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Local rattlesnake wrangler offers safety advice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- It’s rattlesnake season, and thanks to all the recent rain, as the temperatures warm up, you can expect to see a lot more of the venomous snakes.“Snakes are basically shy, scared animals,” said rattlesnake wrangler Bruce Ireland. “Their only goal is to survive. They typically aren’t going to bite a human unless they feel threatened.”Ireland, who goes by the handle @wrangler_bruce, has garnered quite a large following on social media after his kids convinced him to post some of his more dramatic house calls recovering snakes.Wrangler Bruce lives in Carlsbad and found his calling almost by accident.“I am truly passionate about snakes,” he said. ‘The big warm up’ begins in San Diego After learning that the only option for residents with a snake encounter is animal control, which are often too busy or the fire department who by policy kill the snakes, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He posted to the neighborhood app Nextdoor and the calls started pou...

NATO: Ukraine allies sent 1,550 combat vehicles, ‘vast’ ammo

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia’s invasion and war, the military alliance’s chief said Thursday, giving Kyiv a bigger punch as contemplates launching a counteroffensive.Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine’s allies have sent “vast amounts of ammunition” and also trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigades. Some NATO partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, have also provided armored vehicles.“This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.His comments came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a “long and meaningful” phone call in their first known...

First Canadian evacuation flight from Sudan has departed: Anand

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

Defence Minister Anita Anand says the first Canadian evacuation flight from Sudan has taken off and additional evacuations are planned over the next few days.She says Canadians left the country on a Hercules search-and-rescue plane and more flights are planned in the coming days using two such aircraft that are in the region.Anand told reporters in Enfield, N.S., this morning that the Canadian military is operating in a volatile situation in the country, where violence erupted last week between the East African country’s army and a paramilitary force.Ottawa has faced some criticism for a slow response, with other allies doing the heavy lifting to help Canadians and their dependants leave the country until now.As of Wednesday evening, Global Affairs Canada said it was aware of about 1,800 Canadian citizens in Sudan, and about 700 people had asked for the government’s help to leave the country.Officials who gave a technical briefing to reporters on Wednesday under the cond...

Stock market today: Facebook’s parent Meta leads tech higher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is opening higher after Meta Platforms became the latest Big Tech stock to report fatter profits than expected for the start of the year. The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher in early trading Thursday and on pace for its first gain in three days. The Dow was up 0.3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was leading the market with a 1% gain. Facebook’s parent company was doing some of the heaviest lifting with a surge of more than 13%. Meta beat analysts’ estimates for profit during the first three months of the year and forecast revenue that topped expectations.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street pointed toward gains ahead of the release of data expected to show the world’s biggest economy cooled in the first quarter despite a very strong showing from the largest companies in the U.S. during the same period. Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.4% and the S&P 500 inched 0.5% higher before the opening bell Th...

Missing yacht with 3 Russians, 2 Egyptians reaches safety

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missing yacht with three Russians and two Egyptians onboard reached safety in Djibouti in east Africa on Thursday, after going missing for days following an attack off the coast of Yemen, its owner said. Owner Dmitriy Chuguevskiy told The Associated Press that the vessel reached Djibouti after being detained for several days by authorities off the coast of neighboring Eritrea. Bullet holes in the ship after an attack off Yemen had raised the suspicions of Eritrean authorities, Chuguevskiy said. Chuguevskiy shared photos of the yacht, named 30 Minutes, anchored in Djibouti. The vessel had scrapes and what appeared to be bullet holes in its hull. Regional maritime officials and Eritrea’s Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the vessel. Chuguevskiy and Russia’s Embassy in Saudi Arabia had earlier this week reported the 30 Minutes’ disappearance. It wasn’t immediately clear who attack...

Trump revives threat of skipping GOP presidential debates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump is again threatening to skip a presidential debate. The Republican former president has privately said that a debate in August would be too early and he would not participate, according to two people familiar with his concerns who insisted on anonymity to detail private discussions. He also has stepped up his public complaints this week, suggesting in interviews and social media posts that his poll numbers are so high he has no reason to compete with the rest of the field.“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Trump said in a Tuesday post on his social media network. The emerging spat is a preview of the potential tension that could lie ahead as the Republican National Committee works to oversee an open, competitive primary process while Trump aims to establish himself as the undisputed leader of the party who doesn’t need to ...

Fighters rampage in Darfur city despite Sudan truce

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Armed fighters rampaged through a main city in Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur on Thursday, battling each other and looting shops and homes, residents said. The violence came despite a fragile three-day truce between Sudan’s two top generals whose power struggle has killed hundreds.The mayhem in the Darfur city of Genena pointed to how the rival generals’ fight for control in the capital, Khartoum, was spiraling into violence in other parts of Sudan. The cease-fire has brought a significant easing of fighting in Khartoum and its neighboring city Omdurman for the first time since the military and a rival paramilitary force began clashing on April 15, turning residential neighborhoods into battlegrounds. The relative calm has allowed foreign governments to airlift out hundreds of citizens, while tens of thousands of Sudanese have streamed out of Khartoum, seeking safer areas or escape abroad. An East African initiative was pressing to extend the truce, which wa...

How will we know if the US economy is in a recession?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter — or soon thereafter. The economy’s expansion in the first three months of the year was driven mostly by healthy consumer spending, yet shoppers turned more cautious toward the end of the quarter. Businesses also cut their spending on equipment, a trend that has continued. The list of obstacles the economy faces keeps growing. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate nine times in the past year to the highest level in 17 years, thereby elevating the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily in response. Yet price increases are still persistently high. And last month the collapse of two large banks resulted in a whole ...

TotalEnergies sells Canadian operations to Suncor in deal worth up to $6.1B

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

CALGARY — French company TotalEnergies says it has signed a deal to sell its Canadian operations to Suncor Energy Inc. in an agreement worth up to $6.1 billion.Under the deal, Suncor will pay $5.5 billion in cash, plus up to an additional $600 million that is conditional on Western Canadian Select benchmark oil pricing and certain production targets.“This transaction represents a major step in securing long-term bitumen supply to our base plant upgraders at a competitive supply cost,” Suncor chief executive Rich Kruger said in statement.“These are valuable oilsands assets that are a strategic fit for us and add long-term shareholder value.”TotalEnergies EP Canada Ltd. holds a 31.23 per cent working interest in the Fort Hills oilsands project and a 50 per cent working interest in the Surmont in situ asset. The agreement means that Suncor will own 100 per cent of Fort Hills.Surmont is operated by ConocoPhillips Canada which holds the other 50 per cent stake. Under the terms of t...

Firearms official, gun club probed over Hamburg shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:56:51 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Thursday they are investigating an official at Hamburg’s firearms department and three members of a gun club in connection with a mass shooting during a religious service at a Jehovah’s Witness hall last month.A 35-year-old German man opened fire during the March 9 service, killing six people and wounding nine, including a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child, before turning the gun on himself as police arrived.Hamburg prosecutors said authorities searched the homes of an official at the city’s firearms department and of three members of the Hanseatic Gun Club that the attacker — identified only as Phillipp F. due to German privacy rules — had been part of.Prosecutors said the firearms official is being investigated on suspicion of negligent homicide for failing to properly document and forward information about the gunman’s psychological state that he had received from F’s family, via a member of the gun club.B...