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Bridge: Nov. 28, 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

“So how goes it at your house?” I asked Unlucky Louie. He has seven children residing at home.“Chaos, as usual,” Louie sighed. “My wife says nobody is more full of false hope than someone who leaves items at the foot of the stairs and expects them to be carried up.”When Louie is declarer, his play is often based more on hope than on technique or logic. When he played at four spades, he won the first heart with dummy’s ace and led the jack of diamonds for a finesse. West took the king and led another heart.DOWN ONELouie won, frowned, took the ace of diamonds and ruffed his queen to reach dummy. He let the jack of trumps ride, winning, but still had to lose a trump to East’s king plus two clubs. Down one.Louie’s play wasn’t hopeless, nor was it best. At Trick Two he should lead the five of diamonds to his queen. The finesse loses, but when Louie wins the heart return, he can lead his ten of diamonds to the jack and finesse tw...

Three-bedroom home sells for $2.4 million in San Jose

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

667 Springwood Drive – Google Street ViewA 1,456-square-foot house built in 1963 has changed hands. The property located in the 600 block of Springwood Drive in San Jose was sold on Nov. 13, 2023. The $2,420,000 purchase price works out to $1,662 per square foot. The layout of this single-story house includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The home’s exterior showcases roofing materials crafted from wood shake roofing / shingles. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. In addition, the home comes with a two-car garage, allowing for convenient vehicle storage and additional storage space.These nearby houses have also recently been purchased:On Springwood Drive, San Jose, in September 2022, a 1,681-square-foot home was sold for $2,360,000, a price per square foot of $1,404. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.A 1,571-square-foot home on the 600 block of Brentwood Drive in San Jose sold in September 2022, for $2,015,000, a price per square foot of $1,283. T...

Ask Amy: We’re not inviting her, but it will be hard to tell her why

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

Dear Amy: My longtime friend and I have been traveling abroad together for the past several years.Related ArticlesAdvice | Ask Amy: This teen mom is trying to manipulate my son Advice | Ask Amy: I’m being punished for refusing to give in to my child’s spouse Advice | Ask Amy: Now I’m expected to sew a custom quilt for a stranger as a gift Advice | Ask Amy: I heard my teen bragging about her trickery. I’m furious; my husband thinks it’s cute. Advice | Ask Amy: My boyfriend said his public insult was just a joke. Should I let it go? We are both introverts and get along well on our trips as we respect one another’s space and the need for quiet.We avoid the bustle of cities and tourist traps to spend our time hiking and in solitary reflection outdoors. We treasure these annual getaways as an opportunity to clear our heads and restore our creative energy.Another friend wants to j...

How to Read the Israeli “Kidnapped” Posters

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

Shortly after October 7, after Hamas entered Israel, murdered over a thousand people, and took more than 200 others hostage, the Israeli artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid quickly formatted “kidnapped” flyers with the photographs and names of some of the captives. They said their motivation wasn’t political, that they were looking to work through their “fear in a dark time” by keeping public attention on the captives. Soon, Mintz and Bandaid made the flyers available online, translated into 22 languages, and now the images can be found in cities and on college and university campuses around the world, any place that has a stake in the great game of Middle East politics. Even as some Israeli hostages begin to come home, the posters remain flashpoints of global polarization.Some opposed to Israel’s disproportionate assault on Gaza think the flyers are propaganda, a crass manipulation of suffering designed to cement a bond between the United States and Israel and ensure that Washing...

Man United set for another fiery match against Galatasaray with Champions League hopes in peril

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

If it wasn’t the “Welcome to Hell” signs at the airport, it was the bell boy at the team hotel performing a throat-slitting gesture as the players arrived.Or the deliberately timed phone calls during the night to disrupt sleep, and the mud and flags thrown at the bus to the stadium.Or the riot police bundling players down the steps to the locker room with their shields after the match.Manchester United’s first Champions League match against Galatasaray at the Turkish team’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium has gone down in lore. Thirty years later, United is back in Istanbul and again fighting to stay in the competition — something it failed to do back in 1993.“It was probably the most intimidating atmosphere I ever played in,” then-United midfielder Bryan Robson has said.United’s players probably thought their Premier League match on Sunday against a fired-up Everton seething with resentment at the perceived injustice of a 10-point sanction for financial mismanagement was a tough gauntlet to r...

ACC-SEC Challenge and Jimmy V Classic headline busy week for Top 25 teams

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

With Thanksgiving tournaments in the rearview mirror, many Top 25 teams will turn their attentions this week to inter-conference challenges and the annual Jimmy V Classic.The inaugural ACC/SEC women’s basketball challenge will be played with marquee games including No. 18 Notre Dame against No. 20 Tennessee; No. 24 North Carolina playing top-ranked South Carolina and No. 9 Virginia Tech against No. 7 LSU — a rematch of last season’s Final Four matchup.The Hokies, who lost to LSU in the national semifinals last season, will be facing a Tigers team Thursday that is in flux. Star Angel Reese hasn’t played in LSU’s last four games, including missing the school’s two games trip to the Cayman Islands over the holiday.“That’s a deep subject. You ask at every game, you’re gonna get the same answer,” coach Kim Mulkey said following LSU’s win on Saturday over Virginia.LSU also has been playing without guard Kateri Poole for the last few games. Mulkey said that sh...

Elbit: Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) on Tuesday reported net income of $60.7 million in its third quarter.The Haifa, Israel-based company said it had net income of $1.36 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.65 per share.The maker of defense electronics posted revenue of $1.5 billion in the period._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ESLT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ESLTSource

US tells Israel any ground campaign in south Gaza must be tailored to avoid further significant civilian displacement

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — US tells Israel any ground campaign in south Gaza must be tailored to avoid further significant civilian displacement.Source

41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India for 17 days are on verge of rescue, official says

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

UTTARKASHI, India (AP) — Officials in India said Tuesday they were on the verge of rescuing the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country’s north, after rescuers drilled their way through debris to reach them. The workers are to be pulled out through a passageway made of welded pipes which rescuers pushed through dirt and rocks.“Soon all the laborers brothers will be taken out,” Pushkar Singh Dhami, top official in Uttarakhand state, where the accident occurred, posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Kirti Panwar, a state government spokesperson, said about a dozen men had worked overnight to manually dig through rocks and debris, taking turns to drill using hand-held drilling tools and clearing out the muck in what he said was the final stretch of the rescue operation.Rescuers resorted to manual digging after the drilling machine broke down irreparably on Friday while drilling horizontally from the ...

It’s OK to ban wearing religious symbols at work, EU top court rules

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:06:27 GMT

The EU’s top court on Tuesday ruled that a public administration may ban staff from visibly wearing any sign which reveals philosophical or religious beliefs, in order to create a “neutral administrative environment.”“Such a rule is not discriminatory if it is applied in a general and indiscriminate manner to all of that administration’s staff and is limited to what is strictly necessary,” the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said, according to a press release issued Tuesday.The ruling refers to the case of a woman from the municipality of Ans in Belgium who took her grievance to a local court, claiming her freedom of religion had been infringed and that she was the victim of discrimination after she was prohibited from wearing an Islamic headscarf in her workplace. After the headscarf decision, the municipality altered its terms of employment to prohibit all workers from wearing overt signs of ideological or religious affiliation.A court in Liège aske...