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Florida Gov. DeSantis recommends against latest COVID booster in ongoing disagreement with FDA, CDC

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will recommend most citizens don’t take the latest COVID-19 booster shot, saying Wednesday there is not enough data to show the potential benefits of the vaccine outweigh potential risks.Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, and Florida Surgeon Joseph Ladapo discussed the vaccine with doctors on a Zoom call livestreamed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It repeated much of what they said a week ago during a live event in Jacksonville, in which they warned against the vaccine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved this week.“This has obviously been a flashpoint in our society,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “In Florida, we’ve obviously taken a different approach.”The discussion began with the words “NO WAY FDA” on the screen before DeSantis introduced the doctors.“We continue to live in world where the CDC and the FDA, when it comes to COVID at least, are j...

Fort Lauderdale girl rings bell to celebrate beating cancer during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

In a celebration during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, 13-year-old Melynanie rang the bell signifying the end of her cancer treatment, surrounded by the pediatric oncology team at Broward Health Medical Center.The Fort Lauderdale girl’s journey was marked by a diagnosis of high-risk leukemia, which, during her battle, led to the development of diabetes, Broward Health Medical Center said in a news release. Melynanie fought through a challenging course of treatment, including high doses of chemotherapy.Throughout her ordeal, she received multiple blood transfusions to mitigate the risk of stroke. On Wednesday, her medical team, devoted caregivers, and family, including her mother and sister, celebrated the the fact that she is officially leukemia-free.The eighth grader is now thriving and enjoys being social and going to school.

Fire breaks out at emergency shelter in Sutton housing displaced, migrant families

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

A fire broke out late Wednesday morning at an emergency shelter site in Sutton serving displaced and migrant families, prompting first responders to evaluate several people for smoke inhalation injuries, including members of the Massachusetts National Guard.Local officials, including the fire chief and two state lawmakers, raised concerns last week and at the end of August about the safety of families staying at the hotel. Healey administration officials have said the severity of an emergency shelter crisis and state law requires them to quickly procure temporary housing for local homeless and migrant families.The Sutton Fire Department received a call just before noon for a fire at the Red Roof Inn, which began “in the area of a stove in a hotel staff area,” according to the state Department of Fire Services.State Sen. Ryan Fattman and other town officials were on their way to the hotel to greet National Guard troops who were arriving for their deployment as part of an up to six mo...

North Korea’s Kim vows full support for Moscow at a summit with Putin in Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and DASHA LITVINOVA (Associated Press)SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un vowed “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as the two leaders isolated by the West held a summit that the U.S. warned could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.The meeting, which lasted over four hours at Russia’s spaceport in the Far East, underscores how the two countries’ interests are aligning: Putin is believed to be seeking one of the few things impoverished North Korea has in abundance -– stockpiles of aging ammunition and rockets for Soviet-era weapons.Such a request would mark a role reversal from the 1950-53 Korean War, when Moscow gave weapons to support Pyongyang’s invasion of South Korea — and in the decades that followed, when the Soviet Union sponsored North Korea.The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most ...

Powerful explosion kills 5 Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says the blast was caused by mishandled bomb

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least five Palestinians were killed and over 20 others were wounded Wednesday in an explosion next to the separation fence along the Israeli frontier with Gaza, Palestinian health officials said.The cause of the blast was not immediately known.The explosion took place during a demonstration along the border marking the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. The event on Gaza’s eastern border was organized by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has governed the coastal territory since 2007.The Israeli army, which has fought four wars with Hamas, denied involvement. It said demonstrators were trying to throw a bomb over the fence when the device detonated prematurely. It released aerial footage showing a blast along the fence. Debris flew into the air, and several people could be seen running away.Protesters brandishing flags had been burning tires along the separation fence to celebrate the anniversary of Israel&...

