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Sudan conflict: UK evacuating nationals amid shaky cease-fire

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak ordered the evacuation of British nationals from Sudan amid a shaky cease-fire between warring sides in the northeast African nation.“We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted early Tuesday.The U.K. government has faced some criticism for the speed of its help to British nationals, but has insisted it cannot safely escort people out of the country without a pause in hostilities.A power struggle between Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemeti,” has plunged Sudan into fierce fighting. Around 500 people have died so far, with fighting across the African nation.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced overnight that the two groups had agreed to a 72-hour nationwide cease-fire, beginning at midnight. On Tuesday the RSF claimed that the S...

Maine governor signs bill making to-go alcohol permanent

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s pandemic rule allowing to-go cocktails is going to be sticking around.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed into law a bill Monday evening to make booze-to-go from restaurants and bars permanent, joining more then a dozen states that allow carry-out mixed drinks.To-go cocktails gained popularity nationwide during the pandemic when restaurants and bars were shut down. Maine’s new law requires those drinks to be labeled and placed in the trunk or non-passenger compartments of a vehicle.An executive order issued by Mills in 2020 permitted restaurants to sell and deliver beverages if accompanied by a food order, while distilleries could sell liquor without food. Last year, a law extended to-go drinks, including delivery and take-out. The law is now permanent.All told, 19 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws to permanently allow cocktails to-go and 14 others have enacted temporary laws since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to...

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts nonprofit cannabis company

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

WILLISTON, Vt. (AP) — One of the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s has gone from ice cream to cannabis with a social mission.Ben Cohen has started Ben’s Best Blnz, a nonprofit cannabis line with a stated mission of helping to right the wrongs of the war on drugs. The company says on its website that 80% of its profits will go to grants for Black cannabis entrepreneurs while the rest will be equally divided between the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and the national Last Prisoner Project, which is working to free people incarcerated for cannabis offenses.“The War on Drugs (first so named by President Richard Nixon) has targeted lower income Black and Brown people thru over policing, discriminatory prosecution, and discriminatory sentencing,” the website states. “That’s why despite using pot at the same rate, Black people are 4 times more likely to be arrested than Whites.”Ben’s Best Blnz, or B3, says it licenses its formulas, packaging, trademarks, and marketing mat...

Bruins notebook: Patrice Bergeron trending toward a Game 5 return

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

Never one to get too far ahead of himself, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said that Patrice Bergeron still needed to “check some boxes” before he could declare that his captain is a go for Wednesday’s Game 5. But all indications from Tuesday’s practice say that Bergeron will enter the playoff fray as the B’s try to close out the Florida Panthers at the Garden.Bergeron, who has not played a game or even practiced with the team since leaving Game 82 with an upper body injury, hit the sheet at Warrior Ice Arena in a regular jersey and was a full participant, manning the bumper on the first power play unit and then leading the post-practice stretch.Bergeron himself gave a tentative thumbs-up after his first team practice in almost two weeks.“Today’s a good day and we’ll see (Wednesday) how I feel,” said Bergeron. “I’m not anticipating any setbacks. So far, so good.”Asked if he felt like he has put this injury behind him or it’s something that he...

The 12-word financial plan for people who hate financial planning

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.If you hate reading how-to articles about money, read this article anyway.I’m with you. I get it. Some people can’t stand talking about, reading or even thinking about money, researchers find. “Make a budget,” the experts say. “Get out of here with that crazy talk. I’m busy living a life, not a bean counter,” you might say.Spreadsheets? “I’m feeling a little queasy right now. Can’t stand them.”But you don’t want to be broke, miserable about money and without all the good stuff money can bring. You just want to be an expert in something else. Cooking maybe. Fishing. Running. Traveling. Sleeping. Anything but managing money.This article has one central idea about managin...

Aaron Judge: Yankees’ struggling offense needs to ‘jump’ teams early in games

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

With the Yankees’ offense struggling, Aaron Judge doesn’t just want to see his team score more. He wants the Bombers to score sooner.The Yankees have plated just six runs over four games since Friday, April 21, a stretch that includes three losses. Five of those runs came in the eighth inning or later, and three came in the ninth.“We tried getting a little rally there going late,” Judge said after the Yankees scored once in the final frame of Monday’s loss to the Twins. “But we couldn’t really get it firing. We got to try to just jump out early on teams, score early and kind of put the pressure on them. Right now, we’re kind of taking a while getting into the game, feeling it, and just not doing the job. So we gotta jump on ‘em early.”The Yankees have been playing catch-up in recent days, but the lineup’s woes date further back.The team has scored less than four runs in nine of the last 11 games, and the Yankees are m...

Don’t miss the final three national park free days in 2023

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

With National Park Week underway, you may be thinking about planning your next visit to explore the beauty of America’s public lands. Even if you missed this past Saturday’s free entrance day to kick off the celebration (April 22-30), there are still several occasions when national park gates are open free-of-entry to all.The U.S. National Park Service offers “free entrance” days each year to celebrate holidays and milestones in the history of natural preservation, such as the anniversary of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. These freebies are valid for all national-park sites in the country — and there are more than 400 of them, including historic and recreation areas.The Grand Teton mountain range in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, on June 13, 2019. (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)The next free day arrives Aug. 4, so mark your calendars and plan accordingly. Note that while entrance fees are waived on these occasions, some fees might still be in plac...

Northern lights spotted in Mammoth Lakes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The array of nighttime colors that is the northern lights are expected to be in the skies for a second time on Monday following a dazzling array above Mammoth Lakes on Sunday.Pictures shared to YourCentralValley.com by photographer Carter Murphy show the ordinarily dark night sky lit up with purple and blue hues with streaks of light interspersed creating an utterly unique image.Northern lights light up the night sky on Sunday above Mammoth Lakes (image courtesy of Carter Murphy)The dazzling display is thanks to a severe geomagnetic storm that erupted Friday. The effects of the storm were so strong Sunday night, that the aurora was possibly "visible as far south as Alabama and northern California," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.The storm was caused by a coronal mass ejections, or CME. CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic material from the Sun that can reach Earth in as little as 15 to 18 hours, NOAA explains.S...

Ford teases building school, community centre on Ontario Science Centre site

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

Premier Doug Ford says the current east Toronto site of the Ontario Science Centre could eventually be used for a community centre or a school after the province moves the attraction to Ontario Place downtown.Ford has previously mused about building housing on the site, but said today that he wants to work collaboratively with the city to build something “spectacular.”“It’s their property. If they need some community benefits. If they need a new school, we’ll build a new school. If they need a new community centre, we’ll build a new community centre,” Premier Ford said on Tuesday.The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority owns much of the land at the current science centre site, with most of the rest owned by the city, and it says it has had no discussions with the province about a possible science centre relocation.Ford has dismissed the current science centre building as “run down,” and his infrastructure minister has said i...

More sanctions for deadly fentanyl if bill wins passage

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the past year, the U.S. Treasury Department has used its sanctions powers to impose wide-ranging financial penalties on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine — turning Russia into the most sanctioned country in the world. Now, the federal agency is facing increasing pressure, including from legislation being introduced in the Senate, to use those tools with similar vigor against the people, financial institutions and companies that have participated in the explosion of fentanyl use and distribution in the U.S.“As a matter of policy we are dealing with drug cartels who have tremendous economic gain to be made,” said Paul DelPonte, executive director of the nonprofit National Crime Prevention Council, which is pushing for tougher action against those behind the scourge of drug overdose and death. “There are a lot of hands involved in this crime.”Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimat...