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Taylor Swift dominates again at American Music Awards

2022-11-21T06:27:09Z

Superstar singer and songwriter Taylor Swift won all six trophies she was contending for on Sunday at the American Music Awards, including the night’s top prize: artist of the year.

The new AMA accolades lifted Swift’s lifetime total to 40, breaking her own record for most wins at the world’s largest fan-voted awards ceremony.

The “Anti-Hero” singer, wearing a sparkling gold jumpsuit, said fan support in recent years had encouraged her to write more music, which made her happier.

“I have the fans to thank essentially for my happiness,” Swift said to a cheering crowd at the ceremony in Los Angeles.

“I cannot express how unbelievable it is to me that I still do this and that you still care,” she added.

The 32-year-old released four original albums and two re-recordings in the past three years, more than her entire output of the previous decade. Songs from her most recent album, “Midnights,” took all top 10 spots on the Billboard singles chart after its October debut.

In her multiple acceptance speeches on Sunday, Swift did not mention the glitches that disrupted Ticketmaster’s sales for her upcoming tour last week, prompting the company to apologize to her late on Friday.

Other honors for Swift on Sunday included favorite pop album, country album and video for her re-recording of 2012 record “Red.” The singer has been remaking albums from her past because of a dispute with her former record label.

For artist of the year, Swift triumphed over formidable names including Beyonce, Harry Styles, The Weeknd, Drake, Adele and Bad Bunny, who had gone into the night with a leading eight nominations. The Puerto Rican rapper and singer received two awards, for favorite male Latin artist and favorite Latin album for “Un Verano Sin Ti.”

Pop singer Pink opened the AMAs show dancing and singing on roller skates to her upbeat song “Never Gonna Not Dance Again.” Later in the ceremony, she performed “Hopelessly Devoted to You” in a tribute to Olivia Newton-John, the “Grease” singer who died in August.

Musician Lionel Richie, known for “All Night Long” and other 1980s hits, was celebrated with the AMA’s icon award. Stevie Wonder and Charlie Puth performed a medley of Richie songs on dueling pianos.

Dove Cameron, a former Disney Channel actress who reached the Billboard charts this year with the pop single “Boyfriend,” was named best new artist.

Comedian and host Wayne Brady rapped in his monologue at the start of the show. “Ain’t nobody getting slapped tonight,” Brady joked, referencing Will Smith’s infamous attack on Chris Rock at the Oscars.

Related Galleries:

Taylor Swift poses with the Artist of the Year, Favourite Music Video, Favourite Female Pop Artist, Favourite Pop Album, Favourite Female Country Artist, Favourite Country Album award in the press room during the 2022 American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

Dove Cameron, winner of the New Artist of the Year award, poses in the press room during the 2022 American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

Dan + Shay, winner of the Favorite Country Duo or Group award, poses in the press room during the 2022 American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

Wayne Brady performs during the 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Machine Gun Kelly receives the Favorite Rock Artist award during 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Taylor Swift’s “Red (Taylor’s Version)” receives the Favorite Pop Album award during 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
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Nikopol district struck with Grad MLRS, heavy artillery six times

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Russian invaders struck Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk location with Grad MLRS and significant artillery six situations at night.

“Six strikes during the night… The Russians yet again terrorized Nikopol district with Grad MLRS and major artillery. They hit 3 communities – Nikopol, Marhanets, and Myrove. Just about 60 shells were fired,” Valentyn Reznichenko, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Navy Administration, posted on Telegram.

As pointed out, a 78-12 months-old guy was wounded in Nikopol. He was presented health care aid and stayed to be handled at dwelling.

Russian shells also harmed non-public properties, a boat, and vehicles in Nikopol.

There had been no casualties in Marhanets and Myrove communities.

As documented, Russian troops shelled four communities in Dnipropetrovsk area with MLRS and heavy artillery on Sunday, November 20.

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Colorado Springs police probe motive in LGBTQ nightclub shooting

2022-11-21T06:08:24Z

Police in Colorado Springs on Monday were expected to release more details about the weekend shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub that killed five people and injured 25 more in what rights advocates suspect was a hate crime.

Further details could also emerge about the patrons whom police called heroes for rushing the gunman and halting the attack late Saturday night at Club Q in Colorado’s second largest city.

Police said they would hold a news briefing by noon (1900 GMT). Authorities on Sunday said they were investigating whether the attack was motivated by hate.

They identified the suspect as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, and said he used a “long rifle” during the brief but deadly attack. Multiple firearms were found at the scene, police said.

Police said at least two people subdued the gunman shortly after he burst in just before midnight, preventing further carnage, but did identify them nor say whether they were shot or injured.

