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US Open Adaptive Surfing Championship to be held at Oceanside Pier

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- Para surfers from around the world are ready to prove themselves as world champions.Dozens of elite athletes will compete in the sixth annual U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championship taking place by the Oceanside Pier Thursday through Sunday.This is the last stop in the 2023 World Tour after athletes competed in Hawaii and Costa Rica.Wednesday served as a free day for surfers to practice and get registered. Heats are slated about every 20 minutes starting Thursday. Athletes are grouped by skill sets in nine divisions.These surfers are highly experienced and full of heart, tenaciously overcoming trauma and obstacles. When he was 19 years old, Charles "Chaka" Webb thought he would never surf again after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, but then he was introduced to adaptive surfing and paddleboarding."We are all about ocean therapy and the healing of the ocean," Webb said. Webb founded the Stoke for Life Foundat...

SDSU opens new Center for Tobacco and the Environment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State University’s Center for Tobacco and the Environment has opened a new policy research center in Kearny Mesa. The center will address the lasting dangers of tobacco on public health and the environment.  The center will study tobacco waste that accumulates in streets, storm drains, and inside homes and buildings and ends up on the beaches.  “Tobacco product waste has been with us from the first day tobacco was used,” said Dr. Georg Matt, a San Diego State University professor of psychology, and the Center for Tobacco and the Environment’s director.   DUI suspect arrested in hit-and-run that killed beloved bartender The center will study the toxic dangers of tobacco waste found indoors and outdoors, known as thirdhand smoke. Experts said thirdhand smoke is the residue left behind from tobacco smoke, and when cigarette butts and e-cigarettes are littered on beaches, parks and sidewalks. The chemicals leach out into the so...

Local leaders push for transparency on homelessness crisis spending

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego County Taxpayers Association joined forces with several mayors Wednesday to ask the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness to provide more transparency when it comes to data sharing.“We want to see effective and efficient use of our taxpayer dollars," said Haney Hong, President and CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. "So much money is going into homelessness services and it is unclear to you and me whether that money is working."Standing with Vista Mayor John Franklin and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, they are prescribing best practices for transparency and information sharing across all public entities that serve the homeless, they say, to better learn what’s working and what’s not.  Second SDSU student reports sex assault by presumed rideshare driver “We were disheartened to learn that the Regional Task Force on Homelessness doesn't automatically share their data with agencies that fund various homeless service pro...

3 sailors reach land safely after sharks nearly sink their catamaran in the Coral Sea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Three round-the-world sailors reached land safely Thursday after sharks nearly sank their catamaran in the Coral Sea. Both of the inflatable hulls on their 9-meter (30-foot) boat were damaged in several attacks by what were thought to be cookiecutter sharks — a small species not considered dangerous to people. Aerial photos of the men’s rescue showed major damage to the boat, which was nearly submerged and a front section of one hull was completely missing.The Australian Maritime Safety Authority coordinated the rescue of the two Russian and one French sailor after they activated an emergency beacon early Wednesday 835 kilometers (519 miles) southeast of the Queensland state city of Cairns. The three were rescued by a Panama-flagged freight ship, which landed them at Mooloolaba Harbor on the Sunshine Coast north of the Queensland capital Brisbane on Thursday, the authority said.Rescued sailor Stanislav Beryozkin said he suspected the sharks mistook h...

Stock market today: Asian shares fall as China reports weaker global demand hit its trade in August

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

Shares slipped Thursday in Asia as China reported weaker global demand hit its trade in August, adding to pressures on its economy. Oil prices and U.S. futures also fell. Hong Kong’s benchmark fell more than 1% and most other major regional markets also declined.China said its exports fell 8.8% in August from a year earlier, while imports were down 7.3%. The declines were smaller than the double-digit drops in July, however, and were better than most forecasts. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which has yoyoed this week on news about Chinese policy changes for the property sector, declined on selling of tech shares. It fell 1.2% to 18,235.40.The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9% to 3,130.70, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.8% to 32,991.08. In Seoul, the Kospi sank 0.7% to 2,544.40. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was off 1.2% at 7,174.00. Shares in most other regional markets fell.On Wednesday, the S&P 500 dropped 0.7%, closing at 4,465.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ...

