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Commercial lunar lander presumed lost after historic moon landing attempt

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

(CNN) — A Japanese lunar lander, carrying a rover developed in the United Arab Emirates, attempted to find its footing on the moon’s surface Tuesday — and potentially mark the world’s first lunar landing for a commercially developed spacecraft. But flight controllers on the ground were not immediately able to regain contact, prompting the company to presume the spacecraft was lost.The lander, built by Japanese firm Ispace, launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 11. The spacecraft then made a three-month trek to enter orbit around the moon, which lies about 239,000 miles (383,000 kilometers) from Earth, using a low-energy trajectory. Overall, the journey took the lander about 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) through space.Touchdown was expected to occur Tuesday at 12:40 p.m. ET, which is Wednesday at 1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time.Minutes passed as the mission control team worked to regain contact with the vehicle after an expec...

China sends top wolf warrior Lu Shaye to the dog house

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

PARIS — With friends like this, who needs enemies. Less than three weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron returned from a three-day visit to China, where he hailed “common ambitions” with Beijing, China’s top Paris-based wolf warrior lashed out — again. The outrageous diplomatic faux pas from Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, where he questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states on French television last week, was just the latest in a series of provocations. The Chinese ambassador has built a reputation for an at times flagrant disregard of diplomatic protocol, spreading disinformation and going a bit rogue on Twitter.Among the pack of China’s wolf warriors, named after nationalistic action movies depicting a Chinese army hero fighting villains, Lu was known as an alpha operator. The provocateur’s remarks on ex-Soviet states that came in response to a question on whether he considered Crimea — which was annexed by Russia in 2014 — part of Ukraine un...

Boston school to be renamed to honor civil rights icon Mel King

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

Boston will honor civil rights icon and trailblazing politician Mel King by naming a school after him. City officials will gather at 90 Warren Avenue at 10 a.m. to celebrate the renaming of the McKinley Schools to the Melvin H. King South End Academy.Mayor Wu, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper, School Leader Cindie Neilson, and Joyce King are all expected to attend the event. King was a longtime community activist, educator, and lawmaker who made history as the first Black person to make it on the ballot for Boston mayor in 1983. He died last month at the age of 94. A mural depicting King and his famous words, “Love is the question and the answer” is painted on one of the McKinley Schools’ buildings.

Rinse & Repeat

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

The pattern hasn’t changed all that much the last several days as cool air aloft has sparked an occasional shower popping up. Today, the pattern is similar with just a few isolated showers popping up across the interior. That means much of the day is dry, but with an east wind prevailing, it’ll be a bit cooler today vs. the last couple of days and clouds are more stubborn at times. Highs range from near 50 at the coast to mid to upper 50s inland. Tomorrow, the pop-up shower chance is farther east, as anywhere will be fair game for a passing shower or two in the afternoon. It’ll be cool and mostly cloudy as highs hold in the low to mid 50s. Not a washout of a day, but certainly chilly and a bit dreary at times. Friday is the pick of the week. Highs head for the mid 60s inland and run in the 50s along the coast under a mostly sunny sky. Showers arrive by Saturday afternoon as temps hold in the 50s. Those showers linger through the night but taper early Sunday. Sunda...

Lawmakers to hold hearing on Boston Marathon bombings following 10th anniversary of attack

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will hold a Senate hearing Wednesday morning on how the Boston Marathon bombings changed terrorist prevention and response efforts. The hearing is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. and will be led by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chair of the Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight Subcommittee, and Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), the Subcommittee’s Ranking Member.Titled “Lessons Learned: 10 Years Since the Boston Marathon Bombings,” the hearing will feature former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, former Deputy FEMA Administrator and Chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services Rich Serino, and former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Kerry Sleeper – all of whom held these positions at the time of the 2013 bombings“New England will never forget the day that two terrorists detonated bombs during the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds,” Hassan said in a statement. “Ten years after this horrific tragedy, we must examine how that att...

