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US boosts protections for endangered wolverines

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

By Matthew Brown | Associated PressBILLINGS, Mont. — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction.Across most of the U.S., wolverines were wiped out by the early 1900s from unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous U.S. live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.Wolverines join a growing number of animals, plants and insects — from polar bears in Alaska to crocodiles in southern Florida — that officials say are at growing risk as increasing temperatures bake the planet, altering snowfall patterns and raising sea levels.In the coming decades, warming temperatures are expected to shrink the mountain snowpack wolverines rely on to dig dens where...

Grading the San Jose Sharks after turbulent first quarter: Is the worst behind them?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks coach David Quinn looked up at the massive scoreboard at SAP Center recently and watched a montage of the franchise’s most memorable goals, several of which came during the team’s numerous playoff appearances over a 25-year period.“We’re going to get there,” Quinn said, remembering the scenes of jubilation. “It’s going to take a little time, it’s going to be a process, but it’ll be well worth it.”More than a quarter of the way through the 2023-24 season, no one within the Sharks organization is thinking about the playoffs. With a .273 points percentage after 22 games, the Sharks (5-15-2) are off to their slowest start since the 1995-96 team was 2-16-4 just past the quarter-pole.The Sharks are last in the NHL in both goals scored and goals allowed and going into Thursday’s game with the Boston Bruins to start a six-game road trip, have yet to win away from home.Still, the Sharks appear to have turned a corner to some degree in the la...

Oakland City Council meeting speakers condemned for 'supporting Hamas'

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

(KRON) -- Viral video clips of commenters at Monday night's Oakland City Council meeting backing a cease-fire resolution in the Israel-Hamas war have drawn condemnation. California State Sen. Scott Weiner retweeted one clip in which a speaker claimed, "Israel murdered their own people on October 7th.""Calling Hamas a terrorist organization is ridiculous, racist, and plays into genocidal propaganda," said another commenter in the same viral clip. "Oakland City Council passed a reso calling for Gaza ceasefire," Weiner posted on X, formerly Twitter. "When a council member asked to add language condemning Hamas, a stream of public comment praising & supporting Hamas ensued.""The council then rejected the request to condemn Hamas," he continued. "Just awful." Nearly two dozen Bank of America branches closing across Bay Area "The public comment praising Hamas & defending the October 7 massacre of 1,2000 mostly Jews is despicable & unconscionable," Weiner posted in a subsequ...

Ted Cruz: “I Condemn Nothing That the Israeli Government Is Doing”

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

This article was originally published as a newsletter from Ryan Grim. Sign up to get the next one in your inbox.The debate in Congress over Israel’s overwhelming response to the October 7 attack by Hamas would look much different today had not a big-money operation, unprecedented in its scope and scale, launched — purging the Democratic Party of some of its toughest critics of the Israeli government and cowing others into silence. That operation was organized by AIPAC and an allied super PAC called Democratic Majority for Israel, which was founded by Mark Mellman, a longtime adviser to a top Israeli government official, Yair Lapid, who rose from foreign minister to prime minister, a position he held only briefly before being knocked out by Benjamin Netanyahu. That operation, aimed squarely at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, is the subject of an excerpt from my new book I just published at The Intercept. The book is called “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Politica...

Correction: France-Yoga Guru Arrested story

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

PARIS (AP) — In a story published November 28, 2023, about the arrest in France of a yoga guru, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the Atman Yoga Federation in some references.Source

Steelers’ Najee Harris, Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb among best bets to score in Week 13 of NFL season

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

Scoring is at a premium as we near the fantasy playoffs and these players are leading the way. These are my best bets to find the end zone in Week 13.___Running BackRAHEEM MOSTERT, DOLPHINSIt’s little surprise that the league’s rushing TD leader makes the list this week, especially considering his favorable matchup. Mostert faces a Washington team that’s our fifth-best matchup for opposing running backs in Week 13, having allowed 11 TDs on the season to runners. Vegas has the 49.37% TD dependent Mostert at 100 odds to score this week, the third-best odds for any RB this week. Even if De’Von Achane returns this week, Mostert is still a strong contender to score as he’s done so in 8 of 11 games this season.NAJEE HARRIS, STEELERSHarris has had a resurgence of sorts, scoring in three of his past four games. In any case, Harris is likely to make it back-to-back games with a TD this week against an Arizona team that’s our second-best matchup for opposing runners. No team has allowed more ...

Top diplomats arrive in North Macedonia for security meeting as some boycott Russia’s participation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Top diplomats from more than 50 countries arrived in North Macedonia on Wednesday for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, while others boycotted the expected presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had said they would not attend the talks due to Lavrov’s participation and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a brief stop in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, for the meeting but left for Israel hours later. He did not encounter Lavrov, who was due in Skopje late Wednesday.Blinken accused Russia of “flagrant violations of every single core principle” of Cold War efforts to ease East-West tensions that led to the creation of the OSCE, and “relentless efforts to obstruct the OSCE’s work.”Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels earlier Wednesday, Blinken said that the other OSCE member...

Conservative Supreme Court justices seem open to an attack on the Securities and Exchange Commission

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed open to a challenge to how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud, in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, instead of by the SEC’s in-house administrative law judges.The justices heard more than two hours of arguments in the Biden administration’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that threw out stiff financial penalties imposed on hedge fund manager George R. Jarkesy by the SEC, which regulates securities markets.“That seems problematic to say that the government can deprive you of your property, your money, substantial sums in a tribunal that is at least perceived as not being impartial,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.Justice Department lawyer Brian Fletcher warned the justices that their decision...

Tormentas dañinas y posibles tornados amenazan Texas, incluida la zona de Houston

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

(CNN) — Una nueva amenaza de tornados apunta al sur de Estados Unidos este jueves, menos de dos semanas después de que más de 10 tornados azotaran Louisiana y Mississippi.Esta vez, el riesgo se centra en Texas, a medida que un sistema de tormentas comienza a formarse en el sur de las Llanuras.Se espera que las tormentas eléctricas severas comiencen este jueves al final de la mañana en Texas y Oklahoma y se dirijan hacia el este, afectando partes de Louisiana y Arkansas.El mayor riesgo de tornados está principalmente en el sureste de Texas ––incluyendo zonas del área metropolitana de Houston–– desde las últimas horas de la mañana del jueves hasta la tarde. Según el Centro de Predicción de Tormentas, existe un riesgo elevado, o nivel 3 de 5, de tormentas fuertes para la zona este jueves.Las tormentas en partes del suroeste de Louisiana también podrían producir un tornado o dos el jueves por la tarde.Además de los tornados, cualquier tormenta severa el jueves podría producir gran...

Man United draws 3-3 at Galatasaray after Onana errors to hurt Champions League qualification hopes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:45:49 GMT

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Hurt by goalkeeper Andre Onana’s mistakes, Manchester United twice wasted two-goal leads to draw 3-3 at Galatasaray in a febrile atmosphere Wednesday in the Champions League to leave its hopes of reaching the round of 16 hanging in the balance.United was 2-0 ahead after 18 minutes after strikes by Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes and then 3-1 up following a goal by Scott McTominay in the 55th.At fault for Galatasaray’s first goal by Hakim Ziyech at a free kick, Onana fumbled another set-piece attempt by the winger into his own net to bring the hosts back into it at 3-2 in what proved to be an end-to-end Champions League classic.Muhammed Kerem Akturkoglu then controlled a fine through-ball from Ziyech and powered a rising shot past Onana in the 71st to earn Galatasaray a point that kept the Turkish team a point ahead of United, which remained in last place.United must now beat already qualified Bayern Munich in the final round of Group A games in t...