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San Francisco chess club working to diversify players

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – The game of chess is played around the world, and the oldest, continuously running chess club in the U.S. is in downtown San Francisco at the Mechanics Institute. The institute is a kind of cultural center that goes back to 1854. Chess is one of its big draws, so the institute is now ramping up efforts to diversify the people who play, saying there are so many benefits for everybody. This spring, some 300 children of all ages and backgrounds from all corners of the Bay Area showed up to compete in the institute’s scholarship chess tournament. Some of those same young people are part of the institute's chess school outreach. It includes 22 weekly classes in 16 private and public schools in San Francisco. In low-income communities, classes are free – all aimed at sparking new interest in the age-old game. “Our school outreach programs are really important to help provide interesting and new skillsets to the kids in our classes, things like patience, un...

Woll has 24 saves, Maple Leafs avoid sweep with 2-1 win over Panthers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Joseph Woll stopped 24 shots in his first playoff start, Mitch Marner and William Nylander had the goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs staved off elimination by beating the Florida Panthers 2-1 in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Wednesday night.Nylander was the beneficiary of an odd bounce for a power-play score in the second period, Marner scored midway through the third and Woll did the rest as he took the place of injured starter Ilya Samsonov.Sam Reinhart scored for Florida, which got 23 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. The Panthers still lead the series 3-1, with Game 5 in Toronto on Friday night.Woll, who turns 25 on July 12, was bidding to become the youngest Toronto goalie to have a playoff shutout since Felix Potvin — then 23 — stopped 42 shots to beat Chicago 3-0 on May 9, 1995. He was 7:47 away from pulling it off.OILERS 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as Edmonton evened the second...

Lakers center Anthony Davis injured late in Game 5 loss to Warriors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lakers center Anthony Davis injured his head in what appeared to be an inadvertent hit by Golden State’s Kevon Looney midway through the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ 121-106 Game 5 victory in the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday night.Davis grabbed at his head grimacing on the bench before going to the locker room following the play with 7:43 remaining. He and Looney were battling for positioning in the paint on a driving layup by the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell. Davis’ status for Game 6 on Friday night back in Los Angeles is unclear but coach Darivn Ham was encouraged afterward without providing details on what evaluation — such as concussion testing — the big man went through once in the locker room. TNT reported Davis required a wheelchair to go to the locker room.“Obviously, everyone saw he took a shot to the head, but we just checked in on him, he seems to be doing really good already,” Ham said. “That’s just where he’s ...

Nugent-Hopkins has goal, assist to help Oilers beat Golden Knights 4-1, even series at 2-2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 Wednesday night to even their second-round playoff series at two games apiece.Nick Bjugstad, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm also scored as the Oilers built a four-goal lead in the second period. Connor McDavid had two assists and Stuart Skinner stopped 25 shots.Nicolas Roy scored in the third period for Vegas. Adin Hill stopped 29 shots in his first NHL playoff start after playing minutes in the two previous games of the series.Game 5 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night at Las Vegas, and Game 6 will be back in Edmonton on Sunday.Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo took a major and a game misconduct with less than 90 seconds remaining. After Leon Draisaitl shot wide of an empty net, Pietrangelo slashed the Oilers’ forward across the arms. It capped a penalty-filled third period, with all the infractions coming in the final 10 minutes. V...

Suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance faces extradition on fraud charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s government will allow the extradition to the United States of the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba, bringing her family hope there will be justice in the case.Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot will face trial for alleged extortion and wire fraud, charges stemming from the Holloway case.Holloway, who lived in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, was 18 when she was last seen during a trip with classmates to Aruba. She vanished after a night with friends at a nightclub, leaving a mystery that sparked years of news coverage and countless true-crime podcasts. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, then 18 years old.Van der Sloot was identified as a suspect and detained, along with two Surinamese brothers, weeks later. Holloway’s body was never found, and no charges were filed in the case. A judge later declared Holloway dead. Years later, van der Sloot was arrested ...

