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UK local elections: Conservatives battered as Labour surges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative Party endured a drubbing from voters Friday in local elections that delivered a warning to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s government, and a boost to the opposition, as a national election approaches. The left-of-center main opposition Labour Party made gains that raised its hopes of winning a nationwide parliamentary vote that is due by the end of 2024. Labour leader Keir Starmer said “we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election.”The Conservatives acknowledged it had been “disappointing” election for the party.With almost all the results from Thursday’s voting in, the Conservatives had lost more than 1,000 seats in elections for more than 8,000 seats on 230 local councils across England. Before the vote, the party had used the 1,000 figure as a reasonable worst-case scenario.The right-of-center party lost control of more than 40 councils, including Medway in southeast England, which it had run for a quarter-cent...

Nadie pidió ver el dedo del pie de Chris Pratt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

(CNN) — Chris Pratt ha perturbado a algunas personas en redes sociales al mostrar uno de los dedos de su pie.La estrella de “Guardianes de la Galaxia Vol. 3” publicó recientemente en Instagram la foto de su dedo pequeño, junto con el mensaje: “Look Met Gala”.El primer plano de la uña de su pie, que parece un poco debilitada, llevó que su propia esposa Katherine Schwarzenegger comentara: “LITERALMENTE llamé al 911 @footnanny y silencié temporalmente esta cuenta por mi bienestar”.La suegra de Pratt, Maria Shriver, escribió: “¿Qué es esto?”.El director James Gunn comentó: “Lil Nas X lo vistió mejor”.Una persona incluso le ofreció un consejo: “No es demasiado tarde para borrar esto”.“La uña del pie de Chris Pratt no era lo que esperaba ver al abrir Instagram, pero es seguro que no podré sacarme la imagen de la cabeza”, escribió otra persona.Jugando con su papel en “Guardianes”, un comen...

Auburn lands ex-Michigan State QB Payton Thorne

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Former Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne is headed to Auburn.Auburn announced the signing of the two-year starter on Friday, giving new coach Hugh Freeze an experienced quarterback to boost a passing game that ranked among the nation’s worst last season.Thorne went 16-10 as a starter for the Spartans. He has thrown for 6,494 yards with 49 touchdowns against 24 interceptions.Spartans coach Mel Tucker had said this spring that the two-time team captain was part of an open competition to take the first snap next season.Thorne ranks fourth in career touchdown passes at Michigan State, fifth in completion percentage (61) and sixth in passing yards.He started all 12 games last season, passing for 2,679 yards with 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. The fifth-year senior, who has two years of eligibility remaining, led Michigan State to a Peach Bowl victory.Auburn returns Robby Ashford, who started much of last season after transferring from Oregon, and red...

US fullback Joe Scally growing up fast in German league

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Joe Scally arrived in Germany just after his 18th birthday in the depths of a pandemic lockdown and soon became a regular starter in the German soccer league. The next step is to become a regular with the U.S. national team. After breaking into the team at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Scally was included in the U.S. squad for the World Cup in Qatar last year but did not play a single minute. He’s already looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the U.S., when Scally is determined to have a much bigger role.“Not being able to play one minute (in Qatar) definitely affected me immensely just because, playing every single game in the Bundesliga then to not even get a minute, I don’t understand that,” the 20-year-old Scally said in a recent call with reporters. “I definitely have that next World Cup, you know, circled on my calendar to be playing. When you see the guys out there walking out on the national anthem, it is, I’m sure, no be...

How many COVID cases are in Colorado now that the public health emergency is ending?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- The nation's declaration of a public health emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic will end on May 11, and Colorado's with it. The public health emergency has been in place since January 31, 2020, having been renewed 13 times since then. Aspiring Colorado model falls to her death from hotel roof, boyfriend arrested As the declaration ends, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue tracking case, death, hospitalization rates and additional surveillance data on a new website, which will be updated with less frequency. In Colorado, the COVID-19 virus is still present but at its lowest-ever levels. As of May 2, 2023, there were an average of 153 cases per day throughout the state. This matches the lowest levels of Colorado COVID contagion in the summer of 2020 following the first period of economic and personal movement restrictions. It is worth noting that in that first summer after the pandemic started testing was still limited in Colorado and...

