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Randall Park adapts a favorite graphic novel for his feature debut ‘Shortcomings’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Randall Park was a struggling actor when he first encountered Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel “Shortcomings” in 2007. The story focused on a twentysomething Japanese American man named Ben, who is trying to find himself in the Bay Area along with his girlfriend Miko and best friend Alice, who is a lesbian. They are all flawed, complex and figuring things out, sometimes inelegantly. Park was obsessed.“I remember thinking, gosh this would make an amazing movie,” Park said in an interview earlier this year during the Sundance Film Festival. “And in my dreams it was like, ‘Oh I’d love to play Ben.’”It would take about 15 years for “Shortcomings” to become a feature. By then Park had, in his words, aged out of the role. But he got a cooler gig out of it: feature film director. “Shortcomings,” starring Sherry Cola as Alice, Ally Maki as Miko and Justin H. Min as Ben, had its world premiere at Sundance and is now coming to theaters Friday through distributor Sony Pictu...

New Montreal summer camp helps Ukrainian refugee children integrate in Quebec

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

MONTREAL — A free, new summer camp is aiming to help Ukrainian refugee children and their families settle in Montreal.Sixty children are participating in the inaugural edition of the camp, an initiative of the Quebec branch of the Ukrainian National Federation.Branch president Taras Kulish says the goal of the program is to foster a sense of community among new arrivals and help them integrate in their new environment, using day trips to familiarize participant families with the city. The camp is based out of the federation’s community centre, in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood.The first of two two-week camp sessions wrapped up Friday. So far, the camp has proved to be a critical social touchpoint for refugees who fled the war launched by Russia in eastern Europe, Kulish says.“You can only imagine leaving your family, all your cherished belongings behind,” he said in a recent interview. “You arrive in this country where you know nobody, you have no fa...

Health Canada approves first RSV vaccine for adults age 60 and over

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

Health Canada has approved the first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for adults age 60 and over.Manufacturer GSK says the federal agency has approved its new vaccine called Arexvy.Doctors have been calling for an RSV vaccine for seniors because although the virus is common, older people are much more likely to become severely ill and require hospitalization.RSV season in Canada usually starts in the late fall and lasts until spring.GSK says a randomized clinical trial showed the vaccine was 82 per cent effective at preventing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV compared to seniors who got a placebo.The company says it was 94 per cent effective at preventing the illness in seniors with underlying medical conditions.

The UN cut their food aid this summer. These Palestinians now struggle to find their next meal

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Except for a small bag of lentils and the orange juice she reserves for guests, there is no food in Ashwaq Abu al-Wafa’s house in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Ever since the U.N. cut her food aid in June, she has fallen behind on rent. All her money now goes to feeding her three children, she said. “The fridge is empty,” al-Wafa said from her apartment on Thursday. “I can barely hold all of this stress in my heart.”Thousands of families like al-Wafa’s across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip go through the day not sure where they will get their next meal now that the World Food Program has halted aid to 200,000 people, 60% of beneficiaries, its largest-ever cuts in the Palestinian territories. The agency has made cuts across the world, from war-torn Yemen to West Africa, a region gripped by its worst hunger crisis in years.The WFP’s deputy executive director, Carl Skau, announced last week that the agency has raised just $5 billion of the $20 bil...

2 charged in violent downtown Toronto kidnapping, other man wanted

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

Toronto police have arrested two men and are searching for a third in an alleged downtown kidnapping that saw the suspects demand money from the victim and threaten them with a firearm and baseball bat.Investigators were notified of a kidnapping on July 5 just after 7:30 p.m. in the Wellington Street West and Bay Street area.It’s alleged that a group of suspects approached the victim, took his car keys and stole his vehicle. They then forced him into a different vehicle and took him to a bank machine, where the suspects demanded money.The suspects demanded money and threatened the victim while taking him to other locations across the city. Police said the group kept asking for more money from the victim and threatened him with a firearm and baseball bat.The victim was dropped off in the Humber Bay Park area in Etobicoke. Police said the suspects assaulted the victim and demanded more money before fleeing.On July 8, investigators arrested 26-year-old Peter Okoronkwo of Toronto....

