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Movie Review: Chris Hemsworth returns in ‘Extraction 2,’ a gun-for-hire who pulls you completely in

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

Tyler Rake was clinically dead when we last saw him at the end of “Extraction,” tumbling over a bridge in Bangladesh with a fatal, burbling bullet wound to his neck. But death is no match for Netflix.Chris Hemsworth returns as the sad-sack, gun-for-hire Rake in “Extraction 2” and you’ll thank the giant streamer for such a nifty bit of resurrection because this franchise is pure cinematic adrenalin.The new movie comes two years after a surprisingly good first installment, which saw Rake intervene in a feud between two rival drug dealers, survive numerous double-crosses, ask things like “How many hostiles onsite?” and lob an inexhaustible number of grenades.How he survived it all stuns even his friends. Emerging from a coma in “Extraction 2,” he is stashed in a remote chalet in Gmunden, Austria, and told to chill out — learn to knit, go on hikes, try to reach mindfulness. “Enjoy retirement,” he is told. If he did there would be no “Extraction 2.”Inevitably, a new extraction job ...

Pope sends Benedict XVI’s former aide back to Germany in latest sign of falling out

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has fired the longtime aide to the late Pope Benedict XVI from his Vatican job and ordered him to return to his native Germany, the final chapter in a very public falling out that culminated with the aide’s tell-all memoir that was highly critical of Francis.The Vatican confirmed that Archbishop Georg Gaenswein had officially ended his job as prefect of the papal household as of Feb. 28. A statement issued Thursday while Francis was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery said the pope had ordered Gaenswein to return to Freiburg, Germany, his diocese of origin, by July 1.While all papal secretaries usually return to their dioceses of origin following the death of the pope they served, the Vatican’s announcement betrayed some of the ill-will that had developed between Francis and Gaenswein. Francis gave Gaenswein no new assignment, and at 66, he is nearly a decade too young to retire. Speculation about Gaenswein’s future had swirled following ...

The UK announces $12 entry fee for travelers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

(CNN) — The United States has been charging visitors for electronic travel authorization since 2009, and now the United Kingdom and the European Union are rolling out entry fees, too.UK to charge travelers for entryVisa waiver schemes have been around for a while. The United States has the $21 ESTA, valid for two years, and Europe will be introducing the 7 euro ETIAS (about $7.50 on exchange rates this week) in 2024. That one will last you three years.The United Kingdom, you may recall, rather famously fled the EU coop a couple of years back. Now it’s revealed the price tag for its own scheme, the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation): £10 (about $12.50) for two years.Admittedly, that’s only about the price of a large fish and chips, but it does mean access to the nations that gave us the Tower of London and Edinburgh Castle will be more expensive than a pass to the home countries of the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Sagrada Familia and the Acropolis combined.The plan is for the s...

North Carolina teacher’s civil rights suit alleges he was fired over teaching of novel about racial profiling during Black History Month

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

(CNN) — A Black North Carolina teacher has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Charlotte charter school, alleging he was fired after some White parents opposed his teaching of a novel about a Black teen struggling with “racial injustice” during Black History Month.Charlotte Secondary School hired Markayle Gray on a contract basis to teach seventh and eighth grade English last October, according to the lawsuit filed in US District Court on Monday.The school terminated his contract in February over what the lawsuit described as “racially inspired backlash” over Gray’s teaching of the novel “Dear Martin” to his seventh grade honors students along with “other aspects” of the class content connected to “racial equality.”“Dear Martin” is a New York Times bestseller about a Black teenager who falls victim to racial profiling by law enforcement.Some White parents complained to school administrators that the novel’s content “was divisive and injected what they regarded as unwelcom...

US students grade their schools a B- on average, according to new report

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

(CNN) — US students give their schools an overall B- grade on average, according to a new report released Wednesday that asked fifth through twelfth graders to assess their school’s quality in multiple categories, including teaching, effectiveness in preparing them for the future and mental health support.Two-thirds of students graded their school overall an A or a B, according to the report released by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Nearly a quarter, 24%, gave their school a C and one-tenth gave either a D or F.The average grades for each individual metric ranged from C+ to B.“Whether because of the challenges schools faced during three years of dire disruption to learning during the pandemic or longer-term issues, there is clearly room for improvement,” the researchers wrote in the report.The report is based on 2,062 responses from adolescents in fifth through twelfth grade at public, charter and private schools in the US. The students were surveyed between late April an...