One of the patrons grabbed a handgun from the shooter and pistol-whipped him with it, and was still on top of the suspect, pinning him down, when police arrived, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told the New York Times.

“It was quite something. It happened quite quickly. This individual was totally disabled by 12:02. That had a lot to do with the intervention of these patrons,” Suthers told the Times.

Suthers also said the shooting “has all the appearances of being a hate crime.”

While President Joe Biden acknowledged no motive had been established, he noted in a statement that LGBTQ people have been “subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years.”

The shooting was reminiscent of the 2016 Pulse club massacre when a gunman killed 49 people at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, before he was fatally shot by police.

Club Q, a long-standing venue in a modest strip mall, was described by many as a safe haven for the LGBTQ community.

One of the victims was identified as Daniel Aston, 28, a transgender man and bartender at the club who also performed in shows as a dancer, according to a Colorado Public Radio interview with his mother, Sabrina Aston.

“He was the happiest he had ever been,” Sabrina Aston said. “He was thriving and having fun and having friends. It’s just unbelievable. He had so much more life to give to us and to all to his friends and to himself.”

Anxiety within many LGBTQ communities in the United States has risen amid a divisive political climate and after a string of threats and violent incidents targeting LGBTQ people and events in recent months.

“America’s toxic mix of bigotry and absurdly easy access to firearms means that such events are all too common,” said Kevin Jennings, chief executive of Lambda Legal, a gay rights group.

Colorado has a grim history of mass violence, including the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, a 2012 rampage inside a movie theater in a Denver suburb and a supermarket attack that killed 10 people last year.

Colorado Springs suffered a mass shooting in 2015 when an anti-abortion gunman killed three people and injured nine at a Planned Parenthood facility.

Related Galleries:

Jey Swisher embraces fellow mourners as they react after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

Sam Nichols and Forest Knight attend a vigil after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

People react after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
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Indonesia defence minister says honoured to be good friends with both China, U.S.

2022-11-21T06:13:48Z

Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto said on Monday that his country is honoured to be friendly with both China and the United States.

He added that Indonesia’s way of managing misunderstandings is through dialogue. Prabowo was speaking to reporters after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Jakarta.

Related Galleries:

Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hold a joint news conference, following their meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 21, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto during their meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 21, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool

Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto walks with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a welcoming ceremony in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 21, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
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Gay club shooting suspect evaded Colorado’s red flag gun law

DENVER (AP) — A year and a half before he was arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five people dead, Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering.

Yet despite that scare, there’s no public record that prosecutors moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich, or that police or relatives tried to trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law that would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons and ammo the man’s mother says he had with him.

Gun control advocates say Aldrich’s June 2021 threat is an example of a red flag law ignored, with potentially deadly consequences. While it’s not clear the law could have prevented Saturday night’s attack — such gun seizures can be in effect for as little as 14 days and be extended by a judge in six-month increments — they say it could have at least slowed Aldrich and raised his profile with law enforcement.

“We need heroes beforehand — parents, co-workers, friends who are seeing someone go down this path,” said Colorado state Rep. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting and sponsored the state’s red flag law passed in 2019. “This should have alerted them, put him on their radar.”

But the law that allows guns to be removed from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others has seldom been used in the state, particularly in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, where the 22-year-old Aldrich allegedly went into Club Q with a long gun at just before midnight and opened fire before he was subdued by patrons.

An Associated Press analysis found Colorado has one of the lowest rates of red flag usage despite widespread gun ownership and several high-profile mass shootings.

Courts issued 151 gun surrender orders from when the law took effect in April 2019 through 2021, three surrender orders for every 100,000 adults in the state. That’s a third of the ratio of orders issued for the 19 states and District of Columbia with surrender laws on their books.

El Paso County appears especially hostile to the law. It joined nearly 2,000 counties nationwide in declaring themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” that protect the constitutional right to bear arms, passing a 2019 resolution that says the red flag law “infringes upon the inalienable rights of law-abiding citizens” by ordering police to “forcibly enter premises and seize a citizen’s property with no evidence of a crime.”

County Sheriff Bill Elder has said his office would wait for family members to ask a court for surrender orders and not petition for them on its own accord, unless there were “exigent circumstances” and “probable cause” of a crime.

El Paso County, with a population of 730,000, had 13 temporary firearm removals through the end of last year, four of which turned into longer ones of at least six months.

The county sheriff’s office declined to answer what happened after Aldrich’s arrest last year, including whether anyone asked to have his weapons removed. The press release issued by the sheriff’s office at the time said no explosives were found but did not mention anything about whether any weapons were recovered.

