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Former New Zealand prime minister and pandemic prep leader says we’re unprepared for the next one

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — If another pandemic happens, the world will again be unprepared.That’s the bleak assessment of former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who co-chaired the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, after the U.N. General Assembly held a high-level summit aimed at heading off another pandemic. The upshot: Have another meeting. Other pandemic experts who tracked months of negotiations on the 13-page declaration adopted by the assembly’s 193 member nations were disappointed, too.“I think it’s fair to say that the declaration is a missed opportunity,” Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the General Assembly’s high-level leaders’ meeting. “It has many pages and paragraphs and only one firm commitment and that is to hold another high-level meeting in three years’ time.”Clark who addressed last week’s summit, is the newest member of the group of former world leaders founded by the late Nelson Mandel...

Montreal man visited Toronto Zoo in between killing spree, coroner’s inquest hears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

MONTREAL — A coroner’s inquest heard Monday that a man killed two people at random in Montreal in August 2022, then travelled to Ontario to visit the Toronto Zoo and Canada’s Wonderland before returning to Quebec to murder again.Police identified Abdulla Shaikh, 26, from video at the Ontario amusement parks, and receipts from the venues were found in his car, provincial police investigator Alexandra Caron Vadbonecoeur told the inquest.Shaikh killed three people in the Montreal area at random within a 24-hour period before police tracked him down and shot him dead, the inquest heard Monday. Coroner Géhane Kamel is presiding over the inquiry into the murders of André Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj, Alex Lévis-Crevier and the police killing of the 26-year-old suspect.Kamel said in her opening statement that the hearings will shed light on the deaths and produce recommendations to help prevent similar murders from occurring.Caron Vadbonecoeur testified that there were no links betw...

A judge has rewritten Missouri ballot summary language that described ‘dangerous’ abortions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge tossed Republican-written ballot summary language Monday that described several proposed constitutional amendments as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions until live birth.”Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem rewrote the ballot summary to describe the language as establishing the “right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception,” as well as undoing the state’s almost total ban on abortions. In Missouri, summaries are provided to voters on ballots to help quickly explain sometimes lengthy and complicated proposals. The office of Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, which wrote the summaries, plans to appeal.“We will not stand idly by while the courts hide the effects of this amendment and mislead the people as to what they may very well be voting on next year,” spokesperson JoDonn Chaney said. Ashcroft is running for governor in 2024.Missouri is among several states, including Ohio, wh...

Journalist killed in attack aimed at police in northern Mexico border town

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A journalist who ran a community Facebook news page was killed in the northern Mexico border town of San Luis Rio Colorado on Monday, when he was apparently caught in the cross-fire of an attack aimed at police. Jesús Gutiérrez ran Notiface Prensa Digital De San Luis, a Facebook page that included recommendations for local businesses as well as local news stories. Notiface confirmed his death, writing in a tribute “we think they killed the best journalist.”Prosecutors in the northern border state of Sonora said Gutiérrez was talking with the police officers, who were his neighbors, when they were hit by a hail of gunfire, killing one policeman and wounding the other three. They said Gutiérrez’ death was “collateral” to the attack on the police. San Luis Rio Colorado, located across from Yuma, Arizona, is best known as a border town where Americans go for inexpensive prescriptions and dental work. But it has increasingly been hit by drug cartel violence. At least t...

US offers Poland rare loan of $2 billion to modernize its military

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Monday that it is offering a $2 billion loan to Poland, which has been a hub for weapons going into Ukraine, to support the ally’s defense modernization.The State Department said in a statement that Poland is a “stalwart” ally of the U.S. whose “security is vital to the collective defense” of NATO ’s eastern flank, and that such funding is reserved for Washington’s most important security partners.The U.S. government is also providing Warsaw up to $60 million for the cost of the loan in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) which would support “urgent procurements of defense articles and services from the United States,” the State Department said. The $60 million is a loan subsidy meant to ensure that Warsaw can secure favorable terms for the loan.Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, handing over large numbers of its own tanks, fighter jets and other equipment. It has a...

