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Report: Delays, cost overruns are impacting Amtrak’s new Acela rollout

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

The Amtrak Office of Inspector General has released a new report that says Amtrak’s rollout of new Acela trains will likely face future delays and cost increases.It cites Alstom, the manufacturer contracted by Amtrak to make the new train sets, saying the vendor’s designs have not yet met federal safety requirements. Additionally, the train sets the vendor has produced so far have defects it will need to fix or modify before Amtrak can launch revenue service of new Acela trains.Alstom is producing 28 new high-speed train sets for Amtrak under the contract. Amtrak has not accepted any of the train sets from the vendor as of August 2023, the report said.12 of the serial train sets and 22 cafe cars produced so far have defects, according to the report. Some are safety-related, including water drainage issues that cause corrosion.Other problems are more functional, including a report from the vendor that five windows on trains shattered spontaneously and hydraulic systems leaked. There ...

Exclusiva: Estados Unidos entregará armas incautadas de Irán a Ucrania

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

(CNN) — Estados Unidos entregará a Ucrania miles de armas y municiones que incautó de Irán, en una decisión que podría contribuir a resolver algunos de los graves problemas que enfrentan las fuerzas armadas de Kyiv, mientras esperan recibir más dinero y material de Estados Unidos y sus aliados, informaron fuentes oficiales estadounidenses.El Mando Central de EE.UU. (CENTCOM, por sus siglas en inglés) ya transfirió a las fuerzas armadas ucranianas más de un millón de cartuchos de munición iraní incautados, anunció la agencia este miércoles. La transferencia se llevó a cabo el lunes, dijo el CENTCOM en un comunicado de prensa.“El Gobierno obtuvo la propiedad de estas municiones el 20 de julio de 2023, a través de las demandas de confiscación civil del Departamento de Justicia contra el Cuerpo de la Guardia Revolucionaria Islámica de Irán (IRGC, por sus siglas en inglés)”, dice el comunicado.El Departamento de Justicia anunció en marzo que solicitaba el decomiso de un...

After the Capitol Hill chaos that led to McCarthy’s ouster, what happens now?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as Speaker of the House, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as Speaker of the House, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) Legislative activity has screeched to a halt in the U.S. House of Representatives, but it’s not because of a government shutdown that many lawmakers were resigned to before Congress approved a short-term spending bill last weekend.The House is instead paralyzed because — for the first time in its...

Chargers trade J.C. Jackson to Patriots, sending him back to where his career began, AP source says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The Chargers are trading cornerback J.C. Jackson to the Patriots, sending him back to where he began his career, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.Los Angeles is also sending a 2025 seventh-round pick to New England, in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because the trade had not been announced.Jackson has struggled during his short time in Los Angeles since signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract last year. He will now be looking to return to the level of play he displayed after being signed as an undrafted free agent by New England in 2018. Jackson intercepted 25 passes over four seasons and earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2021.“He had great years when he was here. I’m excited to see him back in a Patriots uniform,” linebacker Jahlani Tavai said. “When he does get back in the building it will be exciting.”New England has an immediate ...

Simone Biles leads U.S. women to seventh consecutive team title at gymnastics world championships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — Led by Simone Biles, the U.S. women won a seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships on Wednesday night.The American team of Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong combined for a total of 167.729 points to edge Brazil and France. The U.S. team won by a margin of 2.199 points as the final proved to be a closer contest than anticipated after the Americans put up a dominant performance in qualifying. The U.S. women have won gold in the team event at every world championship that included a team competition since 2011. Their victory in Antwerp broke a tie with the Chinese men and made Biles the most decorated female gymnast in history.Biles now has 26 world championship medals, 20 of them gold, to go with her seven Olympic medals, including the 2016 Olympic title. Her 33 combined medals at the sport’s two biggest events are one more than what Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union achieved.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/ap...

A German far-right party leader has been taken to a hospital from an election rally

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party was given medical treatment and then taken to a hospital shortly before he was due to speak at an election rally in Bavaria on Wednesday, police said.There were few details about what exactly happened at the event in Ingolstadt, before a state election on Sunday. The party said that Tino Chrupalla, one of its two co-leaders, was hospitalized following what it called a “violent incident,” German news agency dpa reported. It didn’t immediately have details on his condition.According to the party, the incident happened in a crowd shortly before he was due to speak.A police statement Wednesday evening said that Chrupalla had to be given medical treatment backstage at about 4:30 p.m. and was then taken to a hospital, but “an obvious injury was not apparent at that time.” It did not give more details on the treatment or what was thought to have happened.It said that police were investigating to determine “the prec...

NASCAR moves Atlanta and Watkins Glen into the playoffs on 2024 schedule

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR added Atlanta Motor Speedway and the road course at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York to the playoffs as part of the 2024 Cup Series schedule released Wednesday. Many of the celebrated changes to the schedule had already been announced: Bristol Motor Speedway is removing the dirt for its spring race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is returning NASCAR to his historic oval and Iowa Speedway will finally host a Cup race. The remainder of the schedule release showed that the season again begins with the exhibition Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, followed by the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18. The season ends once again at Phoenix Raceway, where the Cup champion will be crowned on Nov. 10. The notable changes to the schedule are the additions of the playoffs of Atlanta and Watkins Glen, as well as the regular-season finale moving one week from Daytona to Darlington, South Carolina, in an unchanged stretch of August racing. Dayto...

U.S. women’s team, led by Simone Biles, wins seventh consecutive team title at gymnastics world championships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — U.S. women’s team, led by Simone Biles, wins seventh consecutive team title at gymnastics world championships.Source

Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes: ‘I just haven’t played very good’ amid 3-1 start to season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes criticized his own performance four games into the season Wednesday, saying that the two-time and reigning league MVP must play better if Kansas City wants to defend its Super Bowl title.The Chiefs are 3-1 and atop the AFC West heading into Sunday’s game in Minnesota, but their most recent win over the Jets came largely in spite of the NFL’s biggest star. Mahomes was just 21 of 29 for 203 yards with a touchdown pass and two badly thrown interceptions, though he did make a couple of crucial plays with his feet late in the game to secure the win.It was the third time in four games Mahomes has failed to throw for more than 300 yards, and the only time he did was a 305-yard effort against Jacksonville, when the Chiefs offense managed just two touchdowns in slogging to a 17-9 win.“I just haven’t played very good to start the season,” said Mahomes, who threw for a franchise-record 5,250 yards with a league-leadin...

Denver International Airport plans to add 100 gates in the next 2 decades

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:09:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) – Major changes are coming to the third-busiest airport in the nation. Passenger traffic has reached an all-time high at Denver International Airport, with more than 36.5 million travelers going through so far this year. Now the airport needs to expand to meet the growth. Aspiring pilot creates replica of Denver International Airport The airport is projecting 78 million passengers by the end of 2023 and 100 million passengers annually by 2027. But the airport is only designed to serve 50 million a year."We're on this accelerated timeline to keep up with the growth," airport CEO Phil Washington said.More travelers means longer security lines, which is why a new checkpoint is being added. It will include new technology to help move people through faster.“We believe that it will ease a lot of the security wait times and we are preparing for that opening right now,” Washington said.The west security checkpoint will open in February, and at that point, north security wil...