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For the third time this week, Earth sets a heat record

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record.The planetary average hit 63 degrees Fahrenheit, 17.23 degrees Celsius, surpassing the 62.9 and 17.18-degree marks set Tuesday and equaled Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. That average includes places that are sweltering under dangerous heat — like Jingxing, China, which checked in almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) — and the merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 degrees Celsius) above normal this week.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued a note of caution about the Maine tool’s findings, saying it could not confirm data that results in part fr...

White gunman to be sentenced for killing 23 people in a racist Walmart attack in a Texas border city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The white Texas gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at a Walmart in 2019 is expected to learn his punishment Friday, after victims’ relatives berated him for days over the shooting that targeted Hispanic shoppers on the U.S.-Mexico border.Patrick Crusius, 24, will likely be sentenced to multiple life terms in federal prison for committing one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. However, he could still face the death penalty in a separate case in a Texas state court that has yet to go to trial. Crusius, who pleaded guilty in February to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table, is not expected to make a statement before he is formally sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama. The sentencing phase was taking place not far from the El Paso Walmart where Crusius opened fire with an AK-style semiautomatic rifle. The attack came after Crusius ranted online, warning of a ...

US set to destroy its last chemical weapons, closing a deadly chapter dating to World War I

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) — At a sprawling military installation in the middle of the rolling green hills of eastern Kentucky, a milestone is about to be reached in the history of warfare dating back to World War I.Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot are close to destroying rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons and completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons.The weapons’ destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month. It’s also a defining moment for arms control efforts worldwide.The U.S. faces a Sept. 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 ...

US Forest Service and historically Black colleges unite to boost diversity in wildland firefighting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

HAZEL GREEN, Ala. (AP) — Before starting college, Taylor Mohead had never been outside her hometown of Houston, Texas. Now, the recent Tuskegee University graduate is trekking around trees in Hazel Green, Alabama, in fire gear and sweltering heat. The U.S. Forest Service intern is among 20 students from historically Black colleges or universities who are participating in a prescribed burn demonstration under instructors’ supervision. They clear paths, light fires and make sure the embers are out when they’re done. It’s part of an apprenticeship program that will give them the credentials to hit the ground running toward a fire line. It’s a grueling way to spend summer break, but Mohead is relishing it. She never pictured herself fighting forest fires.“Look at me. I’m really small. I’m really short. And then being a woman of color, that’s something, too. I feel like that’s more inspiring,” Mohead said, grinning. “I got goosebumps right now.”The on-site fire academy ...

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter mark 77th wedding anniversary at home in Plains, Georgia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are marking their 77th wedding anniversary with a quiet Friday at their south Georgia home, extending their record as the longest-married first couple ever as both nonagenarians face significant health challenges.The 39th president is 98 and has been in home hospice care since February. The former first lady is 95 and has dementia. The Carter family has not offered details of either Jimmy or Rosalynn Carter’s condition but has said they both have enjoyed time with each other and a stream of family members, along with occasional visits from close friends, in recent months.“As we have looked back at their legacy, it has been really wonderful to see the outpouring of support and respect and love,” grandson Jason Carter said recently. “That word love is really the one that defines certainly their personal relationship, but also the way they approach this world.”Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have been on the American and international stage together f...

At Iowa event, Trump plans to go after DeSantis over ethanol

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump plans Friday to headline his largest Iowa campaign event in nearly four months with a speech to thousands at an arena in the western part of the state. Trump will use his appearance in Council Bluffs on Friday afternoon to attack his top GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for opposing the federal mandate for ethanol, a renewable fuel additive that Iowa leads the nation in producing.“DeSantis has problematic policy positions that hurt farmers and demonize ethanol,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Associated Press ahead of Trump’s visit. “President Trump plans to highlight that.”The large Republican presidential field has spent a lot of time over the last few months in Iowa, the leadoff GOP caucus state. In June, more than a half dozen candidates, including DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, attended Sen. Joni Ernst’s...

First GOP debate next month faces threats of boycott as lower-polling candidates scramble to qualify

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Seven weeks before the premiere debate of the 2024 GOP primary, anxiety is building that the event could prove messy and divisive for the party.Some candidates, like former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are struggling to meet fundraising and polling requirements to make it on stage. He and others are pushing back on a loyalty pledge the Republican Party is insisting candidates sign to participate. And the race’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, is considering boycotting and holding a competing event instead.That’s turning what is typically the highly anticipated opener of the election season into a source of uncertainty for the candidates and broader party. The frustration is particularly acute for candidates who hoped to use the forum as a powerful opportunity to confront Trump and try to blunt his momentum. “If the outcome of all of these machinations is a very limited field and no Trump in the first debate, it’s hard to see how that ca...

Asian Americans feel particularly targeted by new laws criminalizing those who assist voters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — For a century, the League of Women Voters in Florida formed bonds with marginalized residents by helping them register to vote — and, in recent years, those efforts have extended to the growing Asian American and Asian immigrant communities. But a state law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May would have forced the group to alter its strategy. The legislation would have imposed a $50,000 fine on third-party voter registration organizations if the staff or volunteers who handle or collect the forms have been convicted of a felony or are not U.S. citizens. A federal judge blocked the provision this week. But its passage reflects the effort by DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, and other GOP leaders to crack down on access to the ballot. Florida is one of at least six states, including Georgia and Texas, where Republicans have enacted voting rules since 2021 that created or boosted criminal penalties and fines for individuals and groups that assist voters. S...

US jobs report likely to show a solid gain, potentially complicating Fed’s drive to cool inflation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Another solid month of hiring in the United States is expected to be reported Friday, an outcome that would suggest no recession is near but could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to succeed in its drive to cool the economy and curb high inflation.Employers are forecast to have added 205,000 jobs in June, according to economists surveyed by data provider FactSet. Though below recent monthly gains, that would amount to a healthy increase and reflect a historically high number of advertised job openings. A continuation of robust hiring would underscore the economy’s surprising resilience at a time when the Fed has jacked up its key interest rate by a sizable 5 percentage points — the fastest pace of rate hikes in four decades. Those increases have made mortgages, auto loans and other forms of borrowing significantly more expensive. Yet consumers are still increasing their spending, if modestly, providing the incentive for some companies to keep hiring and...

9-year-old lone survivor receives community support after family died in shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:22 GMT

ST. ANN, Mo. - A 9-year-old lone survivor is now dealing with the loss of her mother and siblings after they were murdered in a quadruple shooting.It’s something that had the St. Ann Police Department devastated, but they aren’t the only ones. Now, many are trying to help young survivor Akuri Schaumburg.“I heard all seven of them, I heard all the gunshots….. I heard it all," said Kenaundra Williams, a neighbor. "I heard when she screamed help me, help me.”Williams explained the moment gunfire erupted on Jane Avenue after an argument over driving intoxicated led Coleman Mcilvain to shoot and kill his girlfriend and two children.Among the lives lost were 30-year-old Seychelle Schaumburg and her two children: 14-year-old Kyrien Stevenson and 5-year-old Ushara Schaumburg. Akuri was also shot but survived. What is causing the mysterious St. Louis County hum? “To witness her mom and mom’s boyfriend arguing, because he’s intoxicated and drunk, pull out a firearm and shoot her right in th...