Home

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein: My first year with stage 4 lung cancer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

You probably remember about this time last year I started coughing. I didn’t stop coughing until I was diagnosed and began treatment for stage 4 lung cancer.By now, you likely know that after a couple months of coughing, I was surprised to learn in November 2022 that I had cancerous tumors and lymph nodes in both lungs, at age 63, with no history of smoking.Fast forward, after five months of one-pill-a-day targeted therapy, and a robot-assisted lobectomy, my oncologist said I had no evidence of disease — or NED.I’ll be the first to acknowledge I’ve had good doctors, good medicine, good insurance and good luck on my side — not to mention countless warm wishes and prayers from folks who know my work at WTOP.My hope is sharing my journey may make the experience a little less scary for others diagnosed with the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society.So, one year in, I decided to interview three key members of my treatment te...

Luke Donald urged to stay as European captain for Ryder Cup defense as new generation emerges

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — European captain Luke Donald was delivering his Ryder Cup victory speech in front of a giddy crowd at Marco Simone when his celebrating players standing beside him started a chant that quickly swept through the grandstands.“Two more years” was the cry, seemingly led by Rory McIlroy and drawing a broad smile from Donald.As the party continued into the night in Rome, Donald tempered any talk of him staying on as captain after orchestrating Europe’s 16½-11½ victory over the Americans that won back the 17-inch golden trophy on Sunday.For Donald, any thoughts of leading the Europeans into what will be a febrile atmosphere at Bethpage Black in New York in 2025 could wait.Not so for McIlroy.“I think everyone sitting here,” the four-time major winner said in the post-competition team news conference, “would be very happy to have him again.”No one has captained Europe in back-to-back Ryder Cups since Bernard Gallagher did so, three times in a row in fact, in...

EU foreign ministers arrive in Kyiv to talk weapons

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

The EU’s foreign affairs ministers and chief diplomat Josep Borrell meet Monday for a special session with their Ukrainian counterpart — but instead of Dmytro Kuleba coming to Brussels or dialing in, this time they’ve gone to Ukraine.“We are convening a historic meeting of EU foreign ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU. We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people,” Borrell said Monday.“The fact that this Foreign Affairs Council is coming to Ukraine is a message in itself,” showing that Ukraine is moving closer to EU accession, Kuleba told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook in a phone call. “The message is that Ukraine is becoming a member of the European Union, the process is taking place right as we speak and hold these meetings,” Kuleba added, underlining that he expects “to open accession talks by the end of the year.” There’s hope the EU-Ukraine talks on Monday yield tang...

Boston fire crews battling multi-alarm blaze that spread to adjacent home

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

Boston fire crews are working to contain a blaze that broke out in a three-family home on Woodson Street this morning, officials said.Crews responding to a reported structure fire at 52 Woodston St. around 5:25 a.m. found heavy flames coming from the rear of the building.The fire has spread to the adjacent building at 56 Woodson Street, prompting a second and third alarm be ordered, fire officials said.The fire has burned through the rear porches and across the roof, according to a post on the department’s X account.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.No additional information was immediately available.https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1708780590126821460https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1708780135678103819

Concerns raised over O’Bryant School move

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

The Boston School Committee will be voting on whether to relocate the highly rated O’Bryant School to the vacant West Roxbury Education Complex, one way or the other, despite opposition from parents and the community at large.District officials continued to hear concerns from parents during an open house Saturday at the proposed site they have set for the college preparatory exam school. Concerns ranged from issues with transportation to the transparency and accountability behind the planning process.When exactly the School Committee will be voting on the proposal remains an open question, but Delavern Stanislaus, the district’s chief of capital planning, told the Herald she believes it could happen sometime by the end of this year or in early 2024.“I think we have to go back as a team and evaluate — based on conversations we’ve had, based on the feedback from the community — the work we have to put in to actually continue the community engagement pieces before we put a final propos...

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman win Nobel in medicine for enabling development of mRNA vaccines

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.Katalin Karikó is a professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Drew Weissman performed his prizewinning research together with Karikó at the University of Pennsylvania.Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Assembly, announced the award Monday in Stockholm.The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was won last year by Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for discoveries in human evolution that unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA which provided key insights into our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe COVID-19.The award was the second in the family. Paabo’s father, Sune Bergstrom, won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1982.Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Priz...

A big fire at a police headquarters in northeastern Egypt injures at least 38 people

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A huge fire broke out early Monday at a police facility in northeastern Egypt, injuring at least 38 people before firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze several hours later, authorities said.The cause of the fire, which ripped through the multistory police headquarters in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia, was not immediately clear.Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq, whose ministry oversees police forces, rushed to the site in the city of Ismailia, about 125 kilometers (77 miles) northeast of Cairo. He said a committee was set up to investigate the fire.Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said in a statement that 12 of the injured were treated at the site, while 26 others were taken to hospitals. All but two suffered from breathing difficulties; seven of the injured were treated and discharged, he said.It was not immediately clear how many police were in the building at the time. Local media reported that the police building was severel...

Fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island cause smoky haze, prompting calls for people to work from home

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

PALEMBANG, Indonesia (AP) — More than 300 forest and peatland fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island caused hazy skies across the region on Monday, prompting government officials to ask people to work from home.The military, police and local government were working together to extinguish the fires, which were burning in 316 places across South Sumatra province, but their work was complicated by the extreme dry weather, said Iriansyah, the head of the South Sumatra Disaster Management Agency.The smoky haze drifted from the fires toward Palembang, the capital of South Palembang province, causing unhealthy air conditions for the area’s 1.7 million people.“There is a high potential for people to suffer from respiratory tract infections, coughing, shortness of breath and eye irritation,” said Iriansyah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.The government in South Sumatra last week called on schools to delay their opening time, as the haze tends to decrease during the day...

5 missing people are located after a Spanish nightclub fire, leaving the death toll at 13

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Five people who were missing and feared dead in a nightclub fire in the city of Murcia have been located, a Spanish official said Monday. The death toll in the country’s worst nightclub fire in 33 years stands at 13, with 24 people injured. Francisco Jiménez, the national government representative in the southeastern region of Murcia, told Spanish National Television that no further bodies had been found and that there was no longer anyone missing. Firefighters and police continued to search the damaged premises for clues as to how the fire started Sunday in the city of Murcia. They also worked to secure the interior of the building to avoid a possible collapse.The blaze started around 6 a.m. in a nightclub and spread to two others nearby, Spanish state news agency EFE said. All the bodies were found in the first nightclub.The city council declared three days of mourning with flags flown at half-staff on public buildings. It was the deadliest nightclub fire in Sp...

Johnny’s becomes Smile-Up. Japanese music company hit with sex abuse scandal takes on a new name

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:52 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese entertainment company that has acknowledged its founder sexually assaulted hundreds of boys over the span of half a century, took a new name on Monday: Smile-Up. It also vowed to focus on compensation for victims of the abuse. Tokyo-based Johnny & Associates, founded in 1975, will eventually fold, but its performers can join an independent company that is being set up, said Noriyuki Higashiyama, the company’s new leader and a former star at Johnny’s, as the company is known.Higashiyama, tapped last month to head the old Johnny’s, will now be president of both Smile-Up and the new company. The new company’s name will be put to public vote by Johnny’s fans. “All things with the Johnny’s name will have to go,” Higashiyama told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. “A wounded heart isn’t easy to heal. Compensation on its own will never be enough.”In recent months, dozens of men who were performers and backup dancers as teens and children at Johnny’s have ...