LOS ANGELES (AP) – Albums from Elton John, Miles Davis, Tracy Chapman, Mary J Blige and the cast of Hamilton are entering America’s audio canon, along with singles from Helen Reddy and Celine Dion and the music of Minecraft.
New inductees into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress include Davis’ groundbreaking 1970 merger of jazz and rock Bitches Brew, John’s loaded-with-hits Goodbye Yellow Brick Road from 1973, Chapman’s self-titled 1988 album that included Fast Car, Blige’s deeply introspective 1994 My Life, and the 2015 original Broadway cast album of Hamilton.
They were among the 25 recordings entering the archive in the class of 2025, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced on Wednesday. The recordings were chosen for their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage”.
“These are the sounds of America – our wide-ranging history and culture,” Hayden said in a statement. “The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist.”
Helen Reddy’s 1972 I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar and Celine Dion’s 1997 My Heart Will GoOn from the film Titanic are among the singles entering the archive.
Among the more unusual inclusion’s are the original music for the video game (and now monster hit movie) Minecraft from German producer Daniel Rosenfeld, as collected on the 2011 album, Minecraft: Volume Alpha, and the reboot sound for Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system, created by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician and producer Brian Eno.
Announcer Chuck Thompson’s radio broadcast of the 1960 World Series between the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates – clinched with a Game 7 home run by the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski – is also entering the registry.
The oldest recording in the class of 2025 is 1913’s Aloha ‘Oe by the Hawaiian Quintette.
The most recent is the 2015 Hamilton album, with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Other albums that won inclusion are 1968’s Hello Dummy from insult comic Don Rickles, 1969’s Chicago Transit Authority from the band Chicago, 1975’s I’ve Got the Music in Me from Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker, 1976’s Fly Like an Eagle from the Steve Miller Band, and 2006’s Back to Black from Amy Winehouse.
FROM LEFT: Musicians Miles Davis, Mary J Blige and Elton John. PHOTO: AP
MELBOURNE (AP) – Australia’s rival political leaders offered yesterday competing policies to help Australians buy a home ahead of the nation’s first federal election in which younger voters will outnumber the long-dominant baby boomer generation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton officially launched their parties’ campaigns ahead of the May 3 elections. Helping aspiring homeowners buy into a national real estate market in which prices are high and supply is constrained due to inflation, builders going broke, shortages of materials and a growing population was central to both campaigns.
“Buying a first home has never been easy, but for this generation, it’s never felt further out of reach,” Albanese told his supporters in the west coast city of Perth.
“In Australia, home ownership should not be a privilege you inherit if you’re lucky. It should be an aspiration that Australians everywhere can achieve,” he added.
The governing centre-left Labour Party promised yesterday AUD10 billion (USD6.3 billion) in grants and loans to build 100,000 new homes over eight years exclusively for first-homebuyers, who would only have to pay a five per cent deposit instead of the current minimum 20 per cent, with the government paying the remainder.
Dutton’s conservative Liberal Party promised to ease demand for housing by banning foreign investors and temporary residents from buying existing homes for two years while reducing immigration and foreign student numbers.
First-time homebuyers would also be able to claim a tax deduction on mortgage interest payments for new homes, Dutton said.
“Today, I bring a message of hope to all Australians seeking to own a home of their own.
“I will be a prime minister who restores the dream of homeownership,” Dutton told an audience in Sydney, on the east coast. The focus on younger Australians’ struggle to buy or even rent a home reflects a political reality that the majority of voters in Australia are no longer baby boomers, who have for decades been the dominant demographic typically defined as born between the end of World War II and 1964.
Generation X – who followed the boomers – Millennials and Generation Z constitute just over 50 per cent of the voters in this election.
Voting is compulsory in Australia so voter turnout is high across all age groups.
Australian Liberal Party and opposition leader Peter Dutton meets former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison at his party’s coalition campaign launch ahead of the May 3 federal election in western Sydney, Australia. PHOTO: AP
GAZA CITY (AFP) – An Israeli air strike yesterday heavily damaged one of the few functioning hospitals in Gaza, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas “command and control centre” operating within the facility.
Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.
The strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza – also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab Hospital – caused no casualties, but came a day after Israeli forces seized a key corridor in the territory and signalled plans to expand their campaign.
It also came as aid agencies and the United Nations warned that medicines and related supplies were rapidly running out in Gaza as casualties surged.
“The bombing led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units,” Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency said.
The strike came “minutes after the (Israeli) army’s warning to evacuate this building of patients, the injured and their companions”, the agency said.
