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Filled Broadway seats hit pre-pandemic levels in first full season since Covid

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

(CNN) — Filled Broadway seats reached pre-pandemic levels in the 2022-2023 season — which is the first full season of shows since Covid first forced theaters to shutter, The Broadway League announced Tuesday.“Broadway is making a strong rebound as audiences are returning to New York City to experience extraordinary live theatre,” Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the industry’s national trade association, said in a statement.A total of 88.4% of Broadway show seats were filled in the 2022-2023 season, the League’s statement said. That’s comparable to the 89.7% in the 2018-2019 run, which was the the last full season pre-Covid.The most recent Broadway season attracted nearly 12.3 million people to 40 new productions and 35 continuing productions, and it grossed about $1.6 billion, the League added.Before Covid hit stateside, Broadway had been enjoying a strong run: That last 2018-2019 season attracted record attendance of 14.7 million and grossed a record $1.8 billion.B...

FTC investigates America’s baby formula shortages

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

New York (CNN) — The Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into the protracted shortages of baby formula in the United States that left store shelves bare of the essential product for several months, probing whether baby formula makers colluded in bidding on state contracts.The agency, according to documents posted on the agency’s website, is looking into whether Abbott Laboratories and other formula manufacturers have “engaged in collusion or coordination with any other market participant regarding the bidding” for state contracts.Additionally, the FTC is investigating whether company coordination affected sales more broadly, outside of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) formula-supply program. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the probe.Abbott said in an email to CNN that the company is cooperating with the FTC’s requests.The company also pointed to its earlier response on March 16 to the FTC in which th...

Germany cracks down on climate activists after Scholz brands protest group’s tactics ‘nutty’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

By GEIR MOULSON and FRANK JORDANS (Associated Press)BERLIN (AP) — German police raided 15 properties linked to the Last Generation climate activist group Wednesday, seizing assets as part of an investigation into its finances in a sign of growing impatience with disruptive protest tactics also seen in other European countries.Members of the group have repeatedly blocked roads across Germany in an effort to pressure the government to take more drastic action against climate change. In recent weeks, they have brought traffic to a halt on an almost daily basis in Berlin, gluing themselves to busy intersections and highways. Over the past year, they have also targeted various artworks and exhibits. The raids, ordered by Munich prosecutors, come days after Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he thought it was “completely nutty to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the street.” Leading figures with the environmentalist Green party, part of his governing coalition, h...

Living single and maximizing money

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.Single and not sorry — that’s how you live.Sure, couples get a dual income, tax breaks and somebody else to blame when household finances take a downturn. But they fight over the remote, too. So, ya know, plusses and minuses.Being single is not the exception these days. The gap between plus-one and plus-none has narrowed ever since the first time TVs with antennas were a thing (yes, over-the-air TV is making something of a comeback). It’s practically a 50/50 split between Americans who are married (135.9 million) and those who never married, are widowed or are divorced (130.3 million), according to a 2022 U.S. Census Bureau document.Here are six things you can do to maximize your money when it’s your world and every...

In transition from HBO Max to Max, writer and director credits got lost

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max may only be hours into its rollout, but it quickly came under fire by top Hollywood guilds for the way it credits writers and directors.Early Wednesday, some started noticing a change to the credits on films. Instead of individually listing writers, directors and producers, the new Max format had lumped them all together. By Wednesday afternoon, the presidents of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America West had issued a strongly worded joint statement condemning the “creator” credit.Warner Bros. Discovery responded with a statement saying it was an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and that it will be corrected. No timeline for restoring the writer and director credits was given.“We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” a Max spokesperson said. “We apologize for this mistake.”But it hit a nerve for the guilds at a tense moment ...