US ambassador visits American imprisoned for espionage

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Russia met Wednesday with imprisoned American Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that both Washington and Whelan dispute.Ambassador Lynne Tracy traveled to the prison colony about 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Moscow where Whelan is held, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.“We believe Paul continues to show tremendous courage in the face of his wrongful detention. Ambassador Tracy reiterated to him that President Biden and Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken are committed to bringing him home,” he said. “Secretary Blinken had a call with Paul Whelan around a month ago, a little under a month ago, and delivered that same message to him: that we are working very hard to bring him home and we will continue to do so.”The 53-year-old Whelan, a corporate security director and former Marine, was detained in Moscow in 2018 and convicted in 2020. The Biden administration had hoped to ...

Argentina shuts down a publisher that sold books praising the Nazis. One person has been arrested

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s Federal Police shut down a publisher that sold books that praised Nazi ideology, seized hundreds of texts and arrested one person as part of what authorities characterized as a “historic seizure” of Nazi propaganda, officials said Wednesday.Law enforcement officers seized around 230 books during Tuesday’s raids in the town of San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires, in which officials said they seized the largest number of texts praising Nazi ideology in recent years.“We’re still astonished by the amount of material from what is truly a printing press for the dissemination and sale of Nazi symbolism, books and indoctrination,” Police Commissioner General Carlos Alejandro Ñamandú said. He went on to characterize it as a “historic seizure” of Nazi documents in Argentina.Ñamandú described the books as “high quality,” although videos of the raids released by authorities suggested a homegrown operation rather than a large printing press. Authori...

After catching escaped murderer, officers took a photo with him. Experts say that was inappropriate

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group photo of about two dozen law officers in tactical gear posing with escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante minutes after his capture Wednesday in southeastern Pennsylvania drew criticism from policing reform advocates and some members of the public. The moment of the photo was captured by a KYW-TV television news helicopter. It showed the officers and federal agents gathered in a half circle around the handcuffed escapee for a photo before loading him into an armored vehicle. Policing experts said the celebratory moment after the grueling 14-day search for the armed suspect was inappropriate and dehumanizing. But at least one leader of the operation said he wasn’t bothered by it.When asked about the criticism at a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens focused on the officer’s hard work under trying circumstances.“They’re proud of their work,” Bivens said. “I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a ph...

Ox-pulled floats with sacred images of Mary draw thousands to Portugal’s wine-country procession

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

LAMEGO, Portugal (AP) — Galego and Cabano, two dark-haired oxen, pulled the sacred image of Our Lady of Remedies on a procession float for more than two hours through this small town in Portugal’s wine country.They remained unperturbed even when two cannons fired salutes at the procession’s end, but their owner, a local farmer, beamed with pride.“I love to work with animals, and I have a lot of faith in Nossa Senhora dos Remédios,” said Antonio Faustino, who guided the massive animals in the celebration of this particular image of the Virgin Mary, venerated here since the 1500s. “There is no word to explain the emotion.”Lamego’s festival, nicknamed “Portugal’s pilgrimage,” is one of the oldest and largest of the many religious feasts that throughout summer draw tens of thousands of people to hamlets and metropolises. They remain popular in this rapidly secularizing country, where the Catholic Church has been reckoning this year with a long-ignored clergy sexual abuse scandal that Po...

Pro-Bolsonaro rioters on trial for storming Brazil’s top government offices

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court justices on Wednesday began deciding whether to convict defendants accused of storming top government offices on Jan. 8 in an alleged bid to forcefully restore former President Jair Bolsonaro to office.Bolsonaro supporter Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, was first in line. In January, cameras at the Senate filmed him wearing a shirt calling for a military coup and recording a video of himself praising others who had also broken into the building. Almost 1,500 people were detained on the day of the riots, though most have been released.Pereira denied any wrongdoing and claimed he took part in a peaceful demonstration of unarmed people.Three other defendants also were standing trial Wednesday as part of the same case, but a final decision for each defendant could drag into coming days.The rioters refused to accept the right-wing leader’s defeat to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose inauguration took place one week before the uprising. ...