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Israeli military says Gaza ground offensive has expanded into urban refugee camps

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate. Gaza’s main telecom provider announced another “complete interruption” of services in the besieged territory.The military’s announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel says will last for “many months” as it vows to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge.The U.S. said Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Despite U.S. calls for Israel to curb civilian casualties and international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli ...

Apple seeks a path to getting 2 of its best watches back on shelves during a bitter patent dispute

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

Apple filed an emergency motion seeking court permission to begin selling two of its most popular watches again until a final decision on its broader appeal in a bitter patent dispute is decided.The company cut off sales right before the Christmas holiday and in a motion filed Tuesday, Apple said it would suffer “irreparable harm” if previous court orders remain for the two weeks that it said the U.S. International Trade Commission will take to respond to its appeal.The disruption will likely cost Apple about $300-400 million in holiday-season sales, estimated Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. That’s a relative drop in the bucket for Apple, given that industry analysts are expecting the company to generate nearly $120 billion in sales this quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season.On Oct. 26, the ITC determined that Apple infringed on two patents owned by Masimo Corp. and Cercacor Laboratories, both U.S. companies. After a 60-day review, the ITC’s decision became ...

Driver facing motor vehicle homicide, OUI charges for wrong-way crash that killed two people in Somerset

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

Authorities say a 41-year-old man was arrested in connection with a fatal crash in Somerset that killed a grandfather and his grandson on Christmas night.The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said Adam Gauthier was being charged with multiple counts of Operating Under the Influence, Motor Vehicle Homicide-OUI Liquor, and other charges after he allegedly drove a Range Rover eastbound in the westbound lane on Route 6 Monday night.Based on a preliminary investigation, the DA’s office said that while Gauthier crossed the Veterans Memorial Bridge on the Somerset side around 11 p.m., the 41-year-old struck an Infiniti SUV head on.Inside the SUV was Floriano Arruda, 73, his wife, Donna Arruda, 68, and their 15-year-old grandson, Jacoby Arruda .According to the DA’s office, all three were rushed to local hospitals, where Jacoby was pronounced dead Monday night, while Floriano was pronounced dead Tuesday morning. As of Tuesday afternoon, officials said Donna Arruda ...

Gretchen’s table: Sichuan dry-fried green beans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

Gretchen McKay | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)I baked a lot of cookies for my newspaper’s annual holiday cookie contest and my kitchen floor isn’t the only thing that ended up a sweet and sticky mess.My palate, after baking and tasting a dozen cookies for the recipe competition, was in sugar overdrive. Even a day after the winners were announced, and all the baking supplies were back in my pantry, my taste buds were still screaming out for something — anything! — that didn’t hang its hat on butter, chocolate and brown, white or confectioner’s sugar.Which is a long way of saying: Thank goodness for Sichuan food.This easy recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Chinese Soul Food” by Hsiao-Ching Chou, was exactly what I need to get on a sugar-free track. Sichuanese in origin, it involves blistering green beans using a shallow frying method called gan bian, or “dry-frying.”Because you use less oil and a longer cooking time, the beans are slightly dehydrated, which creates a crispy an...

Science doesn’t yet support broad restrictions on teens’ access to social media, experts say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

Corinne Purtill | (TNS) Los Angeles TimesTo understand the path forward in regulating social media, it’s helpful to look to a transformative technology from the previous century: the car.A car is an essential tool for getting places we want and need to go. It’s also an exceptionally powerful one that can be dangerous if handled irresponsibly.We require education and training for people who want to drive them. We insist that companies build in safety features, which are updated over time as research and technology advance.And when young people come of age and want to get behind the wheel, “we would never dream of allowing them near a car where we didn’t have safety standards for the vehicles and where we didn’t have education for the adolescents,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, a Boston University physician and epidemiologist.“But if you think about it,” he said, “that’s exactly what we do with social media.”In a report releas...

MA firefighter unions push Boston City Council to accept $13M counter-terrorism grant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

A statewide firefighter’s union pushed Boston city councilors Tuesday to take up and accept just over $13 million in federal counter-terrorism grant dollars that have ignited debate at City Hall and even on Beacon Hill.In a letter to councilors, Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts President Richard MacKinnon Jr. and Secretary-Treasurer Billy Cabral urged local lawmakers to put aside their disagreements after the money was stalled earlier this month.“We ask that the Boston City Council put aside its internal political fights and do its job to protect the interests of the citizens and visitors of Boston and the surrounding communities,” the letter said, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald.Seven votes were needed on the council to shuttle the dollars to Boston’s Emergency Management Office to help prevent, respond to, and recover from terrorism threats, “including  chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive incidents,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a note to t...

North Dakota Republican leaders call on state rep to resign after slurs to police during DUI stop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican leaders have called on a North Dakota lawmaker to resign after he lashed out at police with homophobic and anti-migrant remarks during a traffic stop earlier this month for drunken driving.Republican House Majority Leader Mike Lefor said Tuesday he called on Republican state Rep. Nico Rios, of Williston, to resign over the weekend. His statement cited a police officer’s report of Rios being “verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory” toward him “for the entire duration of the incident following road side testing,” as well as attempting “to use his position as a lawmaker to intimidate police and avoid an arrest.”“There is no room in the legislature, or our party, for this behavior. I understand people make mistakes, but his comments and defiance to law enforcement are beyond the pale. In addition, any lawmaker attempting to use his or her elected position to threaten anyone or skirt the law is completely...

Book Review: Ralph Nader profiles corporate leaders he sees as role models in ‘The Rebellious CEO’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has built his life’s reputation on his fights with corporate America. But it turns out there are some CEOs he actually likes.At least that’s the premise of “The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right,” Nader’s look at executives who he says “stood against the gray crowd” by putting a premium on social responsibility as much as they did on profits. The dozen leaders he profiles are presented as models for businesses on how to balance both those needs.The brief biographies of the CEOs give Nader a chance to highlight what he sees as the shortcomings of today’s corporations. But, surprisingly, he commends the CEOs profiled for not forgetting the bottom line and notes that all of them insisted “nothing would be possible if they didn’t pay attention to profits.”The chapters are sprinkled with Nader’s anecdotes from his interactions with the CEOs profiled, and leans on their own writings as well. The CEOs highlighted i...

Appellate court reverses federal conviction against former Nebraska US Rep. Fortenberry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appellate court on Tuesday reversed a 2022 federal conviction against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, ruling that he should not have been tried in Los Angeles. Fortenberry was convicted in March 2022 on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. He resigned his seat days later following pressure from congressional leaders and Nebraska’s GOP governor.In its Tuesday ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote that the trial venue of Los Angeles was improper because Fortenberry made the false statements during interviews with federal agents at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in his lawyer’s office in Washington.“Fortenberry’s convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue,” the decision said.A federal jury in Los Angeles found the nine-term Republican guilty of concealing information an...

The rapper Ye, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, issues an apology in Hebrew

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:14 GMT

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, apologized to the Jewish community in an Instagram post written in Hebrew on Tuesday. “I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions,” Ye wrote.“It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused,” continued the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.The statement arrives less than two weeks after Ye went on an antisemitic rant in Las Vegas while promoting his upcoming album “Vultures,” due out Jan. 12. In the rant, he made insidious insinuations about Jewish influence and compared himself to Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler.“After causing untold damage by using his vast influence and platform to poison countless minds with vicious antisemitism and hate, an apology in Hebrew may be the first step on a long journey towards making amends to the Jewish community and all those who he ha...