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SpaceX calls off 1st launch attempt of giant new rocket

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

By MARCIA DUNN (AP Aerospace Writer)SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) — SpaceX called off its first launch attempt of its giant rocket Monday after a problem cropped up during fueling,Elon Musk’s company had planned to fly the nearly 400-foot Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. The countdown was halted at the 40-second mark because of a stuck valve in the first-stage booster. Launch controllers couldn’t fix the frozen valve in time, and canceled the attempt. The countdown continued, and fueling was completed, as a dress rehearsal.No people or satellites were aboard. There won’t be another try until at least Wednesday. The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, ultimately, Mars.On the eve of the launch attempt, cars, campers, RVs and even bicycles and horses jammed the only road leading to the launch pad, where the stainless steel rocket towered above the flat scrubland and prairie. Enthusiasts...

Fast field departs for start of 127th Boston Marathon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT (Associated Pres)HOPKINTON, Mass. (AP) — The fastest and most-decorated field in race history left Hopkinton on Monday for the start of the 127th Boston Marathon, with world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge leading a field of 30,000 on the 26.2-mile (42.2 kilometer) trek to Copley Square.Forecasts of a headwind and a thick fog blanketing the hilly course, leaving the roads wet, dampened Kipchoge’s chances of besting his world mark of 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds in his Boston debut. Still, a win in the world’s oldest and most prestigious long-distance race would give the 38-year-old Kenyan victories in an unprecedented five of the six major marathons.Ethiopian Amane Beriso led a women’s field that was also among the strongest in the division’s half-century of history. For the first time, the race also includes a nonbinary division, with 27 athletes registered.A dozen former champions and runners from 120 countries and all 50 states wer...

Former Chicago Bears linebacker Robert Quinn lists 5-bedroom Lake Forest home for $2.6M

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

Former Chicago Bears linebacker Robert Quinn and his wife, Christina, on Friday placed their five-bedroom, 4,300-square-foot house in Lake Forest on the market for $2.59 million.A veteran of several NFL teams, Quinn, 32, joined the Bears in 2020 when he signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the team. The Bears traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles in October.In July 2021, Quinn and his wife bought the Lake Forest house through their Elroy Q LLC company. Built in 2020, the Tudor-style house has 5-1/2 bathrooms, two fireplaces, 10-foot ceilings on the first floor, a family room with custom built-ins, a library with a coffered ceiling and a marble surround fireplace, a kitchen with a vaulted ceiling and a 3,000-square-foot finished basement with a wet bar.The house also has a first-floor primary bedroom suite, a heated three-car garage, a slate roof, copper gutters, a brick paver front walk and a brick paver patio, all on a 0.57-acre property.“All three floors seamlessly ...

Nets trust Spencer Dinwiddie after lob-passing fiasco in Game 1: ‘The odds are in your favor’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

PHILADELPHIA — When DeAndre Jordan arrived in Brooklyn in the summer of 2019, Spencer Dinwiddie had to re-learn alley-oops. Jordan was a one-footed jumper, and Jarrett Allen jumped off two feet. Dinwiddie had to learn the difference in cadence when throwing lob passes. The turnovers were high before he found his rhythm.Game 1′s lob-pass nightmare, the starting Nets guard said, is not attributed to the same struggles — even though Dinwiddie returned to a new-look Brooklyn team this season after pit stops with the Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks.It’s unclear where the team places blame for the miscommunications on alley-oop passes from Dinwiddie both to starting center Nic Claxton and reserve center Day’Ron Sharpe.Dinwiddie turned the ball over four times in a below-average performance from Brooklyn’s floor general. Three of his turnovers came on lob passes. Two of his lob passes were uncharacteristically high, including one intended for Sha...

Heat know they won’t be getting Herro ball, but who will be next man up?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

In the moment, the gravity was difficult to discern. On one hand, in this case the right hand, Tyler Herro was in considerable anguish. On the other hand, he still was ambulatory and able enough to launch a successful 3-pointer in the waning seconds of the first half of Sunday’s 130-117 Miami Heat victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.It was only after the fact, after the Heat retreated to the locker room at the intermission, that they realized the stakes, two broken fingers on the fourth–year guard’s shooting hand, weeks if not months sidelined.“He was in so much pain, but I didn’t really know what it was.” coach Erik Spoelstra said, his team up 1-0 in the best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series that continues at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Fiserv Forum. “A lot of times you jam a finger or this or that and you get a stinger on the elbow, and then it kind of wears off after 30 seconds. So I didn’t burn the timeout there becaus...

