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Rocket perfume, anyone? A Gaza vendor sells scents in bottles shaped like rockets fired at Israel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In Gaza, a perfume vendor has found an unusual way to show his defiance of the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. Rocket-shaped vials line the fragrant shelves of his Hijaz perfume shop in the Al-Saha market of Gaza City. Customers seeking a new fragrance can choose a “KN-103” scent, or perhaps spring for a “Buraq-100” — it depends which militant group’s rocket they’d like to display in their boudoir.Shopkeeper Hamza Abu Saraya, the owner of the popular perfumery in the besieged Gaza Strip, said he first came up with idea to design perfume bottles shaped like militant rockets during the Israel-Gaza war in 2021 — the fourth since the militant group Hamas seized control of the area in 2007.The war involved exchanges of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, leaving over 250 Palestinians dead. Thirteen people were killed in Israel. Militant groups in Gaza including Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired hundreds...

Trump’s New York civil fraud trial rolls on after an appeals judge declines to halt it

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial will roll ahead next week after he lost a bid Friday to postpone it.Trump wanted to halt the trial while he fights a pretrial ruling that could strip him of control of such assets as Trump Tower. An appeals judge rebuffed the request for a pause but agreed that control over the holdings will stay as-is for now. Friday’s decision came five days into the closely watched trial, which drew Trump to the courthouse to observe — and fulminate — for days this week. Trump’s lawyers had asked the state’s intermediate appellate court to suspend the trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit and prevent Judge Arthur Engoron from enforcing a ruling he made last week. Engeron’s decision revokedthe Republican presidential frontrunner’s business licenses and puts a court-appointed receiver in charge of his companies.“This is a massive error. It is irreparable,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise to...

Supporters of Tennessee death row inmate Gary Sutton hope to prove he is innocent

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Friends and family of Tennessee death row inmate Gary Sutton held a news conference outside the state Capitol on Friday to publicize Sutton’s effort to pursue his innocence claims and have his public defender removed from his case after they said she did not meet with him for 12 years.Sutton’s supporters include Carolyn Miller, who was his girlfriend in 1992 when Tommy Griffin and Griffin’s sister Connie Branam were murdered. Miller said in an interview that she knows Sutton is innocent in the siblings’ deaths because he was with her the weekend they were killed. Sutton, 58, has been on death row since 1996. His co-defendant, James Dellinger, died while imprisoned on death row earlier this year of what authorities said were natural causes. Several years ago, fearing Sutton’s execution was near, Miller and others hired a private investigator to look into the crimes he was convicted of, Miller said. Investigator Heather Cohen, who ...

Canada-India dispute likely target for disinformation efforts, State Department warns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

WASHINGTON — Canada’s ongoing diplomatic standoff with India risks making it an even more tempting target for international efforts that use disinformation to reshape global narratives, a senior State Department official says. Whether it’s restive political factions, grassroots public outrage, economic instability or geopolitical disputes, conflict always makes it easier for falsehoods to take root, said Global Engagement Center co-ordinator James Rubin. “Any time there is an underlying discontent in a country, the manipulators will use that,” Rubin told a briefing Thursday about the centre’s new report on China’s goals for reshaping the information space. “Unfortunately, they’re getting better and better at it.” Social media now lays bare the divisions that exist in any given part of the world, “and through artificial intelligence and spending money on it, they can develop tailored narratives,” he said. And while Rub...

'A carpet of dead birds:' Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds die after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hall

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

David Willard has been checking the grounds of Chicago's lakefront exhibition center for dead birds for 40 years. On Thursday morning he found something horrible: Hundreds of dead songbirds, so thick they looked like a carpet.Nearly 1,000 songbirds perished during the night after crashing into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center's windows, the result, according to avian experts, of a deadly confluence of prime migration conditions, rain and the low-slung exhibition hall's lights and window-lined walls.“It was just like a carpet of dead birds at the windows there,” said Willard, a retired bird division collections manager at the Chicago Field Museum, where his duties included administering, preserving and cataloging the museum's collection of 500,000 bird specimens as well as searching for bird strikes as part of migration research. “A normal night would be zero to 15 (dead) birds. It was just kind of a shocking outlier to what we've experienced," Willard said. "In 40 years of keepin...

