heart and will and positioning,” said Harrison Ingram, who also had 10 rebounds. “We’ve been working on it every single day.”

    A combination of rebounding domination and some timely shooting — as Florida State went ice cold from the floor — helped UNC (26-6, 18-3 ACC) pull away. Four Tar Heels scored in double figures.

    Shooting for a No. 1-seeding in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC’s regular-season champions face Wake Forest or Pitt on Friday night with a spot in the final on the line.

    No. 11 Duke could be there for a rematch from last week and a third meeting between the Tobacco Road rivals in the past two months. UNC has not reached an ACC Tournament final since 2018 and hasn’t won it since 2016, when the event was also in Washington.

    “It’s something none of us have experienced other than the coaches,’ said Bacot, who’s in his fifth season in Chapel Hill. ”We feel like it’s right there for the taking, so that’s why we’ve been playing so hard.”

    FSU didn’t pose much of a challenge to UNC. The Tar Heels also got 14 points from Cormac Ryan, who went 3 of 4 from 3-point range fresh off his leading performance against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

    Primo Spears led ninth-seeded Florida State (17-16, 10-11) with 17 points. Spears did so in his old home arena after playing last season at Georgetown.

    Three Seminoles finished in double-figure scoring. Jamir Watkins, who scored 34 points Wednesday against Virginia Tech, had 12 points, five assists and four rebounds Thursday, and Jalen Warley added 10 points.

    “We got beat by a team that played better than us,” longtime coach Leonard Hamilton said. “They were much more aggressive, much more physical.”

    Big picture

    Florida State: Missing the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive season could bring some questions about how the program is trending under Hamilton. The struggles came after the Seminoles reached the Sweet 16 twice and made one trip to the Elite Eight sandwiched around a successful 2019-20 season that would have brought a high seeding before the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    North Carolina: The selection committee is watching, and there’s no rust on a team that looks every bit like a national championship contender. The Tar Heels were sharp in their first game since Saturday, and even if they may need another top team to falter in its conference tournament, is on track to get a No. 1-seeding if they keep playing like this the rest of the week.

    Up next

    UNC: Is again expected to be a heavy favorite against Pitt or Wake Forest, with much more Carolina blue expected in the stands as the weekend goes on.

    FSU: An NIT bid is a possibility for the Seminoles.

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    Associated Press

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  • FSU’s 2nd-half surge fuels 86-76 victory over Virginia Tech at ACC Tournament

    FSU’s 2nd-half surge fuels 86-76 victory over Virginia Tech at ACC Tournament

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — Jamir Watkins scored 12 of his career-high 34 points in the final three minutes, Jalen Warley added 18 points and ninth-seeded Florida State pulled away in the second half to beat No. 8-seeded Virginia Tech 86-76 on Wednesday in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

    What You Need To Know

    • FSU defeated Virginia Tech 86-76 Wednesday in the second round of the ACC Tournament

    • Jamir Watkins led the Seminoles with 34 points, a team record in the tournament

    • Next up for ninth-seeded FSU is top-seeded North Carolina at noon Thursday

    • Sean Pedulla scored 24 points for Virginia Tech

    Watkins was 9 of 15 from the field and 14 of 17 at the free-throw line to set a program record for points in an ACC Tournament game. He also had 11 rebounds and four steals. Warley made 8 of his 10 shots as Florida State shot 54% from the field.

    Virginia Tech was 4-of-17 shooting in the opening 17 minutes of the second half. The Hokies also finished with 13 turnovers, leading to 25 points for the Seminoles.

    Florida State (17-15) advances to play top-seeded and fourth-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinals at noon Thursday. The Seminoles dropped both regular-season meetings with the Tar Heels, 78-70 on the road and 75-68 at home. Florida State hasn’t beaten North Carolina since the 2020-21 season.

    Tyler Nickel sank a long 3-pointer with 7 minutes, 28 seconds left to tie the score at 57, but Virginia Tech did not make another field goal until Sean Pedulla’s basket with 2:42 remaining to pull within 71-62.

    Florida State took advantage of back-to-back Virginia Tech turnovers with layups by Warley and Primo Spears to take a 63-58 lead with 5:01 left. Another steal under the basket led to Warley’s fast-break layup to make it 68-58 at 3:06.

    Each team turned it over on an inbounds play, and Watkins was fouled before making two free throws at 2:49. Watkins added two more free throws at 2:30 and had an alley-oop dunk at 2:11 for a 74-65 lead.

    Spears finished with 10 points for the Seminoles.

    Pedulla scored 24 points, Nickel added 18 and MJ Collins had 15 for Virginia Tech (18-14).

    Both teams shot 55% or better from the field in the first half. Virginia Tech shot 64% (16 of 25), despite going 4 of 11 from 3-point range, in the first half before finishing at 49%.

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  • BYU gets best of UCF again, knocks Knights out of Big 12 Tournament

    BYU gets best of UCF again, knocks Knights out of Big 12 Tournament

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — BYU coach Mark Pope was almost embarrassed to bring up what he viewed as a cosmic chain of events that began when his team was picked to finish 13th in the Big 12 and culminated with a victory over UCF in the Big 12 Conference Tournament on Wednesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Fifth-seeded BYU defeated 12th-seeded UCF 87-73 in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament

    • Darius Johnson hit six 3-pointers and scored 32 points to lead the Knights

    • UCF briefly cut BYU’s lead to 18 points midway through the second half

    • Fousseyni Traore had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Cougars

    After all, when Taylor Swift is mentioned in Kansas City, eyerolls often follow.

    “That’s Taylor Swift’s favorite number,” Pope said of the pop star, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — as if anyone needed clarification. “This morning, I found out that our first game against UCF was on Jan. 13. Our second game was on Feb. 13. So we knew with our third game on March 13, the deck was stacked against these guys. It wasn’t even fair.

    “We’re in Kansas City,” Pope added. “I mean, what?”

    The win wasn’t a given. But the No. 20 Cougars, who are seeded fifth in the tournament, made it seem that way. They scored the first 14 points, used a 12-0 run in the second half when things got close and cruised from there to the 87-73 victory.

    “The focus if we were going to win this thing was on the defensive end,” the Cougars’ Richie Saunders said. “It was no different this game: getting stops in transition, protecting the ball and being strong with the ball.”

    Fousseyni Traore had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way, while Saunders and Dalin Hall scored 13 apiece and Trevin Knell had 12, sending BYU (23-9) into a quarterfinal game Thursday against fourth-seeded and No. 25 Texas Tech.

    “BYU played a really good game,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “They started off hot. Really shot the 3-ball well to start off, something they’ve done well all season. … For us, we have to get better at what we do, with execution defensively.”

