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  • Coroner: Aaron Carter drowned in tub from drug, inhalant

    Coroner: Aaron Carter drowned in tub from drug, inhalant

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer and rapper Aaron Carter accidentally drowned in his bathtub as a result of sedatives he’d taken and gas used in spray cleaners he had inhaled, a coroner’s report said Tuesday.

    Carter, the younger brother of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, was found submerged and dead at age 34 in the bathtub of his home in Lancaster, California, on Nov. 5, the autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner said.

    Sheriff’s deputies had been the last people to see Carter alive when they visited his house at 2 a.m. on Nov. 4 for a welfare check after he had been seen and heard “huffing” an inhalant on an Instagram live video, according to a police report included in the autopsy findings. He asked the deputies to leave, and they did.

    The autopsy found that the sedative alprazolam, often sold under the brand name Xanax, was found in his system, as was the compressed gas difluoroethane, which the report says is “a gas commonly used as a propellant in air spray cleaners,” which “can induce feelings of euphoria when inhaled.”

    The two substances incapacitated him in the tub, and caused the drowning, the report said.

    Later in the evening, after deputies checked on Carter, he missed an appointment with a drug counselor, the police report said.

    The following day, a person whom authorities called a house sitter at the time but whom the report identifies in quotes as a “housekeeper” came to Carter’s house to offer him coffee. She let herself in when she got no response and heard his dogs barking, according to the report.

    The woman found him submerged, wearing a T-shirt and necklace, in a Jacuzzi-style tub with the jets running, and called 911. The operator told her to pull him out and perform CPR, according to the report. Paramedics immediately declared him dead when they arrived.

    Investigators found several prescription bottles and multiple scattered cans of an electronic duster that he used for inhaling.

    The report referred to Carter as “a celebrity with a known history of substance abuse” who had “multiple interactions with local police relating to the substance abuse.” It cited a particular history of inhalant abuse, and a recent relapse.

    Carter began performing as a child in the 1990s, opening for acts including his brother’s boy band and Britney Spears. His career peak came in 2000 with the triple-platinum album “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It),” which produced hit singles including the title song and “I Want Candy.”

    He also acted on television shows including “Lizzie McGuire,” and appeared on the family reality show “House of Carters” and “Dancing With the Stars.”

    Carter for years had been open about his substance abuse struggles, detailing his issues with inhalants in a 2019 episode of the talk show “The Doctors.” He also said in the interview that he was taking medications for acute anxiety and bipolar disorder.

    Nick Carter said after his younger brother’s death that “I have always held onto the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed.”

    ___

    Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

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  • Boston remembers deadly marathon bombing 10 years later

    Boston remembers deadly marathon bombing 10 years later

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    BOSTON (AP) — With a bagpiper playing “The Bells of Dunblane” and a few runners looking on, families of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombing marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy early Saturday by slowly walking together to the memorial sites near the finish line and laying wreaths.

    Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who was making her first run for City Council when the bombing happened, joined the somber procession along with Gov. Maura Healey. At each memorial site — marked with three stone pillars — they stood with the families in silence.

    Thousands, including many marathon runners in their blue and yellow windbreakers and several former Boston Red Sox players, came out to a second ceremony Saturday afternoon near the finish line. Church bells were rung and the Boston City Singers and Boston Pops performed “Amazing Grace” and “America the Beautiful.”

    The 127th running of the Boston Marathon takes place Monday.

    “The day never leaves me,” said Jennifer Black, 71, a realtor from Loveland, Ohio, who was watching the morning procession and recounted how her race in 2013 was cut short due to the bombing and talked about those who died in the attack. She is back in Boston to run this year.

    “So much loss, so much pain all because of hate,” she continued, tears streaming down her face. “We have to stand up for people. We have to look out for each other, and we have to pray for these families every day.”

    Standing next to Black, Karen Russell, of Boston, said she felt it was important to witness the procession especially on the 10th anniversary.

    “The families are still suffering even though we’ve gone on,” Russel said. “There are a lot of people that got hurt that day and that pain will never go away. … I feel it’s important to be here to let them know we still care.”

    Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs went off at the marathon finish line. Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.

    During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.

    Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been in a gunfight with police and was run over by his brother as he fled.

    “I think we’re all still living with those tragic days 10 years ago,” Bill Evans, the former Boston Police Commissioner, said recently.

    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death and much of the attention, in recent years, has been around his bid to avoid being executed.

    A federal appeals court is considering Tsarnaev’s latest bid to avoid execution. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments in January in the 29-year-old’s case, but has yet to issue a ruling.

    The appeals court initially threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence in 2020, saying the trial judge did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. But the U.S. Supreme Court revived it last year.

    The 1st Circuit is now weighing whether other issues that weren’t considered by the Supreme Court require the death sentence to be tossed a second time. Among other things, Tsarnaev says the trial judge wrongly denied his challenge of two jurors who defense attorneys say lied during jury selection questioning.

    The bombing not only unified Boston — “Boston Strong” became the city’s rallying cry — but inspired many in the running community and prompted scores of those impacted by the terror attack to run the marathon. At the memorial sites Saturday several flower pots with the words “Boston Strong” held what have become known as Marathon daffodils.

    “It really galvanized and showed our sport’s and our city’s resiliency, our desire together to continue even better and to enhance the Boston Marathon,” Boston Athletic Association President and CEO Jack Fleming said. “The bombing in 2013 resulted in a new appreciation or a different appreciation for what Boston, what the Boston Marathon, has always stood for, which is that expression of freedom that you receive and get while running.”

    On Saturday, the focus was mostly on remembering victims and survivors of the bombing but also, as Wu said, “really making sure this was a moment to focus on where the city and our communities, our families are headed in the future.”

    That sentiment will be reflected in what has become known as “One Boston Day,” where acts of kindness and service take place to honor victims, survivors and first responders. This year, nearly two dozen community service projects are happening including a shoe drive and several food drives, blood drives and neighborhood cleanups.

    “This time of year evokes a strong emotion for so many of us across the City and the people touched by the tragedy ten years ago. But the most prevailing one is that Boston is indeed strong, and that our communities show up for each other in times of need,” Jacob Robinson, the executive director of West Roxbury Main Streets, one of the groups hosting the shoe drive, said in a statement.

    ___

    AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen contributed to this report.

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  • GOP leader McConnell returns to Senate after head injury

    GOP leader McConnell returns to Senate after head injury

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is back at work in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and extended treatment for a concussion.

    The longtime Kentucky senator, 81, has been recovering at home since he was released from a rehabilitation facility March 25. He fell after attending an event earlier that month, injuring his head and fracturing a rib.

    McConnell arrived at the Capitol early Monday and is expected to work a full schedule in the Senate this week.

    In brief remarks on the Senate floor as the chamber came back into session after a two-week recess, McConnell criticized President Joe Biden for not doing enough to negotiate on the nation’s debt ceiling and thanked his colleagues for their well-wishes.

    “I’m very happy to be back,” McConnell said. “There’s important business for Congress to tackle.”

    And he joked, “Suffice it to say, this wasn’t the first time that being hard-headed has served me very well.”

    McConnell returns to the Senate ahead of a busy stretch in which Congress will have to find a way to raise the debt ceiling and negotiate additional aid for the Ukraine war, among other policy matters. And he comes back as several other senators have been out for medical reasons, raising questions about how much the Senate will be able to achieve in the coming months with a 51-49 split between the parties.

    Already, the GOP leader’s absence, along with those of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and John Fetterman, among others, have added to the Senate’s lethargic pace in the first few months of the year. Unlike the last two years, in which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was able to push through key elements of President Joe Biden’s agenda with the help of a Democratic-led House, the Senate has been significantly slowed with Republicans now in charge in the House. And absences have made even simple votes like nominations more difficult.

