内容摘要：Pope Francis blesses children during his visit to people living at a refugee camp in Bangui, Central African Republic, Nov. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Pope Francis blesses children during his visit to people living at a refugee camp in Bangui, Central African Republic, Nov. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

RUSSELL: After 28 albums, the challenge is just trying to find new ways to kind of retain the universe that Sparks has created, but to obviously try to make it fresh for people that have been following the band for a long time. And the other thing is also just to try to make an album that maybe doesn’t sound like it’s from a band with a 28-album-long history, so that if someone were to pick up the new “Mad!” album, and this was the first exposure they had to Sparks, that it would be as poignant and provocative in all sorts of ways as anything we’ve done in our past.RON: When we first started out, we had never even been to Europe or anywhere. But we kind of pretended like we were a British band because that was the music that we really responded to. And we always kind of liked bands that had an image. LA bands, in general — at the time we were starting — an image was something that ran counter to musical integrity. And we always thought that was ridiculous. So, we kind of were in general just really attracted to British bands.

Other than a few things like The Beach Boys and that sort of thing, in general, we weren’t influenced by LA bands at all.RON: Other people tell us we’re prolific and we don’t really sense that. I mean, the one thing we do do is not wait for inspiration. We kind of have to pursue it. When you wait for that lightning bolt, it kind of can take more time than you really want to take waiting. We work a lot knowing that not everything is going to pan out. But in order to kind of give the appearance of being prolific, we have to actually sit down and pursue those things rather than waiting for some kind of divine inspiration.RUSSELL: Retiring? What’s that? If your whole thing in life kind of is creating stuff, there’s no, you know, there is no such thing as doing something else, so, you know, it hasn’t crossed our minds. Maybe we’re blind or something to that, but no, we’re really happy.

RUSSELL: We’re happy with the younger following and really diverse following also that Sparks has. It’s just kind of reassuring to us that what we’re doing is connecting in a modern way to younger people and really diverse sorts of people as well. And so that’s almost the most satisfying thing. Obviously, we’re happy that we have fans that have stuck with us from Day 1 and that they’re still there. But then having new fans that are kind of coming with a different reference point to what Sparks is — with some of the older fans, it’s like, “That was the golden era,” or whatever, but the younger fans don’t have those reference points in a really healthy way, we think. And so, from the last few years of albums that we’ve had, those for them are the golden era of Sparks and right now is the golden era.RUSSELL: To even kind of even comprehend that all of the Palisades is just … you know, it was really sad. The elementary school that I went to got completely destroyed so it’s just hard to comprehend. It’s pretty staggering.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean artist BIBI released her highly anticipated sophomore album “EVE: ROMANCE” on Wednesday, delivering a project that blends her signature genre-defying sound with philosophical twists.

The singer, songwriter and actor, who moves fluidly between pop, R&B, hip-hop and electronic music, has built a reputation for her bold, unapologetic presence in an industry often defined by careful image management. Her latest album features 14 tracks, including six new songs alongside previously released hits like “Bam Yang Gang” and “Derre.”under a bill that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday he would sign soon. The Ohio and South Carolina legislatures are considering similar measures.

Supporters of states’ efforts to ban fluoride said they did not dispute that it could have some benefits but thought people should not be given it by the government without their informed consent.AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on Utah’s ban on fluoride in public drinking water.

“It really shouldn’t be forced on people,” DeSantis said.U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has applauded Utah for being the first state to enact a ban and said he plans to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to