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UN calls attacks near Gaza hospital ‘reprehensible’ as demands for cease-fire grow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

As Israel pummels Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital in the north of the Palestinian enclave, global organizations are rallying behind calls for an immediate cease-fire in the war against Hamas.The World Health Organization said in the early hours of Sunday morning that it had lost contact with the 700-bed Al-Shifa health care facility, one of the largest in Gaza, pointing to reports of those leaving the scene being shot.“As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” the WHO posted on X.Israel claims Hamas has installed armed command centers inside hospitals and other civilian facilities, but Doctors Without Borders said that Al-Shifa, which includes maternity and outpatient areas providing emergency and surgical care, had been targeted with power cuts while access for ambulances or evacuation had been cut too.“This is unconscionable, reprehensible and must ...

Dubai air chiefs summit, sponsored by Israeli firm, avoids discussing strikes as Hamas war rages

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As Israel unleashes one of the most-intense aerial bombing campaigns the Middle East has ever seen, leaders from the world’s top air forces met Sunday in the United Arab Emirates to talk about almost anything that wasn’t an airstrike. The discussions at the Dubai International Air Chiefs’ Conference, held ahead of the biennial Dubai Air Show this week, shows the delicate balancing act the federation of seven sheikhdoms faces. The UAE maintains diplomatic ties with Israel despite widespread and growing anger in the Arab world over the civilian casualties from Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. The Air Chiefs’ Conference demonstrates how those ties continue, particularly as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., an Israeli defense manufacturer, was a sponsor of the summit. And while the Dubai Air Show focuses primarily on commercial aircraft in a region crucial to East-West travel, there’s a military comp...

Readers and writers: Celebrating Minnesota Native authors — in several genres

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

November is Native American Heritage Month so today we’re saluting Minnesota Native authors whose new books in several genres remind us that Native people are here and telling their stories, especially in our vibrant writing community.‘A Song over Miskwaa Rapids’: by Linda LeGarde Grover (University of Minnesota Press, $21.95)“Who could the dead man be?” was asked and wondered about in the Elders Club in the casino, at the tobacco shop in the gas station, and in the teachers’ lounge at the elementary school. Where might the dead man have come from, and where was he going? The most intriguing question of all: how did Michael Washington’s driver’s license come to be on the corpse of an unidentified young man from decades ago?  How did this happen, and what might Michael’s involvement be? The story, now back in the media, grew like seeds planted in fertile soil as it intertwined with the histories of tribal dealings and relationship...

Twin Cities’ first kicksled shop opens in downtown St. Paul as the sport gains traction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

When Melisa Christensen first hopped on a kicksled and slid happily across a frozen pond in West St. Paul, she thought to herself, “Why isn’t everyone in Minnesota doing this?”Three years after that first ride, Christensen opened her own kicksled shop in downtown St. Paul this week, called Brave the Snow, to share that childlike joy with others.First things first, what is a kicksled? Christensen describes it as a miniature dog sled that you stand on the back of and kick like a scooter. Kicksleds also have a small bench in front for a child or small person to sit on.As for the learning curve, “Anybody can do it,” Christensen said, “It’s less intimidating because you don’t have to strap on special boots or have any equipment.”Filling a nicheKicksledding, which began in Scandinavia as a mode of transportation, is slowly gaining popularity in the Twin Cities. “It’s just as Scandinavian as lutefisk and lefse,” Christensen said.When she tried to buy her first kicksled in 2020, Christensen...

Progressives continue notching victories in St. Paul with candidates, sales tax question winning on ballot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

On the Friday before St. Paul’s Nov. 7 election, city council member Mitra Jalali joined leaders of the St. Paul Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and members of Faith in Minnesota/ISAIAH, a progressive interfaith advocacy organization, outside the Karibu Grocery and Deli on Payne Avenue to advocate for raising the city’s sales tax to fund roads and parks.They were joined by Black Hart of St. Paul bar owner Wes Burdine, as well as labor organizers from the Service Employees International Union, which represents frontline workers in the commercial cleaning and health care sectors, and LIUNA Local 563, which represents everyday laborers in the construction industry.Also among the participants in the speak-out was Amina Abdulahi, a member of ISAIAH’s Muslim coalition, who took the microphone to share in Somali her experiences as an East Sider.“In Ward 7, our roads are broken,” said Abdulahi, communicating through an interpreter. “Fixing the roads, and th...