    One immediate question for McConnell upon his return is whether to help Democrats temporarily replace Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee as she continues to recover in California from a case of the shingles. Democrats have become increasingly frustrated as the Democrat’s more than six-week absence on the panel has stalled confirmation of some of Biden’s nominees, and Feinstein has asked for a short-term substitute on the committee.

    Democrats can’t do that, though, without help from Republicans, since approval of the process would take 60 votes on the Senate floor. Two GOP members of the Judiciary panel, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, have already said they don’t believe that Republicans should help Democrats replace Feinstein.

    It is unclear when Feinstein, 89, will return to Washington. Her office has so far declined to say.

    Also returning to the Senate on Monday was Fetterman, who was hospitalized for clinical depression in February. He was treated for six weeks at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and his doctors say his depression is now “in remission.”

    Fetterman’s announcement that he was checking himself into the hospital earlier this year came after he suffered a stroke last year and has struggled with auditory processing disorder, which can render someone unable to speak fluidly and quickly process spoken conversation into meaning. The Pennsylvania Democrat, 53, now uses devices in conversations, meetings and congressional hearings that transcribe spoken words in real time.

    In a statement when he was released from Walter Reed late last month, Fetterman said the care he received there “changed my life.”

    “I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves,” said Fetterman, who won praise for his decision to seek treatment.

    McConnell visited his Capitol office on Friday ahead of his Monday return. In video captured by NBC News, he walked into the building without assistance as aides kept close by.

    This was the second major injury for McConnell in recent years. Four years ago he tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery. The Senate had just started a summer recess, and he worked from home for some weeks as he recovered.

    McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in climbing stairs.

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  • Montana close to becoming 1st state to completely ban TikTok

    Montana close to becoming 1st state to completely ban TikTok

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    HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers moved one step closer Thursday to passing a bill to ban TikTok from operating in the state, a move that’s bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many national lawmakers have envisioned.

    Montana’s proposal, which has backing from the state’s GOP-controlled legislature, is more sweeping than bans in place in nearly half the states and the U.S. federal government that prohibit TikTok on government devices.

    The House endorsed the bill 60-39 on Thursday. A final House vote will likely take place Friday before the bill goes to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte. He has banned TikTok on government devices in Montana. The Senate passed the bill 30-20 in March.

    TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been under intense scrutiny over concerns it could hand over user data to the Chinese government or push pro-Beijing propaganda and misinformation on the platform. Leaders at the FBI, CIA and numerous lawmakers of both parties have raised those concerns but haven’t presented any evidence to prove it has happened.

    Supporters of a ban point to two Chinese laws that compel companies in the country to cooperate with the government on state intelligence work. They also point out other troubling episodes, such as a disclosure by ByteDance in December that it fired four employees who accessed the IP addresses and other data of two journalists while attempting to uncover the source of a leaked report about the company.

    Congress is considering legislation that doesn’t call out TikTok, but gives the Commerce Department the ability to restrict foreign threats on tech platforms. That bill is being backed by the White House, but it has received pushback from privacy advocates, right-wing commentators and others who say the language is too broad.

    Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen urged state lawmakers to pass the bill because he wasn’t sure Congress would act quickly on a federal ban.

    “I think Montana’s got an opportunity here to be a leader,” Knudsen, a Republican, told a House committee in March. He says the app is a tool used by the Chinese government to spy on Montanans.

    Montana’s ban would not take effect until January 2024 and would be void if Congress passes a ban or if TikTok severs its Chinese connections.

    The bill would prohibit downloads of TikTok in Montana and would fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 per day for each time someone “is offered the ability” to access the social media platform or download the app. The penalties would not apply to users.

    Opponents argued the bill amounted to government overreach and that residents could easily circumvent the proposed ban by using a Virtual Private Network. A VPN encrypts internet traffic and makes it more difficult for third parties to track online activities, steal data and determine a person’s location.

    At a hearing for the bill in March, a representative from the tech trade group TechNet said app stores also “do not have the ability to geofence” apps on a state by state basis and that it would be impossible for its members, like Apple and Google, to prevent TikTok from being downloaded in Montana.

    Knudsen said Thursday the geofencing technology is used with online sports gambling apps, which he said are deactivated in states where online gambling is illegal. Ashley Sutton, TechNet’s executive director for Washington state and the northwest, said in a statement Thursday that the “responsibility should be on an app to determine where it can operate, not an app store.”

    “We’ve expressed these concerns to lawmakers. We hope the governor will work with lawmakers to amend the legislation to ensure companies that aren’t intended targets of the legislation” aren’t affected, Sutton said.

    TikTok said in a statement it will “continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.”

    Some opponents of the bill have argued the state wasn’t looking to ban other social media apps that collect similar types of data from their users.

    “We also believe this is a blatant exercise of censorship and is an egregious violation of Montanans’ free speech rights,” said Keegan Medrano with the ACLU of Montana.

    Democratic Rep. Katie Sullivan offered an amendment Thursday to broaden the ban to include any social media app that collected personal information and transferred it to a foreign adversary, such as Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela, along with China. The amendment was narrowly rejected 48-51.

    Supporters of the bill said it made sense to target TikTok first because of specific concerns with China and that it was a step in the right direction even if it doesn’t address challenges related to other social media companies.

    TikTok has been pushing back against the bill. The company, which has 150 million users in the U.S., has encouraged users in the state to speak out against the bill and hired lobbyists to do so as well. It has also purchased billboards, run full-page newspaper ads and has a website opposing Montana’s legislation. Some ads placed in local newspapers highlight how local businesses were able to use the app to drive sales.

    The bill would “show Montana doesn’t support entrepreneurs in our own state,” Shauna White Bear, who owns White Bear Moccasins, said during a March 28 hearing. She noted her business receives much more engagement on TikTok than on other social media sites.

    Knudsen, the attorney general whose office drafted the bill, said he expects the bill to face legal challenges if it passes.

    “Frankly, I think it probably needs the courts to step in here,” he said. “This is a really interesting, novel legal question that I think is ripe for some new jurisprudence.”

    The Montana bill isn’t the first blanket ban the company has faced. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued executive orders that banned the use of TikTok and the Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Those efforts were nixed by the courts and shelved by the Biden administration.

    TikTok continued negotiations with the administration on the security concerns tied to the app. Amid rising geopolitical tensions with China, the Biden administration more recently has threatened it could ban the app if the company’s Chinese owners don’t sell their stakes. To avoid either outcome, TikTok has been trying to sell a data safety proposal called “Project Texas” that would route all its U.S. user data to servers operated by the software giant Oracle.

    ___

    Hadero reported from New York.

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  • Leaked documents a ‘very serious’ risk to security: Pentagon

    Leaked documents a ‘very serious’ risk to security: Pentagon

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The online leaks of scores of highly classified documents about the Ukraine war present a “very serious” risk to national security, and senior leaders are quickly taking steps to mitigate the damage, a top Pentagon spokesman said Monday. And as the public airing of the data sends shockwaves across the U.S. government, the White House said there are concerns there could be additional leaks.

    Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first became aware on Thursday that a number of classified briefing slides detailing the U.S. military efforts in the Ukraine war and intelligence involving other nations were leaked.

    In the days since, Austin has reached out to allies, held daily meetings to assess the damage and set up a group not only to assess the scope of the information lost but review who has access to those briefings. The department is looking closely at “how this type of information is distributed and to whom,” Meagher said.

    A defense official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said the Pentagon has now taken steps to reduce the number of people who have access to those briefings. The official said the Pentagon regularly reviews access lists to weigh who has a need to know and have access to classified material.

