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A 'warm' and windy Thursday, and a beautiful weekend in the 50s ahead. But big pattern change looms with much cooler temps in store for Thanksgiving Day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

ANOTHER WARM DAY is on the way Thursday—from all indications the WARMEST DAY of the current mild spell and quite possibly the  2nd warmest OR WARMEST day of November 2023 to date with a high reaching 68 amid powerful SSW winds ahead of an incoming cold front---winds which are to gust to 35 mph at times.Clouds will be increasing Thursday—but rains with the incoming front are to hold off until after dark.  Those showers may linger into early Friday—but gusty NW winds are to clear skies with high temps Friday likely to come in nearly 20-deg lower than Thursday's upper 60s.-MORE EVENTFUL CHANGES ARE DUE NEXT WEEK—THAT'S THANKSGIVING WEEK.First, a wet, windy autumn storm is to sweep into Chicago with a chilly rain developing Monday night and continuing into Tuesday.  Colder air sweeping into the back side of the storm could take the rain to some mixed snow in parts of the area—Tuesday—particularly later in the day and west and northwest of the city.CHILLIER AIR takes up residen...

EU is providing additional €110 million in humanitarian aid to support Ukrainians affected by the war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

As Russia's war against Ukraine continues, the humanitarian situation in the country remains dire. The onset of winter poses further challenges to the already vulnerable communities impacted by the war.The Commission is therefore allocating €110 million in humanitarian aid of which €100m will go to operations in Ukraine and €10m to support Ukrainian refugees and host communities in Moldova. This new funding will help the EU's humanitarian partners to provide essential services like cash assistance, food, water, shelter, healthcare, psychosocial support and protection.The latest allocation brings the total for EU humanitarian aid in response to Russia's war in Ukraine to €843m.In light of last year's deliberate attacks by Russia on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the EU is also prioritising emergency energy support by deploying a further 84 power generators from its rescEU strategic reserves. Overall, more than 5,000 power generators have been sent to Ukraine via the EU Civil Protec...

Adem Bona’s double-double helps UCLA defeat Long Island 78-58

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adem Bona scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead UCLA to a 78-58 win over Long Island on Wednesday night.Aday Mara added 14 points and Jan Vide had 12. The trio of high scorers combined to shoot 20 28 as the Bruins (3-0) made 57% (30 of 53) of their shots despite missing all five of their 3-pointers. Bona also had three steals and three blocks. Mara had four blocks and Vide had seven assists.UCLA stretched an 18-point halftime lead to 30 before the midway point of the second half. Terell Strickland made three 3s and had 15 points and Eric Acker was 5-of-7 shooting for 14 points for the Sharks (0-3) in the second half.Strickland and Acker finished with 18 points apiece for Long Island, which shot 35% and was outrebounded 41-20.UCLA closed the first half on a 13-3 run to lead 35-17 at the break. Bona had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. The Sharks shot just 22%, making 1 of 10 3-pointers.The two previous meetings between the two schools, which they split, wer...

Hughes scores in OT to give Canucks 4-3 win over Islanders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Quinn Hughes scored at 2:36 of overtime as the Vancouver Canucks overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the New York Islanders 4-3 on Wednesday night.J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser eaxh had a goal and two assists, and Filip Hronek also scored for Vancouver, winners of 10 of 12 (10-1-1). Hughes also had two assists and Thatcher Demko stopped 30 shots.“We believe in ourselves, we think we have a really good team and I think there was a feeling we were going to win that game the entire game,” Hughes said. “Those are the points that are going to matter in March and April.”Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall scored for New York, and Mathew Barzal had two assists. Ilya Sorokin finished with 39 saves as the Islanders squandered a two-goal lead and lost their sixth straight (0-4-2).Trailing 3-1, the Canucks pulled within one with 8:57 left in the second as Boeser got a pass from Miller in the slot to cut the Islanders lead back down to one.Vancouver tied...

Mitchell has 34 points and Cavaliers end road trip with 109-95 win over Portland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 34 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers handed the Portland Trail Blazers their fifth straight loss with a 109-95 victory on Wednesday night. Evan Mobley added 21 points and 12 rebounds, and the Cavaliers finished 2-2 on their nine-day western road trip. “I feel we definitely made a step forward tonight, we played pretty consistent throughout the entire game,” Mobley said. “We’ve just got to keep carrying that into each game, over and over again.”Jerami Grant led shorthanded Portland on the second night of a back-to-back with 17 points and Duop Reath, a center on a two-way contract, came off the bench to score 16 points. Cleveland (5-6) led 83-75 to start the fourth quarter and pushed the lead to 99-81 on Mitchell’s pullup 3-pointer. The Cavaliers led by as many as 18 points in the period. Both teams were struggling with injuries. The Cavaliers were without guard Darius Garland, who strained his neck in the second half of Monda...

