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Column: Does the ‘Bridgerton’ prequel ‘Queen Charlotte’ whitewash British racism?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

Nina Metz | Chicago TribuneFew TV producers draw mass audiences as reliably as Shonda Rhimes, who correctly predicted Julia Quinn’s Regency-era “Bridgerton” romance novels would appeal to millions. Building off that success, Rhimes’ latest effort for Netflix is a prequel series that takes place several decades prior to the events of the books. This time, though, the central character isn’t fictional but very much part of the historical record.“Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” looks at the queen’s “rise to prominence and power,” with her 1761 marriage as a teenager to King George. As with the first two seasons of “Bridgerton,” it features a likable ensemble cast that generates smoldering earnestness with a soupcon of camp. There’s real chemistry between the central pair. The settings are opulent and vivid. I suspect anyone who has enjoyed “Bridgerton” so far will find many of the same pleasures herein.But both series sidestep a glaring reality: The significant links to slavery am...

Craft loans her Kentucky GOP campaign an additional $2M

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican Kelly Craft pumped another $2.25 million into her campaign for Kentucky governor, as her family’s wealth fuels an advertising blitz in the final run against rival Daniel Cameron for the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in November.With the latest installments, Craft has loaned her campaign more than $9 million, her campaign finance report showed this week. The former United Nations ambassador is married to coal magnate Joe Craft.Her access to vast funds to bankroll her campaign gives Craft a crucial advantage as the 12-candidate GOP gubernatorial contest reaches the final stretch before the May 16 primary.Cameron, the state’s attorney general, had more than $340,000 of campaign cash on hand for the final push, though he’s also backed by a well-financed outside group that has run ads attacking Craft.Another GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, had more than $450,000 in cam...

Review: Lovano’s trio is post-free jazz in a chamber setting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

“Our Daily Bread,” Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry (ECM)The latest album from saxophonist Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry has almost no pulse but plenty of heart and soul.“Our Daily Bread,” released Friday, is post-free jazz in a chamber setting, and absorbing despite the lack of a bass or beat. Lovano’s eight original compositions leave plenty of space for individual explorations by the sax man, drummer Carmen Castaldi and pianist Marilyn Crispell, even when they’re all playing at the same time.Look elsewhere for swing, torrents of notes or chord changes. There is momentum to the music, however, as the trio pushes jazz forward, using silence as an instrument to build space between the players and what they play. The result is a set of tunes that float, undulating and unhurried, creating a mood of reflection but also liberation.Lovano’s minimalist meditations include the flowing and lyrical title cut, which almost finds a steady rhythm, and the chromatic “All Twelve,” framed by an angular, ed...

Chile to choose constitutional council, but apathy reigns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile will vote Sunday to choose 50 delegates to a council that will draw up a new Constitution, after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed charter last year that was widely described as one of the world’s most progressive. It’s the latest step in a process to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter that began with massive protests in 2019. For the most part, though, Chileans appear to be greeting this latest phase with a collective shrug.“I’m only going to vote because I don’t want to pay the fine,” said Patricia Borzone, a 45-year-old architect.Borzone is hardly alone as surveys have shown there’s a general apathy in this South American country regarding the vote while many seem to know little about who is on the ballot. Polls conducted by Criteria and Cadem in late March and April, respectively, indicated that nearly 70% of those surveyed said they had little or no interest in Sunday’s vote.The election Sunday will be a key step in the eff...

Proud Boys 1/6 verdict boosts Justice Dept. in Trump probe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even in Washington when members of his extremist group, angry over Donald Trump ‘s election loss, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Yet, federal prosecutors, using his words, won a conviction on the most serious charge levied in the insurrection. The seditious conspiracy guilty verdicts of Tarrio and three lieutenants handed down Thursday — after a contentious and erratic trial that lasted more than twice as long as expected — bolsters the Justice Department’s record in its historic prosecution of the Capitol attack. The investigation has now led to convictions against two top extremist group leaders on a legally complex charge that’s rarely ever brought and can be difficult to prove.The verdict could further embolden the Justice Department and special counsel Jack Smith as they dig into efforts by Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden’s victory.Mostly in private, Smith’s work ...