    At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked if the U.S. was bracing for more online releases.

    “The truth and the honest answer to your question is: We don’t know,” he said. “And is that a matter of concern to us? You’re darn right it is.”

    Kirby said at this point, “we don’t know who’s behind this, we don’t know what the motive is.”

    And he said as U.S. authorities go through the documents that were posted online, they are still trying to determine their validity, but have found that at least some of the papers “have been doctored.”

    He and others would not go into detail, but at least one of the documents shows estimates of Russian troops deaths in the Ukraine war that are significantly lower than numbers publicly stated by U.S. officials. Under a section titled “Total Assessed Losses,” one document lists 16,000-17,500 Russian casualties and up to 71,000 Ukrainian casualties. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said publicly last November that Russia has lost “well over” 100,000 soldiers, and Ukraine had lost about that many also. And those estimates have continued to climb in recent months, although officials have stopped providing more exact numbers.

    At the State Department, spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Monday that U.S. officials “are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this, including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and the fidelity of securing our partnerships.”

    The U.S. officials declined to provide any specifics, including about the expanse of the release, how it happened and to which country leaders the U.S. has spoken. Patel added that there is “no question” the documents’ release present a risk to national security.

    Investigators who specialize in tracking social media, including at the journalism organization Bellingcat, say the documents may have been circulating for months in private internet chats on the Discord discussion platform. Asked if the Pentagon has contacted Discord, Meagher referred questions to the Justice Department, which has opened a criminal investigation into the leaks.

    The slides, which eventually were distributed on more mainstream sites such as Twitter, detail U.S. training and equipment schedules to support Ukraine, assessments of losses, what the U.S. is monitoring on key allies and strategic partners, and what moves Russia may be taking to undermine those relationships.

    While the Pentagon has been careful not to authenticate the information contained in any specific document, overall “they present a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation,” said Meagher. “We’re being very careful and watching where this is being posted and amplified.”

    The documents are labeled secret and top secret and in some cases resemble routine updates that the U.S. military’s Joint Staff would produce daily but not distribute publicly.

    _____ Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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  • Moose feasts on lobby plants in Alaska hospital building

    Moose feasts on lobby plants in Alaska hospital building

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — So this moose walks into a medical building…

    While that could be a setup to a bad joke, it actually happened in Anchorage on Thursday.

    A young moose trudging through the snow looking for a meal spotted green plants in the lobby of a medical building in the Providence Alaska Health Park and decided to drop in for a dose of greenery.

    The ingenious — or lucky — moose triggered the sensors on the automatic doors to the building that houses the hospital’s cancer center and other medical offices, said Randy Hughes, the hospital’s director of security.

    “We received a call from one of our tenants advising that a moose had just walked into the building,” Hughes said.

    Hughes believes it’s the same moose that has been hanging around campus. And even though moose are commonplace in Alaska, they made an announcement over the intercom of the moose’s presence out of safety concerns.

    “But it seemed like it was a magnet for people to come and see it,” he said. “It’s not every day you get a moose walking into a building, so everybody was excited to take pictures and stuff like that.”

    On one video posted on social media, a woman wearing a mask and dressed in scrubs can be heard saying, “That’s crazy,” as she walked by the moose, snapping a photo with her phone.

    The moose was too preoccupied eating the office plants to notice the stir he was causing.

    Security officers formed a semicircle to corral the moose and shoo it out the door. One officer even grabbed a piece of the plant the moose had been eating and tried to lure it out.

    “Finally, I think it had enough of everybody watching him, watching him eat,” Hughes said.

    The moose vacated the building but hung around in the building’s semicircular drive for a bit before heading to the other side of the building to bed down for an afternoon.

    This wasn’t the first time a moose went inside one of the hospital complex’s buildings, and bears have tried to get into the emergency room before.

    Hughes said there’s “never a dull moment here at the hospital.”

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  • ‘Yellowjackets’ goes deeper into the darkness in new season

    ‘Yellowjackets’ goes deeper into the darkness in new season

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Season one of “Yellowjackets” ended with the phrase “let the darkness set us free,” and season two dares to venture into the darkness with little to no remorse.

    The breakout Showtime series blends horror, adventure, comedy, drama and more in an eerily harmonious way as two primary timelines unfold: The first feature a girls’ soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness in the ’90s, while the second focuses on the surviving teens now navigating adulthood and dealing with the trauma of the wilderness.

    “The first season is really about them making peace with their new surroundings and season two is about the surroundings closing in on them. It’s about the isolation and all the terrible things that can come from that,” said co-showrunner and co-creator Ashley Lyle.

    As viewers venture back into the wilderness with the surviving teens, there seems to be a dark presence and looming energy over their time. This second season raises the question of how much the audience will visibly endure, as the girls are physically, emotionally and psychologically pushed to the limit.

    “I was personally blown away. The first script made me gasp several times. I love the way the episode ends,” said Christina Ricci, who plays Adult Misty.

    Melanie Lynskey, who portrays Adult Shauna, said she was nervous about how the writers would amplify each storyline from the previous season. “I just was like, ‘Oh my God! They did it. They really did it.’ Every script. I was like,’They did it again!’ It’s really impressive,“ said Lynskey.

    Samantha Hanratty and Sophie Nélisse, who play the teen versions of Ricci and Lynskey’s characters, said that episodes five and six surprised them the most.

    Hanratty says that episode five had her “jaw just on the floor” when watching back footage. “I can’t believe Misty did what she did; I’m not ready for this,” said the actor.

    Nélisse said episode six is a huge moment for her character: “I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I didn’t know the twists and turns it was going to take me on, and I was mostly just nervous I wouldn’t live up to the task. And I cried a little because I was like, ‘I won’t be able to do it.’”

    “Yellowjackets” quickly became a fan-favorite series after its premiere in 2021 as fans scoured the internet for answers to their burning questions. The show has been renewed for a third season.

    This season explores the world of cults and potentially the supernatural. However, Tawny Cypress — who plays Adult Taissa — says it’s all up for interpretation since it is not clear if a supernatural entity has any power over either teens or adults.

    “I think the supernatural is really interpretive. There’s not necessarily anything that’s been said yet that’s written in stone,” said the actor.

    Co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco agrees and said the writers want to take the audience on an exploration of possibilities.

    “I think that we’ve got to be careful about labeling exactly what’s happening and instead exploring the possibilities of what’s happening. That’s really where we’re at,” said Lisco.

    “There are broad definitions of the term supernatural, but what we always want to explore is whether or not there is a presence in the woods that is making them do this, or whether or not energetically these women coming together alchemically produce that kind of darkness and bring out the worst in each other.”

    The trailer for season two also reveals more surviving characters. Fans got a sneak peek of Van — portrayed in the present by Lauren Ambrose — and Lottie — portrayed in the present by Simone Kessell.

    Kessell praised Courtney Eaton’s portrayal of Teen Lottie in the first season. “She set the foundation, and I got to paint the house,” said the actor. “Courtney had done such a beautiful job of creating the dark Lottie and the visionary that is Lottie.”

    The young actors said that at the end of a long day of filming, they turned to self-care and community to take themselves out of their character’s survival mode.

    “It’s a lot of recommending yoga classes to each other,” Liv Hewson said playfully. Eaton and Nélisse lived together and chose to decompress by listening to music on the way home and sitting in silence watching television.

    “I would say that to kind of decompress of the day, it really helped taking off my wig and getting rid of the dirt from under your nails and skin and just coming back to your own skin and feeling fresh again,” Eaton added.

    Season two premiered on Showtime on March 24 and already has fans raving about the unexpected twists and turns.