    Darius Johnson did everything he could to keep No. 12-seeded UCF alive, hitting six 3s and scoring 32 points. But he didn’t have much help in the second half, when the Knights (17-15) briefly trimmed an early 18-point lead to just three midway through.

    BYU answered with a 12-0 run that gave it the breathing room it needed to coast into the next round.

    “Every second half, the focus is, ‘We’re going to win this thing on the defensive end.’ It was no different in this game,” Saunders said. “Getting stops in transition, protecting the ball, being strong with the ball.”

    The Knights made their Big 12 tourney debut Tuesday, when they ran roughshod through Oklahoma State. And they still might have been catching their breath when their second-round game tipped off because the Cougars ran right over them.

    The Cougars opened their first tournament in their new league by racing out to a 21-3 lead.

    The run by one of the nation’s prolific perimeter teams was fueled by 3-pointers, not surprisingly, along with some suffocating defense, which held UCF without a basket until Jaylin Sellers converted a three-point play about five minutes into the game.

    The Knights eventually found their footing, and despite a technical foul on their bench that gave BYU a couple of free points, they slowly trimmed their deficit to 47-38 by halftime. And when C.J. Walker got hot to start the second half, and Johnson hit 3s on consecutive possessions, the Knights had closed to within 59-56 with 13-1/2 minutes to go.

    That’s where the comeback fizzled.

    The Cougars started getting to the foul line, Saunders hit a 3 from the wing and Pope’s team unleashed that 12-0 run over the next four minutes. That pushed the lead back to 71-56 and effectively put the game away.

    “We were able to do what we do offensively,” Saunders said, “and either push in transition or get into our half-court sets, which — because people like Fousseyni were protecting the ball — we were able to get the open shots we thrive on.”

    Up next

    UCF: Probably will play somewhere in the postseason, thanks to the strength of schedule afforded by the brutal Big 12. But it won’t be the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in eight seasons with Dawkins on the sideline.

    BYU: The Cougars will play fourth-seeded Texas Tech at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. They lost to the Red Raiders on the road in their only regular-season meeting in January.

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  • Judge overseeing Georgia election case dismisses some charges against Trump

    Judge overseeing Georgia election case dismisses some charges against Trump

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    The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump and others, but the rest of the sweeping racketeering indictment remains intact.

    What You Need To Know

    • The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case has dismissed some of the charges against ex-President Donald Trump, but others remain

    • Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote Wednesday in an order six of the charges in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump

    • The judge wrote that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed

    • The six charges in question have to do with soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office, including two charges related to the phone call Trump made to fellow Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021

    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. But he left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.

    The ruling is a blow for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who already is facing an effort to have her removed from the prosecution over her romantic relationship with a colleague. It’s the first time charges in any of Trump’s four criminal cases have been dismissed, with the judge saying prosecutors failed to provide enough detail about the alleged crime.

    The sprawling indictment charges Trump and more than a dozen other defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The case uses a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

    Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment Wednesday. A Willis spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    McAfee’s ruling came after challenges to parts of the indictment from Trump, former New York mayor and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys John Eastman, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley. They have all pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.

    The six challenged counts charge the defendants with soliciting public officers to violate their oaths. One count stems from a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”

    Another of the dismissed counts accuses Trump of soliciting then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralson to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.

    McAfee said the counts did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.

    “The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote. “They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently.”

    McAfee’s order leaves Meadows facing only a RICO charge. Jim Durham, a lawyer for Meadows, declined to comment.

    The ruling comes as McAfee is considering a bid to have Willis disqualified from the case over what defense attorneys say is a conflict of interest due to her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. McAfee could rule by the end of this week on the disqualification bid, which would throw the most sprawling of the four criminal cases against Trump into question.

    Willis, who has said their relationship ended months ago, has said there is no conflict of interest and no reason to remove her from the case.

    The nearly 100-page Georgia indictment details dozens of alleged acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including harassing an election worker, who faced false claims of fraud, and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of Electoral College electors favorable to Trump.

    Of the 19 people originally charged in the indictment, four have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. They include prominent Trump allies and attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro.

    The Georgia case covers some of the same ground as the federal case in Washington brought by special counsel Jack Smith that charges Trump with conspiring to overturn his election loss in a desperate bid to stay in power. Trump is charged separately by Smith with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them.

    Trump is scheduled to go to trial later this month in New York in a case accusing him of falsifying his company’s internal records to hide the true nature of payments to a former lawyer who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign.

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  • UCF knocks out Oklahoma State in its 1st Big 12 Tournament game

    UCF knocks out Oklahoma State in its 1st Big 12 Tournament game

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ibrahima Diallo had 17 points and 11 rebounds, C.J. Walker added 12 points, and 12th-seeded UCF used an 18-1 run to start the second half and roll to a 77-62 victory over No. 13-seeded Oklahoma State to open the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • UCF advances to the second round of its Big 12 Tournament

    • Ibrahima Diallo led the Knights with 17 points and 11 rebounds in a 77-62 victory against Oklahoma State

    • C.J. Walker added 12 points, and Darius Johnson had 11 for UCF

    • The Knights will take on BYU in the second round at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday

    Darius Johnson also had 11 points for the Knights (17-14), who led 35-31 at halftime before cruising into Wednesday’s second-round game against 20th-ranked BYU, another Big 12 newcomer and the fourth-seeded team in the tournament.

    Javon Small hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points for the Cowboys (12-20), who finished the season on a six-game losing streak. Eric Dailey Jr. added 12 points and Brandon Garrison had 10.

    UCF and Oklahoma State both got off to dreadful shooting starts, combining to go 5 for 25 from the field, and things never got a whole lot better, even as the Knights built a 35-31 halftime lead in their first game in their first Big 12 Tournament.

    The game plan for UCF was clear: use its size advantage to its benefit.

    The 7-foot Diallo had 11 points and seven rebounds by halftime, and the 6-8 Walker and 6-10 Omar Payne were active around the rim whenever the fifth-year senior from Senegal was able to catch a breather on the bench.

    UCF stuck with that plan in the second half, when Diallo and Walker joined Jaylin Sellers in scoring the first 13 points to stretch the lead to 48-31 with 15 minutes, 15 seconds to go. And when the Cowboys finally got a free throw from Dailey, the Knights scored five more to extend their run to 18-1 before Dailey finally got Oklahoma State’s first field goal of the half with 11:50 remaining.

    By that point, the Knights had pushed their lead past 20 and were coasting into the Big 12 tourney’s second round.

    Up next

    Oklahoma State: Must decide whether to keep coach Mike Boynton, who has three 20-win seasons but only one NCAA Tournament berth in seven seasons leading the Cowboys. They’ve also had just one winning record in conference play.

