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Biden administration formally designates military takeover in Niger as a coup

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

(CNN) — The Biden administration on Tuesday formally declared that the military takeover in Niger was a coup – a determination that will keep a significant amount of US military and foreign assistance to the West African nation on hold.The decision was made because “we’ve exhausted all available avenues to preserve constitutional order in Niger,” a senior administration official said Tuesday.Niger – once a key partner to the US – saw a breakdown of democratic order in late July when military putschists seized power and placed President Mohamed Bazoum under house arrest.In the months since, US and international partners have urged the military junta, which calls itself the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland (CNSP), to restore democratic leadership, but those efforts have been rebuffed.CNN first reported last week that the formal coup determination was expected.As a result of Tuesday’s decision, the foreign assistance programs to the Nigerien government that were...

GM settles strike at Canadian plants

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

New York (CNN) — A strike at General Motors’ Canadian plants is over less than a day after it started, according Unifor, the union that represents more than 4,000 autoworkers at the company.The strike had begun 11:59 pm Monday when Unifor said GM had refused to agree to a deal similar to the one the union previously reached with Ford. That kind of deal is known as a pattern agreement.The union said the company quickly gave in to union demands once the strike started.“When faced with the shutdown of these key facilities General Motors had no choice but to get serious at the table and agree to the pattern,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “The solidarity of our members has led to a comprehensive tentative agreement that follows the pattern set at Ford to the letter.”The union said strike actions are on hold to allow the membership to vote on the tentative agreement. The strike could resume if the rank-and-file members fail to ratify the deal.But it’s uncertain whe...

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Foods to help maximize your memory

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

(TNS) Mayo Clinic News NetworkDEAR MAYO CLINIC: I enjoy cooking, but I prefer to work with the freshest ingredients. As such, I grow my own fruits and vegetables in a small garden and purchase other fresh produce from a local farmers market. I’ve read that certain foods may help with memory function. Are there foods I can eat to help boost my cognitive health?ANSWER: Research suggests that the ability to maximize memory function may be related to what you eat. Following an eating plan that provides a healthier selection of dietary fats and a variety of plant foods rich in phytonutrients could positively affect your health. Phytonutrients are substances found in certain plants that are believed to be beneficial for human health and help prevent certain diseases.There’s still much to learn about what makes up a brain-healthy diet. Studies are finding that what is good for your heart also may be good for your brain. So the best bet for rich memories is to forgo unhealthy fa...

Dorothy Hoffner, 104, dies one week after setting skydiving record: ‘She was just indefatigable’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

By Jake Sheridan, Chicago TribuneIn the days before Dorothy Hoffner was scheduled to break the world record to become the oldest skydiver ever, she dreamed she was in free fall. The sensation woke her up, she said.A week after setting the record, the 104-year-old has finally landed. She died peacefully in her sleep Monday, her close friend Joe Conant told the Tribune.The death of the dear friend he called “grandma” came unexpectedly, he said.“She was just indefatigable. She just kept going,” Conant said.He remembered Hoffner, a lifelong Chicagoan, for her lively spark and eagerness to talk with other people. She was witty and with it in her old age, he said.And, indeed, the world met her indomitable spirit last week. News of her record skydive spread alongside pictures and video of her jump. She smiled as she fell, goggles protecting her determined eyes.Dorothy Hoffner, 104, gets up after her jump on Oct. 1, 2023. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)When Hoffner landed from the 13,500-f...

More schools stock overdose reversal meds, but others worry about stigma

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

Rae Ellen Bichell, Virginia Garcia Pivik | (TNS) KFF Health NewsLast year, a student fell unconscious after walking out of a bathroom at Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado. When Jessica Foster, the school district’s lead nurse, heard the girl’s distraught friends mention drugs, she knew she had to act fast.Emergency responders were just four minutes away. “But still four minutes — if they are completely not breathing, it’s four minutes too long,” Foster said.Foster said she got a dose of naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, and gave it to the student. The girl revived.Forty-five miles away in Colorado Springs, Mitchell High School officials didn’t have naloxone on hand when a 15-year-old student overdosed in class in December 2021 after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill in a school bathroom. That student died.Colorado Springs’ school district has since joined Pueblo and dozens of other districts in the state in supplying middle and high schools with ...

