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‘Labor of love’: Melissa McCarthy, Halle Bailey splash on making of ‘The Little Mermaid’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

The live action reboot of Disney’s classic animated “The Little Mermaid,” expected to swamp the Memorial Day holiday box-office, has been a long time coming.“This has been such a long labor of love” Melissa McCarthy observed in a virtual global press conference. “It has taken a while to make this beautiful thing.”Looking every bit like the gazillion dollars it took to make, this is an extravagantly mounted mix of actors – Javier Bardem’s King Triton, McCarthy’s Ursula the Witch, Halle Bailey’s Little Mermaid Ariel – and Ariel’s animated allies, the forgetful fish Flounder (voiced  by Jacob Tremblay), the protective crab Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) and the ditzy diving bird Scuttle (Awkwafina).McCarthy credits Rob Marshall, the Oscar-nominated directing veteran (“Chicago,” “Mary Poppins Returns”) who first boarded this starry ship in 2018, with making “Mermaid” work.“Rob sets up this world. It feels so small but it’s this enormous thing,” she said.“The idea is if we all do our best, may...

Orioles minor league report: Jackson Holliday off to ‘rare’ start at High-A, where other top prospects struggled

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

In the opening game of High-A Aberdeen’s series last week at Winston-Salem, Orioles shortstop prospect Jackson Holliday came a single shy of a cycle. He hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat, a two-run double in his second and a two-run triple in his third, but a fourth never came. Rain in North Carolina ended the game after five innings.“I was kind of bummed out for him,” Aberdeen hitting coach Zach Cole said. “He’s like, ‘It’s fine. I’ll do it again. We’ll be there again.’”There’s little reason to doubt Holliday, ranked baseball’s No. 3 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 6 prospect by Baseball America. At 19 years old, the first overall pick in the 2022 draft is dominating High-A, a level many of his predecessors among top Orioles prospects have struggled. A day after the rain-shortened game, he went 5-for-6 with two singles, a double and two triples, driving in five more runs. He ended the week batti...

Red Sox prospect Chase Meidroth turning heads

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

This time last year Chase Meidroth was still in college, a junior infield standout looking to help the University of San Diego baseball team gear up for its conference tournament.He could scarcely have imagined the journey that awaited in the weeks and months to come.Taken in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft, Meidroth has rocketed through the Red Sox minor league ranks and now stands as one of the fastest-rising prospects in the organization. Since making his professional debut last August, the 21-year-old has been promoted three times, playing three games of rookie ball before earning promotion after just one month at both Low-A Salem and High-A Greenville.Since being called up to Double-A Portland earlier this month he’s shown no signs of slowing down, but amid all the early success Meidroth is striving to live in the moment and enjoy the ride.“It’s been fun. I’m just trying to embrace every moment,” Meidroth said last week. “I haven’...

Robbins: Democrats the ones with egg on their faces

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

From National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to Congressman George Santos, Donald Trump has promoted, deployed and spawned an epic parade of dishonest lawbreakers in his own mold. Democrats have had a justifiable field day pointing out what can euphemistically be called the “unsuitability” of Trump’s acolytes for public office.Now it is the Republicans’ turn for a field day. Hours before the release of reports by the Justice Department’s Inspector General and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel detailing her arrogant spree of rule-breaking and law-breaking, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachael Rollins announced that she would be resigning.The reports documented a series of violations of the Hatch Act – the federal criminal statute prohibiting one in Rollins’ position from using her office for partisan political purposes – as well as ethical rules and the law making it a federal crime to knowingly make false statements under oath. Rollins had committed them...

Don Orsillo forever connected to Red Sox

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Two walls of Don Orsillo’s office at Petco Park are covered in photographs.It’s a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of baseball legends and current stars he’s worked with throughout his career. Commissioner Rob Manfred, Pedro Martinez, Dennis Eckersley, and of course, his close friend and longtime Red Sox partner, the late Jerry Remy, feature prominently.But it’s a small cloth patch smack-dab in the middle of the larger wall’s array that draws the eye. Its circular shape contrasts with the angular photos that surround it, as does the embroidery atop the black background: a large, white ‘2,’ and ‘Remy’ in smaller, red letters above it.It’s one of the patches Red Sox players wore on their jerseys throughout the 2022 season in honor of Remy, who’d passed away the previous October after battling cancer for many years. Orsillo wasn’t able to be a part of the April 2022 ceremony at Fenway, a situation that pained him deeply.It’s the first of many topics about which he’s an ope...

