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This Week, America Failed to Get Josh Hawley to Feel Shame

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., delivers remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2023.Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThis July 4, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley got on Twitter and quoted founding father Patrick Henry. According to Hawley, Henry told the world that “[i]t cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” This immediately generated vast Twitter unhappiness because Henry, while a devout Anglican, never said this.You might hope Hawley would have absorbed this reality and graciously acknowledged his error. After all, he’s a human being and so presumably can feel shame. He was a history major at Stanford and then got a law degree at Yale. He just wrote a book called “Manhood,” which tells us that to be a man is “to live the truth, to s...

Francia prohíbe la venta, posesión y transporte de fuegos artificiales durante el fin de semana del Día de la Bastilla

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

(CNN) — Francia prohibió la venta, posesión y transporte de fuegos artificiales durante el fin de semana del Día de la Bastilla por temor a nuevos disturbios.Se ha filmado a los manifestantes lanzando fuegos artificiales durante la ola de disturbios violentos que se apoderó del país luego de que un agente de policía matara a tiros a un adolescente de 17 años a fines de junio.“Para prevenir el riesgo de graves desórdenes públicos durante las festividades del 14 de julio, la venta, el porte, el transporte y el uso de artículos pirotécnicos y fuegos artificiales están prohibidos en toda Francia hasta el 15 de julio inclusive”, según el decreto publicado en el diario oficial del gobierno francés este domingo.El Día de la Bastilla, que es el día nacional de Francia, se celebra anualmente el 14 de julio con espectaculares espectáculos de fuegos artificiales organizados en todo el país.¿Por qué celebra Francia su Día Nacional el 14 de julio? ¿Qué fue la Toma de la Bastilla?El decreto...

La enorme mancha de algas que se dirige a Florida se redujo en un 75%

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

(CNN) — Vuelven las vacaciones en Florida, pero sin algas apestosas.La masa récord de algas apestosas que empezó a aparecer en las emblemáticas playas de Florida esta primavera, conocida como el Gran Cinturón de Algas Sargazo del Atlántico, se redujo en el Golfo de México en un 75% el mes pasado, según científicos del Laboratorio de Oceanografía Óptica de la Universidad del Sur de Florida.Estas algas, que huelen a huevos podridos y emiten gases tóxicos cuando llegan a la costa, son una molestia para los bañistas de Florida en primavera, que es también el inicio de la temporada turística del Estado del Sol. En abril, las algas batieron un récord: los científicos identificaron 3 millones de toneladas de sargazo en el mar Caribe.Y aunque los científicos esperaban que la masa se redujera en junio, la drástica disminución del mes pasado en el Golfo de México fue “más allá de lo esperado”, según un boletín del Laboratorio de Oceanografía Óptica.“Se encontró muy poc...

‘We shouldn’t be swimming in poopy water’: Report highlights unsafe US beach pollution levels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

With beach season in full swing, researchers unveiled a report that showed roughly 55% of U.S. beaches had at least one day of potentially unsafe contamination levels last year.“The places we love to go and swim and play in the water are not always as clean and as safe as we’d like them to be,” said John Rumpler, clean water program director for Environment America Research and Policy Center.Rumpler’s team pored over pages of tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, in which each beach was given a Beach Action Value (BAV) — a score the EPA uses to put out safety advisories or closings based on bacteria levels in the water.On unsafe days, the EPA estimated that the high pollution levels could cause illness at a rate of 32 people out of every 1,000 swimmers. Environment America scientists discovered that at the 3,192 beaches the EPA tested last year, more than 1,750 had at least one day on which fecal contamination had high scores.“Whether itR...

Hot and Hazy Week Ahead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

Following another day of record heat in both Miami and Marathon on Saturday, there is no sign of the heat letting up any time soon. While only Marathon is forecast to break its record for the date this Sunday, it will be another very hot day across South Florida.A Heat Advisory is in effect for Miami-Dade and Broward Counties this Sunday from 11AM through 7PM for peak feels-like temps of up to 105-109F.The day will begin with a mix of sun and clouds with warming temperatures, reaching the low to mid 90s by the early afternoon. Then during the mid to late afternoon hours is when we’ll have our best chance for seeing scattered showers and thunderstorms across the area. Rain chances will be lower at a 40% chance as some Saharan dust continues to move in from the south, which helps to prevent rain and storm development.This dust will be most in place on Monday with some drier air lingering into Tuesday, meaning rain chances will be down to a 20-30% chance. This dust will help keep...

