Author: Luke Martin

Toronto, Atlanta (24/10 – 10) Not too long ago, “Halloween”, a contraction of the Christian holiday known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” was a time to honors dead saints. Take a look at the multi-billion-dollar enterprise, celebrated on October 31st every year, which it has evolved into, at least in North America, and you’ll find no sainted creatures – but a plethora of devils and the dead. Not to mention the Undead (imagine Yoko Ono) which have leaked out of the hundreds upon hundreds of horror movies, many of them truly horrible horrors, since brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the…

Paris, Dublin, London (24/9 – 32) Undefeated in 17 games in the last 15 months, Ireland has beaten every rugby union world champion, three of them twice – just for humiliation. Historically, the Irish never got past the last eight of a Rugby World Cup. In this year’s tournament they are on fire: fans have faith that Ireland will finally seize The Webb Ellis Cup on 28 October, final day of the struggle. Low-scoring but epic: a 13-8 win over the defending champion South Africa in Pool B of the 2023 Rugby World Cup on Saturday – a brutal statement…

With the yellow and orange pigments of autumn finally making an appearance across the Western Hemisphere, we know the traveler in you may be wondering where is best for an off-season fall getaway, not only for the colors but also the general atmosphere. If you’ve already taken an international trip this summer, it’s also likely you’ll prefer somewhere closer to home or even just remain Stateside. With so many incredible destinations in the U.S. to pick from, however, making a decision can be incredibly challenging. Luckily, TripAdvisor has unveiled its top trending fall destinations in America, and we don’t know about you, but based on the…

MARION, Kan. — A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death. Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took…

Afghans who were promised a home in the United States after their country fell to the Taliban say they have waited so long for the US to process their applications that they are now being sent back to the enemy they fled. A number of Afghans who worked with the US and were told they were eligible for resettlement there have been forcibly deported back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they fled to await processing following the Taliban takeover in 2021, CNN can reveal. One man waiting for a US visa described being dropped at the Afghan border by Pakistani…

Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the fight ahead will be long and bloody, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday, even as casualties on both sides mount and the front lines have moved only incrementally. The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a “mountain of steel” of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defenses during its counter-offensive. Asked whether the counter-offensive was a failure, at least so far, General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “It is far…

By David Lawder (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that the U.S. economy is on a path to maintain a strong labor market while reducing inflation, even if the economy cools a bit more. Yellen said in prepared remarks at a residential solar power company in New Orleans that strong household and business balance sheets will serve as a source of U.S. economic strength along with a continuing surge in U.S. factory construction. Yellen, who is making a campaign-style visit to New Orleans to tout President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, said that the U.S. economy has defied…

By Michael S. Derby and Dan Burns (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan puts nearly half a trillion dollars of debt back on household balance sheets, a burden that combined with the end of a pandemic-era pause in payments on education loans may hasten an anticipated year-end economic slowdown. The court’s 6-3 ruling on Friday, which had been widely expected to go against Biden, comes just weeks after the White House and congressional Republicans struck a deal to lift the federal debt ceiling that included prohibiting any further extensions of the…

In a warm, overstuffed auditorium at the University of Colorado on Thursday, tribal representatives from around the Colorado River Basin had a message for their federal and state counterparts: Tribes won’t be cut out of key water talks that will decide the future of the basin. “As we develop a post-2026 plan, it’s no longer acceptable for the U.S. to meet with seven basin states separately, and then come to basin tribes, after the fact, with a post-hoc explanation or rationalization of what was discussed, or even worse, what was decided,” said Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River…

The search for three Americans who went missing earlier this month while sailing off the coast of Mexico has been suspended, authorities said Wednesday. The U.S. Coast Guard said that it was informed by the Mexican Navy that it had suspended its search for Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and William Gross. The Coast Guard had been assisting in the search effort. The three were last heard from on April 4 near Mazatlán, Mexico, according to the Coast Guard. They had been sailing aboard the “Ocean Bound” a 44-foot Lafitte sailboat. The sailors had left Mazatlán en route to San Diego, the…