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Bridge: Oct. 8, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

A reader asks for an explanation of “fourth-suit” auctions, which often appear in my columns.Today’s auction went easily. North’s jump to three diamonds was forcing, as per his partnership agreement, and South had an easy 3NT bid. North may have considered acting again.Now say North had held A54,J,AQ8742,1042. He can’t jump to three diamonds, forcing — his hand isn’t strong enough to commit to game — but he wants to invite game. So North needs a way to invite and to force.Many players use a bid of the “fourth suit” to force. North would bid two hearts at his second turn, saying nothing about hearts but asking South to make a further descriptive bid. South would bid 2NT next, and North could then bid three diamonds, forcing.North-South might even reach six diamonds, a fair contract. But suppose South plays at 3NT, and West leads the deuce of hearts: jack, queen, ace. South has eight top tricks, and since he will be safe if d...

The U.S. Government Is Preparing for a Fentanyl WMD Attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Last year, the White House publicly shot down a controversial proposal from Republican lawmakers to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, or WMD. Though President Joe Biden declined to issue the executive order granting the WMD designation, which would have come with extraordinary powers to combat the scourge, federal agencies — including the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security — had already begun preparing for a fentanyl WMD attack as far back as 2018.Government documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that national security agencies have for years been advancing the narrative that the drug could pose a WMD threat, going so far as conducting military exercises in preparation for an attack by a fentanyl weapon.The push to declare fentanyl a WMD — and the security state approaching the drug that way even absent the declaration — has been a boon to federal agencies’ budgets. It’s not clear, however, that reimagining th...

Última hora del conflicto en Israel y Gaza en vivo: noticias de Hamas y más

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Haz clic aquí para ver las entradas más recientesSoldados israelíes patrullan frente a una comisaría de Policía que fue escenario de una batalla tras una infiltración masiva de hombres armados de Hamas desde Gaza, en Sderot, Israel, el 8 de octubre de 2023. (Crédito: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Source

3 charged in connection to thefts targeting businesses in Prince George’s Co.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Prince George's County, Maryland, police have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland Route 210 over less than a month. (Courtesy Prince George's County police)(Courtesy Prince George's County Police) Prince George's County, Maryland, police have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland Route 210 over less than a month. (Courtesy Prince George's County police)(Courtesy Prince George's County Police) Police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, have arrested three people who allegedly stole more than $10,000 from area businesses along Oxon Hill Road and Maryland R...

$20K reward offered for info on escaped Richmond inmate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

A $20,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provide information about a Virginia inmate who escaped custody in August.Authorities said 21-year-old Naseem Isaiah Roulack, also known as “Lil Nas,” fled Virginia Department of Corrections custody at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond.The original reward had been $10,000, which was set by the Montgomery County Police Department this week for information leading to an arrest of Roulack — who is also a suspect in last month’s armed carjacking in Gaithersburg, Maryland — before the U.S. Marshals Service doubled it.“This is a significant reward and one that we hope compels people to share additional, actionable information,” said Virginia Department of Corrections Director Chadwick Dotson, adding that bringing him back into custody is the department’s top priority.Roulack was serving a 13-year sentence on aggravated malicious wounding, grand larceny and hit and run charges.The U.S. Marsh...

Egyptian media say a policeman has opened fire at a tourist site, killing 2 Israeli tourists and an Egyptian

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian media say a policeman has opened fire at a tourist site, killing 2 Israeli tourists and an Egyptian.Source

La Policía de Florida detuvo a un joven de 19 años luego de se encontraran amenazas escritas de tiroteos durante una parada de tráfico de rutina

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

(CNN) — Las autoridades del sur de Florida dicen que arrestaron a un joven de 19 años esta semana después de que encontraron amenazas escritas de un tiroteo y otros ataques en su vehículo durante una parada de tráfico de rutina.Un agentel de Policía de Júpiter, Florida, detuvo a Henry Horton IV el 18 de septiembre por un faro apagado en la camioneta blanca que conducía, según una declaración jurada de causa probable de la oficina del Sheriff del condado de Palm Beach.Durante una búsqueda en el vehículo de Horton, el oficial encontró varias notas escritas a mano con un plan para comprar armas de fuego y “matar a todos en OHS (Okeechobee High School) con mis armas”, dice la declaración jurada de causa probable.Horton se graduó de la escuela secundaria, ubicada en el condado de Okeechobee, en mayo de 2022.Horton le dijo al agente que tenía problemas de salud mental previos y que había “estado teniendo múltiples pensamientos sobre el homicidio en masa y que quería ejecutarlos una ...

How did Israel miss what Hamas was planning?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. The massive assault on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas militants is as bad an intelligence fiasco for the country as 1973’s Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria launched a joint offensive unforeseen by Israel’s vaunted intelligence services.No doubt Hamas commanders chose to launch their astonishing breakout from Gaza — the 140-square-mile coastal enclave Israel closely monitors with multiple layers of surveillance — on the war’s 50th anniversary for theatrical effect.But despite such intense digital and satellite monitoring, as well as the use of predictive and facial-recognition technologies, Hamas caught Israel’s security services as off-guard as Egypt and Syria did half a century ago.Back then, Western intelligence services seem to have been wrong-footed just as they are now — perhaps because they’re so focused on Ukraine and Russia.But the Yom Kippur War left a legacy of recrimination surrounding Israel’s intelligence service...

Column: A Chicago Bears win — finally! — plus all the good vibes that come with it. ‘It’s a feeling you never want to end.’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Wow. Just wow. Whatever that was the Chicago Bears were feeling late Thursday night, quarterback Justin Fields didn’t want the sensation to recede. Fields tried to describe the mood in the Bears locker room at Fed Ex Field, that intoxicating mix of satisfaction, joy, relief, unity and adrenaline.“It just felt good,” Fields said, “seeing all the hard work pay off. Especially getting a (win) after everything that has happened this year.”Fields knew he wanted those vibes to be everlasting. He wanted to stay moonwalking on that cloud with that ear-to-ear grin and the exhilaration pumping in sync with the music.“It’s a feeling you never want to end,” he said.This is what Thursday night’s emphatic 40-20 thumping of the Washington Commanders delivered for the Bears, what the end of an 11-month, 14-game losing streak ushered in. Exultation. Fulfillment. Pride. It was all to be grabbed and appreciated, all to be carried forward.T...

Orioles pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, who will start ALDS Game 2 vs. Rangers, ‘prepared for this moment’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:51:32 GMT

Two of the most formative starts of Grayson Rodriguez’s nascent big league career have come against the Texas Rangers. Sunday’s will add another to that list.In early April, the Orioles’ top pitching prospect entering the season pitched well in his MLB debut against the Rangers in Arlington, just three hours from his hometown. Just over 50 days later, Texas battered Rodriguez so badly that the Orioles sent the youngster to the minor leagues the next day.His start Sunday in Game 2 of the American League Division Series might not have the same emotions of a debut or a demotion-worthy drubbing. But it will be the biggest start of Rodriguez’s life, as the 23-year-old will deliver the first pitch from Camden Yards’ mound at 4:07 p.m. Sunday for the most pivotal game the Orioles have played in seven years.Rodriguez will pitch opposite Rangers ace Jordan Montgomery, who threw seven shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the wild-card seri...