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Today: January 19, 2025
Today: January 19, 2025
The Los Angeles Post

The Los Angeles Post

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World

Protesters in Senegal accuse police of using armed civilians to quell unrest

As gunfire rang out at a protest in Senegal’s capital, a man wearing khaki pants and a T-shirt shot Cheikh’s childhood friend in the chest. The bleeding 21-year-old slumped against a wall, displaying his wound in disbelief. “We thought tear gas and grenades would be used against us. We had no idea they would shoot,” said Cheikh, who was inches away when the bullet struck his friend and rushed him to the hospital in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. “As I watched him on the way there, I realized it was over.” His friend,

Protesters in Senegal accuse police of using armed civilians to quell unrest
Political

How Trump and Johnson, divisive populists with many similarities, ended up on different paths

At first blush, they seem so alike — two pugnacious, ideologically flexible politicians who latched onto the 2016 global explosion of populism to lead their respective countries before falling from power. But Boris Johnson and Donald Trump appear headed down different paths this week as they navigate the fallout from their conduct now that they’ve left higher office — a reflection of the varying political cultures and systems in the nations they once led. On Thursday, a committee of the House of Commons released a scathing report about how Johnson lied to Parliament and intimidated those investigating lockdown-flouting parties in

How Trump and Johnson, divisive populists with many similarities, ended up on different paths
World

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder dies from injuries suffered in crash during Tour de Suisse

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died Friday, one day after crashing and falling down a ravine during a descent at the Tour de Suisse, the Bahrain-Victorious team said. The 26-year-old Mäder crashed on a fast downhill road approaching the end of the mountainous fifth stage into La Punt. “Gino lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained,” the team said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30 a.m. we said goodbye to one of

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder dies from injuries suffered in crash during Tour de Suisse
World

China condemns EU Parliament's resolution on Hong Kong's shrinking freedoms

China’s Foreign Ministry condemned a resolution passed by the European Parliament concerning Hong Kong’s shrinking rights to free speech, even as Beijing seeks to restore economic links with the EU. The EU body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Thursday citing the deterioration of the city’s freedoms since the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping national security law in 2020. It urged the Hong Kong government to release and drop all charges against activist publisher Jimmy Lai, who was arrested under the security law, along with other pro-democracy activists. It also renewed its call on the EU to

China condemns EU Parliament's resolution on Hong Kong's shrinking freedoms
World

Amazon's $1.7 billion deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot gets UK approval

British antitrust regulators cleared Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot on Friday, but the $1.7 billion deal still faces scrutiny in the United States and Europe. The Competition and Markets Authority said it decided not to escalate its initial investigation because it concluded that the deal would not result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the United Kingdom. Amazon said it was pleased with the result. “We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon,” the company said in a statement. Consumer groups have voiced concerns that Amazon’s purchase of Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which

Amazon's $1.7 billion deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot gets UK approval
World

Lawyer: Detained man, Gadhafi’s son, suffers deteriorating health 2 weeks into hunger strike

A son of Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi is suffering deteriorating health during the second week of a hunger strike to protest his detention in Beirut without trial, his lawyer said Friday. Hannibal Gadhafi is only drinking small amounts of water, his lawyer Paul Romanos said, adding that his client is suffering from weakness and muscle pains. “Had it not been for his solid will, he would not have been able to continue,” Romanos said about Hannibal Gadhafi. He added that a doctor is doing a daily checkups for the detainee, who has been also suffering from back

Lawyer: Detained man, Gadhafi’s son, suffers deteriorating health 2 weeks into hunger strike
World

US, Japan, Philippines agree to strengthen security ties amid tensions over China, North Korea

The national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, as Washington and its partners reinforce their alliances to adapt to growing tensions over North Korea, China and Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. Sullivan said he and his Japanese and Philippine counterparts discussed the “turbulent regional security environment and how we can collectively work to enhance peace and stability” in areas including freedom of navigation and economic security. Sullivan, Takeo Akiba of Japan and Eduardo Ano of the

US, Japan, Philippines agree to strengthen security ties amid tensions over China, North Korea
World

China calls hacking report 'far-fetched' and accuses the US of targeting the cybersecurity industry

China’s government on Friday rejected as “far-fetched and unprofessional” a report by a U.S. security firm that blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world. A foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them. Mandiant’s report came ahead of a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at repairing relations that have been strained by disputes over human rights, security and other irritants. Blinken’s visit was planned earlier this year but was canceled

China calls hacking report 'far-fetched' and accuses the US of targeting the cybersecurity industry
Arts

New Spider-Man film pulled from cinema programs in Arab world, possibly over transgender flag

The new blockbuster movie “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was abruptly removed from cinema listings in more than a dozen Muslim-majority countries without explanation, apparently over the inclusion of a blink-and-you-miss-it transgender poster in the background of one frame. Empire Entertainment, the Middle East distributor for the computer-animated Sony Pictures film, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. No explicit bans of the film were announced, but there were indications that it will not reach screens. For example, there is no expectation that “Across the Spider-Verse” will be shown in the United Arab Emirates,

