Wesley College: 160 students evacuated after ‘smouldering’ sawdust extraction unit
Wesley College: 160 students evacuated after ‘smouldering’ sawdust extraction unit
Up to 160 students had to be evacuated.
Source link
#Wesley #College #students #evacuated #smouldering #sawdust #extraction #unit
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Congratulations Class of 2025! Wellington Community High School graduation photos
Congratulations Class of 2025! Wellington Community High School graduation photos
Congratulations, class of 2025!
It’s that time again for the sound of “Pomp and Circumstance” as high school seniors at Wellington Community High School collect their diplomas at the school’s graduation ceremony, held Tuesday, May 14, at the South Florida Fairgrounds.
Years of hard work in the classroom and commitment to learning even as the pandemic turned the world upside down characterize this year’s senior class.
Among them are entrepreneurs, award-winning inventors, standout athletes, and published authors. They will take their next steps in the world as technology and artificial intelligence advance at lightning speeds, and the last four years of their lives have taught them how to adapt no matter the circumstances.
➤ Capturing high school graduations: The Palm Beach Post photographs your graduations because we’re proud, too
Wellington Community High School 2025 graduation pictures
To see graduation galleries from other Palm Beach County schools, please go here.
Want more education news? Sign up for our Extra Credit weekly newsletter, delivered every Friday to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Class of 2025 Wellington Community High School graduation pictures
Source link
#Congratulations #Class #Wellington #Community #High #School #graduation #photos
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Militant’s Death Would Be Blow to ******, but May Have Limited Long-Term Consequences
Militant’s Death Would Be Blow to ******, but May Have Limited Long-Term Consequences
The assassination of Muhammad Sinwar, the influential ****** leader whom Israel tried to kill on Tuesday in an airstrike, would be a major tactical success for Israel but its long-term significance is unclear. The group has survived for decades despite Israel’s systematic assassination of its leaders.
Mr. Sinwar, whose fate is unknown, is considered one of ******’s top military commanders in Gaza. He is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, an architect of ******’s deadly attack on Israel in October 2023, whom Israeli troops killed last year. Israeli and Middle Eastern officials have concluded that Mr. Sinwar is one of the biggest obstacles to a new cease-fire in Gaza: They say he is among the ****** officials most opposed to relinquishing the group’s arsenal — an Israeli precondition for any long-term truce.
Mr. Sinwar is powerful but he is just one of several senior ****** military leaders in Gaza, and far from the only one opposed to concessions to Israel. His killing would undermine the group, analysts said, but might not change ******’s strategic outlook and operational abilities, or soften Israel’s uncompromising approach to cease-fire negotiations.
“If confirmed, his death would definitely be another big blow to ****** — many of their senior military and political leaders have been killed, and ****** can’t replace all of them,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist from Gaza.
“But I’m not sure if his death will lead to a compromise with Israel, and it might even backfire, if his successor turns out to be even more radical than Sinwar,” he added. “****** is not a one-man show and its negotiations with Israel still depend on a collective decision.”
Mr. Sinwar’s death would also be unlikely to change Israeli battlefield calculations. Israel’s aims extend far beyond killing specific commanders, as it seeks “total victory” over ******, even if Israeli leaders have struggled to define what that means.
For decades, ****** has weathered the assassinations of scores of its top leaders, repeatedly proving that its survival does not depend on any single individual. That has again proved true during this war. In addition to Yahya Sinwar, Israel has killed other leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Muhammad Deif — but failed to defeat ****** as a military and governing force.
If anything, ****** has become more intransigent in the immediate aftermath of major assassinations. The group has been reluctant to display weakness, even if it has sometimes become more malleable in cease-fire talks several months later.
After Israel killed Mr. Haniyeh, a top ****** negotiator, last July, American and ************ officials said that it had had a harmful effect on talks over a truce. After the killing of Yahya Sinwar, ****** said his death had strengthened its resolve and pledged to continue along the same path. Yet three months later, the group agreed to a truce, after concessions from both ****** and Israel.
That mutual compromise points to another reason Mr. Sinwar’s death could have limited long-term consequences: The war’s trajectory is as dependent on Israel as it is on ******.
Israel seeks either a temporary truce to free more of the roughly 60 hostages still held in Gaza or a permanent deal that guarantees ******’s defeat. But ****** opposes both scenarios, so the war will likely drag on unless Israel softens its position. Israel has already pledged to vastly expand its military operations in Gaza in the coming days.
For some, that makes Israel a ******* obstacle to a cease-fire than ******. The main problem in Gaza is “not who leads ******,” said Ahmad Jamil Azem, a ************ political scientist at Qatar University. “The insistence of the Israeli government to continue the war is the actual problem.”
Even without Mr. Sinwar, ****** still has experienced commanders in Gaza, including Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who oversees ******’s brigades in northern Gaza, and Muhammad Shabaneh, a senior officer in southern Gaza.
Despite big losses, ****** has also been able to replace slain members of its lower ranks. A recent Israeli intelligence assessment suggested that ****** had more than 20,000 fighters — roughly the same as before the war — despite thousands being killed since October 2023.
****** also fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel on Tuesday night, one of its largest bursts in months. The attack highlighted that ****** retains some short-range projectiles and launchers to force Israelis into air raid shelters at a few seconds’ notice.
A senior Middle Eastern intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, said that ****** still has a strategic network of tunnels under parts of Gaza City. The official also said that ******’s military intelligence unit had survived the war without significant damage and continued to play a major role in maintaining ******’s grip on power.
****** seeks to turn the war into a stalemate, and to survive as a movement. Those two relatively modest targets allow it to weather a high level of carnage and bloodshed.
In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks ******’s total defeat, as well as the return of the hostages held by the group, both living and dead. Israeli generals have long concluded that these two goals are mutually incompatible.
Ibrahim Dalalsha, a ************ political analyst, said that Israel’s strategic incoherence “strongly suggests that this, too, will become just another footnote — rather than a transformative turning point.”
Source link
#Militants #Death #Blow #****** #Limited #LongTerm #Consequences
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
El Chapo’s Family Members Crossed the Border in Apparent Deal With U.S., Official Says
El Chapo’s Family Members Crossed the Border in Apparent Deal With U.S., Official Says
A group of family members of Sinaloa Cartel leaders crossed into the United States last week, likely as part of a deal with the Trump administration, Mexico’s secretary of security said on Tuesday evening.
For days, rumors had spread that 17 relatives, including one of the ex-wives of the crime boss known as El Chapo, had flown from a cartel stronghold to Tijuana, Mexico, and then crossed into the United States. A news outlet, Pie de Nota, reported that they had surrendered to U.S. federal authorities there, citing anonymous sources.
The Sinaloa Cartel, co-founded by Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, is one of the most powerful criminal groups in the world, although it has been divided by violence between rival factions as several of its leaders face prison and prosecution in the United States.
When asked about reports that the family members had entered the United States on Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said “there is no more information” than what she had seen.
But the security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, then confirmed late Tuesday that relatives of the cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s four sons, had surrendered to American authorities. Mr. Guzmán López was extradited to the United States in 2023.
“It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or a plea bargain that the Department of Justice is giving him,” Mr. García Harfuch told the ******** network Radio Fórmula.
“The family that left were not targets and were not being sought by the ******** authorities,” he added. ******** officials were waiting for the U.S. Department of Justice to share information, he said.
He said that he believed Mr. Guzmán López was naming members of criminal organizations, likely as part of a cooperation agreement.
Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer who has represented the elder Mr. Guzman and his sons, did not respond to several messages seeking comment.
Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters on Wednesday morning that U.S. officials “have to inform” their ******** counterparts whether there was an agreement or not, urging transparency with both the American public and Mexicans, and noting that ******** soldiers had died in the operation to capture Mr. Guzmán Lopez.
Ovidio Guzmán López plans to plead guilty to federal drug charges, according to court papers, in what would make him the first of El Chapo’s sons, often called Los Chapitos, to acknowledge guilt in a U.S. federal courthouse.
Mr. Guzmán López was twice captured by the ******** authorities over the last decade. He was first detained, briefly, in 2019, until his own gunmen engaged in a bloody battle with the ******** military in the city of Culiacán and forced his release.
Then he was arrested by ******** security forces in 2023 in that same city and quickly extradited to the United States. Along with a full brother, two half brothers and one of his father’s former business partners, Mr. Guzmán López was named in a sprawling indictment.
His full brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, has also been in negotiations with federal authorities in Chicago to reach his own plea deal.
Ever since their father, El Chapo, was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. federal judge in 2019, the American authorities have turned their sights on his four sons. Federal investigators opened a quiet back channel to the sons, making clear to them that if they ever grew tired of the dangerous narco-trafficking life, they could turn themselves in at any time.
Joaquín Guzmán López, using the back channel, kidnapped his father’s former business partner, Ismael Zambada Garcia, in Mexico this summer and forcibly flew him across the border into U.S. custody.
The security secretary stressed the ******** role in Ovidio Guzmán López’s case, saying, “Ovidio was detained 100 percent by the ******** authorities.”
The security minister’s confirmation came the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice announced new charges against men accused of being Sinaloa Cartel leaders, the first since President Trump designated it a terrorist organization. Those charges include narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering.
In announcing the charges, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, Adam Gordon, directly addressed cartel leaders in a news conference, telling them they would be “betrayed by your friends” and “hounded by your enemies.”
The movement of the family members to the United States — and the speculation that it could mean a plea agreement with the U.S. government — has fueled high-profile discussion in Mexico about who might be implicated by imprisoned cartel leaders.
“The Chapitos are going to sing, and we’re going to learn many things,” Senator Ricardo Anaya, an opposition lawmaker, told reporters this week. “Because the North American government doesn’t offer immunity in exchange for nothing, they offer it in exchange for information.”
Alan Feuer, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and James Wagner contributed reporting.
Source link
#Chapos #Family #Members #Crossed #Border #Apparent #Deal #U.S #Official
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
House GOP pushes Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” forward after all-nighter
House GOP pushes Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” forward after all-nighter
Washington — The House is moving forward on President Trump’s “one, big beautiful bill,” as three committees on Wednesday voted to advance some of the most contentious parts of the major budget package aimed at addressing the president’s defense, energy and tax priorities.
The Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Agriculture committees met Tuesday and Wednesday to debate and vote on their proposals as Republicans remained divided on a number of major issues — from Medicaid to tax cuts.
Ways and Means faces SALT conflict
After a nearly 18-hour markup, the Ways and Means panel, which is responsible for the tax portions of the bill, advanced its portion of the legislation Wednesday morning, in a 26-19 vote. But the key sticking point, a cap on the state and local tax deduction, often referred to as SALT, appeared to go unresolved. Republicans who represent blue states have pushed for an increase to the $10,000 cap, but balked at a proposed $30,000 cap in recent days.
On SALT, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Wednesday morning that he’s serving as the “neutral umpire” in the conversations between red state and blue state Republicans, adding that “I’m absolutely confident we’re going to be able to work out a compromise that everybody can live with.”
Energy and Commerce deals with Medicaid
Meanwhile, the Energy and Commerce Committee debated for more than 25 hours before advancing its portion of the legislation in a 30-24 vote on Wednesday afternoon. The panel was tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts, which has implicated the popular entitlement program Medicaid.
The Energy and Commerce proposal, unveiled Monday night, would impose work requirements for able-bodied adults without children, more frequent eligibility checks, cuts to federal funding to states that use Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants and a ban on Medicaid covering gender transition services for children.
Agriculture Committee votes on food stamp changes
The Agriculture Committee — tasked with finding $230 billion in cuts — also voted on its portion of the bill Wednesday evening, passing it in a 29-25 party-line vote after a process that began late Tuesday.
The most contentious issue handled by the Agriculture panel surrounds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, widely known as food stamps. The committee’s proposal would increase the age requirement for able-bodied adults without children to qualify for benefits, while shifting more of the costs to states. The bill updates the age requirement to 64, up from 54.
Republicans also want to close a loophole for work requirement waivers that states could request for areas with unemployment rates over 10% or lack “a sufficient number of jobs.”
House aims for vote next week — but Senate still needs to weigh in
House GOP leadership celebrated the committee stage nearing a close in their weekly presser Wednesday morning.
“A lot of work has gone into getting 11 committees ready to complete all of their work today,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said.
Republican leaders have been pushing to have the bill on the floor by next week, with the House Budget Committee expected to meet in the coming days to put the bill’s components into one massive legislative package. After that, the measure would then go to the House Rules Committee before it can be brought to the floor for a vote.
“This process isn’t over. We’re just getting close to maybe half time,” Scalise said. “When we pass this bill next week through the House, it will go to the Senate, they’ll do their work. But we will get this bill to President Trump’s desk before the July 4 deadline that the White House has asked for.”
Johnson also touted the progress on the legislation so far Wednesday, calling it “one of the most consequential pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress.”
“It is large, it is comprehensive, and it deals with reconciling the budget in a way that will be fiscally responsible,” Johnson said.
Still, across the Capitol, a handful of Senate Republicans began expressing concerns about the House’s legislation, prompting discussions about seemingly inevitable changes to the package in the upper chamber.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters Wednesday that he hopes the House sends over legislation that the upper chamber can “use as a base.”
“I think we’ve assumed all along that the Senate would have its input on this,” Thune said, noting that they have been coordinating closely with the House. “Obviously there’s 53 Republican senators who want to have their own thoughts and ideas incorporated.”
More from CBS News
Kaia Hubbard
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
Ellis Kim and
Caitlin Yilek
contributed to this report.
Source link
#House #GOP #pushes #Trumps #big #beautiful #bill #allnighter
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Months after Missouri voters restored abortion rights, lawmakers put ban back on the ballot – NBC News
Months after Missouri voters restored abortion rights, lawmakers put ban back on the ballot – NBC News
Months after Missouri voters restored abortion rights, lawmakers put ban back on the ballot NBC NewsMissouri voters to be asked to undo abortion protections passed last year The Washington PostMissouri Lawmakers to Put Abortion on Ballot Again, Seeking Another Ban The New York TimesMissouri lawmakers approve referendum to repeal abortion-rights amendment AP NewsAbortion will go back on Missouri ballot in Republican effort to reinstate ban Kansas City Star
Source link
#Months #Missouri #voters #restored #abortion #rights #lawmakers #put #ban #ballot #NBC #News
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force and Wallabies great Nathan Sharpe praises Jeremy Williams and Darcy Swain
Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force and Wallabies great Nathan Sharpe praises Jeremy Williams and Darcy Swain
Wallabies great Nathan Sharpe has hailed the impact of Western Force locks Jeremy Williams and Darcy Swain and declared the pair both deserve to be in Joe Schmidt’s Test plans.
