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Floaters: Our Reflection in the Rio Grande

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

The media was filled this summer with news of migrants blocked and wounded by orange buoys and sharp wire that the governor of Texas placed on the Rio Grande, the river bordering Mexico. A poll taken in August found that 51 percent of Americans approve of these hostile barriers — including four of every 10 Democrats. This is so even though it’s increasingly dangerous for migrants to try to enter the U.S. without going through official ports of entry. During the last three fiscal years, more people have died trying to cross the border than at any other time in recorded U.S. immigration enforcement history.The dead include hundreds of adults who’ve expired from heat, vehicle collisions during Border Patrol chases, and mishaps in rivers — mostly the Rio Grande and its canals. Children, too, have died in droves, mainly by drowning. But as current polling suggests, you don’t have to like Donald Trump to be hostile or indifferent to this suffering. Join Our Ne...

2 dead, three injured in multivehicle Hagerstown crash involving 4 tractor-trailers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

Two people are dead and three others injured after a Friday morning crash on southbound Interstate 81 in Washington County, Maryland, involving four tractor-trailers and two passenger vehicles, Maryland State Police said.A preliminary investigation revealed that a Chevrolet Tahoe struck the back of a tractor-trailer that had started to brake due to traffic, causing a chain-reaction crash between three more tractor-trailers and a pickup truck just before 9:40 a.m.Wesley Merrick, 55, and Alicia Eve Cornell, 46, both of Wellsville, New York, driver and passenger of the Chevrolet Tahoe involved in the crash, were pronounced dead on the scene.Two additional passengers in the Tahoe, Wesley’s wife Carrie Merrick, 49, and Kevin Dye, 59, were injured in the crash and transported to separate medical facilities.A third person and driver of one of the tractor-trailers involved in the crash, Darrin Wayne Shank, Jr., 55, of Williamsport, Maryland, was hospitalized with injuries.Southbound I...

Labor Day Holiday Weekend Forecast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

The long holiday weekend of Labor Day and the first weekend of September has arrived, and for September standards the forecast is looking great overall for South Florida.A very weak front will cross through South Florida this evening, which will usher in drier air. Before then for our Saturday, we still have enough moisture in place for scattered showers to move through.Across the metro, these passing showers will be most likely this morning and into the early-afternoon before it shifts toward the south and west and into parts of the Florida Keys for the afternoon. With an increasing breeze and northeast winds, temperatures will be quite seasonable into the low 90s for highs.Behind this front on Sunday, there will actually be a brief but slight dip in humidity levels. Given how oppressive it has felt standing outside, this slight drop should actually be noticeable, especially with the breeze holding persistent out of the northeast.For both Sunday and Labor Day on Monday, there will ...

Atomic age is over in Germany, Chancellor Scholz insists

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

Germany will not leave the door open for a possible return to using nuclear power now or in the future, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday.Responding to a suggestion from members of his own governing coalition that the country should not rule out restarting its shuttered reactors, Scholz told radio station Deutschlandfunk that “nuclear energy is over” and the issue is “a dead horse” in Germany.“The fact is that with the end of the use of nuclear power, dismantling has also begun” at the power stations that have been closed down, he said. “Any talk of resuming the use of atomic energy would imply building new power stations,” Scholz argued.“Anyone who wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years and would have to spend €15-€20 billion each,” he went on.Members of the the Free Democrats party, which serves as a junior coalition partner with Scholz’s Social Democrats, backed a policy statement calli...

Ukraine launches criminal case against oligarch Kolomoisky

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

Ukraine’s security services have formally presented one of the country’s most controversial tycoons with fraud and money laundering charges, as Kyiv renews its efforts to crack down on corruption.In a statement issued on Saturday, the country’s SBU agency said it had presented Ihor Kolomoisky with a “notice of suspicion” in the criminal case.“It was established that between 2013 and 2020, Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion Ukrainian hryvnia [around $13.5 million] by moving it abroad using the infrastructure of controlled banking institutions,” the agency’s press service said. A pretrial investigation is ongoing, officials added.The Ukrainian-born Israeli-Cypriot national is the co-founder of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest financial insitution, which was taken into state ownership in 2016 after regulators discovered $5 billion in missing assets. According to Forbes, Kolomoisky is worth an estimated $1 billion.Ukrainian P...

