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The coronation was an act of magic for a country scared the spell might break

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

Tanya Gold is a freelance journalist.A coronation creates a god out of a man: It is magic. This is odd, which is why the world’s eyes were upon us — few nations practice magic publicly these days. But it remains our default security in a modern age.Of course, we cannot discuss this openly, because it is absurd, and because we are only dimly aware of it, which is another kind of self-protection: denial serving denial. Monarchy appeals to the unconscious, to children afraid of the night. (Whatever we feared, Elizabeth II was in her palace, never changing, like the queen in “The BFG” who battled flesh-eating giants.) Monarchy is a fairy tale, it is true: the darker parts. And so, the commentary at the coronation had an odd dissonance, as if we were speaking around something, because the core of it was something we were afraid to say out loud. If you say you don’t believe in Tinkerbell, she dies.That lack of confidence in the magic spell was obvious at breakfast time. As the...

Jets coach Robert Saleh’s message to Mekhi Becton: ‘Go earn the left tackle’

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

On Friday afternoon, Jets coach Robert Saleh declared an open competition at both tackle positions and at center.A day later, one of Saleh’s players voiced his preference for where he would like to play in 2023.In a since-deleted tweet Saturday, Becton said, “I. AM. A. LEFT. TACKLE!!!”Becton’s message was clearly a response to Saleh’s answer during his press conference on Friday when the coach said the Jets would play their best five offensive linemen.When asked about Becton’s tweet, Saleh had his own message for the fourth-year tackle.“Go earn the left tackle,” Saleh said. “Competition.”The Jets declined Becton’s fifth-year option on Tuesday, which would have been worth $13.5 million. The former first-round pick will head into the final year of his rookie contract, which will pay him $5.8 million.Becton is hardly in position to make demands after the last two years. Following the 2020 season, in which Becton started ...

Ex-FCC chief Newton Minow dead at 97

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.Minow, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, died Saturday at home, surrounded by loved ones, said his daughter, Nell Minow.“He wanted to be at home,” she told The Associated Press. “He had a good life.”Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television.“My faith is in the belief that this country needs and can support many voices of television — and that the more voices we hear, the better, the richer, the freer we shall be,” Minow once said. “After all, the airways belong to the people.”Minow was appointed as FCC chief by President John F. Kennedy in ear...

Volleyball notebook: Natick set for deep run

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

The concept isn’t exactly flashy, but Natick sophomore Branch Barnes is pretty hyped up over it.In the second set of a Bay State Conference bout on April 27, a talented Brookline squad was hammering spikes. It attacked the area around Harrison Landry perhaps the most within the frame’s first eight points, and the junior RedHawks setter needed to make four digs within the stretch.Normally, putting a setter into that spot forces a team out of system. Most programs run a 5-1 rotation with just the one setter. But Natick, which went on an 8-0 run before eventually winning the match 3-0, is different.“I set four balls from right-side, which is huge,” Barnes said. “When the setter (Landry) gets taken out like that, four times in eight points? We converted on all of them. … The big thing is (we have) two setters at all times. It’s very hard for us to get put out of system, we can usually get a good swing down.”It’s common for teams to run a situational 6-2 rotation, or at least experiment ...

Over 200 dead, many more missing after Congo floods

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

KALEHE, Congo (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen beyond 200, with many more people still missing, according to local authorities in the province of South Kivu. Thomas Bakenge, administrator of Kalehe, the worst-hit territory, told reporters on the scene Saturday that 203 bodies had been recovered so far, but that efforts to find others were continuing. In the village of Nyamukubi, where hundreds of homes were washed away, rescue workers and survivors dug through the ruins Saturday looking for more bodies in the mud. Villagers wept as they gathered around some of the bodies recovered so far, which lay on the grass covered in muddy cloths near a rescue workers post.Grieving survivor Anuarite Zikujuwa said she had lost her entire family, including her in-laws, as well as many of her neighbors. “The whole village has been turned into a wasteland. There’s only stones left and we can’t even tell where our land once was,” she said....

