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Things to do in the DC area: Halloween, fall festivals, pumpkin patches … and more!

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

This weekend and beyond, the calendar is chock-full of spooky fun, including fall festivals, haunted trails, corn mazes, pumpkin picking and other spooktacular things to do.Every Thursday WTOP brings you a roundup of Things to do in the DC area. This week, we focus on some of the uncanny events in the region, but also be sure to review WTOP’s fall festival guide to further explore this colorful season.Boo at the Zoo. (Photo courtesy Juan-Carlos Briceno, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)A big one is Boo at the Zoo, the Smithsonian’s opportunity for the public to visit the zoo’s smaller and largest residents after hours. On Oct. 20 through 22, visitors will be able to access the Small Mammal House, Elephant Community Center and Reptile Discovery Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will feature 30 trick or treat stations, fun and fantastical Halloween displays, actors who will provide live action entertainment as well as food and beverages. Guests ...

Polls open for Argentina election that could see right-wing populist who upended political landscape win the presidency

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Polls open for Argentina election that could see right-wing populist who upended political landscape win the presidency.Source

Bundesliga top-scorer Serhou Guirassy out several weeks for Stuttgart with left hamstring injury

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — In a major blow for Stuttgart, Bundesliga top-scorer Serhou Guirassy has been ruled out for several weeks with a left hamstring injury.Stuttgart said Sunday the in-form Guirassy has a “minor muscle injury at the back of the left thigh” and that he will not be available for “several weeks.”The 27-year-old Guinea forward suffered the injury shortly after scoring the opening goal against Union Berlin in Stuttgart’s 3-0 win Saturday.It was Guirassy’s 14th goal in just eight Bundesliga games so far this season.“Serhou’s loss is bitter for him personally and for us as a team,” Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß said. “Everyone saw what great shape Serhou was in recently. We must and will compensate for his loss as well as we can.”Guirassy’s goals helped Stuttgart win its last six games. The team is second in the Bundesliga after eight rounds, a point behind Bayer Leverkusen and one ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub...

An unsanctioned coterie of pro-Israel quasi-lobbyists has descended on D.C.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

This past week, an unlikely pair of men sat down for breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican gathering site just a stone’s throw from Congress, to plot ways to help Israel.On one side of the table was Rep. Paul Gosar, a firebrand Republican who has faced criticism for ties to white nationalists. On the other was Bobby Rechnitz, a Los Angeles real estate developer dubbed a “confidant” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Over coffee, the two discussed Israel’s former Prime Minister Golda Meir and the situation in Gaza. Rechnitz said he’d come to Washington to share real-time intelligence from Israel and to ensure lawmakers understood the challenges facing leadership there.“I hope to slightly enlighten the congressman about some of the things that I’m hearing,” he said. Rechnitz said he’s connected lawmakers with members of the Knesset, Israel’s governing body. He also uses a large iPad to show them photos of bullet-riddled bodies of babies and people burnt alive.The ...

CEO of Europe’s largest tech conference resigns over Israel-Hamas comments

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

Paddy Cosgrave, the founder and chief executive of Europe’s largest annual technology conference, Web Summit, resigned on Saturday in an effort to quell a controversy surrounding comments he made on the Israel-Hamas war. His departure came after several major companies withdrew from this year’s event, which is scheduled for November 13-16 in Lisbon.Cosgrave, an Irish entrepreneur who co-founded Web Summit in 2009, faced significant backlash for criticizing Western support for Israel’s military response to the October 7 attack by the militant group Hamas, which claimed the lives of 1,400 people.“War crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies,” Cosgrave wrote on social media on October 13, referring to Israel’s ongoing airstrikes and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which the U.N. has warned could lead to mass starvation of the 2.3 million people living there. Cosgrave later followed up with a message condemning the Hamas attack.Amid growing cr...

As DeSantis falters, the race for second place in the GOP primary is open again

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

(CNN) — A furious scramble for second place is underway in the crowded Republican primary contest, with candidates vying for an opportunity to directly take on front-runner Donald Trump. The position, once held by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now appears to be more of a free-for-all.Since the 2024 presidential race began, the second-place spot in GOP primary polling has been a coveted one. The conventional wisdom was that for candidates not named Trump, one of their earliest objectives would be to become the consensus alternative to the former president. Before and in the early days of DeSantis’ campaign, it seemed like he would be that candidate. The Florida governor enjoyed a robust campaign war chest and early polling showed him trailing only Trump, albeit by a wide margin.But more recently, DeSantis’s star has begun to fade. He was more muted compared with other rivals at last month’s first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, and he’s no...

Turnover has plagued local election offices since 2020. One swing state county is trying to recover

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — The polls had just opened for last year’s midterms in Pennsylvania when the phones began ringing at the election office in Luzerne County.Polling places were running low on paper to print ballots. Volunteers were frustrated, and voters were worried they might not be able to vote.Emily Cook, the office’s interim deputy director who had been in her position for just two months, rushed to the department’s warehouse. She found stacks of paper, but it was the wrong kind — ordered long ago and too thick to meet the requirements for the county’s voting equipment.Conspiracy theories swiftly began to spread: Republican polling places were being targeted; Democrats overseeing elections were trying to disenfranchise Republicans.“The feeling early on in the day was panic — concern — which grew to overwhelming panic,” Cook said. “And then at some point throughout the day, there was definitely a feeling of people are starting to point fingers — before the day ...

Author Salman Rushdie calls for defense of freedom of expression as he receives German prize

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie called Sunday for the unconditional defense of freedom of expression as he received a prestigious German prize that recognizes his literary work and his resolve in the face of constant danger.The British-American author decried the current age as a time when freedom of expression is under attack by all sides, including from authoritarian and populist voices, according to the German news agency dpa.He made his remarks during a ceremony in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where he was honored with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for continuing to write despite enduring decades of threats and violence.In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly while on stage at a literary festival in New York state. Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” will be released on April 16. He called it a way “to answer violence with ...

South Korea, US and Japan hold first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in face of North Korean threats

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops. The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, becaus...

Biden walks tightrope with support for Israel as allies and the left push for restraint

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told a crowd of Democratic donors over the weekend about a decades-old photo he took with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an aside that seemed intended to illustrate his long support of Israel and track record of speaking bluntly with the conservative Israeli leader.Biden said he’d written on the photo of himself as a young senator and Netanyahu as an embassy hand, “Bibi, I love you. I don’t agree with a damn thing you say.’” He told donors at a Friday night fundraiser that Netanyahu still keeps the photo on his desk and had brought it up during Biden’s lightning visit to Tel Aviv last week.As expectations grow that Israel will soon launch a ground offensive aimed at rooting out Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, Biden finds himself facing anew the difficult balancing act of demonstrating full-throated support for America’s closet ally in the Middle East while trying to also press the Israelis to act with enough ...