Robert K. Vischer: Higher ed: responsible for the whole person, not just the future employee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

Ask anyone you know in higher education today, and they’ll tell you there are always two notable things about this point of the fall: first, the semester is already more than halfway over (where did the time go?) and secondly, their admissions colleagues are on the road already working feverishly to recruit next fall’s freshman class (again, where did the time go?).The academic calendar is very cyclical and predictable. But we within higher ed would be foolish to treat this cycle as routine. Even now as high school seniors are narrowing down their list of colleges and universities, many are also wondering if those lists shouldn’t be altogether scrapped. With rising public concern about whether college offers a sound economic return on investment (ROI), can you blame them?At a time when economic pressures continue to be constricting, students and their families are right to scrutinize the ROI of a college degree. And as for us in higher ed … while we should be attentive to future ear...

Jesse Wegman: Teach the importance — and the principles — of free speech

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

It was a relief to learn of the arrest last week of a 21-year-old Cornell University student for threatening to rape and murder Jews on campus in reaction to the Israel-Hamas war. It was also an easy case: Violent threats against specific people are illegal, and they are dealt with by the justice system, not school administrators.Easy cases are hard to come by these days, especially at colleges and universities, where the divisions over the Middle East conflict are starker than in any other sector of American society. Examples abound of abhorrent speech by students and faculty members, mostly aimed at Israel, Jews and even Jewish students — and yet abhorrent does not equal criminal. How should a university respond when members of its community express sentiments that are at odds with the values the school is trying to inculcate, not to mention with human decency?There are answers, and they won’t make everyone happy. They start with a core value that too often gets lost in the heat o...

Literary pick for Nov. 12

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

We build community because we can’t expect, demand, or control the machinations of the captivity business. Likewise, we can’t be sure that the politics of confinement will provide the spiritual and artistic  resources we need to transcend our encagements. These Collectives are our expression of both community and art. They provide our agency. The carceral state will not feed the kind of hunger an artist in these kinds of places experiences. So, we find ways to feed each other. — from “American Precariat”These words were written by Zeke Caligiuri, one of a dozen incarcerated writers, including some award-winners, who edited “American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion” (Coffee House Press, $19.95), made up of 15 essays by authors not in prison. His foreword traces the growth of writing classes and artists’ communities in the Minnesota prison system, beginning in Stillwater where the first prisoner-produced publications were born. He also ...

Literary calendar for week of Nov. 12

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

ERIKA BOLSTAD: Presents “Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her,” in conversation with Emily Strasser. 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.(Alberts Bridge Books )John Gaspard (Courtesy of the author)JOHN GASPARD: Professional magician launches “The Professor’s Nightmare,” the ninth in his mystery series featuring magician/sleuth Eli Marks who, with his brilliant Uncle Harry, tries to trap someone who is giving residents of a retirement community hallucinations, using an illusion that might or might not work. The book also includes two Eli novellas. The author’s previous Marks book, “The Self-working Tricks,” was recognized by the Minnesota Library Foundation as Best Adult Fiction in 2022. At the launch he will also sign copies of “The Curious Mysteries of Eli Marks,” first in his new middle-grade series. It offers 10 mysteries and includes...

Ask Amy: Bossy spouse wants husband thin again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:48:22 GMT

Dear Amy: I admit it, I’m bossy and controlling.My husband of 30 years naturally pushes back when I pressure him too much, and I try very hard to accept that he’s an adult and is entitled to his choices if they don’t affect me. It’s taken a long time to get there, and reading your column has helped!But he has put on a lot of weight recently and is now at an unhealthy weight, with a big waistline (not good for a 65-year-old).I squandered my allotment of unsolicited advice years ago, but now it really matters! I hoped a recent doctor visit would bring about a realization, but evidently she said nothing to him about his weight.I think doctors are just wary of advising people about weight these days, but he was pretty thin until 20 years ago, and has never paid attention to his weight.I don’t know what to do now.Any advice on how I can get him to accept that some changes need to be made?I’ve had a heart to heart about how I want him around for a long ...