Premier says more than 24,000 forced from homes by Alberta wildfires

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

CALGARY — Alberta’s premier says an emergency management cabinet committee is set to meet this afternoon as the number of wildfire evacuees in the province has grown to more than 24,000.Danielle Smith has told a news conference in Calgary that the committee may discuss implementing a provincewide state of emergency.Smith says there have been 45 new wildfires in Alberta since Friday morning, bringing the number of active fires to 103, with about 121,000 hectares burning.She says the situation is unprecedented and that hot, dry conditions — which mean only a spark is needed to start a fire — is “truly frightening.”Smith says Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis has spoken with federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and that Ottawa is on standby to offer help if the province requests it.Some buildings have been destroyed, including 20 homes, a police station and a store in Fox Lake in northern Alberta. This report by The Canadian Press was first publi...

Mother and 11-year-old child fatally stabbed in Edmonton, suspect shot by police

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

EDMONTON — Family members of a woman and her 11-year-old child who were stabbed and killed in Edmonton have gathered with flowers and photos at a park near the scene of the attack.Police have said it happened around suppertime Friday outside Crawford Plains School in the city’s southeast.They said the 35-year-old woman was dead at the scene and the child later died in hospital.Police say two officers responded and shot a man matching a description of the suspect after an altercation.The man was in hospital in critical condition and Alberta’s police watchdog is investigating the shooting.Police said they do not know if the suspect knew the woman and child.Max Dow, 13, took a teddy bear to a makeshift memorial at the park on Saturday. Standing with his parents, he said he witnessed part of the attack.“It was really graphic, there was blood everywhere,” he said. “It was like right out of a horror movie.”He said the woman was with two children in a wh...

Feeling is believing: Inside the abbey for king’s coronation

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Being there is better.I didn’t see much of the coronation of King Charles III and neither did many of the 2,300 or so other guests inside Westminster Abbey. We were too far away, or were seated behind the choir, or had our view blocked by a guardsman in a plumed helmet. But we heard it — and felt it — in a way that just wasn’t possible for those watching on television.It was in the moment the choir, organ and orchestra blasted out “Zadok the Priest,” Handel’s coronation anthem, so boldly that it startled me even though I knew it was coming. It was in the gusto with which the congregation shouted “God save the king!” after Charles was crowned. And it was in the joyous fanfare blown by trumpeters in the balcony where just a few months ago a lone bagpiper bid farewell to Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II.This was a moment of celebration for Charles and his supporters, a stark contrast to the day in September when the nation mourned the death of a queen who had reigned f...

Liberals reject balanced budget and mandatory voting as official policy

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

OTTAWA — The Liberals have rejected a policy resolution that would have called on them to make a balanced budget part of their next election platform.The policy resolution brought forward by Quebec Liberals asks the party to develop a clear, costed proposal for a return to balanced budgets, and that it be part of their next election platform.It was rejected in a morning vote 97-76, without formal debate, and it will not be part of the official party’s policy.Liberals also rejected a policy resolution by Saskatchewan Liberals aiming to have voting in federal elections mandatory for all Canadians over the age of 18, and that failing to do so would result in a small monetary fine.Delegates at the Liberal Party convention, which concludes today, are set to vote on which 24 remaining policies will be their priority.They are also set to vote on a new party president.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2023.

Oak Forest Bowling Center 'total loss' after 3-alarm fire

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

OAK FOREST, Ill. — The Oak Forest Bowling Center was destroyed after a massive fire early Saturday morning.In a news release, the Oak Forest Fire Department was called to the bowling center around 2:30 a.m. in the 15200 block of South Cicero Avenue. Man shot and killed in grocery store parking lot in Englewood About 12 other fire departments were dispatched to help fight the massive three-alarm fire.No one was inside the bowling center when the fire started and no injuries were reported.The cause of the fire is still under investigation.