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Global Empowerment Mission volunteers pack supplies for tornado-impacted victims in Mississippi

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Volunteers with a South Florida nonprofit are lending a helping hand to residents impacted by deadly tornadoes and strong storms that have swept across the South.7News cameras captured volunteers packing and taping up boxes at Global Empowerment Mission’s warehouse in Doral, Sunday.The boxes are filled with supplies and hygiene kits aiming to help the people of Mississipp, many of whom now find themselves without a home after a deadly tornado tore through Mississippi.“With one truck we can help up to 1,500 families,” said Emily Fullmer with GEM.GEM is sending the much-needed supplies, which include canned food and water.Some members of the nonprofit’s team are already on the ground in the Southeast, where they have been helping since Saturday night.“We’re finding here that cash is king. It gives them a little bit of dignity to purchase the things that they need immediately,” said Kimberly Bentley, director of field operations for GEM.Bentley spoke with 7News from Rolling...

New EU telecom rules will leave everyone worse off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Carl Gahnberg is the Director of Policy Development & Research at the Internet Society.The European Commission has launched a public consultation on new telecom rules that threaten to inflict serious damage on the technology we use to communicate, conduct business and engage with the wider world every day — the Internet.The announcement of “The future of the electronic communications sector and its infrastructure” was the expected next step in a debate on regulations, which would require online services to contribute to telecom operators’ investments in new infrastructure across the Continent. It’s a response to calls from large telecom operators that content providers — such as Meta, Netflix and Alphabet — make a “fair contribution” to infrastructure investments like 5G.The logic goes that since a large portion of traffic on the networks is “generated” by these big providers, they should also have to contribute to the infrastructure — however, this premise is fundamentally flaw...

Israel’s leaders must find compromise on legislation that is tearing country apart, White House says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

The White House on Sunday urged “Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible,” as widespread unrest broke out in Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister for objecting to judicial reforms that Netanyahu is seeking to enact.“We are deeply concerned by today’s developments out of Israel, which further underscore the urgent need for compromise,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “As the President recently discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu, democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of the U.S.-Israel relationship.”The turmoil started when Netanyahu, newly returned to office as the head of an unusually right-wing-powered coalition, announced a plan to overhaul the judiciary. Netanyahu’s package of judicial changes would essentially strip Israel’s top court of its independence and defang the nation’s courts by making it possible for the government to pass legislation that ca...

German Christian Democrats rewrite Merkel’s China playbook

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

BERLIN — Germany’s Christian Democrats, the country’s largest opposition group, are planning to shift away from the pragmatic stance toward China that characterized Angela Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor, claiming that maintaining peace through trade has failed.It’s a remarkable course change for the conservative party that pursued a strategy of rapprochement and economic interdependence toward China and Russia during Merkel’s decade and a half in power. The volte-face has been spurred by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance — both economically and politically — in the Asian region and beyond. According to a draft position paper seen by POLITICO, the conservatives say the idea of keeping peace through economic cooperation “has failed with regard to Russia, but increasingly also China.” The 22-page paper, which is to be adopted by the center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU)...

Excel Academy mourning 10th grader killed in skiing accident

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Excel Academy Charter school is mourning the loss of a 10th grader who died in a skiing accident over the weekend.In a statement, the school said Christopher DiPrima, 15, “was a kind and caring person who brought joy to everyone he met. He will be truly missed.”In light of this news, XLHS 10th grade will start at 10:30 a.m. and 9th, 11th, and 12th grades will start at 11 a.m. Counselors will be available for students who need them at all Excel campuses.