Force captain Williams and Swain have been Super Rugby Pacific’s best second row duo this season, have led their side to the league’s best line-out percentage.
Despite the Force’s season petering out, two-time John Eales Medalist and inaugural Force captain Sharpe told The West *********** he expected Williams to be in Schmidt’s plans for the looming British and Irish Lions series.
And Sharpe also said Swain, who has not played for the Wallabies since 2022 but leads the league for line-outs won, also deserved a recall.
“(Jeremy) has been terrific, and the way that he’s led the team has been outstanding. He’s a guy that’s gone from strength to strength, played a lot of tests for the Wallabies last year, and I’m sure he will again this year, he’s been sensational,” Sharpe said.
“Darcy Swain has been a great addition as well, the line-outs function well on most occasions, and those two have created a good pairing, that’s for sure.
“They’ve been outstanding this year, and I’m looking forward to both of them having opportunities with the Wallabies this year.”
Camera IconDarcy Swain has had a sensational first year with the Force. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images
Despite last Saturday’s loss against the Brumbies, who entered the game as the best line-out team in the league, the Force won 11-13 of their own throws compared to 13-18 for the visitors.
More importantly, the Force also stole three line-outs, while the Brumbies were unable to pilfer any off Force throws.
Per Opta Stats, the Force have won a league-high 88.7 per cent of line-outs, with ex-Brumby Swain having won 72 line-outs — seven more than the next closest player, Wallabies lock Nick Frost.
Williams and Swain have also combined for 15 line-out steals and sit equal-first and third in the league individually, while teammate Will Harris is also in the top 10 with four.
Camera IconNathan Sharpe (right) and Jeremy Williams (left). Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper/The West ***********
The Force skipper also recorded an eye-raising 31 tackles without a miss in the Brumbies loss, and Sharpe said his engine and ability to play as a back-rower were key to the 24-year-old taking the next step and becoming a very good international player.
“His mobility is sensational, isn’t it? He’s got all the qualities of a back rower: he can carry, link, attack the ball at the breakdown, his work rate is phenomenal,” he said.
“It’s one of those positions where he’s going to have to continue to squeeze all that juice in all those things that he’s got strengths in and translate that into international rugby, where he probably gives away a few kilos to some of the international locks.
“In those games that are a little bit tighter, he’s got to find a way to make those strengths stand out for his team, and contribute in that regard, rather than some of the more traditional ways.”
Source link
#Super #Rugby #Pacific #Western #Force #Wallabies #great #Nathan #Sharpe #praises #Jeremy #Williams #Darcy #Swain
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Texans battle extreme heat weeks before summer starts
Texans battle extreme heat weeks before summer starts
STORY: It’s still weeks before the start of summer, but temperatures in parts of Texas have already reached record highs.
On Wednesday afternoon, heat in Austin reached a daily record high of 99 degrees Fahrenheit.
Compare that to the previous daily record for May 14 at 96 degrees Fahrenheit, set in 2003, according to the National Weather Service.
Dev Niyogi is a Earth and planetary sciences professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
He says several factors have contributed to the unseasonably high temperatures.
“There is a low-pressure system east of us, a low-pressure system west of us. So we have this beautiful high-pressured dome which is giving us brilliant blue skies, but it is also a way that all the radiation, the heat is coming our way. And we have a ground surface which is dry because of the drought and it is already heating up quite a bit, and then we have the winds coming from south which is like having a heater turned towards you when you actually want something cooler your way.”
Reuters caught up with several Austin residents trying to cool down at a local pool.
“It is super hot. Yeah, it’s a little early for it. You know, we usually get these temperatures in June, July and August, not in May, beginning of May even. It’s a lot.”
The National Weather Service has placed much of the South-Central region of Texas under an extreme heat warning through Wednesday night.
Source link
#Texans #battle #extreme #heat #weeks #summer #starts
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
3 Are Arrested in Russia-Linked Sabotage Plot, Germany Says
3 Are Arrested in Russia-Linked Sabotage Plot, Germany Says
Three Ukrainian men have been arrested in Germany and Switzerland for planning acts of sabotage against infrastructure in Europe on behalf of Russia, the ******* authorities said Wednesday.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Berlin said it was investigating the three men, who were arrested over the past five days, for a plan to send incendiary and explosive devices in parcels to addresses in Ukraine. None have been charged.
The aim, the prosecutor said in a statement, appeared to be part of a plot to damage logistical infrastructure for commercial freight. The statement did not provide further details about possible targets.
One of the men, identified only as Vladyslav T. in accordance with Germany’s strict privacy rules, posted two test packages in Cologne containing GPS transmitters in order to trace the route of the packages to Ukraine, the prosecutor said.
Another man, Yevhen B., who was arrested Tuesday in Switzerland and will be extradited to Germany, directed that action, the prosecutor said. A third man, Daniil B., delivered the GPS transmitters and other items for the test packages, it said.
The authorities are treating the men as foreign agents, and believe they had been directed by Russian state actors, the prosecutor said.
Last year, a package exploded at a DHL hub at the airport in Leipzig, in what Western intelligence officials believe was a test run for a plot coordinated by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. The fire in Leipzig was followed by a similar fire at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, England, and at a transport company near Warsaw.
A Romanian national has since been detained by British police in connection with those fires.
Poland has also accused Russia of being behind a fire that wiped out 1,400 small businesses when a shopping mall in Warsaw was almost completely destroyed in May of last year. On Sunday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland accused Russia of being behind the blaze.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” he wrote on X.
The arrests come after several official warnings that Germany has become the target of Russian hybrid attacks. Last year, the authorities charged three Russian-******* dual citizens who they believe were hired to carry out acts of sabotage on industrial and military sites. The military has also reported foreign drones flying over training sites where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained.
The issue of Russian sabotage in Germany even made it into Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s inaugural speech to lawmakers on Wednesday.
“Look at the espionage and sabotage and the systematic disinformation of our population — this is overwhelmingly the work of the Russian government and its helpers, including here,” he said.
Source link
#Arrested #RussiaLinked #Sabotage #Plot #Germany
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Gaza Hospital Strike Draws New Attention to Israel’s Medical Facility Attacks
Gaza Hospital Strike Draws New Attention to Israel’s Medical Facility Attacks
Israel’s strikes on a major hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday, in a bid to kill a top ****** commander, have drawn new attention to one of the war’s most contentious issues: Israeli attacks on medical facilities, and ******’s use of such sites for military purposes.
The attack on the European Gaza Hospital complex near Khan Younis killed at least six people, according to the Gazan medical authorities, and left several deep craters in and around the hospital grounds, according to video filmed at the site and verified by The New York Times.
In a separate set of attacks, Israeli strikes killed dozens of people in northern Gaza overnight, ************ health officials said on Wednesday.
Even in a war that has decimated Gaza’s health sector, Israel has rarely launched as powerful an attack on a health complex as the one that damaged the European Gaza Hospital on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said it had been targeting a ****** command center underneath the complex, and Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to divulge sensitive details said the specific target was Muhammad Sinwar, the senior ****** commander.
Imad al-Hout, the hospital’s director, said in a phone interview that the strikes — which he said were conducted without warning — had damaged walls and pipes, cut off the water supply, put the hospital out of service, and forced most of the 200 patients to evacuate. Dr. al-Hout denied that ****** fighters operated inside the hospital complex, adding that he did not believe the group had dug tunnels beneath it, though he could not definitively rule it out.
