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Today: January 20, 2025
Today: January 20, 2025
The Los Angeles Post

The Los Angeles Post

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World

A Titanic expert, an adventurer, and a father and son are among the passengers on missing sub

A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record holding adventurer and two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families are facing critical danger aboard a small submersible that went missing while descending to the world’s most famous shipwreck. The submersible Titan was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort. As of Tuesday morning about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of the Atlantic Ocean had been searched, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Rescuers were racing against the clock

A Titanic expert, an adventurer, and a father and son are among the passengers on missing sub
Political

What to know about Hunter Biden's plea deal in federal tax and gun case

The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family. It doesn’t, however, mean that congressional Republicans are done with their own wide-ranging probe into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances. Some of the Republican candidates hoping to face off against President Biden in the 2024 election are decrying the deal as evidence of an unfair justice system, particularly in light

What to know about Hunter Biden's plea deal in federal tax and gun case
World

Taliban carry out 2nd known public execution since seizing power in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers Tuesday carried out what is believed to be the second confirmed public execution since the religious group took power in 2021, according to the country’s Supreme Court. The court had sentenced to death a man identified only as Ajmal from the capital Kabul who was found guilty of murdering five people in two separate incidents last year. The execution was carried out with an assault rifle by the son of Siad Wali, one of five men killed by Ajmal. It took place outside a mosque near the offices of the provincial governor in eastern

Taliban carry out 2nd known public execution since seizing power in Afghanistan
World

Paris Olympics could join a longer list of Games marred by scandal

The news that French law enforcement officials are looking into possible corruption in awarding contracts for the Paris Olympics threatens to place those Games on the ever-growing list of Olympics that have been tarnished by scandals. A look at notable bidding scandals of the 21st century: SALT LAKE CITY, 2002 — Possibly the most wide-ranging bidding scandal of all time resulted in the removal of 10 members of the International Olympic Committee and a complete overhaul of the bidding process. The first whiff of scandal came in 1998 when a letter emerged suggesting the Salt Lake City bid committee was

Paris Olympics could join a longer list of Games marred by scandal
World

Patriots defensive back Jack Jones pleads not guilty to 9 gun charges

New England Patriots defensive back Jack Jones pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to nine counts of weapons violations in connection with his arrest at a Logan Airport security checkpoint with two loaded guns in his carry-on bag. Jones was charged with two counts each of unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a large-capacity magazine and possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card. He was also charged with an airport security violation. Jones was released on a $30,000 cash bail pending an Aug. 18 probable cause hearing, his attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio, said. Scapicchio said Jones

Patriots defensive back Jack Jones pleads not guilty to 9 gun charges
World

Texas power grid asks customers to cut electricity use as heat wave scorches southern US

Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept parts of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents. The request in Texas marked the first

Texas power grid asks customers to cut electricity use as heat wave scorches southern US
World

Lionel Messi is expected to make his Inter Miami debut July 21

Lionel Messi is expected to make his Major League Soccer debut with Inter Miami at a July 21 home game, the team confirmed Tuesday. Owner Jorge Mas told selected outlets on Monday that his club and Messi have agreed to terms and are finalizing paperwork and a visa. The team confirmed certain details Tuesday to The Associated Press, including that Messi will be signing a contract through the end of the 2025 season with an option for 2026. Messi’s contract will be worth $50 million to $60 million per year, the team said Tuesday. He cannot sign

Lionel Messi is expected to make his Inter Miami debut July 21
Political

Georgia officials won't take over elections in state's largest, Democrat-heavy county

Georgia’s State Election Board won’t take over running elections in the state’s most populous county, ending an investigation that had sparked fears of partisan meddling. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to end its performance review of Fulton County nearly two years after it had begun. Multiple board members said that they want the county to continue to work on improvements before the 2024 election and not to backslide on work already done. “The question is, are we going to draw a line in the sand and say let us go, be done with this, and leave

Georgia officials won't take over elections in state's largest, Democrat-heavy county
Health

Kansas agrees to temporary pause in enforcing new law on medication abortions

Kansas officials have agreed not to enforce a new restriction on medication abortions for at least five weeks before a state court judge decides whether to put it on hold until he decides a lawsuit challenging it and other existing rules. Providers and their attorneys announced the agreement Tuesday. For now, providers won’t have to tell patients that they can stop a medication abortion using a regimen that providers and major medical groups consider unproven and potentially dangerous. The new rule was set to take effect July 1. The agreement, filed Friday in Johnson County District

Kansas agrees to temporary pause in enforcing new law on medication abortions
Environment

Hurricanes push heat deeper into the ocean than scientists realized, boosting long-term ocean warming, new research shows