AFP photographs showed massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the site after the strike.
The blast left a gaping hole in one of the hospital’s buildings, with iron doors torn from their hinges. Onlookers sifted through the rubble, while some retrieved equipment from a media van also damaged in the strike.
Iraq’s Aletejah TV said one of its live broadcast vehicles was hit by the strike.
A separate air strike yesterday on a vehicle in the central city of Deir el-Balah killed seven people including six brothers, the civil defence agency said.
Mahmud Abu Amsha, who witnessed the strike, said those killed were distributing aid.
“They do not care about children or people being killed… This aid was being provided to the displaced people,” Abu Amsha told AFP.
Israel has extended its offensive across much of Gaza.
On Saturday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that the military planned to expand its offensive as it completed the takeover of the “Morag axis” between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis. The corridor is part of what he called “the Israeli security zone”.
Patients, relatives and medical personnel evacuated the Al-Ahli hospital in haste following the military’s warning.
Many found themselves stranded in the surrounding streets.
Naela Imad, 42, had been sheltering at the hospital but had to rush out of the complex.
“Just as we reached the hospital gate, they bombed it. It was a massive explosion,” she told AFP.
“Now, me and my children are out on the street. We’ve been displaced more than 20 times. The hospital was our last refuge.”
The Israeli military asserted that Hamas militants were operating from inside the hospital compound.
Security forces “struck a command and control centre used by Hamas in the Al-Ahli Hospital” for planning and executing attacks, the military said.
Hamas condemned what it described as a “savage crime” committed by Israel “with blatant US cover and complicity”.
Qatar, which helped mediate a fragile ceasefire between the warring parties that fell apart last month, also denounced the strike, calling it “a heinous crime against unarmed civilians”.
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian’s Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Al-Ahli was heavily damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, 2023, leaving multiple fatalities.
Aid agencies and the UN said that only a few of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional. Gaza’s Health Ministry said yesterday that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,944.
The outpatient and laboratory wards of Al-Ahli Arab Baptist hospital after being hit by an Israeli army strike. PHOTO: APDisplaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area. PHOTO: AP
BOISE (AP) – An autistic, non-verbal teenage boy who was shot repeatedly by Idaho police from the other side of a chain-link fence while he was holding a knife died on Saturday after being removed from life support, his family said.
Victor Perez, 17, who also had cerebral palsy, had been in a coma since the April 5 shooting, and tests showed that he had no brain activity, his aunt, Ana Vazquez, told The Associated Press. He had undergone several surgeries, with doctors removing nine bullets and amputating his leg.
Police in the southeast Idaho city of Pocatello responded to an emergency call reporting that an apparently intoxicated man with a knife was chasing someone in a yard. It turned out to be Perez, who was not intoxicated but walked with a staggered gait due to his disabilities, Vazquez said.
His family members had been trying to get the large kitchen knife away from him.
Video taken by a neighbour showed that Perez was lying in the yard after falling over when four officers arrived and rushed to the fence at the edge of the yard. They immediately ordered Perez to drop the knife, but instead he stood and began stumbling toward them.
Officers opened fire within about 12 seconds of getting out of their patrol cars and made no apparent effort to de-escalate the situation.
“Everybody was trying to tell the police, no, no,” Vazquez said. “Those four officers didn’t care. They didn’t ask what was happening, what was the situation.”
“How’s he going to jump the fence when he can barely walk?” she said. The shooting outraged Perez’s family and Pocatello residents, and about 200 people attended a vigil outside the Pocatello hospital where he was treated. Another crowd of protesters gathered outside the Pocatello City Hall building, which also houses the police department. Police snipers were stationed on a nearby rooftop during the protest, though no violence was reported. Many of the protesters held signs with phrases like, “Do better, PPD” and “Justice for Victor,” and passing cars honked in acknowledgment.
A police spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
“Those police broke our family,” Vasquez said, shortly after Perez’ death. “There is no way to explain the pain that we are feeling right now. It’s like our hearts are kind of empty – it’s not full anymore.”
The officers, whose names have not been released, were placed on administrative leave.
Decisions about whether charges should be filed against them will be made after an independent investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Team, Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson told the AP via email. “When that investigation is complete a report will be submitted for review,” he said. “In a continued effort to ensure independent and objective consideration, said report will be reviewed by an agency outside of Bannock County.”
Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad said in a statement, after the family announced that Perez had no brain activity, that officials’ thoughts and prayers were with them.
