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Massachusetts ‘stuck in neutral’ on addressing transportation woes: Poll

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

Massachusetts is “stuck in neutral” when it comes to addressing transportation issues plaguing the state, residents said in a MassINC poll released Friday.Bay Staters handed Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature mediocre scores for their handling of transportation problems, a MassINC Polling Group survey of 1,390 residents found. From traffic to road safety and continual issues at the MBTA to regional transit, grades for state officials were “middling,” the polling group said.Negative stories about the MBTA — from track problems on the Green Line to the billions it will take to repair the system — have influenced residents’ views of Healey, even though many of the transit agency’s issues predate her administration.“The state of the T and other public transit systems is the top transportation issue cited by residents, followed by traffic congestion and road conditions. Priorities do vary by region, with public transit dominant in Greater Bost...

‘Bring them home’: As the battle for Gaza rages, hostage families wait with trepidation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

Abbey Onn lost her aunt and a young cousin when Hamas attackers rampaged through Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. Now Onn is worried about what will happen to three other family members taken hostage that day as Israel pounds Gaza City in a bid to end Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip. She wants the world to remember that Ofer Kalderon and his children Sahar, 16, and Erez, 12, are caught in the crossfire.“As long as they are hostage, we’re all hostage,” Onn says. “And we need them home so that whatever is happening there can be solved. I don’t think it’s a simple solution, but you can’t hold hostages and fight a war at the same time.”As the Israeli military tightens its grip around Gaza City, friends and family of the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas fear their loved ones will be an afterthought for the politicians and generals directing the campaign. Hamas on Monday released video of the first hostage confirmed to have died in captivity.With much of northern Gaza flattened and face...

Karol G wins best album at Latin Grammys, with Bizarrap and Shakira also taking home awards

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

SEVILLE, Spain (AP) — Karol G, Bizzarap, Shakira and Natalia Lafourcade, won big at the Latin Grammy Awards held Thursday.Karol G’s “Mañana será bonito” was crowned best album of the year and best urban music album.Argentine producer Bizarrap took home the awards for song of the year and best pop song for “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” with the Colombian star.Shakira, who attended the ceremony held in Seville, Spain, accompanied by her two children, Milan and Sasha, said that she wanted to dedicate the award to them “because I have promised them that I am going to be happy.”Natalia Lafourcade, who holds the title for most Latin Grammys in history, added more awards to her record-breaking list with record of the year.Edgar Barrera, who began the night as a favorite with 13 nominations, had to settle for three awards: composer of the year (a category awarded for the first time), producer of the year and best regional Mexican song. That award came for the composition “un X100...

‘No-brainer’: Alberta panel hears callers urge split from Canada Pension Plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

EDMONTON — The panel hearing feedback on whether Alberta should quit the Canada Pension Plan heard multiple callers tell them Thursday it’s time to embrace a “no-brainer” provincial program.“I think it’s time we start looking after Albertans,” a caller identified as Gary from Sherwood Park told the panel led by former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning in its fourth telephone town hall.“We already send (away) billions of dollars in equalization payments. Here’s an opportunity for Albertans to be winners.”Caller Darlene said Alberta is taken for granted by Ottawa and that other provinces will oppose an Alberta pension plan out of self-interest.“Albertans should stand up for themselves,” she said.She said Premier Danielle Smith’s government has to do a better job of reassuring Albertans who are “scared of change.”Caller Keith said Albertans are paying in more than they are getting back, and that lower contributions and higher benefits from an Alberta plan are appealing.“It’s a no-braine...

Gang attack on Haitian hospital leads to a call for help and an unlikely triumph for police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The bullets began piercing the windows of the hospital as women cradling young children ran from room to room searching for a safe place to hide while the heavily armed gang drew closer.The louder the gunfire grew, the more the women screamed until a hospital employee begged them to stay quiet and ordered them to lie on the ground. Mothers with babies and shaky hands forced one breast into their tiny mouths to keep them quiet, wondering if they would live through Wednesday’s attack on the Fontaine Hospital Center and the surrounding community in the Haitian slum of Cite Soleil.A couple of hours went by. The gunfire never ceased. Suddenly, an employee appeared, told them to get up and go to the front yard without making noise. Police were waiting with armored cars.“Get in! Get in! Get in! Get in quickly!” the employees shouted as women carrying children and babies stepped into buses and private ambulances that officers would escort out of Cite Soleil, a r...

