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Spanish PM Sánchez calls snap general election after disastrous local votes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday called for snap elections to be held on July 23.Spain was due to hold general elections by the end of the year, but the Socialist leader announced his decision to move up the date following Sunday’s local elections, which saw his party suffer heavy losses across the country.The July 23 general election means that the vote will be held just three weeks after Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.With the Socialist party polling six points behind the center-right Popular Party (PP), that scenario opens up the possibility that the rotating presidency may begin with Sánchez as prime minister but conclude with PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo as Spain’s head of government.

Strong leg muscles may be linked with better outcomes after heart attack, study suggests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

(CNN) — Growing evidence shows that building muscle strength can have benefits for your heart, even leading to better outcomes after a heart attack.Having a higher level of leg muscle strength appears to be “strongly associated” with a lower risk of developing heart failure after a heart attack, according to new research presented this month in Prague at the Heart Failure 2023 scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology.The findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but they highlight the importance of regular exercise and maintaining muscle strength in older age, as muscle mass can diminish with age, possibly affecting cardiovascular health, said Kensuke Ueno and Dr. Kentaro Kamiya, researchers in the Department of Rehabilitation at Kitasato University School of Allied Health Sciences in Japan and authors of the new research.Kamiya said that after a heart attack, medically known as a myocardial infarction, the heart can go th...

Cooler today, turning hot this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

7Weather – If it was too warm for you yesterday, today may be your day! It’ll be cooler, bright and breezy. Temperatures will rebound mid to late week as temperatures soar near 90. Mainly dry this week, except a chance for a storm late Friday.Early this morning, a dry backdoor cold front dropped in. This brings us slightly cooler temperatures above us and a wind shift. The wind will be out of the northeast today, bringing cooler air off the ocean water. It’ll be gusty at times, with gusts 25-35 mph.Here’s the temperatures in your town today…Breeze tapers tonight. It stays clear and cool.It’ll be choppy on the water today. Plenty of space on the beach early afternoon with low tide at 1:29 pm. You’ll just want something to keep that beach towel down with the wind!Tomorrow we stay in the 70s, then temperatures rebound midweek and into the end of the week. There’s a chance for a shower or storm late Friday, but otherwise we remain dry.-Met...

Biden and McCarthy lean on holdouts in both parties to pass debt ceiling deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

(CNN) — Party leaders in Washington are waging an urgent campaign Monday to convince Democrats and Republicans to get behind compromise legislation that would avert a first-ever national default, with each side proclaiming victory following marathon talks.Prospects for passage of the bill, based on the agreement struck between President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, grew Sunday as many centrist Democrats fell in line and Republicans maintained confidence that they would be able to carry the support of the majority of their House conference in a pivotal vote expected Wednesday.In both parties’ sights are those in the political middle, who leaders are wagering will swallow some provisions they disagree with in order to suspend the federal borrowing limit through January 1, 2025 – after the next presidential election – and avoid default. The bill caps non-defense spending, temporarily expands work requirements for some food stamp recipi...

Chicago baseball report: The Cubs’ bobblehead blunder — and Andrew Benintendi looking to launch for the White Sox

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

Repeated bullpen implosions tend to make a manager’s hair turn gray, so be sure to check back on David Ross and Pedro Grifol at the end of the season.The managers of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox can’t seem to find a way to get on a prolonged hot streak with their bullpens performing so poorly over the first two months. The porous Cubs bullpen ranked 26th in the majors with a 4.61 ERA entering Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, while the White Sox bullpen sat 29th with an abysmal 5.28 ERA going into their game in Detroit — which they lost in 10 innings after blowing a ninth-inning lead.Neither team has had a reliable closer, though the Sox are expected to bring back Liam Hendriks on Monday after he rehabbed with the team following a stint at Triple-A Charlotte.Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.Cubs apologize for bobblehead errorAs bo...