New Spider-Man film pulled from cinema programs in Arab world, possibly over transgender flag
World

Film composer Hans Zimmer proposes to his partner on London stage, prompts raucous audience response

Hans Zimmer, the two-time Academy Award-winning composer, proposed to his partner on stage in London, prompting raucous applause from the audience. As his performance at the O2 arena was drawing to a close Thursday evening, the 65-year-old German asked his partner to join him on stage — and then proceeded to declare his love. Addressing her directly he said: “Why did I bring you up here? I was going to ask you something really important. Did you lock the back door? Is the milk in the fridge? Do we have any sorbet in the freezer?” And then,

Film composer Hans Zimmer proposes to his partner on London stage, prompts raucous audience response
World

Film composer Hans Zimmer proposes to his partner on London stage, prompts raucous audience response

Hans Zimmer, the two-time Academy Award-winning composer, proposed to his partner on stage in London, prompting raucous applause from the audience. As his performance at the O2 arena was drawing to a close Thursday evening, the 65-year-old German asked his partner to join him on stage — and then proceeded to declare his love. Addressing her directly he said: “Why did I bring you up here? I was going to ask you something really important. Did you lock the back door? Is the milk in the fridge? Do we have any sorbet in the freezer?” And then,

Film composer Hans Zimmer proposes to his partner on London stage, prompts raucous audience response
World

Pastors find a role ministering to young men swept up in El Salvador's crackdown on gangs

The smell of pineapple bread fills the kitchen of “Vida Libre,” or “free life,” a gang rehabilitation program founded in El Salvador by American pastor Kenton Moody in 2021. The trust that Moody puts in former gang members is not widely shared. Thousands of lives have been destroyed in this Central American country after decades of extortion and murder committed by the gangs. Over the past year, President Nayib Bukele’s security forces have cracked down harshly on gangs, arresting more than 68,000 people suspected of criminal involvement, though human rights groups say innocent people

Pastors find a role ministering to young men swept up in El Salvador's crackdown on gangs
Political

The Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment

Lula and Modi walking a new diplomatic path. Takashi Aoyama/AFP via Getty Images What does the Ukraine war have to do with Brazil? On the face of it, perhaps not much. Yet, in his first six months in office, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – now in his third nonconsecutive term – has expended much effort trying to bring peace to the conflict in Eastern Europe. This has included conversations with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and in a teleconference call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It has also seen “shuttle

The Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment
Political

The Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment

Lula and Modi walking a new diplomatic path. Takashi Aoyama/AFP via Getty Images What does the Ukraine war have to do with Brazil? On the face of it, perhaps not much. Yet, in his first six months in office, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – now in his third nonconsecutive term – has expended much effort trying to bring peace to the conflict in Eastern Europe. This has included conversations with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and in a teleconference call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It has also seen “shuttle

The Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment
Political

The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects

Depleted uranium shells will equip M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, also from the U.S. Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw, USMC/Flickr The Biden administration has agreed to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells to equip M1A1 Abrams tanks that the U.S. is sending there. Britain has already delivered tanks to Ukraine equipped with depleted-uranium shells. DU munitions, developed in the 1970s, are not nuclear weapons and do not produce a nuclear explosion. But soldiers or civilians can be exposed to the uranium, either in combat or afterward. Health physicist Kathryn Higley explains what depleted uranium is and what’s known about potential health and

The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects
Health

Can we train our taste buds for health? A neuroscientist explains how genes and diet shape taste

Researchers are increasingly learning that early diet can shape taste preferences but that our taste buds can also be trained to prefer healthier foods. RichVintage/E+ via Getty Images Have you ever wondered why only hummingbirds sip nectar from feeders? Unlike sparrows, finches and most other birds, hummingbirds can taste sweetness because they carry the genetic instructions necessary to detect sugar molecules. Like hummingbirds, we humans can sense sugar because our DNA contains gene sequences coding for the molecular detectors that allow us to detect sweetness. But it is more complex than that. Our ability to sense sweetness, as well as

Can we train our taste buds for health? A neuroscientist explains how genes and diet shape taste
Health

Abortion restrictions put hospital ethics committees in the spotlight – but what do they do?

