'Keep the pace'

Removes titles

The system has been in place for both state and congressional offices in the state for decades, except for a brief interruption in 2008. It is not used in presidential primaries or general elections.

Landry won his re-election last October with 51 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Shawn Wilson and a group of other Republican hopefuls. He
He was officially sworn in on Monday Gave Louisiana an all-Republican state government — the state's first GOP governor in eight years. But a majority in both legislative chambers does not warrant an open primary.

“We built the Republican Party in an open primary,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser.
Louisiana Attorney, he thinks closed primaries encourage political extremism. “Candidates should at least be campaigning to represent all of Louisiana. When you close the primary, you're going to get left and right.

Congress may draw new maps for state House and Senate elections after a court found that the old maps may have violated the Voting Rights Act and required them to add another majority-black district. The Legislature has until Jan. 30 to redraw the map — otherwise a district court could decide the plan for the upcoming elections at a hearing in February.

“The courts have forced the state of Louisiana to redraw our congressional districts. Redistricting is a state legislative function. That's why today, following the court order, I called the Louisiana Legislature into special session to redraw.
Landry said in a statement.

In the northern part of the area, where Israel launched a ground offensive in late October, the army “completed the elimination of Hamas' military structure,” Admiral Hagari said. War even after their command structure was destroyed.

He also said that the fight will continue throughout the year 2024.

Gabi Siboni, a colonel in the army reserves and a fellow at the conservative-leaning Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said Hamas maintains infrastructure above and below the ground in the north, “so it's still a war zone.” Despite the Israeli military's achievements, he said, Hamas was a “tough and determined enemy” that had armed itself and “built underground fortresses” over the years.

“It will take time to get rid of it completely,” said Mr. Ciboni said the fighting in the south is complicated by the population density there and should continue until 2025.

The Israeli military's suggestion that the fighting in Gaza would continue throughout the coming year further alarmed Gazans who had already suffered heavy losses in the first three months of the war – family, friends, neighbors, homes, jobs, schools and even. In cases, the ability to feed themselves.

“We as unarmed people who have nothing to do with the resistance or carrying weapons face great danger,” said Youssef, 32, from Gaza City, who has been displaced twice as he tried to flee the fighting.

Although the Israeli military successfully ordered many Gazans in the north to flee further south in the earlier stages of the war — exactly how many are not known — people in central and southern Gaza have nowhere to go. The city of Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, expanded dramatically.

According to the United Nations, more than a million people have already been squeezed into Rafah's territory. And people can't go back to the north: apart from repeated episodes of fighting in northern Gaza, that part of the territory is largely in ruins.

The United Nations estimated at the end of December that some 65,000 homes had been destroyed across Gaza and nearly 300,000 were still damaged, meaning more than half a million people had no home to return to.

It said that because Gaza's infrastructure is so badly damaged and munitions left over from the war are returning, many people who still have habitable homes will not immediately be able to live in them.

Meanwhile, Gaza's displaced are increasingly short of food, water and warm clothing and shelter for cold weather. According to aid groups, about half of Gazans are at risk of starvation.

“There are children, no food or clothes, especially because it's winter,” Youssef said. “If we're talking about suffering, I'll need a lot of time to explain it.”

He added: “We have the right to return to our homes, to see our children, to have food, water and drink, to be safe.”

HOUSTON — Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday's win over Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship will be an “overwhelming” experience because of how many people it will affect.

“It means a lot to our players, they know what it's like to be a champion,” Harbaugh said Sunday. “Simply referred to as National Champions.

“Their parents want their son to be a champion, a national champion; their grandparents want a grandson; their siblings want a brother. [national champion].”

Harbaugh downplayed how he cares about how the win will affect his legacy, but admitted he cares deeply about how his family can be happy with the Wolverine title.

“What it means to me is for my kids to know that their dad is a national champion, and for my parents and my brother and my sister,” Harbaugh said. “That's the biggest thing, so many people can enjoy it, be a part of it.

“For my wife, her husband would be a national champion. For me, not so much, but for everyone else, yes, that would be huge.”

Harbaugh, in his ninth season as Michigan's coach, previously was named NFL Coach of the Year and AP College Football Coach of the Year. But he has yet to coach a team beyond a conference or division title in four head coaching stops (FCS San Diego, Stanford, San Francisco 49ers and Michigan).

Harbaugh and Washington coach Kalen DeBoer took turns during Sunday's coaches' news conference, praising each other's plans in what turned out to be an exercise in civility.

When asked what message he would have for his players if he left for the NFL job, Harbaugh didn't dwell on the prognosis, choosing instead to address the message going into the game.

“I can't wait to see them compete, see them at it,” he said. “That's my great feeling, let it rip.”