Argentina’s Peronist machine is in high gear to shore up shaky votes before the presidential runoff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

CIUDAD EVITA, Argentina (AP) — As Argentina heads for a presidential runoff election on Sunday, the decades-old populist movement known as Peronism is on shaky ground, its candidate having lost some traction even among longtime loyalists living in a suburb of the capital that is its literal and figurative embodiment.Built in the 1950s by Peronism’s founder, then-President Juan Domingo Perón, Ciudad Evita’s original boundaries were shaped like the profile of his wife, former first lady María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Evita. It provided workers not just large homes but also dignity, and its generations of inhabitants have been ardent supporters of a political movement that champions social justice and workers’ rights.But that support has been rattled by rising poverty and red-hot inflation that has punished society. Some Ciudad Evita residents are tempted to do the previously unthinkable: Vote against the Peronist candidate, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, on Sunday. That ha...

What’s streaming now: Dolly Parton rocks out, Godzilla stomps, ‘The Crown’ returns, ‘Rustin’ marches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

Colman Domingo’s incredible performance in the civil rights biopic “Rustin” and Dolly Parton’s rock music album are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.Also among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a series where Godzilla, King Kong and other monsters are real, the fifth Persona video game and return of “The Crown.”NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— A powerhouse performance by Colman Domingo fuels the Netflix drama “Rustin,” streaming Friday, about the civil rights pioneer and March on Washington architect Bayard Rustin. The film, directed by George C. Wolfe, chronicles the run-up to the indelible 1963 march where Rev. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. “Rustin,” the first narrative feature from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, is a portrait of grassroots activism and of the often under-sung Rustin, an openly gay man combating i...

Biden and Mexico’s leader will meet in California. Fentanyl, migrants and Cuba are on the agenda

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, two strong allies who don’t always get along personally, will talk migration, fentanyl trafficking and Cuba relations on Friday. The two leaders are in San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, where Biden has held a series of face-to-face meetings with other leaders, including China’s President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Japan and South Korea, as he seeks to reassure the region that the U.S. and China are competitors, not zero-sum rivals. Biden’s relationship with López Obrador is at times tense, in part because of Biden’s willingness to criticize Mexico on topics such as fentanyl production and the killing of journalists. And López Obrador isn’t afraid to snub the U.S. leader. He skipped a Los Angeles summit last year where leaders tackled the issue of migration because the U.S. didn’t invite Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuel...

Turkey’s Erdogan to visit Germany as differences over the Israel-Hamas war widen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected in Berlin on Friday on a short visit to Germany as the two countries’ stances on the war between Israel and Hamas are poles apart.Erdogan is due to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s largely ceremonial president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Scholz invited Erdogan to visit in May following his re-election.Turkey is viewed as an awkward but essential partner in Germany, which is home to more than 3 million people with Turkish roots. It’s a NATO ally that also is important in efforts to control the flow of refugees and migrants to Europe, but there have been tensions in recent years over a variety of issues.This visit is overshadowed by a growing chasm between the two countries’ stance on events following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has opposed calls for a cease-fire, while pushing for aid to civilians in Gaza, advocating “humanitarian pauses” an...

DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy will meet in Iowa for a ‘family discussion’ on politics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:17:22 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Republicans battling to be the alternative to former President Donald Trump will come together for what an influential Christian organization in Iowa is billing as a friendly conversation on politics and their world views. Three candidates — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — will appear at the roundtable “family discussion” in Des Moines Friday. Trump is not expected to attend, though he was invited. The field around Trump is winnowing with less than two months before the Iowa caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar. In a sign of the urgency the field faces, many of his rivals are going after each other more frequently with jabs that have often turned personal. This week, DeSantis and Ramaswamy both criticized Haley after she said Tuesday that social media companies should ban people from posting anonymously online.DeSantis posted on social media that the proposal was “dangerou...