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Australia makes biggest carbon polluters curb emissions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian Parliament created landmark new laws Thursday that will make the nation’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters reduce their emissions or pay for carbon credits.The center-left Labor Party administration said the so-called Safeguard Mechanism reforms are essential to Australia reaching its target of reducing its emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. Set to take effect July 1, the reforms create a ceiling on the nation’s emissions and force Australia’s 215 most polluting facilities to reduce their emissions by 4.9% a year or reach the target with carbon credits. The laws create Australia’s first price on carbon since a former Labor government created a carbon tax in 2012. A conservative government repealed that tax in 2014 and has since rejected any climate policies that would make polluters pay.The bills passed the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 32 to 26, with Labor senators supported by the minor Greens party and unaligne...

Manhattan claws back people as urban counties stem outflow

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

Turns out the pandemic hasn’t permanently dissuaded people — especially immigrants — from seeking their fortunes amid Manhattan’s gritty streets and neon lights.The county that encompasses Manhattan added more than 17,000 residents in the year ending last July after losing almost 111,000 people in the previous 12-month period, according to population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The earlier decline was among the worst urban population losses from the COVID-19 outbreak.New York County was among several large, urban U.S. counties that either gained residents or stemmed the rate of declines between July 2021 and July 2022 compared with a year earlier.The reversal in population losses was particularly notable in King County, Washington, home to Seattle; as well as in large Sunbelt counties such as Dallas County, Texas; and two South Florida counties, Miami-Dade and Broward. The locations all had something in common: international immigration led the...

Pakistan militants kill 4 police officers, hurt 6 in attacks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Taliban militants killed four police officers by targeting a police vehicle with a roadside bomb and wounded six in an attack on a police station in northwest Pakistan early Thursday, police and the insurgents said.The bomb killed four officers in a police vehicle carrying reinforcements sent to respond to the attack on a police station in Lakki Marwat, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Six officers were wounded in the attack at the police station. Local police officer Ashfaq Khan said a search was underway for the militant suspects who attacked the police station in Lakki Marwat and later targeted the police vehicle with a bomb.The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks. The group know as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP is separate but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. There has been an uptick in attacks in Pakistan after the Pakistani Taliban ended a cease-fire with the government of Pakistan.TTP has been e...

AP News in Brief at 12:19 a.m. EDT

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

Ukraine by rail: Inside Zelenskyy’s efforts to buoy a nationZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The caravan of unmarked vehicles tears across the muddy grass next to the playground. On the merry-go-round, the children stop swinging and spinning. The curious — parents and other residents of this southeastern town — gather around. Car doors swing open, and heavily armed security guards in battlefield fatigues spill out.And just like that, he is among them: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wartime leader and his country’s chief morale officer.This week, Zelenskyy shuttled across the country on a 48-hour train trip to rally soldiers who are battling Russian forces — and, just as important, to buoy the communities often caught in the crossfire. Here, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the front lines, Zelenskyy came to see for himself the destruction from a Russian attack that damaged dozens of apartments one week ago. The violence hit just steps from the playground and mer...

Ukraine by rail: Inside Zelenskyy’s efforts to buoy a nation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The caravan of unmarked vehicles tears across the muddy grass next to the playground. On the merry-go-round, the children stop swinging and spinning. The curious — parents and other residents of this southeastern town — gather around. Car doors swing open, and heavily armed security guards in battlefield fatigues spill out.And just like that, he is among them: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wartime leader and his country’s chief morale officer.This week, Zelenskyy shuttled across the country on a 48-hour train trip to rally soldiers who are battling Russian forces — and, just as important, to buoy the communities often caught in the crossfire. Here, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the front lines, Zelenskyy came to see for himself the destruction from a Russian attack that damaged dozens of apartments one week ago. The violence hit just steps from the playground and merry-go-round. One person was killed and 30 others wounded. For Zapo...