Gretchen’s table: Curtis Gamble’s Carrot Bolognese recipe

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

Gretchen McKay | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)PITTSBURGH — It’s every chef’s dream to create a dish so beloved and satisfying that customers would complain — pretty loudly — if it ever came off the menu.For Curtis Gamble of Station in Bloomfield, that star dish is the vegetal Carrot Bolognese he created before the pandemic began.“We were making some very strong vegetable purees in the pressure cooker to fold into some spring risottos,” he recalls, “and were playing around with soy bean and miso paste instead of tomato.”Bolgnese is a rich, slowly cooked Italian ragu traditionally made with beef, tomato paste, white wine and whole milk. This was something unique.When Gamble paired his soy bean and miso paste with a really strong carrot puree, “it was very visual,” he says.The addition of soy bean paste gave the puree a deep richness and to his surprise, a caramelized meat flavor.“So we reworked the recipe to come up with this carrot riff on Bo...

Gazans scramble for safety as Israeli airstrikes pound sealed-off territory to punish Hamas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and ISSAM ADWAN (Associated Press)JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighborhood by neighborhood on Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory now suffering severe retaliation for the deadly weekend attack by Hamas militants. Humanitarian organizations pleaded for the creation of corridors to get aid into Gaza, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing.The war, which has already claimed at least 1,800 lives on both sides, is only expected to escalate. The weekend attack that Hamas said was retribution for worsening Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation has fired Israel’s determination to crush the group’s hold in Gaza — hiking risks...

Local couple catches one of last flights out of Tel Aviv

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Saturday morning in Tel Aviv was gorgeous. “We are looking at the beach, the beach is beautiful. People are still running, riding bikes, first thing in the morning, seven in the morning as we're having breakfast," Alan Shafran said to FOX 5 on Monday.Alan and Natalie Shafran of Carlsbad were two days into their nine-day vacation in Israel, staying at a beachfront hotel when they got a call from a family member who lives there alerting them to what was to come and advising them to get to the airport -- fast.“We start hearing the missiles, the bombs. We start hearing what we think was the iron dome," Alan said to FOX 5. "As we're packing, we're hearing the loud speakers, as Israel's set up with security, telling everybody this is serious, get off the beaches immediately, take your kids, everyone get inside." What is Israel’s Iron Dome and how does it work? They believe that was the first barrage of missiles shot by Hamas terrorists out of Gaza, which is about 40 mi...

Prince Harry and Meghan to talk about youth mental health during New York City event

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are hosting a conference Tuesday in New York City on how the internet and social media affect youth mental health. The two will discuss the topic at a panel alongside Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and moderated by NBC host Carson Daly, who has talked about his struggles with anxiety in the past. The event — held on World Mental Health Day — is being coordinated by Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation and is part of a second annual mental health awareness festival hosted by a nonprofit called Project Healthy Minds.In the United Kingdom on Tuesday, Harry’s brother, Prince William and his wife Kate also participated in a separate forum to draw awareness to young people’s challenges with mental health. During their last public appearance in New York City, Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, set off alarms when they claimed they had been dangerously pursued by paparazzi in a “near catastrophic car chase” in Manhattan. T...

North Carolina Republicans enact voting, election boards changes over Democratic governor’s vetoes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:02:43 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republicans enacted vote-count restrictions and weakened the governor’s ability to oversee elections and other state regulatory bodies on Tuesday by overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. Lawsuits attempting to block the new laws are likely as the 2024 elections approach.In a series of votes, the narrow GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate overturned five Cooper vetoes, two of which address elections and voting in the ninth-largest state — a likely presidential battleground where statewide races usually are very close. One law would eliminate the governor’s power to appoint the State Board of Elections and give it to legislative leaders, while the other would end a three-day grace period to receive and count absentee ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. These laws — years in the making after previous Cooper’s vetoes or lawsuits blocked legislation with similar provisions — advanced this ye...