Russia declares Nobel Prize-winning journalist ‘foreign agent’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

Dmitry Muratov, one of Russia’s best-known journalists, has been added to the country’s list of foreign agents, less than two years after the Kremlin praised the principled reporting that saw him awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Muratov, the former editor of now-shuttered liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was included in an update Friday evening to the Russian Ministry of Justice’s register of journalists, politicians and activists that Moscow claims are acting on behalf of hostile states. The designation of foreign agent, which has been repeatedly used on critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin and opponents of his war in Ukraine, means that Muratov will have to adhere to strict rules on political activity. It also bars him from engaging in public life. Any mention of him in Russian media or social networks must reference his status.According to Human Rights Watch, “in Russia, the term foreign agent is tantamount [to] spy or traitor,” and has been used ...

Westford Academy’s Paul Bergeron set for one last run

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

There’s very little Paul Bergeron has left to chance heading into his senior year as the defending Div. 1 Meet of Champions winner.Gone are his two biggest rivals – Sam Burgess of Framingham and St. John’s Prep’s Nathan Lopez – both of whom Bergeron pulled away from in the final mile on a chilly day last November on the 3.1-mile Devens layout. Bergeron bounded across the finish line for the win in 15:02.6 a week after finishing second in the Div. 1A meet to Burgess.Bergeron stands alone as the overwhelming favorite to win come November in his final cross country season before heading off to Stanford. And with a superb track campaign in the spring that produced two startling personal bests of 8:51.88 in the 2-mile and 4:10 in the mile, Bergeron’s stock has only risen.Under the watchful eye of Westford Academy head coach Scott Hafferkamp, Bergeron has packed in 75-80-miles a week consistently since the end of track and his workouts aren’t for ...

AFC East Preview: Can the Patriots, Dolphins or Aaron Rodgers’ Jets upset the Bills?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

No one can accuse the Patriots of having a cupcake schedule this season.The AFC East has undergone a makeover since Tom Brady retired and the Patriots stopped dominating the division. The Buffalo Bills are the new powerhouse, having won the AFC East each of the last three years. The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets have made recent pushes to unseat the Bills, however.The Dolphins went 9-8 and made the playoffs under new head coach Mike McDaniel last season and should be even better on defense with two key additions. The Jets replaced draft bust Zach Wilson with four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers in the league’s biggest offseason upgrade at quarterback.The Patriots should be better too after hiring adept offensive coaches, though the division is so tough, that might not be reflected in their record at season’s end.The Herald’s Patriots beat writers preview the division.Buffalo BillsOffense: Josh Allen has almost single-handedly carried the Bills offense over its most pivot...

Nobel Foundation retracts invite to Russia, Belarus and Iran representatives to attend ceremonies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Foundation on Saturday retracted its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the controversial decision “provoked strong reactions”.Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its position from a year earlier and invited representatives of the three countries to attend.Some of the lawmakers cited Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crackdown on human rights in Iran as reasons for their boycott.The Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told media outlets Friday that he wouldn’t allow Russian representatives to attend the ceremony to attend Nobel award ceremonies this year if given the choice.“The basis for the decision is that we believe that it is important and right to reach out as widely as possible with the value...

India launches a spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon’s south pole

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:35:10 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon.The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on a quest to study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. The point, known as L1, affords an uninterrupted view of the sun. The spacecraft is equipped with seven payloads to study the sun’s corona, chromosphere, photosphere and solar wind, the Indian Space Research Organization said.After over an hour, the ISRO said the launch was “accomplished successfully.” “The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point,” ISRO posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.The satellite is scheduled to take 125 days to reach the L1 poin...