For human rights campaigners and international watchdogs, attacks on medical facilities have fueled accusations that Israel is conducting a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in part by wrecking their health system.
By early May, the World Health Organization had recorded 686 attacks on health facilities in Gaza since the start of the war. Those attacks have damaged at least 33 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, according to the W.H.O., and at one point had rendered at least 19 of them inoperable; five have since returned to service.
A United Nations committee of inquiry concluded last September that such attacks collectively constituted “a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza.”
For Israel and its defenders, who strongly deny the claims of genocide, such attacks are a necessary and legal response to ******’s use of hospitals for military purposes. Israel says that ****** routinely uses hospitals, and tunnels and shelters beneath them, as command centers, hiding places and weapons stores.
****** strongly denies it does so, but Israeli officials say the group has essentially turned Gaza’s health sector into a civilian shield for military activity.
“The use of hospitals for terror purposes is one of ******’ core operating methods,” the Israeli military said in a post on its website, which a spokesman cited in lieu of a comment for this article. “The terror infrastructure in the hospitals is meant to ensure optimal protection for ****** terrorists during times of war,” it added.
Interviews with ****** members and Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza, along with other evidence, have shown that ****** has used some medical facilities to conceal entrances leading to its vast military tunnel network, store weapons and station militants. Palestinians have also reported seeing ****** fighters operating within health facilities, both in this war and in previous conflicts.
In March, 2024, a group of militants made a last stand inside Al-Shifa, a major hospital in Gaza City, leading to a days-long battle with the Israeli military.
Under the international rules of conflict, hospitals are considered protected sites that should not be attacked except in rare circumstances. The use of a hospital for military purposes may make it a legitimate target, but only if the risk to civilians is proportional to the military advantage created by the attack. In addition, the law states that the attacking force must give advance warning of a strike on a hospital, which the Israeli military did not do before its strike at the European Gaza hospital.
“If ****** uses a hospital to shield a military command and control center, that is a violation of international humanitarian law, and it can in principle mean that the hospital loses its automatic protection from attack,” said Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, an expert on the laws of armed conflict at the University of Bristol in England.
“But Israel is obligated under the Fourth Geneva Convention to give a warning before attacking the hospital to allow civilians to evacuate,” Professor Hill-Cawthorne said. “And an attack would still be unlawful if it causes disproportionate civilian harm.”
International law experts say that assessments of likely civilian harm must consider a strike’s effect on a region’s wider health system, rather than on only the affected hospital. In Gaza, where so many health centers are damaged or out of use, that makes it much harder to find legal justification for attacks on hospitals, according to Janina Dill, an expert on the laws of armed conflict at the University of Oxford.
“I struggle to see what anticipated military advantage could render any attack against a hospital in Gaza right now proportionate,” Professor Dill said.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the lack of a warning before the strike on the European Gaza hospital. An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that the military had assessed the legality of the strike and concluded that it was acting according to international law.
Aaron Boxerman, Aric Toler and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.
Source link
#Gaza #Hospital #Strike #Draws #Attention #Israels #Medical #Facility #Attacks
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
The Precinct – A Review – Pixelbytegaming
The Precinct – A Review – Pixelbytegaming
The Precinct, developed by Fallen Tree Games Limited and published by Kwalee and Microids, will be released on Xbox Series X/S, PC and PlayStation 5 on May 13th 2025. After taking out much of the city with my poor driving skills, I think perhaps I am the issue.
Source link
#Precinct #Review #Pixelbytegaming
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Trump Meets Syria’s President a Day After Promise to Lift U.S. Sanctions
Trump Meets Syria’s President a Day After Promise to Lift U.S. Sanctions
President Trump met the new leader of Syria on Wednesday, one day after announcing a plan to lift sanctions on that country — a move that could ease the economic stranglehold on a nation battered by civil war and sectarian strife.
It was the first time in 25 years that the two countries’ leaders had met, and another milestone in Syria’s bid to reintegrate itself into the international community after decades of isolation and almost 14 years of civil war. The two men spoke for about half an hour just before a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia, a White House official said.
Mr. Trump told Mr. al-Shara that “he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” according to a summary of the meeting from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. The president also urged Mr. al-Shara to take steps to normalize Syria’s relations with Israel, which have long been hostile, and to tell “all foreign terrorists to leave” the country, the summary said.
Mr. Trump met Mr. al-Shara at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who took part in the meeting.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which backed the insurgency that brought Mr. al-Shara to power, joined by phone. Prince Mohammed and Mr. Erdogan had both urged Mr. Trump to lift the sanctions on Syria, and they praised the move in the meeting on Wednesday, with the crown prince describing it as “courageous,” according to the White House summary.
The encounter was also a stunning turnaround for Mr. al-Shara, an ex-militant who led the rebel alliance that ousted the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. He once led a branch of Al Qaeda before he broke ties with the jihadist group and sought to moderate his image. The United States had designated his insurgent group as a terrorist organization, and until just five months ago, it offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
Mr. al-Shara, in a televised speech to the nation late Wednesday night, credited broad support from many other countries in the region, notably Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as critical to getting relief from U.S. sanctions.
“Today, I do not celebrate the lifting of sanctions alone. I celebrate the return of true brotherhood and the emotional connection between nations in our region,” he said. “President Donald Trump responded to these collective efforts, and his decision to lift sanctions was the result of a unified will.”
He welcomed investors to help rebuild Syria, pledging it would be “a land of peace and joint cooperation,” and not “a battleground for foreign influence.” He said Syrian unity and sacrifices “played a major role in shifting global opinion.”
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, said at a news conference later on Wednesday that Syria’s “many opportunities, capabilities, and resources” were “one of the most important points of discussion” at the meeting. “It has resources, and more importantly, it has a capable people: an educated, knowledgeable population that is eager to move Syria into a new phase,” he said.
The meeting took place on the second day of Mr. Trump’s four-day Middle East tour, the first major overseas trip of his second term. The first day focused in large part on business deals, including for defense equipment and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Mr. Trump has cultivated close diplomatic and business relationships with Saudi Arabia, and the cozy relations offered Gulf leaders an opportunity to push for the lifting of sanctions on Syria, which many of them see as critical to stemming economic collapse and preventing fresh conflict that could spread beyond the country’s borders.
Reham Mourshed contributed reporting.
Source link
#Trump #Meets #Syrias #President #Day #Promise #Lift #U.S #Sanctions
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Feathered fossil provides clues about how earliest birds first took flight – The Guardian
Feathered fossil provides clues about how earliest birds first took flight – The Guardian
Feathered fossil provides clues about how earliest birds first took flight The GuardianFossil Suggests Feathered Archaeopteryx Probably Flew Like a Chicken The New York TimesChicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan NatureUV light and CT scans help scientists unlock hidden details in a perfectly-preserved fossil Archaeopteryx Phys.orgThis exquisite Archaeopteryx fossil reveals how flight took off in birds Science News
Source link
#Feathered #fossil #clues #earliest #birds #flight #Guardian
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Sony considers further price rises, as it braces for £500m tariffs impact
Sony considers further price rises, as it braces for £500m tariffs impact
Sony is considering further price hikes for its products, in response to an expected 100bn yen (£513m) impact from US tariffs.
Source link
#Sony #considers #price #rises #braces #500m #tariffs #impact
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Georgetown academic freed from immigration detention
Georgetown academic freed from immigration detention
Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri has been freed from a Texas detention centre after he was arrested as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on activists across college campuses.