Judge denies bond for ex-Alabama basketball player Darius Miles on capital murder charge

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A judge denied bond Wednesday for former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, who is facing a capital murder charge related to a fatal shooting near campus.Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet said at a hearing Wednesday that the bond issue could be revisited later.Miles has pleaded not guilty in the January shooting death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. The former reserve forward and Michael Lynn Davis, both 21 at the time, are charged with capital murder. Former Alabama teammates including Jahvon Quinerly, Jaden Quinerly and Noah Gurley attended the hearing, according to al.com.The shooting occurred on the Strip, a student-oriented business district of bars and restaurants near the Tuscaloosa campus. Investigators said Harris was sitting in the passenger seat of a car when she was struck by a bullet, which brings a capital murder charge in Alabama. Davis is accused of firing the gun that killed the young woman, according to court documents filed in ...

Volcano rumbles near Mexico City, coating towns with ash, disrupting flights

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Towering a few hours from one of the world’s largest cities, the Popocatepetl volcano has been coating nearby towns with ash and disrupting flights at Mexico City’s airport, the busiest in Latin America. Hundreds of explosions have spit lava from the snow-tipped peak of the 17,797-foot Popocatepetl (puh-puh-ka-TEH-pet-tl). Approximately 25 million people live within 60 miles of the mountain. Volcanologists say that, while a massive eruption doesn’t appear imminent, eruptions are likely to continue, as they have for three decades.WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE POPOCATEPETL VOLCANO?Pre-Hispanic writings speak of intense activity at Popocatépetl at the beginning of the 16th century. Scientists at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) have been tracking the volcano’s movements since a surge of activity began in 1994.In Guatemala, the Volcano of Fire claimed the lives of hundreds of people in a 2018 eruption. It has recently prompted evacuations ...

1995 referendum: Parti Québécois wants ‘No’ campaign investigation documents released

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

MONTREAL — The Parti Québécois is calling for the release of all documents related to an investigation into illegal spending by the “No” campaign ahead of the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum.The investigation in 2006 overseen by retired judge Bernard Grenier found that two federalist organizations — which received millions of dollars in funding from Ottawa — failed to report spending of more than $500,000.More than 90 witnesses appeared during the 16-month closed-door inquiry and more than 4,500 documents were entered into evidence. However, Grenier ordered all the evidence — including witness testimony and communication between witnesses and their lawyers — to be permanently sealed.A motion by PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is scheduled for debate today in the legislature and would require the government to introduce a bill to declassify all the documents related to the Grenier inquiry.The No side won the Oct. 30, 1995, sovereignty referendum by 50.58 per cent — ...

Adnan Syed’s lawyer appeals to Maryland Supreme Court

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Adnan Syed’s lawyer asked Maryland’s highest court on Wednesday to overturn a lower court’s ruling that reinstated his murder conviction from more than two decades ago — after he was freed last year in a legal case that gained international attention from the hit podcast “Serial.”Syed’s lawyer also is asking the court to prevent her client from being incarcerated while the Supreme Court of Maryland’s review is pending“He is grateful that the victim’s representative and Attorney General have consented to the stay,” a statement from the Maryland public defender’s office said while announcing the court filings. “Reincarcerating Adnan would be devastating for him and his family and would be an affront to justice.” Syed’s counsel filed a petition that asks the state’s highest court to review several legal issues raised by the victim’s family, who contended they were not given enough notice to testify at a court hearing.The l...

Nobel peace laureate transferred to brutal prison in Belarus, his wife says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:53:16 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has been transferred to a notoriously brutal prison in Belarus and hasn’t been heard from in a month, his wife said Wednesday.Natalia Pinchuk told The Associated Press that Bialiatski, who is serving a 10-year sentence, has been kept in an information blackout since his transfer to the N9 colony for repeat offenders in the city of Gorki, where inmates are beaten and subject to hard labor.“The authorities create unbearable conditions for Ales and keep him in strict informational isolation. There is not a single letter from him for a month, nor does he receive my letters,” Pinchuk said by telephone.In March, a court convicted 60-year-old Bialiatski — Belarus’ top human rights advocate and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize — and three of his colleagues on charges of financing actions violating public order and smuggling. It was the latest move in a years-long crackdown on dissent that has engulfed t...