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You might be surprised at how big NASA’s ballooning program is

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

Up, up and awayGiant balloons were in the news a lot this year, and NASA has some of the largest, which will launch early this month.When most people think of NASA they think of astronauts and spacecraft, not balloons. But NASA has been using balloons for more than 30 years. Its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program, with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. This year’s most important flights begin early this month in the Antarctic.“The annual Antarctic long-duration balloon campaign is the program’s flagship event for long-duration missions,” said Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office. “The environment and stratospheric wind conditions provide a unique and valuable opportunity to fly missions in a near-space environment for days or weeks at a time.”Why balloonsBalloon payloads are becoming more complex and more sophisticated, in many cases resembling spacecraft. However, balloon mission...

LeBron James criticizes gun laws after UNLV shooting: ‘It’s ridiculous’

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

LAS VEGAS — As the Lakers and the NBA descended upon T-Mobile Arena for the final four of the league’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, the host city was mourning after a tragic mass shooting that left at least three dead on the UNLV campus – just a few miles away from where the tournament will wrap up.Lakers star LeBron James, who has been a vocal advocate for gun control and reform for years, offered his condolences to the families and friends who lost their loved ones while also criticizing gun policies in the U.S. in the wake of the shooting.“It just goes back to what I said before about guns in America,” James said during his Wednesday afternoon media availability at the arena ahead of the Lakers’ semifinal matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night.James added: “It’s such a longer conversation, but we keep dealing with the same story, this same conversation every single time it happens, and it just continues to happen. The ability to get a gun, the ability to do...

49ers’ blueprint could help Cowboys defend Hurts, Eagles

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

SANTA CLARA — The win-loss record says the 49ers aren’t beating up on opponents as they were a year ago based on the week-after stat that so delighted the front office and coaching staff a year ago.Play the 49ers, lose the next week. It happened 15 consecutive times in 2022. There was pride in the idea that the 49ers were so physical, win or lose, that their opponent was beat up the following week as evidenced by the scoreboard.Fast forward to 2023, and teams are 6-5 after they play the 49ers. But it’s conceivable the 49ers did something even more tangible to the Philadelphia Eagles, who could fall into the second seed with a loss to Dallas on Sunday night.The 49ers throttled quarterback Jalen Hurts by going against their nature and abandoning their rush-first-ask-questions-later philosophy in favor of something more strategic. Dallas has a fierce pass rush in its own right in Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, and the 49ers’ Nick Bosa assumes the Cowboys w...

Stephens: The left is dooming any hope for a Palestinian state

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

Do the people chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” have any idea of the irreparable harm they’re doing to any hope of Palestinian sovereignty?For decades, the question of a Palestinian state has come down to two dates: 1948 and 1967. Most Western supporters of Palestinian statehood have argued that the key date is the Six-Day War of June 1967, when Israel, faced with open threats of annihilation, took possession of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.According to this line of thinking, the way to peace rested on Arab diplomatic recognition of Israel in exchange for the return of these so-called occupied territories. That’s what happened between Egypt and Israel at Camp David in 1978, and what might have happened at Camp David in 2000 if Yasser Arafat had only accepted the offer of full statehood made to him by Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel.Yet there has always been a second narrat...

Why the Albanian opposition is disrupting parliament with flares, makeshift barricades and fires

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — For months, Albanian opposition parties have used flares and noise to disrupt Parliament, in protest at what they describe as the authoritarian rule of the governing Socialist Party. On Thursday, lawmakers passed the annual budget and other draft laws, despite opposition claims that the left-wing Socialists have blocked the establishment of commissions to investigate allegations of government corruption. The disturbances started in October just before prosecutors accused Sali Berisha, 79, former prime minister and president and now the main leader of the center-right Democratic Party, of corruption over of a land-buying scheme that’s under legal investigation in the capital, Tirana. Opposition parliamentarians regularly pile up chairs, use flares, start small fires and even physically grab microphones when their Socialist counterparts take the floor.The governing Socialists, led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, hold 74 of the 140 seats in Parliament, enough to pass...

