内容摘要：South Sudan has endured repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the country’s top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.

South Sudan has endured repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the country’s top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.

No matter how often he flexes his knowledge of roots and unfamiliar language patterns, historical trends suggest Faizan is an underdog. In 96 bees over 100 years, only four runners-up have later gone on to win, and just one did so in the last 44 years: Sean Conley, the 2001 champion who finished second the year before.“Hopefully I can get it done,” Faizan said. “Especially back home, all of my friends, they tell me that I need to win this year.”

Disappointment has taken many forms for recent runners-up.Naysa Modi, who finished second in 2018, was eliminated in 2019 by a written test that winnowed the field to 50 spellers, only to watch in dismay aswho aced words that she also knew.

Simone Kaplan, the runner-up to those 2019 “octo-champs,” didn’t get a chance to come back becausein 2021, never contended again, even though she had two more years before she aged out of the competition. Spellers can’t be older than 15 or past the eighth grade.

Then came Vikram, who didn’t make it back in 2023 after a regional bee in Denver that lasted 53 rounds over a span of more than five hours. Vikram and his parents unsuccessfully appealed to Scripps that he misspelled because the bee’s pronouncer made one of several mistakes.

Now 15, Vikram returned to the bee to support his younger brother, Ved — who bowed out in the semifinals — and he’s long past any bitter feelings about how his spelling career ended.that the incident occurred Friday at Diablo Valley College in the city of Pleasant Hill.

Two people were taken to the hospital with injuries and 10 were treated at the scene, college officials said, adding the incident is under investigation.“Our thoughts are with all individuals and families affected by this incident, and we wish those injured a speedy recovery,” the college said in a statement.

More than 2,400 students were graduating from the public community college northeast of San Francisco.A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of