Double shooting in Mississauga leaves male, female in critical condition

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

Two people are fighting for their lives in hospital after a shooting in Mississauga.Police were called to the area of Bristol Road and Whitehorn Avenue, just east of Creditview Road, after 9:30 p.m. on Monday.A male and a female were found a the scene with gunshot wounds. Both victims were brought to hospital in life-threatening condition.Police tell CityNews there was an outdoor gathering in the area when shots were fired.The suspects fled the area before officers arrived. No suspect information has been made available.Investigators say the shooting was an isolated incident and there are no public safety concerns.Anyone with information is being asked to contact police.

Blinken warns rival Sudanese generals to respect latest truce or face possible sanctions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Sudan’s rival generals to abide by the latest cease-fire or face possible sanctions as residents reported sporadic fighting Tuesday between the warring sides in the capital of Khartoum and a northern city.Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. Early on, foreign governments raced to evacuate their diplomats and nationals as thousands of foreign residents scrambled to get out of Sudan. More than 1 million Sudanese have been forced from their homes by the fighting.Over the past weeks, the United States and Saudi Arabia have been mediating in talks between the warring sides, held in the kingdom. A new truce was announced over the weeken...

Police in Portugal resume search for Madeleine McCann, British child missing since 2007

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

ARADE DAM, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese police aided by German and British colleagues on Tuesday resumed their search for Madeleine McCann, the British child who disappeared in the country’s southern Algarve region 16 years ago.Between 20 and 30 officers, some in uniform, could be seen in the area by the Arade dam, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Praia da Luz, where the 3-year-old was last seen alive in 2007.Portuguese police had set up a blue base tent and cordoned off the area to the media and public. Eyewitnesses said police began searching shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday in an area some kilometers (miles) away from the tent. More than a dozen cars and police vans could be seen arriving in the area.On Monday, Portuguese detectives issued a statement saying the search was being resumed at the request of German authorities and with help from British officials.German prosecutors in Braunschweig said in a written statement Tuesday that “criminal procedural measures are currently taki...

Aid agencies back UN’s $7 billion appeal for Horn of Africa crisis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Humanitarian agencies are calling for full funding of the U.N.’s $7 billion appeal for the Horn of Africa during a pledging conference this week, citing a growing crisis and the need for urgent lifesaving intervention.The U.N. says the region is facing the worst drought in 40 years, with more than 43.3 million people in need of assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and more than half of those lacking access to sufficient food, according to the U.N.The International Rescue Committee said that until now the appeals have received less than a quarter of the donations they need.“Efforts to combat food insecurity need to be urgently scaled up across a wider group of governments, international financial institutions and climate actors,” said the IRC’s chief executive, David Miliband.The U.N on Wednesday is convening a high-level pledging event at its headquarters in New York, where member states and partners will be encouraged to commit financial supp...

The U.S. Surgeon General has some tips for parents and teens on social media use

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:10 GMT

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, is calling for “immediate action” by tech companies and lawmakers to protect kids’ and adolescents’ mental health on social media. But after years of middling and insufficient action by both social media platforms and policymakers, parents and young people still bear most of the burden in navigating the fast-changing, often harmful world of secretive algorithms, addictive apps and extreme and inappropriate content found on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.So what can parents and young people do now? The Surgeon General has some tips. “Our children and adolescents don’t have the luxury of waiting years until we know the full extent of social media’s impact,” Murthy said in an advisory released on Tuesday. “Their childhoods and development are happening now:” TIPS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE— Reach out for help: If you or someone you know is being negatively affected by social media, reach out to a trusted friend or adult fo...