Without missing a beat, he switched to a quick rundown of Washington, calling the teams “mirror images” of each other in how complete they are.

“I really feel like these are two great teams,” Harbaugh said. “They're the last two standing.”

DeBoer's tenure in Washington is in its early days, with questions lingering about Harbaugh's future with Michigan. After inheriting a team that went 4-8 in 2021, DeBoer has gone 25-2 in his two seasons with the Huskies.

“The team, I think every win is celebrated on some level because it's so hard to win a college football game and I make sure they do it,” DeBoer said. “But it's coming from a very bad mindset and not getting the job done — not getting the job done — and we're going to celebrate the win. But the next game is more important.”

A study reveals that both Neptune and Uranus are greenish-blue in color, not the deep blue and pale cyan previously believed. Modern telescope data have been used to correct these historical color misinterpretations. Credit: Patrick Irwin, edited

Recent research led by Professor Patrick Irwin shows that Neptune And Uranus Both have similar green-blue hues, challenging previous perceptions of their colors. The study used modern telescope data to correct historical color errors and explain small color changes in Uranus' orbit.

Neptune likes to be a rich blue and Uranus a green – but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are much closer in color than commonly thought.

The exact shadows of the planets have been confirmed with the help of research led by Professor Patrick Irvine. University of OxfordIt was published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Although it is commonly believed that Neptune is a deep blue and Uranus has a pale cyan appearance, he and his team found that the two worlds are actually a similar shade of greenish-blue.

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune, released after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared to reprocessing the separate filter images in this study, determined a better estimate of the true colors of these planets. Credit: Patrick Irwin

Misconceptions of planetary colors

Astronomers have long known that most modern images of the two planets do not accurately reflect their true colors.

During the 20th century the misconception arose as images of the two planets were captured – including NASAThe Voyager 2 mission, the only spacecraft to fly past these worlds – recorded images in discrete colors.

The single-color images were then recombined to create mixed-color images, which were not always precisely balanced to achieve a “true” color image, and – especially in the case of Neptune – were often made “too blue”.

Uranus as seen by HST/WFC3 from 2015-2022. During this sequence, the light green North Pole swings down toward the Sun and Earth. In these images, the equator and latitude lines are marked at 35N and 35S. Credit: Patrick Irwin

In addition, Voyager 2's early Neptune images were strongly contrast-enhanced to better reveal the clouds, bands, and winds that shape our modern view of Neptune.

Professor Irwin said: “While the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were released in a form close to 'true' colour, the images of Neptune were actually stretched and enhanced and therefore artificially much bluer.”

“Although the artificially saturated color was known among planetary scientists at the time — images were published with captions explaining it — the distinction was lost over time.”

“By applying our model to the original data, we were able to reproduce a very accurate representation of the color of both Neptune and Uranus.”

Clarifying true colors through modern research

In the new study, researchers used the data Hubble Space TelescopeSpace Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (Muse) on the European Southern Observatory A very large telescope. In both instruments, each pixel is a continuous spectrum.

This means that STIS and MUSE observations can be unambiguously processed to determine the true apparent color of Uranus and Neptune.

The researchers used this data to rebalance composite color images recorded by the Voyager 2 camera and the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually similar shades of greenish-blue. The main difference is that Neptune has a slight hint of blue, which the model reveals is due to the planet's thin haze layer.

An animation of the seasonal changes on Uranus over two Uranus years (one Uranus year is 84.02 Earth years), runs from 1900 to 2068 and begins just before the southern summer solstice, when Uranus' south pole points almost directly toward the Sun.
The left-hand disc shows the appearance of Uranus to the naked eye, while the right-hand disc has been enhanced to make the atmospheric features clearer. In this animation, Uranus' spin has been scaled down more than 3000 times so that the planet's rotation can be seen, and individual storm clouds can be seen moving across the planet's disk.
As the planet moves toward its solstices, the pale polar 'hood' of cloud opacity and reduced methane abundance can be seen filling in more of the planet's disk, leading to seasonal changes in the planet's overall color.
The change in size of Uranus' disk is caused by Uranus' distance from the Sun changing during its orbit.
Credit: Patrick Irwin, University of Oxford

Explaining the color variations of Uranus

The study also answers the long-standing mystery of why Uranus' color changes so little during its 84-year orbit around the Sun.

The authors reached their conclusions after first comparing images of the ice giant with measurements of its brightness recorded by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 – 2016 in blue and green wavelengths.

These measurements show that Uranus appears slightly greener at its solstices (i.e., summer and winter), when one of the planet's poles points toward our star. But during its equinox – when the sun is above the equator – it has a somewhat bluer hue.

This was known to be due to the fact that Uranus has a very unusual cycle.

It effectively rotates on its side during its orbit, meaning that during the planet's solstices its north or south pole points almost directly toward the Sun and Earth.

