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Putin asserts Ukrainian counteroffensive has begun, while drones strike within Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted Friday that Ukrainian troops have started a long-expected counteroffensive and were suffering “significant” losses. His comments came just hours after a string of drone strikes inside Russian territory.It was Putin’s latest effort to shape the gut-wrenching narrative of the invasion he ordered more than 15 months ago, sparking widespread international condemnation and reviving Cold War-style tensions.The conflict entered a complex new phase this week with the rupture of a Dnieper River dam that sent floodwaters gushing through a large swath of the front in southern Ukraine. Tens of thousands of civilians already facing the misery of regular shelling fled for higher ground on both sides of the swollen and sprawling waterway.Kyiv has played down talk of a counteroffensive, reasoning that the less said about its military moves the better. Speaking after he visited flood zones on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr...

Air quality improves in Toronto, but smoky skies linger in parts of Ontario, Alberta

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

Wildfire smoke that hung over Toronto for several days cleared Friday, resulting in a notable improvement in air quality, while communities in northern Ontario and western Quebec saw pollution warnings and hazy skies. Environment Canada had no air quality statements in place for Toronto on Friday but issued several for parts of northeastern Ontario, including North Bay, Sudbury and Timmins, as well as parts of western Quebec.“Those places are still under smoke from the forest fires,” said Gerald Cheng, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “For places in the south, like Montreal, Ottawa and even much of southern Ontario, the conditions have improved.”Cheng predicted that some smoke would move back over southern Ontario and Quebec on the weekend but at lower concentration levels. Higher intensity concentrations of smoke are expected north of the St. Lawrence River, he said.“We are looking at some showery conditi...

Ex-boyfriend charged with murder after woman’s body found in rural Minnesota

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

WINONA, Minn. (AP) — The former boyfriend of a Minnesota woman whose body was found hidden in a rural area of the state was charged Friday in her death.Adam Fravel, 29, was charged with second-degree murder. The charge comes two days after a deputy found the body of Madeline Kingsbury, who would have turned 27 on June 1. She had been missing since March 31 after dropping off her two young children at day care in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota town of about 26,000 residents. Fravel is the father of the children.Fravel appeared in court Friday. Bail was set at $2 million, or $1 million with conditions that included no contact with Kingsbury’s parents or siblings. He would be allowed to have contact with his children if he is released on bail. He remains jailed and it wasn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney who could comment.“We have heard from so many people how wonderful a person Maddie was,” Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman said at a news conference. “She h...

Chelsea Peretti on her directorial debut ‘First Time Female Director,’ premiering at Tribeca

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Chelsea Peretti plays a first-time director in her directorial debut: “First Time Female Director.” The film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival takes an acutely meta premise in lampooning the tumultuous experience of an inexperienced woman brought in to a direct a play at a small, local theater in Glendale, California, after its original male director is accused of misconduct. In one scene, while Peretti’s character bangs a trash can lid and shouts “Learn your blocking,” a cast member grumbles, “We replaced a predator with a female disaster.” Things went far smoother for Peretti, the 45-year-old comedian and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star, during her first time behind the camera. “First Time Female Director,” which is up for sale at Tribeca, brings together a cast of funny people, including Megan Mullally, Kate Berlant, Andy Richter and Megan Stalter, along with cameos from Amy Poehler (a producer) and Peretti’s husband, Jordan Peele.“It was like a ...

Compromise may mean continued reprieve for ‘Obamacare’ preventive care mandates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

Attorneys told a federal appeals court Friday they are close to an agreement that could temporarily maintain government requirements that health insurance plans include coverage of HIV-preventing drugs, cancer screenings and other preventive care while a court battle over the mandates plays out.An agreement could be ready to present to the court by Tuesday, attorneys for opponents of the mandates and the Biden administration, which is defending the mandates, said in a brief report filed with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. In March, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that some of the preventive care requirements under former President Barack Obama’s 13-year-old health care law are unconstitutional. The 5th Circuit blocked the order from having an immediate effect last month. On Tuesday, a three judge panel of the appeals court heard arguments on whether the mandates should remain in place while appeals play out in what is likely to b...

