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Severe Weather Threat Friday. Meteorology Behind the Maui Wildfires. Flooding in Norway. Potential for Late-Season Heat in Chicago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

Atmosphere is conducive for scattered severe thunderstorms Friday afternoon into Friday evening. Most of the Chicago area in a level 2 of 5 risk for severe thunderstorms—GRAPHICS BELOW SHOW: Probability of damaging thunderstorm winds (58 mph+) or wind gusts of 50 knots or higher within 25 miles of a point. And probability of a tornado within 25 miles of a point:A well-organized and long-lived complex of storms produced widespread severe wind damage across Iowa, northern Illinois, and northern Indiana during the day on Monday, August 10. Much of this severe wind was significant (75+ mph winds) resulting in many downed trees, several toppled-over semi trucks, and many communities receiving at least some minor structural damage. Within the broader area of severe winds, 15 tornadoes were confirmed across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. CONTINUE READINGAuthorities say the flooding is expected to continue until at least Friday. Major roads re likely to be closed for days. CONTINU...

Commission approves €26.7 million Spanish measure to support the upgrade of Cobre Las Cruces' refinery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

The European Commission has approved, under EU state aid rules, a €26.7 million Spanish measure to support Cobre Las Cruces S.A. (‘CLC') in upgrading its refinery in Gerena, Sevilla. The measure will contribute to the EU's strategic objectives relating to the European Green Deal and to regional development.In particular, the measure will help CLC transform its mono-metallurgical refinery, exclusively extracting and producing copper to date, into a poly-metallurgical refinery. The upgraded single integrated refinery will be capable of extracting and producing several metals, namely copper, zinc, lead and silver. The aid will take the form of two direct grants totalling €26.7 million.The Commission assessed the measure under EU State aid rules, in particular Article 107(3)(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU'), which allows aid to promote the economic development of areas where the standard of living is abnormally low or where there is serious underemploym...

Hollywood Hills mansion worth millions trashed by squatters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a mansion in Hollywood Hills West on Thursday after receiving calls of “unknown trouble” and neighbors hearing the screams of a woman coming from inside the residence, authorities announced.   While police did not say exactly what time the call came in, officers responded to 1754 Sunset Plaza Drive and found a group of squatters living in the multi-million-dollar residence, which had been abandoned and trashed.  Three people, a man and two women, who were at the mansion were removed from the residence and handcuffed by police.  “It’s an abandoned house,” an LAPD officer said. “They’re just trespassing, squatting. The screaming was somebody, I think they got bit by a dog.”  The trio was cited for trespassing and released, two of them telling KTLA it was just a misunderstanding. “I was hired to clean up, take the squatters out, get the house ready for lease or for sale,” one of the women said. &...

Gunmen ambush a bus carrying Syrian soldiers, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen ambush a bus carrying Syrian soldiers, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists say.Source

Seahawks WR Cade Johnson taken to hospital as precaution following concussion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle wide receiver Cade Johnson was taken to a hospital during halftime of the Seahawks’ preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night after suffering a concussion. Johnson was placed on a backboard as a precaution and transported to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation of head and neck injuries. Seattle coach Pete Carroll said after the game that Johnson had suffered a concussion, but early tests showed no other findings beyond that. Johnson had full movement in his extremities. It was unclear if he would be spending the night in the hospital. Johnson was attended to in the medical tent behind the bench for several minutes late in the first half by Seattle’s training staff and medical personnel. He was placed on a backboard, loaded onto a stretcher, taken across the field and up a tunnel to where ambulances are parked during games at Lumen Field. “They just went to the max precautions,” Carroll said. Carroll said Johnson was hurt following a k...

Authorities update death toll, working to identify bodies in Maui wildfires. Follow live updates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires burning across parts of Maui in Hawaii, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service says Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.Maui County confirmed Thursday night that the number of deaths has increased to 55.Authorities said in a statement released at 9:15 p.m. that the number of fatalities increased by two in the total from the Lahaina, Pulehu and Upcountry fires.The Lahaina fire was still active, the statement said.Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a news conference Thursday afternoon that authorities are still trying to locate and identify people who died in Lahaina when the fire raced through the town. “People whose homes are not damaged — you can come home as soon as we have recovered those who have perished,”...

Maui residents had little warning before flames overtook town. At least 55 people died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Maui residents who desperately escaped flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes.Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens were triggered before a devastating wildfire killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town, officials confirmed Thursday.Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain. But many of Lahaina’s survivors said in interviews at evacuation centers that they didn’t hear any sirens and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired mailman from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and cell phone service had both gone out earlier that day, leaving the town with no real-time information abou...

Arizona state fish, the Apache trout, is no longer considered endangered

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — More than 50 years since it was listed as endangered, Arizona’s state fish is looking in much better shape.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday a proposal to no longer classify the Apache trout as in need of federal protections under the Endangered Species Act.Federal officials said the species is considered restored.The Apache trout was first listed as endangered in 1967 because of degrading habitat, overexploitation, mining activity and other conflicts. There are currently 30 verified self-sustaining populations of Apache trout in the wild, according to conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. The trout has reached this huge milestone through dedicated habitat management, the introduction of captive-bred fish and other efforts, the organization said.The Endangered Species Act was established in 1973 and supporters are celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.The Associated Press

With hundreds lost in the migrant shipwreck near Greece, identifying the dead is painfully slow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Nearly two months after a dilapidated fishing trawler crammed with people heading from Libya to Italy sank in the central Mediterranean, killing hundreds, relatives are still frantically searching for their loved ones among the missing and the dead.Many questions remain about Greek authorities’ response and exactly how and why the boat, carrying an estimated 500-750 people mostly from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt, capsized and sank in the early hours of June 14 in what became one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.Only 104 people were pulled from the sea alive — all men and boys. Eighty-two bodies, only one of them a woman, were recovered. The rest, including women and children, sank in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean. With depths of around 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in that area, any recovery of the vessel or its victims are all but impossible.Identifying the dead and determining exactly who was on board is a slow, meticu...

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma briefly taken to prison then released on remission

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Former South African President Jacob Zuma was briefly taken to prison and released to correctional supervision Friday, prison officials said. Last month South Africa had deployed the army for security in four provinces amid concerns of unrest over a court decision making his 2021 medical parole invalid. Zuma was admitted to the Estcourt Correctional Centre and released in less than two hours after his remission was processed. Under the remissions process authorized by President Cyril Ramaphosa, almost 9,500 inmates will be released from prison and placed under correctional supervision, said Makhothi Thobakgale, correctional services commissioner.The decision to return Zuma to prison followed a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment that upheld a Gauteng High Court ruling that releasing him from jail on medical parole in 2021 was unlawful and unconstitutional.However, the court left to Thobakgale the decision of whether Zuma should return to jail or have his time under ...