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Sweden’s Loreen could win Eurovision — for the second time

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Loreen’s favorite moment of Eurovision comes as she’s rolled onstage, lying flat between two horizontal screens and sporting spiky jeweled nails, waiting for the music to start.It’s a moment of calm, about 40 seconds, when the Swedish singer can look at the audience and connect with the crowd, she says. It’s also a stark contrast to the energetic performance that follows, one that has her tipped to come first at the Eurovision Song Contest — for a second time.Loreen won in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Eurovision 2012 with “Euphoria” and now it’s looking like she could do the double and triumph again more than a decade later with “Tattoo.” If she does win it all, she’d only be the second person in Eurovision history to win twice — and it’s been 36 years since Johnny Logan pulled off that feat for Ireland.Loreen has already made it through Tuesday’s semifinal to earn a place for Sweden in Saturday’s Grand Final in Liverpool. This time feels differen...

New blood donation rules allow more gay men to give in US

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can give blood in the U.S. without abstaining from sex under updated federal health guidelines that focus on donors’ behavior, not their sexual orientation.The Food and Drug Administration guidelines finalized Thursday ease decades-old restrictions designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. The agency announced plans for the change in January and said this week the new approach can now be implemented by blood banks.The updated guidelines do away with a requirement that men who have sex with men abstain from sex for three months prior to giving blood. Instead, all potential donors — regardless of sexual orientation, sex or gender — will be screened with a new questionnaire that evaluates their individual risks for HIV based on sexual behavior, recent partners and other factors. Potential donors who report having anal sex with new partners in the last three months will be barred from giving until a later date. The ...

Rain up to 4.5 inches fell Wednesday and Thursday in Colorado: See the list

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Steady rain has been falling across much of the Denver area for nearly 24 hours. The Pinpoint Weather team has issued a Pinpoint Weather Alert Day for Thursday.Flood watches are in effect across the Front Range and plains until 6 a.m. on Friday morning. Hail up to 4 inches fell Wednesday in Colorado: See the list The National Weather Service said excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks and flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.Flooding has been reported at Cherry Creek State Park and has also caused road damage there.How much rain has fallen?The NWS said a widespread two to four inches of rain has fallen so far for the southern Denver metro area and Palmer Divide with this storm system. Here is a look at the preliminary rainfall reports from the NWS as of 1 p.m. Thursday:Black Forest: 2.22 inchesColorado Springs: 2.62 inches...

Number of Denver metro building permits falling

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Building has slowed around metro Denver to levels unseen since the early days of the COVID pandemic, particularly with the exact kind of homes local and state leaders are trying to encourage. The U.S. Census Bureau tracks the number of building permits in the largest U.S. metro areas. The Denver area was experiencing a boom in the number of monthly permits through 2021, but that has fallen through the beginning of 2023. Tornado touches down near Brush during live newscast There were 1,094 residential buildings of any size permitted in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area in March 2023 - the fewest since May 2020. Building permits had swelled to nearly 3,500 in December 2021 and have declined ever since. There were half as many buildings permitted in the most recent six months as were permitted in the latter half of 2021.The downturn was especially pronounced with so-called "gentle density" housing types - duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. These kinds of homes ...

Turkish opposition leader accuses Russia of spreading conspiracies, deep fakes ahead of election

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Turkish opposition leader hoping to replace Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as president, accused Russia of spreading conspiracies and deep fakes ahead of this weekend’s election.“Dear Russian friends,” Kılıçdaroğlu wrote on Twitter on Thursday.“You are behind the montages, conspiracies, deep fakes and tapes that were exposed in this country yesterday,” he said, without providing further details. “If you want our friendship after May 15, get your hands off the Turkish state. We are still in favor of cooperation and friendship.”The comments came hours after another opposition candidate, Muharrem İnce, announced he was pulling out of the presidential race. “I’m withdrawing from the race. I am doing this for my homeland,” İnce said at a press conference, according to Bloomberg. Earlier Thursday, the Ankara public prosecutor’s office said it opened an investigation after a sex tape allegedly showing İnce surfaced on social media.Kılıçdaroğlu is polling ...