Kane completes 7th career hat trick in OT to lift Oilers past Kraken 4-3

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Evander Kane scored the tying goals in the third period and then completed his seventh career hat trick 2:57 into overtime, rallying the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.Connor McDavid also scored, Evan Bouchard had three assists and Leon Draisaitl had two as the Oilers came back from two goals down to win their third straight. Stuart Skinner had 33 saves.“I think we’re starting to find our groove a little bit here,” Kane said.Jared McCann, Alex Wennberg and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare all scored in the second period to give Seattle a 3-1 lead. Joey Daccord finished with 28 saves as the Kraken lost for the fifth time in six games (1-3-2).“I feel like we had our opportunities to score a couple of more goals.” Wennberg said. “In general, I think we had a pretty good game. It’s a tough way to end it. Things happen out there, but we can’t lose this game. This is one of those games we have to fight through and find a way to win...

Australia advances a law to handle migrant convicts who can’t be held indefinitely or deported

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Migrants with criminal records in Australia will face up to five years in prison for breaching their visa conditions under emergency legislation introduced Thursday in response to a High Court ruling that foreigners can’t be detained indefinitely as an alternative to deportation.The government said it has released 84 foreigners — most of whom have convictions for crimes including murder and rape — since the court ruled last week that indefinite detention of migrants is unconstitutional.The decision reversed a High Court ruling from 2004 that had allowed stateless people to be held in migrant centers for any length of time in cases where there were no prospects of deporting them from Australia.The decision also undercuts Australia’s harsh policies toward asylum-seekers who arrive by boat and criminals who are deported despite long years living in Australia. People smuggling boat arrivals have virtually ended in the decade since Australia banished thei...

Progress in childhood cancer has stalled for Blacks and Hispanics, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

Advances in childhood cancer are a success story in modern medicine. But in the past decade, those strides have stalled for Black and Hispanic youth, opening a gap in death rates, according to a new report published Thursday.Childhood cancers are rare and treatments have improved drastically in recent decades, saving lives.Death rates were about the same for Black, Hispanic and white children in 2001, and all went lower during the next decade. But over the next 10 years, only the rate for white children dipped a little lower.“You can have the most sophisticated scientific advances, but if we can’t deliver them into every community in the same way, then we have not met our goal as a nation,” said Dr. Sharon Castellino, a pediatric cancer specialist at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, who had no role in the new report.She said the complexity of new cancers treatments such as gene therapy, which can cure some children with leukemia, can burden families and be an ...

David Cameron hails old foe Boris Johnson during first visit to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

LONDON — U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron made his first official visit to Ukraine on Thursday — and heaped praise on Boris Johnson’s support for the war-torn country.Cameron, who served as Britain’s prime minister between 2010 and 2016, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the U.K. will continue to provide “moral support, the diplomatic support, the economic support, but above all the military support,” to Ukraine. And he paid rare tribute to his old foe Boris Johnson, with whom Zelenskyy struck up a close friendship during the early months of the war. Cameron and Johnson were schoolfriends but fell out dramatically over the 2016 Brexit referendum, which ended Cameron’s six-year premiership .Cameron told Zelenskyy: “I had some disagreements with Boris Johnson, he was my friend for forty years, but his support for you was the finest thing that he introduced.”Cameron’s trip to Kyiv is his first overseas excursion since being appointed U.K. foreign...

Meet David Cameron’s Indo-Pacific fixer: An ex-MEP known for championing Beijing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

LONDON — As Westminster debated the wisdom — or otherwise — of David Cameron’s return to frontline politics this week, one former colleague was in no doubt.“Cameron is in the right place at the right time,” wrote former Tory MEP Nirj Deva of the new U.K. foreign secretary. “There are very few if any international leaders who could lead on so many fronts with knowledge, deep relationships and meticulous attention to detail.”Deva’s glowing appraisal was hardly surprising. The pair are friendly — and picture after picture shows him and Cameron together at events around the world.But Cameron’s association with the ex-MEP raises further questions about his own past involvement with Chinese investment projects which could cause a conflict with Britain’s core strategic interests.During a 20-year career in Brussels, Deva was well known for building links with China, even founding an EU-China friendship group that was later wound up after conce...