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The Dutch king could offer an apology in a speech on the anniversary of slavery’s abolition in 1863

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch King Willem-Alexander will deliver a speech Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the country abolishing slavery, amid speculation that he could offer an apology on behalf of the royal house.The king’s speech follows Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology late last year for the country’s role in the slave trade and slavery. It is part of a wider reckoning with colonial histories in the West that have been spurred in recent years by the Black Lives Matter movement.Slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean on July 1, 1863, but most of the enslaved laborers were forced to continue working on plantations for a further 10 years. Saturday’s commemoration and speech mark the start of a year of events to mark the 150th anniversary of July 1, 1873.Research published last month showed that the king’s ancestors earned the modern-day equivalent of 545 million euros ($595 million) from slavery, including profits from shar...

Alongside plays, Penumbra’s 2023-24 season will include expanded racial justice workshops and healing programs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

With its upcoming arts season, Penumbra is continuing its growth into a wide-ranging community center for racial healing.The organization, long one of the country’s most renowned Black theater companies, plans to expand its equity training initiatives and add a healing and wellness residency, alongside its annual slate of staged plays. Penumbra was founded in St. Paul nearly five decades ago.Here’s what the theater season holds:“Re-Memori” (Oct. 12–Nov. 5) is the world premiere of a one-woman show by Nambi E. Kelly that asks, “Are the struggles of our ancestors ever really in the past?”“Black Nativity” (Nov. 30–Dec. 24), the theater’s regular Christmas show originally by Langston Hughes, features music from Sanford Moore and the Kingdom Life Church Choir and choreography by Gary Abbott.“Wine in the Wilderness” (Feb 22–March 17), by renowned playwright Alice Childress, tackles Black womanhood and the role of the arts in a community through the lens of a Harlem painter. The show is di...

Horoscopes July 1, 2023: Pamela Anderson, refuse to let emotions interfere

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Liv Tyler, 46; Missy Elliott, 52; Pamela Anderson, 56; Dan Aykroyd, 71.Happy Birthday: Plan your actions, leave no room for error and use your intelligence to outmaneuver anyone competing with you. Turn your attention to what’s possible, and you’ll gain ground and make good connections. Expand your thoughts and include the people who make your life worthwhile. Refuse to let emotions interfere with progress. Follow the path that leads to victory. Your numbers are 9, 12, 22, 24, 31, 36, 42.ARIES (March 21-April 19): Keep the momentum flowing. Actions will get you to the finish line on time. Don’t let trivial matters stand between you and what you want to achieve. Search for the right opportunity and take advantage of it before it’s too late. 5 starsTAURUS (April 20-May 20): A mix-up will cost you emotionally or financially if you don’t leave yourself enough wiggle room. Do your due diligence and stick to simple, doable plans ...

Ask Amy: Their false ‘service animal’ claims are selfish and risky

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

Dear Amy: I volunteer at several public venues (including a zoo) where visitors frequently bring a pet that they claim is a service animal.Oftentimes this is clearly a lie. For instance, today a visitor at the zoo claimed that her puppy was a service animal. When I told her that pets weren’t allowed, she took exception and dared me to quiz her on laws governing service animals.Management has warned volunteers like me to avoid getting into tangles with these folks – unless the so-called service animal is creating a nuisance or is a danger. When someone insists that their animal companion is a service animal or an “emotional support animal,” we are told to take them at their word. This is mostly to avoid the threat of a lawsuit.Would you please remind your readers that a service animal is a specific legal entity? Pretending that your dog – or any other pet – is a service animal does the rest of us a disservice. It’s entitled, selfish behavior that potentially puts other people and oth...

Harriette Cole: I was appalled that my friend showed this movie to my kids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

DEAR HARRIETTE: A good friend of mine is a filmmaker. He recently hosted a private screening of his upcoming film and strongly encouraged me to bring my children, both of whom are under the age of 13.Related ArticlesAdvice | Harriette Cole: My enemy has moved to my city and I’m afraid we’ll run into each other Advice | Harriette Cole: They say if I dye my hair blond, they won’t be my friends Advice | Harriette Cole: She had no right to approach my ex without my consent Advice | Harriette Cole: Should I tell my hometown friend why I’m annoyed at her? Advice | Harriette Cole: It was a completely innocent message, but he unfollowed me However, to my surprise, the film turned out to be sexually graphic and highly inappropriate for their age group. I was appalled and disappointed. I decided to take my kids and leave the screening early.I’ve been upset with my friend ever since. W...