Michigan woman will serve up to 5 years in prison for crash into icy pond that killed her 3 sons

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan woman was sentenced to up to five years in prison Monday for a crash in which her three young sons drowned after her SUV plunged into an ice-covered pond.Leticia Gonzales had pleaded no contest in August to operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and three misdemeanor charges of a moving violation causing death.An Ottawa County judge sentenced the Holland-area woman to a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years after Gonzales told the court she’s been living with survivor’s guilt since her sons’ deaths, WOOD-TV reported.“I lost everything I ever needed and I hate myself so much. I’ve been sentenced to life without them for the rest of my life, so I’m asking for forgiveness,” she said.Ottawa County police said Gonzales was driving her sport utility vehicle in February 2022 when she veered off the side of a Holland Township road, jumped a curb and rolled into an ice-covered retention pond. Her sons, Jerome III,...

A dollar gets you into Thursday's White Sox game at Guaranteed Rate Field

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

CHICAGO — If you want to see the White Sox play one more time in 2023, you'll have the chance pretty cheaply one day this week.Thanks to Mother Nature on the East Coast and a tight schedule for Major League Baseball at the end of the season, all you'll need is a single dollar to get in on Thursday.The White Sox announce that the $1 tickets for Thursday’s game against the Diamondbacks at Guaranteed Rate Field will got on sale at 3 p.m. on Monday. .@WGNNews pic.twitter.com/vq2ZHm28pa— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) September 25, 2023The team is offering $1 tickets to their third and final game of a series with the Diamondbacks on Thursday, with the first pitch set for 1:10 p.m. Parking around the ballpark will also be free of charge for that contest. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale for the game at 3 p.m. on Monday, going while supplies last, excluding Wintrust Scout Seats. So why is the team doing this? This is the game that was scheduled for Monday night but it was weather ou...

Monday Forecast: Temps in mid 70s with afternoon sunshine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

CHICAGO — Clouds and some sun Monday with a chance of showers. Winds: ESE 5-15 mph. Air quality is Moderate to Good around Chicagoland. High: 74, cooler lakeside. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Mostly cloudy tonight with a chance of showers. Winds: E 5-10 mph. Low near 60.Tuesday Forecast: Cloudy skies and PM rain at times. Chance of an iso. t'storm. E 10-15 mph. High: 68.Extended outlook calls for some rain to continue into Wednesday with cooler than normal temps near 70. Back towards more sunshine and summer-like warmth by the end of the week. Some spots could get close to 80 this weekend with lots of September sunshine. Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

FDA considers new ALS treatment — and more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

For Monday, Sept. 25, WGN’s Lourdes Duarte has new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch FDA considers new ALS treatmentThe Food and Drug Administration considers approval of a treatment many Lou Gehrig's disease patients have been pushing for.   The treatment from drugmaker Brainstorm is called NurOwnLou Gehrig's disease has few treatment options and desperate patients have been lobbying the FDA for a year to get it approved.    However, officials say the only study done on stem cell therapy did not show a benefit to patients. Still, optimism remains because regulators approved two other ALS treatments after similar lobbying efforts.   Gene variant raises Parkinson's risk in people of African descent A gene discovered in people of African descent puts them at quadruple the risk for developing Parkinson's disease. A team made the finding with the Global Parkinson's Genetics Program.Those who carried a single copy of the gene variant were about 50 perce...

Butternut squash sets world record at the State Fair of Virginia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:17 GMT

DOSWELL, Va. (WRIC) - A new world record for the largest butternut squash was set at the Giant Veggie Weigh-Off event at the State Fair of Virginia on Saturday.The gargantuan butternut squash that set the world record weighed in at 131.4 pounds and was entered by Jason Loris, of the Amissville area of Rappahannock County.A spokesperson for the State Fair of Virginia said the enormous squash is as big as the larger giant pumpkins entered in the weigh-off.Butternut squash that set the world record at the State Fair of Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23 (Photo: State Fair of Virginia)Butternut squash that set the world record at the State Fair of Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23 (Photo: State Fair of Virginia)Butternut squash that set the world record at the State Fair of Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23 (Photo: State Fair of Virginia)Entries at the Giant Veggie Weigh-Off event at the State Fair of Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23 (Photo: State Fair of Virginia)Two other massive vegetables set s...