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Travel: Looking to go on a cruise in 2024? Here’s what you need to know

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

The BBC wasn’t being cheeky when the U.K. news bureau ran an online story with the headline, “Will we ever take cruise holidays again?” Back on April 9, 2020, the future of cruising truly was in doubt. Almost overnight, fears caused by a mysterious deadly virus brought a thriving industry worth $46 billion to its waterlogged knees, and with it a sinking feeling shared by millions of seabound vacationers whose plans were suddenly drydocked.As a weary world sanitized, masked up, distanced itself and prayed for a panacea, perhaps the last place people imagined themselves being, besides the emergency room, was on water with perhaps thousands of strangers of questionable hygiene and health.What a difference four years make. Not only have vaxxing requirements been jettisoned except for rare itineraries, but as the books close on 2023, an estimated 31.5 million passengers will have taken to the world’s oceans within the past 12 months. That’s a rebound beyond 2019 demand levels for the fir...

‘BlackBerry’ and ‘Past Lives’ make Barack Obama’s annual list of best films

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

First, it was Barack Obama’s favourite phone. Now, “BlackBerry” is one of the former U.S. president’s top films of the year. The Canadian satire from director Matt Johnson is one of 13 movies to make Obama’s list of the best films of 2023. Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel star as Research in Motion heads Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis in the fictionalized tale of the Canadian company’s rise and fall. Obama was famously a longtime lover of the BlackBerry, and only upgraded to an iPhone in 2016. “Past Lives,” the nostalgic romance from Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song, also nabbed a spot on his annual list. His other favourites include “The Holdovers,” “Oppenheimer” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2023.The Canadian Press

Amazon Prime ads on movies and TV shows will begin in late January

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

If you are an Amazon Prime Video user, get ready to see ads on movies and TV shows starting next month. Prime will include ads beginning on Jan. 29, the company said in an email to U.S. members this week, setting a date for an announcement it made back in September. Prime members who want to keep their movies and TV shows ad-free will have to pay an additional $2.99.Amazon is also planning to include advertisements in its Prime service in the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as Canada, Mexico and Australia next year.The tech giant follows other major streamers –- such as Netflix and Disney –- who have embraced a dual model that allows them to earn revenue from ads and also offer subscribers the option to opt out with a higher fee. Amazon said in its email that it will “aim to have meaningfully fewer ads” than traditional TV and other streaming providers. The ads, the company said, “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that...

Suspect wanted in connection with sex assault on board TTC train

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a suspect in connection with a sexual assault on board a TTC train.Police were called to Davisville Subway Station on August 17, 2023 at around 3:10 p.m. for reports of a sexual assault.It’s alleged the suspect and victim were onboard a northbound train heading to Davisville. The victim was standing and the suspect was sitting behind the victim, the suspect then allegedly sexually assaulted the victim. The suspect then got off the train at Finch and was last seen walking towards the bus bay. He’s described as a male, 25-35 years old, with dark brown hair and unshaven appearance. He was last seen wearing a green vest, grey shorts and brown slippers.A security camera photo has been released by police.

OPP suggest taking precautions with disposing Christmas boxes that contained pricey gifts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

With the post-Christmas winddown fully underway, Ontario Provincial Police officers suggest taking extra precautions when throwing away boxes that contained pricey gifts to avoid tipping off potential criminals.The warning issued on Wednesday came with a list of tips to help reduce the chances of being targeted.“Thieves can quickly ascertain what you received on your Christmas wish list by simply driving by and looking at the gift boxes put out to the curb for garbage pickup,” officers said.  Related: 2 charged, over $40,000 in property recovered from retail theft where items were re-sold in Toronto “Criminals can easily gauge which house would make a great target based on the advertisement left out for them each year.”Officers suggested taking boxes that had pricier items (electronics or other valuables) directly, if possible, to your local waste transfer station. If that is not possible, they suggested breaking down the boxes and makin...

