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Brenda Lee makes history with Christmas classic ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

(CNN) — You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear this classic song is bringing overdue acknowledgement to a beloved artist.Sixty five years after it first released, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. That makes the hit song’s original performer, Brenda Lee, now 78, one of the oldest artists to ever top the chart.Lee was just 13 when she recorded the song and it debuted to modest acclaim in 1958.Since then, the tune has become a mainstay for the season and is Lee’s signature hit.“I’m happy for everybody here that’s worked so hard to make this happen because in today’s world, everything moves so fast and furious,” Lee told Billboard. “But I’m telling you this: My label has come to bat.”In honor of the song’s anniversary, Lee filmed a new music video with guest appearances by country stars Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood.In keeping with the times, Lee also recently joined TikTok.“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”...

Harvard, Penn and MIT presidents face grilling by Congress over antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

Washington (CNN) — The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are facing questions from Congress Tuesday about their responses to alleged incidents of antisemitism on their campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.“Today, each of you will have a chance to answer to and atone for the many specific instances of vitriolic, hate-filled antisemitism on your respective campuses that have denied students the safe learning environment they are due,” Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said.“As you confront our questions in this hearing, remember that you are not speaking to us, but to the students on your campus who have been threatened and assaulted and who look to you to protect them,” she said.As chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Foxx invited Harvard president Claudine Gay, Penn president Liz Magill and MIT president Sally Kornbluth to testify.“After the events of the past two mont...

John Kerry lights up global warming panel … with gas [+video]

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

Climate czar John Kerry is full of gas.He says he’s getting “more militant” about coal burning and that triggered an impromptu emission mid-rant.Kerry said the U.S. is committed to kicking the coal habit, as previously reported. He became so fired up about it he lit up a panel in Dubai on Sunday with his own methane. (See the NY Post video below and see, er hear, it for yourself.)It appears Becky Anderson, managing editor of CNN Abu Dhabi, caught wind of the ill-timed flatulence. She kept her cool, though. It’s no secret Kerry’s politics keep CNN’s last remaining viewers satisfied, so she bit her tongue and held her nose.Kerry blasted through it all, ignoring the 800-pound gorilla — or stink cloud — in the room. But ignoring the obvious is Kerry’s strength.File this under embarrassing moments for politicians — Jimmy Carter’s crazed rabbit attack, George H.W. Bush vomiting at a banquet in Japan, his son having a shoe t...

Suspended pot Chair Shannon O’Brien granted restraining order against boss

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

A Suffolk Superior Court judge has granted the state’s suspended cannabis chief’s request to delay a meeting with her boss which could have ended in her firing.According to court records, a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday between Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien and Treasurer Deb Goldberg will have to wait until the results of an ongoing investigation are made available to O’Brien’s attorneys and investigators are made available for cross-examination.“Having carefully considered the information before me, the motion for a temporary restraining order is allowed,” Associate Justice of the Superior Court Debra Squires-Lee wrote in her ruling. “Goldberg, in her official capacity as Treasurer and Receiver General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is hereby enjoined from holding the hearing scheduled for Dec. 5.”O’Brien was unceremoniously removed from her post in September and suspended, with pay, at Goldberg’s direction and with no reason offered to the public....

P!nk returning to Petco Park in 2024 with new tour dates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Pop superstar P!nk is returning to San Diego in 2024 after a sold-out show at Snapdragon Stadium earlier this year.LiveNation announced on Tuesday that the three-time Grammy Award winner will be making a stop at Petco Park on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024 as part of a 17-city extension of her "Summer Carnival Tour." The performance will feature all the vibrant touches of the 2023 shows, including incredible aerial acrobatics, exciting dance routines and multiple costume changes. As with this year's performances, P!nk will also have appearances by other renowned musicians on select dates like 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Sheryl Crow. The Script and KidCutUp will support the tour across all dates, according to LiveNation.Pre-sale tickets are available for Citi cardholders on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 10 a.m. and will run until Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. through the Citi Entertainment program. Verizon customers will also have access to a presale during this time through "Verizon...

