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Trudeau off to Iceland to meet Nordic leaders ahead of NATO, amid Arctic uncertainty

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way to meet with Nordic leaders ahead of an upcoming NATO summit and as uncertainty looms over the future of the Arctic. Trudeau is slated to travel to Iceland, which will host leaders from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway over the next two days for an annual gathering of Nordic prime ministers. Leaders from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands are also attending. Iceland’s government says “societal resilience” will be discussed at the meeting, which is being staged on a group of islands known as Vestmannaeyjar and coincides with the 50th anniversary of a volcanic eruption there.Trudeau is to appear as a guest, and his office says it is a chance to advance common interests with the Nordic nations, which range from protecting the environment and developing clean energy to tackling security challenges. The talks come a little more than two weeks before leaders travel to Lithuania to meet with NATO alli...

Egypt’s president meets with visiting Indian prime minister to strengthen ties

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt met Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday, the second stop of a two-day trip that focused on elevating ties between the two counties.Egypt and India share deep ties that date back to the 1950s, when the two nations played key roles in founding the Non-Aligned Movement, which had sought an alternative path to siding with either with communism or capitalism at the height of the Cold War.Modi, who arrived in Cairo Saturday, is the first Indian prime minister to pay a state visit to Egypt in more than two decades. His two-day stop came six months after el-Sissi was in New Delhi as an official guest at India’s Independence Day.El-Sissi welcomed Modi Sunday morning at the presidential palace in Cairo. He awarded the visiting prime minister the Order of the Nile, Egypt’s highest state honor, according to Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry.Modi’s trip to Egypt has focused on strengthening b...

Adventure of a lifetime: St. Paul teen back from around-the-world bike trip

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

It was in a remote area of Kyrgyzstan, about midway through his 20,700-mile bicycle journey around the world, that Adam Swanson worried he might not make it home.Sick with food poisoning and out of toilet paper, the 19-year-old St. Paul man hitched a ride with two Russian speakers on their way to Siberia for a shipment of watermelons. During the four-hour ride, he and the other passenger communicated by passing his phone back and forth using Google Translate.Suddenly, the driver turned off the main road, and Swanson read the next message on his phone: “We revenge slaughter you.”Instead of Swanson’s intended destination of Osh, the trio were approaching Uzbekistan, a country he wasn’t yet authorized to visit.“We pull off this road and drive for, like, half an hour, and then we come up to this gate,” Swanson said. “The gate opens, and it’s an open lot with one guy and a bunch of relics from the Soviet Union and nothing else.”The passenger handed Swanson his phone. “It said, ‘Get out, ...

Literary calendar for week of June 25

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

Nicole Baart (Aaron Baart / Simon & Schuster)NICOLE BAART: Iowa-based author of 11 novels discusses her atmospheric thriller “The Long Way Home,” in which an Instagram-famous teen goes missing and her mother grapples with revelation of dark secrets. 7 pm. Monday, June 26, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.; 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul, in conversation with bestselling Minnesota author William Kent Krueger.MICHELLE BRUHN/STEPHANIE THUROW: Sign copies of their book “Small-Scale Homesteading.” Subtitled “A Sustainable Guide to Gardening, Keeping Chickens, Maple Sugaring, Preserving the Harvest, and More,” this handsomely designed paperback is packed with color photos and facts. 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, June 30, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.MARY CHRISTINE KANE/SANDRA ELIASON: Introduce “True Stories About Love Vol. 2,” made up of 33 sto...

Skywatch: Shooting the moon

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

Over the next two weeks, the moon will be very prominent in our sky, starting as a first quarter (half moon) on Monday and becoming a full moon a week later on July 3. It will be the first full moon of the astronomical summer. Without a doubt, moonlight, especially full moonlight, louse up the skies for good stargazing and astrophotography, which are near and dear to me. Despite that, I love, love, love full moons! I call it my magic moon time.I love the names given to full moons by various cultures worldwide. One Native American name for the July full moon is the Full Buck Moon because this is when buck deer begin sprouting new antlers. It’s also called the Thunder Moon because of the more frequent thunderstorms this time of year. My favorite name for the July full moon comes from the ancient Chinese Buddhist tradition. They called it the Hungry Ghost Moon. I am still trying to figure out why.Whatever you call the July full moon, you can’t help but notice that it’...

