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‘Challenging time’: Alberta wildfire evacuees to get financial aid, military to help

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

EDMONTON — The Alberta government promised financial aid Monday to people forced from their homes by wildfires that continue to threaten many areas of the province.The province also asked the federal government for help, and Premier Danielle Smith said military personnel would be deployed to prevent looting and maintain order in evacuated communities.“There is no question that this is a challenging time,” Smith said.“Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes and their jobs. They’re leaving behind all they own.”Close to 100 fires remained active Monday during an unusually early and intense fire season. So far this year, 405 wildfires have burned nearly 400,000 hectares, according to the latest data available on the Alberta government’s website. Last year at this time, 180 fires had burned 417 hectares.About 29,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes in more than a dozen communities in recent days. Among them were about...

Israeli aircraft strike Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza Strip

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military said it was striking Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip as residents reported of a number of blasts in the Palestinian enclave early Tuesday.Witnesses said an explosion hit the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and a house in the southern city of Rafah. Palestinian media said several people were injured. There was no immediate confirmation from health authorities.The airstrikes come as tension has been boiling between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the militant Hamas group.Last week, Gaza militants fired several salvos of rockets toward southern Israel, and Israeli military responded with airstrikes following the death of a hunger-striking senior member of the Islamic Jihad in Israeli custody.The Associated Press

Mexico search set to find world’s most endangered porpoises

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials and the conservation group Sea Shepherd said Monday that experts will set out in two ships in a bid to locate the few remaining vaquita marina, the world’s most endangered marine mammal. Mexico environment secretary said experts from the United States, Canada and Mexico will use binoculars, sighting devices and acoustic monitors to try to pinpoint the location of the tiny, elusive porpoises. The species cannot be captured, held or bred in captivity.The trip will run from May 10 to May 27 in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, the only place the vaquita lives. The group will travel in a Sea Shepherd vessel and a Mexican boat to try and sight vaquitas; as few as eight of the creatures are believed to remain.Illegal gillnet fishing traps and kills the vaquita. Fishermen set the nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound (kilogram). Sea Shepherd ...

Bills’ Hamlin will put the millions raised into his charity

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin will use the $10 million given to online fundraising campaigns by well-wishers after his on-field collapse to fund his own nonprofit, the Chasing M’s Foundation. The decision, first shared with The Associated Press Monday, begins the 25-year-old’s plan for the unprecedented outpouring of support that he received after his heart stopped following a tackle during a “Monday Night Football” game in January. “We have been very deliberate and intentional about taking our time to set my charity up properly,” Hamlin said in a statement. “I’m excited to begin sharing news about programs we are creating to impact a generation of youth and give back to others.” That people continue to give weekly, if not daily, to the fundraiser is just one measure of the emotional power and connection that Hamlin has with so many. So far, they’ve given more than $9 million to a GoFundMe campaign and nearly a million to a second on...

Chaos? Kumbaya? How the debt limit standoff might end

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just how does this debt limit standoff end?Plenty of scenarios are being publicly and privately gamed out, but no one knows for sure. The possibilities range from kumbaya to economic chaos with plenty of possibilities in between.So far, neither President Joe Biden nor House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is giving ground ahead of talks slated for Tuesday. Biden wants to increase the government’s $31.4 trillion legal borrowing limit, so that the federal government can continue to pay its bills and the risk of a historic default goes away. McCarthy and other GOP lawmakers want a deal that guarantees trillions of dollars in spending cuts before they sign on to raising the debt limit.Time is short: The Treasury Department warns the U.S. could default as soon as June 1 if there is no deal.A look at potential outcomes:LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREEThe president wants to disarm the whole debate by having Republicans make a public commitment that the U.S. won’...

Bob Huggins apologizes for homophobic slur during radio show

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins apologized Monday after using a homophobic slur to refer to Xavier fans while also denigrating Catholics during a radio interview. West Virginia’s athletic department called Huggins’ comments “offensive” and said it was reviewing the matter. During a call to Cincinnati radio station WLW, Huggins, a former longtime coach at Cincinnati, was asked about the transfer portal and whether he had a chance of landing a player from Xavier, a Jesuit school and the Bearcats’ crosstown rival.“Catholics don’t do that,” Huggins said. “I tell you what, any school that can throw rubber penises on the floor and then say they didn’t do it, by God they can get away with anything. “It was the Crosstown Shootout. What it was, was all those (expletive), those Catholic (expletive), I think.”Later Monday, Huggins issued a statement saying he “used a completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there is simply no excuse for — and I ...

Texas shooter’s ‘RWDS’ patch linked to far-right extremists

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

The shooter who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall was wearing a patch that read “RWDS” — short for “Right Wing Death Squad” — a phrase that has been embraced in recent years by far-right extremists who glorify violence against their political enemies.Authorities have not said what they believe might have motivated 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, who was killed by a police officer who happened to be near the mall Saturday when Garcia opened fire. Social media accounts authorities believe were used by Mauricio Garcia also appear to have expressed interest in white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they could not discuss details of the investigation publicly. The official cautioned that the investigation is in the early stages. Here is a look at the term “Right Wing Death Squad” and how it became a popular symbol among violent extremists: WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF THE TERM?The “RWDS” acronym...

Police search for suspect in school shooting near Las Vegas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities were searching Monday afternoon for the person who shot and injured an adult at a middle school in suburban Las Vegas.Law enforcement officials said during an afternoon news briefing that they had not identified a suspect but consider it an isolated incident with no further threat to the school.“This was not an active shooter,” Capt. Noel Roberts of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said during the briefing outside Ed Von Tobel Middle School.No students were injured in the shooting, which happened just before 12:40 p.m.In a letter sent to parents shortly after the shooting, the school’s principal said all students were safe in their classrooms after one person was struck by gunfire on campus but outside the school building.The middle school, located about a 15-minute drive northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, was placed on lockdown for about an hour while police cleared the campus.The person who was shot was taken to a hospital, although po...

High temperatures in B.C. pose ‘threat of new wildfires,’ wildfire service warns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

Rain and cooler temperatures in northeastern British Columbia will help suppression efforts for two out-of-control wildfires, but high temperatures forecast for later this week may pose a new threat, says a BC Wildfire Service spokesman. Cliff Chapman, the director of wildfire operations, told a news conference Monday that the area has not received enough precipitation to “knock that hazard down.”“The challenge with the return to above-seasonal temperatures is that it won’t only challenge us on the current fires, it’s the threat of new wildfires being started as well,” he said.Evacuation orders or alerts remain in place for much of the areas surrounding the Red Creek and Boundary Lake fires, about 1,300 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.In its latest update, the B.C. Wildfire Service reported the Boundary Lake fire was an estimated 5,900 hectares. The fire at Red Creek sits at 2,800 hectares.The fires are burning on either side of the city of Fort...

Mexican high court overturns reforms rushed through Congress

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:43 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court voted Monday to overturn a pair of electoral law reforms favored by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador because Congress rushed them through to a vote without debate, or even time to read them. The 9-2 vote threatens López Obrador’s habit of demanding legislators approve bills they often received just a few hours or even minutes before, often late at night or in the early morning hours. Justice Jorge Pardo said of one of the laws approved last year, “there were not even three hours between the time the bill was sent (to congress) and the time it was voted on.”The Constitution requires congress to consider and debate any laws it passes. In one case, justices argued that changes were made to the text of one of the bills without telling the legislators before they voted on it.The laws struck down on Monday involved electoral rules limiting partisan activity by politicians who hold public offices. López Obrador had sought to loosen limits on w...