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Spain calls for humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

BRUSSELS — Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday called for a “halt and humanitarian cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war to allow for the “urgent introduction of humanitarian aid in Gaza in a manner that is systematic, permanent, and proportionate to the extraordinary needs of the Palestinian people.”Spain’s call for a cease-fire comes amid intense debate among EU countries ahead of a summit on Thursday about whether to call for a “humanitarian pause” or “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict to allow aid into Gaza. While Sánchez’s language is unusually direct, countries such as Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic are still reticent about agreeing to anything that resembles a cease-fire call for fear it would be seen as impinging on Israel’s right to fight Islamist militants from Hamas. While diplomats said Germany could accept the idea of a pause, Berlin’s chief government spokesper...

Trump is fined $10,000 over a comment he made outside court in his New York civil fraud trial

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the former president $10,000 on Wednesday, saying Trump violated a limited gag order barring personal attacks on court staffers.The fine came after Trump was called to the witness stand to explain his comment outside the courtroom about “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the judge in the case, Judge Arthur Engoron.Weeks ago, Engoron ordered all participants in the trial not to comment publicly about his staff. The narrow gag order imposed on Oct. 3 came after Trump made a social media post maligning the judge’s principal law clerk, who sits beside Engoron in court.The judge ordered Trump to take down that post and Trump did. But it lingered on his campaign website for weeks, prompting a $5,000 fine for Trump on Friday.Trump and his lawyers said his comment Wednesday was about witness Michael Cohen, not the clerk.Three of Trump’s attorneys objected to the fine, insisting that the comment was r...

Dinosaur footprints uncovered on beach on England’s Isle of Wight

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

London (CNN) — For any fans of Jurassic Park, now could be the chance to tread the same path as the prehistoric giants before us, after a set of well-preserved dinosaur footprints were unearthed on a beach off the south coast of England.Engineers from the government’s Environment Agency were investigating how to reinforce sea defenses along the Yaverland seafront on the Isle of Wight, when they uncovered the fossils, according to a press release Monday.“Dinosaurs existing right where our team is working brings old and new together – the modern challenges of combatting climate change with a period of time we can only imagine,” the agency’s regional flood and coastal-risk manager Nick Gray, said.“We’ve all read the stories and seen the films, but this gives us just a hint of what life was like,” he added in the statement.The dinosaur footprints were dicovered on a beach next to a café, a car park and a bus stop.Experts believe the 125 million-year-old pri...

Wyc Grousbeck reveals when and why he wanted Celtics to make changes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

Before the Celtics’ season even ended last spring, the top of their leadership was already thinking about making some changes.Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck was sitting courtside at TD Garden as he watched his team getting blown out by the Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. His thoughts about the future quickly began running through his mind.“I sat there probably the whole second half of that game starting to think about it,” Grousbeck said Wednesday in an appearance on WEEI’s ‘The Greg Hill Show.’ “And then I took two days to let everything settle down and then went and met with Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla, and we formulated a plan. … I just said, ‘We’re not bringing back the same team.’ It’s been two seasons in a row of really good play but inconsistencies and they showed in the Finals two years ago and then in the conference finals last year. It just felt inconsistent and I said, I just want to change the mix so that there’s just a freshness, a fresh approach, so ...

Quick genetic test offers hope for sick, undiagnosed kids. But few insurers offer to pay

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

Phil Galewitz | (TNS) KFF Health NewsJust 48 hours after her birth in a Seattle-area hospital in 2021, Layla Babayev was undergoing surgery for a bowel obstruction.Two weeks later, she had another emergency surgery, and then developed meningitis. Layla spent more than a month in neonatal intensive care in three hospitals as doctors searched for the cause of her illness.Her parents enrolled her in a clinical trial to check for a genetic condition. Unlike genetic tests focused on a few disease-causing variants that can take months to produce results, the study at Seattle Children’s Hospital would sequence Layla’s entire genome, looking for a broad range of abnormalities — and potentially offer answers in under a week.The test found Layla had a rare genetic disorder that caused gastrointestinal defects and compromised her immune system. The findings led doctors to isolate her, give her weekly infusions of antibiotics, and contact other hospitals that had treated the same condition, sai...