A federal judge ordered the release of Mr Suri, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the prestigious Washington DC institution on a student visa.
An Indian national, he was arrested outside his Virginia home on 17 March by immigration agents.
His lawyers say he was targeted “for speech in support of ************ rights and family ties to Gaza”. US authorities accuse him of “spreading ****** propaganda” and having “connections to a known or suspected terrorist”.
The Justice Department argued the government had a right to detain him until court proceedings finished.
However US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled on Wednesday his detention violated his right to free speech and due process.
She refuted the government’s claims he had ties to ****** through his wife Mapheze Saleh, a US citizen whose father was a government official in Gaza.
“There was no evidence submitted to this court regarding statements that he made” in support of ******, the judge said according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
Mr Suri’s father-in-law is a former adviser to ****** leader Ismail Haniyeh who was killed in July last year, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.
In her court statement, Ms Saleh said her father lived in the US for nearly 20 years while studying. “Afterward, he served as political advisor to the Prime Minister of Gaza and as the deputy of foreign affairs in Gaza,” she said.
Ms Saleh said he left the Gaza government in 2010 and started an institute to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza in 2011.
“Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” Ms Saleh said in a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is involved in Mr Suri’s defence.
“I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again,” she said.
“Speaking out about what’s happening in Palestine is not a crime.”
The Trump administration is still seeking to deport Mr Suri in separate proceedings, the ACLU said.
Several students and academics have been investigated by US immigration officials in recent weeks, accusing them of advocating for “violence and terrorism”.
Among them was Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested on 8 March after being involved in pro-************ protests on campus. He was accused of having ties to ******, which he denies.
Badar Khan Suri’s release comes days after Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was released on bail after a court order.
Ms Ozturk was kept in a Louisiana detention facility after officials arrested her on the street in Massachusetts in March, and accusing her of “engaging in activities in support of ******”.
Source link
#Georgetown #academic #freed #immigration #detention
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Emergency services levy set to pass after ‘dirty deal’
Emergency services levy set to pass after ‘dirty deal’
Contentious legislation to raise an extra $2.1 billion for emergency services is set to pass with last-minute funding guarantees and rebates for drought-hit farmers.
Ahead of delivering her first state budget next week, Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes on Thursday unveiled a raft of amendments to the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund bill.
The fund would replace the Fire Services Property Levy from July 1 and expand coverage to other emergency and disaster response services.
It was projected to lift the average annual bill for residential home owners by $63 and $678 for primary producers, sparking backlash from some farmers and firefighters.
Needing to woo upper house crossbenchers to pass the bill, the Labor government has agreed to reduce the rate for primary production land.
It would save the average farmer $3 a week, Ms Symes said.
Partial rebates will also be available for farmers eligible for a state drought support package, on top of previously confirmed rebates for eligible State Emergency Service and Country Fire Authority volunteers and life members.
The legislation will explicitly guarantee 95 per cent of SES and CFA’s annual funding will be drawn from the levy, and 90 per cent of Fire Rescue Victoria’s.
How the money is spent will be reported annually and the government has already earmarked $110 million for a SES, CFA and FRV rolling fleet replacement program.
“Obviously it’s a new cost – no one likes paying more,” Ms Symes told reporters at state parliament.
Debate on the bill has resumed in the upper house and it is expected to pass parliament later on Thursday.
The expanded levy was originally forecast to raise an extra $2.14 billion over the next three financial years, but the changes will likely lessen the tax take.
Ms Symes said she was waiting for revised figures but bristled when asked if it would eat into the state’s projected surplus of $1.6 billion for 2025/26.
“I’m good mate,” she quipped.
The original levy had serious problems but the amendments would address concerns raised by farmers and firefighters, Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell said.
“With increased bushfires, floods and droughts, we need fully funded emergency services to keep us all safe, so we don’t face a horrific situation like the Los Angeles fires,” she said
United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall accused Labor, the Greens, Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis parties of “selling out” Victorians.
“It’s all about retiring this government’s debt,” he said.
“Have your little fun today, do your dirty deals, I guarantee you, we will make you accountable.”
Mr Marshall said the militant union would reconsider its support for the minor parties ahead of the next election in November 2026.
Victorian Nationals leader Danny O’Brien agreed the levy was mainly about digging the government out of a financial hole instead of better funding emergency services.
“This is a great new big tax and all Victorians are going to have to pay,” he said.
The latest forecast from December showed Victoria’s net debt was expected to climb to $187.3 billion by mid-2028, pushing up interest repayments to $9.32 billion a year.
Source link
#Emergency #services #levy #set #pass #dirty #deal
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again
Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Engineers at NASA say they have successfully revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from our planet, in the nick of time before a planned communications blackout.
A side effect of upgrades to an Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, the communications pause could have occurred when the probe faced a critical issue — thruster failure — leaving the space agency without a way to save the historic mission. The new fix to the vehicle’s original roll thrusters, out of action since 2004, could help keep the veteran spacecraft operating until it’s able to contact home again next year.
Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, uses more than one set of thrusters to function properly. Primary thrusters carefully orient the spacecraft so it can keep its antenna pointed at Earth. This ensures that the probe can send back data it collects from its unique perspective 15.5 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space, as well as receive commands sent by the Voyager team.
Within the primary set are additional thrusters that control the spacecraft’s roll, which enables Voyager 1 to remain pointed at a guide star so it can remain oriented in space.
If Voyager can’t control its roll motion, the mission could be threatened.
But as the thrusters fire, tiny amounts of propellant residue have built up over time. So far, engineers have managed to avoid clogging by commanding Voyager 1 to cycle between its original and backup thrusters for orientation, as well as a set of thrusters that were used to change the spacecraft’s trajectory during planetary flybys in the 1980s. The trajectory thrusters, however, do nothing to contribute to the spacecraft’s roll.
Voyager 1’s original roll thrusters stopped working more than two decades ago after power was lost in two internal heaters, which means the spacecraft has been relying on the backup roll thrusters to remain pointed at a guide star ever since.
“I think at that time, the team was OK with accepting that the primary roll thrusters didn’t work, because they had a perfectly good backup,” said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. “And, frankly, they probably didn’t think the Voyagers were going to keep going for another 20 years.”
Now, Voyager 1 engineers are concerned that clogging from the residue could cause the spacecraft’s backup roll thrusters to stop working as soon as this fall — and they had to get creative, as well as take risks, to revive the long-defunct primary roll thrusters.
Fixing broken equipment in space
When the heaters on the primary roll thrusters failed in 2004, engineers thought they couldn’t be fixed. But with the threat posed by clogging looming, the team returned to the drawing board to see what had gone wrong.
Engineers considered the possibility that a disturbance in the circuits controlling the power supply to the heaters flipped a switch to the wrong position — and flipping it to the original position might restart the heaters, and in turn, the primary roll thrusters.
But it wasn’t a straightforward solution for a probe that’s operating so far away. The spacecraft is currently beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto.
The mission team had to take a risk by switching Voyager 1 to its primary roll thrusters and turning them on before attempting to fix and restart the heaters. The heaters could only function if the thrusters are also switched on.
If Voyager 1 drifted too far from its guide star, the spacecraft’s programming would trigger the roll thrusters to fire — but if the heaters weren’t turned on yet at that moment, the automatic sequence could have triggered a small explosion.
