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Thousands of athletes gather to swim, bike and run the Boston Triathlon

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

Thousands of athletes are gathering on Carson Beach in South Boston to run, swim and back as a part of the Boston Triathlon.Racers took off Sunday morning, marking the 15th year of the race. More than 20,000 athletes are competing from all 50 states and 36 different countries.Among the competitors is 12-year-old Eshe Stockton of Rhode Island, who is competing in the adults race. Stockton, who placed third in the Under-19 sprint race last year, said she wants to be an Olympian one day.The Boston Triathlon kids race took place Saturday, which Race Director Michael O’Neil said is an important part of the organization.. “We are open to everyone, and we invite them in and we help them whether it’s teaching them to swim, whether it’s helping coaching them to bike, whether it’s learning how to run,” O’Neil said. “We want to be supportive of everyone’s journey.”Around 7:30 a.m., the first two waves of racers were in the water completing the swimming portion of the race. The athletes th...

Police identify people arrested after 8 shot near Caribbean festival in Boston

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

Several people have been arrested on criminal charges in connection with a brazen daylight shooting near the Caribbean Festival in Boston on Saturday that left 8 people wounded and cast a shadow over the annual festivities.Officers working a detail for the J’ouvert Parade witnessed and responded to a shooting in the area of Blue Hill and Talbot avenues around 7:45 a.m., according to Boston police. Six men and two females were shot, five of the men and one of the females were taken to area hospitals. Two other victims with graze wounds declined treatment at the scene, police said. All eight victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.Gerald Vick, 30, and Dwayne Francis, 30, both of Dorchester, were arrested and will be arraigned Monday in Dorchester District Court on a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm. After getting video that shows the two people involved in the initial gunfire, police learned that one of the men involved was shot in the leg and limped into the to...

Patriots-Titans film review: Marte Mapu’s main area for growth and 19 more takeaways

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

On the Titans’ seventh play from scrimmage Friday, Patriots rookie Marte Mapu flew up from his safety position to make a tackle over the middle.He whiffed.Of course he did.Mapu spent most of this summer hunting receivers and ball carriers in a red, non-contact jersey as he recovered from February surgery to fix a torn pectoral muscle. During team periods at practice, he would sprint to stop the ball and then … halt himself. He needs more live reps.Mapu didn’t engage in full-contact drills until a week ago at Green Bay, where he participated in joint practices but sat out the preseason game. His game-day drought ended Friday in Tennessee. Over 33 defensive snaps in the Pats’ preseason finale, Mapu missed two tackles on six attempts. Over time, a 33% missed tackle rate would drop any NFL defender on the street.But not Mapu. He’s a rookie brimming with potential and intrigue, a hybrid linebacker/safety the Patriots seem intent on shoehorning somewhere and ...

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resume negotiations over a disputed dam

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed their years-long negotiations Sunday over the controversial dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile River’s main tributary, officials said.The resumption of talks came after President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said last month that they aim to reach within four months an agreement on the operation of the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile meets the White Nile in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, before winding northward through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.Egypt fears a devastating impact if the dam is operated without taking its needs into account. It called it an existential threat. The Arab world’s most populous country relies almost entirely on the Nile to supply water for agriculture and its more than 100 million people. About 85% of the river’s flow originates from Ethiopia.The Egyptian Irrigation Ministry announced the new round of talks in Cairo. Irrigation Mi...

Trump’s drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Donald Trump facing felony charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the former president is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.It’s part of a multiyear effort to undermine public confidence in the American electoral process as he seeks to chart a return to the White House in 2024. There is evidence that his lies are resonating: New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 57% of Republicans believe Democrat Joe Biden was not legitimately elected as president.Here are the facts about Trump’s loss in the last presidential election:REVIEWS AND RECOUNTS CONFIRM BIDEN’S VICTORYBiden’s victory over Trump in 2020 was not particularly close. He won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots.Because the Electoral College ultimately ...

Pope Francis says he’ll meet with Mongolia’s ‘noble, wise’ people in first visit there by a pontiff

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday described his visit later this week to Mongolia, the first-ever pilgrimage by a pontiff to the east Asian country, as a much-desired occasion to encounter a “noble, wise” people. Speaking to the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said the trip would also be an opportunity to embrace the Catholic community there, describing the church in Mongolia as “small in numbers but lively in faith and great in charity.” The pilgrimage is also an opportunity “to meet up close with a noble, wise people,” he said. Francis departs on Thursday, returning to Rome four days later. There are fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, where some 3.2 million people live in one of the world’s least densely populated countries. The pope said Mongolia has a great religious tradition that “I will have the honor to know,” especially in the context of an inter-religious event during the trip on Sept. 3. The largest percentage of Mongolia’s people are...

Russia says it confirmed Wagner leader Prigozhin died in a plane crash

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday that it has confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary group Wagner, was killed in a plane crash.Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that forensic testing identified all 10 bodies recovered at the site of Wednesday’s crash and the findings “conform to the manifest” of the plane. The statement didn’t offer any details as to what might have caused the crash.Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of the passengers and crew members on board the plane.Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who in June mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. The 62-year-old’s extraordinary journey took him from prisoner and hot dog vendor to elegant St. Petersburg restaurateur, and then ...

The Taliban say security forces will stop women from visiting Afghan national park

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban will use security forces to stop women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, according to information shared by a spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry. The ministry alleges that women have not been observing the proper way to wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, when going to Band-e-Amir in the central Bamiyan province.This comes a week after the minister, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, visited the province and told officials and religious clerics that women haven’t been adhering to the correct way of wearing the hijab, asking security personnel to stop women from visiting the tourist hotspot.“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” Hanafi said at the time. Ministry spokesman Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif shared a report of Hanafi’s remarks late Saturday night, including the use of security forces, clerics and elders to carry out Hanafi’s order. A recording of the minister’s speech in Bamiyan, aligning with Akif’s re...

Zimbabwe’s opposition alleges ‘gigantic fraud’ in vote that extends the ZANU-PF party’s 43-year rule

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe ‘s main opposition leader alleged Sunday there had been “blatant and gigantic fraud” after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of another troubled election , with international observers reporting an atmosphere of intimidation against voters.The results were announced Saturday night, two days earlier than expected. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa promised to address the country soon as his Citizens Coalition for Change party said it would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.”“They stole your voice and vote but never your hope,” Chamisa wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in his first public reaction to the results. “It’s a blatant and gigantic fraud.”People in the country of 15 million are bound to view the results with suspicion.International election observers have noted problems with the election, held Wednesday and Thursday, citing an atmosphere of intimidation against Chamisa&...

Influx of asylum claimants flooding shelters, social services in Ottawa

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:57:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Femi Biobaku came to Canada more than a year ago fleeing persecution from the Nigerian authorities, forcing him to leave his wife, two children, community and job as an accountant back home. He landed in Ottawa in July 2022 and stayed with a host family for nearly a month before moving into a dorm at the Ottawa Mission homeless shelter, where things took a turn for the worse. “It was horrible. When I was there, I was being attacked,” said Biobaku. After leaving Nigeria, the newcomer said, living at the shelter for about a month re-traumatized him, leading him to consider suicide. He credits a referral to Ottawa’s Matthew House — a non-profit organization that provides transitional housing to refugees — for saving his life. “The first day I landed at Matthew House … that night, it was like I was in my home back in Nigeria,” said Biobaku. He said Matthew House, along with providing food and shelter, helped him get his life in Canada on track with...