Shots again fired at site of Parkland school massacre in reenactment after lawmakers visit

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Gunfire erupted again at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday as part of a reenactment by ballistics experts of the 2018 massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.The reenactment is part of a lawsuit by the victims’ families and the wounded that accuses the Broward County deputy assigned to the school of failing in his duty to protect them and their loved ones.Reporters gathered outside heard shots just before noon. Earlier in the day, nine members of Congress toured the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls.Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year’s penalty trial for the shooter.There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students’ desks — at least those that we...

Another harrowing escape puts attention on open prostitution along Seattle’s Aurora Avenue

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — A vanload of church volunteers drove along a main street in north Seattle one night last month with sandwiches, water bottles and blankets for homeless people. They didn’t find any — but they did see dozens of barely clothed women walking along the road or leaning into traffic to advertise their services.“Just woman after woman after woman,” recalled one of the volunteers, Stuart Jenner. “We prayed for them as we drove south.”About two hours later, the FBI said, a man posing as an undercover police officer shackled and abducted a woman from the area after soliciting her to engage in prostitution. He then drove her hundreds of miles to his home in southern Oregon, where he locked her in a makeshift cell in his garage — a cinder block cage with a metal door, charging papers say. She escaped by punching the door, bloodying her knuckles, until it broke.Authorities say they are looking for more possible victims after linking the man, Negasi Zuberi, to violent sexual ...

Stock market today: Wall Street rises following mixed reports on US job market, Big Tech earnings

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are gaining ground Friday following mixed reports about the U.S. job market and profits at two of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in afternoon trading and heading for its first gain in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 215 points, or 0.6%, at 35,431, as of 12:21 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.Taking some pressure off stocks were falling Treasury yields in the bond market. They dipped after a highly anticipated U.S. jobs report said hiring was a touch weaker last month than economists expected, though wages for workers rose more than forecast.The job market is in a precarious place, where investors want a reading that’s neither too hot nor too cold. On one hand, investors want it to remain strong enough to keep the economy out of a long-predicted recession. On the other, they don’t want wage growth in particular to be so strong that the Federal Reserve sees it putting upward pre...

Major cases await as liberals exert control of Wisconsin Supreme Court

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Conflicts on Wisconsin’s newly liberal controlled state Supreme Court spilled out publicly as the court majority flipped this week, setting the stage for deep divisions in the battleground state on major cases that could determine the legality of abortions and voting rules, as well as legislative boundary lines. Conservatives controlled the court for 15 years until Tuesday. Liberals will have the majority for at least the next two years.Under conservative control, the court upheld Republican-drawn maps in 2011 that helped the GOP increase its majorities, affirmed a state law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, and declared absentee ballot drop boxes illegal.Deep partisan divisions on the court aren’t new. Tensions were so high in 2011 as the court considered a case about collective bargaining rights that a liberal justice accused one of her conservative colleagues of trying to choke her. On Wednesday, conservative Chief Ju...

Guatemala-based group extends hand on First Nations’ residential school searches

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:58:15 GMT

OTTAWA — A Guatemala-based forensic anthropology organization is extending its hand to Indigenous Peoples in Canada looking to potentially recover remains of children on the grounds of former residential schools.Fredy Peccerelli, a founding member of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, has been working for years to bring home bodies of the “disappeared” — those who died in the 36-year civil war in Guatemala.Peccerelli says their Indigenous-led excavations identify on average as many as 125 loved ones per year, returning remains to family members and communities.He says Indigenous Peoples in Canada should develop their own forensics team without government involvement, similar to the organization’s work in Guatemala.He adds his organization has worked with groups in Mexico and Rwanda to train people on how to collect DNA, excavate graves and repatriate remains, and is willing to do the same in Canada.The organization’s work has been cited by Kimbe...