Reportan sismo de magnitud 1,3 en Ciudad de México

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

(CNN Español) — El Servicio Sismológico Nacional de México reportó la noche de este miércoles un sismo de magnitud 1,3 con epicentro en la Ciudad de México.El epicentro del sismo se ubicó a 3 kilómetros al noreste de La Magdalena C, en Ciudad de México, con una profundidad de 1,4 kilómetros.El sismo registrado causó sorpresa debido a que no sonó la alerta sísmica en la ciudad. La Plataforma Digital de Alertamiento y Gestión Integral de Riesgos (Sassla) explicó en su cuenta oficial de Twitter que la alerta no se activó pues es imposible que está suene “por un sismo local con epicentro en la misma ciudad que se pretende alertar”.SISMO Magnitud 1.3 Loc. 3 km al NORTE de LA MAGDALENA C, CDMX 10/05/23 22:22:30 Lat 19.36 Lon -99.21 Pf 1 km— Sismologico Nacional (@SismologicoMX) May 11, 2023La Jefa de Gobierno de la Ciudad de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, informó en su cuenta verificada en Twitter que pronto daría más información sobre el movimiento telúrico.Esta es una noti...

Poland still worst country to be gay in the EU: Report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

For a fourth year in a row, Poland holds the worst record on LGBTQ+ rights in the EU behind Romania and Bulgaria, a report from rights organization ILGA-Europe released Thursday shows.The report ranks European countries based on a review of laws and policies affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Each country is assigned a grade, ranging from 0 (gross violations of human rights) to 100 percent (full equality).Similar to 2022, Malta tops the list with a score of 89 percent, followed by Belgium and Denmark, tied at 76 percent — all far above Poland (15 percent), Romania (18 percent) and Bulgaria (20 percent).“Despite intense anti-LGBTI attacks in several countries, equality is still advancing across Europe,” through the passing of “legislation recognising gender identity,” ILGA-Europe said in a press release.Although Poland remains worst-in-class among EU countries — which has been the case since 2020 — it gained two points c...

Residents raise concerns over Del Mar housing project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

 DEL MAR, Calif. – Some Del Mar residents are concerned the bluff north of the Dog Beach is not stable enough for a proposed housing project.“We need some reports that really tell us what’s really going on here,” said Carla Hayes, with Friends of Del Mar North Bluff.Hayes is leading the effort to fund two reports on Del Mar North Bluff about its stability and depth of its sea caves, because that bluff may be the future home of affordable housing project Seaside Ridge.“Everybody in this community knows that that bluff happens to be very fragile and is sliding all the time. When you see the sea caves, and you see all this dirt sloughing off, little rockslides pretty much year-round, you can can’t predict it,” Hayes said.She’s hired a Scripps Institute researcher and geotechnical engineer at a cost of around $15,000.The reports will likely be completed in the coming weeks and a GoFundMe started by Hayes reached more than $3,000 as of Wednesday evening.In a statement from the spokespers...

Israel kills another militant commander in Gaza as fighting goes on, truce efforts falter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed a fourth militant commander on Thursday, raising the death toll from the latest burst of fighting to 25. Israel braced for more rocket fire amid reports of faltering Egyptian attempts to broker a cease-fire. It has been the worst bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in months, and among the dead were also women and children. The conflagration comes at a time of soaring tensions and spiking violence over the past year in the West Bank. Early on Thursday, the Israeli military carried out strikes against the Islamic Jihad militant group and said a senior commander in charge of the group’s rocket launching force, Ali Ghali, was killed when his apartment was hit. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Israeli Army Radio that two other militants were also killed in the strike and that the rest of the building remained intact. “The apartment was targeted in a very precise wa...

How Europe is building artificial intelligence guardrails

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:39 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Authorities around the world are racing to draw up rules for artificial intelligence, including in the European Union, where draft legislation faces a pivotal moment on Thursday. A European Parliament committee is set to vote on the proposed rules, part of a yearslong effort to draw up guardrails for artificial intelligence. Those efforts have taken on more urgency as the rapid advance of ChatGPT highlights benefits the emerging technology can bring — and the new perils it poses.Here’s a look at the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act: HOW DO THE RULES WORK? The AI Act, first proposed in 2021, will govern any product or service that uses an artificial intelligence system. The act will classify AI systems according to four levels of risk, from minimal to unacceptable. Riskier applications will face tougher requirements, including being more transparent and using accurate data. Think about it as a “risk management system for AI,” said Johann Laux, an exper...