“We recognise the pain and grief this incident has caused in our community,” Blad said.
Blad said the city was “addressing this matter with the seriousness and thoroughness it deserves and with the appropriate respect for the gravity of the situation”.
“The criminal, external and internal investigations regarding the officer-involved shooting are underway, which is why we cannot answer questions out of concern of interfering with or compromising the investigation,” he said.
Police are seen shortly before opening fire on a teen on the other side of a fence. PHOTO: AP
AP – The Supreme Court yesterday allowed the Trump administration to use an 18th Century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants, but said they must get a court hearing before they are taken from the United States (US).
In a bitterly divided decision, the court said the administration must give Venezuelans who it claims are gang members “reasonable time” to go to court.
But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.
The court’s action appears to bar the administration from immediately resuming the flights that last month carried hundreds of migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The flights came soon after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportations under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
The majority said nothing about those flights, which took off without providing the hearing the justices now say is necessary.
In dissent, the three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court “now rewards the government for its behaviour.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined portions of the dissent.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it would be harder for people to challenge deportations individually, and noted that the administration has also said in another case before the court that it’s unable to return people who have been deported to the El Salvador prison by mistake.
Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States peer through windows of a plane upon arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela. PHOTO: AP
COPAKE (AP) – A twin-engine plane with six people on board crashed on Saturday in a muddy field in upstate New York, authorities said.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office responded to an emergency report around noon, according to Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore, who said the crash was fatal but declined to reveal how many people died.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the Mitsubishi MU-2B with six people on the flight was headed to Columbia County Airport near Hudson, but crashed about 48 kilometres away near Copake.
“It’s in the middle of a field and it’s pretty muddy, so accessibility is difficult,” Salvatore said during a news conference near the scene about 80 kilometres south of Albany.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had deployed an investigation team.
WEST HOLLYWOOD (AP) – Five years after the end of the first season’s events, The Last of Us picks up in Wyoming, where Joel and Ellie – played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey – are settled into everyday life alongside an ensemble of returning characters and new faces protecting their fortress from the infected.
Ellie is at the centre of Season 2, which premiered yesterday on HBO, as she sets out on a quest for vengeance (to tell you more would be a spoiler). But Season 2’s new cast members also include some of young Hollywood’s rising stars: Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Danny Ramirez and Kaitlyn Dever as the long-awaited Abby, a character introduced in The Last of Us: Part II video game who is set on avenging her father’s death.
Dever, who played the game with her own father, was originally in talks with series co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to portray Ellie in the first season. But Abby, she now says, was the role she was meant to play. “It sort of just felt like everything fell into place the way it was supposed to,” Dever said. Ramsey and Pascal spoke with The Associated Press about the show’s hiatus, Ramsey’s increased stunt work and lessons Pascal took away from this season. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AP: Bella, you’re stepping into more stunts, more action than we saw this past season. What was that like for you in regard to training and prep and then just mentally getting into that zone with Ellie?
RAMSEY: What I was most excited about, about going into Season 2, was getting to train and be strong. It’s nice to have a reason to exercise that isn’t just for your own personal health. I got so battered and bruised. The stunt team did everything they could to protect me, but I still somehow managed to get bruises every time. I think I commit a bit too much. It was a great time. I was absolutely exhausted the whole time but had a lot of fun doing it.
AP: Was there ever a moment or a scene where you were like, “Wow, I didn’t think I could physically do that, and I’m pretty proud of myself.”
RAMSEY: Those moments happened quite frequently, not necessarily because of the actual stunt, but because you’d pile up months of exhaustion. And then there were days where I would wake up and be like, “I don’t know how I’m gonna do today.”
PASCAL: (laughs) You couldn’t get out of bed.
PHOTO: APPhotos show scenes from Season 2 of ‘The Last of Us’. PHOTO: AP
RAMSEY: Yeah, there’s times – I’ve never had this experience before – where I thought my body was just going to, like, cave in. It’s this feeling of like an instability in your body. I’m like, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
So, I think there was so many times during shooting where I would feel proud at the end of the day, especially when it was a stunt day, with all of this exhaustion. In some of the later episodes, there’s quite a lot of physical work, and I just had no idea how I’d do it. And then you just do, like you kind of just do it and then pay the price.
PASCAL: Pay the price for the rest of your life.
PASCAL: It was big gap for us though, too, we ended in what? June 2022, and we started in the beginning of 2024. It’s like two years.