    Ricci, who has starred in films like “The Addams Family” and “Penelope,” said that fans are drawn to supernatural thrillers because they provide a sense of escape from reality.

    “I think sometimes being able to see the problems of real life through an extreme metaphor, it’s easier to process things. It’s more fun to follow along. But we still feel how much it resonates emotionally for us,” she said.

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  • Chasing Horse sex abuse charges upheld, drug crime dropped

    Chasing Horse sex abuse charges upheld, drug crime dropped

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    LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge has thrown out a drug trafficking charge against a former “Dances With Wolves” actor but upheld a Las Vegas grand jury’s sweeping indictment on 18 sexual abuse-related felony crimes.

    In an order issued late Friday afternoon, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said state prosecutors presented enough evidence for “a reasonable grand juror to conclude that the sexual assaults occurred” but found that there was no substantive testimony connecting Nathan Chasing Horse to the psilocybin mushrooms investigators found while searching his home.

    Chasing Horse, 46, had asked Kierny to toss the entire indictment, saying his accusers wanted to have sex with him. One of the women was younger than 16 — the age of consent in Nevada — when she says Chasing Horse began abusing her.

    Public defender Kristy Holston said she had no comment on the judge’s ruling.

    Chasing Horse was indicted in February on charges of sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, child abuse, lewdness and drug trafficking. He has been held on $300,000 bail at a county jail since Jan. 31, when he was arrested by SWAT officers near the home he shared with his five wives in North Las Vegas.

    His arrest sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in at least three other jurisdictions, including in Canada and the U.S. District Court in Nevada, as well as on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.

    Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota — home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation — and is widely known for his portrayal of Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 film.

    Police and prosecutors have said that in the decades since appearing in the Oscar-winning movie, Chasing Horse had marketed himself to tribes nationwide as a medicine man with healing powers who could communicate with higher beings. They accuse him of using his position to lead a cult known as The Circle, gain access to vulnerable girls and women, and take underage wives.

    The alleged crimes date to the early 2000s and cross multiple U.S. states, including Nevada, Montana and South Dakota, according to his indictment in state court.

    One of the victims was 14, authorities have said, when Chasing Horse told her that the spirits of their ancestors had instructed him to have sex with her.

    “Her mom is ill,” Clark County prosecutor Stacy Kollins said in court Wednesday, “and she’s told that her virginity is the only pure part of her left and she has to sacrifice this to maintain her mom’s health.”

    Kollins also declined to comment Friday on the judge’s decision.

    A trial in the state case is scheduled to begin on May 1. Chasing Horse has pleaded not guilty and invoked his right to a trial within 60 days of his indictment.

    He is due back in court next week for a hearing on another motion asking the judge to grant him separate trials. Chasing Horse and his attorneys argued in the motion that his accusers’ allegations are unrelated.

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  • Show stopper: Singalong fans ejected, ‘Bodyguard’ halted

    Show stopper: Singalong fans ejected, ‘Bodyguard’ halted

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    MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A British performance of “The Bodyguard” musical ended in unrequited love for some audience members who couldn’t refrain from singing along to the anthemic finale.

    The show at the Palace Theatre in Manchester screeched to a halt Friday when two unruly patrons were ejected for joining the lead in singing “I Will Always Love You,” the soaring, emotional ballad made famous by Whitney Houston.

    It was not supposed to be a singalong. Ushers carried signs saying, “Please refrain from singing” and announcements were made in advance that patrons would have a chance to join along at the end but not to sing during the show, said Tash Kenyon, an audience member.

    During the closing number, somebody shouted, “Does this mean we can start singing now?” Kenyon said. A tone-deaf voice projected from the balcony and competed with the vocals of Melody Thornton, a former member of The Pussycat Dolls.

    Laughter then turned to anger and confusion, Karl Bradley told the Manchester Evening News.

    “The stage then just went black again and that’s when it really started to kick off on the higher tier, you could really hear screams and audible gasps,” Bradley said. “Everyone starting standing up and looking over. There was chants of ‘out, out, out’ to get them gone.”

    When the lights came up, the unwanted backup singers were being hauled out of their seats by theater security and audience members began cheering.

    But the music and show were over.

    A spokesperson for the theater said the show was canceled because disruptive fans who refused to stay seated had spoiled the performance.

    Thornton posted a video on Instagram thanking respectful fans and apologizing for those who weren’t.

    Greater Manchester Police said it spoke with the two people who were removed by security and would review evidence before taking any action.

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  • Browns’ Watson scheduled to give deposition in civil lawsuit

    Browns’ Watson scheduled to give deposition in civil lawsuit

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    As Deshaun Watson prepares for his second season with Cleveland, his legal troubles in Houston linger.

    The Browns quarterback is scheduled to give a deposition on Monday in one of the two remaining civil lawsuits filed against him for sexual misconduct.

    According to court documents filed in Harris County, Texas, Watson was asked to provide records of any communication between him and the plaintiff — identified as “Jane Doe” — from December 2020 to January 2021.

    Watson previously settled lawsuits with two dozen women who accused him of being sexually inappropriate during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two separate grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson on criminal charges last year.

    In the lawsuit in which Watson is being deposed, the woman alleges the quarterback pressured her into oral sex.

    The NFL suspended Watson for 11 games last season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. The Browns traded for the three-time Pro Bowler in March 2022 despite his legal entanglement, getting him to change his mind and agree to join Cleveland after they offered him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract.

    Watson went 3-3 and showed signs of rust in his six starts last season after the suspension ended. He’s been working out near his home in Houston during this offseason.

    The Browns begin their offseason program on April 17.

    ___

    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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  • Paying for paradise? Hawaii mulls fees for ecotourism crush

    Paying for paradise? Hawaii mulls fees for ecotourism crush

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    HONOLULU (AP) — Repairing coral reefs after boats run aground. Shielding native forest trees from a killer fungus outbreak. Patrolling waters for swimmers harassing dolphins and turtles.

    Taking care of Hawaii’s unique natural environment takes time, people and money. Now Hawaii wants tourists to help pay for it, especially because growing numbers are traveling to the islands to enjoy the beauty of its outdoors — including some lured by dramatic vistas they have seen on social media.

    “All I want to do, honestly, is to make travelers accountable and have the capacity to help pay for the impact that they have,” Democratic Gov. Josh Green said earlier this year. “We get between nine and 10 million visitors a year, (but) we only have 1.4 million people living here. Those 10 million travelers should be helping us sustain our environment.”

    Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation that would require tourists to pay for a yearlong license or pass to visit state parks and trails. They are still debating how much they would charge.

    The governor campaigned last year on a platform of having all tourists pay a $50 fee to enter the state. Legislators think this would violate U.S. constitutional protections for free travel and have promoted their parks and trails approach instead. Either policy would be a first of its kind for any U.S. state.

    Hawaii’s leaders are following the example of other tourism hotspots that have imposed similar fees or taxes like Venice, Italy, and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. The Pacific island nation of Palau, for example, charges arriving international passengers $100 to help it manage a sprawling marine sanctuary and promote ecotourism.

    State Rep. Sean Quinlan, a Democrat who chairs the House Tourism Committee, said changing traveler patterns are one reason behind Hawaii’s push. He said golf rounds per visitor per day have declined 30% over the past decade while hiking has increased 50%. People are also seeking out once-obscure sites that they have seen someone post on social media. The state doesn’t have the money to manage all these places, he said.

    “It’s not like it was 20 years ago when you bring your family and you hit maybe one or two famous beaches and you go see Pearl Harbor. And that’s the extent of it,” Quinlan said. “These days it’s like, well, you know, ‘I saw this post on Instagram and there’s this beautiful rope swing, a coconut tree.’”

