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An American mom and daughter are missing in Israel. Their family says Hamas is holding them hostage

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Judith Raanan and her teenage daughter, Natalie Raanan, were excited to travel to Israel to celebrate a relative’s 85th birthday and the Jewish holiday season, according to their rabbi.The pair had been sending updates as the trip progressed and were enjoying “this really special mom and daughter time together,” Meir Hecht said. The family hasn’t heard from either mother or daughter since a week ago, after Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack. The community in their suburb north of Chicago fears they are among roughly 150 people abducted by Hamas militants. “We received this terrible news that Judith and her daughter Natalie are missing and apparently were most likely taken as hostages to Gaza,” Hecht said. “It feels like our community has been violated.”They had been celebrating Simchat Torah, a festive Jewish holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual reading of the Torah. They were in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz in Israel abou...

California will give some Mexican residents near the border in-state community college tuition

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law Friday to make low-income Mexican residents living near the border eligible for in-state tuition rates at certain community colleges.The legislation applies to low-income Mexicans who live within 45 miles (72 kilometers) of the California-Mexico border and want to attend a participating community college in Southern California. It is a pilot program that will launch next year and run until 2029.Some people travel frequently between Mexico and California to work or visit family. The law will help make education more accessible for those residents and prepare them for jobs, Assemblymember David Alvarez, who authored the proposal, said at a Senate Education Committee hearing in June.“This pilot program can unlock a significant untapped resource to prepare a more diverse population among our workforce,” Alvarez said in a statement.Mark Sanchez, president of Southwestern College in Chula Vista, a California cit...

Iran’s foreign minister warns Israel from Beirut to stop Gaza attacks or risk ‘huge earthquake’

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible.Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel. The group, which has thousands of battle-hardened fighters who participated in Syria’s 12-year conflict, also has different types of military drones.Hezbollah fighters have been on full alert along Lebanon’s borders with Israel following last Saturday’s attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas that left hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers dead.On Sat...

Watch Canada’s worst wildfire season travel east to west

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

More than 17,800,000 hectares have burned across Canada so far in 2023, marking the country’s most devastating wildfire season on record.According to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report, as of the end of September, this year saw a staggering 6,496 wildfires spark — an increase of over 20 per cent compared to the country’s 10-year average.While the numbers are shocking in and of themselves, it can be hard to visualize the damage that these fires have inflicted.One Nova Scotian man, however, has compiled data from NASA and created a video of Canada’s 2023 wildfire season.Peter Atwood’s creation shows the destruction from early on in the fire season up until Oct. 14, mapping the fires’ move from coast to coast.Atwood explains on social media that to create the rendering, he used “GEOS-FP black carbon mass composited over the MODIS hotspot data.”Over the course of this year’s wildfire season, four firefighters died fighting w...

Far from Israel, Jews grieve and pray for peace in Shabbat services held as Israel-Hamas war rages

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

Jews in communities far from Israel gathered at synagogues this weekend for Shabbat services held amid the ongoing war ignited by Hamas militants’ attack on Israel a week earlier. Rabbis led prayers of peace and shared grief with their congregations. At many synagogues security was tight.PITTSBURGH RABBI SAYS HAMAS ATTACK RESURFACES GENERATIONS OF TRAUMA FOR JEWISH PEOPLEThe deadly Hamas attack is not just another geopolitical event for Jewish people, explained one U.S. rabbi. It is drudging up generations of visceral trauma, especially in Pittsburgh – the city scarred by the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.“More Jews were killed last Shabbat … than on any other day since the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Daniel Fellman during a service at Temple Sinai. “It isn’t that Hamas wants the destruction of Israel. It’s that Hamas wants the destruction of you and me.”“The world deserves better, the Palestinian people deserve better and we need to do better.” Despite that anguish,...

3 dead after a shooting at a party at a Denver industrial storefront

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Three people are dead after a shooting early Saturday at a party in Denver, police said. Denver police were called to a party at an industrial storefront where officers found someone dead with gunshot wounds, police said. Another five shooting victims were taken to local hospitals, where two of them where pronounced dead, police said. Police didn’t immediately provide information about the identities of the shooting victims. Evidence showed that there were shots fired from at least two firearms at the party, police said. “At this point, investigators are working to determine the circumstances that led up to the shooting as well as who was involved,” the Denver Police Department said in a statement. The Associated Press

Weekend Break: Coffeecon

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

Join WGN Weekend Morning News with Erik Runge at Coffeecon!Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

State Department urges non-essential personnel to depart Israel

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

(The Hill) — The Biden administration released an updated travel advisory for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday as the ongoing conflict in the region persists.The State Department authorized the departure of all "non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members for U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and U.S. Branch Office Tel Aviv." "Terrorist groups, lone-actor terrorists and other violent extremists continue plotting possible attacks in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza," the advisory states. "Terrorists and violent extremists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities." Biden’s Israel response creates sharp contrast with Trump The updated guidance comes as Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, a region which Palestinian militant group Hamas operates. Israeli officials gave Palestinians in the area just over 24 hours to evacuate —...

Civil rights activist and photographer to win award for advocacy

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

Civil rights activist and photographer Bernie Kleina is expected to win award for advocacy starting with a special photo he took of Martin Luther King Jr. at Soldier Field in 1965.

Alarms sound over high turnover among election workers

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:31:52 GMT

Experts are sounding alarms just over a year out from November 2024 that the presidential election could suffer from chaos and confusion after high turnover of local election officials and workers in key states. Threats and scrutiny often linked to false claims of voter fraud have contributed to a surge of local election officials leaving their posts in recent years. The exodus could mean understaffed and inexperienced teams are left to grapple with continued conspiracies and misinformation surrounding the election process in 2024, with some running a high-stakes presidential election for the first time. Richard Hasen, an election law expert and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said he’s “quite worried” about the attrition of election officials and workers nationwide but argued it’s “not surprising” given the threats and harassment lobbed at many in the jobs. “Some of the language that's been used against these officials has been...