A nail-biting test
In addition to the risk, the team, which began its work earlier this year, was facing a time constraint. A giant Earth-based antenna in Canberra, Australia, went offline May 4 for upgrades that will be ongoing until February 2026. NASA’s Deep Space Network enables the agency to communicate with all of its spacecraft — but its Canberra antenna is the only one with enough signal strength to send commands to the Voyager probes.
“These antenna upgrades are important for future crewed lunar landings, and they also increase communications capacity for our science missions in deep space, some of which are building on the discoveries Voyager made,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager and director of the Interplanetary Network at JPL, which manages the Deep Space Network for NASA, in a statement. “We’ve been through downtime like this before, so we’re just preparing as much as we can.”
While the antenna will briefly operate in August and December, the mission team members wanted to command Voyager 1 to test its long-dormant thrusters before they could no longer communicate with the spacecraft. This way, if they need to turn on the thrusters in August, the team would know whether that was a viable option.
On March 20, the team waited to see the results return from Voyager 1 after sending a command to the probe the day before to activate the thrusters and heaters. It takes more than 23 hours for data to travel back from Voyager 1 to Earth due to the sheer distance between the two.
Had the test failed, Voyager 1 may have already been at risk. But the team watched the data stream in, showing the temperature of the thruster heaters rising dramatically, and knew it had worked.
“It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day,” said Todd Barber, the mission’s propulsion lead at JPL, in a statement. “These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It’s just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.”
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Source link
#dead #thrusters #farthest #spacecraft #Earth #action
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Trump’s Pledge to the Middle East: No More ‘Lectures on How to Live’
Trump’s Pledge to the Middle East: No More ‘Lectures on How to Live’
When President Trump declared from the stage of an opulent ballroom in Saudi Arabia that the United States was done nation-building and intervening, that the world’s superpower would no longer be “giving you lectures on how to live,” his audience erupted in applause.
He was effectively denouncing decades of American policy in the Middle East, playing to grievances long aired in cafes and sitting rooms from Morocco to Oman.
“In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday, during a sweeping address at an investment conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. “And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand.”
He urged the people of the region to chart “your own destinies in your own way.”
Reactions to his speech spread swiftly on mobile phone screens in a Middle East where the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — and more recently, U.S. support for Israel as it intensifies its war in Gaza, which is on the brink of starvation — are ingrained in public consciousness and criticized by monarchists and dissidents alike.
Sultan Alamer, a Saudi academic, joked that Mr. Trump’s remarks sounded like they came from Frantz Fanon, a 20th century Marxist thinker who wrote about the dynamics of colonial oppression. Syrians posted celebratory memes when Mr. Trump announced that he would end American sanctions on their war-ravaged country “in order to give them a chance at greatness.”
And in Yemen — another country mired in war and subject to American sanctions — Abdullatif Mohammed implied agreement with Mr. Trump’s notion of sovereignty, even as he expressed frustration with U.S. intervention.
“When will countries recognize us and let us live like the rest of the world?” Mr. Mohammed, a 31-year-old restaurant manager in the capital, Sana, said when asked about the speech. American airstrikes pounded his city under both former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mr. Trump, targeting the Iran-backed Houthi militia, until Mr. Trump abruptly declared a cease-fire this month.
“Who is Trump to grant pardons, lift sanctions on a country, or impose them?” Mr. Mohammed said. “But that’s how the world works.”
Mr. Trump’s remarks came at the start of a four-day jaunt through three wealthy Gulf Arab states: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He was focused in large part on business deals, including more than $1 trillion in investment in the United States pledged by the three Gulf governments.
But his address in Riyadh made clear that he had broader diplomatic ambitions for his trip. He expressed a “fervent wish” that Saudi Arabia follow two neighbors, the Emirates and Bahrain, to recognize the state of Israel. (Saudi officials have said that will happen only after the establishment of a ************ state.) He said he had a keen desire to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, adding that he “never believed in having permanent enemies.”
And on Wednesday, he met the new leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara — a former jihadist who led a rebel alliance that ousted the brutal strongman Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Trump posed for a photograph with Mr. al-Shara and the Saudi crown prince in an image that dropped jaws in the region and beyond.
“Dude, what happened is truly unbelievable,” said Mr. Mohammed, the Yemeni restaurant manager.
Mr. Trump’s address was a sometimes-rambling speech that lasted more than 40 minutes.
In Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, he neglected to mention that he has said before that “Islam hates us” and that the Quran teaches “some very negative vibe.” Instead, he praised the kingdom’s heritage.
His friendliness in front of the Saudi crowd stood in contrast to Mr. Biden’s chillier approach to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler who directed a yearslong bombing campaign in Yemen and has overseen a widespread crackdown on dissent. When Mr. Biden visited Saudi Arabia, he said that he told the crown prince he believed he was responsible for the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the royal family’s rule.
Mr. Trump instead heaped plaudits on the Arabian Peninsula and Prince Mohammed, calling him an “incredible man.”
“In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins,” Mr. Trump said.
His remarks left some Arab listeners worried about what the potential evaporation of American pressure over human rights violations could mean for their countries.
Ibrahim Almadi is the son of a 75-year-old American-Saudi dual national who was arrested in the kingdom over critical social media posts; his father was released but is not allowed to leave Saudi Arabia. In an interview, Mr. Almadi said he had hoped Mr. Trump would speak to Saudi officials about his father’s case during his visit — and that he had tried without success to reach out to officials across his administration. He sees it as the type of human rights violation that previous U.S. administrations would have pressed Saudi officials on.
“They are normalizing my dad’s case, which is not normal,” he said of the Trump administration.
A White House spokeswoman did not answer questions about whether the president or his aides had raised human rights issues with Saudi officials. Asked about the reaction to his address, the spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said, “The president has received widespread praise for his speech.”
Abdullah Alaoudh, a member of a Saudi opposition party in exile and the son of a prominent cleric imprisoned in the kingdom, called the speech a public relations stunt for the benefit of Prince Mohammed.
He added that he found it ironic that Mr. Trump was praising a Middle East built “by the people of the region” when he was speaking to an audience dotted with foreign billionaires and “in front of an authoritarian leader who has brutally silenced all dissent.”
In the ballroom in Riyadh, Mr. Trump received a standing ovation.
“The president’s speech was actually quite consequential,” Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said at a news conference on Wednesday, describing it as an “approach of partnership, of mutual respect.”
Mr. Alamer, a senior resident fellow at the New Lines Institute, a Washington research group, said in an interview that the president’s words reflected themes “that are normally associated with leftist and anti-imperialist intellectuals.”
“While this is surprising in the sense that we, as Arabs, used to be the subject of American lecturing and interventionism, it is also not surprising when we consider that new right-wing populist movements — both in the Gulf and the U.S. — have borrowed some of this rhetoric from leftists and socialists and repurposed it to advance a conservative worldview,” said Mr. Alamer.
Negad el-Boraie, a prominent Egyptian human rights lawyer, said he was reluctant to read much into Mr. Trump’s speech, given that he was in Saudi Arabia primarily to talk about investments.
But for Mr. el-Boraie, Mr. Trump was merely being honest about what U.S. presidents had always really cared about — American interests — regardless of how much previous presidents draped their agendas in comments about human rights and democracy.
“The U.S. prioritizes its own interests,” he said. “Trump expresses his opinions frankly, and that’s clear in all his speeches.”