    “All these places that didn’t have visitors now have visitors,” he said.

    Most state parks and trails are currently free. Some of the most popular ones already charge, like Diamond Head State Monument, which features a trail leading from the floor of a 300,000-year-old volcanic crater up to its summit. It gets 1 million visitors each year and costs $5 for each traveler.

    A bill currently before the state House would require nonresidents 15 years and older visiting forests, parks, trails or “other natural area on state land” to buy an annual license online or via mobile app. Violators would pay a civil fine, though penalties wouldn’t be imposed during a five-year education and transition period.

    Residents with a Hawaii driver’s license or other state identification would be exempt.

    The Senate passed a version of the measure setting the fee at $50. But the House Finance Committee amended it last week to delete the dollar amount. Chair Kyle Yamashita, a Democrat, said the bill was “a work in progress.” The bill has been scheduled for a House floor vote on Thursday.

    Dawn Chang, chair of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, told the committee that Hawaii’s beaches are open to the public, so people probably wouldn’t be cited there — and such details still need to be worked out.

    Rep. Dee Morikawa, a Democrat on the committee, recommended that the state create a list of places that would require the license.

    Green has indicated he’s flexible about where the fee is imposed and that he’s willing to support the Legislature’s approach.

    Supporters say there’s no other place in the U.S. that imposes a similar fee on visitors. The closest equivalent may be the $34.50 tax Alaska charges to each cruise ship passenger.

    Hawaii’s conservation needs are great. Invasive pests are attacking the state’s forests, including a fungal disease that is killing ohia, a tree unique to Hawaii that makes up the largest portion of the canopy in native wet forests.

    Some conservation work directly responds to tourism. The harassment of wildlife like dolphins, turtles and Hawaiian monk seals is a recurring problem. Hikers can unknowingly bring invasive species into the forest on their boots. Snorkelers and boats trample on coral, adding stress to reefs already struggling with invasive algae and coral bleaching.

    A 2019 report by Conservation International, a nonprofit environmental organization, estimated that total federal, state, county and private spending on conservation in Hawaii amounted to $535 million but the need was $886 million.

    At the Diamond Head trail recently, some visitors said the fee would make the most sense for people who come to Hawaii often or who might be staying for several weeks. Some said $50 was too high, especially for those who view a walk through nature as a low-cost activity.

    “For a large family that wants to have the experience with the kids, that would be a lot of money,” said Sarah Tripp, who was visiting Hawaii with her husband and two of their three children from Marquette, Michigan.

    Katrina Kain, an English teacher visiting from Puerto Rico, said she thought the fee would “sting” some people but would be fine so long as it was well-advertised.

    “If tourists were informed about it, then they would be OK with it,” she said. “If that was a surprise $50 fee, it would be a pretty lousy surprise.”

    The legislation says proceeds would go into a “visitor impact fee special fund” managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

    Carissa Cabrera, project manager for the Hawaii Green Fee, a coalition of nonprofit groups supporting the measure, said this would ensure the state has money for conservation regardless of budget swings.

    Mufi Hanneman, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, which represents hotels, backs the bill but said Hawaii must carefully monitor how the money is used.

    “The last thing that you want to see is restrooms that haven’t been fixed, trails or pathways that haven’t been repaved or what have you — and year in, year out it remains the same and people are paying a fee,” Hannemann said.

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  • Man kills hostage at California park after wounding officer

    Man kills hostage at California park after wounding officer

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    ROSEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A man fleeing police in Northern California took two hostages at a public park, killing one of them before surrendering, after earlier wounding a California Highway Patrol officer, authorities said.

    It happened Thursday in Roseville, a city of about 150,000 northeast of Sacramento, in the early afternoon as families played at nearby baseball fields and children attended camp.

    The California Highway Patrol officer was in stable condition at a hospital. The names of the two adults taken hostage, including the one who died, were not immediately released.

    The surviving hostage was taken to a hospital with what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries, according to a statement from the city of Roseville, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento.

    The suspect, who also was not immediately named, was hospitalized with gunshot wounds but there was no immediate word on his condition, the city statement said.

    It was unclear how he was wounded. Police didn’t immediately indicate whether officers had fired any shots.

    The events unfolded when highway patrol officers attempted to serve the man a warrant, prompting him to shoot at and wound an officer. The Roseville Police Department received a radio call around 12:30 p.m. alerting them an officer had been shot, Capt. Kelby Newton said.

    When Roseville police arrived, the suspect was seen carrying a gun and running. He then grabbed two civilians in the park and held them hostage, shooting both, Newton said.

    Newton said he did not know what prompted the warrant.

    Victor Michael was at batting practice with his child at Mahany Park when he saw what he thought was kids playing paintball. But then he heard police tell someone to stop and “get down.” Then, gunfire.

    “I can’t tell you who shot first, I just know that I saw a suspect look back and the volley of fire just went off. It was crazy,” Michael said. “I just told my kid and everybody to get down.”

    Michael heard between 20 and 30 gunshots in all and took refuge with his child behind the tires of his truck, he said.

    The sprawling park tucked into a quiet suburb of Sacramento includes a sports complex, public library, aquatics center and nature trails. The fitness center and library were temporarily locked down, and students attending camps were taken to a nearby school to be reunited with their families.

    ___

    Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

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  • Virgin Orbit seeks bankruptcy protection after mission fail

    Virgin Orbit seeks bankruptcy protection after mission fail

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    Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a failed mission this year and increasing difficulty in raising funding for future missions.

    The company laid off most of its staff on Friday and told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in a filing Tuesday that it was looking to sell its assets.

    Virgin Orbit said that it has secured $31.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Branson’s Virgin Investments Ltd.

    Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said that once the financing is approved by the bankruptcy court, the funds are expected to provide Virgin Orbit with the necessary liquidity to continue operating as it attempts to sell the company.

    “While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” Hart said.

    The Long Beach, California, company said in its bankruptcy filing that it has between 200 and 999 estimated creditors. It had approximately $243 million in total assets and $153.5 million in total liabilities as of Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing.

    Last week Virgin Orbit said that it was cutting 675 jobs, about 85% of its workforce. Shortly before the announcement, the company said that it was pausing all operations amid reports of possible job cuts. At the time Virgin Orbit confirmed that it was putting all work on hold, but didn’t say for how long.

    In January, a mission by Virgin Orbit to launch the first satellites into orbit from Europe failed after a rocket’s upper stage prematurely shut down. It was a setback in the United Kingdom which had hoped that the launch from Cornwall in southwest England would mark the beginning of more commercial opportunities for the U.K. space industry.

    The company said in February that an investigation found that its rocket’s fuel filter had become dislodged, causing an engine to become overheated and other components to malfunction over the Atlantic Ocean.

    Virgin Orbit, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, was founded in 2017 by British billionaire Branson to target the market for launching small satellites into space. Its LauncherOne rockets are launched from the air from modified Virgin passenger planes, allowing the company to operate more flexibly than using fixed launch sites.

    Shares of Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc., which traded above $10 about two years ago, tumbled 24% before the opening bell Tuesday, to about 15 cents.

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  • Kaley Cuoco has 1st child, a daughter, with Tom Pelphrey

    Kaley Cuoco has 1st child, a daughter, with Tom Pelphrey

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kaley Cuoco is flying high after giving birth to her first child.

    The star of “ The Flight Attendant ” and “ The Big Bang Theory ” said on Instagram Saturday that she and fellow actor Tom Pelphrey now have a daughter named Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey.

    “The new light of our lives!” Cuoco posted, along with a series of pictures of the baby, who was born Thursday. “We are overjoyed and grateful for this little miracle.”

