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Guam residents shelter, military sends away ships as Super Typhoon Mawar closes in

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration as an intensifying Super Typhoon Mawar approached Guam, where anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. Pacific territory in decades.Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and “mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Guerrero said in a letter to the president requesting a “pre-landfall emergency” for Guam. Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures — some homes on the far-flung island are ma...

Social media star and influencer Tinx really wants you to take her advice and live your best life

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

“I need you to not wait three weeks for that loser to text you back when he’s not going to,” said Christina Najjar, best-known to her social media followers and podcast listeners as Tinx, in an interview over Zoom.This is classic Tinx. She’ll cut to the chase and believes honesty is the best policy. “I am a Virgo, so therefore I think I know best for everyone,” she said with a smile. “I’m always trying to give people tips. That’s always been a role that’s natural for me.”Tinx is putting her skills to good use with her first book called “The Shift: Change Your Perspective, Not Yourself” (Simon & Schuster), which she describes as “Tinx 101. A baseline, a starter pack for me and my theories and way of thinking.”She says it’s filled with personal anecdotes and life lessons she learned, particularly in her twenties. Topics include self-love, empowerment, mental health, sex and dating. Tinx first started posting videos on TikTok during the pan...

Canada has highest household debt level in G7: CMHC deputy chief economist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada has the highest level of household debt in the G7, making its economy vulnerable to a global economic crisis, according to the country’s housing agency.In an analysis published Tuesday, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth said that the country’s household debt has been rising “inexorably” due to rising home prices. Mortgages currently make up about three-quarters of household debt in Canada. While household debt made up 80 per cent of the size of the overall Canadian economy during the 2008 recession, it rose to 95 per cent in 2010 and exceeded its size in 2021, he noted.“By contrast, household debt in the U.S. fell from 100 per cent of GDP in 2008 to about 75 per cent in 2021,” wrote ab Iorwerth. “While U.S. households reduced debt, Canadians increased theirs and this will likely continue to increase unless we address affordability in the housing market.”Over the same period of tim...

Federal government pledges $5M to Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

VANCOUVER — The Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver has received about $5 million in new federal funding ahead of its opening on July 1.Federal International Trade and Economic Development Minister Mary Ng says the new funding will go toward renewal of the museum’s permanent space at the Wing Sang Building in Vancouver’s Chinatown, as well as supporting the facility’s first exhibit.Ng made the funding announcement on the sidelines of the U.S.-Canada Chinatown Cultural Preservation and Revitalization Conference, which is hosting representatives from 18 Chinatowns from across North America.Ng says efforts such as the museum and the conference are key to keeping a crucial part of North American history alive and to allow people to “appreciate the diversity of our society.”The museum will feature an exhibition titled “The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act,” with the July 1 opening date coinciding with the centennial of the passing o...

Pathologist in B.C. murder trial says he’s not certain where teenage girl was killed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

VANCOUVER — The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the body of a 13-year-old girl found dead in a Burnaby, B.C., park says he can’t be certain she was killed there.Dr. Jason Morin told the British Columbia Supreme Court jury under cross-examination that the teen, who cannot be identified under the terms of a publication ban, had many relatively minor injuries on her head and knees.Ben Lynskey, Ibrahim Ali’s defence lawyer, questioned Morin about the nature of injuries found on places other than her genitals, including scrapes on her knees, as well as dirt found on her skin.Morin told the court he’s confident the teen died of strangulation after Lynskey questioned him about the “limitations” of his opinions given he did not examine the body at the scene she was found.Ali last month pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.Crown attorney Isobel Keeley said in an opening statement that the court would hear evidence showing the murder was ra...

