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Prominent Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israeli custody

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A high-profile Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody on Tuesday after a nearly three-month-long hunger strike, Israel’s prison service announced, at a time of already soaring tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.Khader Adnan, a leader in the militant Islamic Jihad group, had begun staging protracted hunger strikes more than a decade ago, introducing a new form of protests against Israel’s mass detentions of Palestinians without charges or trials. On Tuesday, the 45-year-old became the first long-term hunger striker to die in Israeli custody. Palestinians called for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and protests were expected later in the day. Palestinian militants fired a volley of rockets from Gaza toward empty fields in Israel. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that “our fight continues and will not stop.” Adnan’s death comes as Israel is led by its most right-wing government ever. Prisons and Palestinian prisoners ar...

Climate talks see pushes for global renewable energy target

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany called Tuesday for governments around the world to work on setting an ambitious target for renewable energy that would “ring in the end of the fossil fuel age” and help prevent dangerous global warming.Speaking at the start of a two-day meeting in Berlin attended by dozens of top climate envoys, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock noted that the world needs to sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).“But we also know that not all countries are prepared to do so,” she said. “That is why I want to open the debate (…) on whether we should and can reach a target on renewables at the next climate conference.”Baerbock’s proposal flips the script on a previous push to set a deadline for phasing out all fossil fuels, which faced stiff resistance from major oil and gas exporting nations. They instead back the idea of capturing planet-warming emissions as a way to reducing gre...

Inside the Met Gala: A furry feline star, a tardy Cinderella

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

Jared Leto was looking for a place to hang his hat. Er, actually his head.Leto was walking around the cocktail reception at the Met Gala, not long after his big entrance on the carpet as Choupette, designer Karl Lagerfeld’s famous cat, in a full-on white fur suit with very real-looking eyes. Once inside cocktails, it was too hot to keep the whole suit on, but he would not abandon the head.Some friends wanted to check out the head, carried like a war trophy. Rami Malek, for example, and director Taika Waititi, who tried it on.But what would happen at dinner? Leto said he was going to “find a nice quiet seat, so that Chou Chou can take a little rest.”And so it went at the Met Gala, where an Oscar-winning actor carrying a huge cat head seeking a nap still had to compete with lots of other things, and people, and clothes, for attention.Here are some moments and scenes from inside Monday’s Met Gala:A LOT TO RECYCLEAs guests entered the Metropolitan Museum’s Great Hall, they p...

BP posts $5B quarterly profit on strong oil and gas trading

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British energy giant BP posted a strong quarterly profit on Tuesday even as oil and natural prices that soared after Russia’s war in Ukraine last year have eased off. London-based BP said it earned $5 billion in underlying replacement cost profit in the first three months of the year, up from $4.8 billion in the previous quarter. The figure excludes one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories. The company said the earnings report “reflects an exceptional gas marketing and trading result” and a “very strong oil trading result.” “This has been a quarter of strong performance and strategic delivery,” CEO Bernard Looney said in a statement. Oil companies around the world have been reporting bumper earnings in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which sent energy prices soaring and curtailed some of Moscow’s supplies to the world. The fat profits and resulting hefty pay for energy company bosses have spurred dem...

BlackBerry reviewing strategic alternatives for its portfolio of businesses

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

TORONTO — BlackBerry Ltd. has launched a review of strategic alternatives for its portfolio of businesses. The company says the possibilities include, but are not limited to, the separation of one or more of its operations.BlackBerry executive chairman and chief executive John Chen says the review aims to identify and evaluate opportunities to further enhance shareholder value.The company says the board has not set a timetable for completing the review and that there could be no assurance that the process will result in any transaction.BlackBerry signed an agreement in March with Malikie Innovations Ltd., a newly formed subsidiary of Key Patent Innovations Ltd., to sell a portfolio of what it says are non-core patents in a deal that could be worth up to US$900 million. The portfolio being sold includes about 32,000 patents and applications relating primarily to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.Compan...