    UCF: Plays BYU in the second round at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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  • Disney seeks major expansion of California theme park

    Disney seeks major expansion of California theme park

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    Walking through the frosty, snow-covered hamlet of Arendelle from “Frozen,” or the bustling, critter-filled metropolis of “Zootopia” might be possible one day for visitors to Disney’s California theme parks.

    That’s only if Disney wins approval from local officials to expand its Anaheim resort over the next four decades.

    What You Need To Know

    • Disney is seeking approval from local officials to expand its California theme park offerings over the next four decades
    • The proposal wouldn’t increase the company’s geographic footprint in Anaheim, but would allow for new attractions on unused spaces, including a large parking lot
    • Disney officials say there isn’t room to build new immersive experiences in its California theme parks without these changes
    • Anaheim’s planning commission is expected to review the proposal Monday, and the city council still must approve it before it to takes effect. The plan would require Disney to invest $1.9 billion in theme park-related offerings in the next decade

    The proposed expansion wouldn’t increase Disney’s 490-acre footprint in Southern California or change what the company already has permission to build. But it could help the company develop new attractions. They could place rides and entertainment options on what is currently a sprawling, 50-acre parking lot — and move parking for Disneyland to a multistory structure — all while keeping within the boundaries of a resort surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

    “We know there are stories out there we haven’t told yet, like ‘Wakanda’ or ‘Coco’ or ‘Frozen’ or ‘Zootopia’,” said Rachel Alde, Disney’s senior vice president of global development and finance. “We know what kind of stories we would love to tell. We need to get the guidance on what we can build there so we can understand how.”

    The city of Anaheim’s planning commission on Monday reviewed the proposal for Disneyland, dubbed the “happiest place on Earth.” The project — which would require Disney to invest at least $1.9 billion in the theme park, lodging, entertainment and related uses over the next decade — still must be approved by the city council before taking effect.

    Disney’s goal is to create what it calls more immersive experiences for tourists, similar to the attraction Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which opened in California in 2019. The company said it doesn’t yet know which stories would be central to the new developments, but the idea is to create areas like “Zootopia” in Shanghai Disneyland, where animal characters walk through a vibrant cityscape that resembles the setting of the film.

    Right now, there isn’t enough room in the original Disneyland in California to build something on a large scale without affecting existing attractions, which are relished by loyal, long-time visitors to the company’s oldest theme park, Alde said.

    Staff for the city’s Planning and Building Department has recommended Disney’s application be approved.

    The project “will allow us to continue Walt’s legacy of bringing Disney stories to life, right here in Anaheim,” Ken Potrock, president of Disneyland Resort, told the planning commission on Monday. Disneyland was founded in 1955 by Walt Disney.

    Amid overwhelmingly positive public comment during hourslong meeting, neighbors and Anaheim residents praised Disney’s outreach to the community, including seeking feedback for noise and design.

    One woman noted that the resort’s work to include neighbor voices in meetings and town halls featured multiple efforts “short of coming to my front door and handing me an invitation.”

    Other speakers in support included trade organizations, like the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Attractions and Parks Association, and local unions.

    It’s the first time Disney has sought a major change to its California theme parks since the 1990s, when the company obtained approvals to turn its first park into a resort hub. It later added a second park, Disney California Adventure Park, and a shopping and entertainment area called Downtown Disney.

    Disneyland was the second-most visited theme park in the world in 2022 with 16.8 million people coming through the gates, according to a report by the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM.

    Disney’s parks are a tourism magnet for Southern California and especially for Anaheim, which is Orange County’s most populous city and home to more than 345,000 people as well as a major league baseball team and national hockey league team. Hotel revenue typically makes up about half of Anaheim’s revenue, and is expected to climb to $236 million this year, according to city estimates.

    “Visitors generate a tremendous amount of revenue for our city that allows us to invest in our neighborhoods,” said Erin Ryan, a spokesperson for the city of Anaheim. “Disney brings a lot of tourists here.”

    The plan also would require the company to invest tens of millions of dollars in street improvements, affordable housing and other infrastructure in the city. Disney has held workshops to address residents’ questions about the proposal, including concerns about the company’s plan to absorb a local road into the theme park.

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  • ‘Oppenheimer’ crowned best picture at an Academy Awards shadowed by war

    ‘Oppenheimer’ crowned best picture at an Academy Awards shadowed by war

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    LOS ANGELES — “Oppenheimer,” a solemn three-hour biopic that became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned best picture at a 96th Academy Awards that doubled as a coronation for Christopher Nolan.

    What You Need To Know

    • In anointing “Oppenheimer,” the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences did something it hasn’t done for more than a decade: hand its top prize to a widely seen, big-budget studio film

    • “Oppenheimer” emerged — even over its partner in cultural phenomenon, “Barbie” — as a fittingly foreboding film for times rife with cataclysm, man-made or not

    • The most closely watched contest went to Emma Stone, who won best best actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in “Poor Things”

    • A year after “Navalny” won the same award, Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing chronicle of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, won best documentary

    After passing over arguably Hollywood’s foremost big-screen auteur for years, the Oscars made up for lost time by heaping seven awards on Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, including best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and best director for Nolan.

    In anointing “Oppenheimer,” the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences did something it hasn’t done for more than a decade: hand its top prize to a widely seen, big-budget studio film. In a film industry where a cape, dinosaur or Tom Cruise has often been a requirement for such box office, “Oppenheimer” brought droves of moviegoers to theaters with a complex, fission-filled drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb.

    “For better or worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” said Murphy in his acceptance speech. “I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.”

    As a film heavy with unease for human capacity for mass destruction, “Oppenheimer” also emerged — even over its partner in cultural phenomenon, “Barbie” — as a fittingly foreboding film for times rife with cataclysm, man-made or not.

    Sunday’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles unfolded against the backdrop of wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and with a potentially momentous U.S. election on the horizon. Awards for the documentary winner, “20 Days in Mariupol,” and best international film, “The Zone of Interest,” brought geopolitics into the Oscar spotlight.

    The most closely watched contest went to Emma Stone, who won best actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in “Poor Things.” In what was seen as the night’s most nail-biting category, Stone won over Lily Gladstone of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone would have become the first Native American to win an Academy Award.

    Instead, Oscar voters couldn’t resist the full-bodied extremes of Stone’s “Poor Things” performance. The win for Stone, her second best actress Oscar following her 2017 win for “La La Land,” confirmed the 35-year-old as arguably the preeminent big-screen actress of her generation. The list of women to win best actress two or more times is illustrious, including Katharine Hepburn, Frances McDormand, Ingrid Bergman and Bette Davis.