N.S. RCMP cancel alert for armed woman, now seek her as a person of interest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

INDIAN BROOK, N.S. — Mounties in Sipekne’katik First Nation in central Nova Scotia are seeking a woman who is a person of interest in a firearms complaint, and who they had earlier warned may be “on foot” with a handgun in the community.RCMP in the Mi’kmaq community had issued a public alert for the 27-year-old just after 7 p.m. local time Sunday, but cancelled that alert just before 10 p.m.Investigators say the incident started inside a house on Dowie Road earlier Sunday evening in the First Nation, which is located about 66 kilometres north of Halifax.In an update later Sunday evening, investigators say they have searched the residence and did not find evidence of a gun being present or discharged, and that no one was injured in the home.Police say in their update they’re still seeking 27-year-old Shannon Yvonne Hudson as a person of interest in the gun complaint, describing her as five feet, three inches tall and 119 pounds with shoulder length light brown...

Walk-off homer lifts Texas baseball to sweep of No. 14 Texas Tech, 14th straight win

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The unranked Texas Longhorns baseball team undoubtedly raised a few eyebrows around the country following a 9-8 walk-off win Sunday to complete a sweep of No. 14 Texas Tech at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.In back-to-back games, the Longhorns scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Red Raiders, and Sunday's was a bit more conventional and exciting than the walk-off wild pitch Saturday. It was Texas' 14th consecutive win.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersGarret Guillemette launched a 407-foot home run over the wall in left field to send the burnt orange fans home happy and the Longhorns to a 3-0 start in Big 12 Conference play. He grounded into two double plays in his previous at-bats, but baseball is a quirky game and Longhorns head coach David Pierce had faith in his catcher to get it done."It was just a great swing by Garret to finish it," Pierce sa...

Central Texas drought almost 16 months old

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Central Texas and the KXAN viewing area has been in drought since November 30, 2021. Our drought has fluctuated, improved and worsened during that time. Our last drought-free outlook in the 15-county KXAN viewing area came Thanksgiving week when the Texas drought map looked like this (see below). Texas Drought Nov 23, 2021A week later northern Lampasas County entered "moderate drought" and we haven't been drought-free since.By early April 2022 the drought had worsened considerably with most of the Hill Country in Severe or Extreme drought and parts of Lampasas County in Exceptional drought.Drought ~1 Year agoThat spring into summer would go on to see Extreme and Exceptional drought take over much of the state and almost all of Central Texas.This is how the drought looked across Texas by early August of last year.Texas Drought August 9, 2022Significant late summer and early fall rains took a bite out of the drought. Much of Central Texas was taken out of Extreme or Ex...

March Madness: Final Four set with Miami, SDSU, FAU, Uconn

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

By The Associated PressMarch Madness has rounded toward the Final Four, and No. 1 seeds are nowhere to be found. Instead, the Final Four will have no team seeded better than No. 4 for the first time since seeding began in 1979.Florida Atlantic became the lowest-ever seed to make the Final Four after beating Kansas State. Miami and San Diego State are in the Final Four for the first time. And UConn’s back for the first time in nine years. There’ve been millions of busted brackets and only three games remain. Here is what to know:GAMES TO WATCHNo. 5 San Diego State (31-6) vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic (35-3), Saturday, 6:09 p.m. EDT (CBS)The Florida Atlantic Owls — Who? — extended their second appearance in the tournament with a 79-76 victory over Kansas State. The Conference USA champs are the winningest team in Division I and will face San Diego State in the national semifinals. The Aztecs beat Creighton when Darrion Trammell hit the second of two free throws wi...

First responders drill for rail emergency in Los Angeles County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

First responders from across Los Angeles County, along with several railroad companies, participated in a drill on Sunday that simulated a railroad emergency.  Crews from L.A. County Fire and L.A. City Fire, along with Compton and Downey fire departments, gathered in the Alameda Corridor for the first response emergency drill.  “Anything that can happen on these lines can happen here in Los Angeles,” L.A. County Fire Public Information Officer Henry Narvaez said. “What if there’s a fire in one of these trains, what if there was a rescue situation? How would we get to it, how would we tend to it? We need to train for it. We need to be ready for it.”  KTLA 5 Photojournalist Phil Ige reports.