Taiwan’s president begins US visit to shore up support

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan’s president is beginning a swing through the United States and Central America, a visit aimed at showing that her self-ruled island has allies as it faces a rising threat from China.Taiwan was carefully calibrating President Tsai Ing-wen’s stops in the United States, and as always forgoing any official meetings with senior U.S. leaders in Washington, in an effort to contain what China said would be a strong but as yet unspecified response.Tsai arrived in New York on Wednesday and was scheduled to spend Thursday in the city, but few details of the trip were made public.A senior Chinese diplomat in Washington, embassy charge d’affaires Xu Xueyan, pointed to an expected meeting between Tsai and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy elsewhere in the country. The meeting would have serious repercussions overall and a “serious, serious, serious” impact on U.S.-China relations, she said in a virtual session with reporters on Wednesday.Sen. Robert Menendez, a New...

House GOP pushes sprawling bill to ‘unleash’ American energy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are set to approve a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of President Joe Biden’s agenda to address climate change.The massive GOP bill up for a vote Thursday would sharply increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects. It also would boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in products such as electric vehicles, computers and cellphones.Republicans call the bill the “Lower Energy Costs Act” and have given it the symbolic label H.R. 1 — the top legislative priority of the new GOP majority, which took control of the House in January. The measure, which combines dozens of separate proposals, represents more than two years of work by Republicans who are have chafed at Biden’s environmental agenda. They say Biden’s efforts have thwarted U.S. energy production and increase...

Ecuador court says congress can pursue impeaching president

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday the opposition-dominated National Assembly can take up the question of whether to impeach President Guillermo Lasso over allegations of crimes against state security and corruption.The ruling was only a first step. The congress still must follow a formal process that requires the presentation of evidence and arguments before legislators may vote on impeachment.The court, which is the interpreter and guarantor of Ecuador’s constitution, gave the go-ahead for impeachment proceedings on a 6-3 vote by the justices.The issue was put before the court by the unicameral legislature, a body of 137 legislators in which a majority is held by opposition parties led by the Union for Hope party, which has ties to former President Rafael Correa, who governed in 2007-2017.Lasso, a conservative former banker, began his four-year term in May 2021.Allegations have been raised that the president’s brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, has l...

Skilling Report: Warmest temps to date this year Friday ahead coupled with the potential for a large outbreak of potentially severe thunderstorms late Friday into Friday night

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

Potential for a large outbreak of severe thunderstorms late Friday into Friday nightTHEN HIGH NON-T-STORM WINDS EXPECTED TO SWEEP CHICAGO LATE FRI NIGHT INTO SATURDAY WITH POTENTIAL 50+ MPH GUSTS AND A NEW ROUND OF SIGNIFICANT WIND DRIVEN SNOWS ACROSS THE "NORTH WOODS" OF WISCONSIN AND UPPER MICHIGANSEVERE WEATHER CONCERNS REMAIN ELEVATED ACROSS A WIDE SWATH OF THE MIDWEST, INCLUDING CHICAGO, FRIDAY INTO FRIDAY EVENING. The Storm Prediction Center indicates a level 3 to 4 risk on the 5 level scale—which is an elevated level of riskThe 11th atmospheric river/"Pineapple Express" storm since Dec 22nd--a system which has swept off the Pacific into California and now the intermountain West--is behind what looks like some rough weather across the Midwest, including the Chicago area.VIEW SLIDESHOW (Loading)Wednesday afternoon GOES EAST satellite view of the incoming stormGOES-18 western view of the storm headed for the central U.S. Satellite images courtesy of CIRA/RAMBB24 hour T-STORM PRO...

Wild tighten grip on Central Division lead with 4-2 win over Avalanche

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:51 GMT

Wild general manager Bill Guerin didn’t downplay the importance of the Wednesday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. He wanted his players to lean into the importance. Especially with Central Division supremacy on the line.“This is something that we need,” Guerin said told KFAN before the Wild took on Avalanche “This is a big game. This is for something. This is for first place.”That’s exactly where the Wild will remain after earning an impressive 4-2 win over the Avalanche in front of a packed house at Ball Arena in Denver. With a couple of weeks left in the regular season, the Wild (44-22-9, 97 points) lead the Central Division with both the Avalanche (44-24-6, 94 points) and the Dallas Stars (40-20-14, 94 points) right on their heels.It felt very much like a playoff matchup from the initial puck drop and the Wild struck first when Marcus Johansson finished off a pretty feed from Joel Eriksson Ek to make it 1-0. After a misplay by Avala...