    Cuoco has been married twice before, most recently to equestrian Karl Cook. The two split in 2021. Last year she began dating Pelphrey, and in October they announced they were expecting a child together.

    Cuoco, 37, appeared for 12 seasons on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” She has played the title role in “ The Flight Attendant ” on HBO Max for two seasons, and was nominated for an Emmy for each.

    It’s also the first child for Pelphrey, 40, who has acted primarily in soaps, including “Guiding Light” and “As The World Turns.”

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  • Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

    Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

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    WYNNE, Ark. (AP) — With tornadoes hitting the Midwest and the South this weekend, some survivors said they emerged from their homes to find buildings ripped apart, vehicles tossed around like toys, shattered glass and felled trees.

    J.W. Spencer, 88, had never experienced a tornado before, but when he and his wife saw on TV that a tornado was nearing their town of Wynne, Arkansas, he opened a front window and rear door in his house to relieve air pressure. The couple scurried into the bathroom, where they got into the bathtub and covered themselves with quilts and blankets for protection.

    Fifteen minutes later, the storm unleashed its fury on the town nestled among the flat fields and fertile farmland of eastern Arkansas. Debris came whistling through their house.

    “We just rode it out,” Spencer said on Saturday. “We heard stuff falling, loud noises. And then it quit. It got quiet.”

    After it passed, the couple emerged to see devastation in the neighborhood.

    “We come through it real good, as far as the physical part,” Spencer said.

    Many large trees were down in the community of 8,000 residents who take pride in their schools, their churches, their mom-and-pop restaurants and other businesses. Numerous single-family homes were damaged, especially near the high school, which had its roof shredded and windows blown out.

    Near a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, where a tornado killed one man and injured 40 concertgoers, Ross Potter picked up glass shards Friday in front of his building. The last time the town was devastated to this extent from a tornado was in 1967.

    Ambulances whirred by after the theater was hit.

    “They took, I can’t even remember how many people,” Potter said. He was lucky — only a few of his building’s windows were broken, mostly on the second floor. Across the street, most of the brick siding on a storefront was ripped away.

    Back in Wynne in northeastern Arkansas, Alan Purser stopped in his pickup truck to chat with Spencer. Purser described how he rode out the tornado with his cats in his home, which is being remodeled. He took a risk, sheltering in the sun room which is covered by glass, but it was one of the few rooms not being remodeled.

    “I just lay down with my cats, and lay a blanket over me, and let it rumble,” he said of the tornado that flipped over the camper van parked outside.

    From his front porch in Covington, Tennessee, Billy Meade Jr. said he watched a tornado pass through, before hail struck and the sky darkened.

    “You could see the swirl,” Meade said. “The rain was like a sheet. You couldn’t even hardly see past the rain, it was so dark. But you could see the swirl going past.”

    Less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, a tornado struck the elementary school that Meade’s twin sons go to, as well as a middle school next door. On Saturday morning, an exposed gymnasium’s bleachers were visible through a crushed brick wall. Much of the roof was ripped off.

    “The neighborhood I’m in looks fine — it’s like nothing even happened,” Meade said. “But as soon as you go around the corner, it’s like devastation. There’s power lines down everywhere … all kinds of stuff everywhere.”

    And as a tornado hit Little Rock, Arkansas, workers at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe cowered together in the bathroom.

    “It was really loud because the glass started breaking,” said Irulan Abrams, an employee who stood outside the building near a door with broken windows. A siren howled in the distance. She said one person was injured.

    “Now we don’t have anywhere to work,” Abrams said.

    When the tornado hit, there were nine firefighters in Little Rock’s Fire Station No. 9, which became one of the most devastated areas of the city. They sheltered in the chief’s office as the tornado damaged their building.

    “If I said it wasn’t scary, I’d be lying,” Capt. Ben Hammond said Saturday.

    Once the tornado passed, the firefighters began working to help injured residents and to clear debris blocking their equipment.

    “Once you address all the people you can see, then you’ve got to start looking for the people you can’t see,” he said.

    The fire station has served as a shelter for neighbors amid fears that another storm was coming.

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this story. Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon.

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  • NMACC Day 2: Mukesh Ambani wins ‘Cutest father-in-law’ title as he walks holding pregnant daughter-in-law Shloka Mehta’s hand [Watch Video] | Bollywood Life

    NMACC Day 2: Mukesh Ambani wins ‘Cutest father-in-law’ title as he walks holding pregnant daughter-in-law Shloka Mehta’s hand [Watch Video] | Bollywood Life

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    Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre is trending since two days. The whole of Bollywood has graced the opening of the state-of-the-art venue in Mumbai. There has been a lot of focus on the Ambani family. Radhika Merchant yesterday won hearts with her stunning look in a blue saree. Many felt that she looked the prettiest. The elder daughter-in-law of the Ambani family, Shloka Mehta is pregnant for the second time. She came to the event wearing a skirt with a halter top and cape jacket. The lady accessorized it with a diamond sheesh patti. What is winning hearts is how Mukesh Ambani held the hand of his pregnant bahu. Also Read – NMACC Day 2: Varun Dhawan lifts up Gigi Hadid in his arms, gives her a kiss; viral video gets mixed reactions

    Netizens are gaga on how the Ambani family dotes on its daughters-in-law. Both Radhika Merchant and she are getting immense love from Nita and Mukesh Ambani. Netizens are showering love on Mukesh Ambani for this beautiful gesture. A person commented, “Cutest father in law. His hand hold/grip made me cry. Wealth aside, his heart may be of pure gold. God bless your whole family. Praying for Shloka n baby for a safe delivery. I wish I was lucky to feel the love of my in-laws,” while someone else wrote, “Yaar ye log apni daughter-in-laws ko kitna pyar karte hain bilkul apni khud ki beti ki tarah. Baki logon ki tarah nai jo bas bolte hain ki hum apne bahu ko beti ki tarah rakhenge aur phir bahu ki tarah bhi nai rakhte.” This is not all. Isha Ambani told all the media to have dinner before they exited the venue. People are gaga on how courtesy runs deep in the Ambani family. Also Read – Nysa Devgn ignores mom Kajol as she asks her to pose for paparazzi at the NMACC event day 2 [Watch Video]

    Social media is gaga over how humble and gracious the Ambani family is. They praised Isha Ambani’s decency and ucch koti ke sanskar seeing this gesture. Also Read – Priyanka Chopra asks paparazzi ‘Miss Kiya?’ at NMACC day 2; fans exclaim, ‘Swag and confidence is back’ [Watch Video] 

    Stay tuned to BollywoodLife for the latest scoops and updates from Bollywood, Hollywood, South, TV and Web-Series.
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  • Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski trial defense leans heavily on experts

    Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski trial defense leans heavily on experts

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    PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys came close to wrapping up their case on Wednesday by relying on more experts to mount their defense on the seventh day of trial over her 2016 ski collision with a 76-year-old retired optometrist.

    Paltrow’s defense team called to the stand a radiologist, a neurologist, a neuropsychologist and a forensic psychologist, leaning on medical analysis rather than the testimony of the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer’s friends or husband in order to make their case. In the final hour of their last full day to call witnesses though, they called Terry Sanderson, the man suing Paltrow, back to the witness stand.

    The eight-person jury is expected to get the case Thursday to deliberate after closing arguments.

    More than just a display of their financial investment in the case, Paltrow’s team allotting most of their time to expert testimony is a gamble. Throughout the trial, bombshell testimony from Paltrow and Sanderson has engaged the jury, while hours of jargon-dense medical testimony has tested their endurance.