France presses EU to declare trade war against China

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

À l’attaque!France is ratcheting up pressure on Brussels to hit back against what it sees as China’s unfair advantages in export sectors such as electric vehicles — but the EU is wary about the risks of triggering an all-out trade conflict with Beijing. Over recent years, Brussels has upgraded its trade defense arsenal and now Paris wants the European Commission — which steers trade policy for the 27-country bloc — to use this new weaponry and show that it is not simply posturing.Whether France will win round the rest of the EU, especially Germany, is likely to top the agenda when EU leaders meet at a summit later this month. Berlin and others were stung by Brussels’ disastrous attempt to use EU trade tools against Beijing in 2013 and are likely to advocate a more cautious route so as not to provoke Beijing into rolling out countermeasures against EU industry.The most controversial French idea is that the EU should open a probe paving the way for tariffs on Chinese elect...

Ted Cruz: Congress ‘doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing’ with AI regulation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

Congress “doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing” when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence, Sen. Ted Cruz said on Thursday.When asked about AI regulation in an interview during POLITICO’s Global Tech Day, Cruz (R-Texas) said lawmakers should proceed cautiously and listen to experts — since most lawmakers don’t understand the technology.Click here to watch POLITICO’s Global Tech Day, live on video Thursday, June 15. You’ll see up-close interviews with top international policymakers on fast-moving tech topics from AI to China to the 6G networks of tomorrow. Want to know who’s trying to run the future? Register now to watch.“To be honest, Congress doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing in this area,” said Cruz, a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. “This is an institution [where] I think the median age in the Senate is about 142. This is not a tech savvy group.”

EU gives more power to AI translation machines

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

BRUSSELS — The EU’s translation unit is doubling down on artificial intelligence.For the first time, high-tech machines will translate press releases without any human oversight, in order to cut waiting time for journalists and expand the number of languages available to the public.This marks a new frontier in the Commission’s drive to automate its translation department, one of the largest and oldest among the multilingual Brussels institutions. The EU introduced machine translation decades ago to cope with an increasing bulk of legislation, resulting in fewer translators being hired.This shift shrank the Commission’s dedicated translation unit by 17 percent over the last decade, despite an increase in workload from about 2 million pages in 2013 to 2.5 million in 2022, according to EU figures.Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer announced Monday that, under a new pilot project, it will immediately publish automated translations, marked by a disclaimer, while a human v...

Column: Could the Chicago Bears choose your suburb as their new home? 20 more sites for a potential new stadium.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

Your suburb could be home to a professional football team, making it the envy of all your neighbors.Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren is accepting applications.Act now before this offer expires.The Bears’ pursuit of a new state-of-the-art stadium to replace Soldier Field has gone off the rails since Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi called an audible, significantly raising the valuation of the Arlington Park property the McCaskey family purchased for $197 million.Naperville officials quickly pounced on the fumble, holding two meetings with the Bears about the possibility of moving to their leafy suburb 40 minutes west of downtown Chicago. Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor then wrote Warren proposing a lakefront stadium there, and a Rockford politician chimed in to lobby for his town.Everyone wants to be associated with the Bears.To no one’s surprise, the Bears, estimated by Forbes to be worth $5.8 billion, appear to be using the towns’ interest to help leverage a...

Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s steal of home surprises Mets: ‘They thought I was bluffing’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:16:36 GMT

Brooks Raley made the mistake of pitching from the windup on Wednesday night. Isiah Kiner-Falefa took notice and took off.The Yankees’ super utilityman had been on third base with Raley, a left-handed Mets reliever, on the mound in the seventh inning. The pitcher never paid attention to Kiner-Falefa, so he took a huge lead and broke for the plate. Raley and catcher Francisco Alvarez appeared to notice as Kiner-Falefa began sprinting, but it was too late.Raley had already begun his windup. The southpaw sped things up, but he sailed a pitch over Billy McKinney’s head as Kiner-Falefa slid home.A pumped-up Kiner Falefa then jogged to the Yankees dugout and celebrated after giving his team a 3-1 lead.“I got halfway and [Raley] didn’t acknowledge me,” Kiner-Falefa recalled. “Third baseman [Eduardo Escobar] didn’t acknowledge me, and I kind of timed it up.“They thought I was bluffing. So I just went.”The Yankees’ lead didn’t...