Polish politicians attack migrants for electoral gain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

WARSAW — There’s a lot of electoral mileage in Poland from attacking migrants.Both the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and the centrist opposition led by former European Council President Donald Tusk are raising fears about Muslim immigrants ahead of this fall’s parliamentary election.PiS seized on the issue over the last few weeks. The government held out against an EU deal on relocating migrants — drawing the ire of most fellow member countries as well as the European Commission. Party leader and the country’s de facto ruler Jarosław Kaczyński called for a referendum on the issue to be held alongside the election.“We will not agree to this. The people of Poland also do not agree to this,” Kaczyński said during a rally Saturday, referring to the EU relocation plan.It’s an effort to replay the scenario that helped the party win power in an election held during the peak of the EU’s migration crisis in 2015. At that time, Kaczyń...

Howie Carr: For Boston insiders, Bob Popeo was a bargain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

Like most everybody who knew him, I learned a lot from Bob Popeo, the ultimate Boston lawyer who died last week at age 85.One time I was slightly jammed up about something or other, and I explained the terrible unfairness of it all to Popeo.“Bob,” I said, “I’m innocent.”He chuckled.“Howie,” he said, “you are not ‘innocent.’ Don’t ever forget that. Nobody is ‘innocent.’ The most you, or anybody else, can ever hope to be is ‘not guilty.’”It was like a legal interpretation of what the nuns used to call “original sin.” Everybody’s dirty starting out, which is why you need… baptism. And once you get older, if you’re in business — monkey business, anyway — you need a great lawyer like Bob Popeo.Everybody of a certain age and class in Boston understood this. In 2016, they were dedicating a room at the State House to Bob Crane, one of Popeo’s former clients, the former state treasurer who retired in 1990.It was a big day for the old gang, and I do mean gang.Popeo arrived a little late. Afte...

Rachael Rollins ethics investigation transcripts withheld from the Herald

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

A Herald request for the interview transcripts behind the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel’s investigation into ex-U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins has been denied in full, with the agency citing “personal privacy” exceptions.“I am writing in response to your request dated May 19, 2023, in which you asked the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to provide you with ‘the complete transcripts of the OIG interviews with U.S. Attorney and all others interviewed,’” Chauncey Lawson of the agency’s FOIA team wrote in a Friday letter to this reporter..“In reviewing your request under the FOIA, OSC identified 183 pages of responsive records,” his letter continued. “However, all 183 pages will be withheld in full” under three exemptions to the law.Those are exemption 5, which “protects from disclosure inter-agency or intra-agency information that is normally protected from discovery in civil litigation based on one or more legal privileges (including, in this instance, the delib...

Pope Francis names 21 new cardinals, including prelates based in Hong Kong and Jerusalem.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday announced he has chosen 21 new cardinals, including prelates from Jerusalem and Hong Kong — places where Catholics are a small minority. The pope announced his picks during his customary weekly appearance to the public in St. Peter’s Square, saying the ceremony to formally install the churchmen as cardinals will be held on Sept. 30. Among those tapped are several prelates holding or about to assume major Vatican posts, like Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, whom the pope just named to lead the office for ensuring doctrinal orthodoxy. The new cardinals also include Hong Kong Bishop Stephen Sau-yan Chow and the Vatican’s top official in the Middle East, Monsignor Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.The Associated Press

UN chief says Sudan on the brink of a ‘full-scale civil war’ after nearly 3 months of fighting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:51 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sudan was on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” as fierce clashes between rival generals continued unabated Sunday in the capital, Khartoum.He warned on Saturday evening that the war between the Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary force is likely to destabilize the entire region, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general.Sudan descended into chaos after months of tension between military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and his rival Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in mid-April.Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments last month that the clashes have killed over 3,000 people and wounded over 6,000 others. The death tally, however, is highly likely to be much higher. More than 2.9 million people have fled their homes to safer areas inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries, a...