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France and Australia bury the AUKUS hatchet via football

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

Forget about the scuttled submarine deal that plunged Australia-France relations to an historic low. Paris and Canberra are acting like besties again, thanks to football and online bantz.French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have spent most of the weekend joshing about their national teams — Les Bleues and the Matildas — facing off in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup, which Australia is co-hosting with New Zealand. Ahead of the Saturday match, Albanese threw down the gauntlet in a social media post. “How about a bet @EmmanuelMacron? If [Australia] win tonight, you’ll support Australia in the semi-finals. If [France] win, I’ll support France. Deal?” the Aussie leader wrote. Macron gamely accepted the challenge, not without first praising Australia for “brilliantly” co-organizing the tournament. The camaraderie is a far cry from where the two country’s relations stood in 2021, when France rec...

Orioles break through in 10th to beat red-hot Mariners, 1-0, backing Cole Irvin and bullpen

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

The Mariners honored King Félix on Saturday. The Orioles showed a new reign has begun.After Seattle inducted Félix Hernández into their hall of fame, Baltimore beat the Mariners, 1-0, in 10 innings, with Ryan Mountcastle singling in automatic runner Cedric Mullins in the top half of the extra frame before closer Félix Bautista stranded Seattle’s free runner in the bottom half with three strikeouts in his second inning.Mountcastle’s go-ahead knock was his second hit of the night, giving him half of Baltimore’s total in a dominant pitching night by both teams. The Orioles (72-45) failed to get in a runner in scoring position in second-year Seattle starter George Kirby’s first eight innings. They finally managed one in the ninth when Jordan Westburg singled and stole second, but Kirby retired the next two batters, spiking the ball after catching Mullins’ foul popup to end the inning.That meant Mullins began the top of the 10th at second...

Death toll in Maui rises to 93 with 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged. Follow live updates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.In a press conference Saturday, Gov. Josh Green said the number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires had risen to 89, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years.Maui County later raised the confirmed death toll to 93.There were 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged just in West Maui, and 86% of those were residential buildings, Green said“The losses approach $6 billion in estimate,” Green said, adding that it would take “an incredible amount of time” to recover.Green said officials will review policies and procedures to improve safety.“Peo...

As death toll from Maui fire reaches 93, authorities say effort to count the losses is just starting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — As the death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town reached 93, authorities warned Saturday that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. It’s already the deadliest U.S. wildfire for over a century.Crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said. “We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles and it is full of our loved ones,” noting that the death toll is likely to grow and “none of us really know the size of it yet.”He spoke as federal emergency workers picked through the ashen moonscape left by the fire that razed the centuries-old town of Lahaina. Teams marked the ruins of homes with a bright orange X to record an initial search, and HR when they found human remains.Pelletier said identifying the dead is extremely challenging because “we pick up the remains and they fall apart … When we find our family and our friends,...

Q&A: Dr. Yohuru Williams and Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs on reparations in Minnesota

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

When historian Yohuru Williams became co-chair of the St. Paul Recovery Act Reparations Committee in 2021, he took a deep dive into Minnesota’s history of racial injustices.“Coming here from the East Coast, I really wanted to make sure I came up to speed on the history of this region,” he said.Historian Yohuru Williams worked on St. Paul reparations efforts as the co-chair of the Recovery Act Reparations Committee in 2021. (Mark Brown / University of St. Thomas)The reparations committee Williams served on was focused on American descendants of chattel slavery. Yet, the more history Williams read, the more he felt that it was wrong to have a conversation about reparations without acknowledging the history of American Indians in Minnesota.The Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, has been working for reparations for Indigenous people for many years. His most recent effort is an initiative to heal relationships between American India...

Winter Carnival: A new 2023 Queen of the Snows was crowned in July. What happened to the queen crowned in January?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

A winter queen, crowned in summer?In a coronation on July 26 that was as quiet as falling snow, Jocelyn O’Neill was crowned Aurora, 2023 Queen of the Snows of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.O’Neill’s transition from South Wind Princess to queen, in an unannounced ceremony at Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul, is rare enough to be historical for the 137-year-old Carnival, but it was an unheralded event that followed an equally quiet dismissal.So, what happened? Why was Liv Swenson, who was crowned Queen of the Snows with great fanfare during the 2023 St. Paul Winter Carnival on Jan. 27, dismissed and replaced by a runner-up less than six months later?In a drama that is as opaque as a road in a blizzard, it depends on who you ask.After receiving an anonymous tip about Swenson’s removal, the Pioneer Press reached out to her for comment.Because rumors about the decision are swirling in Winter Carnival circles, she says, she decided it was time to defend herself ...

