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GOP Lobbyist Claimed to Be “Empowering Women” — but Worked for Saudi Theocracy’s LIV Golf

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

Scrutiny of a Saudi-owned golf league in the wake of its announced merger with the PGA Tour is creating apparent tensions between Republican Party organs and a prominent operative who did work lobbying for the Saudi golf firm.Gail Gitcho, a prominent Republican strategist who did public relations work for the Saudi government-owned LIV Golf, was listed as serving on the board of the GOP-affiliated Women’s Democracy Network through 2023, according to a press release from 2021 announcing her appointment to the advisory board.When LIV erupted into the news, though, Austin Akers, a spokesperson for the Women’s Democracy Network, told The Intercept that the group had no relationship with Gitcho. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in “Gail Gitcho is not an active member of IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network Board and hasn...

Belmont Stakes Lineup and Odds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

The field for Saturday’s 155th Belmont Stakes, with post position, horse, jockey and odds:1. Tapit ShoesJoseOrtiz20-12. Tapit TriceLuisSaez3-13. ArcangeloJavierCastellano8-14. National TreasureJohnVelazquez5-15. Il MiracoloMarcosMenses30-16. ForteIradOrtizJr.5-27. Hit ShowMannyFranco10-18. Angel of EmpireFlavienPrat7-29. Red Route OneJoelRosario15-1Trainers (by post position): 1. Brad Cox; 2. Todd Pletcher; 3. Jena Antonucci; 4. Bob Baffert; 5. Antonio Sano; 6. Todd Pletcher; 7. Brad Cox; 8. Brad Cox; 9. Steve Asmussen.Owners (by post position): 1. Spendthrift Farm, LLC, Steve Landers Racing, LLC, Schwartz, Martin S., Dubb, Michael, Ten Strike Racing, Bakke Jim, Titletown Racing, LLC, Kueber Racing, LLC, Big Easy Racing, LLC, Winners Win and Caruso, Michael; 2. Whisper Hill Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); 3. Blue Rose Farm; 4. SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Masterson, Robert E., Stonestreet Stables LLC, Schoenfarber, Jay A., Waves Edge Capi...

Pope Francis has emerged from three hours of abdominal surgery without complications, the Vatican says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has emerged from three hours of abdominal surgery without complications, the Vatican says.Source

Greek island temple complex reveals ‘countless’ offerings left by ancient worshippers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists excavating a hilltop sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos have discovered “countless” pottery offerings left by ancient worshippers over the centuries, Greece’s Culture Ministry said Wednesday.A ministry statement said the finds from work this year included more than 2,000 intact or almost complete clay figurines, mostly of women and children but also some of male actors, as well as of tortoises, lions, pigs and birds.Several ceremonial pottery vessels that were unearthed are linked with the worship of Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone, to whom the excavated sanctuary complex was dedicated.The seaside site of Vryokastro on Kythnos was the ancient capital of the island, inhabited without break between the 12th century B.C. and the 7th A.D., when it was abandoned for a stronger position during a period of pirate raids.The artifacts came from the scant ruins of the two small temples, a long...

IOC recommends terminating boxing body’s Olympic status

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the spor...

Pence opens presidential bid with broad critiques of Trump over Jan. 6 insurrection and abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.Pence, according to excepts released by his campaign, will tell an audience in the Des Moines suburbs that Trump betrayed his voters’ trust after the 2020 election when he tried to convince his supporters that Pence had the power to keep them in office.“The American people deserve to know on that fateful day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice,” Pence will say. “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president again.”Pence will criticize leaders who can’t “distinguish between sta...

Canadian wildfire smoke spreads ‘hazardous’ air in both countries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, sending school recesses indoors and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.While Canadian officials expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 420 fires nationwide, air quality with what the U.S. rates as “hazardous” levels of pollution extended into central New York, with massive tongues of “unhealthy” air extending as far as Virginia and Indiana.In Baltimore, where officials warned residents to stay indoors when possible and limit outdoor exertion, Debbie Funk sported a blue surgical mask as she and husband Jack Hughes took their daily walk around Fort McHenry, a national monument overlooking the Patapsco River. The air hung thick over the water, obscuring the horizon as distant ships pushed slowly through the haze.“I walked outside this morning and it was like a waft ...

Zelenskyy denies Ukraine involvement in Nord Stream pipeline blasts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

Paul Ronzheimer is the deputy editor-in-chief of BILD and a senior journalist reporting for Axel Springer, the parent company of POLITICOKYIV — Ukraine was not behind a series of underwater explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.“I am president and I give orders accordingly,” Zelenskyy told Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company, in an interview in Kyiv. “Nothing of the sort has been done by Ukraine. I would never act that way.”The denial comes after claims that Western intelligence agencies knew of a Ukrainian-backed plan to take out Nord Stream 1 and 2, which linked Europe’s energy infrastructure to Russia’s vast gas fields via pipelines running for more than 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic Sea. The motive would have been to prevent Russia from resuming its lucrative gas exports to the EU.“I didn’t know anything, 100 percent,” Zelenskyy insisted. “I said, ‘Show us ...

Suspect arrested after crews extinguish massive house fire in Holden

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

A suspect is facing charges after crews contained “an intentionally set fire” that ripped through a home in Holden, according to officials.The Holden Fire Department said its crews were called to the area of 25 Juniper Lane around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, where heavy flames could be seen engulfing parts of a home’s basement and first floor.According to the department, two alarms were struck as multiple fire departments sent personnel to help put out the blaze at the single-family house.Image provided by the Holden Fire DepartmentAuthorities said two civilians were evaluated and treated while no firefighters were injured during the response.Holden FD said it took around two hours to put out the blaze, which appeared to heavily damage a large portion of the front of the home, based on photos shared by the department.In a joint-statement from both Fire Chief Russell Hall and Holden Police Chief Timothy Sherblom, officials said an investigation of the fire led to ...

First mission to ‘touch’ the sun catches the solar wind

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:42 GMT

(CNN) — A solar mission that has been spiraling closer to the sun to unravel its secrets has flown near enough to our star’s surface to make a key discovery.Data from the Parker Solar Probe has uncovered the source of solar wind, a stream of energized particles that flow from the corona, or the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, toward Earth.One of the key motivations behind the mission, named for the late astrophysicist Eugene Parker and launched in 2018, was to determine what the wind looks like as it forms near the sun and how it escapes the star’s gravity.As the probe came within about 13 million miles (20.9 million kilometers) of the sun, its instruments detected fine structures of the solar wind where it generates near the photosphere, or the solar surface, and captured ephemeral details that disappear once the wind is blasted from the corona.The spacecraft was specially designed to eventually fly within 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) above the solar sur...