Airbus, Air France acquitted over 2009 Rio-Paris crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A French court on Monday acquitted Airbus and Air France of manslaughter charges over the 2009 crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris, which killed 228 people and led to lasting changes in aircraft safety measures.Sobs broke out in the courtroom as the presiding judge read out the decision, a devastating defeat for victims’ families who fought for 13 years to see the case reach court.The three-judge panel ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence of a direct link between decisions by the companies and the crash. The official investigation found that multiple factors contributed to the disaster, including pilot error and the icing over of external sensors called pitot tubes.“We are sickened. The court is telling us, ‘go on, there’s not a problem here, there’s nothing to see,’” said Danièle Lamy, who lost her son Eric in the crash and heads an association for families of victims.“For the powerful, impunity reigns. Centuries pass, and nothing changes,” she s...

Chinese minister’s tour underscores closer ties with Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — China’s defense minister on Monday toured the top Russian military academy on a visit to the Russian capital that underscored the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing amid the fighting in Ukraine.Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Gen. Li Shangfu in the Kremlin on Sunday, noting that his trip follows a “very productive” three-day state visit to Moscow by Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.Putin emphasized that defense cooperation, including joint military drills, has helped “strengthen the trust-based strategic relationship” between the two countries.Li told Putin that “relations between our armed forces are growing stronger with every passing day,” adding that “your personal friendship with the president of China plays a major role in this process, and everyone in China knows this.”On Monday, Li visited the military academy of the Russian General Staff, the elite institution for training senior military officers.The Russian Defense Min...

Northern Ireland peacemakers urge end to political impasse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — An American architect of Northern Ireland’s historic 1998 peace accord on Monday urged its feuding politicians to revive the mothballed Belfast government, as a current political crisis clouded celebration of the peacemaking milestone.Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell told a conference to mark a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement that Northern Ireland’s leaders must “act with courage and vision as their predecessors did 25 years ago,” when bitter enemies forged an unlikely peace.Mitchell, who chaired two arduous years of negotiations that led to the accord, joined ex-President Bill Clinton and political leaders from the U.K., Ireland and Northern Ireland at a Belfast conference to mark 25 years since the agreement largely ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed — a moment, Mitchell said, “when history opened itself to hope.”“The people of Northern Ireland continue to wrestle with their doubts, their differences, their disagree...

Nigerian airport workers go on strike; travelers stranded

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Thousands of travelers were stranded in Nigeria Monday as airport union workers began a two-day strike demanding better conditions.The strike canceled flights as employees from across seven unions in Nigeria’s aviation industry blocked access to the country’s largest airports, in Lagos and the capital, Abuja.Strikes are common in Nigeria’s aviation sector. Workers say they have poor conditions and airlines are struggling with rising costs and fuel shortages. It is the second union-organized strike this year and comes after failed attempts by regulators and policymakers to appease workers.Monday’s strike came on the heels of the government’s refusal to release recently reviewed aviation working conditions and adjust pay to match Nigeria’s new minimum wage of $65 per month, according to a strike notice issued on the weekend. Hadi Sirika, Nigeria’s aviation minister, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.So far the delays show no si...

Scholz’s wife steps down as minister in German state

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:28 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s wife said Monday that she is stepping down as the education minister of the region where the couple lives, citing disagreement in her party over a policy proposal.Britta Ernst, 62, has been education minister in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, since 2017. Like Scholz, she is a member of the center-left Social Democrats.Ernst said it had always been “a great honor and pleasure” to lead her ministry. But she told reporters in the state capital, Potsdam, that “great unity” is needed to deal with the challenges it faces. In a separate, written statement, she pointed to disagreement in the ranks of the local Social Democrats over her proposal to deal with a shortage of teachers. She said she was resigning “so that a new attempt can be made with a new person at the head of the ministry to deal with this challenge for schools in Brandenburg.”Ernst is being replaced as education minister by Steffen Freiberg, who u...