Ethics decisions are among the hardest hospital staff need to make. Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images Many states have imposed sweeping restrictions that all but ban abortion since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 50-year-old constitutional right to the procedure. These laws have created new obstacles for pregnant patients facing life-threatening complications like severe fetal anomalies, cancer diagnoses and ectopic pregnancies – when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. Some media reports about these challenging cases mention the involvement of hospital ethics committees. Stat, for example, a medical news website, reported that one OB-GYN had to

Abortion restrictions put hospital ethics committees in the spotlight – but what do they do?
World

Cleanup begins after tornadoes hit in Texas and Florida, killing 4 and destroying homes

Cleanup efforts were beginning Friday morning after severe storms spawned tornadoes that left at least four dead, three in the Texas Panhandle and one in the Florida Panhandle as another series of fierce storms carved its way through Southern states. In Perryton, Texas, Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard said three people were killed when the tornado struck Thursday afternoon and rescue efforts continued. Another person died Thursday night in the Florida Panhandle when at least one confirmed tornado cut through Escambia County, toppling a tree onto a home, county spokesperson Andie Gibson told the Pensacola News

Cleanup begins after tornadoes hit in Texas and Florida, killing 4 and destroying homes
World

Germany hands over 2 Indigenous masks to Colombia as it reappraises the past

Germany handed over to Colombia on Friday two masks made by the Indigenous Kogi people that had been in a Berlin museum’s collection for more than a century, another step in the country’s restitution of cultural artifacts as European nations reappraise their colonial-era past. The wooden “sun masks,” which date back to the mid-15th century, were handed over at the presidential palace during a visit to Berlin by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The decision to restitute them follows several years of contacts between Berlin’s museum authority and Colombia, and an official Colombian request last year for their

Germany hands over 2 Indigenous masks to Colombia as it reappraises the past
Arts

'The Full Monty' returns 25 years on, with its politics laid bare

The Sheffield strippers of “The Full Monty” return 25 years on, in a new TV series that wears its politics on its sleeve. In the much-loved original movie, a group of unemployed men from the north of England decide to form a striptease act in a desperate attempt to raise money after the local steelworks closed down. A new comedy-drama TV series from the same writer, Simon Beaufoy, and producer, Uberto Pasolini, returns to those characters more than two decades later in a compelling portrait of contemporary Britain. After the dismantling of heavy industry, the area has

'The Full Monty' returns 25 years on, with its politics laid bare
World

Family separations at the US border inspired Isabel Allende's newest novel

The separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border has always caused Isabel Allende pain: When she saw it during the Trump administration, her first impulse was to help reunify children and parents through her foundation. Then, the legendary Chilean author thought, she had to write a book. “The Wind Knows My Name,” which grapples with immigration, violence, solidarity, and love, is the latest novel by the award-winning writer who — with more than 77 million books sold — is considered the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author. Released earlier this month, it is available at bookstores

Family separations at the US border inspired Isabel Allende's newest novel
Education

Juneteenth, Jim Crow and how the fight of one Black Texas family to make freedom real offers lessons for Texas lawmakers trying to erase history from the classroom

Joshua Houston leads a Juneteenth Parade in Huntsville, Texas, in a photo circa 1900. Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library The news was startling. On June 19, 1865, two months after the U.S. Civil War ended, Union Gen. Gordon Granger walked onto the balcony at Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas, and announced to the people of the state that “all slaves are free.” As local plantation owners lamented the loss of their most valuable property, Black Texans celebrated Granger’s Juneteenth announcement with singing, dancing and feasting. The 182,566 enslaved African Americans in Texas had finally won

Juneteenth, Jim Crow and how the fight of one Black Texas family to make freedom real offers lessons for Texas lawmakers trying to erase history from the classroom
World

Jury resumes deliberating in trial of gunman who killed 11 at Pittsburgh synagogue

A jury resumed deliberating Friday in the federal trial of a truck driver who shot and killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jewish people. There is no dispute that 50-year-old Robert Bowers was the man who burst into Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other guns, although prosecutors and the defense sparred at trial over his motive. Seven people were wounded, including five police officers. After 11 days of testimony, jurors got the case Thursday afternoon and spent more than

Jury resumes deliberating in trial of gunman who killed 11 at Pittsburgh synagogue
Science

Central Park birder Christian Cooper is turning his viral video fame into a memoir and TV show

There’s nothing that can keep Christian Cooper from enjoying his “happy place,” the bird-friendly Ramble of Central Park — not even his tense, viral video encounter three years ago with a woman walking her dog off leash in his refuge. Cooper is a lifelong birder, and Black, a relative rarity for the pastime. The dog owner is Amy Cooper, who is white and no relation. His video of her pleading with a 911 operator to “send the cops” because, she falsely claimed, an African American man was threatening her life has been viewed more than 45

Central Park birder Christian Cooper is turning his viral video fame into a memoir and TV show
Arts

For novelists of Westerns, Cormac McCarthy transcended — and reinvented — the genre

From the moment he read Cormac McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses,” James Wade knew he was a fan for life and that his aspirations, as an author of Westerns, would never be the same. “He really broke free from the traditional Western,” says Wade, a two-time winner of the Spur Award for outstanding Western writing whose novel “All Things Left Wild” was billed as “an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country” — a description that could have been applied to much of McCarthy’s work. “He included all those elements from traditional

For novelists of Westerns, Cormac McCarthy transcended — and reinvented — the genre

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