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Extreme weather warnings issued across Europe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

Large parts of Europe were covered by extreme weather warnings on Saturday. A heat wave continued to grip southern countries, with temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Spain, Italy and Greece. In parts of other countries, like France and the U.K., warnings were issued for heavy wind and rain, and thunderstorms. The planet already saw its hottest week in recorded history at the beginning of July, a combination of man-made global warming exacerbated by El Niño, a naturally occurring weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean. European governments and meteorological services warned their citizens about the impact of extreme weather. In Italy, 15 cities, among them tourist destinations like Rome and Florence, were covered by a “red alert” from the country’s Health Ministry on Saturday, with the advice to avoid exposure to the sun and heat between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The health impact is “possible” not only for risk groups but also for hea...

Worcester launches mobile mental health crisis team to respond to emergencies with counselors, clinicians

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

The City of Worcester is launching a new program that utilizes mental health professionals in crisis situations as a new way to respond to emergencies.The city is partnering with UMass Memorial Health’s Community Healthlink program to launch the Mental Health Community Mobile Crisis Response Pilot Program.“This is an absolutely exciting moment for us as a city,” said Eric Batista, city manager. “Having clinicians available for phone calls, to be able to respond, be on site, or even have conversations with the individuals, try to diffuse and provide the services they need is a win, win for everybody.”The type of response varies case by case, and dispatchers will determine if just mental health clinicians are needed or if other public safety officials should respond as well.“We want to make sure that the area or the situation, it’s not going to be any more harmful to any clinician coming in,” Batista said. “We want to make sure that everyone is safe, so depending on the situatio...

Marketa Vondrousova takes the first set of the Wimbledon women’s final against Ons Jabeur

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Marketa Vondrousova has taken the first set of the Wimbledon women’s final against Ons Jabeur by a 6-4 score.They traded early breaks of serve and it was 2-all after 23 minutes of play at Centre Court on Saturday.They again traded breaks — each one at love — and it was 4-all after 34 minutes.But Jabeur’s mistakes kept coming, and Vondrousova collected the opening set’s last four games.The main stadium’s retractable roof was shut at the beginning of the match.The winner will become a first-time Grand Slam champion. They went into Saturday’s title match with a combined record of 0-3 in major finals.The No. 6-seeded Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia, was the runner-up at the All England Club and at the U.S. Open last season.She is the only Arab woman or North African woman to participate in a Grand Slam singles final.The 42nd-ranked Vondrousova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, lost in the 2019 French Open final as a teenager.She is the first unse...

Ontario government plans to recoup COVID-19 loans to province’s doctors

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

TORONTO — The Ontario government says it plans to recoup loan payments issued to doctors at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to cover their increased costs and loss of revenue from lower patient volumes.In a memo issued to the Ontario Medical Association on Friday, which was obtained by The Canadian Press, the province says it is “critical” to recover more than $521 million in outstanding loan payments in order to fund other priorities.Beginning next month, the Ministry of Health will deduct pay from physicians’ monthly OHIP payments over a one-year period, rather than the original five-month timeline it first proposed, with no interest charged.The ministry says it was clear when it launched the COVID-19 Advance Payment Program in April 2020 that monthly loan payments doled out to eligible health-care providers would need to be paid back.Since loan repayments began in April 2021, it says it has recovered nearly $139 million out of the total $660 million provided...

The man who threatened to burn holy books outside the Israeli Embassy in Sweden abandons the plan

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The man who said he would burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm gave up his plan and instead held a one-person demonstration on Saturday against the burning of holy books, the media reported. At the scene, he said he was a Muslim and threw a lighter he held in his hand to the ground, saying he never intended to burn holy books. The man, who is in his 30s and had been issued a permit for the protest by Stockholm police, said such an action would be against the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and that he “will not burn,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.The man, who resides in western Sweden, also said that “no one should do that,” the report said. Israeli officials had called on the Swedish government to stop the protest and the burning of the holy books on Saturday afternoon outside the diplomatic mission. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the World Jewish Congress condemned the action in advance as did Israeli Foreign Minister E...