Student arrested for creating school shooting threat that went viral on social media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

A South Florida teenager has been arrested after, police said, they were responsible for creating and sharing a school shooting threat on social media which ended up going viral. According to Coral Springs Police, 18-year-old Catrina Petit made the threats and spread them around pretending to be another student in an effort to get that student in trouble. https://twitter.com/CoralSpringsPD/status/1654583129212952579The threat was shared among students and parents in Miami-Dade, and Broward County. Detectives said Petit, a senior at JP Taravella High School, confessed to creating the threat. She is now facing multiple felony charges. The shooting threat was first discovered Thursday afternoon, prompting local police departments to issue statements regarding the matter. Authorities determined that the threat was not credible, but they were anxious to get to the bottom of it, which resulted in the student’s arrest. According to a post on the Pinecrest Police Department’s...

Mother of son killed in Parkland shooting creates children’s book detailing the horrors of gun violence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

At first glance it looks like a children’s book but the story is from a fairy tale. It tells the tragic story of Joaquin Oliver.Now, his mother is taking a stand against gun violence while sending a message to lawmakers. “My name is Patricia Oliver, I’m Joaquin’s mom,” said Oliver, who lost her son during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Mother’s Day is less than two weeks away.For Oliver, it’s been six Mother’s Day without her son.Joaquin was one of the 17 victims killed inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018.Since that day, she and her husband, Manuel Oliver, have been fighting for gun reform using different platforms and strategies in an attempt to persuade lawmakers to create change.“Every time you go and visit one of them, it’s the same rhetoric, it’s the same conversation,” Oliver said. “You’re asking for the same issues, and you don’t ...

Pembroke Elementary School staffer on leave for bringing marijuana edible to school, student rushed to hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

A Pembroke school staffer was placed on leave Friday after school officials said the employee brought a marijuana edible to school. A 9-year-old student got his hands on the edible and was rushed to a hospital, officials said. The student had been released from the hospital as of around 4 p.m. and is okay. As an investigation gets underway, though, 7NEWS spoke with the child’s father, who said this should not have happened.“We’re not a club,” the father said. “It’s a school. My son is only nine-years-old. He shouldn’t know about this stuff at nine-years-old.”The incident happened Friday morning at Hobomock Elementary School after schools superintendent Erin Obey said a paraprofessional took a backpack containing a cannabis product into a classroom. Somehow, the student got a hold of the edible. “That bar had 20 pieces,  they said,” the student’s father said. “One piece was missing. That made it 19.”“He didn’t feel good, he’s tired. I see his eyes are glossy,” the...

Healey: Tax Relief Remains “Absolutely Essential”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey doubled down on her tax relief plan on Friday, insisting that a shortfall in state revenue that has plunged this year’s state budget into the red was predicted and accounted for in her fiscal 2024 budget.“We put together our budget and our tax relief package — we did so knowing that there was likely to be some drop in revenue. We’ve seen a drop. And you know, I just want folks to know we’ve accounted for that. And it remains the case that our tax relief package that we propose we stand by, we think it’s really important,” she told four reporters who were able to ask her a few questions after a State House event Friday afternoon.Massachusetts collected $4.782 billion in taxes in April, a drop of $2.163 billion or 31.2 percent from the same month a year earlier and $1.435 billion or 23.1 percent below the most recent monthly benchmark projection, the Department of Revenue announced Wednesday.Despite collecting $703 milli...

A surprising number of drifting sea creatures found living in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:33 GMT

(CNN) — Translucent, fragile marine creatures that drift through the sea are riding the motion of the ocean to a destination that’s infamous as a home for trash: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.Ocean surface currents have shaped the enormous garbage pile for decades, funneling human-made debris into a region that extends for hundreds of thousands of square miles in the North Pacific, spanning waters between Hawaii and California.But that’s not all the currents are transporting. A surprising number of delicate, floating invertebrates, called neustons, are making the Great Pacific Garbage Patch home, according to data from a new study.In particular, there are violet sea snails in the Janthina genus and bright-blue jellyfish relatives known as sea rafts (Velella genus) and blue sea buttons (Porpita genus).They’re part of a community of creatures thriving in the 620,000 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers) of plastic debris — an area roughly the size...