Open Society Foundations commit $50M to women and youth groups’ work on democracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Open Society Foundations, the major philanthropy now led by Alex Soros, said Tuesday it will commit $50 million to increase civic engagement among women and young people over the next three years as part of its strategy to support democracy in the U.S. Alex Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations and son of its founder billionaire investor George Soros, said advocacy from women and younger generations is essential to stopping the advancement of authoritarianism. “In the early stages of the Trump administration, philanthropic support for organizations seeking to protect and defend progressive policy wins and to counter democratic suppression efforts surged,” Alex Soros said in a statement. “But groups dedicated to the civic engagement of women and young people did not see similar increases in levels of support.”The new Open Society commitment will support nonprofits working on a wide range of issues impacting these groups, including reproductive justice, cl...

Tom Hanks draws on his love of space for immersive documentary ‘The Moonwalkers’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

LONDON (AP) — You won’t see Tom Hanks on one of those space tourism flights that whisk celebrities and millionaires on a suborbital jaunt for a few hours. He says it wouldn’t be enough time out of this world.“I don’t need to go up and down,” Hanks said Tuesday. “I think I’d need a little bit longer in paradise.”Going to the moon is another matter – and the subject of “The Moonwalkers,” an immersive documentary co-written and narrated by Hanks.“I’d do that in a second,” Hanks said. “I don’t have the math. I do not have those abilities, but I’m sure there’s something I could do in order to help the program.”The two-time Academy Award-winning actor is a lifelong space buff, and he has channeled his passion into “The Moonwalkers,” which opens Wednesday at the Lightroom, a London venue specializing in interactive art and film experiences.Visitors sit on benches surrounded by imagery as the 50-minute film brings NASA’s Apollo space missions to life. The focus is on the 12 men who walked o...

FBI chief makes fresh pitch for spy program renewal and says it’d be ‘devastating’ if it lapsed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray called Tuesday for the reauthorization of a U.S. government surveillance tool set to expire at the end of the year, warning Senate lawmakers that there would be “devastating” consequences for public safety if the program is allowed to lapse.At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners outside the United States.The program, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is due to expire at the end of this month unless Congress votes to reauthorize it. But Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have balked at renewing the program in its current form, recommending a slew of reforms through competing legislative proposals that are jockeying for support in the coming weeks.The fact that Wray devoted a significant portion of his prepared remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee to the issue underscore...

App company Amp Me to pay fine in settlement agreement with Competition Bureau

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

GATINEAU, Que. — The Competition Bureau says Amp Me Inc. has agreed to pay a fine to settle the regulator’s concerns about false or misleading claims by the mobile application and the purchase of positive reviews.Amp Me offers a mobile application in Canada and the U.S. that synchronizes multiple devices to amplify the sound of music. The regulator says an investigation found Amp Me allegedly bought positive reviews from third parties between 2019 and 2022 to promote its application and concluded these reviews created a false or misleading general impression.The bureau also said some claims made outside of Quebec gave the impression that the application was available free of charge when it was a limited free trial.Under the agreement, the regulator imposed a penalty of $1.5 million, but because of Amp Me’s limited ability to pay, it will pay a partial penalty of $310,000. If it turns out that Amp Me’s financial statements were inaccurate or incomplete, the bureau h...

6 held in Belgium and the Netherlands on suspicion of links to Russia sanction violations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:12 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Six people have been taken into custody in Belgium and the Netherlands in connection with an inquiry into suspected exports of “sensitive” products and technology that might be banned under sanctions against Russia, Belgian prosecutors said Tuesday.The investigation was launched following a tipoff and information provided by unidentified U.S. “government agencies,” prosecutors said in a statement. They said the agencies were investigating illegal exports of dual-use goods and money laundering in the United States.The six were detained during searches of private homes and company headquarters in Knokke-Heist and Eeklo in Belgium, and just over the border in Sluis and Rotterdam, Netherlands, the statement said. No names of suspects or companies were provided.The 27-nation European Union has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Part of the aim is to stop high-tech and other products with possible military uses from...