Author: Press Room

And then there’s Valentina, an astrophysicist who, 40 years earlier, hooked up with Grampy when he visited the real world. The best thing to say about her is that she’s played by Faith Prince, looking game, if understandably confused.In any case, Grampy and Valentina reunite when he returns to the real world to reclaim Betty, without whom the black-and-white world at home is fading. But will she go back with him, now that, with the help of her new friends, she is involved in a mayoral election, a sanitation scandal and a feminist quest to take charge of her identity?I…

John Peck, a cultural omnivore known as The Mad Peck whose dryly humorous style as an underground cartoonist, artist, critic, disc jockey and record collector was accompanied by an ornate eccentricity, died on March 15 in Providence, R.I. He was 82.The cause of his death, in a hospital, was a ruptured aneurysm in his aorta, said his sisters, Marie Peck and Lois Barber.Mr. Peck was not as well known or acclaimed as underground cartoonists like Robert Crumb or Art Spiegelman. That was perhaps in part because his interests were so broad, Gary Kenton, who edited him at Fusion and Creem…

Last Wednesday, the Trump administration believed it had a plan to save TikTok.ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, along with some of its U.S. investors, and officials in Washington had coalesced around a new ownership structure for the popular video app, four people familiar with the situation said. That structure, the people said, would help TikTok satisfy the terms of a federal law that required the app to find a new owner in order to address national security concerns, or face a ban in the United States.Under the plan, new investors would own 50 percent of a new American TikTok entity, while…

Speaker Mike Johnson has reached an agreement with Republican holdouts that will effectively kill a bipartisan effort to change House rules so that lawmakers could temporarily vote remotely immediately after the birth of a child.Instead, Mr. Johnson has committed to allowing a convoluted arrangement to give a narrow group of lawmakers — women who face medical complications after childbirth that prevent them from being present in Washington — a way of registering their position on some legislation in their absence without actually being able to vote.The maneuver, known as “vote pairing,” would not require a rule change and is a…

An election to fill a vacant House seat in a heavily Democratic district in Texas will take place in November, Gov. Greg Abbott said on Monday, ensuring that the seat will remain unoccupied for most of the year as Republican leaders try to secure President Trump’s agenda.Democrats have complained that Mr. Abbott did not act faster to fill the seat in Houston after the death of Representative Sylvester Turner last month so that Republicans could pass a contentious budget through the narrowly divided House. They accused the governor of deliberately delaying the announcement of a special election until after a…

The trade war brought on by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs has sent a ripple effect across the globe, leading to economic volatility and a lot of red on markets. Within the past several months, and especially the last week, stock markets have erased trillions of dollars in value.Many Canadians may be wondering if they should be hitting the “sell” button before losing more value on their investments, or at the very least are concerned about what the market turmoil means for their families and their livelihoods.“The current market sell-off is in direct response to erratic trade policies pursued by…

Sam Stosur is keeping her charges guessing as she suddenly faces a selection dilemma for Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifying ties in Brisbane.Australia will take on Kazakhstan on Thursday and Colombia on Saturday needing to top the three-team group to advance to the 2025 finals in Shenzhen.Spearheaded by former Wimbledon champion and 2023 Australian Open runner-up Elena Rybakina, Kazakhstan shape as a particularly big threat at Pat Rafter Arena.Picking who to joust with the world No.10 will likely be causing Stosur plenty of angst ahead of the best-of-three-rubber tie.At least the skipper has options.After starting the summer without a…

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s stock market dropped 9 per cent in early trade on Tuesday (Apr 8), triggering a 30-minute trading halt, and the rupiah fell 1.8 per cent to a record low as markets reopened after an extended holiday break and reacted to the global market turmoil caused by US tariffs. The main index fell 9.2 per cent to its lowest since June 2021 in early deals, while the rupiah dropped to 16,850 per US dollar, going past its Asian Financial Crisis trough to its lowest on record, according to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) data. Ahead of the market opening, the…

The strike killed one journalist and injured nine others, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. At least one more person was killed, according to Gaza’s government office. Among those injured was Hasan Aslih, whom the Israeli military accused, without providing evidence, of being a Hamas militant.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced $51 million in cuts from the U.S. African Development Foundation, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for marketing shea butter and pineapple juice, as well as mango drying facilities.DOGE made the announcement on X, highlighting several initiatives the money was put toward.For instance, $229,296 was used to market 100% organic shea butter in Burkina Faso; $246,217 was spent on mango drying facilities in the Ivory Coast; and $239,738 was spent on marketing pineapple juice in Benin.The department also said $99,566 was spent to increase yogurt production in Uganda; $84,059 was spent on…