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Florida ocean temps surge to 100 degrees as mass coral bleaching event is found in some reefs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

(CNN) — An urgent rescue operation is underway to save Florida coral species from extinction as a mass bleaching event and die-off from unprecedented water temperatures spreads across the Florida Keys.Multiple reefs around the Florida Keys are now completely bleached or dead in a grim escalation that took place in as little as two weeks, coral experts told CNN.Experts now say they expect “complete mortality” of the bleached reefs in just a week, and worry reefs at greater depths could face the same fate if the unprecedented ocean warmth continues to escalate.Extreme heat and a lack of rain and wind pushed water temperatures around Florida to some of the highest levels ever observed anywhere. A buoy in the Florida Bay hit 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of 5 feet Monday, in an area where coral is scant. Many other stations in the area topped 96 degrees, including one that hit 99 degrees, according to the National Data Buoy Center.The most significant concentra...

The Crisis in Israel Is Just Getting Started

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

JERUSALEM — It’s a strange experience to observe the place you live in slide from controlled crisis into utter chaos in just under 24 hours.Crisis is a fairly common situation in Israel. There is always something going on. Hamas launches rockets; Israelis enjoy brunch. Hezbollah threatens to annihilate the country; Israelis know their air force will chortle.This may be one of the reasons Israelis developed a “there he goes again” indulgence toward Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, and an eternal bad boy of local politics. Last November, he managed to pull off reelection, barely, while on trial for corruption.Yet this time — with skunk water cannons turned on peaceful protesters, army reservists resigning and global banks and credit ratings agencies downgrading Israel — Israel’s seven-month crisis is past and chaos has taken over. It feels as if the country’s DNA has been transformed. As always, it’s been a long time coming, but the change feels b...

Grain dance: What Poland wants in return for its solidarity with Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

Warsaw’s solidarity with Kyiv knows no bounds — well almost. It just comes down to money.More than a year after the EU set up overland “solidarity lanes” to help get millions of tons of stranded agricultural products — Kyiv’s main export — out of Ukraine, Warsaw is threatening to close its own border for the second time unless Brussels extends temporary restrictions and comes up with cash to ensure that none of the stuff gets stuck in Poland.The unilateral move would violate the EU’s common trade rules but Warsaw argues it is necessary because Ukrainian products — now blocked once again by Russia from their traditional Black Sea export route — are undercutting Polish farmers.“The interests of our farmers are paramount for us,” Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus told reporters after a meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels Tuesday. “Our decisions are not against anyone; they are first and foremost for our farmers.”Followin...

Abortion rights amendment cleared for Ohio’s November ballot, promising volatile fight this fall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Presss)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters will have the opportunity this fall to decide whether to guarantee access to abortion in the state, setting up a volatile fight rife with emotional messaging and competing factual claims.State officials said Tuesday that a ballot measure to change the state constitution had enough signatures. It would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last November, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb, which is typically around the 24th week of pregnancy and was the standard under Roe v. Wade, to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, an...

Marquee Sports Network launches direct-to-consumer streaming option for Chicago Cubs fans to watch games

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

Chicago Cubs fans have another avenue to watch games.Marquee Sports Network on Tuesday announced the launch of a direct-to-consumer streaming product. A monthly subscription costs $19.99.The DTC option is available only in-market and is subject to Major League Baseball’s blackout restrictions. Current Marquee cable subscribers can access streaming without an additional cost.Live streams of games and the network’s original programming can be watched on Marquee’s new app, web browsers, mobile/tablet devices or connected TV platforms. Marquee’s app will feature 1080p resolution video and video-on-demand content. It also can support screencasting.“We’re thrilled to launch our new direct-to-consumer subscription option, providing all in-market Cubs fans with access to Marquee Sports Network, including live Cubs games,” Marquee general manager Mike McCarthy said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to bring Cubs baseball to the pas...

Yoán Moncada returns from the injured list as the Chicago White Sox host the City Series

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

Back issues have limited Yoán Moncada this season.The Chicago White Sox reinstated the third baseman from the 10-day injured list before Tuesday’s City Series game against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field.Moncada went on the IL on June 14 with lower back inflammation. He was on the IL from April 11 to May12 with lower back soreness.Moncada has a .232/.279/.370 slash line with eight doubles, three home runs, 13 RBIs and 17 runs in 38 games this season.His return could mean some time at second base for Jake Burger.“We’ll figure that out,” manager Pedro Grifol said Sunday afternoon at Target Field in Minneapolis. “They’re both going to be in the lineup somehow, someway.”In Tuesday’s corresponding move, the Sox optioned catcher Carlos Pérez to Triple-A Charlotte. ()

What’s next for the Bruins after retirement of Patrice Bergeron?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

Amid the avalanche of well-deserved testimonials for the now retired Patrice Bergeron, there was an unsettling question not too far from the surface of the day’s main news of the Bruin captain’s retirement.Where do the Bruins’ go from here?With Bergeron headed for the rafters, and David Krejci most likely not returning, the B’s will still be able to dress four centermen, with the newly acquired Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown and Jesper Boqvist competing to fill the third and fourth pivot spots behind Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle.All of them possess varying degrees of capability at the NHL level. But it’s clear that the B’s lack some oomph down the middle, which has been a team strength for close to two decades.But they do have some trade chips with which to play if that’s the course GM Don Sweeney wants to take in his reset attempts.First, there is the B’s Jennings Trophy-winning goaltending duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. Ullm...

Investigators pore over evidence from the home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer as search ends

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.At a press conference outside the Massapequa Park home where Heuermann lived with his wife and two kids, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said police had found a “tremendous amount of information” during their search.He declined to describe the bulk of the material, but said there was not a “singular piece of evidence” that jumped out to him.The search turned up at least 279 weapons kept inside a thick basement vault large enough for a person to walk into, Tierney said. Police took boxes of additional evidence from the house, which he described as a “very clutt...

Great Lakes are once again a hot destination for cruise ships

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

Tom Peterson | Stateline.org (TNS)DULUTH, Minn. — The Viking Polaris sliced through the dawn June fog, entering the harbor without fanfare. No horn blasts to this Midwestern port city’s landmark lift bridge. Onboard, all but a handful of cabins were dark as the 666-foot cruise ship ended its maiden Great Lakes voyage.Cruise ships, which once thrived on these lakes before all but disappearing in the 1970s, are making a remarkable comeback on this inland sea, wooed by competing states. Marketed as “expedition cruising,” the ships deliver tourists and their spending money to ports that for decades primarily served global markets with iron ore and wheat.“The [global] cruise industry is fairly mature,’ said Dave Gutheil, chief commercial officer of the Port of Cleveland. “There aren’t a lot of new places to go.”States and Canadian provinces worked together to change that. After drawing major industry players to the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem in recent years, states now must bal...

US to send up to $400 million in military aid to Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:57:54 GMT

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is sending up to $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, including a variety of munitions for advanced air defense systems and a number of small, surveillance Hornet drones, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, as attacks in the war escalated to include strikes in Moscow and Crimea.The package includes an array of ammunition — ranging from missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) to Stingers and Javelins. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to quickly take items from its own stocks and deliver them to Ukraine, often within days.The U.S. is also sending howitzer artillery rounds and 32 Stryker armored vehicles, along with demolition equipment, mortars, Hydra-70 rockets and 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition. The Ho...