Random shooting leaves 12-year-old Florida boy dead at store

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A gunman fatally shot a 12-year-old boy and wounded a man before turning the gun on himself inside a South Florida convenience store in an apparently random attack, sheriff’s officials said Friday.Broward County Sheriff’s deputies said Darren Rosenthal, 29, shot a man sitting inside a car outside the Dania Beach 7-Eleven at about 11 p.m. Thursday. He then went inside the suburban Fort Lauderdale store and killed the boy. He then killed himself.The names of the boy and the wounded man were not released. The man was taken to the hospital, but his condition was also not released.“Detectives do not believe there is any connection between the gunman and the victims; this does appear to be a random act,” sheriff’s spokesman Carey Codd said at a Friday news conference. “There does not appear to be a connection between the two victims.”Store worker Maximo Limas said Rosenthal gave no warning before he started shooting.The wounded man “was chilling ...

Russia jails artists amid crackdown on dissent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Russian court on Friday ordered pretrial detention for a theater director and a playwright facing charges of justifying terrorism, the latest move in a relentless crackdown on dissent in Russia that spiked to unprecedented levels since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow jailed Zhenya Berkovich, a prominent independent theater director, and Svetlana Petriychuk, a playwright, for two months pending investigation and trial. The two were detained in the Russian capital on Thursday because of the play Petriychuk wrote and Berkovich staged, “Finist, the Brave Falcon.” Police also raided the apartments of Berkovich’s parents and grandmother in St. Petersburg. The play, named after a Russian fairy tale, depicts Russian women who faced prosecution after being lured into marriage and life in Syria by representatives of radical Islam. The authorities have alleged that the play justifies terrorism, accusations that both B...

19 horses to tangle in wide-open 149th Kentucky Derby

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The cast of characters for the 149th Kentucky Derby was rewritten in the days before the race. What didn’t change: Forte is the early 3-1 favorite on Saturday in a seemingly wide-open field of 19 horses.Four horses were scratched — Practical Move, Lord Miles, Continuar and Skinner — and three horses waiting on the also-eligible list moved into the field. They are Cyclone Mischief, Mandarin Hero and King Russell.Last year’s Derby was a stunner: 80-1 shot Rich Strike weaved his way through traffic and came rushing up the rail to win. NBC Sports’ overhead replay of the race was viewed more than 36 million times.A crowd of about 150,000 is expected to jam Churchill Downs to wager and watch the 1 1/4-mile Derby. Post time is 6:57 p.m. EDT.Forte breaks from the No. 15 post, which has produced six winners. The dark brown colt is trained by two-time Derby winner Todd Pletcher, who also has the second favorite in Tapit Trice, at 5-1.The Todd Squad inc...

Heavy rain, spring snowmelt threaten several B.C. communities with flooding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

The mayor of Grand Forks, B.C., says he’s confident the community’s downtown is prepared for a 200-year flood, as the rain begins to fall in earnest in the community.The city of about 4,100 residents, not far from the Canada-U. S. border, already endured a major flood in 2018 and is one of several currently threatened by rising waters throughout B.C.’s southern and central Interior.Mayor Everett Baker said they’ve protected what they can. “I have great confidence in our flood mitigation program that will do the job it needs to do in the downtown core and protect industry,” he said, while watching the rain come down from his office window on Friday.“Is it enough? I guess Monday morning will tell that story.”A week of record temperatures melted mountain snow packs and heavy rain in the forecast through the weekend have combined to create conditions ripe for flooding.Environment Canada says 19 daily heat records were broken in the south a...

Stock market today: Apple-juiced rally closes bruising week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:52:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is leading Wall Street toward its biggest rally in nearly four months Friday after the market’s most influential company reported a better profit than feared. Stocks of beaten-down banks are also leaping to recover a smidgen of their sharp losses from a brutal week.The S&P 500 was 2.1% higher, though it’s still on pace for a losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 599 points, or 1.8%, at 33,725, with about an hour left in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was 2.4% higher. Treasury yields were jumping in the bond market after a report showed hiring accelerated across the economy by much more than expected last month. The U.S. government’s jobs report also showed workers won bigger pay raises in April than expected. While that’s good news, particularly when many economists fear a recession may arrive this year, the data also raises worries inflation may stay high and push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher. That in turn wou...