This is important because any changes in the reflectivity of the polar regions can have a large effect on the overall brightness of Uranus as seen from our planet.

Astronomers are unclear about how or why this reflection varies.

This led the researchers to develop a model that compared the spectra of Uranus' polar regions with those of its equatorial regions.

It found that the polar regions have higher reflectance in green and red wavelengths than in blue wavelengths because red-absorbing methane is half as abundant near the poles as near the equator.

However, this was not enough to fully explain the color change, so the researchers added a new variable to the model in the form of a 'hood' of gradually thickening fog, previously seen in the summer, when the sun's rays were the polar planet. Moving from the equinox to the solstice.

Astronomers think it is made of methane ice particles.

When simulated in the model, the ice particles further increased reflectance at the poles in green and red wavelengths, providing an explanation for why Uranus is green at the solstice.

Professor Irvine said: “This is the first study to match a quantitative model with imaging data to explain why the color of Uranus changes during its orbit.”

“In this way, we have demonstrated that Uranus is greener at the solstice due to the reduced abundance of methane in the polar regions and the thickening of bright-scattering methane ice particles.”

Dr Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research (AURA), who has studied Neptune and Uranus for decades, but was not involved in the study, said: “Misunderstandings of the color of Neptune and the unusual color changes of Uranus have fooled us for decades. This comprehensive study finally puts both issues to rest.” want

Future study and follow-up research

The ice giants Uranus and Neptune are an exciting place for future robotic explorers to build on Voyager's legacy in the 1980s.

Professor Lee Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester and co-author of the new study, said: “A mission to explore the Uranian system – from its peculiar seasonal atmosphere, to its diverse rings and moons – is a high priority for space agencies in the coming decades.”

However, even long-lived planetary explorers in orbit around Uranus will capture only a small snapshot of the Uranian year.

“Earth-based studies like these, which show how the appearance and color of Uranus have changed over the decades in response to the different seasons in the Solar System, will be essential in putting the findings of this future mission into their wider context,” added Professor Fletcher.

Reference: “Modeling the seasonal cycle of color and size of Uranus and comparing it with Neptune” Patrick GJ Irwin, Jack Dobinson, Arjuna James, Nicholas A Deanby, Amy A Simon, Lee N Fletcher, Michael T Roman, Glenn S Orton, Michael H Wong, Daniel Toledo , by Santiago Perez-Hoyos and Julie Peck, 12 September 2023, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761

Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel on Saturday, prompting a top Hamas leader in Lebanon's capital earlier this week to warn that the initial response was a barrage of targeted killings by Israel.

A rocket attack was launched a day after the Hezbollah leader Syed Hasan Nasrallah He said his group would retaliate for the killing of Saleh Arouri, the deputy political chief of the militants' ally Hamas, in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut. He said if Hezbollah did not strike back, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to an Israeli attack. With war brewing between Israel and Hamas, he appeared to be making his case for an answer to the Lebanese public, even at the risk of escalating the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah said it fired 62 rockets at an Israeli air observation post on Mount Meron and hit it directly. It is said that two military positions near the border were also attacked by rockets. The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired at Meron, targeting a base, but made no mention of the base being hit. It said it hit a Hezbollah cell that fired rockets.

Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon hit the outskirts of the village of Ghoudariyeh al-Siyad, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said, causing casualties. Such attacks deep inside Lebanon have been rare since border fighting began nearly three months ago. The NNA also reported that Israeli forces shelled border areas including the town of Qiyam. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Separately, the armed wing of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, the country's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and a close ally of Hamas, said it fired two rockets at the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday night. Two members of the group were killed in the strike that killed Aruri.

The cross-border escalation comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken embarks on an emergency Middle East diplomatic tour. Israel-Hamas war It erupted three months ago. The war was sparked by a deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel, in which the militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took approximately 250 hostages.

In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back its military offensive in northern Gaza, vowing to crush Hamas and pressing its offensive in the south. In the south, most of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians are squeezed into smaller enclaves in a humanitarian disaster, battered by Israeli airstrikes.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that 122 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 22,722 since the war began. No distinction is made between the number of militants and civilians. Two-thirds of those killed were women or children, the ministry said. The total number of injured has risen to 58,166, the ministry said.

At least 46 bodies were found overnight at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Bala, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press. Many were apparently shot men. A fight has broken out between Israeli forces and militants in the area. Records show that the dead included five members of a family killed in an airstrike.

Recent Israeli leaflets have urged Palestinians in areas near the hospital to evacuate, citing “dangerous fighting”.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the epicenter of Israel's ground offensive, a European hospital received the bodies of 18 people killed in an overnight airstrike on a house in the city's Ma'an neighborhood, head Saleh al-Hams said. Nursing department of the hospital. Citing witnesses, he said more than three dozen people, including some displaced persons, had taken shelter in the house.