Police to release body camera footage of officer fatally shooting 14-year-old Black boy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Police in suburban Denver on Friday planned to release body camera footage showing an officer fatally shooting a 14-year-old Black boy they say was armed with a semiautomatic handgun.Jor’Dell Richardson was shot June 2 after a struggle on the ground with police who chased him from a store in Aurora, where he and a group of other teens are suspected of stealing vaping cartridges, authorities said. In a news conference soon after the shooting, police Chief Art Acevedo said one officer could be heard on the body camera footage saying “let go of the gun,” but he did not say where the gun was at the time.During the store robbery, Acevedo said Richardson made the clerk aware that he had the handgun but left it in his waistband.Police responded after a member of the city’s gang unit, who happened to be driving by, saw a group of teens wearing hoodies and medical masks approaching a convenience store. Some of the teens left in a stolen minivan after the robbery, while Jo...

Mike Batayeh, 'Breaking Bad' actor, dead at 52

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

(WGHP) — Actor Mike Batayeh, best known for his role in the hit TV series "Breaking Bad," has died at the age of 52, according to TMZ.Batayeh, a Detroit native, played Dennis Markowski, the manager at Gustavo Fring's Lavandería Brillante industrial laundromat. He appeared in three episodes in 2011 and 2012.Batayeh's family told TMZ that the actor died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Michigan. According to his obituary, he died on June 1. He had no known heart issues. "He will be greatly missed by those who loved him and his great ability to bring laughter and joy to so many," his family said in a statement."A devastating loss of a huge life — Mike Batayah, you were everybody’s friend," friend Rola Nashef, a Detroit-based writer and director, posted on Facebook. "And I mean everybody. There isn’t a person that I introduced you to or a waitress that took our order whom you didn’t make laugh, think, inspire and root for. You wanted to see us all win. I still can’t believe...

Eanes Education Foundation raises $2.65 million, grants money to ISD for 2023-24 year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Eanes Education Foundation Board of Directors announced Thursday they raised more than $2.65 million and will grant it to the Eanes Independent School District for the upcoming school year. According to the announcement, the money will fund more than 50 teaching positions for the 2023-24 school year. The EEF also approved an "EFF Board-Donated Gift" of $242,000 distributed as a year-end gift to all educators in the district. The foundation was created in 1991 to "help to bridge the gap between an adequate education as defined by the state of Texas, and the standard of educational excellence for which EISD is known."EEF said it helps fund positions on each of the ten district campuses including specialists, librarians, counselors, school nurses, AP teachers, gifted/talented teachers and more educators whose positions the state doesn't fund or require. “We are thrilled with the results we have received with this year’s community involvement and gene...

Tips to protect your skin during the summer months

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- With temperatures heating up and sunnier days ahead, many visitors and locals of Austin will turn to our lakes and the many swimming spots here in Central Texas to beat the heat and stay cool.Meteorologist Sean Kelly spoke with Doctor Emily Wood, who is a dermatologist at Westlake Dermatology in Austin, Texas about best skin protection practices in the months ahead. You can read the interview below to learn more.Sean Kelly, KXAN News: There's a lot of people who are going to be out and about they're going to be out in the lakes, we've got visitors, friends, family coming in town, what are some best tips to prepare for some long days ahead and some of the sunny days ahead when it comes to skincare? Dr. Emily Wood, Westlake Dermatology: If you can, I would say avoid the peak sun hours of the day, which are typically between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. Of course, we're in Texas, so we all live near lakes, and there are pools widely available. So, sometimes that's not possible...

‘Burn It Down’ author Maureen Ryan has a suggestion for the Hollywood power structure. It’s right there in the title.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:24 GMT

Michael Phillips | Chicago Tribune (TNS)Maureen Ryan can’t deny it, as she writes in her first book: “Burn It Down: Power, Complicity and a Call for Change in Hollywood.” For much of her life, the former Chicago Tribune and Variety critic and reporter couldn’t get enough of the grisly, salacious show-business lore spawned by the tyrants, the predators, the power structure, the bias, the damage, the wreckage. The all of it.She “consumed these narratives like candy,” she writes in her book. “Horrible behavior — hundreds of pages of it — in ‘Live from New York,’ the oral history of ‘Saturday Night Live’? Of course I devoured the whole thing. When I was coming up, not only as a consumer of popular culture but as someone who wrote about the industry, these narratives — dishy stories of industry people behaving badly — were, in and of themselves, a popular subgenre of entertainment.”Change, and some real consequences when it came to a conspicuous handful, came in 2017 with MeToo and the f...