Young girl injured after truck crashes into Brampton home where she was sleeping

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

A young child has minor injuries after a pickup truck crashed into a home where she was sleeping in Brampton.Emergency crews responded to the collision on Edenbrook Hill Drive, near Chinguacousy Road and Bovaird Drive, around 11:45 p.m. Monday.Police say a vehicle struck two parked cars and crashed into the side of a home that had residents inside.A young girl was sleeping in the room where the truck crashed through the wall. She was taken to hospital with minor injuries.Police tell CityNews she is “extremely lucky” to not have suffered more serious injuries.The driver fled the scene on foot and was seen limping away before officers arrived. He was eventually tracked down and remains in police custody.A passenger from the truck was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening-injuries.There is no word on what caused the collision.The pickup truck remains lodged into the side of the house. Investigators are concerned about the structural integrity of the home and say the v...

Showers and cooler weather continue; Warmup coming midweek

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

Wet and colder weather continues Tuesday.Cloudy skies and windy with 20% chance of rain showers. Grey through the afternoon hours. High of 52. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Tuesday night will be mainly cloudy and low of 35.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog Wednesday will see the return of sun and a bit warmer. Cooler lakeside. High of 59, 53 near the lake.

FlyOver Chicago immersive flying attraction coming to Navy Pier

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

In March of 2021, we learned that the Navy Pier IMAX theater would be closing for good. Now we know more about what is going in its place.FlyOver Chicago is a $40 million attraction that will take guests on an immersive flying journey through the city of Chicago. The multi-sensory experience will feature three levels of seating that moves along with the video footage on a giant 65-foot screen. Wind and other effects will give riders an even greater feeling that they are actually flying. And yes, Disney World fans, you can compare this ride to the very popular flying attraction "Soarin'" at Epcot.Right now the team from FlyOver is hard at work converting the former IMAX theater to fit this new attraction. In June, they will take their drone cameras to the skies of Chicago to shoot the video footage that will be featured on the ride. Once they have the final cut, programming can begin to make sure the ride vehicles move along with the footage. The FlyOver team expects the attraction t...

Ruff trip: Discarded joints pose a danger for dogs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Bondi, an 8-month-old toy poodle, had just returned from a walk when he began stumbling. His head wobbled and soon he could barely stand, so his owner, Colleen Briggs, rushed him to the vet.The good doctor quickly made a diagnosis: Bondi was stoned.On his walk, a sniff must have led Bondi to a discarded joint, which he ate.“He was just doing his usual — exploring everything, sniffing everything,” said Briggs, who began to notice the pot shops sprouting up around New York City, the frequent whiffs of marijuana while circling her Manhattan neighborhood and the unfinished joints now littering sidewalks.In places like New York City, where the first legal recreational pot dispensary opened last year, users can smoke it in the open. As a result, more dogs are coming across — and eating — discarded joints and edibles, prompting alarm among veterinarians and pet owners who blame the steep rise in poisonings on smokers oblivious to the harm they can do by littering.Marijuana ...

Next severe risk comes Thursday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:43:30 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Another quiet and warm day across Central Texas today... but our next round of storms is in view.Morning clouds will clear to partial sunshine later today as afternoon highs return to the low 80s.A similar day will play out Wednesday with morning clouds clearing to some afternoon sun. A noticeable bump in humidity and warmth kicks in Wednesday afternoon with highs well into the 80s.Uncomfortable humidity arrives late week and sticks around for the weekendChanges arrives Thursday as a disturbance brings a chance for scattered showers and storms, some of which could be severe. Storms currently look most likely from 7 p.m. Thursday until 1 a.m. Friday, but stay tuned for forecast updates.Risk of strong to severe storms Thursday afternoon & eveningDaily shower and thunderstorm chances continue Friday into next week, and wetter than normal weather is expected during the second week of May.Second week of May expected to bring wetter weather NEW BLOG: May outlooks fo...