RAMSEY: In that time, I didn’t work very much. So main growth, I think, between Season 1, Season 2 was learning how not to work, because I’d been on production since I was 11 and then worked basically nonstop up until the end of Season 1. And then there was this lull, and I didn’t do very much. So, I had to learn how to, yeah, how to be a young person and not be working, which was a challenge.
AP: Given the trajectory of Joel this season and everything that he goes through, what is one lesson or one thing that you think you will take away from this character this season?
PASCAL: I feel like Joel in Season 2 is an extreme example of what can happen if you don’t face the truth. And I think that in these teasers and in the trailer, Catherine O’Hara, who’s so incredible in the first episode that you got to see is saying, “Just, just say it. Just say the thing, face it, face your fears.” And I know as I get older, I am shocked into recognising how hard that is to do, and how dangerous it is not to do it.
THE CONVERSATION – My brother’s text messages can read like fragments of an ancient code: “hru,” “wyd,” “plz” – truncated, cryptic and never quite satisfying to receive. I’ll often find myself second-guessing whether “gr8” means actual excitement or whether it’s a perfunctory nod.
This oddity has nagged at me for years, so I eventually embarked upon a series of studies with fellow researchers Sam Maglio and Yiran Zhang. I wanted to know whether these clipped missives might undermine genuine dialogue, exploring the unspoken signals behind digital shorthand.
As we gathered data, surveyed people and set up experiments, it became clear that those tiny shortcuts – sometimes hailed as a hallmark of efficient communication – undermine relationships instead of simplifying them.
SHORT WORDS LEAD TO FEELING SHORTCHANGED
Most people type “ty” and “brb” – for “thank you” and “be right back” – without batting an eye.
In a survey we conducted of 150 American texters ages 18 to 65, 90.1 per cent reported regularly using abbreviations in their daily messages, and 84.2 per cent believed these shortcuts had either a positive effect or no meaningful impact on how the messages were perceived by the recipients.
But our findings suggested that the mere inclusion of abbreviations, although seemingly benign, started feeling like a brush-off. In other words, whenever a texter chops words down to their bare consonants, recipients sense a lack of effort, which causes them to disengage.
It’s a subtle but pervasive phenomenon that most people don’t intuit. We started with controlled lab tests, presenting 1,170 participants ages 15 to 80 with one of two near-identical text exchanges: one set sprinkled with abbreviations, the other fully spelled out. In every single scenario, participants rated the abbreviating sender as less sincere and far less worthy of a reply.
The deeper we dug, the more consistent the pattern became.
Whether people were reading messages about weekend plans or major life events, the presence of truncated words and phrases such as “plz,” “sry” or “idk” for “please,” “sorry” or “I don’t know” made the recipients feel shortchanged.
The phenomenon didn’t stop with strangers. In more experiments, we tested whether closeness changed the dynamic. If you’re texting a dear friend or a romantic partner, can you abbreviate to your heart’s content?
Evidently not. Even people imagining themselves chatting with a long-time buddy reported feeling a little put off by half-spelled words, and that sense of disappointment chipped away at how authentic the interaction felt.
PHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATO
FROM DISCORD TO DATING APPS
Still, we had nagging doubts: Might this just be some artificial lab effect?
We wondered whether real people on real platforms might behave differently. So we took our questions to Discord, a vibrant online social community where people chat about everything from anime to politics. More importantly, Discord is filled with younger people who use abbreviations like it’s second nature.
We messaged random users asking them to recommend TV shows to watch. One set of messages fully spelled out our inquiry; the other set was filled with abbreviations. True to our lab results, fewer people responded to the abbreviated ask. Even among digital natives – youthful, tech-savvy users who are well versed in the casual parlance of text messaging – a text plastered with shortcuts still felt undercooked.
If a few missing letters can sour casual chats, what happens when love enters the equation? After all, texting has become a cornerstone of modern romance, from coy flirtations to soul-baring confessions. Could “plz call me” inadvertently jeopardise a budding connection? Or does “u up?” hint at more apathy than affection? These questions guided our next foray, as we set out to discover whether the swift efficiency of abbreviations might actually short-circuit the delicate dance of courtship and intimacy.
Our leap into the realm of romance culminated on Valentine’s Day with an online speed dating experiment.
We paired participants for timed “dates” inside a private messaging portal, and offered half of them small incentives to pepper their replies with abbreviations such as “ty” instead of “thank you.”
When it came time to exchange contact information, the daters receiving abbreviation-heavy notes were notably more reluctant, citing a lack of effort from the other party.
