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Sleek and shiny torch for Paris Olympics unveiled with carbon footprint in mind and a year to go

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The torch that will be used to carry the Olympic flame around France and on its final leg at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games next July is a sleek silver-colored cylinder of recycled steel that is gracefully tapered at both ends and is being made in limited numbers to save resources.Paris organizers unveiled French designer Mathieu Lehanneur’s torch design Tuesday — part of a week of activities that mark the year-to-go countdown to the July 26 opening.Organizers said 2,000 torches — five times fewer than for some previous editions of the Olympics — are being produced from recycled steel.Each one weighs 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) and is 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) tall.Paris is using the same torch design for both the Olympics and Paralympic Games.Once lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece, the flame will be transported by boat to the southern French city of Marseille.The torch relay will start from there on May 8, with 10,000 torchbearers taking turns to car...

UN: Operation to siphon oil out of rusting tanker moored off Yemen begins to ‘avoid Catastrophe’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — An international team began siphoning oil out of a decrepit oil tanker off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday, the United Nations chief said, a crucial step in a complex salvage operation aiming to prevent a potential environmental disaster.For years, many organizations have warned that the neglected vessel, known as SOF Safer, may cause a major oil spill or even explode.“The ship-to-ship transfer of oil which has started today is the critical next step in avoiding an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe on a colossal scale,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.More than 1.1 million barrels of oil stored in the rusting tanker were being moved to another vessel the U.N. purchased, he said.The oil transfer operation came after months of on-site preparatory work and was scheduled to be completed in less than three weeks, the U.N. said.The Safter tanker was built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels...

US pilot accused of illegally training Chinese aviators postpones Sydney extradition hearing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former United States military pilot’s Sydney extradition hearing on U.S. charges, including that he illegally trained Chinese aviators, was postponed Tuesday while authorities investigate the role of an Australian spy agency in his arrest.Boston-born Dan Duggan, 54, was arrested by Australian police in October near his home, in Orange, New South Wales, and has been fighting extradition to the United States. The former U.S. Marine Corps major and flying instructor maintains he has done nothing wrong and is an innocent victim of a worsening power struggle between Washington and Beijing.“This is a signal, signal sending. It has nothing to do with me personally,” Duggan told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in a telephone call from maximum-security prison.“It’s more to do with the signal that they want to send in a geopolitical sense,” he added in an interview broadcast on Monday.His lawyers successfully applied Tuesday in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Cour...

Asia-Pacific needs disaster warning systems to counter rising climate change risks, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Countries in the Asia-Pacific region need to drastically increase their investments in disaster warning systems and other tools to counter rising risks from climate change, a United Nations report said Tuesday. The report issued Tuesday by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or ESCAP, says nearly $145 billion is needed to set up systems to minimize deaths and damage from floods, earthquakes, drought and other disasters. Artificial intelligence, satellites, remote sensing and other technologies can aid in forecasting, notifying the public in times of emergency and providing other services, but telecommunications systems must be fortified to ensure that vulnerable communities will get that information, said the report, which was released to mark the U.N.’s Disaster Resilience Week. Most countries have failed to spend even 10% of what is needed, the report said. Half of all countries lack early warning systems and even fewer have systems that are...

Ties with far-right hinder Spain’s Popular Party forming a government despite election win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Chances to form a government have dwindled for Spain’s conservative Popular Party after its election win after two small regional parties refused to lend their support due to the potential presence of the far-right Vox party in the cabinet.Alberto Nuñez Feijóo’s right-of-center Popular Party, or PP, won the most votes in Sunday´s ballot and finished with 133 seats, far short of the 176 majority figure in the 350-seat Spanish parliament.Feijóo tried garnering support from other parties but the numbers do not add up. As of Tuesday, he only has the support of ultra-nationalist Vox, with 33 seats and the tiny conservative UPN party, which has only one seat.On Monday, two small conservative parties — the Basque region’s PNV with five seats and the Canary Coalition with one — dealt Feijóo a blow by saying they would not support any government with Vox party members in it. Meanwhile, focus has shifted toward the radical Catalan secessionist party, Junts (Tog...