Israel Ramps Up Drone Sales to Morocco for Its Colonial War in Western Sahara

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

When Abdelahi Emhamed first caught sight of the two drones overhead, he thought it was normal. A 24-year-old fighter in the Polisario Front, he had become accustomed to Moroccan surveillance drones and had learned to shrug off the occasional sighting as a matter of course.A young man with a tired smile, Emhamed joined the army in 2020 when a 29-year ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco came to an abrupt end. The Front has fought for nationhood for Western Sahara’s indigenous Sahrawi population for 50 years; Morocco occupied Western Sahara in 1975, and Emhamed grew up on stories of a lost land while living in refugee camps near Tindouf, a town in an inhospitable desert corner of southwestern Algeria. When the ceasefire ended, Emhamed jumped at the opportunity to join the armed forcesHe became part of a small unit of mobile fighters sleeping in the open between a smattering of thorny acacia trees amidst a ceaseless repetition of flat, brown, and black-pebbled plains...

Feeling the Heat with Some Storms this Long Holiday Weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

The halfway mark of the year has arrived as we begin July this weekend, and we’ll begin the month right where we left off with hot and humid conditions plus the risk for showers and storms.The pattern from now through the Fourth of July will be fairly similar each and everyday but there remains some uncertainty as to how much of metro South Florida will see the storms as that depends on how strong our onshore breeze will be.This breeze is expected to gradually strengthen heading into next week, which will help push the sea breeze farther inland and therefore providing more dry time to areas near the east coast.Out of the four-day holiday weekend stretch, this Saturday will be the wettest with the highest rain chance at a 60% chance. Following several hours of sunshine and soaring temperatures this morning, scattered showers and storms will break out with the most likely timing being from 11AM-4PM. Similar as yesterday, more clouds will overspread our skies for the afternooon, ...

One number that defines every Orioles player through the first half of the season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

Despite having one of the best records in the American League, Brandon Hyde thinks the Orioles can play better.Baltimore’s game Saturday against the Minnesota Twins will be its 81st — the exact midway point of the season. Unlike his first four years as manager, the Orioles are well-above .500 through 81 games at 48-32 and have spent much of the first three months as one of the three best teams in the major leagues.The success, though, doesn’t mean the Orioles have been perfect, and Hyde knows with a remaining schedule that is one of the sport’s hardest, that his club will likely have to get better down the stretch to make the postseason.“I’m really happy with how our team’s played so far this year, and I think that we have room to grow and room to get better,” Hyde said. “We’ve had some really good stretches. I don’t think we’ve played our best baseball in June. If you look at our schedule, it doesn’t get ...

Battenfeld: Defeated Democrats vow to plow ahead and defy the Supreme Court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

With the Supreme Court blowing up key pillars of the Democratic Party agenda, President Biden and other party leaders are doubling down and blaming Donald Trump and Republicans for the recent high court rulings.Defeated Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley are vowing to plow ahead with debt relief despite the fact the law of the land is now against it.“I think the court misinterpreted the Constitution,” Biden said after the ruling on student loans Friday.Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was always sketchy and it was not a surprise the conservative high court ruled the president didn’t have the authority to implement it.Biden, running as a moderate during the 2020 campaign, himself even questioned whether he had the power to invalidate thousands of loans. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the same thing.Now it turns out they were right.Yet Democrats are hoping to turn the Supreme Court setback into a plus somehow. Warren and Pressley went on a “s...

The 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party a key focus during Boston’s Harborfest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:36 GMT

With the cutting of a gigantic cake topped with a decorative ship, Harborfest has arrived in Boston, and commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is a top focus of the weekend-long festival.The Old State House on Saturday is opening a new exhibit called ‘Impassioned Destruction,’ exploring protests in the context of 1773, but also in other moments throughout history to present day, Nathaniel Schniedley, president and CEO of Revolutionary Spaces, told a gathering of more than a hundred guests in Downtown Crossing.Dec. 16 will mark the 250th anniversary of when colonists protested taxation without representation by throwing British tea into Boston Harbor in what is considered a pivotal event leading to the American Revolution.“We hope you will think about the legacy of the moment that we are celebrating here together during Harborfest,” Schniedley said, “and we hope you will come back often throughout the rest of this commemorative year to join us in thinking deeply...