    Experts called by Paltrow’s side testified that brain scans suggest Sanderson’s cognitive abilities began to decline years before the crash with Paltrow. They challenged claims made last week by his doctors, who attributed his disorientation and memory loss to post-concussion syndrome.

    “Aging can result in this,” radiologist Carl Black said, pointing to Sanderson’s brain scan, which he said showed microvascular ischemic disease of white matter, “because we’re all deteriorating to some degree or other everyday we live.”

    Members of the jury sat transfixed — with some on the edge of their seats — on Friday when Paltrow said on the stand that she initially thought she was being “violated” when the collision happened. Three days later Sanderson gave an entirely different account, saying she ran into him and sent him “absolutely flying.”

    Time constraints have challenged both sides throughout the eight-day trial and forced difficult decisions about who to call to testify from their lengthy roster of witnesses. The judge presiding over the trial in Park City has made it clear that he wants both sides to give their closing arguments by Thursday afternoon — in order to give the jury enough time to deliberate and come to a consensus.

    The trial is taking place in the city that annually hosts the Sundance Film Festival, where early in her career Paltrow would appear for the premieres of her movies, including 1998’s “Sliding Doors,” at a time when she was known primarily as an actor, not a celebrity wellness entrepreneur.

    Sanderson is asking for more than $300,000, saying that Paltrow’s recklessness on the slope caused the crash, leaving him with four broken ribs and years of post-concussion symptoms including confusion, memory loss and irritability. Paltrow has countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees, alleging that Sanderson veered into her from behind.

    The amount of money at stake for both sides pales in comparison to the typical legal costs of a multiyear lawsuit, private security detail and expert witness-heavy trial.

    The second week of trial has made clear that attorneys have spared little expense on making their case.

    Sanderson’s attorney told the jury last week that, for him, the trial was about “value, not cost.”

    To accompany their expert witnesses — many who have testified to being paid more than $10,000 — Paltrow’s defense team has played multiple high-resolution animations depicting their side’s version of the events that took place in February 2016 on a beginner run at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort.

    Late on Wednesday afternoon, Paltrow’s attorneys called Sanderson back to the stand to cast doubt on his claims of life-altering injuries. Instead of revisiting his medical history or expert testimonies, they asked questions about Sanderson’s luxury and adventure travel after the crash.

    They introduced photos into evidence of Sanderson riding a camel in Morocco, trekking up to Machu Picchu in Peru, and taking a continent-wide loop around Europe with stops in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium.

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  • Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale

    Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale

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    LONDON (AP) — A London judge said Thursday he would rule as soon as possible on whether to throw out or limit a phone hacking lawsuit brought by Prince Harry, Elton John and other well-known figures against a British tabloid publisher.

    The Duke of Sussex made a late arrival and early departure for the finale of a four-day High Court hearing on his invasion of privacy case against the company that publishes The Daily Mail. His surprise appearance during three days of the legal wrangling indicates the lawsuit’s importance in the prince’s broader battle against the British press.

    Harry, John, and actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are among a group of seven people suing Associated Newspapers Ltd. for allegedly paying private investigators to illegally bug homes and cars and to record phone conversations.

    The publisher denied the allegations and has argued that lawsuits based on alleged incidents dating as far back as 1993 should be thrown out because the cases were not filed within a six-year limitation period.

    Attorney David Sherborne, who represents Harry and the other famous claimants, argued that the deadline for filing the lawsuits should be extended because the alleged snooping was covert and the publisher concealed evidence of it through denials “likely to lead the claimants off the scent.”

    The claimants said they were unaware of phone hacking done for Associated Newspapers until private investigators, including Gavin Burrows, came forward in the last couple of years to disclose the covert work they allegedly did.

    Burrows, who said in a 2021 witness statement that he came forward to “do the right thing” and help the people he targeted, has since issued another sworn statement saying he had not been commissioned by Associated Newspapers to do unlawful work.

    In his earlier admission, however, he described how much he charged for different jobs and how Harry, John and his husband, David Furnish, and Hurley and Frost were “just a small handful of my targets.”

    He said he “must have done hundreds of jobs” between 2000 and 2005 for a Mail on Sunday journalist whose name is redacted.

    In one section cited by Sherborne, Burrows described tapping Hurley’s home phone, hacking her voicemail and digging up travel and medical details on her when she was pregnant. Burrows said that John didn’t have a mobile phone but he got a lot of information about the singer from Hurley’s phone because she was close friends with him, and through the phone of John’s gardener.

    “I hacked, tapped and bugged Liz a number of times,” Burrows said in his earlier statement. “She (like Hugh Grant) was a huge earner for me. I could get an itemized phone bill for Liz and Hugh and sell each one for 5,000 pounds (about $6,185), much more than the average price on my menu.”

    Until she read Burrows statement, Hurley did not know who had been the source of the information about her, Sherborne said.

    “That’s the trigger. That’s when the scales fall from her eyes,” Sherborne said.

    Attorney Adrian Beltrami said the claims had been brought “far too late” and should be tossed out. He argued that a national scandal on phone hacking by journalists at other papers a decade ago could have inspired the claimants to look into articles written about them and file their lawsuits alleging wrongdoing within the time limits.

    Justice Matthew Nicklin said there was a difference between applying time limits to discovery of the alleged unlawful information gathering and the articles that resulted from some of those acts.

    “It’s clear what the claimants are not entitled to pursue because of limitation,” Nicklin said. “But what they are entitled to pursue is slightly more nuanced than simply striking out reference to the articles.”

    Attorney Steven Heffer, who is not involved in the case, said the defense is unlikely to prevail at this stage if they concealed the unlawful activity.

    “Other newspaper groups emphatically denied phone hacking or any unlawful information gathering, but have had to pay millions in damages and costs,” Heffer said.

    The publisher is also seeking to have evidence of payments to investigators barred from being used by claimants because it was protected by confidentiality rules when it was turned over by the publisher to a government inquiry into media law breaking.

    Sherborne argued the evidence is in the public domain.

    Attorney Michael Gardner, who also is not involved in the litigation, said Harry and the other claimants face an uphill battle on several fronts.

    “First, the events in question took place so long ago that they may now be statute barred,” Gardner said. “Secondly, the evidence they are relying on includes material that may be inadmissible. Thirdly, a key witness in the case appears to have signed two completely contradictory statements.”

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  • Gwyneth Paltrow gets vindication at ski collision trial

    Gwyneth Paltrow gets vindication at ski collision trial

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    PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t to blame for a 2016 collision with a retired optometrist on a beginner run at a posh Utah ski resort during a family vacation, a jury decided Thursday following a live-streamed trial that became a pop culture fixation.

    A jury awarded Paltrow $1 — a symbolic amount she asked for in order to show it wasn’t about money — and delivered her the vindication she sought when she opted to take it to trial rather than settle out of court.

    “I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity,” Paltrow said in a statement released by her representatives that she also posted as an Instagram story for her 8.3 million followers. She also thanked the judge and jury for their work.

    As Paltrow left court she touched Terry Sanderson’s shoulder and told him, “I wish you well,” he told reporters outside court. He responded, “Thank you dear.”

    Paltrow’s attorney, Steve Owens, added in a statement he read outside court that “Gwyneth has a history of advocating for what she believes in – this situation was no different and she will continue to stand up for what is right.”

    Paltrow, an actor who in recent years has refashioned herself into a celebrity wellness entrepreneur, looked to her attorneys with a pursed lips smile when the judge read the eight-member jury’s verdict in the Park City courtroom. She sat intently through two weeks of testimony in what became the biggest celebrity court case since actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off last year.