Perhaps the most eye-opening evidence came from a separate study running a deep analysis of hundreds of thousands of Tinder conversations.
The data showed that messages stuffed with abbreviations such as “u” and “rly” scored fewer overall responses and short-circuited conversations.
IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS
We want to be clear: We’re not campaigning to ban “lol.” Our research suggests that a few scattered abbreviations don’t necessarily torpedo a friendship. Nor does every one of the many messages sent to many people every day warrant the full spelling-out treatment.
Don’t care about coming across as sincere? Don’t need the recipient to respond? Then by all means, abbreviate away.
Instead, it’s the overall reliance on condensed phrases that consistently lowers our impression of the sender’s sincerity. When we type “plz” a dozen times in a conversation, we risk broadcasting that the other person isn’t worth the extra letters. The effect may be subtle in a single exchange. But over time, it accumulates.
If your ultimate goal is to nurture a deeper connection – be it with a friend, a sibling or a prospective date – taking an extra second to type “thanks” might be a wise investment.
Abbreviations began as a clever workaround for clunky flip phones, with its keypad texting – recall tapping “5” three times to type the letter “L” – and strict monthly character limits.
Yet here we are, long past those days, still trafficking in “omg” and “brb,” as though necessity never ended.
After all of those studies, I’ve circled back to my brother’s texts with fresh eyes. I’ve since shared with him our findings about how those tiny shortcuts can come across as half-hearted or indifferent. He still fires off “brb” in half his texts, and I’ll probably never see him type “I’m sorry” in full. But something’s shifting – he typed “thank you” a few times, even threw in a surprisingly heartfelt “hope you’re well” the other day.
It’s a modest shift, but maybe that’s the point: Sometimes, just a few more letters can let someone know they really matter. – David Fang
LONDON (AP) – Two prison officers allegedly stabbed by one of the plotters of a deadly bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, eight years ago are in a stable condition in the hospital, the union representing them said yesterday.
Hashem Abedi, who in August 2020 was convicted of 22 counts of murder and sentenced to at least 55 years in prison for helping plan the 2017 attack, threw hot cooking oil over three officers on Saturday before stabbing them with “home-made weapons,” according to the Prison Officers Association.
Two male officers sustained life-threatening injuries including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the “unprovoked” and “vicious” attack at Frankland prison in the northeast of England, it added.
A female officer was released from the hospital on Saturday. The union’s national chairman, Mark Fairhurst, said the attack was carried out in a separation centre where inmates are allowed to use cooking facilities.
“To allow that type of prisoner to access the kitchen and use of the utensils that can be used as weapons against staff, and can inflict serious harm on staff, that needs to be removed immediately,” he told the BBC. “We’re now worried about the knock-on effect of this and copycat incidents.”
Abedi was convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot, in which his suicide bomber brother Salman Abedi killed 22 people by detonating a bomb hidden in a knapsack as fans were leaving the Grande concert. In addition to those killed, more than 260 people were wounded and hundreds of others were left with psychological injuries.
Counterterrorism officials are leading the investigation into the attack, with assistance from local police.
ANN/THE STAR – Local action film Blood Brothers: Bara Naga, which opened at Malaysian cinemas on April 10, delves into the dark underworld of the mafia – a theme rarely explored in the Malaysian entertainment industry.
Co-directed by Syafiq Yusof and Abhilash Chandra, the film features a stellar local cast including Sharnaaz Ahmad, Syafiq Kyle, Shukri Yahaya, Amelia Henderson, Syazwan Zulkifly, Andy Teh, Irfan Zaini, Wan Hanafi Su and Zamarul Hisham.
Taking over two years to complete, Syafiq believes the film is ready to compete on the world stage due to the quality and dedication shown by the entire crew and cast.
“Two full years of dedication have gone into making Blood Brothers: Bara Naga,” he said during a press conference on April 7. “Every stage – from planning, writing, filming, to post-production – saw the tireless effort of everyone involved. I believe this film will open a new chapter in our national film industry and inspire other filmmakers to create works that can compete internationally.”
Meanwhile, co-director Abhilash described working with Syafiq as a thrilling experience that allowed him to explore more creative ideas.
“Working with Syafiq Yusof on Blood Brothers: Bara Naga was truly an incredible creative journey.
“This collaboration gave us the opportunity to explore new ideas and craft a strong and impactful story.
“Every scene carries its own weight and purpose, and I believe audiences will feel connected to the storyline we’ve created,” he shared.
A scene from the film ‘Blood Brothers: Bara Naga’. PHOTO: ANN/THE STAR