Provinces must seek anti-smoking measures in Big Tobacco settlement: health groups

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

Three national health organizations want Canada’s premiers to push for initiatives to reduce smoking during settlement negotiations with major tobacco companies, years after provinces sued to recoup health-care costs.In an open letter, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and Heart and Stroke Foundation say governments should make cutting tobacco use a top priority in talks that began four years ago as part of the provinces’ lawsuits seeking a collective $500 billion in damages.“Tobacco causes a devastating toll in disease and death, a toll that is contributing to the ongoing crisis in the health-care system,” the groups say in the letter released Monday, ahead of World No Tobacco Day, an annual campaign by the World Health Organization to raise awareness about the harms of tobacco use.Lawsuits by all 10 provinces, with British Columbia filing the first one in 1998, are against Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges ...

7 men appear in Northern Ireland court on attempted murder charges related to shooting of detective

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Seven men appeared in court Monday on charges of attempted murder related to the February attack on a senior Northern Ireland police officer who was shot after his son’s soccer practice.The suspects, ranging in age from 28 to 72, appeared by video link at Dungannon Magistrates’ Court about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Belfast. They were ordered to remain in custody.Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire on him at a sports complex in Omagh as he put soccer balls into the trunk of his car after coaching an under-15 team.A dissident splinter group of the Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility for the Feb. 22 attack on Caldwell, who has led investigations into killings, organized crime and paramilitary groups.The shooting came less than two months before the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which largely ended the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. Although the main Catholic and Protestant par...

Vatican singles out bishops in urging reflective not reactive social media use

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Monday urged the Catholic faithful, and especially bishops, to be “reflective, not reactive” on social media, issuing guidelines to try to tame the toxicity on Catholic Twitter and other social media platforms and encourage users to instead be “loving neighbors.”The Vatican’s communications office issued a “pastoral reflection” to respond to questions it has fielded for years about a more responsible, Christian use of social media and the risks online that accompany the rise of fake news and artificial intelligence.For decades the Holy See has offered such thoughts on different aspects of communications technologies, welcoming the chances for encounter they offer but warning of the pitfalls. Pope Francis of late has warned repeatedly about the risk of young people being so attached to their cell phones that they stop face-to-face friendships.The new document highlights the divisions that can be sown on social media, and the risk of users remaining ...

Liz Weston: 5 ways to simplify and reduce your money clutter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

Professional organizers might define household clutter as a pile of unmade decisions. Money clutter is much the same.Those credit cards you no longer use but haven’t closed? That’s money clutter. So is the retirement account you left behind three jobs ago and the financial paperwork you keep but no longer need. Money clutter also can include broken systems that should be mended, such as a bill payment routine that leads to overdrafts or late fees.You can simplify your financial life by dealing with those long-delayed decisions now and streamlining how you manage your money going forward. Here are five tasks to consider.1. CONSOLIDATE ACCOUNTSThe more financial accounts you have to monitor, the more stress you’re likely to feel, says Chicago financial planner Sheila Padden, president of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners. It’s too easy to lose track of an account, miss a due date or fail to notice a fraudulent transaction.“Like any machinery, if there’s a lot of moving parts, the...

Russia strikes Kyiv in daylight after hitting Ukrainian capital with a more common nighttime barrage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:28 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Explosions rattled Kyiv during daylight Monday as Russian ballistic missiles took aim at the Ukrainian capital, hours after a more common nighttime barrage of the city by drones and cruise missiles.Debris from missiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on a building’s roof, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.The blasts unnerved some locals, already under strain after being awakened by the night attack.“After what happened last night, I react sharply to every siren now. I was terrified, and I’m still trembling,” shared Alina Ksenofontova, a 50-year-old woman who took refuge in the Kyiv subway with her dog Bublik.The central station, Tetatralna, was crowded with sheltering locals.Artem Zhyla, a 24-year-old who provides legal services abroad, took his laptop with him and kept...