Satellite data illustrates the heat signature of Hurricane Maria above warm surface water in 2017. NASA When a hurricane hits land, the destruction can be visible for years or even decades. Less obvious, but also powerful, is the effect hurricanes have on the oceans. In a new study, we show through real-time measurements that hurricanes don’t just churn water at the surface. They can also push heat deep into the ocean in ways that can lock it up for years and ultimately affect regions far from the storm. Heat is the key component of this story. It has long been

Hurricanes push heat deeper into the ocean than scientists realized, boosting long-term ocean warming, new research shows
Arts

'Like Water for Chocolate' brings food, magic, spice and lust to NY's grandest ballet stage

How do you choreograph a scene of mass food poisoning? A young woman in an erotic frenzy? Or a couple whose passion is so intense, they literally catch fire? These were just a few of the storytelling challenges awaiting choreographer Christopher Wheeldon — for decades one of the most inventive minds in ballet and more recently on Broadway, too — as he adapted the hugely popular 1989 novel “Like Water for Chocolate.” It gets a splashy New York premiere this week at American Ballet Theatre. Wheeldon is no stranger to storytelling challenges, either in ballet, where

'Like Water for Chocolate' brings food, magic, spice and lust to NY's grandest ballet stage
Science

Young plaintiffs' attorney closes Montana climate change trial with call for action

An attorney for 16 young plaintiffs urged a judge Tuesday to strike down as unconstitutional a Montana law that prohibits state agencies from considering the environmental effects when it weighs permits allowing the release of greenhouse gases. Attorney Nate Bellinger made the plea in his closing argument at the end of a seven-day trial. Plaintiffs say state officials violated their right to a clean and healthful environment, part of the Montana Constitution, by allowing companies to build power plants and expand coal mines, among other things. “Like other monumental constitutional cases before, the state of Montana

Young plaintiffs' attorney closes Montana climate change trial with call for action
Science

Young plaintiffs' attorney closes Montana climate change trial with call for action

An attorney for 16 young plaintiffs urged a judge Tuesday to strike down as unconstitutional a Montana law that prohibits state agencies from considering the environmental effects when it weighs permits allowing the release of greenhouse gases. Attorney Nate Bellinger made the plea in his closing argument at the end of a seven-day trial. Plaintiffs say state officials violated their right to a clean and healthful environment, part of the Montana Constitution, by allowing companies to build power plants and expand coal mines, among other things. “Like other monumental constitutional cases before, the state of Montana

Young plaintiffs' attorney closes Montana climate change trial with call for action
Health

North Carolina legislature pushes limits on transgender youth rights in final days of session

Transgender rights are taking center stage Tuesday in North Carolina as the GOP-controlled General Assembly considers legislation to restrict gender-affirming health care and trans participation in sports. The legislative push comes in the dwindling days of the North Carolina session and as many Republican-led state legislatures round out a record year of legislation targeting transgender residents. Hours after the House Health Committee advanced a bill banning state facilities from treating trans minors with hormones and gender-affirming surgeries, the Senate will vote later Tuesday on whether to ban trans girls from playing on school sports teams that

North Carolina legislature pushes limits on transgender youth rights in final days of session
World

Man with hit-and-run history jailed after high-speed crash kills five young women in Minneapolis

A man who served a hit-and-run sentence in a California prison until his release earlier this year remained jailed Tuesday, awaiting charges after a crash killed five young women in Minneapolis when a speeding driver blew past a state trooper, ran a red light and slammed into their car. Derrick John Thompson, 27, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was evaluated at a hospital and then booked into the Hennepin County Jail on Monday in the aftermath of Friday’s crash. The victims — Salma Abdikadir, Siham Adam, Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade and Sagal Hersi — were all between 17

Man with hit-and-run history jailed after high-speed crash kills five young women in Minneapolis
Political

Trump's penchant for talking could pose problems as Mar-a-Lago criminal case moves ahead

Criminal defendants are routinely advised to avoid commenting on pending charges against them. But Donald Trump, the former president and current White House hopeful, is no ordinary defendant. In his first televised interview since his arraignment last week on federal charges, the former president acknowledged that he delayed turning over boxes of documents despite being asked to do so, drew factually incorrect parallels between his case and classified document probes concerning other politicians, and claimed he didn’t actually have a Pentagon attack plan that the indictment says he boasted about to others. Those comments — like any

Trump's penchant for talking could pose problems as Mar-a-Lago criminal case moves ahead
World

Company says it can't say for sure whether more air-bag inflators might explode and hurl shrapnel