    “Oh, boy, this is really overwhelming,” said Stone, who fought back tears and a broken dress during her speech.

    Sunday’s broadcast had razzle dazzle, including a sprawling song-and-dance rendition of the “Barbie” hit “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling, with an assist on guitar by Slash and a sea of Kens who swarmed the stage.

    But protest and politics intruded on an election-year Academy Awards. Late during the show, host Jimmy Kimmel read a critical social media post from former president Donald Trump.

    “Thank you for watching,” said Kimmel. “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

    Nolan has had many movies in the Oscar mix before, including “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and “The Dark Knight.” But his win Sunday for direction is the first Academy Award for the 53-year-old filmmaker. Addressing the crowd, Nolan noted cinema is just over a hundred years old.

    “Imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater,” said Nolan, who shared the best-picture award with Emma Thomas, his wife and producer. “We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”

    Downey, nominated twice before (for “Chaplin” and “Tropic Thunder”), also notched his first Oscar, crowning the illustrious second act of his up-and-down career.

    “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the academy, in that order,” said Downey, the son of filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.

    “Barbie,” last year’s biggest box-office hit with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales, ultimately won just one award: best song (sorry, Ken) for Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “What Was I Made For?” It’s their second Oscar, two years after winning for their James Bond theme, “No Time to Die.”

    Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza snarled traffic around the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, slowing stars’ arrival on the red carpet and turning the Oscar’ attention toward the ongoing conflict. Some protesters shouted “Shame!” at those trying to reach the awards.

    Jonathan Glazer, the British filmmaker whose chilling Auschwitz drama “The Zone of Interest” won best international film, drew connections between the dehumanization depicted in his film and today.

    “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

    A year after “Navalny” won the same award, Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing chronicle of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, won best documentary. The win, a first for The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline,” came as the war in Ukraine passed the two-year mark with no signs of abating.

    Chernov, the Ukrainian filmmaker and AP journalist whose hometown was bombed the day he learned of his Oscar nomination, spoke forcefully about Russia’s invasion.

    “This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honored,” said Chernov. “Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this (for) Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

    In the early going, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein-riff “Poor Things” ran away with three prizes for its sumptuous craft, including awards for production design, makeup and hairstyling and costume design. “Poor Things” fared second best to “Oppenheimer,” with a total of four awards.

    Kimmel, hosting the ABC telecast for the fourth time, opened the awards with a monologue that emphasized Hollywood as “a union town” following 2023’s actor and writer strikes, drew a standing ovation for bringing out teamsters and behind-the-scenes workers — who are now entering their own labor negotiations.

    The night’s first award was one of its most predictable: Da’Vine Joy Randolph for best supporting actress, for her performance in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.” An emotional Randolph was accompanied to the stage by her “Holdovers” co-star Paul Giamatti.

    “For so long I’ve always wanted to be different,” said Randolph. “And now I realize I just need to be myself.”

    Though Randolph’s win was widely expected, an upset quickly followed. Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” won for best animated feature, a surprise over the slightly favored “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Miyazaki, the 83-year-old Japanese anime master who came out of retirement to make “The Boy and the Heron,” didn’t attend the ceremony. He also didn’t attend the 2003 Oscars when his “Spirited Away” won the same award.

    Best original screenplay went to “Anatomy of a Fall,” which, like “Barbie,” was penned by a couple: director Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. “This will help me through my midlife crisis, I think,” said Triet.

    In adapted screenplay, where “Barbie” was nominated — and where some suspected Greta Gerwig would win after being overlooked for director — the Oscar went to Cord Jefferson, who wrote and directed his feature film debut “American Fiction.” He pleaded for executives to take risks on young filmmakers like himself.

    “Instead of making a $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies,” said Jefferson, previously an award-winning TV writer.

    The Oscars belonged largely to theatrical-first films. Though it came into the awards with 19 nominations, Netflix was a bit player. Its lone win came for live action short: Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on the story by Roald Dahl.

    The win for “Oppenheimer” offered Hollywood a chance to celebrate despite swirling storm clouds in the film industry. Nolan’s film debuted last year just as actors joined screenwriters in a prolonged strike over streaming economics and artificial intelligence. The actors’ strike ended in November, but little of Hollywood’s unease subsided. Streaming has proved less lucrative for most studios not named Netflix.

    But “Barbenheimer” was the kind of unplanned phenomenon Hollywood needs more of. The two films could also give a lift to the Oscar telecast, which has historically benefitted from having big movies in contention. The Academy Awards’ largest audience ever came when James Cameron’s “Titanic” swept the 1998 Oscars.

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  • Pacers beat Orlando, close within a game of Magic in Eastern Conference

    Pacers beat Orlando, close within a game of Magic in Eastern Conference

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    ORLANDO, Fla. — Once the Indiana Pacers started running, they were hard to stop.

    Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam each scored 20 points, and the Pacers beat Orlando 111-97 on Sunday night to close within a game of the Magic in the Eastern Conference standings.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Pacers came back on the Magic in the second half and won 111-97

    • Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakam both scored 20 points for Indiana

    • Paolo Banchero had 19 points for Orlando, and Cole Anthony added 16

    • The loss was the second in a row for the Magic against teams with which they’re battling for a playoff spot

    Paolo Banchero had 19 points for Orlando, Cole Anthony added 16 and Wendell Carter had 13 points and 15 rebounds.

    Indiana fell behind by 15 points early, but the game changed abruptly when T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin came off the bench. They scored 17 points each for the Pacers. McConnell also contributed six assists.

    “T.J. McConnell gave us a great lift when he came into the game because we were struggling to score,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He got to the rim a few times and really boosted our energy from there.”

    The highest-scoring team in the NBA, Indiana, had only 18 points in the first quarter. Haliburton’s basket with 6 minutes, 49 seconds left in the second quarter marked his first points of the game and the Pacers’ only 3-pointer of the first half. After making only seven of their first 23 shots, the Pacers finished the game at 49.4%.

    “We understand that we’re one of the best teams in transition, and the only way we can get transition buckets is getting stops,” Toppin said. “I felt we locked into getting those stops, which allowed us to get a lot more transition points.”

    The Pacers moved ahead for keeps on a 3-pointer by Aaron Nesmith early in the second half. They led by 15 by the end of the third quarter, and Toppin’s layup early in the fourth gave Indiana its biggest lead of the game, 99-83.

    “We just didn’t do a great job of having that sense of urgency, to sprint back,” Anthony said. “I know Toppin had five or six layups where he just outran everyone down the court. That can’t happen. That’s their style. They’re comfortable in it. We let them play their game.”