Shakira’s hometown unveils a giant statue of the beloved Colombian pop star

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Pop star Shakira was immortalized in her Colombian hometown of Barranquilla, where officials unveiled a giant bronze statue of the music diva known around the world for her catchy tunes and exhilarating moves.The six-meter (20-feet) tall monument depicts the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner in one of her famous belly dancing outfits, with her hips swaying to her right and her arms raised gracefully toward the sky.A plaque under the statue says that on Feb. 2, 1977, the town of “Barranquilla and the world witnessed the birth of a heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, a voice that moves masses and a pair of bare feet that walk for the good of children and humanity.”The statue, located on a recently built promenade along the Magdalena River that runs along the edge of the town, was unveiled in a small ceremony on Tuesday attended by Shakira’s parents and the mayor, Jaime Pumarejo.However, the bronze giant is not the Caribbean town’s first ...

Vancouver food delivery workers stabbed after seizing Facebook Marketplace thief: VPD

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

Vancouver Police are commending the bravery of two food delivery workers who were stabbed when they intervened in an attempted robbery stemming from a Facebook Marketplace sale.VPD Sgt. Steve Addison says a 21-year-old suspect is in custody after being subdued by bystanders when he tried to rob the seller in the transaction.Addison says the incident happened at around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in the Olympic Village neighbourhood, when the 36-year-old seller was meeting a buyer for an in-person exchange.The transaction turned violent when the buyer attacked the seller with pepper spray and tried to flee with the item.Addison says the food-delivery workers and others gave chase and subdued the suspect who was trying to escape in a taxi.He says one delivery worker was stabbed in the hand and the other in the shoulder, and both are recovering after being treated in hospital. “While we never want people to put themselves in harm’s way, we appreciate the quick thinking of these Good Samaritans,&...

Casinos, hospital ask judge to halt Atlantic City road narrowing, say traffic could cost jobs, lives

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Five Boardwalk casinos and a hospital want a judge to prevent Atlantic City from completing a controversial program to narrow the main road running through the city’s downtown, saying such a move could hurt business and endanger lives during traffic-choked periods.The AtlantiCare hospital system, and Caesars, Tropicana, Bally’s, Hard Rock and Resorts casinos, are asking a state Superior Court judge to order an end to the project, which began Dec. 13.The city says the federal and state-funded project will make a dangerous road safer at no cost to local taxpayers. Officials said narrowing the road was a requirement for accepting the $24 million in government funds.Last Friday, Judge Michael Blee in Atlantic County declined to issue the immediate order the casinos and the hospital had sought to stop the project in its tracks. Rather, the judge will hear full details of the situation in a Jan. 26 hearing.Mark Giannantonio, president of Resorts as w...

Ariana Grande announces new album arriving in 2024, her first since 2020’s ‘Positions’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

Thank you, next: On Wednesday, Ariana Grande announced that she will release a new album in 2024.The two-time Grammy award winner teased the future full-length album on her Instagram page. It will be her seventh studio album and first since 2020’s “Positions.”“See you next year,” she wrote in the caption of the Instagram post, which included images in a studio and in front of a mixing board, and a video where someone off screen tells her it is “almost the last day of this album.” Grande responds, “I’m so tired,” and laughs. “But so happy and grateful. I also feel like I weigh 3,000 tons.”On her Instagram story, she shared a screenshot captured from FaceTime with the text, “The two moods of the album.”She also shared posts from fans who received packages from her in the mail containing red lipstick from her R.E.M. Beauty line and a note that also read, “See you next year.”The announcement arrives a few weeks after news broke that Ariana Grande signed to Good World Managem...

Argentina’s unions take to the streets to protest president’s cutbacks, deregulation and austerity

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:54 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Thousands of union members and activists took to the streets of Argentina’s capital Wednesday to protest a decree from President Javier Milei that imposes sweeping deregulation and austerity measures meant to revive the country’s struggling economy. Unions had asked a court for a prior injunction to block measures lifting some labor protections, but a judge rejected the appeal, noting the decree had not yet entered into effect. It does so on Friday.Argentine labor activists question whether Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has long railed against the country’s “political caste,” can impose the measures by way of an emergency decree bypassing the legislature where his party has few seats. “We do not question the president’s legitimacy … but we want a president who respects the division of powers, who understands that workers have the need to defend themselves individually and within the framework of justice when there is ...