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Bridge: Dec. 3, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

Unlucky Louie is no physicist but insists he can prove that sound travels slower than light: Louie says that some of the advice he gave his daughters at 16 didn’t get through to them until they were 22.Louie held today’s North hand in a duplicate game and heard his partner open 1NT.“Our 1NT range was 15 to 17 points,” Louie told me. “Should I raise to 2NT with a balanced eight-point hand?”Louie had raised, and since South had a tiptop maximum, he went on to 3NT. West led a heart: eight, ace, three. South played low on East’s heart return, and West took the queen and led a third heart. East discarded a diamond.“My partner took the king,” Louie said, “led a diamond to dummy, returned a club to his queen — and exhaled when the finesse won. He went to the king of spades and won a second club finesse with his jack, but when he took the ace, West threw a spade. My partner took eight tricks and gave me some advice: Pass 1NT....

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson won’t seek reelection next year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson announced that he won’t be seeking reelection in the Virginia city next year.Wilson, who also works for Amtrak, made the announcement in his weekly newsletter.“I would be thrilled to do this job forever. But doing two full-time jobs and being a good husband and father is not sustainable forever. Nor should anyone be in elected office forever,” Wilson said.“Good governance requires the constant injection of new ideas and energy.”He was elected as mayor in 2019 after serving on the city council for a decade. He ran unopposed in the general election after defeating sitting incumbent Allison Silberberg in an upset in the Democratic primary in 2018.As a mayoral candidate, Wilson campaigned on boosting affordable housing and small businesses along with expanding classrooms across the city.Under his leadership, Alexandria opened a new Metro station and a graduate engineering campus at Potomac Yards. He also secured a deal to turn...

Nantes supporter dies before French league game in latest incident to mar French soccer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

NANTES, France (AP) — A supporter from Nantes died on Saturday following a fight that took place before the club’s 1-0 win over Nice in the latest outbreak of violence to mar French soccer this season.Nantes said in a statement overnight that the fan was “fatally injured” close to the club’s stadium. According to the L’Equipe newspaper, the fan was a member of the Brigade Loire, Nantes’ main group of diehard fans. “In circumstances which are the subject of an ongoing judicial investigation, the 31-year-old collapsed, hit in the back,” the club said. “Despite the intervention of emergency services, the fan could not be saved.”Nantes said the public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter.Nantes public prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul said the incident took place shortly before 8 p.m. local time, when several private hire vehicles carrying Nice fans on their way to the match were attacked by groups of Nantes supporters.“The very f...

Philippine president blames foreign militants for a bombing that killed 4 Christian worshippers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president blamed “foreign terrorists” for a bomb blast that killed four people Sunday, wounded dozens of other Catholic worshippers in the south and sparked a security alarm, including in the capital, Manila, where state forces were put on alert.The suspected bomb, which the police said was made from a mortar round, went off and hit students and teachers who attended a Mass in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi city, Taha Mandangan, the security chief of the state-run campus, told The Associated Press by telephone.Dozens of students and teachers dashed out of the gym and the wounded were taken to hospitals.Regional military commander Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray III said four people were killed by the explosion, including three women, and 50 others were brought to two hospitals for treatment.Six of the wounded were fighting for their lives in a hospital, said Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. of the Islamic province of Lanao del S...

Cómo será el aumento del nivel del mar en las ciudades que albergaron cumbres climáticas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

(CNN) —  Mientras los líderes y delegados mundiales se reúnen en Dubai para la cumbre anual sobre el clima de la ONU , un nuevo análisis muestra cómo las ciudades anfitrionas de cumbres anteriores podrían verse inundadas, si no completamente sumergidas, por el aumento de las aguas del océano.El incesante aumento de la contaminación que calienta el planeta ya provocó graves sequías, inundaciones mortales y un rápido derretimiento de glaciares y hielo en todo el mundo. Y los científicos dicen que el aumento constante del nivel del mar global continuará durante muchas décadas a medida que las temperaturas aumenten.El análisis de Climate Central , un grupo de investigación climática sin fines de lucro, ilustra el riesgo si los países no logran detener la precipitada tendencia al calentamiento del planeta. Un informe reciente de la ONU mostró que el mundo está actualmente en camino de calentarse hasta 2,9 grados .Utilizando proyecciones de aumento del nivel del mar revisadas por pa...