A company that makes air-bag inflators that have exploded in eight incidents involving two deaths and seven injuries argued Tuesday that it can’t say for sure whether its inflators might cause further such incidents. In a reply to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, said that even adhering to industry quality standards cannot fully eliminate the risk of occasional failures in which the air-bag inflators might explode and spew shrapnel. NHTSA has demanded that ARC recall 67 million inflators in driver and passenger front air bags from at least a

Company says it can't say for sure whether more air-bag inflators might explode and hurl shrapnel
Political

Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates — resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said a detailed review of the accounting error found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. She said final calculations show there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year

Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid
Arts

What it's like to get a Wes Anderson education, from 'Rushmore' to 'Asteroid City'

When Tony Revolori, then a 17-year-old with little Hollywood experience, was beginning to shoot Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Jason Schwartzman took him aside to give some advice. No one knew better than Schwartzman what Revolori, who was starring alongside Ralph Fiennes, was in for. Schwartzman was by then a regular member of Anderson’s troupe, but he was also 17 when he first broke through as Max Fischer in Anderson’s “Rushmore.” “He looked at me and he said, ‘None of this is going to make sense until you’ve actually gone through it,’” Revolori recalls. “Your

What it's like to get a Wes Anderson education, from 'Rushmore' to 'Asteroid City'
Political

DA, ethics panel back judge in Donald Trump hush-money case, finding no evidence of bias

Donald Trump’s tempestuous views aside, Manhattan prosecutors say neither the former president nor his lawyers have shown any evidence to support their claims that the judge in his hush-money criminal case has an anti-Trump bias. They urged him to reject defense demands that he step aside from the case. In court papers made public Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office defended Judge Juan Manuel Merchan against Trump’s claims that he’s a “Trump-hating judge,” amplifying a court ethics panel’s recent opinion that a judge in his situation wouldn’t have to recuse himself. The opinion, issued May 4

DA, ethics panel back judge in Donald Trump hush-money case, finding no evidence of bias
Political

Booze, drugs, a pet snake and foreign dealings: Families can cause headaches for a White House

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden whose plea deal on federal tax and gun charges was made public Tuesday, is by no means the first presidential relative whose personal troubles have brought unwelcome headlines and headaches for a White House. The younger Biden will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in an agreement that also allows him to avoid full prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he abides by certain conditions. The deal closes a long-running Justice Department probe into Hunter Biden, long known

Booze, drugs, a pet snake and foreign dealings: Families can cause headaches for a White House
Health

Outgoing CDC director says resignation spurred by sense of accomplishment and exhaustion

The outgoing head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday her reasons for stepping down were complicated, driven in part by a desire to take a break from the frenetic pace of the job during a pandemic. Dr. Rochelle Walensky surprised many in public health circles last month by announcing her departure after two years and five months — one of the shortest tenures for a CDC director in recent decades. She resigned as the pandemic’s national public health emergency was winding down. “I did what I came to do — which was

Outgoing CDC director says resignation spurred by sense of accomplishment and exhaustion
Arts

Many Broadway shows see box office jumps after Tonys exposure

New Broadway musicals “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Shucked,” “Some Like It Hot” and “& Juliet” — as well as the play “Leopoldstadt” — all saw nice bumps at their box offices after the Tony Award telecast. Data from The Broadway League released Tuesday shows many of the musicals and plays featured on the June 11 awards show benefited financially from getting valuable exposure in front of millions. The top Tony winner, “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teen who ages four times faster than the average human, won five awards including best new musical and grossed $695,405 over eight performances

Many Broadway shows see box office jumps after Tonys exposure
World

Mystery solved? Wembanyama listed at 7-foot-4, but check back later in September

The tall task of determining Victor Wembanyama’s height isn’t finished yet. The expected No. 1 pick in the NBA draft might be 7-foot-4. Maybe not, though. While the league is listing him at that height in the draft guide on its media website, it’s not official. Check back in September. That’s the deadline for the San Antonio Spurs — assuming they take Wembanyama with the first pick as expected Thursday night — to submit an official height for him without shoes to the league. Wembanyama’s height listed in the draft guide falls in the middle of

Mystery solved? Wembanyama listed at 7-foot-4, but check back later in September
World

Thousands take to the streets in Colombia to protest leftist government's reforms

Thousands of people marched in Colombia on Tuesday to voice their frustration with President Gustavo Petro’s government and its attempts to make sweeping changes to the nation’s health and pension systems, and its labor laws. The protests were held as Colombia’s first leftist president struggles to keep his coalition in congress together and sees a slump in his approval ratings as violence between rebel groups grows in some parts of the country. A corruption scandal involving two members of Petro’s inner circle has also put the government on the defensive, with the president now fighting allegations

Thousands take to the streets in Colombia to protest leftist government's reforms

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