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen; Rania Khaled from Cairo; Ismaeel Naar from Dubai; Hwaida Saad and Jacob Roubai from Beirut; and Muhammad Haj Kadour from Damascus.
Source link
#Trumps #Pledge #Middle #East #Lectures #Live
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Will Putin Attend Ukraine Peace Talks in Turkey? Kremlin’s List Indicates Not.
Will Putin Attend Ukraine Peace Talks in Turkey? Kremlin’s List Indicates Not.
Russia on Wednesday released a list of officials who will attend peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey. But a key person was missing: President Vladimir V. Putin.
The absence on the list of the Russian leader, who ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that began the war, was a strong indication that Mr. Putin would not come face to face this week with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has called him a *********. The Kremlin said Mr. Putin himself had signed off on the delegation.
President Trump, who began pushing for peace talks before he took back the White House, had said he would consider joining the meeting in Turkey.
“I was thinking about actually flying over there,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a White House news conference on Monday.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump, who is on a three-nation tour of the Middle East, indicated that he, too, would skip the talks and would instead visit the United Arab Emirates as planned. But he said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would attend.
“Tomorrow, we’re all booked out, you understand that,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to U.A.E. tomorrow. So we have a very full situation. Now that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it to save a lot of lives and come back. But, yeah, I’ve been thinking about it.”
Of Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump added: “I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out. Marco’s going and Marco’s been very effective.” Along with Mr. Rubio, Mr. Trump’s special envoys Steven Witkoff and Keith Kellogg were expected to travel to Turkey.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky said he was “waiting to see who will come from Russia” before deciding what steps Ukraine should take regarding the peace talks. He also urged the “strongest” Western sanctions against Russia if Mr. Putin rejected the meeting.
The Kremlin said that the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hard-line aide to Mr. Putin. It would also include Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, who was part of the Russian delegation in talks held between Moscow and Kyiv in the weeks after the 2022 invasion; and other senior military and intelligence officials.
The stakes could not be higher for both sides in the largest land war in Europe since World War II.
After more than three years of war, Mr. Putin’s stance is that Russia is winning on the battlefield. But analysts estimate Moscow has lost hundreds of thousands of troops to death and injury. Its soldiers and brigades have been so depleted that it turned to North Korea for troops, and Moscow has struggled to replace destroyed equipment, analysts say.
Ukrainian forces, which made an audacious invasion into Russia’s Kursk region in August 2024, have since pulled out almost entirely. They have also been steadily losing ground in their country’s east. As Mr. Trump has pushed for peace talks, Kyiv has stressed that it needs security guarantees from the United States. Ukraine even signed a deal last month that gives America a share of future revenues from its reserves of rare earth minerals. But the final deal did not include explicit guarantees of future U.S. security assistance.
As the pressure for peace has grown, the White House said in March that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to cease fighting in the ****** Sea and to work on details for halting strikes on energy facilities. Later that month, after meetings were held in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine said it would support a Trump administration proposal for a 30-day cease-fire. That gave new momentum to truce negotiations, which had faltered after a public confrontation at the White House between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump.
Then, in April, Mr. Putin declared an “Easter truce,” ordering his forces to “stop all military activity” against Ukraine for the holiday. It was apparently aimed at showing an impatient Trump administration that Moscow was still open to peace talks. But Kyiv said Russia broke its own truce.
After Mr. Trump expressed frustration with Russia’s refusal to stop the war, Mr. Putin ordered a three-day cease-fire to begin on May 8, in order to mark the May 9 celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Mr. Zelensky described that pledge as a “manipulation.”
Britain and France promised to muster a “coalition of the willing” to secure a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Then a coalition of European allies gave Russia a deadline this month to agree to a 30-day cease-fire or face new sanctions.
In his social media post on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said he was “ready for any format of negotiations” with Russia in Turkey.
“Russia is only prolonging the war and the killings,” Mr. Zelensky added. “I want to thank every country, every leader who is now putting pressure on Russia, so that the shelling finally stops.”
Cicely Wedgeworth and Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting.
Source link
#Putin #Attend #Ukraine #Peace #Talks #Turkey #Kremlins #List
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Celts steamroll Knicks, send series back to N.Y. – ESPN
Celts steamroll Knicks, send series back to N.Y. – ESPN
Celts steamroll Knicks, send series back to N.Y. ESPNKnicks vs. Celtics odds, prediction, start time: 2025 NBA playoff picks, Game 5 best bets by proven model CBS SportsSix Celtics score in double figures to step up in Jayson Tatum’s absence and crush Knicks, 127-102, in Game 5 The Boston GlobeThe Knicks’ big bets are paying off, and it has them on the verge of dethroning the Celtics Yahoo SportsHeroes, zeros of Game 5: OG Anunoby no-shows in Knicks’ blowout loss New York Post
Source link
#Celts #steamroll #Knicks #send #series #N.Y #ESPN
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Vanishing Cousins Episode 1: The Vanishing
Vanishing Cousins Episode 1: The Vanishing
Social commentator Jane Caro describes the 1970s beach culture and why young women had to be vigilant against predatory behaviour.
In the last ever sighting of the teenagers, the doorman at The White Sands recounts seeing the cousins talking to older, scruffy strangers who were out of place amongst the beach crowd.
WATCH EPISODE 1 IN THE VIDEO PLAYER NOW
Source link
#Vanishing #Cousins #Episode #Vanishing
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Unusual-looking rattlesnake found in Arizona backyard: ‘This is a first’
Unusual-looking rattlesnake found in Arizona backyard: ‘This is a first’
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – An Arizona homeowner’s discovery of a rattlesnake exhibiting an unusual color pattern left some snake experts rather amazed.
The western diamondback rattlesnake was uncovered in the backyard of a Scottsdale home on Friday.
Rattlesnake Solutions, a pest control service, posted the colorful photos on Facebook, stating that a pattern mutation may be the reason for the odd appearance.
“In the many thousands of diamondbacks we’ve seen over the years, this is a first,” a business spokesperson wrote in the post.
The snake’s tail stands out compared to the rest of its body as the base of the tail is bright white with ****** spots. According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), the typical pattern of a western diamondback rattlesnake is outlined in white and ******, and the tail has alternating ****** and white banding.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department says that Arizona has more rattlesnake species than any other state.
The pest service remarks that the area where the snake was found is not a hybridization zone, ruling out any possibilities of breeding with other snakes. According to the NDOW, the western diamondback rattlesnake is a venomous species that uses its venom to subdue its prey.
Western Dioamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) Southern Arizona
“We want people to know that there is a higher than average chance that they might encounter a rattlesnake when they are out recreating,” said Thomas Jones, amphibians and reptiles program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Alligator Made Famous In ‘Happy Gilmore’ Dies At More Than 80 Years Old
If bitten, MedlinePlus.gov suggests restricting movement to the affected area. If bitten by a rattlesnake, copperhead, or cottonmouth, keep the affected area at heart level. If bitten by a coral snake, cobra, or exotic snake, keep the affected area below heart level to reduce the flow of venom.
Original article source: Unusual-looking rattlesnake found in Arizona backyard: ‘This is a first’
Source link
#Unusuallooking #rattlesnake #Arizona #backyard
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Bayesian Superyacht Carrying Mike ****** Sank After ‘Extreme’ Wind Gust, Report Says
Bayesian Superyacht Carrying Mike ****** Sank After ‘Extreme’ Wind Gust, Report Says
The majestic Bayesian superyacht, which foundered last year off Sicily, killing seven people, was likely knocked over by an intense gust of wind and sank within minutes, according to a preliminary investigation by British maritime authorities.