UK leader Rishi Sunak vows to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda despite court saying plan is unlawful

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Thursday he would “do what is necessary” to revive a blocked deal to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, even if it means ignoring human rights laws. During a hastily scheduled news conference, Sunak vowed to press on with a plan that has roiled the governing Conservative Party and threatened his leadership.He said that a new bill designed to override a U.K. Supreme Court ruling will end “the merry-go-round of legal challenges” that have prevented the government acting on its agreement with Rwanda to put migrants who reach Britain across the English Channel on a one-way trip to the East African country.“We will get flights off the ground,” Sunak said.Refugee groups and legal experts have strongly criticized the plan as a breach of the U.K.’s human rights commitments. But Sunak’s main political threat comes from members of his party who think it is not harsh enough.It escalated when Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick...

Ciena: Fiscal Q4 Earnings Snapshot

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

HANOVER, Md. (AP) — HANOVER, Md. (AP) — Ciena Corp. (CIEN) on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $91.2 million.On a per-share basis, the Hanover, Maryland-based company said it had profit of 62 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 75 cents per share.The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 68 cents per share.The developer of high-speed networking technology posted revenue of $1.13 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.1 billion.For the year, the company reported profit of $254.8 million, or $1.71 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.39 billion._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CIEN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CIENSource

Facing potential legal action, Prince William Co. board approves previously rejected home gun business

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday approved an application for a home gun business in Potomac Shores that was previously rejected in September.The reconsideration came after the applicant pushed for another hearing and threatened to sue the county.Robert and Michelle Dawson will now be permitted to sell guns online and provide in-person background checks, with walk-in customers by appointment only at their Cockspur Lane home.The family’s application was backed by the board’s three Republicans, Gainesville Supervisor Bob Weir, Coles Supervisor Yesli Vega and Brentsville Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, as well as Democratic Neabsco Supervisor Victor Angry, who bucked his party on the vote.Chair Ann Wheeler, Potomac Supervisor Andrea Bailey and Woodbridge Supervisor Angela Franklin — all Democrats in the majority — opposed the application. Democratic Occoquan Supervisor Kenny Boddye, who previously rejected the application, stepped outside of the board chambers prior ...

Ex-UK leader Boris Johnson rejects notion he wanted to let COVID-19 ‘rip’ through the population

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday rejected suggestions that he wanted to let COVID-19 “rip” through the population as he defended his handling of the pandemic during a second day of testimony at a public inquiry into the crisis.Johnson shook his head and responded “No, no, no” as he was confronted with a series of diary entries by his chief scientific adviser that indicated he had argued in favor of letting the virus spread rapidly to increase immunity to COVID-19 rather than imposing further restrictions on the people of Britain. The former prime minister, who is testifying under oath, said he was simply pushing scientists to explain why such a strategy wouldn’t work as the government debated whether to impose a second national lockdown in the autumn of 2020 when infection rates were rising and vaccines weren’t yet available. Johnson said critics should look at his public statements and actions, rather than “people’s jottings from meetings that I...

ANÁLISIS | Así han sido los 4 años del Gobierno de Alberto Fernández como presidente de Argentina

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:17:15 GMT

(CNN Español) — Desde hace años, Argentina parece no tener respiro. Con una de las economías y las poblaciones más grandes de América Latina, y una historia de avances y crecimiento, en las últimas décadas el país sudamericano ha pasado por dificultades económicas y períodos de estancamiento e inestabilidad política, y cada uno de los gobiernos recientes lo ha sentido en las urnas. Aunque Argentina lleva ya tres décadas seguidas de gobiernos democráticos, el país ha atravesado más de 70 años de crisis, con cuatro golpes militares, ciclos muy cortos de estabilidad y crecimiento, escenarios recurrentes de hiperinflación, recesiones y varias crisis de deuda externa.Elecciones en Argentina 2023, en vivo: resultados, noticias, votaciones y másEl presidente Alberto Fernández, elegido en 2019 y cuyo mandato termina este domingo 10 de diciembre, no ha sido la excepción: con un país aquejado por una inflación muy alta —entre otros problemas económicos: déficit fiscal, deuda externa y d...