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Japanese company: ‘High probability’ lander crashed on moon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

By MARCIA DUNN (AP Aerospace Writer)A Japanese company’s spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon Wednesday, losing contact moments before touchdown and sending flight controllers scrambling to figure out what happened.More than six hours after communication ceased, the Tokyo company ispace finally confirmed what everyone had suspected, saying there was “a high probability” that the lander had slammed into the moon.It was a disappointing setback for ispace, which after a 4 1/2-month mission had been on the verge of doing what only three countries have done: successfully land a spacecraft on the moon.Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, held out hope even after contact was lost as the lander descended the final 33 feet (10 meters). Flight controllers peered at their screens in Tokyo as minutes went by with only silence from the moon.A grim-faced team surrounded Hakamada as he announced that the landing likely failed.Official word fi...

Canadian family describes escape from Sudan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

A Canadian family, on what was supposed to be a vacation to visit family in Sudan was forced to escape to Germany after Sudan descends into civil war. But most disheartening for Nagwa El Mamoun and her daughter Dalia Abbadi, the inability of the Canadian government to get Canadian citizens to safety.“It was kind of shocking seeing, not just the presence of the RSF and the SAF, but just people’s bodies who unfortunately died in the battle or war, and it’s really really heartbreaking. And on top of that, we have folks who are struggling and so people are resorting to robbing people they see on the road,” explained Abbadi.“At moments it felt like it was hopeless, kind of just getting the message of ‘stay tight, we’re working on something’ and we’re hearing on the news that other nations are working on plans to evacuate their people. It was very hopeless.”El Mamoun and Abbadi say they contacted global affairs when fighting brok...

Quad leaders to hold security summit in Sydney on May 24

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday he will host President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan for a security summit next month.The meeting in Sydney on May 24 will be Australia’s first time hosting the Quad Leaders’ Summit. It will also include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Albanese attended a summit in Tokyo hours after he was sworn in as prime minister following elections last year. “Quad partners are deeply invested in the success of the Indo-Pacific,” Albanese said in a statement.“Leveraging our collective strengths helps Australia advance its interests and more effectively respond to the region’s needs. We are always better off when we act together with our close friends and partners,” Albanese added.The Quad was committed to supporting an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific that is respectful of sovereignty and ensures security and growth for all, he said.“I look fo...

Biden to visit Japan, Australia for meetings with allies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

President Joe Biden will visit Japan and Australia next month to huddle with allies on their continued response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as ways to confront China’s assertive economic and military moves in the Indo-Pacific region, the White House announced Tuesday.Biden will attend a summit of the leaders of the Group of Seven advanced democracies in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 19-21, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. Then he will make his first trip as president to Australia, which will include the third in-person meeting of the so-called “Quad” leadership of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India.“The President and G7 leaders will discuss a range of the most pressing global issues, including the G7’s unwavering support for Ukraine, addressing the dual food and climate crises, securing inclusive and resilient economic growth, and continuing to lead a clean energy transition at home and for our partners around the world,” she said.At the Quad...

Jailed strongman’s whereabouts unknown amid Sudan chaos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — An attack on the prison holding deposed Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir has raised questions about his whereabouts, with one of the warring sides saying he is being held in a secure location and the other alleging he has been released.Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades despite wars and sanctions, was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and other crimes committed during the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region in the 2000s. He and other former top officials accused of atrocities have been held in Kober prison in Khartoum for the last four years, as authorities have declined ICC requests that they be handed over.The Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which together had removed al-Bashir from power during mass protests, are now battling one another across the capital. The fighting reached the prison over the weekend, with conflicting reports about what t...

Authorities find 8 bodies in Mexican resort of Cancun

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in the Mexican resort of Cancun said Tuesday they are trying to identify eight bodies found dumped in the Caribbean resort. Speaking to families of missing people, Oscar Montes de Oca, the head prosecutor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo pledged to carry out more searches and identifications. The bodies were found in searches over the weekend in which police looked in wooded lots and even sinkhole ponds known as cenotes. More than 112,000 people are listed as missing in Mexico, and searches for clandestine grave sites have become common throughout the country. What is unusual is that they are now being carried out in Cancun, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry. The clandestine body dumping grounds are often used by drug cartels to dispose of bodies of their victims. Several cartels are fighting for control of the Caribbean coast and its lucrative retail drug trade.Montes de Oca said five of the bodies were found at a building site ...

Ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to join Harvard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who led her country through a devastating mass shooting, will be temporarily joining Harvard University later this year, Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said Tuesday.Ardern, a global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, has been appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She will serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership beginning this fall.“Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Elmendorf said in statement, adding that Ardern will “bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.”Ardern, who was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, shocked New Zealanders when she announced in January she was stepping down from the role after more tha...

Myles Gray had swollen airway, blood in his throat after police beating: paramedic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

BURNABY, B.C. — Myles Gray’s airway was swollen and there was blood in his mouth and throat as an advanced life support paramedic inserted an intubation tube in an effort to revive him after a beating by several Vancouver police officers, the first responder said.It took two attempts to get the tube down Gray’s throat, Stephen Shipman testified Tuesday at the British Columbia coroner’s inquest into the 33-year-old’s death.Gray died in August 2015 after the beating by several officers that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.Shipman told the inquest he initially thought Gray was not a white man because of the bruising evident on his face and parts of his body.He was badly beaten regardless of circumstances, the paramedic said.Of the 14 Vancouver police officers who have testified so far, most have said they didn’t notice any injuries besides redness on Gray’s face and some body bruisin...

Trump might use trial docs to scorch witnesses, DA says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors have asked a judge to bar Donald Trump from using evidence from his criminal case to attack witnesses, citing what they say is the former president’s history of making “harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements” about people he’s tangled with in legal disputes.The Manhattan district attorney’s office filed court papers Monday asking Judge Juan Manuel Merchan for a protective order that would put strict guardrails around Trump’s access to and use of evidence turned over by prosecutors prior to trial. That kind of evidence sharing, called discovery, is routine in criminal cases, and is intended to help ensure a fair trial.Prosecutors want to block Trump from posting evidence to social media or providing it to third parties. They also want to restrict how he views certain sensitive material, asking that he do so only in the presence of his lawyers — and that he not be able to copy, photograph or transcribe those rec...

Fight over police misconduct records far from finished

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:31 GMT

CHICAGO -- WGN first introduced you to Charles Green several years ago. He had been arrested at the age of 16 for a quadruple murder on Chicago’s West Side. Sentenced to life in prison, he would spend decades behind bars.Green was released in 2009 when the case against him crumbled amid questions about police tactics and why eyewitness testimony that could’ve helped Green was not allowed to be heard at trial.As part of Green’s fight to clear his name, his attorney, Jared Kosoglad, sent an open records request to the Chicago Police Department for “closed complaint register files,” or records of officer misconduct. RELATED: Former inmate fighting for release of CPD misconduct files The attorney asked for not just the files involving officers in Green’s case, but the entire department going back to the late 1960s, including allegations during the years Mayor Lori Lightfoot led an agency that probes misconduct.The city declined and Kosoglad filed a lawsuit on behalf Green.The leg...