Kodai Senga gets shelled as Mets fall in fifth straight series with loss to Reds

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

The first inning was all you needed to see.The Mets’ (18-20) journey to rock bottom reached another level during their 5-0 loss in the rubber match of a three-game set against Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon.Kodai Senga dug the Amazins into a hole from the get-go. The 30-year-old surrendered four runs in the top of the first as the Reds strung together a series of hits and walks capped off by Kevin Newman’s two-RBI single.The right-hander managed to provide Buck Showalter some length going five innings but surrendered a solo shot to Spencer Steer as a parting gift in the bottom of the fifth. That left his final line at five innings with five earned runs and seven strikeouts.“It’s a challenge for us,” Showalter said. “We didn’t score any runs today. I thought Kodai was a victim, you know, with a broken-bat flare to center and a check swing the other way and then kind of gets multiplied when we’re not scoring any runs…“...

‘BlackBerry’ review: Here’s how you make a ripping docudrama out of a product launch

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

Michael Phillips | Chicago TribuneThe phrase “comparisons are odious” has been around since the 15th century, but what the hell: “BlackBerry” is far, far better than so, so many of the recent screen chronicles of product launches, and the visionary nerds behind them, starting with “Steve Jobs” (2015) and continuing all the way through the recent “Air.”I enjoyed “Air” while also wondering if we were getting a little too much hot air in the telling. Consider “BlackBerry” a sharp-witted, fleet-footed complement bordering on a corrective to that movie.It’s Canadian to the bone, taking place mostly in Waterloo, Ontario, where the aspiring software company Research in Motion became a global powerhouse with its clicky lil’ wonder, the BlackBerry, before collapsing in on itself due to fishy, illegal stock manipulation and the emergence of Apple’s iPhone, the thing that did not and does not click in the least, unless you activate the old-timey keyboard sound effect. (Some of us totally get t...

Ukraine says counteroffensive delayed; Britain sending cruise missiles to Kyiv

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

By SUSIE BLANN and JILL LAWLESS (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in remarks broadcast Thursday that Kyiv is delaying its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia’s occupying forces because Ukraine lacks enough Western weapons to succeed without suffering too many casualties.His remarks, in an interview with European broadcasters, were aired shortly before Britain said it has sent Ukraine air-launched cruise missiles that would allow pilots to extend their reach farther than possibly any other weapon in their arsenal, to locations deep behind the front line.A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia’s more than 14-month-old invasion has been expected since warmer weather improved battlefield conditions, and Zelenskyy said it’s possible that “we can go forward and be successful,” the BBC reported.“But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying...

She writes novels about Vietnamese women. An audiobook narrator gives them a voice

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

When author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and actor Quyen Ngo reunite over a Zoom meeting, the love is palpable. As the call starts, they reach out toward their cameras, giving each other a virtual hug. “I’m wearing a shirt Quyen gave me right now,” Quế Mai says. “It’s made of velvet and it’s so soft; I feel like she’s hugging me every day.”The two became fast friends after Ngo narrated Quế Mai’s first novel in English, “The Mountains Sing.” The author was so impressed with the job Ngo did that she didn’t consider another narrator for her new novel, “Dust Child,” which spans decades and deals with the lives of Vietnamese and American people whose lives are affected by the Vietnam War, including two Amerasians — those born in Asia to American fathers and Asian mothers.Related: Sign up for our free newsletter about books, authors, reading and moreQuế Mai lives in Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam, and talked about her novel from New York, where she was doing an event for “Dust Child.” Ngo spoke from Los A...

‘Money, power, sex’: Idaho prosecutors ask jury to convict slain kids’ mom in alleged doomsday plot

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:59:35 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The woman charged in the slayings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival wanted their money so she used sex and power to manipulate her brother and a lover into carrying out the crimes, Idaho prosecutors told jurors Thursday. “ Money, power and sex,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said, urging the jury to convict Lori Vallow Daybell in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and her fifth husband’s previous wife Tammy Daybell. “What does justice for these victims require? It requires a conviction on each and every count,” Wood said. Defense attorney Jim Archibald countered that there was no evidence tying his client to the killings but plenty showing she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, and fell for the “weird” apocalyptic religious claims of a cult lead...