Letters: I’ve been a proud Democrat for a long time, but spending is out of control

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

Yes, a growing concernThe letter Ed Sellner wrote for the June 22 paper about state and local Democratic spending being out of control was right on.The squandering of the recent budget surplus on so many marginal programs is astonishing.I too have been a proud Democrat for a long, long time but these recent policies have really got me questioning.  I’ll continue voting Democrat at the federal level, but I’ll probably go Republican at the state and local levels. I wouldn’t be surprised if other good Democrats are thinking the same thing. Ed Sellner was right, the spending is just out of control.Joseph Bianconi, St. Paul No good choiceI’m not going to vote in 2024.Why? The Republican party is morally bankrupt. They want to interfere with medical treatment for women and LBGTQ persons. They want to cut taxes for the uber-wealthy. They want to gut Social Security and Medicare. They are the party of book bans and limited education curricula. They are the party...

Literary pick for week of June 25

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

Allison Blevins (Courtesy of Allison Blevins)Raedial Book Fair returns for its second year Saturday, July 1, at Harriet Island Regional Park, 200 Dr. Justus Ohage Blvd., St. Paul, offering readers a chance to meet more than 20 literary vendors, authors, booksellers and publishers dedicated to uplifting diverse literature.It begins at 11:30 a.m. with a Drag Queen reading hour, followed by 1:30 p.m. author talks and a 3:30 panel about social media’s impact on the discoverability of diverse books.Shannon TL Kearns (Courtesy of Shannon TL Kearns)This year’s guest authors are Shannon TL Kearns and Allison Blevins. Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of stories. He is an ordained priest, a playwright/screenwriter and theologian. He’s been a Humanitas New Voices Fellow, a Lambda Literary Fellow, a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow, and a Finnovation Fellow. His debut book, “In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with...

Ask Amy: Abuse survivor thrives and tells the tale

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

Dear Readers: Like you, I’m often curious about what happens to the advice I offer once it leaves my desk, and so I’ve asked readers to send in “updates” to let all of us know how my advice was received, if it was followed, and how things turned out.The responses have flowed in, and I’m interested and often gratified to learn what impact this experience has had on readers.Of all of the updates I’ve received, today’s update has moved me the most.The original Q&A is printed below, followed by the update.Dear Amy: I’m an adult man, nearing 50, with a very difficult family history. My parents divorced when I was 9 years old. I lived with my mother and stepfather. Their relationship was quite twisted, and between the ages of 14 and 15 he sexually molested me, with my mother’s knowledge.I have done lots of healing about this, and today I have a great life.My question is: Now that my mother and biological father are elderly (my stepfather committed suicide), what kind of “allegiance” d...

Bridge: June 25, 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

The venerable Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, the premier event at the ACBL’s Spring NABC, saw victory for a team led by Jeff Wolfson (Steve Garner, David Gold-Zia Mahmood, Joe Grue-Brad Moss). In the final against Francisco BERNAL (a Colombian player now living in the United States, plus four Italians and one player from the U.S.), WOLFSON took a huge lead and held on to win 141 to 113.As usual, most of the top teams comprised a wealthy “sponsor” and a supporting professional cast. The demand for pro services meant that many foreign pros were present, and by the Round of 32, a majority of the players were from overseas.The results depended in great part on which sponsor could afford to retain top players, or perhaps which sponsor had hired a set of pros who were having a hot week. (Many sponsors are capable players; some are less so.)WOLFSON struck a heavy blow in today’s deal from near the end of the final’s first quarter. The auction started the same way at both tables, but when East ...

Word Game: June 25, 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:15:19 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — THREATEN (THREATEN: THRET-n: To menace; portend.)Average mark 46 wordsTime limit 60 minutesCan you find 59 or more words in THREATEN?TODAY’S WORD — THREATEN tare tarn tart tear teat teen teeth tenet tent tenth tern tether tetra than that theater thee then there theta threat three treat tree hare hate hater hatter hear heart hearten heat heater here ranee rant rate reheat rent earn earth earthen eaten eater enter entreat erne ethane ether ante anther antre arete natter near neat neater neath netherTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, sl...