Ask Amy: I’ve told them they need therapy, and they refuse to do it. What now?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

Dear Amy: Although I totally understand your enthusiasm for therapy to address a variety of issues, what do you do when this is simply not an option?I have friends who need therapy for all sorts of personal and relationship struggles, and they simply refuse.My parents’ marriage is now under heavy strain, but both have told me they would be “mortified to air their dirty laundry to a total stranger.”No matter what I try to say or do, there’s just no budging anywhere.Any ideas? Frustrated HelperDear Frustrated: Therapy has proved a transformative experience in my own life (and many others), and one reason is because working with a therapist is the ultimate safe space to “air the dirty laundry.”A good therapist builds trust with clients, and working on personal problems with a clinician helps to keep one’s dirty laundry where it belongs – in the hamper (so to speak) of one’s own life, versus involving family members who can’t necessarily be helpful because of their own intertwined relat...

¿En qué parte del mundo está Prigozhin, el señor de la guerra de Wagner? Libre y en control, aparentemente

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

(CNN) — A finales de la semana pasada, el líder de la oposición rusa encarcelado, Alexey Navalny, recibió una dura sentencia: después de que un tribunal lo condenara a 19 años en una colonia penal, lo enviaron de inmediato a una celda de castigo.Fue un marcado contraste con el destino de Yevgeny Prigozhin, el jefe del grupo de mercenarios rusos Wagner. En junio, Prigozhin lideró la fallida insurrreción que presentó el mayor desafío para el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, en más de dos décadas de gobierno. Mientras las tropas de Prigozhin se detuvieron antes de llegar a Moscú, un furioso Putin dijo en un discurso televisado que aquellos en el “camino de la traición” enfrentarían un castigo. Casi dos meses después, en el caso del jefe Wagner, esto simplemente no ha sucedido.Claramente, el precio de confrontar a Putin no es fijo. Quizás lo más sorprendente es que Prigozhin ni siquiera ha mantenido un perfil bajo desde la insurrección de junio.Apenas unas semanas después de la in...

‘Cancel culture’ is big now, but has it been around for years?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

(new Image()).src = "https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384&cid=c2ffed0c-3624-46c0-b10f-97c976d290a3";cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384",mediaId: "c276cf73-a716-4f94-96a6-b6a0e4a4098b"}).render("c847b03924f44f8ea68e96ea591819fb"); });This story was written as part of the WTOP Book Report series authored by Terik King. Read more of that coverage. “Cancel culture” is a polarizing phenomenon that evokes a strong reaction from people across all sectors of society, and can look like anything from restaurant boycotts to job terminations after the resurfacing of years-old tweets to backlash for impulsive misstatements.Philadelphia journalist Ernest Owens, author of “The Case for Cancel Culture,” told the WTOP Book Report that he believes we’ve got it all wrong.Before writing his own, Owens said he read other books about the phenomenon.“They were against it. It was a complete attack on the term ...

Series of Tropical Waves to Lead to Up and Down Rain Chances this Week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:54 GMT

We remain under the influence of a tropical wave this weekend, which brought some storms to the Florida Keys Saturday and during the overnight. Now this Sunday, the tropical wave will be located to our west, which means we should be on the moist side of the wave. This is the first of a series of tropical waves which could have an effect on our weather pattern over the next week in South Florida.This Sunday, expect a mix of sun and clouds with possible scattered afternoon showers and storms. Highs will remain hot into the low to mid 90s, which is a few degrees above normal.A Heat Advisory will go into effect again today from 10AM through 7PM for Miami-Dade and Broward Counties for heat indicies up to 109F. There is no advisory posted for the Florida Keys.For Monday, we’ll be in between tropical waves with a thin sliver of drier air forecast to sweep across the eastern coast of South Florida and into the Keys. This should keep most — if not all — of the afternoon sho...