    The Magic have dropped two in a row for the first time since Jan. 22-26. They shot 37.5% after scoring 128 and 117 points in victories at Indiana in November and December.

    “We’re a very good running team, and that’s well-documented,” Carlisle said. “What we needed tonight was a much higher level of determination than we had in the first two games against these guys.”

    The Pacers played for the first time since learning that Bennedict Mathurin will miss the rest of the season after having shoulder surgery.

    The Magic played without Jalen Suggs (thigh contusion) and Markelle Fultz (left knee strain). Caleb Houstan started in place of Suggs and did not score in 22 minutes.

    The Magic had won 13 of 17 and were beginning a stretch of games in which they will have played 10 of 11 at home. They scored a then-NBA season-low 74 points in a loss at New York on Friday night.

    “That’s part of this league. Once you get comfortable, you can get knocked right off your feet, and I think that’s what’s happened to us these last two games,” Anthony said.

    Up next

    Pacers: At Oklahoma City on Tuesday night.

    Magic: Host Brooklyn on Wednesday night.

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  • U.S. flies forces in to defend embassy in Haiti, evacuate nonessential personnel

    U.S. flies forces in to defend embassy in Haiti, evacuate nonessential personnel

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    The U.S. military said Sunday that it had flown forces in to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and allow nonessential personnel to leave.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. military has flown forces in to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and evacuate nonessential personnel
    • The U.S. Southern Command said Sunday that the aircraft flew directly into the embassy compound meaning that it involved helicopters
    • Southcom was careful to point out that “no Haitians were on board the military aircraft.” That seemed aimed at quashing any reports of senior government officials possibly leaving Haiti as the gang attacks in Haiti worsen
    • The neighborhood around the embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince is largely controlled by gangs
    • The Southcom statement said that the United States remains focused on aiding Haitian police and arranging some kind of U.N.-authorized security deployment

    The aircraft flew to the embassy compound, the U.S. Southern Command said, meaning that the effort involved helicopters. It was careful to point out that “no Haitians were on board the military aircraft.” That seemed aimed at quashing any speculation that senior government officials might be leaving as the gang attacks in Haiti worsen.

    The neighborhood around the embassy in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is largely controlled by gangs.

    “This airlift of personnel into and out of the Embassy is consistent with our standard practice for Embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” according to the Southcom statement.

    In many cases, nonessential personnel can include the families of diplomats, but the embassy had already ordered departure for nonessential staff and all family members in July.

    The statement Sunday said that the United States remains focused on aiding Haitian police and arranging some kind of U.N.-authorized security deployment. But those efforts have been unsuccessful so far.

    The U.S. embassy in Haiti said they remain open, but noted that could change if the country continues to devolve into violence. A State Department spokesperson also confirmed the arrival of security personnel and the departure of staff that marked a reduction in the diplomatic presence on the ground.

    Haiti’s embattled prime minister, Ariel Henry, traveled recently to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country to fight the gangs. But a Kenyan court ruled in January that such a deployment would be unconstitutional.

    Henry, who is facing calls to resign or form a transitional council, remains unable to return home. He arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday after he was unable to land in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti.

    On Saturday, the office of Dominican President Luis Abinader issued a statement saying that “Henry is not welcome in the Dominican Republic for safety reasons.” The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has closed its land border.

    “Given the current situation, the presence of the Haitian prime minister in the Dominican Republic is not considered appropriate,” according to the statement, adding that “this decision reflects the firm position of the Dominican government to safeguard its national security and stability.”

    The statement described the security situation in Haiti as “totally unsustainable” and said that it “poses a direct threat to the safety and stability of the Dominican Republic.”

    The statement predicted “the situation could deteriorate even further if a peacekeeping force is not implemented urgently to restore order.”

    Caribbean leaders have called for an emergency meeting Monday in Jamaica on what they called Haiti’s “dire” situation. They have invited the United States, France, Canada, the United Nations and Brazil to the meeting.

    Members of the Caricom regional trade bloc have been trying for months to get political actors in Haiti to agree to form an umbrella transitional unity government.

    Caricom said Friday that while regional leaders remain deeply engaged in trying to bring opposition parties and civil society groups together to form a unity government, “the stakeholders are not yet where they need to be.”

    “We are acutely aware of the urgent need for consensus to be reached,” according to the statement. “We have impressed on the respective parties that time is not on their side in agreeing to the way forward. From our reports, the situation on the ground remains dire and is of serious concern to us.”

    In February, Henry agreed to hold a general election by mid-2025, and the international community has tried to find some foreign armed force willing to fight gang violence there.

    Caricom has also pushed Henry to announce a power-sharing, consensus government in the meantime, but the prime minister has yet to do so even as Haitian opposition parties and civil society groups are demanding his resignation.

    Henry, a neurosurgeon, was appointed as Haiti’s prime minister after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

    It was unclear whether Henry would be in Jamaica for the Caricom meeting.

    In Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, police and palace guards worked Saturday to retake some streets in the capital after gangs launched major attacks on at least three police stations.

    Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armored truck tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations after police fought off an attack by gangs late Friday.

    Sporadic gunfire continued Saturday, and one woman writhed in pain on the sidewalk in downtown Port-au-Prince with a gunshot wound after a stray bullet hit her in the leg.

    The unrelenting gang attacks have paralyzed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Haitian officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

    But average Haitians, many of whom have been forced from their homes by the bloody street fighting, can’t wait. The problem for police in securing government buildings is that many Haitians have streamed into them, seeking refuge.

    “We are the ones who pay taxes, and we need to have shelter,” said one woman, who didn’t give her name for safety reasons.

    Another Port-au-Prince resident, who also did not give his name, described Friday’s attacks.

    “They (the gangs) came with big guns. We have no guns and we cannot defend ourselves. All of us, the children are suffering,” said the man.

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  • A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

    A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

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    A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza was on its way to the Mediterranean on Sunday, three days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry.

    What You Need To Know

    • A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza is on its way to the Mediterranean
    • The voyage began just two days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry
    • Meanwhile, Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has dragged on, with at least 22 Palestinians reported killed in two Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday
    • Among the dead were women and children, including an infant. Biden has sharply criticized Israel for its conduct of the war, saying it must do much more to prevent the killing of civilians


    The opening of the sea corridor, along with airdrops by the U.S., Jordan and others, showed increasing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli control over land shipments.

    Israel said it welcomed the sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves a staging area in nearby Cyprus. The daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 that entered before the war because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.

    Biden has stepped up his public criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he believes Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its sixth month.

    Speaking Saturday to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, but said that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.” He added that “you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

    In Gaza, Palestinian casualties continued to rise.

    The Civil Defense Department said at least nine Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City late Saturday.