Many women can’t access miscarriage drug because it’s also used for abortions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

Caitlin Dewey | (TNS) Stateline.orgSince losing her first pregnancy four months ago, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six full weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since.Such disruptions aren’t uncommon after miscarriage, which affects roughly 1 in 10 known pregnancies. But for Lulu, they’ve also served as a persistent reminder that she couldn’t access the drug mifepristone — her preferred method of care — to help her body pass the miscarriage. Instead, her doctor prescribed a drug called misoprostol, which on its own is less effective.“I recall clarifying with her about the kind of medication I would get,” Lulu said. “When she said misoprostol … I was really shocked. I made her repeat herself.”Patients like Lulu are, experts say, a little-recognized casualty of America’s fractious abortion wars. In other contexts, both mifepristone an...

Social Security benefits in 2024: 5 big changes retirees should plan for

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

Bob Haegele | Bankrate.com (TNS)As inflation lingers, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is boosting its cost of living adjustment (COLA) for benefit checks in 2024. It’s just one of many changes announced by Social Security recently.More than 71 million people depend on one of Social Security’s benefit programs, so annual changes to the program and its payouts are always highly anticipated. While this year’s cost-of-living-adjustment is down substantially from last year’s 8.7% increase — the biggest boost in over 40 years — any extra income is welcome news for beneficiaries on fixed incomes.Here are some key changes to Social Security happening next year – and what you need to know.1. Cost of living adjustment (COLA) risesThe SSA has announced that benefit checks will rise 3.2% in 2024. The 3.2% adjustment will amount to a $59 increase in monthly benefits for the average retired worker on Social Security, beginning in January.Specifically, the average check for retired worker...

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson named AFC Offensive Player of the Week after dominating Lions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

Ravens coach John Harbaugh reacted like a lot of fans probably did watching Lamar Jackson scramble around before finding wide receiver Nelson Agholor in the back of the end zone for a first-quarter touchdown Sunday against the Detroit Lions.The quarterback covered 25.3 yards, according to Next Gen Stats, first stepping up in the pocket before spinning away from the enclosing pressure, rolling right, dancing back left and finally letting rip a 12-yard scoring pass before the pursuing Aidan Hutchinson and Derrick Barnes could corral him. His 9.24 seconds to throw was the third-longest on a touchdown pass since Next Gen Stats began tracking such data in 2016.“I’m like, ‘I can’t believe he got flushed out of the pocket,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Why wasn’t the first route open? Or maybe the route wasn’t run the right way somewhere,’ and I’m mad. And then I’m thinking, ‘Well Lamar is getting away,’ and I’m ...

The last time US yields rose so much, it sank the economy twice

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

By Ye Xie and Michael Mackenzie, Bloomberg NewsThere’s a good reason why investors are amazed that something hasn’t broken in the economy yet: The last time U.S. government bond yields climbed so far, so fast, the nation plunged into back-to-back recessions.The 10-year Treasury yield — a key baseline for the cost of money across the financial system — has jumped more than four full percentage points over the past three years, briefly pushing it this week over 5% for the first time since 2007. It’s the biggest increase since the run up in the early 1980s, when Paul Volcker’s efforts to slay inflation pushed the 10-year yield to nearly 16%.In one sense, the similarities are no surprise, since Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s interest-rate hikes have been the most aggressive since then. In another, it underscores just how much times have changed.Related ArticlesBusiness | Questions you aren’t asking (but should) during open enrollment Business | Why are eggs so expe...

Maine formally requests waiver to let asylum seekers join the workforce

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:50 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Department of Labor on Wednesday asked the federal government for a waiver to allow asylum seekers to take jobs while waiting on their cases to be heard.Labor Secretary Laura Fortman said the elimination of a 180-day waiting period for work permits would be good for asylum seekers who want to support themselves and for the state which is struggling with a workforce shortage. Maine’s unemployment rate was 2.7% in September. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bipartisan bill in May directing the labor commissioner to seek the waiver as resources and housing are strained by the newcomers. Portland, Maine’s largest city, has received more than 1,600 asylum seekers this year.“By allowing asylum seekers to work earlier, the state believes that we can begin to address – and mitigate – the financial and other resource-based issues the state and municipalities face while tackling our workforce shortage and fulfilling the d...