FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP won the New Hampshire Republican primary (Gage Skidmore/Flickr).

Former president Donald Trump won the first primary of the 2024 presidential campaign, defeating former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire race.
Haley nevertheless vowed to continue her campaign.
President Joe Biden, who was not on the ballot, nevertheless won the Democratic portion on the strength of write-in votes.
As of our deadline, Trump had received 55 percent of the vote, while Haley had 43.5 percent. That translated to 11 delegates for Trump and eight for Haley. A total of 22 delegates will be chosen.
Combined with the Iowa caucus, Trump has won 31 delegates to the GOP convention and Haley 16.
The Democratic primary is a so-called “beauty contest” in which no delegates are chosen. Sixty-six percent of the ballots cast were write-in and most of those were cast for Biden.

“Oppenheimer’ gets 13 Oscar nods

“Oppenheimer,” the story of the man who engineered the creation of the atomic bomb but later tried to stop its spread has received 13 nominations by the Motion Picture Academy.

CILLIAN MURPHY as Robert Oppenheimer.

Ten movies were nominated for Best Picture. They included “Oppenheimer,” “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest.”

Other nominations for “Oppenheimer” went to Christopher Nolan for Best Director, Cillian Murphy for Best Actor, Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor and Emily Blunt for Best Supporting Actress.

Sweden nears place in NATO

FLAG OF SWEDEN

The Turkish Parliament on Tuesday approved Sweden’s desire to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on a 287-55 vote, with four abstentions. Under NATO bylaws, a new member can be added only with unanimous support of the organization so it remains only for Hungary to agree to finalize Sweden’s acceptance.

There are now 30 members in NATO in Europe and North America. The treaty calls for all those nations to treat an attack on one to be an attack on all. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland has joined and Sweden is expected to be the 31st.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the invasion of the Ukraine was, in part, to prevent it from joining NATO and enlarging the organization, which was established in 1949 to deter the former Soviet Union.

24 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza

HAMAS vs. Israel (Shutterstock).

An attack using rocket-propelled grenades killed 24 Israeli soldiers and wounded others in Gaza on Monday, the Israeli Defense Ministry has announced.

The soldiers were setting explosives to knock down damaged buildings to create a “buffer zone” in Gaza when two RPGs were fired – presumably by Hamas militants. One hit a tank and the other the building, setting off the explosives, killing the soldiers.

It’s the biggest one-day loss by Israeli forces suffered since the Hamas-Israel clash started in October 2023. So far, over 25,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict and over 1,500 Israeli’s killed.

Weather: Partly cloudy, slowly warmer

The weather outlook for our West Orange County area is remarkably consistent for the next few days: partly cloudy. On Wednesday, the daytime high is expected to be 63 with an overnight low of 52. Thursday will be a trifle warmer during the day (64) and a bit cooler at night (49). Things heat up a bit to 70 (48) on Friday and get summer-y on Saturday with 76 (53).