内容摘要：“Absolutely, there’s a comfort level in that, and there’s a benefit in that,” forward Connor Brown said. “You kind of know what to expect, you’ve been here and so you learn from experience, too. To be able to kind of have had to earn that experience last year, I think we’ll benefit from it this year.”

“Absolutely, there’s a comfort level in that, and there’s a benefit in that,” forward Connor Brown said. “You kind of know what to expect, you’ve been here and so you learn from experience, too. To be able to kind of have had to earn that experience last year, I think we’ll benefit from it this year.”

WEST YORK ISLAND, South China Sea (AP) — Overwhelmed after setting foot for the first time on a far-flung but picturesque island in the disputed, a Filipino army official knelt to kiss the shore. She held a small Philippine flag that fluttered in the breeze.

“This is just so beautiful,” Philippines military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said of West York Island, one of nine islands, reefs and atolls occupied by Filipino forces in the long-contested waters. “This solidifies our resolve to fight for this place whatever happens.”The 18.6-hectare (46-acre) droplet-shaped island, called Likas by Filipinos, could easily become an eco-tourism draw in tropical Asia with its powdery white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and giant sea turtle sanctuaries. Padilla expressed hope it could someday be opened to Filipino travelers and tourists from across the world.But that longstanding aspiration by Philippine officials has been stymied by a tangle of

involving a militarily superiorBeijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil. It has increasingly flexed its military might, including its navy — the largest in the world — to strengthen its grip on a strategic waterway it says it has owned since ancient times.

, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan contest

with their own, and the territorial stand-offs have increasingly flared into cat-and-mouse confrontations at sea in recent years.Both Bareilles and Keenan-Bolger are involved with the Gavin Creel Fellowship, an initiative that plans to provide $25,000 grants to five emerging theater actors each year.

Sarah Bareilles and host Cynthia Erivo perform “Tomorrow” during the in memoriam segment (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)Sarah Bareilles and host Cynthia Erivo perform “Tomorrow” during the in memoriam segment (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

The final award had been announced— best musical to “Maybe Happy Ending” — and the audience started to disperse. But Erivo had another idea.