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‘Exorcist Believer’ a damned disappointment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

Why has David Gordon Green, who has made a career of sorts out of making mediocre “Halloween” sequels, now made “The Exorcist: Believer,” the first in a planned trilogy of new “Exorcist” films?” Apparently because sequels to 1970s horror classics are all that he can get funding for. “The Exorcist: Believer” is based on the landmark 1973 horror film “The Exorcist.” Directed by the recently deceased William Friedkin (“The French Connection”) based on the enormously best-selling and controversial novel by William Peter Blatty, who adapted his work to the screen, “The Exorcist” broke barriers, used religious belief as the basis for a horror film in ways that were truly innovative, boasted a cast that was uniformly brilliant and made a couple of expressions famous around the world. “The Exorcist: Believer” is a demonstration of much that is wrong with modern-day film-making. It is derivative by design, and it has absolutely nothing to new say on the subject of “The Exorcist.”Written by P...

‘Miranda’s Victim’ takes a deep dive into landmark case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

As its title announces “Miranda’s Victim” is about more than the origin of the well-known, Supreme Court-issued Miranda Warning.Inspired by true events, the Vertical Entertainment movie streaming Friday tells – for the first time since she was kidnapped and raped by Ernesto Miranda in 1963 – the victim’s story.  In 2019 Patricia “Trish” Weir chose to reveal her identity she had always protected.  Abigail Breslin (“Stillwater”) stars as Trish and Sebastian Quinn (“Dynasty”) is Miranda, the serial rapist. The cast includes Donald Sutherland, Ryan Phillipe, Luke Wilson, Andy Garcia and Emily VanCamp.For Quinn the film’s appeal is more than a true story. “It’s based on a moment in American history that most people don’t know.” And, Quinn discovered, there’s not much known about the criminal at the heart of the case.“Most of the information you get Googling is the story of the Miranda rights and not so much about the person.“Our screenwriter George Kolber did extensive ...

Boston Ballet highlights old, new & reinvented works for new season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

In 2019, the Boston Ballet went to Paris. At the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, where they know a thing or two about ballet, our hometown company wowed them. The reviews were raves. Yes, the Hub company is that good.At the end of the coming 2023-2024 season, the Boston Ballet will return to Paris (COVID clobbered touring plans after the 2019 triumphant French performances). Between now and then, the 60th anniversary season will include four world premieres, a couple dozen sold out nights of “The Nutcracker,” the return of “Cinderella,” and complete reinventions of lost classics.Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen took the time to walk us through what he loves about the art form’s past, present and future.Fall Experience, now through Oct. 15The season opens with pieces from four different choreographers that range from Jorma Elo and the Bach Cello Suites to a world premiere from My’Kal Stromile — three of the four being with new-millennium creations. Nissinen hopes a few of t...

Report: Black infant deaths over twice Boston average

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

In Boston, Black infants die at a rate over twice the citywide average, a Boston Public Heath Commission report released Thursday found.“The findings of our Maternal and Child Health of Boston Report are a call to action for our city,” said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Commissioner of Public Health and Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. “These stark racial inequities in infant mortality and other birth outcomes cannot continue to exist.”The study was conducted by the commission based on data from 2017 to 2021, reporting on rates of infant mortality, preterm births, low birthweight and birth counts by demographics like race and neighborhood.The report found stark health disparities for Black infants.Based on 2021, Black infants’ mortality rate reached 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births — over doubling the citywide average, 4.6 deaths, and over tripling the rate for white infants, 3.2 deaths.The percent of low birthweight births —...

Dear Abby: Dad feels like failure as marriage crumbles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

Dear Abby: I have failed in a 30-year relationship and as a father of five. After feeling terrible for a number of years, I was finally diagnosed with a blood disorder. I was prescribed a chemotherapy pill and, two years later, was diagnosed with extreme neuropathy. Depression set in. I let myself go and rarely got out of bed. My wife complained because she wanted me to be more involved with the children, but I failed.We are now going through a divorce. I have been cut off from my 13-year-old son, and I don’t know how to reconnect. He’s the youngest of my kids, and he’s very special to me because he is adopted, as was I. I need help. I’m not good at asserting myself. Please help me because my heart is broken. — Needs Help in PennsylvaniaDear Needs Help: The individuals who can provide the help you are looking for would be your divorce lawyer and a licensed mental health professional. The former will see to it that your legal rights as a parent are enfor...