Israel Hamas has claimed responsibility for the civilian casualties, saying the group has embedded itself within Gaza's civilian infrastructure. However, due to the rising civilian death toll, international criticism of Israel's conduct in the war has increased. The United States has urged Israel to do more to prevent harm to civilians by continuing to send weapons and ammunition, while defending its closest ally against international scrutiny.

Blinken began his latest Middle East trip in Turkey on Saturday. The Biden administration Turkey and others hope to exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to assuage fears of a regional conflagration. Those fears have increased in recent days with incidents in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.

In talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken sought Turkish support for new plans for post-war Gaza, including cash or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and participation in a proposed multinational force. operate in or adjacent to the territory.

From Turkey Blink He traveled to meet Turkish rival and fellow NATO ally Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at his home on the island of Crete. Mitsotakis and his government have been supportive of U.S. efforts to prevent the escalation of the Israel-Hamas war and have indicated a willingness to help if the situation worsens.

Other stops on the tour include Jordan, followed by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank next week before wrapping up the trip in Egypt.

During a visit to Beirut, the EU's foreign policy chief said he aimed to launch a European-Arab effort to revive the peace process leading to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Joseph Borrell said he will visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

The tremors threatened to bury more homes and block roads critical to the delivery of relief supplies. An earthquake struck off the west coast of Japan It rose to 126 on Saturday last week.

A 5-year-old boy was also among the dead. 7.6 magnitude earthquake on Monday. Ishikawa Prefecture, the hardest-hit region, said his condition suddenly worsened and he died on Friday.

Officials warned that roads already cracked by the dozens of earthquakes that continue to rock the region could collapse completely. That risk is increasing with rain and snow expected overnight and into Sunday.

The death toll rose to 126 on Saturday. Most deaths were reported in Wajima city 69, followed by Suzu with 38. More than 500 people were injured, at least 27 of them critically.

Earth tremors caused roofs to sit effortlessly on roads and everything below them was crushed flat. The roads were disintegrated like rubber. A fire reduced Wajima's neighborhood to ashes.

Although the number fluctuates, more than 200 have yet to be found. 11 people are reported to be trapped under two collapsed houses in Anamisu.

A 90-year-old woman was rescued alive from the rubble of a collapsed house in western Japan on Saturday evening. The woman in Ishikawa Prefecture's Sushu city survived more than five days after Monday's earthquake. Nationally broadcast news footage showed helmeted rescue workers covering the area with blue plastic, but the woman was not visible.

Shiro Kokuta, 76, said the house in Wajima where he grew up was spared, but a nearby temple was engulfed in flames, and he was still searching for friends in evacuation centers.

“It was very difficult,” he said.

Japan has one of the fastest aging societies in the world. The population of Ishikawa and nearby areas has declined over the years. A fragile economy centered on handicrafts and tourism is now more affected than ever.

In an unusual gesture from nearby North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Saturday.

Japan earlier received messages from President Joe Biden and other allies expressing sympathy and promises of help.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Japan is grateful for all the news, including the news from North Korea. Hayashi said that in 1995, Japan received a condolence message from North Korea.

Along Japan's coast, power was gradually restored, but water supplies were still limited. Emergency drinking water systems were also damaged.

Thousands of troops flew in water, food and medicine to more than 30,000 people evacuated to auditoriums, schools and other facilities.

The nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper said its aerial survey found more than 100 landslides in the area, blocking some lifelines.

Rescue operations intensified as days passed. But some clung to life, trapped under pillars and walls, and freed.

“I hope the city recovers and people don't leave,” said seafood vendor Seizo Shinbo, who was stocking up on noodles, canned goods and rice balls at the supermarket.

“No food. No water. And worse, gas. People are still standing in kilometer-long queues.”

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — American actor Christian Oliver and his two daughters died in a plane crash near a small private island in the eastern Caribbean, police in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said.

The plane crashed on Thursday west of the island of Petit Nevis near Bequia as it headed toward nearby St. Lucia, police said in a statement.

They identified their daughters as Madita Klepser, 10, and Annick Klepser, 12, and the pilot, Robert Sachs, was also dead.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known, police said.

While the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard went to the area, local fishermen and divers went to the scene to help, officials said.

“The selfless and brave actions of the fishermen and divers are highly commendable,” the police said.

The 51-year-old German-born actor has scored dozens of film and television roles, including the 2008 film “Speed ​​Racer” and Steven Soderbergh's 2006 World War II film “The Good German,” starring George Clooney. Cate Blanchett.

He played Brian Keller, a Swiss exchange student, in season two of the 1990s series “Saved by the Bell: The New Class”.