Spokesperson Lt. Deborah Mynatt referred further questions about the case to the district attorney’s office.

An online court records search did not turn up any formal charges filed against Aldrich in last year’s case. And in an update on a story on the bomb threat, The Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs reported that prosecutors did not pursue any charges in the case and that records were sealed.

The Gazette also reported Sunday that it got a call from Aldrich in August asking that it remove a story about the incident.

“There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message to an editor. “The entire case was dismissed.”

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, Howard Black, declined to comment on whether any charges were pursued. He said the shooting investigation will also include a study of the bomb threat.

“There will be no additional information released at this time,” Black said. “These are still investigative questions.”

AP’s study of 19 states and the District of Columbia with red flag laws on their books found they have been used about 15,000 times since 2020, less than 10 times for every 100,000 adults in each state. Experts called that woefully low and hardly enough to make a dent in gun killings.

Just this year, authorities in Highland Park, Illinois, were criticized for not trying to take guns away from the 21-year-old accused of a Fourth of July parade shooting that left seven dead. Police had been alerted about him in 2019 after he threatened to “kill everyone” in his home.

Duke University sociologist Jeffrey Swanson, an expert in red flag laws, said the Colorado Springs case could be yet another missed warning sign.

“This seems like a no brainer, if the mom knew he had guns,” he said. “If you removed firearms from the situation, you could have had a different ending to the story.”

___

Condon reported from New York.

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

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Patrons in gay club shooting hit gunman with his own weapon

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As bullets tore through a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding many more, one patron who’d been partying moments before rushed into action, grabbing a handgun from the suspect, hitting him with it and pinning him down until police arrived just minutes later.

He was one of at least two customers who police and city officials credit with stopping the gunman and limiting the bloodshed in Saturday night’s shooting at Club Q. The violence pierced the cozy confines of an entertainment venue that has long been a cherished safe spot for the LGBTQ community in the conservative-leaning city.

“Had that individual not intervened this could have been exponentially more tragic,” Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The Associated Press.

Police identified the alleged gunman as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was in custody and being treated for injuries.

A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon in the attack, but a handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Club Q on its Facebook page thanked the “quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.” Investigators were still determining a motive and whether to prosecute it as a hate crime, said El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen. Charges against the suspect will likely include first-degree murder, he said.

Already questions were being raised about why authorities didn’t seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons. Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun control advocates are asking why police didn’t try to trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law, which would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s also no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

Of the 25 injured at Club Q, at least seven were in critical condition, authorities said. Some were hurt trying to flee, and it was unclear if all of them were shot, a police spokesperson said. Suthers said there was “reason to hope” all of those hospitalized would recover.

The shooting rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people. Colorado has experienced several mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, a movie theater in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.

It was the sixth mass killing this month and came in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Authorities were called to Club Q at 11:57 p.m. Saturday with a report of a shooting, and the first officer arrived at midnight.

Joshua Thurman said he was in the club with about two dozen other people and was dancing when the shots began. He initially thought it was part of the music, until he heard another shot and said he saw the flash of a gun muzzle.

Thurman, 34, said he ran with another person to a dressing room where someone already was hiding. They locked the door, turned off the lights and got on the floor but could hear the violence unfolding, including the gunman getting beaten up, he added.

“I could have lost my life — over what? What was the purpose?” he said as tears ran down his cheeks. “We were just enjoying ourselves. We weren’t out harming anyone. We were in our space, our community, our home, enjoying ourselves like everybody else does.”

Detectives were examining whether anyone had helped the suspect before the attack, Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said. He said patrons who intervened during the attack were “heroic” and prevented more deaths.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian nightclub that features a drag show on Saturdays, according to its website. Club Q’s Facebook page said planned entertainment included a “punk and alternative show” preceding a birthday dance party, with a Sunday all-ages drag brunch.

Drag events have become a focus of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and protests recently as opponents, including politicians, have proposed banning children from them, falsely claiming they’re used to “groom” children.

To substantiate a hate-crime charge against Aldrich, prosecutors would have to prove he was motivated by the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. So far, the suspect has not been cooperative in interviews with investigators and has not given them clear insight yet about the motivation for the attack, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden said that while the motive for the shootings was not yet clear, “we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years.”

“Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence,” he said. “We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man to be elected a U.S. governor in 2018, called the shooting “sickening.”

“My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured and traumatized,” Polis said.

A makeshift memorial sprang up Sunday near the club, with flowers, a stuffed animal, candles and a sign saying “Love over hate” next to a rainbow-colored heart.

Seth Stang was buying flowers for the memorial when he was told that two of the dead were his friends. The 34-year-old transgender man said it was like having “a bucket of hot water getting dumped on you. … I’m just tired of running out of places where we can exist safely.”

