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US Congress members make a rare visit to opposition-held northwest Syria

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Three U.S. Congress members made a brief visit to opposition-held northwest Syria on Sunday, the first known trip to the war-torn country by American lawmakers in six years.Reps. Ben Cline of Virginia, French Hill of Arkansas and Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, all Republicans, entered Syria from Turkey via the Bab al-Salama crossing in northern Aleppo province, two people familiar with the trip said. They spoke on condition of anonymity after the U.S. delegation had left Syria, because they were not authorized to speak publicly.Near the crossing, they met with students from Wisdom House, a school for orphans in Idlib that is a project of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a U.S.-based Syrian opposition organization that facilitated the lawmakers’ trip. Hill has been one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of the Syrian opposition, and his Arkansas constituents have been major donors to the school.The Americans also met with Syrian opposition leaders, humanitarian wo...

NASCAR driver Ryan Preece gets medical clearance to return home after terrifying crash at Daytona

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR driver Ryan Preece, whose car rolled about a dozen times during a terrifying crash at Daytona International Speedway, was on his way home about 12 hours later after being discharged from a hospital Sunday.Stewart-Haas Racing said Preece was headed back to North Carolina after getting clearance from doctors at Halifax Health Medical Center. The team earlier said Preece was “awake, alert and mobile” and “had been communicating with family and friends.”The 32-year-old Preece was able to climb out of his mangled No. 41 Ford on Saturday night with help before emergency workers put him on a gurney and into an ambulance. He initially went to the track’s infield care center before being transported to Halifax Health for overnight observation.Preece tweeted about two hours after the race, posting: “If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough. … I’m coming back.”Preece and SHR teammate Chase Briscoe made contact coming out of Tu...

Competitors get down and dirty at Britain’s bog snorkeling championships

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Intrepid athletes donned snorkels and slithered through slime on Sunday during one of Britain’s quirkiest sporting events: the World Bog Snorkeling Championships.The annual competition in the tiny town of Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, sees competitors race to complete two lengths of a 60-yard (55 meter) water-filled trench cut through a peat bog. They can use flippers on their feet, but conventional swimming strokes are banned.Some contestants accessorized their snorkels, masks and flippers with more flamboyant touches — one carried a giant plastic toad on their head, another had a bathing cap adorned with flowers. Spectators also got in on the fun, with two wearing pink cardboard boxes proclaiming them to be limited edition bog-snorkeling Barbie and Ken.Competitors at the 35th annual contest were hoping to beat the time of current world record-holder Neil Rutter, who won in 1 minute, 18 seconds in 2018.The Associated Press

Timeless Toys in Lincoln Square

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

Timeless Toys in Lincoln Square joins WGN Weekend Morning News with their unique selection of toys.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

The most and least lucrative college majors in Illinois

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

(Stacker) -- Over a dozen medical schools and 40 law schools have elected to withdraw from the U.S. News & World Report annual college rankings as of February 2023. Critics argue that the well-known college ranking system is based on metrics that neglect to consider many qualities that influence student success, such as postgraduate placement rates and course credit transfer applicability.The ongoing exodus has left prospective graduate students with one less all-inclusive tool to navigate the application process. And while no undergraduate institutions have withdrawn yet, the trend has revealed the need for more reliable and independent bases of comparison among colleges and academic programs.One such measure, the median earnings of college graduates by field of study, can significantly impact career prospects. On a national level, those who study nuclear engineering technologies or become technicians in that field have the highest median earnings three years after graduation a...

Multipart Black education series happening in Austin

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A multipart Black education series started in Austin over the weekend with leaders looking for ways to make education more equitable in Central Texas. The Black Leaders Collective (BLC) is leading efforts in a three-part State of Black Education series. "BLC recognizes that those closest to the problem are fully equipped to identify and solve their own issues," BLC founder Terry P. Mitchell said. "Because of this, the first summit will convene 300 Black parents, caregivers, students and teachers to discuss educational inequities Black families and students face in Central Texas public schools, private schools, charter schools and home schools, as well as potential community-driven solutions to these issues."Leaders from groups like the NAACP and the predominately Black charter school Texas Empowerment Academy are just a couple of groups who presented at the summit on Saturday.BLC said the first summit focused on data ranging from early literacy, college and military ...

Denver weather: Warm, cloudy with chance of afternoon thunderstorms on Sunday

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

It’s going to be a warm and cloudy Sunday with possible late afternoon storms in Denver.The high temperature will be in mid-80s, according to the National Weather Service. It will transition from partly cloudy skies in the morning to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. There is a 40% chance of precipitation.Temperatures will dip to lows in the high 50s with 50% chance of thunderstorms in the evening.A similar forecast is expected for Monday with high temperatures rising to the mid 70s with a 50% chance of thunderstorms throughout the day.It is expected to be mostly sunny with highs around 80 degrees on Thursday.

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

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

MOSCOW — Russian authorities on Sunday confirmed the death of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, putting to rest any doubts about whether the wily mercenary leader turned mutineer was on a plane that crashed Wednesday, killing everyone on board. Genetic testing on the 10 bodies recovered at the crash site “conform to the manifest ” for the flight, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. Russia’s civil aviation authority had said Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants were on the list of seven passengers and three crew members.The Investigative Committee did not indicate what might have caused the business jet to plummet from the sky halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s hometown. But the crash’s timing raised suspicions of a possible Kremlin-orchestrated hit, while Prigozhin’s chameleon-like background allowed for speculation that he wasn’t on the plane or had somehow escaped death.Two months ago, Prigozhin, 62,...

Q&A: Inside San Jose’s secret vault of video game nostalgia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

In the basement of an ordinary-looking computer repair shop in downtown San Jose sits a Library of Congress worth of video games, vintage consoles and assorted memorabilia.Related ArticlesRetail | What to play: Action games dominate the weekend in video games Retail | Review: If players can scale difficult wall, ‘Armored Core VI’ turns into a masterpiece Retail | ‘Marvel Snap’ comes out of Early Access on Steam with bonuses Retail | What to play: ‘Madden NFL 24’ and ‘Vampire Survivors’ will keep you busy this weekend Retail | Review: SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X meshes comfort with performance Okay, it doesn’t have the pomp and circumstance of the country’s oldest federal institution. But Gameshop Downstairs on East Santa Clara Street has its own niche as a cultural curator, offering a portal into digital entertainment’s past.“I think ...

Alioui scores twice as Le Havre rallies to draw. Reims moves to 3rd place in French league

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:30:14 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Striker Nabil Alioui scored his first pair of goals in the French top flight to help Le Havre rally to a 2-2 draw at Rennes on Sunday.Rennes wasted the chance to move level on points with Monaco and Marseille at the top of the league after squandering a two-goal lead.The 24-year-old Alioui, who honed his skills at Monaco’s academy, is getting his first taste of the top league in France this season.After Rennes dominated the first half and took command of the match with goals from Ludovic Blas and Chirstopher Wooh, Alioui revived Le Havre’s hopes with a header past goalkeeper Steve Mandanda five minutes before the interval.Le Havre’s chances took another blow near the hour mark with Samuel Grandsir’s sending off, but Alioui managed to snatch another goal in the 70th minute. Well set up by Loic Nego’s pass, Alioui made the most of some slack defending to curl a right-footed shot into the back of the net. Rennes lags two points behind Monaco a...