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Biden is in Utah to mark the anniversary of the PACT Act expanding veterans benefits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Joe Biden will mark the first anniversary of a law that is delivering the largest expansion of veterans benefits in decades on Thursday by showcasing the bipartisan PACT Act in the company of Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox.The Democratic president and the GOP governor will visit the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to promote a law that is intended to improve health care and disability compensation for exposure to toxic substances, such as burn pits that were used to dispose of trash on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 348,000 veterans have had their claims approved in the last year, and about 111,000 who are believed to have toxic exposure have enrolled in health care.The president is winding up a three-state western swing in which he has been combining events focused on achievements from his first term with campaign fundraisers aimed at helping him win a second. Both Biden and Cox have stressed the ...

Russia says it intercepted Moscow-bound drones for a second straight day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian air defense systems on Thursday shot down two drones heading toward Moscow for a second straight day, officials said. The reported attack disrupted flights at two international airports as Ukraine appeared to step up its assault on Russian soil.One drone was downed in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow and another near a major Moscow ring road, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and the Russian Defense Ministry, which blamed the attack on Ukraine.No casualties or damage were immediately reported.Domodedovo airport, south of the city, halted flights for more than two hours and Vnukovo airport, southwest of the city, stopped flights for more than two and a half hours, according to Russian news agencies. Ten flights were diverted, Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said.Firing drones at Moscow after more than 17 months of war has little apparent military value for Ukraine, but the strategy has served to unsettle Russians and bring home to t...

West African leaders are meeting on Niger, but options are few as a military junta defies mediation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — West African heads of state began meeting Thursday on next steps after Niger’s military junta defied their deadline to reinstate the nation’s deposed president, but analysts say the bloc known as ECOWAS may be running out of options as support fades for a military intervention.Nine of the 11 heads of state expected to attend resumed crucial talks at the ECOWAS summit in neighboring Nigeria. They include the presidents of Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. The non-ECOWAS leaders of Mauritania and Burundi are also at the closed-door meeting.As Niger’s junta turns away most efforts at mediation, one analyst asserted that Russian meddling in the country has spiked in the two weeks since mutinous soldiers overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has refused to step down and is under house arrest. The junta announced a new government on Wednesday night. More than half of the 21 positions we...

Virgin Galactic all set to fly its first tourists to the edge of space

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

Virgin Galactic is taking its first space tourists on a rocket ship ride after years of delays, including one passenger who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.The flight window opens Thursday morning at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert for a ride to the edge of space. If all goes well, Richard Branson’s company will begin offering monthly trips to customers on its winged space plane, joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.Virgin Galactic passenger Jon Goodwin, who was among the first to buy a ticket in 2005, said he had faith that he would someday make the trip. The 80-year-old British Olympian — he competed in canoeing in 1972 — has Parkinson’s disease and wants to be an inspiration to others.“I hope it shows them that these obstacles can be the start rather than the end to new adventures,” he said in a statement.Goodwin has said he paid $250,000 for his ti...

Kuwait and Lebanon move to ban ‘Barbie’ over gender and sexuality themes ahead of Mideast release

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — “Barbie” is set to open across the Middle East on Thursday, but moves by Kuwait and Lebanon to ban the film over its themes on gender and sexuality have raised questions over how widely it will be released.Kuwait announced its ban late Wednesday, saying the film promotes “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order,” without elaborating, according to a statement published by the state-run KUNA news agency.In Lebanon, Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada said the film was found to “contradict values of faith and morality” and “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation.” His request to ban the film was forwarded to Lebanon’s General Security agency, which falls under the Interior Ministry and traditionally handles censorship decisions, to make the final verdict. The move has already sparked an uproar in Lebanon, which has long been an island of relative tolerance for homosexuality. Across the Middle East, many Mu...

6 tips for cutting costs on back-to-school shopping

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

When Meghan Lakata’s kids return to school from summer break, they’ll have new (to them) clothes and supplies. But thanks to some creative shopping habits, the mother of two isn’t stressed over back-to-school spending.Lakata, a pre-K teacher in Maryland, uses tools like state sales tax holidays, cash-back apps and buy-nothing groups to keep back-to-school costs down. Bulk purchases help, too.“I have the two kids and there’s a lot of overlap in what they need,” Lakata says. “So if I can get like a big 48-count of pencils, I’m going to do that.”If back-to-school spending forecasts for 2023 are correct, every little bit of savings might help. According to the National Retail Federation, families with children in kindergarten through 12th grade will spend a record $41.5 billion on back-to-school shopping this year. An additional $94 billion will be spent on back-to-college shopping. Those figures make the back-to-school season the second-largest spending period of the year, after holida...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and family heading to B.C. on vacation this week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau and his family are vacationing in British Columbia for just over a week, the Prime Minister’s Office says.The PMO is not specifying where they will be staying, but says they are set to return to Ottawa on Aug. 18.Trudeau and his wife of 18 years, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, announced last week that they are separating but that they still plan to spend time together as a family. They also asked for privacy for the well-being of their three children.The Prime Minister’s Office says the trip has been cleared with the ethics commissioner and the Trudeaus are paying for their own stay. The prime minister travels on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons, even for personal travel. Trudeau violated conflict-of-interest rules in 2016 when he took a vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas, and his office says he consults the ethics commissioner ahead of personal travel to ensure it follows guidelines.This report by The Ca...

Off-duty Cook County Sheriff's officer critical after being shot on Chicago's Southwest Side

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

CHICAGO — An off-duty Cook County Sheriff's officer is in critical condition after being shot twice on the city's Southwest Side.The shooting happened around 9 p.m. Wednesday near West 47th Street and South Cicero Avenue, not far from Midway Airport.According to police, the 37-year-old off-duty officer witnessed two vehicles heading north on Cicero Avenue when shots fired between the two cars.One of the vehicles hit another car headed in the opposite direction, then slammed into a wall near a McDonald's restaurant. Shot fired at SWAT teams in Austin as they investigate armed robbery case; suspect barricaded inside Police said the driver of the vehicle attempted to flee, but was caught. It is unclear who actually arrested that driver.The suspect was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition.No further details have been provided at this time.

Thursday Forecast: Dense fog advisory for southern suburbs, mid 80s

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

Thursday: Dense fog advisory for southern will, Kankakee, LaSalle, Kendall, grungy, DeKalb, Kane until 9am. Partly cloudy, 20% shower, cooler lakeside, WNW 5-10 G15. High: 84, Low: 80Chicago Area Radar | WGN TVThursday Night: Mostly cloudy, S 0-10. High: 67Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Friday: Mostly cloudy, 30% showers/storms, SW 5-15 G25. High: 86

How climate change is fueling conditions driving Maui's devastating fires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:42 GMT

A dangerous mix of conditions appear to have combined to make the wildfires blazing a path of destruction in Hawaii particularly damaging, including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.Experts also say climate change is increasing the likelihood of more extreme weather events like what's playing out on the island of Maui, where at least 36 people have been killed and a historic tourist town was devastated. At least 36 dead on Maui as fires burn through Hawaii, county reports “It's leading to these unpredictable or unforeseen combinations that we're seeing right now and that are fueling this extreme fire weather,” said Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia's faculty of forestry. “What these ... catastrophic wildfire disasters are revealing is that nowhere is immune to the issue.”Here's a look at the Maui fires, and what's behind them:WHAT'S FUELING THEM?Major differences in air pressure drove unusually strong trade winds that ...