    Footage shared by the civil defense showed first responders pulling out the dead and injured trapped in the collapsed house. One rescuer was seen holding a dead infant, before placing the limp body on a sofa amid the wreckage.

    Elsewhere, the bodies of 15 people, including women and children, were taken to the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, according to an Associated Press journalist. Relatives said they were killed by Israeli artillery fire toward a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the coastal area east of the southern city of Khan Younis.

    Israel rarely comments on specific incidents during the war. It has held that Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties because the militant group operates from within civilian areas.

    The Health Ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and its figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the U.N. and independent experts.

    Meanwhile, U.S. efforts got underway to set up the temporary pier in Gaza for the sea deliveries. U.S. Central Command said a first U.S. Army vessel, the General Frank S. Besson, left a base in Virginia on Saturday and was on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean with equipment for pier construction.

    U.S. officials said it will likely be weeks before the pier is operational.

    The sea corridor is backed by the EU together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The European Commission has said that U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.

    A ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor as early as this weekend. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’ port of Larnaca.

    Open Arms founder Oscar Camps has said the ship, which is pulling a barge with 200 tons of rice and flour, would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location.

    A member of the charity World Central Kitchen, which is also involved in the test run, said on X, formerly Twitter, that once the barge reaches Gaza, the aid would be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven to northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from aid shipments.

    Senior aid officials have warned that air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.

    The new push for getting more aid in came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which follows a lunar calendar and could start as early as Sunday evening, depending on the sighting of a crescent moon.

    Israel declared war on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking 250 hostages. Israel’s blistering air and ground offensive has devastated large parts of Gaza, displaced about 80% of the population of 2.3 million and set off a worsening humanitarian crisis.

    The U.S. and regional mediators Egypt and Qatar had hoped to have a six-week cease-fire in place by the start of Ramadan, but talks appeared to be stalled, with Hamas holding out for assurances that a temporary truce will lead to an end of hostilities.

    Mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with the temporary cease-fire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.

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    Associated Press

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  • A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

    A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

    [ad_1]

    A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza was on its way to the Mediterranean on Sunday, three days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry.

    What You Need To Know

    • A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza is on its way to the Mediterranean
    • The voyage began just two days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry
    • Meanwhile, Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has dragged on, with at least 22 Palestinians reported killed in two Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday
    • Among the dead were women and children, including an infant. Biden has sharply criticized Israel for its conduct of the war, saying it must do much more to prevent the killing of civilians


    The opening of the sea corridor, along with airdrops by the U.S., Jordan and others, showed increasing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli control over land shipments.

    Israel said it welcomed the sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves a staging area in nearby Cyprus. The daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 that entered before the war because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.

    Biden has stepped up his public criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he believes Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its sixth month.

    Speaking Saturday to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, but said that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.” He added that “you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

    In Gaza, Palestinian casualties continued to rise.

    The Civil Defense Department said at least nine Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City late Saturday.

    Footage shared by the civil defense showed first responders pulling out the dead and injured trapped in the collapsed house. One rescuer was seen holding a dead infant, before placing the limp body on a sofa amid the wreckage.

    Elsewhere, the bodies of 15 people, including women and children, were taken to the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, according to an Associated Press journalist. Relatives said they were killed by Israeli artillery fire toward a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the coastal area east of the southern city of Khan Younis.

    Israel rarely comments on specific incidents during the war. It has held that Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties because the militant group operates from within civilian areas.

    The Health Ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and its figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the U.N. and independent experts.

    Meanwhile, U.S. efforts got underway to set up the temporary pier in Gaza for the sea deliveries. U.S. Central Command said a first U.S. Army vessel, the General Frank S. Besson, left a base in Virginia on Saturday and was on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean with equipment for pier construction.

    U.S. officials said it will likely be weeks before the pier is operational.

    The sea corridor is backed by the EU together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The European Commission has said that U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.

    A ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor as early as this weekend. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’ port of Larnaca.

    Open Arms founder Oscar Camps has said the ship, which is pulling a barge with 200 tons of rice and flour, would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location.

    A member of the charity World Central Kitchen, which is also involved in the test run, said on X, formerly Twitter, that once the barge reaches Gaza, the aid would be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven to northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from aid shipments.

    Senior aid officials have warned that air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.

    The new push for getting more aid in came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which follows a lunar calendar and could start as early as Sunday evening, depending on the sighting of a crescent moon.

    Israel declared war on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking 250 hostages. Israel’s blistering air and ground offensive has devastated large parts of Gaza, displaced about 80% of the population of 2.3 million and set off a worsening humanitarian crisis.

    The U.S. and regional mediators Egypt and Qatar had hoped to have a six-week cease-fire in place by the start of Ramadan, but talks appeared to be stalled, with Hamas holding out for assurances that a temporary truce will lead to an end of hostilities.

    Mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with the temporary cease-fire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.

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    Associated Press

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  • A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

    A U.S. ship with equipment for building a pier is on its way to Gaza

    [ad_1]

    A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza was on its way to the Mediterranean on Sunday, three days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry.

    What You Need To Know

    • A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza is on its way to the Mediterranean
    • The voyage began just two days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry
    • Meanwhile, Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has dragged on, with at least 22 Palestinians reported killed in two Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday
    • Among the dead were women and children, including an infant. Biden has sharply criticized Israel for its conduct of the war, saying it must do much more to prevent the killing of civilians


    The opening of the sea corridor, along with airdrops by the U.S., Jordan and others, showed increasing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli control over land shipments.

    Israel said it welcomed the sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves a staging area in nearby Cyprus. The daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 that entered before the war because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.

    Biden has stepped up his public criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he believes Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its sixth month.

    Speaking Saturday to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, but said that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.” He added that “you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

    In Gaza, Palestinian casualties continued to rise.

    The Civil Defense Department said at least nine Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City late Saturday.

    Footage shared by the civil defense showed first responders pulling out the dead and injured trapped in the collapsed house. One rescuer was seen holding a dead infant, before placing the limp body on a sofa amid the wreckage.

    Elsewhere, the bodies of 15 people, including women and children, were taken to the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, according to an Associated Press journalist. Relatives said they were killed by Israeli artillery fire toward a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the coastal area east of the southern city of Khan Younis.

    Israel rarely comments on specific incidents during the war. It has held that Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties because the militant group operates from within civilian areas.

    The Health Ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and its figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the U.N. and independent experts.

    Meanwhile, U.S. efforts got underway to set up the temporary pier in Gaza for the sea deliveries. U.S. Central Command said a first U.S. Army vessel, the General Frank S. Besson, left a base in Virginia on Saturday and was on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean with equipment for pier construction.

