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Analysis: Some clear losers in first GOP debate, but the absent Trump emerges largely unscathed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

By Seema Mehta and David Lauter, Los Angeles TimesMILWAUKEE — Like a chorus line awaiting its leading man, eight Republican presidential hopefuls opened their first debate Wednesday night without the party’s main attraction, hoping to show they can solve a puzzle that has bewildered GOP politicians for eight years: how to get past Donald Trump.For most of the first hour of the two-hour confrontation, however, the candidates largely tried to ignore Trump’s dominating presence. Instead, it was the campaign’s political newcomer, Vivek Ramaswamy, who quickly became the center of attention, rebutting accusations by former Vice President Mike Pence that he’s unqualified.“We don’t need to bring in a rookie,” Pence said, the first of several time during the debate’s opening hour in which he focused on the 38-year-old entrepreneur, who has risen in recent polls.A few minutes later, as Ramaswamy declared himself the “only candidate not bought and paid for,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christ...

India’s lunar rover goes down a ramp to the moon’s surface and takes a walk

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — A lunar rover slid down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft within hours of its historic touch-down near the moon’s south pole, Indian space officials said Thursday, as the country celebrated its new scientific accomplishment.“India took a walk on the moon,” the state-run Indian Space Research Organization said, adding that the Chandrayan-3 Rover would conduct experiments over 14 days, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.Residents of the world’s most populous country had crowded around televisions in offices, shops, and restaurants on Wednesday and erupted into clapping, dancing, and exchanging of sweets when they saw the lander’s smooth touchdown. It landed on uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water.“India Goes Where No Nation’s Gone Before,’ read Thursday’s headline in The Times of India daily, while the Indian Express newspaper exclaimed, “The moon is Indian.”Ajay Bhargava, a...

Shark spotted 30 yards off Cape Cod beach, great white shark alerts light up Sharktivity app

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

A great white shark was spotted 30 yards from a Cape Cod beach on Thursday, as shark alerts lit up the Sharktivity app during the busiest time of shark season.Four shark alerts were sent out on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app on Thursday morning, as the apex predators hunt for seals close to shore. Alerts are issued when a white shark sighting is confirmed close to a public beach.“White shark spotted 30 yards off Nauset ORV (Orleans) heading north,” reads the shark alert on the Sharktivity app.“White shark spotted a quarter mile off Nauset Public Beach,” another alert reads.August has been the busiest month for shark activity along the Cape in recent years.Last year, August had the most shark detections at receivers, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Logbook. There were 66,097 detections of tagged sharks in August last year, followed by September in second place with 47,177 detections.Related ArticlesLocal ...

San Diego Loyal soccer club to disband after 2023 season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Loyal, a professional soccer club in the USL Championship, announced Thursday that it will shut down following the 2023 season.In a video posted Thursday morning, team owner Andrew Vassiliadis confirmed that the second-division club would fold after four seasons.The news comes just over three months after San Diego was announced as the location for Major League Soccer's next expansion team. MLS San Diego will begin play at Snapdragon Stadium in 2025.The Loyal joined the USL Championship in 2020 with Vassiliadis as owner and soccer legend Landon Donovan as supporting owner and the club's first team manager.In the video posted to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Vassiliadis said the team had been looking into options countywide for academies, training facilities and stadiums, but ultimately determined there were no viable options for the club to continue after the 2023 season.In a news release issued Thursday by the USL, the league cited th...

US intelligence assessment determines intentionally caused explosion killed Wagner chief

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment has found that the plane crash presumed to have killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was intentionally caused by an explosion, according to U.S. and Western officials.One of the officials, who were not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the explosion fell in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”The officials did not offer any details of what caused the explosion that was believed to have killed Prigozhin and several of his lieutenants to avenge a mutiny that challenged the Russian leader’s authority.Details of the U.S. assessment surfaced as Putin on Thursday expressed his condolences to the families of those who were reported to be aboard the jet and referred to “serious mistakes.”A Russian serviceman inspects a part of a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 2...

