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Arts and Culture

Japanese game maker Nintendo reports zooming sales and profit on its hit Switch 2 machine

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese video-game maker Nintendo’s net profit jumped 85% in April-September from the year before, as its sales more than doubled following the launch of its hit Switch 2 console in June, the company said Tuesday. Nintendo, based in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, said its profit for the half-year totaled 198.9 billion yen, or $1.3 billion, up from 108.6 billion yen the year before. Sales for the first half of this fiscal year rose to nearly 1.1 trillion yen ($7.1 billion) from 523 billion yen in the same period of 2024. Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith’s Midwest roots inspire surprise gift to U. of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The Red Hot Chili Peppers may be strongly associated with southern California, but drummer Chad Smith’s heart never left the Midwest. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who grew up in suburban Detroit, is gifting a need-based music scholarship to the University of Michigan. “A lot of people (say), ‘The Chili Peppers, West Coast band, California this and California that.’ I get it. I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Smith told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday, just hours before he made the official announcement during a surprise appearance ...

Helen Mirren will receive the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille award

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Helen Mirren has portrayed multiple queens, a prime minister, a detective, “Barbie” narrator and many other roles in more than a half-century of acting. Her latest: Golden Globe lifetime achievement honoree. Mirren will receive the 2026 Cecil B. DeMille Award in January, the Golden Globes announced Wednesday. “Helen Mirren is a force of nature and her career is nothing short of extraordinary,” Helen Hoehne, Golden Globes president, said in a statement. “Her transcendent performances and commitment to her craft continue to inspire generations of artists ...

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Grateful Dead singer, dies at 78

NEW YORK (AP) — Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, a soulful mezzo-soprano who provided backing vocals on such 1960s classics as “Suspicious Minds” and “When a Man Loves a Woman” and was a featured singer with the Grateful Dead for much of the 1970s, has died at 78. A spokesperson for Godchaux-MacKay confirmed that she died Sunday at Alive Hospice in Nashville after having cancer. Godchaux-McKay and other Grateful Dead members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, she had yet to turn 20 when she became a session ...

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Which stars are joining this year’s lineup?

NEW YORK (AP) — Ciara, Foreigner, Lil Jon, Kool & the Gang, Busta Rhymes, Mickey Guyton and Teyana Taylor will feature in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which will also cement “KPop Demon Hunters” as a pop culture phenomenon with appearances by the movie's singers on the ground and cute characters in balloons overhead. An eclectic group of stars — from ballet dancer Tiler Peck to YouTube's “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans — will join the annual holiday kick-off, highlighted by Audrey Nuna, EJAE and Rei Ami of HUNTR/X, the fictional girl group at the heart of ...

Sesame Street’s new season: Bubba Wallace, Netflix and a whole lot of chickens

NEW YORK (AP) — New home. Some format changes. Same monsters. “Sesame Street” launches its 56th season on Nov. 10 with NASCAR champion Bubba Wallace as a guest, a slightly tweaked format and a new way to watch — via Netflix. “There you are, hi,” Elmo invites viewers at the top of the show. “Elmo so happy to see you.” The popular children’s staple will be offering an 11-minute main story at the top — up from nine minutes last year — and a few new segments mixed with favorite returning ones. “In the history of ‘Sesame Street,’ we’ve always reinvented ...