    U.S. officials said it will likely be weeks before the pier is operational.

    The sea corridor is backed by the EU together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The European Commission has said that U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.

    A ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor as early as this weekend. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’ port of Larnaca.

    Open Arms founder Oscar Camps has said the ship, which is pulling a barge with 200 tons of rice and flour, would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location.

    A member of the charity World Central Kitchen, which is also involved in the test run, said on X, formerly Twitter, that once the barge reaches Gaza, the aid would be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven to northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from aid shipments.

    Senior aid officials have warned that air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.

    The new push for getting more aid in came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which follows a lunar calendar and could start as early as Sunday evening, depending on the sighting of a crescent moon.

    Israel declared war on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking 250 hostages. Israel’s blistering air and ground offensive has devastated large parts of Gaza, displaced about 80% of the population of 2.3 million and set off a worsening humanitarian crisis.

    The U.S. and regional mediators Egypt and Qatar had hoped to have a six-week cease-fire in place by the start of Ramadan, but talks appeared to be stalled, with Hamas holding out for assurances that a temporary truce will lead to an end of hostilities.

    Mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with the temporary cease-fire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.

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    Associated Press

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  • Pope Francis’ ‘white flag’ remark met by criticism from Ukraine and its allies

    Pope Francis’ ‘white flag’ remark met by criticism from Ukraine and its allies

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    Ukrainian and allied officials criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a statement many interpreted as a call for Ukraine to surrender.

    What You Need To Know

    • Ukrainian and allied officials have criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia
    • The pontiff’s statement was interpreted by many as a call on Ukraine to surrender
    • The foreign minister of Poland and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican both used World War II analogies to condemn the pope’s remarks
    • Francis used the phrase “the courage of the white flag” to argue that Ukraine should be open to peace talks

    The foreign minister of Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, both used World War II analogies to condemn the pope’s remarks. And a leader of one of Ukraine’s Christian churches on Sunday said that only the country’s determined resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24, 2022, had prevented a mass slaughter of civilians.

    In an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI and partially released on Saturday, Francis used the phrase “the courage of the white flag” as he argued that Ukraine, facing a possible defeat, should be open to peace talks brokered by international powers.

    “How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski responded with a post on X, formerly Twitter.

    In a separate post, Sikorski drew parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying (Ukraine) the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler just before World War II.

    Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, said that it was “necessary to learn lessons” from that conflict. His tweet appeared to compare the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him.”

    Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later clarified that the pope supported “a stop to hostilities (and) a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations,” rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender. Bruni said that the journalist interviewing Francis used the term “white flag” in the question that prompted the controversial remarks.

    “I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” Francis said, when asked to weigh in on the debate between those who say that Ukraine should agree to peace talks and those who argue that any negotiations would legitimize Moscow’s aggression.

    Kyiv remains firm on not engaging directly with Russia on peace talks, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said multiple times that the initiative in peace negotiations must come from the country that has been invaded.

    Throughout the war, Francis has tried to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality, but that has often been accompanied by apparent sympathy with the Russian rationale for invading Ukraine, such as when he noted that NATO was “barking at Russia’s door” with its eastward expansion.

    While the pope has spoken in the past about the need for talks between Kyiv and Moscow, the RSI interview appears to mark the first time when he publicly used terms such as “white flag” or “defeated” while discussing the war.

    In the RSI interview, Francis insisted that “negotiations are never a surrender.”

    “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate,” he said.

    Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said Sunday that surrender isn’t on the minds of Ukrainians.

    “Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered! Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and will endure. Believe me, it never crosses anyone’s mind to surrender. Even where there is fighting today: listen to our people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy,” Shevchuk said while meeting with Ukrainians in New York City. He mentioned the regions that have been under heavy Russian artillery and drone attacks.

    Shevchuk also spoke of the brutality of Moscow’s invasion, referencing the town near Kyiv where Russian occupation left hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves. He argued that, if not for Ukrainians’ fierce resistance as Russian forces marched on the capital in February 2022, the gruesome scenes seen in Bucha would have been “just an introduction.”

    During the Angelus prayer on Sunday from the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Francis said that he was praying “for peace in the tormented Ukraine and in the Holy Land.”

    “Let the hostilities which cause immense suffering among the civilian population cease as soon as possible,” he said.

    Elsewhere, both Ukraine and Russia reported civilian deaths on Sunday after overnight trading drone, missile and shelling attacks that also caused a fire at a Russian oil depot and targeted Ukrainian power stations, according to officials.

    Ukrainian air defenses overnight shot down 35 out of 39 drones launched by Russia, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported, following a 4½-hour barrage that officials said damaged unspecified industrial sites in southern Ukraine and also targeted power stations.

    Two people died under rubble after Iranian-made Shahed drones around midnight struck private homes and state offices in Dobropillya, a large Ukrainian-held town in the east, authorities said.

    In Myrnohrad, another eastern Ukrainian town, 11 civilians were wounded after Russian missiles overnight struck residential buildings, the local prosecutor’s office reported. It also posted photos of rubble lining the courtyard outside a high-rise apartment building, its windows blown out, and of cars parked outside that appeared reduced to piles of twisted metal.

    A woman also died in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, after shells fired from Ukraine set her house on fire, according to local Gov. Roman Starovoit, who also said that the woman’s husband suffered severe burns.

    Starovoit also said that debris from a downed Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Kursk region.

    Nine Ukrainian drones targeted the Belgorod region, another southern Russian province that borders Ukraine, overnight and on Sunday, according to local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. Later Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that two drones were shot down over the Novgorod region in northern Russia, more than 620 miles from the Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

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    Associated Press

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  • No. 25 Dayton rallies to down VCU 91-86 to go 15-0 at home

    No. 25 Dayton rallies to down VCU 91-86 to go 15-0 at home

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    DAYTON, Ohio — Kobe Elvis hit back-to-back 3-pointers and a pair of free throws in the last 1:09 of overtime to lift No. 25 Dayton to a 91-86 win over VCU in a white-knuckle final regular-season game Friday night.

    What You Need To Know

    • Kobe Elvis hit back-to-back 3-pointers and a pair of free throws in the last 1:09 of overtime to lift No. 25 Dayton to a 91-86 win over VCU in a white-knuckle final regular-season game Friday night

    • Max Shulga hit a 3-pointer to get VCU within two points with 4 seconds left in OT, but Enoch Cheeks and DaRon Holmes II hit foul shots to seal it for Dayton, which finished 15-0 on its home court

    • Elvis scored 10 of his 15 points in overtime as the Flyers fought back from a 17-point first-half deficit to tie the game at 70 in the last 2 1/2 minutes of regulation

    • The Flyers will reach their goal of getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, regardless of whether they win the conference tournament

    Max Shulga hit a 3-pointer to get VCU within two points with 4 seconds left in OT, but Enoch Cheeks and DaRon Holmes II hit foul shots to seal it for Dayton (24-6, 14-4 Atlantic 10), which finished 15-0 on its home court.