El Salvador soccer club whose supporters set off deadly stampede will play without fans for a year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The El Salvador soccer club whose fans pushed down an entrance gate setting off a stampede that left 12 people dead last weekend will play without supporters in its stadium for a year, the country’s soccer federation said.Club Alianza also will have to pay a $30,000 fine, the Salvadoran Soccer Federation’s Disciplinary Committee decided late Monday night.Authorities said hundreds of fans were enraged when they weren’t allowed to enter the stadium despite having tickets. They pushed until they knocked down an entrance gate, and people were crushed and suffocated under the pressure.The game was still in the first period Saturday night when players on the field began looking toward the stands. Unconscious fans were being carried out of an entrance tunnel and onto the field where others tried frantically to revive them.Investigators are trying to determine why the gate was closed when hundreds of ticketholding fans remained outside. The section whe...

Toronto urges residents to push Ottawa to fill $235M city funding gap

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

The City of Toronto is urging residents to call on the federal government to provide $235 million to help cover a massive pandemic-related budget shortfall.In a written statement today, the city says the federal government had committed to match provincial funding to cover expenses largely related to reduced transit revenues and increased shelter costs during the pandemic.Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie says the city is now asking residents to contact their local MPs – by sending an email the city has provided a template for – to demand Ottawa support Toronto.The city email template that residents are being encouraged to use states that without the federal funding, “future frontline services will be affected.”“The City of Toronto does not have the resources or revenue tools to address the unprecedented financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said McKelvie. “Beyond the immediate support of $235 million required for the 2022 Budget short...

Des Plaines church fire believed to be arson; person detained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

DES PLAINES, Ill. — Police in Des Plaines are investigating an early Tuesday morning church fire as arson.Just after 2:30 a.m., police responded to The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located in the 1100 block of North River Road, on the report of a fire.Officers attempted to extinguish the fire, but were unsuccessful. The fire department arrived to the scene and put out the fire.The church said the fire was set to the outdoor Chapel of the Resurrected Christ. Damage was also reported to the statuary, sacred art and plaza area.The incident is under investigation and police detained a person of interest. No charges have been filed yet. Woman charged with murder of 31-year-old man on Southwest Side The church said they are "very saddened" by the incident and thanked authorities.

Jimmy Carter, 3 months into hospice, is aware of tributes, enjoying ice cream

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

NORCROSS, Ga. (AP) — Three months after entering end-of-life care at home, former President Jimmy Carter remains in good spirits as he visits with family, follows public discussion of his legacy and receives updates on The Carter Center's humanitarian work around the world, his grandson says. He's even enjoying regular servings of ice cream.“They’re just meeting with family right now, but they’re doing it in the best possible way: the two of them together at home,” Jason Carter said of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, now 98 and 95 years old.“They’ve been together 70-plus years. They also know that they’re not in charge,” the younger Carter said Tuesday in a brief interview. “Their faith is really grounding in this moment. In that way, it’s as good as it can be.”The longest-lived U.S. president, Jimmy Carter announced in February that after a series of brief hospital stays, he would forgo further medical intervention and spend the remainder of his life in the same modest, one-story house ...

Chicago restaurant cracks top-10 of Yelp's '100 best burger spots' in the U.S. list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:19 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – In what’s sure to come as upsetting news for cows everywhere, Yelp is currently hyping up some of the best burger restaurants in the U.S.Ahead of National Hamburger Day on Sunday, the analysts at Yelp have — unfortunately for cows — decided to rank 100 of the top spots for beefy burgers, based largely on the ratings and reviews contributed by Yelp’s online community. These Illinois restaurants ranked among Yelp’s Top 100 of 2023 Coming in at No. 1 is the Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q in Atlanta, where their signature “burger” isn’t really a burger, but rather a chopped brisket sandwich with onion, tomato, bacon, pickles, melted pimento cheese and jalapeno mayo on a brioche bun.“It was heaven,” one Yelp user wrote in an online review that cows everywhere would likely hate, had they the ability to read.As Yelp itself notes on its blog, several of the other top-rated burger joints don’t serve traditional beef burgers at all. Atlanta’s Slutty Vegan (No. 3) stuffs their burgers with ve...