As the storm approached, a young deckhand on watch delayed waking up the captain and instead posted a video of the squall on his social media feed, the investigation found.
The result was a fast-moving catastrophe — just minutes, from when the skipper was roused to the ship going down — in which the storm ripped apart a protective awning on the bridge, pushed the enormous yacht all the way over onto its side and sent passengers and crew members scrambling in the dark for their lives as water began to cascade through the cabins.
“The findings indicate that the extreme wind experienced by Bayesian was sufficient to knock the yacht over,” said Capt. Andrew Moll, the chief inspector of marine accidents for the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, a British agency. “Once the yacht had heeled beyond an angle of 70 degrees, the situation was irrecoverable.”
The report noted that the Bayesian’s signature feature, its gigantic single mast, one of the tallest in the world, increased the vulnerability of the boat capsizing in high winds. The New York Times published similar findings last year in its own investigation of the accident and found that the Bayesian was an outlier. All the other boats in the same series, from the same Italian manufacturer, had two masts instead of one.
The company claimed that when operated properly, the Bayesian was “unsinkable.”
Outside experts who read the government agency’s report also pointed to the mast and said that the overall stability of the boat — from its ballast to its superstructure — was questionable at best.
“You have this obscenely tall mast, so the center of gravity of the boat is very high,” said Tad Roberts, a ********* naval architect with decades of experience designing yachts. “The reality is that you’ve set up this system to fail.”
Several passengers who survived the capsizing were badly injured before being dumped into the sea, the report said. One couple escaped their cabin by climbing on top of a set of drawers to reach the cabin’s door. With the boat turned completely on its side, that door was now a hatch in the ceiling. As the boat went down, crew members thrashed through the sea and helped save any passengers they could reach.
Seven people trapped below deck died: Michael ******, a British tech tycoon; his teenage daughter, Hannah; four of Mr. ******’s friends, including a prominent lawyer and his wife; and the sailboat’s cook.
The report, released at midnight London time on Thursday, comes amid several simultaneous investigations. Sicilian prosecutors have launched their own inquiry and named the yacht’s captain and two crew members as suspects.
British authorities cautioned that a fuller picture will emerge only after the Bayesian is lifted from its resting place in a cove 160 feet deep, just off the harbor of Porticello, a small fishing community in Sicily. Investigators want to inspect the hull, but the salvaging process that had started this month came to a halt last week after one of the divers died while working underwater.
The basic finding of the report is that storm gusts striking the super-tall mast, which rose 237 feet, and its rigging, were sufficient to capsize and sink the vessel in minutes. The wind forces were powerful enough to knock over the yacht even though the sails were furled at the time, investigators found.
Those calculations, with slightly different technical assumptions, closely follow a study by Guillermo Gefaell, a Spanish naval engineer, and one of his colleagues, Juan Manuel López, which was first reported by The Times.
“The most important thing is that that vessel was not prepared to handle a wind of 60 knots or more,” Mr. Gefaell said in an interview on Wednesday, referring specifically to when the wind strikes the boat from the side, the sails are furled and the keel is up. “The crew could have done nothing. They did a lot, with the people that they saved.”
According to analysis of the weather at the time of the accident, the winds likely reached speeds of at least 64 knots, or 74 miles an hour, enough to capsize the boat. The report also said that “tornadic waterspouts and downdrafts were possible.”
The 10-page report is written in dry, technical language. Still, it delivers a sense of the impending doom.
The drama began last June after Mr. ****** was acquitted in a high-stakes criminal trial in which he was accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his software company when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. To celebrate his win, he organized several cruises on the Bayesian, a gleaming blue, 184-foot-long superyacht that drew stares wherever it went. The boat was registered in the United Kingdom, one of the reasons British authorities are investigating.
On Aug. 14, according to the report, the Bayesian set sail from the port of Milazzo in Sicily. Twelve passengers and 10 crew members were aboard. The cruise was set to end on the morning of Aug. 19.
On the last night, the Bayesian’s crew received warnings of thunderstorms and decided to motor toward Porticello, which lies on a sheltered cove. The Bayesian’s captain, James Cutfield, an experienced New Zealand skipper, told his deckhands to wake him if the winds increased above 20 knots, or 23 miles per hour.
At 3 a.m. on Aug. 19, just a few hours before Mr. ****** and his guests were supposed to get off the yacht and head home, the deckhand on watch saw thunderclouds moving closer, the report said. At 3:55 a.m., the deckhand, Matthew Griffiths, who is in his early 20s, recorded a video of the approaching storm and posted it to Instagram. He noted the wind had increased to 30 knots — 10 more than the threshold for waking the captain. At 4 a.m., he woke the captain.
That began an intense scramble among the crew and guests. According to the report, the chief engineer readied the boat to maneuverer into the wind, which would make it more stable. The captain rushed up to the fly bridge, from where he could steer. Angela Bacares, Mr. ******’s wife and the Bayesian’s owner, left her cabin and headed to the bridge to check if the taxis arranged for 8 a.m. that morning would have to be canceled because of the weather.
The wind suddenly increased, the report said, and before the captain had a chance to turn the boat in the right direction, it “violently heeled over to 90 degrees.”
In the next few minutes, the superyacht sank. Several crew members were initially trapped underwater in air pockets but managed to free themselves and swim clear of the vessel. They then plucked passengers from the sea and pulled them onto a life raft, where they helped bandage wounds. The survivors were soon rescued by another yacht in the cove, an old, converted tugboat that weathered the storm just fine.
An operating manual on board the Bayesian, called the “stability book,” did not contain critical data that the boat was dangerously prone to capsizing if it were struck by high winds while at anchor. In that condition, the boat’s guard was essentially down, with its retractable keel raised and engine vents open, which could let in water with the boat on its side.
Investigators also found that the so-called “angle of vanishing stability” — the angle at which the boat can no longer right itself — was 70.6 degrees, far less than for many sailboats that can tilt all the way on their sides, to 90 degrees or more, and still recover.
Mr. Roberts said the Bayesian’s design was “sadly lacking.”
The Italian Sea Group, a ship building company that bought Perini Navi, the makers of the Bayesian, declined to comment. A representative for the Lynches said the family wasn’t commenting either.
The report made no mention of the manufacturer’s claim, repeated for weeks, that a large hatch on the left side of the hull had been inappropriately left open by the crew, allowing water to rush in and sink the ship. The report made it clear that the ship sank on its right side and that the crew closed a number of hatches when the storm hit.
The family of Recaldo Thomas, the cook who died, known as Rick, said they were troubled by the findings.
They said in a statement provided by their lawyer that the report outlined a series of failures — “failures in the design, safety certification and seaworthiness of the Bayesian, as well as the management by some of the crew.”
The Thomas family said that they “firmly believe that Rick died doing his job, and that his death was preventable.”
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome
Source link
#Bayesian #Superyacht #Carrying #Mike #****** #Sank #Extreme #Wind #Gust #Report
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Five Takeaways From Ravens 2025 Schedule Release – Baltimore Ravens
Five Takeaways From Ravens 2025 Schedule Release – Baltimore Ravens
Five Takeaways From Ravens 2025 Schedule Release Baltimore RavensView Full Coverage on Google News
Source link
#Takeaways #Ravens #Schedule #Release #Baltimore #Ravens
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.
