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France’s president visits Notre Dame a year before the fire-damaged cathedral’s planned reopening

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron visited Notre Dame Cathedral on Friday, one year before its scheduled reopening in 2024.After a blaze burned through the roof and spire on April 15, 2019, Macron’s visits have become a tradition, with Friday marking his sixth to highlight the rebuilding progress. Huge oak beams have been hoisted skyward so the cathedral can be re-roofed. The French leader on Friday went up the spire, reconstructed from its previous design by the famed 19th-century French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. It stands at 96 meters (315 feet) and was crowned with a cross earlier this week. It is soon to be topped by a rooster, restoring an emotional symbol for the French of their heritage. The rooster was first used as a symbol of hope and faith in the Middle Ages, gaining its association with the French nation during the Renaissance. “Since April 2019, the entire nation has been rebuilding,” Macron told reporters. “And it’s very moving to be here a year befor...

Dénis Bouanga leads LAFC into the MLS Cup final against the Crew

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

When LAFC advanced to last season’s MLS Cup final, Dénis Bouanga was still finding his way on a new team and in a new country. Bouanga was still important to the team’s finish and run in the playoffs last year, but this season’s Golden Boot winner is far more comfortable as he aims to help LAFC secure a second straight title. “I was a part of the preseason so it was easier than last year. Last year, I arrived just for the MLS Cup and we won, but I was not really at my level,” he said. “This year, because I started in the preseason, I was able to step up my game being with the team on the field, but also on the language.” LAFC visits the Columbus Crew on Saturday in the MLS Cup title match. Los Angeles can become just the fourth team in league history with back-to-back championships — and the first since the LA Galaxy won in 2011 and 2012. Bouanga made the most of his full year in Los Angeles, taking home the Golden Boot award after scoring 20 goal...

Abogada ofrece consejos para evitar ser víctima de fraude por parole humanitario

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

Algunas medidas migratorias representan la oportunidad perfecta para quienes buscan aprovecharse de algunas personas que quieren llegar a Estados Unidos. La abogada de inmigración, Katherine Canto, alertó sobre una estafa dirigida a cubanos, haitianos, nicaragüenses y venezolanos que desean mudarse a la nación norteamericana mediante el parole humanitario anunciado por el presidente Joe Biden. “Las personas tienen que utilizar un patrocinador, un familiar, una persona que les quiera ayudar, que sea ciudadano o residente, donde él solicita o le ayuda con la solicitud de entrada aquí a Estados Unidos que es el parole”, explicó.Quienes pueden calificar a este beneficio deben ser ciudadanos de los países antes mencionados, no tener antecedentes migratorios o criminales y estar fuera de Estados Unidos. El sueño americano y la soledad: el trauma de comenzar de nuevo deja huella en la salud mental de los inmigrantes ¿Cuánto mide el muro fronterizo? ...

The Census Bureau wants to change how it asks about disabilities. Some advocates don’t like it

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

The U.S. Census Bureau wants to change how it asks people about disabilities, and some advocates are complaining that they were not consulted enough on what amounts to a major overhaul in how disabilities would be defined by the federal government.Disability advocates say the change would artificially reduce their numbers by almost half. At stake are not only whether people with disabilities get vital resources for housing, schools or program benefits but whether people with disabilities are counted accurately in the first place, experts said.Some also question the timing of the change, which comes just as more people are living with new, long-term conditions from the COVID-19 pandemic.Census Bureau officials say the proposed change on its most comprehensive survey of American life will align the U.S. with international standards, allowing comparisons among countries. They also say it will better capture how disabilities occur in the real world, since they rarely fit neatly into sta...

Longest shot ski record broken in Breckenridge with almost 500 skis later

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — On Thursday, over a thousand people lined up on Main Street in Breckenridge to break the unofficial record for the world's longest shot ski.Every year the town celebrates Ullr, the Norse god of snow, for a snowy winter season ahead. The celebration takes place on Main Street with a parade and bonfire. During the festivities, another tradition emerged. 8 things to do in Denver this weekend: Dec. 8-10 World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)It's called a shot ski. Basically, it's a ski with four shot glasses attached to it. Four people line up and tip the ski while simultaneously taking a shot. The shot ski record has gone back and forth for years. Brec...

