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Biden warns of response if Iran attacks US troops

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

President Joe Biden warned Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday that the U.S. would respond if Iran or its allied proxies attacked U.S. service members stationed in the Middle East.Speaking at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House, Biden said: “My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared.”The comments come on the heels of several attacks against U.S. troops and military installations in the Middle East since the outbreak of a war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has long received financial and logistical support from Tehran.In a surprise attack on Oct. 7, Hamas militants stormed out of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and abducting dozens more, while firing rockets at cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel has since hit back by commencing a siege of Gaza and firing its own barrage of retaliatory m...

San Diego police release photo of woman suspected in MTS trolley stabbing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Authorities are still searching for a woman who they said stabbed a 21-year-old man inside an MTS trolley car on Sunday. Police are now asking the public for their help in locating the woman, even offering a reward of up to $1,000. Police are releasing her photo for people to help identify her.  The woman is described as 25-35 years old with dark short hair. Investigators said she stabbed a 21-year-old man who was asleep inside an MTS trolley car.  Police said they believe the man got on in San Ysidro and planned to get off on 12th and Imperial Avenue, but overslept and missed his stop.  Lt. Paul Philips said when the trolley got to the Nobel Drive station, the woman was behind the man with a bottle of alcohol. Phillips said the woman stabbed the man, unprovoked, which woke him up, where he grabbed her wrist to prevent her from stabbing him more.  The man made it out of the trolley to flag down security, according to police.   At least 16...

Emperor Penguin chick becomes first to hatch at SeaWorld San Diego in 13 years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- SeaWorld San Diego welcomed the first Emperor penguin chick to hatch at the theme park since 2010, animal officials said.“Bringing this chick into the world and ensuring her well-being and survival around the clock has been a very rewarding process for me and the entire SeaWorld Aviculture team,” said Justin Brackett, Curator of Birds at SeaWorld San Diego. Emperor Penguins, who depend on sea ice as their habitat for breeding, raising chicks and molting, are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to the loss of Antarctic sea ice and rising sea levels, according to SeaWorld San Diego. Ghoulish deep-sea fish found on SoCal beach in rare discovery SeaWorld San Diego says it is the only place in the western hemisphere outside of Antarctica to see the Emperor penguins. The newly hatched chick will be housed in SeaWorld San Diego's Penguin Encounter, which is home to a colony of 17 Emperor penguins and 300 other penguins.“Every decision regardi...

Israeli troops launch brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected wider incursion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several militant targets in order to “prepare the battlefield” ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids.The raid came after the U.N. warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas’ bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month. Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. Health officials said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets pounded Gaza. Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory.Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Wednesday that more than 750 people were ...

China says it wants to bolster climate cooperation with US as California Gov. Newsom visits Beijing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu said Thursday his country wants to strengthen cooperation with the United States to combat climate change, as he met in Beijing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.Newsom is on a weeklong tour of China where he is pushing for climate cooperation. His trip as governor, once considered routine, is drawing attention as it comes after years of heightening tensions between the U.S. and China.The climate is one of the few issues where the U.S. and China have agreed to work together. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years over trade practices, tariff barriers, human rights abuses and the fate of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.Huang said Thursday that his ministry would continue to carry out agreements under a memorandum of understanding signed last year between China and California “in carbon market investment, climate adaptation, environment law implementat...

Acapulco residents are left in flooded and windblown chaos with hurricane’s toll still unknown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — A day after Hurricane Otis roared ashore in Acapulco, unleashing massive floods and setting off looting, the resort city of nearly 1 million descended into chaos, leaving residents without electricity or internet service as the toll remained uncertain.The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that in some areas extended for miles. The resulting destruction delayed a comprehensive response by the government, which was still assessing the damage along Mexico’s Pacific coast, and made residents desperate.Many of the once sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds — and possibly thousands — of windows.There seemed to be a widespread frustration with authorities. While some 10,000 military troops were deployed to the area, they lacked the tools to clean tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets. Hu...

Fire, other ravages jeopardize California’s prized forests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

KYBURZ, Calif. (AP) — On a steep mountainside where walls of flames torched the forest on their way toward Lake Tahoe in 2021, blackened trees stand in silhouette against a gray sky.“If you can find a live tree, point to it,” Hugh Safford, an environmental science and policy researcher at the University of California, Davis, said touring damage from the Caldor Fire, one of the past decade’s many massive blazes.Dead pines, firs, and cedars stretch as far as the eye can see. Fire burned so hot that soil was still barren in places more than a year later. Granite boulders were charred and flaked from the inferno. Long, narrow indentations marked the graves of fallen logs that vanished in smoke. Damage in this area of Eldorado National Forest could be permanent — part of a troubling pattern that threatens a defining characteristic of the Sierra Nevada range John Muir once called a “waving sea of evergreens.” Forest like this is disappearing as increasingly intense fires alter...

Jeep maker Stellantis plans to invest 1.5 billion euros in Chinese EV manufacturer Leapmotor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Stellantis plans to invest about 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion, in Leapmotor, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, the companies said late Wednesday. The European-based maker of Jeep and Ram and Leapmotor said in a joint statement that they have formed a strategic partnership and joint venture that aims to expand the Chinese EV maker’s sales both inside and outside of China. Stellantis said it expects to benefit from Leapmotor’s “tech-first EV ecosystem” in China to meet its own targets for shifting to electric vehicles. The investment will give Stellantis an approximately 20% stake in Leapmotor. The companies said the 51% Stellantis-led joint venture will have exclusive rights to export and sell Leapmotor’s vehicles outside China. Leapmotor has focused on the mid- to high-end of the EV market in China, selling 111,000 electric vehicles in 2022. So far it has introduced three EV models, the BEV T03, the SUV C11 and the C01 sedan. Hangzhou, China-based L...

South Korea, US and Japan condemn North Korea’s alleged supply of munitions to Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying Thursday that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine.A joint statement by the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan came days after Russia’s foreign minister scoffed at a recent U.S. claim that his country received munitions from North Korea, saying that Washington has failed to prove the allegation.“We will continue to work together with the international community to expose Russia’s attempts to acquire military equipment from (North Korea),” said the joint statement by South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.“Such weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russia’s war of aggression,” it said.North Korea and...

Two more mild days before temps plunge; thunderstorm potential here Friday. First Cat. 5 Hurricane to Landfall on the Pacific Coast brings catastrophic destruction to Acapulco

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:08:51 GMT

While still mild,  temperatures significantly lower than Tuesday afternoon Wednesday afternoon temperature snapshot—How much cooler than the same time Tuesday? Rains to come and go the next few days with a break in the precipitation likely much of Saturday until the next round of showers arrives at night Tracking the season’s coldest air into ChicagoForecast low temperatures into next week—hard freeze likely by Monday/Tuesday timeframe which will effectively end the growing season!