    After the verdict was read, the judge polled the jury, which was unanimous on the decision. In civil court in Utah, only three-fourths of jurors need to agree on a verdict. The attorney fees Paltrow asked for in her countersuit were not included in the jury’s verdict, leaving the bulk of the final award for the Park City judge to decide.

    Addressing reporters after the verdict, Sanderson questioned whether the lawsuit was worth it and said he believed that people tend to naturally trust celebrities like Paltrow.

    “You get some assumed credibility from being a famous person,” Sanderson said. “Really, who wants to take on a celebrity?”

    The dismissal concludes two weeks of courtroom proceedings that hinged largely on reputation rather than the monetary damages at stake in the case. Paltrow’s attorneys described the complaint against her as “utter B.S.” and painted the Goop founder-CEO as uniquely vulnerable to unfair, frivolous lawsuits due to her celebrity.

    Paltrow took the witness stand during the trial to insist that the collision wasn’t her fault, and to describe how she was stunned when she felt “a body pressing against me and a very strange grunting noise.”

    Throughout the trial, the word “uphill” became synonymous with “guilty, ” as attorneys focused on a largely unknown skiing code of conduct that stipulates that the skier who is downhill or ahead on the slope has the right of way.

    Worldwide audiences followed the celebrity trial as if it were episodic television. Viewers scrutinized both Paltrow and Sanderson’s motives while attorneys directed questions to witnesses that often had less to do with the collision and more to do with their client’s reputations.

    The trial took place in Park City, a resort town known for hosting the annual Sundance Film Festival, where early in her career Paltrow would appear for the premieres of her movies including 1998’s “Sliding Doors,” at a time when she was known primarily as an actor, not a lifestyle influencer. Paltrow is also known for her roles in “Shakespeare in Love” and the “Iron Man” movies.

    The jury’s decision marks a painful court defeat for Sanderson, the man who sued Paltrow for more than $300,000 over injuries he sustained when they crashed on the ski slope at Deer Valley Resort.

    “He never returned home that night as the same man. Terry has tried to get off that mountain but he’s really still there,” attorney Robert Sykes said during closing arguments.

    Both parties blamed the other for the collision. Sanderson, 76, broke four ribs and sustained a concussion after the two tumbled down the slope, with Paltrow landing on top of him.

    He filed an amended complaint after an earlier $3.1 million lawsuit was dismissed. In response, Paltrow countersued for $1 and attorney fees, a symbolic action that mirrors Taylor Swift’s response to a radio host’s defamation lawsuit. Swift was awarded $1 in 2017.

    Paltrow’s defense team represented Sanderson as an angry, aging and unsympathetic man who had over the years become “obsessed” with his lawsuit against Paltrow. They argued that Paltrow wasn’t at fault in the crash and also said, regardless of blame, that Sanderson was overstating the extent of his injuries.

    ___

    AP writer Anna Furman contributed from Los Angeles.

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  • CNN preaches patience as ratings tank during turnaround

    CNN preaches patience as ratings tank during turnaround

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    NEW YORK (AP) — CNN’s leadership is preaching patience even though thousands of viewers are abandoning the network during its attempted turnaround, with no indication yet whether it will be rewarded.

    Cable news ratings are down across the board compared to 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was fresh in the news. CNN’s dip is most dramatic — 61% in prime time in March, with Fox News Channel down 27% and MSNBC off by 12%, according to the Nielsen company.

    Fox averaged 2.09 million viewers in prime time in March, with MSNBC at 1.14 million and CNN at 473,000, Nielsen said. In the key 25-54 age demographic for advertisers, CNN is seeing some of its lowest numbers in decades.

    CNN is a year into new corporate management with Warner Bros. Discovery, which hired ex-CBS producer Chris Licht to run the network. The chief goal has been to rebuild trust as a non-partisan news brand after years of criticism by former President Donald Trump and his followers, at a time Fox and MSNBC have profited handsomely by appealing to specific points of view.

    Licht’s biggest programming move to date, a revamp of “CNN This Morning,” hasn’t borne fruit in the ratings and has been beset by bad publicity, including co-host Don Lemon’s ham-fisted reference to a woman’s prime years.

    Changes to CNN’s daytime look are imminent. Licht’s vision for prime time is months away, though, and only beginning to take shape.

    His plans are to couple news coverage with hosts from different worlds, including entertainment, who can talk about the news without a specific partisan take. Licht is exploring several possibilities, and CNN is reportedly close to deals with CBS’ Gayle King and former NBA star turned sportscaster Charles Barkley for shows that will air once a week, although the network wouldn’t confirm that.

    If Licht’s bet pays off, CNN will strengthen its reputation as a news brand while also attracting viewers who are now watching Netflix or HGTV — not just competing news networks.

    As those plans develop, CNN’s prime-time lineup has largely been in flux after Anderson Cooper’s hour at 8 p.m. Eastern. The network has experimented with some interviews, events and subject-focused hours at 9 p.m. Eastern. They include talks with first lady Jill Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and town halls with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and one focused on the Ohio train derailment.

    The news hours that follow, at least for now, are led by Alisyn Camerota and Laura Coates.

    “Viewers are a bit confused with all of the changes, particularly in the prime-time lineup,” said Jennifer Thomas, a former CNN producer who now teaches journalism at Howard University. She said CNN needs more news that impacts viewers and less analysis.

    CNN expresses pride in some of the efforts, while admitting some are duds. Last Friday, for example, only 295,000 people watched Jake Tapper’s interview with “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis. It was less than a quarter of the people who saw Alex Wagner’s MSNBC show at the same 9 p.m. Eastern time slot, Nielsen said.

    David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, delivered a pep talk to hundreds of CNN managers earlier this month to reinforce the message that he wanted to see a network focused on the news that didn’t lean any way politically.

    CNN saw strong ratings under the leadership of Licht’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker, and Zaslav said he recognized that a more partisan approach could bring more viewers and money, but that “it’s not what I came here to do,” according to a transcript of Zaslav’s speech.

    He said he hoped the network would be able to figure out what is working and what isn’t. He urged the managers to not worry about outside noise.

    “Ratings be damned,” he said. “Let’s focus on who we are. This is our mission. This is our legacy. And this is our journey together.”

    The question for Licht and his team, as it is often in similar situations, is “how much time do they really have?” said Mark Whitaker, a former executive at CNN and NBC News.

    Strong ratings mean more revenue, and more money to spend on programming, Whitaker said.

    Cable news viewership is often very habit-driven, with viewers drawn to personalities they know and trust, he said. For the first three days this week, CNN’s 9 p.m. Eastern hour had three different hosts — Erin Burnett, Pamela Brown and Kaitlan Collins.

    CNN must wonder whether viewers will lose the habit of tuning in while waiting for the network’s true personality to emerge under Licht. A new prime-time schedule is not likely until the fall.

    It doesn’t help that many CNN viewers have long considered the network a utility to be used primarily when there are big stories, and it’s a relatively quiet period now. An important test will be how many viewers will reflexively turn to CNN during big news events, where it has often dominated the ratings.

    MSNBC, in touting its biggest audience advantage over CNN in nearly four years, said that its viewers watched the network an average of 381 minutes per week during the first three months of 2023, compared to 183 minutes for CNN.

    “They’re fighting against the toughest foe they can fight,” said Rick Kaplan, a former CNN president. “They’re fighting against short attention spans. They’re fighting against the fact that we’re such a divided people, so angry at each other, that if you don’t reflect that anger, the people don’t have time for you.”

    Continued poor ratings “eats away at the fabric of the network, if you’re doing great shows and nobody is watching,” he said.

    Kaplan said he believes CNN has the right executive in Licht, who has a strong track record as a successful programmer.

    “If there’s a right way, he’ll find it,” he said.

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