Ryan Johnson, who lives near the club and was there last month, said it was one of only two nightspots for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs. “It’s kind of the go-to for pride,” the 26-year-old said of the club.

Colorado Springs, a city of about 480,000 located 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Denver, is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Olympic Training Center, as well as Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical Christian ministry that lobbies against LGBTQ rights. The group condemned the shooting and said it “exposes the evil and wickedness inside the human heart.”

In November 2015, three people were killed and eight wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city when authorities say a gunman targeted the clinic because it performed abortions.

The shooting came during Transgender Awareness Week and just at the start of Sunday’s International Transgender Day of Remembrance, when events around the world are held to mourn and remember transgender people lost to violence.

Since 2006, there have been 523 mass killings and 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.

___

Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Associated Press reporters Colleen Slevin in Denver, Michael Balsamo in Washington, Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed.

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Elon Musk Welcomes Kanye West Back to Twitter

American musician Ye has returned to Twitter after a two-week hiatus from the social network, and new owner Elon Musk welcomed him back on the platform.

Posting from an iPhone on Sunday, the artist formerly known as Kanye West first tested that he was still unblocked—his account had been temporarily suspended and restored at the end of October, which Musk said was not his decision—before following up with “Shalom : )”. Ye’s earlier suspension had been due to an anti-Semitic tweet. The hip hop artist last month agreed to buy social media platform Parler, embraced by conservatives as an alternative to Twitter.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Read More: Kanye West to Buy Conservative Social Network Parler

Musk responded positively to Ye’s initial tweet, tweeting “Don’t kill what ye hate, Save what ye love.”

Don’t kill what ye hate
Save what ye love

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022

Twitter’s new leader, who’s also chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, spent the weekend polling his followers on the platform whether to restore the access of Donald Trump, the former U.S. president who was permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 breaching of the US capitol. Some 52% responded in the affirmative and Trump is now clear to return—though he’s responded saying that he’ll stick to his own social network, Truth Social.

Read More: Twitter Is Collapsing, and Nothing Can Replace It

Musk’s latest tweet depicts Twitter as a drug that Trump will be sorely tempted to return to. The billionaire Twitter owner’s courtship of the network’s controversial figures—beside himself—threatens to further alienate advertisers, who have been wary about associating their brands with the service in recent times.

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In Surprise Move, Disney Announces Return of Former CEO Bob Iger

BURBANK, Calif. — The Walt Disney Company announced late Sunday that former CEO Bob Iger would return to head the company for two years in a move that surprised the entertainment industry.

Disney said Bob Chapek, who succeeded Iger in 2020, had stepped down from the position.

“The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period,” board Chair Susan Arnold said in a statement from Disney.

Read More: Disney CEO Bob Iger Is TIME’s Businessperson of the Year 2019

Arnold thanked Chapek for his service, including his time during “the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.”

Iger steered Disney through its absorption of Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel and Fox’s entertainment businesses and the launch of Disney Plus.

Earlier this month, Disney posted lower than expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Iger led Disney for 15 years before stepping down in 2020.

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Harris says U.S. and Philippines ties long and enduring

2022-11-21T05:48:27Z

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a leaders’ meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. Haiyun Jiang/Pool via REUTERS

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday after meeting Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr that the relationship between the two countries was long and enduring and American commitment unwavering.

After the meeting at the presidential palace, Marcos also said that ties between the countries remained strong and important.

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Two militants sentenced to death for killing U.S. blogger escape from Bangladesh court

2022-11-21T05:50:06Z

Two Islamist militants sentenced to death for killing a U.S. blogger critical of religious extremism escaped from a crowded court in Bangladesh’s Dhaka on Sunday.

Avijit Roy, an engineer of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in February 2015 while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair. His wife, blogger Rafida Bonya Ahmed, suffered head injuries and lost a thumb in the attack.

Five members of an Islamist militant group were sentenced to death last year, while one was jailed for life.

Two of those on death penalty escaped on Sunday, after bikers sprayed chemical on the police before snatching away the convicts, police said.

“A massive manhunt has been launched to capture them and their helpers,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters, adding that border security officials had been put on alert to stop the men fleeing the country.

Police has also announced an award of two million taka (about $19,350) for tracing the convicts.

The convicted men belong to the al Qaeda-inspired domestic militant group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team and police say the group was behind the murders of more than a dozen secular activists and bloggers.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh saw a string of deadly attacks between 2013 and 2016 targeting bloggers, secular activists and religious minorities, claimed by Islamic State or al Qaeda-aligned groups.

($1 = 103.3500 taka)

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