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Miami Beach mayoral race heads to runoff election

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

The top two candidates for Miami Beach Mayor will have to campaign for a little while longer because they’re headed to a runoff.The contest will pit Commissioner Steven Meiner against former three-term Commissioner Michael Gongora.Neither candidates cracked the 50 + 1% threshold Tuesday evening to avoid the Nov. 21 runoff election.The pair advances to the next round, handily defeating former MTV executive Bill Roedy and former commissioner and state representative Michael Grieco.Incumbent Mayor Dan Gelber was term-limited and couldn’t run again.

Paradise Lost: Is Florida becoming an uninsurable state?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

We know insurance rates are sky-high in Florida, but now industry insiders say people living here might not be able to get insurance at all. 7’s Karen Hensel has more in tonight’s installment of our assignment report, “Paradise Lost.”With insurance rates skyrocketing many homeowners are making expensive repairs in hopes of lowering their bills.Francisco Landaeta: “We have a new roof. We have hurricane windows and doors, and these are things that they look into. They didn’t matter.”Francisco Landaeta says even after spending thousands of dollars, his rates are four times higher than they used to be.Francisco Landaeta: “Not too long ago, we were paying $900 and right now, we went to $3,600. So it’s a huge increase.”Ronnie Mackliff bought his home two years ago. He’s afraid he’ll have to move because he can’t afford his premium, which jumped from $3,264 to $4,589.Ronnie Mackliff: “It’s just gettin...

Holocaust survivors gather in Aventura to reflect on attack on Israel, pray for safe return of hostages taken by Hamas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

Holocaust survivors Tuesday night gathered with other members of the community to prayed for the safe return of those held hostage by terrorist group Hamas. The slogan “never again” became a saying for the Jewish people after the Holocaust. Many of those survivors have spent much of their lives spreading that message and are reminding people of the horrors they faced. Now, their biggest fears, is that those horrors are once again returning. With great pain, comes great strength. “I was in three concentration camps,” Saul Dreier said.“My father was killed right away,” Diane Horowitz said.“It’s never again, it’s here, it’s ever again, and I hope that never again will mean something to everybody, and please, stop all this evil,” Tzippy Holland said.These holocaust survivors have looked evil in the face once before and fear that as the war rages on in Israel, that evil is peaking its head out all around the world again.&...

Trump to host rally in Hialeah as 3rd GOP presidential debate takes place at Adrienne Arsht Center

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

All eyes are on South Florida for the Republican primary and the race for the White House. But the stage has been also set in Hialeah as former President Trump gets ready to rally there Wednesday night.Meanwhile, his Republican rivals are set to converge in downtown Miami for the next GOP Presidential Primary debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center.With just a day away, Republican presidential contenders are making their case for why they should be their party’s candidate. But once again, they won’t be on the same stage.The field is staged as South Florida prepares to enter the Republican spotlight.Hialeah will welcome Trump to Ted Hendrick’s Stadium Wednesday night, where the GOP front-runner is prepared to declare at his rally “Florida is Trump Country,” which is a clear jab at his closest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis.Trump is taking a pause from his legal battles for the event.On Tuesday night, people were already lining to hear what he has to say.“The...

Rishi Sunak plots pre-election tax trap for Labour

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

LONDON — For many in the Labour Party, the electoral equation for the next 12 months is simple. Win the public’s trust on the economy — a perennial difficulty for Britain’s center-left party — and win the election.The polls have certainly been looking rosy for Labour in recent months. Surveys consistently suggest the public trusts Labour to manage the economy far more than the ruling Conservative Party, after the latter presided over years of declining living standards and recent 40-year-high inflation.However, the Conservatives may have one last weapon in the locker as they look to create clear lines of division between themselves and Keir Starmer’s party before an expected fall 2024 election.While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out his legislative proposals in the King’s Speech Tuesday, ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement in just over two weeks’ time, a far more consequential parliamentary event is likely to take place within the next six...