One drink, One stop: Bars, restaurants walking distance from Blue Line stations

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

CHICAGO — Before fall ends and winter begins, make sure to get out and enjoy the beautiful walking weather before it's too late.Grab yourself an unlimited ride day pass for the CTA and enjoy the city of Chicago with a drink at a local bar or restaurant at nearly every Blue Line station.Find a list of "Bars and pubs" and "Restaurants" with a 3.8 rating and above on Google, as well as within a 10 to 15 minute walk to and from the specific CTA Blue line station below.RosemontBub City -- 4.3 Rating5441 Park PlacePark Tavern -- 4.0 Rating5433 Park PlaceRed Bar -- 3.9 Rating9300 West Bryn Mawr AvenueCumberlandBar Louie O'Hare -- 3.9 Rating5615 North Cumberland AvenueHarlem (O'Hare Branch)Earnie's Tap -- 4.7 Rating7112 West Higgins AvenueTeaser's Pub -- 4.1 Rating7123 West Higgins AvenueJefferson ParkRex Tavern -- 4.6 Rating4933 North Milwaukee AvenueJefferson Inn -- 4.3 Rating4874 North Milwaukee AvenueThe District House -- 4.5 Rating5722 West Higgins Avenue One drink, One stop: Bars, r...

GM agrees to place EV battery manufacturing under UAW agreement

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

(The Hill) — General Motors (GM) has agreed to place battery manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) under its main agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, UAW President Shawn Fain announced on Friday.Fain said the union won't expand its strike against the Big Three automakers following the the last-minute development in negotiations.“We've been told for months that this is impossible,” Fain said. Jeffries calls effort to kick Pelosi, Hoyer out of hideaway offices ‘petty, partisan and petulant’ “We've been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom. And now we've called their bluff.”GM's commitment to use UAW workers for EV battery manufacturing is a massive victory for the union. Autoworkers have expressed deep concerns about the shift toward EVs given that most are made with non-union labor and outside of the U.S.The UAW was initially prepared to call on members to walk out at one of GM’s “biggest and most important plants” in Arlington, Texas, Fain said. How...

What the September jobs report means for the economy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — President Joe Biden is celebrating another month of robust job gains, with 336,000 added to the economy in September."It's no accident. This is Bidenomics at work," the president said Friday.He said the figure, which exceeded expectations, is a positive signal."We have the highest share of working-age Americans in the workforce in 20 years," he said.Some economists say the outlook is not that simple."It's not entirely smooth sailing or full steam ahead for the economy," Mark Hamrick, a senior analyst for financial services company Bankrate, said. "We're still talking about the risk of a government shutdown in mid-November. We have global tensions. ... We have an autoworker strike and we have high interest rates that make the cost and availability of borrowing more tenuous."The Federal Reserve consistently raised interest rates for more than a year to fight inflation. Its next steps are less certain, Hamrick said.While the inflation rate is now less than half t...

Austin Animal Center director addresses audit, council criticism

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After an audit and external review of the Austin Animal Center were released last week, KXAN sat down with Chief Animal Services Officer and director, Don Bland, to respond to the concerns found in it. Bland pointed to overcrowding at the shelter as a major issue and said he wants the City of Austin to lean on public feedback to form next steps. He also responded to harsh criticism from Austin City Council members. The conversation is edited for conciseness. KXAN's Grace Reader: This is the first time that folks are really hearing from you after that audit came out. So first, I want to open it up to you to just respond to what you saw in it.KXAN's Grace Reader sits down with Austin Animal Center Director Don Bland (KXAN photo)Chief Animal Services Officer Don Bland: We appreciate the auditors and the work that they did, they did a lot of work. You know, there's only so much they could touch on, it would have taken them more years to fully develop an audit that cove...

Breezy cold front brings coolest highs since April

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:49:14 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Friday was a noticeably warmer day across Central Texas thanks to some extra sunshine that pushed temperatures into the middle and upper 80s, however a second cold front is just hours away.That cold front, currently working into North Texas, will arrive for most of us just before midnight and bring increasing winds and the coolest air in months.Tonight skies will range from partly to mostly cloudy. Wind gusts 20-25 mph will be possible as the front arrives and even after the front slides south. Breezy Saturday morningOvernight lows drop down into the upper 50s by the time you wake up Saturday morning.Tonight's forecastWe're forecasting the coolest high temperatures in Austin since April 24 for Saturday. Highs in the low to mid 70s will be a full 10-15 degrees below normal for this time of year. Saturday will have a mix of sun and clouds on a very fall-like second day of ACL Weekend One.Sunday will have more sun and temperatures will approach 80.ACL Weekend OneLows ...