    “I’ve been doing this a long time, and that’s about the grittiest performance I’ve seen,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “I’m in awe of these guys.”

    Elvis scored 10 of his 15 points in overtime as the Flyers fought back from a 17-point first-half deficit to tie the game at 70 in the last 2 1/2 minutes of regulation. Holmes finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Nate Santos had 21, leading all five Dayton starters in double-digit scoring.

    “Just extremely confident,” said an emotional Elvis, who was recognized with two other Flyers seniors before the game. “The guys, they trust me to take big shots, just looking for me in transition.”

    Zeb Jackson had 26 points, including 6 3-pointers in 14 attempts, for VCU (19-12, 11-7). Shulga finished with 14 points.

    The notoriously slow-starting Flyers showed signs they might be ambushed again by the Rams, who had prevailed 49-47 in their last lethargic meeting on Feb. 9.

    VCU bombed away from the 3-point stripe to start the game, hitting six from long range in the first 10 minutes but cooled off. The Rams jumped out to a 17-point lead at the 10-minute mark until Dayton, which turned the ball over nine times in the half, finally woke up.

    A 10-2 run by the Flyers helped them climb back into the game. Dayton closed the deficit to 38-31 at the break but didn’t lead in the game until the 5:57 mark of the second half.

    “Really, in the first half when we went down by 17, we found a way to come close together and just figure it out,” said guard Koby Brea, who started in place of the injured Javon Bennett and finished with 18 points. “Understand that support and again we can come back again. We’ve done it before.”

    Big Picture

    VCU: The Rams hit 18 3-pointers and probably deserved to win but let Dayton creep back in and outplay them in overtime.

    Dayton: The Flyers will reach their goal of getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, regardless of whether they win the conference tournament. They are 21st in the NCAA evaluation rankings.

    “This is March. This is when you get excited,” Grant said.

    Up Next

    Atlantic 10 tournament opens Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York. Schedule still to be determined.

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    Associated Press

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  • Foreigners trapped in violence-torn Haiti wait desperately for a way out

    Foreigners trapped in violence-torn Haiti wait desperately for a way out

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Dozens of foreigners, including many from the United States and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country’s international airports.

    What You Need To Know

    • Dozens of foreigners, including many from the United States and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country’s international airports

    • They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work

    They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work. Now, they are locked down in hotels and homes, unable to leave by air, sea or land as Haiti remains paralyzed by the mayhem and the gangs’ demands that Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign.

    “We are seriously trapped,” said Richard Phillips, a 65-year-old from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, who has traveled to Haiti more than three dozen times to work on projects for the United Nations, USAID and now, a Haitian nonprofit called Papyrus.

    After arriving in Haiti in late February, Phillips flew to the southern coastal city of Les Cayes to teach farmers and others how to operate and repair tractors, cultivators, planters and other machinery in an area known for its corn, rice, peas and beans.

    Once his work was done, Phillips flew to the capital, Port-au-Prince, only to find that his flight had been canceled. He stayed at a nearby hotel, but the gunfire was relentless, so moved on to a safer area.

    “We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.”

    Scores of people have been killed in the gang attacks that began Feb. 29, and more than 15,000 people have been left homeless by the violence.

    Earlier this week, Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew to try and quell the violence, but the attacks continue.

    Gangs have burned police stations, released more than 4,000 inmates from Haiti’s two biggest prisons and attacked Port-au-Prince’s main airport, which remains closed. As a result, the prime minister has been unable to return home after a trip to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country.

    Phillips said he has exhausted all options to leave Haiti by air, noting that a helicopter operator couldn’t get insured for such a flight and a private plane pilot said that approach would be too risky. As for trying to trek to the neighboring Dominican Republic: “It’s possible we could walk miles and miles to get to a border, but I’m sure that’s dangerous as well.”

    Despite being stuck, Phillips said he remains calm.

    “I’ve been shot at many times in Haiti and have bullet holes in my truck,” he said. “Personally, I’m kind of used to it. But I’m sure other people, it’s quite traumatic for them.”

    Yvonne Trimble, who has lived in Haiti for more than 40 years, is among the U.S. expats who can’t leave.

    She and her husband are in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien, waiting for a private evacuation flight for missionaries that had already been canceled once.

    “We’re completely locked down,” she said by phone. “This is the worst I’ve seen it. It’s total anarchy.”

    Trimble noted how a mob surrounded the airport in Cap-Haitien recently and began throwing rocks and bottles following a rumor that the prime minister was going to land.

    She and her husband are scheduled to fly out next week courtesy of Florida-based Missionary Flights International.

    The company’s vice president of administration, Roger Sands, said Missionary Flights International has received up to 40 calls from people hoping to leave or remain on standby.

    “We’re getting phone calls constantly,” he said. “The big concern is that every time people see an airplane, they think the prime minister is coming back to the country, and there’s a large segment of the society that doesn’t want that to happen. So we don’t want to be the first ones in.”

    It’s not clear when Haiti’s two international airports will reopen.

    “This is difficult for us,” Sands said. “We hate seeing our planes on the ground when there’s need.”

    A missionary couple who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety said they have been living in Haiti for several years but won’t leave because they’re in the middle of adopting a 6-year-old boy.

    “There is no choice to be made. We’re here as family,” the woman said.

    Meanwhile, her husband was supposed to fly to the U.S. last week for medical care since he has Type 1 diabetes and has developed a neuropathy that causes severe pain in his legs and back, and muscle-wasting in his legs, making it difficult to move.

    For now, the four appointments he made are on hold.

    “It’s a little frustrating,” he said.

    Also unable to leave are Matt Prichard, a 35-year-old from Lebanon, Ohio, and his family. Prichard, COO of a missionary, has two children — an infant and toddler — with his Haitian wife, as well as an 18-year-old son.

    The rest of his family hasn’t been able to get documents to enter the U.S. yet, so they will all stay in southern Haiti for now.

    “We unfortunately seem to be stuck,” he said.

    Prichard noted that his son is stressed out by the situation, telling him he should leave because “this isn’t a good place for you. Just get out of here.”

    But Prichard said, “As a father, you can’t leave your kids or your family.”

    He said the local grocery store has nearly run out of basic goods and gas has been hard to find.

    “The expat community here is really our solace,” he said. “It’s that connection, those relationships, that really are getting us through.”

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    Associated Press

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