Month: October 2022

Education chief says music can rebuild connections to school

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U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks during a program hosted by the Country Music Association Foundation Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. The CMA Foundation honored educators from across the country who were selected as music teachers of excellence. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

By KRISTIN M. HALL AP Entertainment Writer

Nashville, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s household as a child was filled with music. Both his parents were performers, and he and his siblings were their backing band.

“My brother played the guitar and I played percussion. My sister joined in on choruses. We grew up together singing, and music was a huge part of our growing up and our connection to our roots,” he said.

But he says in too many school systems, students don’t have access to music education or instruments. After two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. schools are struggling with teacher shortages in some areas, renewed calls for school security and dramatic setbacks in learning. Cardona believes music education is a part of the solution to rebuilding students and their schools.

“Now as a father, seeing how music teachers have helped my children these last two years, they were high schoolers in the pandemic, and they missed their sense of community,” said Cardona. “And those music teachers know how to reconnect them to community.” Continue reading

Qatar’s 12-year journey as World Cup host has 1 month to go

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FILE – FIFA President Gianni Infantino, left, and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani shake hands before the 2022 soccer World Cup draw at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar, Friday, April 1, 2022. The first World Cup in the Middle East is only one month away. Qatar has been on an often bumpy 12-year journey that has transformed the nation. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — The first World Cup in the Middle East is one month away, nearing the conclusion of an often bumpy 12-year journey for Qatar that has transformed the nation.

Qatar has faced skepticism about how it persuaded FIFA to vote for the country in 2010; criticism of how migrant workers were treated building stadiums and tournament infrastructure; and derision from the soccer world for changing the dates from the traditional June-July period to November-December.

The small Arab country jutting out into the Persian Gulf has overcome all of that, as well as hostility from neighboring states who imposed a three-year economic and diplomatic boycott that ended in January 2021.

On Nov. 20, the biggest tournament in soccer will finally get started a couple hours after sunset at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium — a new venue north of Doha built for the World Cup. The maroon-and-white clad national team from the host country will open a tournament that has come to define the gas-rich emirate’s image against the team from Ecuador — probably.

All 64 games over the course of 29 days involving 32 teams will be held in the Doha area, with many more shows and cultural events planned for a soccer-led party in the conservative Muslim society. Continue reading

UK: Climate protesters throw soup on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’

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Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of two protesters who have thrown tinned soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s famous 1888 work Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, Friday Oct. 14, 2022. The group Just Stop Oil, which wants the British government to halt new oil and gas projects, said activists dumped two cans of Heinz tomato soup over the oil painting on Friday. London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage and aggravated trespass. (Just Stop Oil via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Climate protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery on Friday to protest fossil fuel extraction, but caused no damage to the glass-covered painting.

The group Just Stop Oil, which wants the British government to halt new oil and gas projects, said activists dumped two cans of tomato soup over the oil painting, one of the Dutch artist’s most iconic works. The two protesters also glued themselves to the gallery wall.

The soup splashed across the glass covering the painting and its gilded frame. The gallery said “there is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.” It was cleaned and returned to its place in the gallery on Friday afternoon.

The work is one of several versions of “Sunflowers” that Van Gogh painted in the late 1880s.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage and aggravated trespass. Continue reading

UK leader in peril after Treasury chief axes ‘Trussonomics’

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Traffic outside the Bank of England, in the financial district in the City of London, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. The U.K.’s new Treasury chief ripped up the government’s economic plan on Monday, dramatically reversing most of the tax cuts and spending plans that new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced less than a month ago. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

By JILL LAWLESS and DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s new Treasury chief ripped up the government’s economic plan on Monday, dramatically reversing most of the tax cuts and spending plans that new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced less than a month ago. The move raises more questions about how long the beleaguered British leader can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, said he was scrapping “almost all” of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy and her promise — repeated just last week — that there will be no public spending cuts.

While the reversal of policy calmed financial markets and helped restore the government’s economic credibility, it further undermined the prime minister’s rapidly crumbling authority and fueled calls for her to step down before her despairing Conservative Party forces her out. Continue reading

IMF warns of higher recession risk and darker global outlook

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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks on the global economic outlook and key issues to be addressed at this month’s IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, at Georgetown University in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two principal economists painted very different pictures Thursday of what the global economy will look like in the coming years.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told an audience at Georgetown University on Thursday that the IMF is once again lowering its projections for global economic growth in 2023, projecting world economic growth lower by $4 trillion through 2026.

“Things are more likely to get worse before it gets better,” she said, adding that the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February has dramatically changed the IMF’s outlook on the economy. “The risks of recession are rising,” she said, calling the current economic environment a “period of historic fragility.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on the other side of town at the Center for Global Development, focused on how the U.S. and its allies could contribute to making longer-term investments to the global economy.

She called for ambitious policy solutions and didn’t use the word “recession” once. But despite Yellen’s more measured view, she said “the global economy faces significant uncertainty.” Continue reading