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Arena Stage welcomes first Black artistic director

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

Artistic director Molly Smith retired this summer after a prolific 25-year run in the nation’s capital.Now, Arena Stage welcomes its very first African American artistic director starting this fall season.“Following in the great footsteps of the iconic Zelda Fichandler and the visionary Molly Smith, it is such a joy to be artistic director here at Arena Stage and something that in some ways feels manifested,” artistic director Hana S. Sharif told WTOP. “I remember when I was 19-years-old, saying and writing down that one day I would be artistic director of Arena Stage, so it does feel like a gift to be able to lead this company in the next phase of its life.”Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Sharif mostly grew up in Houston, Texas, discovering theater at an early age.“My mom said I was a bit of a dramatic child, so very early she put me in theater,” Sharif said. “I started writing plays when I was very young. I produced and directed by first p...

Azerbaijan launches major new offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

Azerbaijan has announced a new offensive in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a major escalation which could turn the simmering dispute into all-out war.In a statement issued by the South Caucasus nation’s defense ministry on Tuesday, officials said they were launching “local anti-terrorist activities” to “suppress large-scale provocations” in the ethnic-Armenian controlled territory.“As part of the measures, positions on the front line and in-depth, long-term firing points of the formations of Armenia’s armed forces, as well as combat assets and military facilities are incapacitated using high-precision weapons,” the statement said.Air raid sirens have been activated in Stepanakert, the de facto capital of the unrecognized state, local media reported.Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. A Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement has since collapsed, with Azerbaijani forces taking control of the only ...

Delta flight from Chicago lands safely at Logan Airport after possible lightning strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

A Delta flight from Chicago to Boston safely landed at Logan Airport after a possible lightning strike on Monday night, officials said.Delta flight 2346 landed without incident following the possible strike on arrival, according to Delate spokesman.“As safety is always Delta’s top priority, the aircraft is being taken out of service for evaluation in line with our typical procedures,” the airline said in a statement.There were 85 customers aboard the Airbus A220 at the time of the strike,

Home prices hit record highs in August

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

Home prices in Massachusetts hit record highs in August as limited inventory and higher mortgage rates continued their two-way squeeze on would be buyers.According to data released today by The Warren Group, a Massachusetts real estate industry tracker, median sales prices of single family homes hit an all-time high in August at $600,000.That’s up 6.2% from the year-ago median of $565,000.At the same time, single-family sales numbers remain down more than 20% in year-over-year figures. August sales numbered 4,397, according to the Warren Group, down 23.6% from the 5,753 tallied a year ago. And year-to-date sales were 27,055, down from 35,787 over the same period a year ago.“The hits keep coming for prospective homebuyers in Massachusetts,” said Cassidy Norton, Associate Publisher and Media Relations Director of The Warren Group. “The shrinking single-family inventory continues to push prices to new highs. Couple this with the fact that interest rates are nearly double where they wer...

Editorial: Pass police grant money. Now!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

The BRIC is the brain Boston cannot afford to neglect. But that’s precisely what the dysfunctional City Council is attempting to do right now, and it must stop!Withholding millions in state grant money from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) is basically telling the gun-toting bad guys to keep on terrorizing.The BRIC is the investigative arm of the city’s police department. They are dispatched to every shooting and homicide in the city — including Sunday night’s gunplay in Dorchester that sent five to the hospital, including two juveniles.One of those youngsters is fighting for their life.Data science is real, and the City Council needs to stop playing politics with lives, allocate the grant money, and help bring some safety to the streets.City Councilor Michael Flaherty is pushing to suspend the rules and pass three grants for $850,000 apiece for the BRIC for the purposes of improving “technology and protocols related to anti-terrorism, anti-crime, ant...

Battenfeld: If Joe Biden quits, Kamala Harris will be no easy pushover

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

The forces are starting to align to push President Biden out of the way in 2024 – leaving understudy Kamala Harris as the next weak link on the Democratic chain.But despite Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton’s best efforts, it won’t be so easy to push Harris out.The historic prospect of the first woman president – of Black and South Asian descent no less – taking office should buttress the vice president as she seeks the party mantle in the Oval Office.If Biden is forced to leave the White House early, and that seems more and more likely as every day goes by, that will give Harris time to establish herself before the election and reestablish her credibility with voters.The VP is a good debater – smacking down Biden in 2020, which Jill Biden has never forgotten – and was smart enough to refuse Biden’s offer to be border czar, leaving the president to shoulder the burden of the nation’s immigration disaster.It’s true Harris right now is even more unpopular than Biden, but that could cha...

Orioles aren’t taking the greatest turnaround in MLB history for granted: ‘We have nothing to lose’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

What the Orioles are doing this season would have been inconceivable two years ago. That’s because it’s never been done.In 2021, the rebuilding Orioles were in their fourth straight year of futility, and the product on the field wasn’t any better than when the reboot began. That club lost 110 games — more than 100 for the third time in four years — and it appeared, at the time, that Baltimore’s rebuild would be longer and more painful than originally hoped.Underneath those teams, though, was an infrastructure that stayed the course, a farm system ready to burst. After a surprising emergence out of the American League East’s cellar last year, they’ve soared to the top of the circuit this year.The Orioles’ win over the Houston Astros on Monday was their 94th of the season — 42 more than they had in 2021. The improvement is the greatest in MLB history over a two-year span.“I mean, if you asked me two years ago?” ma...

Stock market today: Global shares mixed ahead of Federal Reserve interest rate decision

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mixed in cautious trading Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on interest rates.France’s CAC 40 added 0.2% to 7,292.91 in early trading. Germany’s DAX fell nearly 0.1% to 15,716.61. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed, rising less than 0.1% to 7,659.91. The futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500were up less than 0.1%. The Fed is due to wrap up a two-day meeting on Wednesday. Japan’s central bank will meet Thursday-Friday amid speculation it might gradually begin to adjust its longstanding negative interest rate policy. Stocks have been see-sawing since early August on uncertainty about whether the Fed will finally end its hikes to interest rates. Higher rates have helped cool inflation from its peak last summer, but they also hurt prices for stocks and other investments while slowing the economy.Traders almost universally expect the Fed to keep rates steady at its meeting this we...

A Kenyan military helicopter has crashed near Somalia, and sources say all 8 on board have died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A military helicopter crash in Kenya near the border with Somalia has killed at least eight people, officials said Tuesday.It was not immediately clear what caused the crash in the county of Lamu in coastal Kenya. Kenyan defense forces operate in the area to help deter al-Qaida-linked extremists from the al-Shahab group, based across the border in Somalia.The Department of Defense said the Air Force helicopter crashed while on night patrol. It said a board of inquiry has been sent to the scene.A defense and a police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said all military personnel and crew on board the helicopter died.Kenyan troops are also in Somalia under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia to help in fighting al-Shabab. The Kenyan forces deployed to Somalia in 2011, but there are now plans to withdraw the multinational forces as Somali troops take over responsibility for their countr...

Vatican considers child sexual abuse allegations against a former Australian bishop

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:40 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Vatican is considering the findings of a church investigation into “very serious and deeply distressing” child sexual abuse allegations against a former Australian bishop, a church leader said on Tuesday.Christopher Saunders, now 73, resigned in 2021 as bishop of Broome, an Outback diocese of northwest Australia larger than France but with a population of only 50,000, after police announced they had dropped a sex crime investigation. He had stood down a year earlier after media reported the allegations.The church investigation into Saunders began last year after the police investigation ended, said Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the church’s most senior national leadership group.A report of the investigation, overseen by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, had been sent to the Vatican where the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was continuing to investigate, Costelloe said.The Dicaster...