Artist loses bid to remove panels covering anti-slavery murals at Vermont school

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

An artist has lost his appeal to remove fabric panels concealing murals he painted to honor African Americans and abolitionists involved in the Underground Railroad but that officials at the Vermont law school where they’re housed found to be racially insensitive.Artist Sam Kerson created the colorful murals entitled “Vermont, The Underground Railroad” and “Vermont and the Fugitive Slave” in 1993 on two walls inside a building at the private Vermont Law School, now called Vermont Law and Graduate School, in South Royalton. In 2020, the school said it would paint over them. But when Kerson objected, it said it would cover them with acoustic tiles. The school gave Kerson the option of removing the murals, but he said he could not without damaging them.When Kerson, who lives in Quebec, sued in federal court in Vermont, the school said in a court filing that “the depictions of African Americans strikes some viewers as caricatured and offensive, and the mural has become a source of...

Official leading search for Mexico’s disappeared resigns as critics worry government may rig numbers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of Mexico’s commission leading the search for tens of thousands who have disappeared over past decades of violence has stepped down as critics accuse the government of trying to undermine the true numbers of the missing in the run-up to presidential elections.Escalating cartel violence has increasingly eclipsed large swaths of Mexico, leaving thousands of Mexicans reported missing this year alone.Karla Quintana, head of the National Search Commission, did not elaborate on the motives for her resignation, saying on Wednesday only that she is leaving her post “in light of current circumstances.”“The challenges surrounding the disappearance of people remain,” Quintana posted on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. “The State must continue to push for a comprehensive policy geared toward prevention, searching and fighting impunity.” Populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government has recently come under critici...

Judge orders new trial in 1993 murder but discredits theory that prison escapee was the killer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

A judge has ordered new trials for two men convicted of murdering a woman in 1993 inside her home near Buffalo, New York, but who have always maintained their innocence.Additional DNA analysis and the fact that the original prosecutors withheld evidence that could’ve helped the defense means the convictions of Brian Scott Lorenz and James Pugh should be overturned, the judge ruled Wednesday.However, Erie County state Supreme Court Justice Paul Wojtaszek did not credit a sensational claim made during a reexamination of the case: that the real killer was Richard Matt, a convicted murderer who escaped from an upstate New York prison in 2015 and was fatally shot by a federal agent.Deborah Meindl, 33-year-old a nursing student and mother of two, was stabbed dozens of times and strangled inside her home in Tonawanda.Her husband Donald Meindl, who had a $50,000 life insurance policy on his wife and who was carrying on a relationship with a 17-year-old employee at the Taco Bell he man...

Greek authorities report hundreds of migrant arrivals on islands over the past three days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — More than 300 migrants have arrived on Greek islands, most near the Turkish coast, over the past three days in separate incidents reported by the coast guard.On Thursday, the coast guard said authorities had found 107 people the previous day on the islands of Samos, Mykonos and the tiny island of Ro, which lies in the Mediterranean off the southern coast of Turkey.Those were in addition to another 109 people whose arrival Wednesday the coast guard announced the same day on the islands of Lesbos, Rhodes, Samos and Santorini, while a further 118 arrived Tuesday on the islands of Ro, Rhodes and Lesbos.Most were picked up near the coastline by coast guard patrol boats from dinghies or other vessels provided by smugglers. All were taken to migrant reception centers.For decades Greece has been one of the preferred entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia and hoping for a better life in Europe.More...

Quebec company buys private island with chalet to boost employee happiness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:15:58 GMT

LAVAL, Que. — A Montreal-area company has come up with a novel — if extreme — way to boost employee happiness: buying them a private island.The 30 workers at data services company Mon Technicien are now able to book stays on their employer’s newly acquired, 930-square-metre island in the Laurentian Mountains northwest of Montreal.The Labelle, Que., getaway includes a single, two-bedroom cabin with enough room for eight people, as well as a barbecue, pedal boat, dinghy and other water sport equipment.Mon Technicien president Sylvain Dion says his Laval, Que., company jumped on the opportunity to buy the island as a way to expand its employee benefits package.Employees aren’t directly charged for their stays, but the perk is taxable.Dion says he expects the prospect of private island sojourns will make his company more attractive to prospective job applicants.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2023.The Canadian Press