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Jordan’s foreign minister calls for investment into war-torn Syria to speed up refugee returns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Jordan’s foreign minister Monday called for international investment into conflict-ravaged Syria’s crippled infrastructure to speed up refugee returns.Ayman Safadi made the remarks during a visit to the capital Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his counterpart, Faisal Mekdad. Jordan, which shares a border with the war-torn country and hosts some 1.3 million Syrian refugees, played a crucial role in the once-pariah state’s return to the Arab League. It hosted regional talks in May between Syrian, Saudi, Iraqi and Egyptian officials in an initiative to reach a political solution to the years-long crisis. Syria’s uprising-turned civil war, now in its 13th year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million. Syrians in both government-held territory and an opposition-held enclave in the country’s northwest suffer from rampant poverty and crippled infrastructure....

Roger Federer will be celebrated at Wimbledon. A pregnant Serena Williams declined an invitation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Roger Federer will be back on Centre Court at Wimbledon on Tuesday. No, not to compete: He’ll be feted for his record-setting career at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.Federer, who announced his retirement last year, won eight of his 20 Grand Slam singles championships at the All England Club, the most ever by a man — a mark that Novak Djokovic will try to equal this year. Martina Navratilova set the overall standard by claiming nine women’s singles titles at Wimbledon.“Pleased to say that Roger will be with us tomorrow, and we will have a special celebratory moment on Centre Court before play starts, just to honor him as the man holding the most Gentleman’s Singles titles here at Wimbledon,” All England Club chairman Sally Bolton said Monday, the first day of action at the two-week event.“We’ll have a moment just to celebrate his achievements and to say thank you, I think, for us, certainly, for all the memories,” Bolton said....

Drag queens are out, proud and loud in a string of coal towns, from a bingo hall to blue-collar bars

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

SHAMOKIN, Pa. (AP) — Deep in Pennsylvania coal country, the Daniels drag family is up to some sort of exuberance almost every weekend. They’re hosting sold-out bingo fundraisers at the Nescopeck Township Volunteer Fire Co.’s social hall, packed with people of all ages howling with laughter and singing along. Or they’re lighting up local blue-collar bars and restaurants with Mimosas & Heels Drag Brunches for bridal parties, members of the military, families and friends.Or they’re reading in gardens to children dressed in their Sunday best — Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” is a favorite book for performers and kids alike.In a string of towns running along a coal seam, the sparkle of small-town drag queens and kings colors a way of life rooted in soot, family and a conservative understanding of the world. Here two very old traditions mingle — and mostly happily, it seems, in contrast to the fierce political winds ripping at drag performances and the bro...

Some in Scotland’s Orkney Islands want to return to Norway after 550 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Sick of being ignored by far-away politicians, officials on Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands are mulling a drastic solution: rejoining Norway, the Scandinavian country that gave them away as a royal wedding dowry more than 550 years ago.Orkney Islands Council is due to debate options for “alternative models of governance” on Tuesday, including exploring the “Nordic connections” of the archipelago, which lies about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of the Scottish mainland.Council leader James Stockan said the islands had been failed by both the Scottish government, 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the south in Edinburgh, and the U.K. government in even more distant London.“On the street in Orkney, people come up and say to me, ‘When are we going to pay back the dowry? When are we going back to Norway?’ There is a huge affinity and a huge deep cultural relationship there,” Stockan told the BBC. “This is exactly the moment to explore what is possible.”Norway kept a diplomatic ...

Swimming at Evanston beaches closed due to elevated E. coli levels

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

EVANSTON, Ill. — Swimming at all beaches in Evanston is prohibited Monday due to elevated E. coli levels.Due to excessive rain, the locks in Wilmette opened on Sunday, "causing elevated and unsafe E. coli levels," the city said.Swimming will be prohibited for at least 24 hours. Firework explodes on suburban man’s face; critical condition Evanston said additional updates will be provided Tuesday morning.

CFD firefighter hospitalized after mayday call, fire in Austin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

CHICAGO — A firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department is in the hospital after CFD responded to a fire in the Austin neighborhood Sunday.According to CFD, a mayday call was made early Sunday evening in the 1200 block of North Lavergne Avenue, where a firefighter was taken from the scene in serious condition to West Suburban Medical Center. 3 shot, 1 fatally, in West Elsdon drive-by shooting Firefighters also said flooding in the area made it difficult to respond to the fire.No other information is available at this time.

Artificial intelligence fueling a rise of sextortion cases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - Artificial intelligence is already revolutionizing society – from healthcare and education to cybersecurity and even our courts. Despite all of its benefits, it has also given criminals an edge when it comes to deceiving us. Financial sextortion is a crime in which a bad actor attempts to leverage personal material (think: naked pictures or videos) to force a victim into giving into their demands -- usually money or other compromising material. These crimes have grown in scope to regularly target minors. New advances in technology have also allowed the crimes to evolve from stealing explicit or personal media directly from victims to using their likeness to create entirely fictitious images, video or audio recordings. “Traditionally, when we saw business email compromises, someone would send you an email saying ‘please wire me money for this owed debt,’” said FBI Norfolk Assistant Special Agent In Charge Jason Bilnoski. “Combine that now with ...

These are the best US cities for starting a career right now, study finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Another graduating class has secured their degrees and are preparing to find jobs in an economy and market vastly different from pre-pandemic years.When it comes to the best American cities for young professionals to launch a career in 2023, neither San Francisco nor New York City cracked to the top five, according to a new study.A new study from Bankrate found that younger generations have different values in today's remote work-friendly environment."The coronavirus pandemic pushed flexible work to no longer be a transient response but an enduring feature of the working world," according to Alex Gailey, Bankrate analyst. "More than ever, young workers crave work-life balance, the flexibility to work remotely and higher pay – and these cities offer what young professionals are looking for." Fears of an ‘internet apocalypse’ are brewing: How likely will upcoming solar storms wreak havoc? An April survey from LinkedIn found that a whopping majority of Gen Z professionals...

'The Out-Laws' stars Adam Devine and Nina Dobrev on working with a James Bond

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

Pierce Brosnan heads the A-list cast of the new Netflix film “The Out-Laws."All the crazy flight problems last week kept him from interviews, but we caught up with two of his costars, Adam Devine and Nina Dobrev.The talked about what it was like to work with the former James Bond. And you may remember Devine from the Pitch Perfect movies and Modern Family. He said this movie is not groundbreaking and that's o-k.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too! Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

How the green plant growing on Lady Bird Lake is beneficial to its habitat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thousands of paddleboarders and kayakers are expected to float on Lady Bird Lake for the Fourth of July.If you’ve looked at the lake lately, you may have wondered what’s growing out on the water?From all sides of the surface, large green plant patches paint the waterways.According to the Austin Watershed Protection Department, these pervasive plants are Cabomba Caroliniana, also known as fanwort.Brent Bellinger is the department’s conservation program supervisor.“The growth really gets going in the summer and the plant is kind of living its best life right now in these warm waters,” he said.Bellinger said the plant lives in Austin’s waterways year-round. Yet, it grows a lot larger in the summer. What is growing in Lady Bird Lake? “This is a plant that can get 15 feet tall,” he said. “If you're in five feet of water, there's going to be a lot more biomass at the surface.”Berezi Fenix got tangled in it, while kayaking under the Barton Springs Bridge.“I’ve been seeing...