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Rest of hurricane season in ‘uncharted waters’ because of El Niño, record ocean temperatures

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

(CNN) — Experts fear an already active hurricane season could come to an eventful and exceptional end as unusually warm, storm-boosting ocean temperatures and a slow-to-emerge El Niño combine.The Atlantic season and its 18 named storms has already been above average, according to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher with Colorado State University.But October usually signals changes in activity and the areas where storms form. The first half of October is typically the final stretch of the busiest time of the Atlantic hurricane season.The number of storms usually begins to drop off quickly toward the end of October and craters by the time the season ends on November 30.Storms that do form typically do so in areas that are much too close for comfort – in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Bahamas and the western Caribbean – rather than in the open Atlantic, where storms like Category 5 Hurricane Lee formed earlier this year.This means places like Florida, which was devastated by Category ...

Biden calls allies amid concerns over support for Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

President Joe Biden convened a call with world leaders Tuesday, the White House said, in an effort to reassure allies about U.S. support for Ukraine after Congress passed a short-term government funding bill that did not include aid for the warring country.The call comes amid concern from the Pentagon about dwindling resources available to send to Ukraine as the country looks to drive Russian forces out of its territory. The Defense Department still has $5.4 billion worth of weapons available to send to Ukraine, but is fast running out of money to replenish its own stockpiles.Leaders of several countries joined the call with Biden Tuesday, according to the White House, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also joine...

Revealed: Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak seek UK/US trade pact before 2024 elections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

LONDON — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are preparing a “foundational” U.S. / U.K. trade agreement designed to be wrapped up before both men face re-election next year, documents leaked to POLITICO show.The negotiations are scheduled to start this month with the initial set of chapters wrapped up by spring of next year, according to a draft plan prepared by the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office in late August.The outline deal set out in the papers does not contain the market access commitments required for a formal free trade agreement in the eyes of the World Trade Organization. But the proposed agreement would go much further than anything considered in public so far, with USTR proposing to deal with thorny issues like agriculture across 11 chapters which also include labor right, the environment, supply chains, regulation of services, digital trade documents and others.“We’re discussing and considering a range of things, but all is very much i...

Britain’s Tories are raging against 15-minute cities

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

This article is part of POLITICO’s Global Policy Lab: Living Cities, a collaborative journalism project exploring the future of cities. Sign up here.LONDON — In the push to close a yawning polling deficit, Britain’s Conservatives have conjured an unlikely nemesis: easily accessible amenities.15-minute cities are an urban planning concept designed to ensure day-to-day services like banks, pharmacies and supermarkets are all within a 15-minute walk or cycle of residents’ homes.Advocates argue such planning improves public health and wellbeing, and can help the environment by cutting dependency on vehicles.But the governing party — facing a bruising election next year — leapt on opposition in a bid to show it’s on the side of motorists. In doing so, some observers fear it’s playing right into the hands of conspiracy theorists — and may not scoop up votes, either. “This language is lifted directly from the conspiracist movement. It is hard to see who it...

5 tips to get primed and ready for Amazon’s October Prime Day

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

By Tommy Tindall | NerdWalletAmazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event is next week: Oct. 10-11. Call it “Prime Day 2.0” if you agree the name doesn’t roll off the tongue. The event promises another round of lowered prices on all sorts of products and an opportunity to cross-shop competing retailers.October sales at a glanceBlack Friday in October may be Amazon’s idea, but other retailers aren’t to be out-dollared. Here’s a rundown of the deal dates and some need-to-knows.Target Circle Week is already on, running Oct. 1-7.Deals are exclusive to Target Circle members, but Circle is free to join and use.Get discounts online or in-store on items ranging from toys and kitchen supplies to everyday essentials like diapers and wipes.Walmart’s Deals Holiday Kickoff begins at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 9 and runs through Oct. 12.This sale isn’t exclusive to Walmart+ members, so all shoppers can access the deals.Expect discounts on giftable items like electronics, apparel, home decor and more.Ama...

Dorchester man charged in September mass shooting at courtyard party

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

A Dorchester man has been charged with the shooting of five people last month, one of whom remains in critical condition in the hospital.Gianni Johnson, 24, of Dorchester was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail in municipal court in Dorchester Tuesday morning where he was charged with five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building.“The brutality of sending bullets flying where people were gathered and children were playing should shock and outrage all of us and should unite us — and I mean all of us, from every community and every sector and every level of society — against the glut of illegal guns in our city and the people so willing to use them,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said ina statement following Johnson’s arraignment. “We need to recognize and treat gun vi...

Trump wants future Republican debates to be canceled after refusing to participate in them

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

Donald Trump ‘s campaign is calling on the Republican National Committee to cancel all remaining presidential primary debates, saying the RNC must instead “refocus its manpower” on defeating Joe Biden next year.In a statement late Monday, top Trump advisers also repeated debunked falsehoods about election fraud, claiming without evidence that Democrats are working to steal the 2024 election. Trump has maintained that the 2020 election was stolen, despite multiple legal cases, investigations and his own attorney general finding no fraud.In their statement, senior campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita say the November debate in Miami and all future debates should be canceled.“Anything less, along with other reasons not to cancel, are an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously and national Republicans are more concerned about helping Joe Biden than ensuring a safe and secure election,” they said.The former president and f...

As Trump returns to court, judge in his fraud trial clarifies comments ex-president took as a win

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge indicated Tuesday that he’s not embracing former President Donald Trump’s view that most claims in his civil business fraud trial are too old for court, as the defense had hoped the judge would after the trial’s first day.With Trump voluntarily in court for a second day, Judge Arthur Engoron set the record straight about a comment that the ex-president had claimed as an important victory.The issue: Engoron had suggested on Monday that testimony about Trump’s 2011 financial statement might be beyond the legal time limit applicable to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, which alleges that Trump and his business chronically lied about his wealth on financial statements given to banks, insurers and others. The relevant statute of limitations bars claims related to activities before a date in 2014, and Trump’s legal team has argued that the ...

McCarthy ouster vote ahead as he confronts GOP critics but says he won’t cut a deal with Democrats

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy is confronting his hard-right critics head-on Tuesday as he faces a historic challenge to oust him from leadership, insisting he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power and setting the stage for an extraordinary and unpredictable showdown on the House floor. The Republican McCarthy’s fate is deeply uncertain as he faces what’s known as a “motion to vacate” from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a strident critic allied with Donald Trump. It would take the support of only a handful of Republicans from his slim majority to remove McCarthy as speaker if Democrats vote in favor alongside the conservative rebels.Behind closed doors early Tuesday, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Let’s get on with it.“If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy said at the Capitol after a private morning meeting.It’s a stunning moment for the embattled McCarthy that serves as the...

South Africa culls about 7.5 million chickens in an effort to contain bird flu outbreaks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:52:59 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa has culled about 7.5 million chickens in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two separate strains of avian influenza that threaten to create a shortage of eggs and poultry for consumers, the government and national poultry association said Tuesday.At least 205,000 chickens have died from bird flu in at least 60 separate outbreaks across the country, with more than half of those outbreaks in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.Some grocery stores in Johannesburg were limiting the number of eggs customers were allowed to buy this week — in some cases to one carton of six eggs — and the government acknowledged there were “supply constraints.”The government announced approximately 2.5 million chickens bred for their meat had been culled. The South African Poultry Association said another 5 million egg-laying chickens had been culled. The 7.5 million birds represente...