Awaiting on a Cold Front this Week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

Following record heat in Miami on Saturday with highs in the mid 80s despite it being December, I’m sure some of you are hoping for another cold front.Well there is good news because a cold front arrives Tuesday night, ushering in another drop in temperatures. Before we get there, however, temperatures will continue to rise, with record heat possible this Sunday in Marathon.Highs at most locations today should be about 1F warmer than on Saturday due to a south to southwest wind in place, helping to maximize the temperatures. Otherwise it will be humid with times of sun and clouds and the possibility for isolated showers, especially in the afternoon.Monday will be the last very warm day — relatively speaking — until a front arrives Monday evening, flipping winds from the southwest to the northwest. This first front out of two will drop humidity and temperatures by a few degrees for Tuesday.It’s not until Tuesday night when a cold front — essentially just...

France, Germany deplore Paris knife attack that left German man dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

The French president and Germany’s foreign affairs minister condemned Saturday’s knife attack in Paris that injured two and left a German national dead. Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into the assault.Police arrested a 26-year-old Frenchman, who had been on the security services watchlist, soon after the attack Saturday night near the Eiffel Tower. Officials said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.“I send all my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening during the terrorist attack in Paris,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X. “The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office … will be responsible for shedding light on this matter so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,” he said. Emergency services treated the two injured, a French national and a foreign tourist, whose wounds are not life-threatening.Following his arrest...

The Herald’s final Sweet 16 of the 2023 season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

No one can ever accuse the 2023 Xaverian football team of backing into a Division 1 state title.The Hawks survived what could be best be described as a gauntlet on their way to the school’s first Super Bowl title since 2015. There was an epic quarterfinal win over state power Springfield Central, a hard-fought semifinal win over a 10-win Needham team and two wins over archrival St. John’s Prep in a six-day stretch to claim the Div. 1 crown.“If you were writing a book, they might say this one would have been sports fiction,” Xaverian coach Al Fornaro said. “I don’t know if anyone has ever had to beat teams like that and then to beat a team the quality of St. John’s Prep was impressive, but our guys were ready to play.“We had some guys banged up (the Hawks played the final two games without star wide receivers Jonathan Monteiro and Charlie Comella), but we always say next man up. Sometimes it’s nothing more than words, but we let them know that they are o...

MLB notes: Red Sox enter pivotal Winter Meetings with extensive to-do list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

The Red Sox have had several months now to get their house in order.Once it became clear that a third last place finish in four years was imminent, the club moved on from chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and handed the keys to Craig Breslow. Since then the newly-minted baseball boss has mostly worked behind the scenes, enmeshing himself in the organizations and formulating a plan for how to build the Red Sox back into a contender.That changes this week, and in the coming days we should see Breslow finally begin executing his vision.Over the next four days the baseball world will gather in Nashville for the annual Winter Meetings, which have historically served as the offseason’s biggest hotbed of activity. Deals will get done, trades will be made, and by next week baseball’s new landscape should come into focus.The Red Sox are expected to be active, but beyond addressing their own needs there will be other events with industry-wide implications that will affect the clu...

Indonesia’s Marapi volcano erupts, spewing ash plumes and blanketing several villages with ash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:24 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province erupted Sunday, spewing white-and-gray ash plumes for more than 3,000 meters (about 9,800 feet) into the air, and hot ash clouds blew several miles to the north, according to Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.There were no casualties, said Ahmad Rifandi, an official at the Marapi monitoring post, adding that villagers were advised to stay 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the crater’s mouth and be aware of the danger of potential lava.National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said several villages were blanketed with falling ash. He said Marapi’s eruption alert was maintained at the second-highest level and that authorities have been closely monitoring the volcano after sensors picked up increasing activity in recent weeks.Japan’s Meteorological Agency said Sunday it is currently assessing whether there is a possible tsunami in the country because of Marapi...