De Groot secures 11th straight Grand Slam title by winning the women’s wheelchair final at Wimbledon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Diede De Groot won her 11th consecutive Grand Slam title by beating doubles partner Jiske Griffioen 6-2, 6-1 Saturday in the women’s wheelchair singles final at Wimbledon.De Groot has won 19 major titles overall, including five at Wimbledon. Her current winning streak in Grand Slams dates back to the 2021 Australian Open and she now has a chance to secure a third straight sweep of all four majors if she wins the U.S. Open in September. That would also tie the record of 12 straight Grand Slam wins in wheelchair singles set by Shingo Kunieda between 2007-11.The Dutchwoman also extended her tour-level winning streak to 111 straight matches, dating back to the 2021 Melbourne Wheelchair Open.De Groot could still collect more silverware at Wimbledon — she and Griffioen are also into the wheelchair doubles final. ___AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press

Fire triggers explosions at Louisiana chemical plant as residents warned to stay indoors for hours

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

PLAQUEMINE, La. (AP) — A fire at a Louisiana chemical plant triggered explosions that shook homes several miles away and sent flames and smoke billowing into the air, prompting emergency officials to urge a few hundred nearby residents to shelter indoors for several hours and to turn off their air conditioners.Flames erupted late Friday at Dow Chemical’s plant on the Mississippi River near Plaquemine, south of Baton Rouge. Iberville Parish officials told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate that the fire started in an area of the plant that handles ethylene oxide, a flammable and highly carcinogenic chemical. The parish’s sheriff, Bret Stassi, said no one was injured and that the company had accounted for all its workers. Residents of roughly 350 households within a half-mile (0.80 kilometers) of the plant were told to shelter inside for several hours overnight. As Dow Chemical and environmental officials monitored the air for hazardous materials, emergency offici...

Thai prime minister hopeful says he’s open to let partner party contend for the job if his bid fails

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s rocky road to naming a new prime minister took a fresh turn Saturday as the candidate who led his party to first place in May’s general election said he is open to bowing out of contention if he cannot win a second round of voting in Parliament. Pita Limjaroenrat, the 42-year-old leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, said he would be willing to let a coalition partner party field its candidate. However, he indicated the political battling could continue for weeks.Lawmakers on Thursday failed to confirm Pita as prime minister despite his party’s surprising victory in the May polls, when it garnered 151 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. It then assembled an eight-party coalition that together holds 312 seats, a clear majority in the lower house, giving it the right to nominate a prime minister.To be elected for prime minister, a candidate needs to win a majority of votes in a joint sitting of the lower house and the 250-seat Sena...

Students in shortchanged Pennsylvania school districts plug away while lawmakers dither over funding

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nylla Miller didn’t dwell on the shortcomings of her education when she spoke at her high school graduation. Instead she talked about all she and her classmates had accomplished. They had achieved at high levels even in cramped classrooms with no air conditioning that got stuffier as the summer months approached — a reversal from earlier in the year, when the heat wasn’t working and it was almost too cold to focus. Athletes had set new records, even on a dirt track that doesn’t meet state standards.Miller praised the Penn Wood High School Class of ’23 on a hot June morning in Hagan Arena at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia without saying much about all the ways the Pennsylvania public schools had failed them. She told her fellow graduates and their families that they were “the flyest class ever to do it.”“We have left our mark, not only here, but in every room that we have entered,” she said.But overcoming adversity was more than just a graduation ...

Saturday Forecast: Mostly cloudy, chance of isolated storms

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:50 GMT

Saturday: Mostly cloudy & chance of iso. thunderstorms. Decreasing air quality with more Canadian wildfire smoke returning. SSW 10-20 mph. Highs mid 80s, a bit cooler by the lakeSaturday Night: Slight chance of showers/thunderstorms then clearing. WNW 5-15 mph. Lows in the upper 60s outlying areas, low 70s in the city.Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Sunday: Clouds & sun with chance of iso. PM thunderstorms. WSW 10-20 mph. High 84, cooler lakeside.Chicago Area Radar | WGN TVExtended outlook calls for a bit cooler on Monday with highs in the upper 70s with partly cloudy skies. Low 80s with a mix of clouds and sun on Tuesday. Chance of showers/t'storms returns to the forecast for Wednesday with highs in the mid to low 80s.