Vice President Harris among scheduled speakers at memorial for Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will be among those delivering remarks at Thursday’s memorial for the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, where she served as the city’s first female mayor.The service will mark the end of two days of events in the city that launched Feinstein’s political career. On Wednesday, mourners streamed into City Hall to pay their respects, honoring Feinstein as fearless, smart and the glue who kept the city together after two shocking political assassinations.“She wasn’t afraid to do a man’s job. She wasn’t afraid to be a senator. She wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted,” said Lawanda Carter, 48, of San Francisco. “And that’s encouragement for us women now to have courage.” Carter was among the scores of everyday San Franciscans and political leaders alike who brought flowers, bowed their heads or clasped their hands in prayer as they stood before Feinstein’s...

Powerball jackpot up to $1.4 billion after no one matches all the numbers and hits it rich

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

PINEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.4 billion after no players matched all six numbers and hit it rich Wednesday night.The winning numbers announced were: 9, 35, 54, 63, 64 and the Powerball 1.Players will next have a shot at the Powerball jackpot Saturday night in hopes of ending an 11-week stretch without a big winner. No matter how large the prize grows the odds stay the same — and they’re terrible.It’s those odds of 1 in 292.2 million that make the jackpot so hard to win and that result in such giant prizes for the lucky player or players who manage to pick the game’s six winning numbers. The latest Powerball jackpot is the world’s seventh-largest lottery prize. The last time someone won the top prize was July 19.GAME DETAILSIn most states, Powerball tickets cost $2 and buyers can chose their own numbers and single Powerball or leave that task to a computer. Powerball drawings are held three times a week at 10:59 p.m. EDT on Mondays, Wednesday...

Typhoon Koinu makes landfall in southern Taiwan, causing 190 injuries but no deaths

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Koinu swept southern Taiwan on Thursday, injuring 190 people but causing no deaths as it brought intense winds and rainstorms to the island, leading to school and office closures.Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, made landfall in Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, early Thursday and is expected to weaken as it continues to move west toward Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China.The typhoon brought unexpectedly strong winds as it approached Taiwan, with a gust of 343 kph (213 mph) recorded Wednesday night on the outlying Orchid Island. On Thursday morning, Koinu packed maximum sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) with gusts of 198 kph (123 mph), according to the weather bureau.Cities across the island canceled work and classes, including the major southern port city of Kaohsiung. The capital, Taipei, was operating as normal and the rain had stopped as of Thursday morning.Taiwan’s fire department reported 190 injuries, most of t...

Israeli arms quietly helped Azerbaijan retake Nagorno-Karabakh, to the dismay of region’s Armenians

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan’s campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahead of its lightening offensive last month that brought the ethnic Armenian enclave back under its control, officials and experts say.Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on Sept. 19, Azerbaijani military cargo planes repeatedly flew between a southern Israeli airbase and an airfield near Nagorno-Karabakh, according to flight tracking data and Armenian diplomats, even as Western governments were urging peace talks. The flights rattled Armenian officials in Yerevan, long wary of the strategic alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan, and shined a light on Israel’s national interests in the restive region south of the Caucasus Mountains. “For us, it is a major concern that Israeli weapons have been firing at our people,” Arman Akopian, Armenia’s ambassador to Israel, told The Associated Press. In a flurry of diplomati...

An atheist in northern Nigeria was arrested. Then the attacks against the others worsened

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:04 GMT

When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing religious obligations only as a cover.“To survive as an atheist, you cannot act like one,” said the man, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity over fears for his safety. He said he narrowly escaped being killed by a mob in 2015 after some people found out he had forsaken Islam.“If I ever come out in northern Nigeria to say I am an atheist, it will be an automatic death sentence,” said the man, a business owner in his 30s.In parts of the world, the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise, and can safely and publicly be a “none” — someone who identifies as an atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular. In countries like Nigeria, the situation is starkly different.Nonbelievers in ...