Climate change fingerprints found on heat waves around the world: Study

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

The fingerprints of climate change are all over the intense heat waves gripping the globe this month, a new study finds. Researchers say the deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe could not have happened without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air.These unusually strong heat waves are becoming more common, Tuesday's study said. The same research found the increase in heat-trapping gases, largely from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas has made another heat wave — the one in China — 50 times more likely with the potential to occur every five years or so.A stagnant atmosphere, warmed by carbon dioxide and other gases, also made the European heat wave 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees Celsius) hotter, the one in the United States and Mexico 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) warmer and the one in China one 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) toastier, the study found.Several climate scienti...

Gov. Greg Abbott signs $18 billion tax cut package for Texas property owners

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) – Gov. Greg Abbott has signed an $18 billion tax cut for Texas property owners, sending the proposals to voters for their approval later this year.The package puts $12.6 billion of the state’s historic budget surplus toward making cuts to school taxes for all property owners, dropping property taxes an average of more than 40% for some 5.7 million Texas homeowners and offering brand-new tax savings for smaller businesses and other commercial and nonhomesteaded properties. $18 billion deal reached: Texans to get biggest property tax cut in state’s history On Saturday, Abbott added his signature to Senate Bill 2, the property tax cuts bill, and Senate Bill 3, a franchise tax relief bill, which were passed by Texas lawmakers two weeks ago after months of negotiations between the state’s top Republicans.A third measure, House Joint Resolution 2, will go before voters in a constitutional election in November. Voters wo...

Man with warrants in custody after southeast Austin SWAT callout, APD says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin Police said a man was taken into custody Monday night after refusing to come out of an apartment complex in southeast Austin. According to APD, the man had three felony warrants. Police said investigators had been looking for the man for two days before finding him around 7:30 p.m. at the Douglas Landing Apartments on Douglas Street. That is located off East Oltorf Street just west of Pleasant Valley Road. Police said the man ran into an apartment and they called in SWAT around 9:25 p.m. APD took the man into custody around 11 p.m. According to APD, there were others in the apartment with the man. Police said they were taken out as well. According to police, officers evacuated nearby apartments around the time they called SWAT. APD said Austin Travis County-EMS checked out six people but no one was hurt. According to APD, Department of Public Safety troopers were on scene helping by blocking and directing traffic.

Town hall on future of mental health diversion program in Travis County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Travis County leaders will be holding a town hall Tuesday night to look at the finer details of what a mental health diversion center could look like in Austin, and what services it can provide. County Judge Andy Brown and commissioner Ann Howard will be meeting with the public at the town hall at 6 p.m. at the Travis County administration building. Judge Brown is hoping to get feedback from the community. "There are a lot of different ideas of how a good mental health diversion center could work," Judge Brown said. "There's a lot of different ideas about what mental health needs our community has. The best way for me and the other commissioners to find out what the community wants to see in a mental health diversion center is for people to come."Diversion center programIn March, the Travis County commissioners approved a resolution to develop a behavioral health diversion center. Judge Brown said a federally-funded diversion pilot program will begin in the next cou...

Off the Beaten Path: Herman Melville House

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:32 GMT

LANSINGBURGH, N.Y. (NEWS10) - The author known most famously for writing, Moby Dick, once called the Capital Region home. From 1838 to 1847, a young Herman Melville began his writing career while he lived in a house in Lansingburgh. Off the Beaten Path: The Farm Store at Tiashoke The property is preserved and maintained by the Lansingburgh Historical Society. Two areas of the house are occupied by private residents, including the author's bedroom where he did a majority of his writing.He wrote his first two novels, Omoo and Typee, while he lived here. He also wrote poetry during the same period of time.The property is preserved and maintained by the Lansingburgh Historical Society. Off the Beaten Path: Robert Frost Stone House Museum The Herman Melville House and Museum is located at 114th Street and 1st Avenue in Lansingburgh. The author's birthday is on August 1. The Lansingburgh Historical Society is holding a special event on August 12 to recognize the milestone. The event...