Tomato lost in space by history-making astronaut has been found

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

(CNN) — Perhaps nowhere in the universe is a fresh, ripe tomato more valuable than on the International Space Station, where astronauts live for months at a time subsisting mainly on prepackaged, shelf-stable goods.That’s why astronaut Frank Rubio became the central figure in a lighthearted whodunnit that has taken months to solve.After Rubio harvested one of the first tomatoes ever grown in space earlier this year, according to the astronaut, he admitted he misplaced it.“I put it in a little bag, and one of my crewmates was doing a (public) event with some schoolkids, and I thought it’d be kind of cool to show the kids — ‘Hey guys this is the first tomato harvested in space,’” Rubio said during an October media event. “I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro it … and then I came back and it was gone.”In the microgravity environment of space, anything not anchored to a wall is at risk of floating away — destined to spend eternity hidde...

Finland considers reopening border with Russia after immigrant row

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

Finland hopes to ease restrictions on its eastern border with Russia after the traffic of migrants stopped following Helsinki’s complete closure of the frontier last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.“We are closely following the situation, how it evolves,” Valtonen told POLITICO in an interview on Friday. “And now that it has been peaceful, we hope that we can, if not go directly to normal … at least open a few border crossings if possible.”Finland last week closed its entire eastern border with Russia for two weeks amid accusations that Moscow was encouraging asylum seekers to travel across its frontier into the EU and NATO country.Valtonen said Finland has evidence that Russian authorities have been actively helping people reach the border, by oganizing group transports and providing people with equipment, for example, and recruiting people. “This is an active measure of instrumentalizing third-country citizens, which Finland cannot accept,” she said....

Temporary shelter site at state Transportation Building to shut down Friday

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

A temporary shelter site at the state Transportation Building in Boston will shut down Friday, a matter of weeks after it opened last month, the state’s emergency assistance director confirmed. Emergency Assistance Director General Scott Rice in a statement Friday morning said authorities will “transition operations” to Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and open a new clinical and safety risk assessment site in Revere. From there, Rice said authorities “will soon be opening an additional safety net site.” Officials opened the Transportation Building as a temporary safety net site on Nov. 20, housing people in conference rooms within the building as they continued to grapple with the surge of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts. The shelter had space for up to 25 families and aimed to provide a safe and warm place to sleep in cases where families were eligible for state emergency assistance but where there was not another shelter unit immediately available.&nbs...

Harvard president apologizes for remarks on antisemitism as pressure mounts on Penn’s president

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MARC LEVY (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Harvard University’s president apologized as pressure mounted for the University of Pennsylvania’s president to resign over their testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism that critics from the White House on down say failed to show that they would stand up to antisemitism on campus.In an interview Thursday with The Crimson student newspaper, Harvard President Claudine Gay said she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.Meanwhile, lawyers for a major donor to Penn, Ross Stevens, wrote to Penn’s general counsel on Thursday to threaten to withdraw a gift valued at $100 million because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Penn President Liz Magill is replaced.Gay’s and Magill’s testimony have drawn intense national backlash, as h...

‘It’s just annoying everyone’: Scarborough residents complain about GO Train whistles after policy change

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:32:11 GMT

For 33 years, Tamra Harris has lived near the GO Train tracks that cross over Manse Road in Scarborough, and has grown accustomed to the noise.“It’s common to hear the trains whiz by, but that used to be all we heard,” said Harris.Now, more sounds are prompting her and neighbours to speak out. Every 10 to 15 minutes a series of loud train whistles go off.“It’s just constant,” she said. “Anywhere from five to 10 whistles each time, day in and day out. It’s never been this bad.”The timing wasn’t great for Harris, who became a new mom two months ago.“As a new parent you’re already sleep deprived,” Harris said. “This is just making it impossible.”Residents say they’ve reached out to Metrolinx for answers, but have been unable to get any.So, Harris reached out to CityNews instead.According to Metrolinx, it’s all due to a new policy enacted last month following a series of safety concerns. On Nov. 17, a suspected drunk driver abandoned her car on the tracks which collided with...