Texas AG Ken Paxton’s orders to help donor rattled office, former aides say at impeachment trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An extramarital affair Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had with a donor’s employee helped connect the dots about why the Republican was using his power in ways that are now at the center of his impeachment trial on accusations of corruption, a former top aide testified Wednesday. “It answered that ‘why’ question,” said Jeff Mateer, who was Paxton’s second-in-command at the Texas attorney general’s office.The account by Mateer, who went on to report Paxton to the FBI in 2020 over allegations of abuse of office, quickly injected an affair that Paxton has acknowledged to staff into the historic impeachment trial — the gravest threat to Paxton’s political career after years of criminal charges and alleged scandal.The trial, which could last weeks, was set to resume Thursday for a third day with the testimony of another former aide who has also accused Paxton of wrongdoing.At the center of the case are accusations that Texas’ top lawyer wron...

European Research Council awards over €628 million to 400 early-career researchers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced today the winners of the latest round of its Starting Grants. The funding – worth €628 million – will help researchers who stand at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their best scientific ideas.   The funding will enable researchers to, for example, study Venus' atmosphere to better understand habitability beyond Earth, analyse parasites that cause malaria, or investigate how algorithms are used at work to supervise employees. The funded research covers all domains of research from physics and engineering to life sciences and social sciences and humanities.This new round of grants is estimated to create some 2,600 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other research staff.  The winners of this competition represent 44 nationalities and will carry out their projects at universities and research centres across 24 EU member states and countries associated to...

Redefining the future of European agriculture: Balancing progress and protection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

Climate action, food security and biodiversity – these concepts are rightly at the heart of the EU’s agriculture policy, and they are the key to protecting and developing European farmlands for the benefit of future generations, writes Nicola Mitchell, CEO of Life Scientific.They are also the subject of enormous debate, as farmers, scientists and policymakers grapple with the right way to balance objectives that are sometimes seen to be in opposition.Just recently, France’s Senate adopted its ‘Farm France’ bill with the aim to uphold France’s ‘food sovereignty’ and ensure food supplies are not distorted by foreign competition. Meanwhile, Germany has committed to implementing integrated pest management as part of its toolbox to slash its use of synthetic pesticides. This comes as the EU is revising rules under the Farm to Fork Strategy designed to minimise the ecological impact of European agriculture and promote healthier food systems. Of all the initiatives under discussion, the Su...

‘Europe’s got a problem’ — Drug violence grips Belgium’s second-largest city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

ANTWERP, Belgium — When Lucas first heard the deafening blast, it sounded like a car had just crashed into his house.It quickly became clear, as he and his neighbors gathered outside in the middle of the February night, that the pizza shop across the street had been bombed — another chapter in the drug war plaguing Belgium’s second-largest city.The police arrived on the scene with a rehearsed precision that was both reassuring and deeply unsettling. “Are we already at a point where responding to this has become a routine job for emergency services?” asked Lucas, who asked to be identified only by his first name.Home to Europe’s second-largest cargo port, Antwerp has become a major entry point for drugs, especially cocaine coming from Latin America, and the turf wars have spilled into its streets. In 2022, there were 81 drug-related shootings and explosions in Antwerp, according to numbers shared by the city with POLITICO, and another 25 in the first five months of ...

‘Nice try’: Ursula von der Leyen stays mute on second term as Commission president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen refused to say if she will put herself forward for a second five-year term in the Berlaymont. “Nice try,” the German conservative told POLITICO with a large grin after being asked if she was running again, as she stepped out of a meeting with top MEPs in the European Parliament on Wednesday, surrounded by aides and bodyguards. Speculation is bubbling in Brussels about what von der Leyen will do after the European election next June, which will spark a reset of the bloc’s top jobs. Her name has also cropped up in discussions about who will succeed Jens Stoltenberg as secretary-general of NATO. Even if she does declare an intention to stay in the Commission post, there is a major question mark about whether she would embrace the informal lead candidate (or Spitzenkandidat) process, or expect to be simply appointed as happened in 2019.Von der Leyen spent over an hour with the heads of the Parliament...