Portugal in political crisis after PM António Costa resigns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

Portugal’s government plunged into chaos following Prime Minister António Costa’s unexpected resignation Tuesday, hours after police raided his official residence and confirmed his implication in a corruption probe. With the country’s leadership now in flux, it falls to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to exercise his constitutional right to appoint a new prime minister, or dissolve parliament, sparking an election.Costa has dominated Portugal’s political landscape since taking power in 2015, defeating external rivals and cannily eliminating potential usurpers within the ranks of his Socialist Party. But on Tuesday his command of the country came to an abrupt end after the police raided his official residence and several ministries as part of an investigation into corruption surrounding lithium exploration schemes and a green hydrogen mega-project. The skill with which the disgraced prime minister managed to get rid of those who could threaten his leadership ...

A broken Netanyahu is miscalculating over Gaza, former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been “destroyed emotionally” by his massive failure on national security and is now miscalculating by preparing to take overall control of Gaza’s security for an “indefinite period” after Hamas has been crushed, according to former leader Ehud Olmert. In an interview with POLITICO, Olmert argued Netanyahu was in a state of “nervous breakdown,” as he sought to avoid being thrown out of office for failing to safeguard national security in the murderous Hamas attacks of October 7. This meant Israel was now steering off course strategically, Olmert went on, insisting the priority should be to negotiate an endgame with the international community — involving a return to talks on the formation of a Palestinian state, rather than turning back the clock to full military oversight over Gaza. “[Netanyahu] has shrunk. He’s destroyed emotionally, that’s for sure. I mean, some...

We need a Gaza plan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

Tobias Ellwood is a British MP. He is a former lieutenant colonel, Foreign Office Middle East minister and defense minister. He also served as chair of the Defense Select Committee in the House of Commons.In the aftermath of Hamas’ incursion deep into Israel, slaughtering over 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 240 hostages, one can only imagine the gargantuan pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send in the tanks. Never has Israel felt so vulnerable.But through a purely military lens, Israel’s mighty kinetic response looks like pure vengeance — an exhibition of unadulterated strength without consideration for the long term. Standing with Israel, as we rightly do in its darkest of hours, doesn’t mean standing by upon witnessing this unwise utility of force. And we should have the courage to say so.United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call for a humanitarian pause last week — despite knowing Israel would publicly disagree — hints at the back-channel ...

Ukraine kickstarts European enlargement, just as US backs away

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

It took a war to put the EU’s enlargement process back on the political agenda.For about a decade, enlargement was not an issue dominating the thoughts and agendas of European leaders. Instead, the bloc was focused on its own political problems and — in the slipstream of Brexit — avoiding other members leaving the bloc.On Wednesday, the European Commission is set to propose that EU countries open talks with Ukraine and several other aspiring members on joining the bloc, embedding the future of Kyiv within the EU. But while the EU is pulling Ukraine closer, the U.S. is loosening its ties. Washington is shifting its foreign policy focus to the Middle East. And even before the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. was divided on supplying more aid to Ukraine ahead of an election in 2024.With the door to NATO closed at least as long as the war drags on, the EU inevitably will have to carry more of the burden of the future of Ukraine, a war-devastated country of more than 40 million peopl...

Confirmed case of tuberculosis reported on campus of UMass Boston

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:57:38 GMT

Health officials are investigating a case of tuberculosis in the UMass Boston community, officials said Tuesday.  The Boston Public Health Commission in a statement said it is aware of an active case and said it is working with both UMass Boston and the state Department of Public Health to conduct contact tracing and inform contacts about possible exposure. “Given that tuberculosis requires prolonged close contact to spread from one individual to another, we do not believe this active case poses a health risk to the general public,” officials said. “Tuberculosis is a very treatable and curable disease, and we encourage members of the UMass Boston community to contact a health care provider or the student health services if they are concerned about possible exposure,” the public health commission continued in its statement. UMass Boston’s Director of University Health Services Robert Pomales addressed the situation in a separate letter to the campus community, wri...