ASK IRA: Is the Heat’s 3-point shooting sustainable this postseason?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

Q; Jimmy Butler has been sublime, but this series also has highlighted what this season’s biggest frustration was: poor shooting. When they shoot well, especially from 3, this is a totally different team. Do you think this stretch is a fluke, or are they finally returning to last year’s form? – Ruben, Davie.A: That’s the issue going forward. Is this shooting a progression to the mean from what was abysmal regular-season shooting? Or will there be a regression to the mean of how they shot during the regular season? The fact that there now is more Duncan Robinson and less Victor Oladipo could keep the percentage higher (with all due respect to what Vic is going through). And it could be that Jimmy Butler is Dwyane Wade 2.0 when it comes to playoff 3-point shooting rising to another level. (Guess we’ll have to ask Purple Shirt Guy in Charlotte about that one.)Q: Ira, You said Jimmy Butler’s Game 4 performance was unprecedented in Heat history, how ab...

Editorial: Q: Why do the Bears need taxpayer help for their move to Arlington Heights? A: They don’t.

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

Forgive Bears fans for being transfixed by the NFL draft, which begins Thursday in Kansas City. The first game of the 2023 season won’t kick off until September, but that doesn’t matter to a fan base starved for whatever morsel of hope of a turnaround the draft might provide.In Chicago’s northwest suburbs, however, taxpayers and taxing bodies are preoccupied by a very different Bears game plan — the playbook for enlisting as much taxpayer help as possible to build a new, stadium-anchored megadevelopment at what was once Arlington International Racecourse.Most residents of Arlington Heights and surrounding suburbs have reacted enthusiastically to the prospect of the Bears coming to their patch of the Chicago region. What they’ve been less enamored with is the Bears’ insistence that taxpayers subsidize nonstadium components of the project, including the new roadways, utilities and other infrastructure needed to make it happen.A couple of legislative...

Protest over disabled access in France before Paris Olympics

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

PARIS (AP) — An influential disabled rights group in France is boycotting a conference on disability Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, amid frustration at years of unmet promises to make Paris more accessible ahead of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.The group Collectif Handicaps, an umbrella group for more than 50 organizations advocating for disabled rights, announced hours before the conference in Paris that it would not take part. Its leaders had asked for the opportunity to speak in front of Macron and were refused. The group worries that measures Macron is expected to announce Wednesday will fall short of what is needed.Even getting to the conference at the Elysee Palace is an ordeal for many people it’s designed to help. The nearest wheelchair-accessible Metro line is about a kilometer (half a mile) away. Public buses in Paris are hard and time-consuming to ride for people with limited mobility. The 2024 Olympics risk highlighting how inaccessible France i...

Meryl Streep wins Spain’s Princess of Asturias award

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Meryl Streep has won one of Spain’s most prestigious awards in the arts for her long career of acting excellence, the jury of the Princess of Asturias awards said Wednesday.The jury said that in her nearly five decades on screen, Streep has “developed a brilliant career that given life to full and complex feminine characters which inspire reflection and a critical spirit in the spectator.”The 73-year-old actor has won multiple accolades, including three Oscars for her work in “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Iron Lady.”The 50,000-euro ($55,000) award is one of eight prizes covering the arts, communication, science and other areas that are handed out annually by the foundation named for Spanish Crown Princess Leonor.Flamenco musical artists Carmen Linares and María Pagés won the arts award last year. Other past winners include English director Peter Brook, and American directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.The prizes are among the most ...

Officials banned for false report for Olympic qualification

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:26:01 GMT

MONACO (AP) — Two track and field officials in Albania have been banned from the sport for falsifying an athlete’s result to help him qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Wednesday.Long jumper Izmir Smajlaj was cleared of being part of the conspiracy to register a national record in May 2021 that gained him entry to compete at the Tokyo Games.The AIU had said Smajlaj, Albanian track federation president Gjergj Ruli and federation general secretary Nikolin Dionisi “conspired together and submitted falsified wind measurement readings” for the athlete’s 8.16-meter leap in Tirana.The jump, which was not legal by track and field rules, earned Smajlaj one of two available “universality” entries — an Olympic wild card given to lower-ranked nations — in the 32-man lineup for his event.He was Albania’s only men’s track and field athlete at the Tokyo Olympics, where Ruli traveled as his coach, the AIU said. Smajlaj also competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Ol...