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Thailand’s opposition takes early lead in vote count in general election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s main opposition party took an early lead in a vote count from Sunday’s general election, touted as a pivotal chance for change nine years after incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first came to power in a 2014 coup. With 20% of the vote counted, Pheu Thai Party was leading with 22% in the direct race for the House of Representatives, and a 21% share of seats in a separate nationwide ballot for the 100 members elected by proportional representation. The junior opposition Move Forward Party was running second. Prayuth’s United Thai Nation Party held the fifth spot in the constituency vote with 7% of the total, but third in the party preference total with 8%.Pheu Thai, headed by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, had been widely predicted to win at least a healthy plurality of the seats in the 500-member lower House, where 400 lawmakers are elected directly. But who heads the next government won’t by decided by Sunday’s vote alone. Th...

Law school graduates turn their backs on NYC mayor during commencement address

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

(The Hill) – Law students graduating from the City University of New York (CUNY) turned their backs on New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) in protest against him as he gave their commencement address on Friday. Video posted on social media showed many of the graduates standing silently and facing the back of the room as Adams spoke. The mayor also received some boos and shouting. “We have a lot of challenges, a lot of things that it needs discipline. And just as you see these graduates here, I know what it is to protest,” he said, which was followed by some yells back at him. Adams has faced some controversy in the past week for his response to the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old mentally ill homeless man who was killed in a subway station earlier this month by Marine veteran Daniel Penny. Penny put Neely in a chokehold, causing him to lose consciousness. Neely was later pronounced dead in a hospital, and an autopsy ruled his death was a homicide. Penny this ...

Social Security COLA to drop significantly in 2024, senior group predicts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Social Security recipients shouldn’t expect 2024’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to be as significant as 2023’s, despite warnings that beneficiaries are losing their purchasing power.“The 2024 COLA could be around 3.1%,” Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for the Senior Citizens League, said in a news release issued last week.The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, has for years based its estimations of upcoming COLA increases on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and specifically its Consumer Price Indexes — the same data which is ultimately used by the Social Security Administration to determine its annual COLA increases.The 2023 increase, at 8.7%, was the largest COLA increase in over four decades, partially thanks to supply-chain disruptions which fueled soaring inflation amid the pandemic. But analysts with TSCL are worried that cooling inflation — or at least the appearance of cooling inflation — ...

Sunday Brunch: Luella's Southern Kitchen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

CHICAGO — Darnell Reed, the chef and owner of Luella's Southern Kitchen in Lincoln Square, joined WGN Weekend Morning News for Sunday Brunch.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. You can watch the latest Sunday Brunch segment in the player above.

Fire at former South Glens Falls McDonald's under investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A structure fire at a former McDonald's building, located at 22 Main Street in South Glens Falls, is currently under investigation. The fire took place at 4:34 Sunday morning. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office says the fire spread from the building to another building that hosts a laundromat and chocolate store. Deputies say there were no injuries and the buildings were not occupied at the time. The origin of the fire is currently unknown and under investigation.

Denver weather: Clouds and rain for Mother’s Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

Denver will see cloudy skies and damp weather for Mother’s Day Sunday, according to the National Weather Service at Boulder.City residents can expect cool, gloomy weather, with highs in the mid-50s and patchy fog before noon. Drizzly wet weather is expected throughout the day, according to the weather service, with forecasters seeing a 100% chance of precipitation.Monday’s weather will be partly cloudy ahead of expected sunny skies on Tuesday and Wednesday, before the rain returns later in the week.

Multi-car crash closes southbound 110 Freeway in Highland Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

A crash involving three vehicles forced the closure of the southbound 110 Freeway in Highland Park Sunday morning.The crash occurred around 7:20 a.m. near Pasadena Avenue. Three people in their 40s and 50s suffered serious injuries, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Video from the scene showed wreckage of the vehicles scattered across the freeway, along with leaves and debris from a tree that was struck.As of 8:15 a.m., it was unclear when the freeway would reopen. LAFD urged drivers to seek alternate routes.The cause of the crash was under investigation.

‘Give me your kid’: Legal proceedings suspended in attempted kidnapping of 4-year-old boy in Hayward

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

OAKLAND — The case against a woman accused of brandishing a knife at a Hayward mother and attempting to kidnap her 4-year-old son was suspended almost immediately after being filed when the defense attorney raised doubts about the defendant’s mental competency, court records show.Barbara Lopez, 35, was charged March 8 with the attempted kidnapping of a 4-year-old boy and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly threatening the mother with a folding pocketknife. Just six days later, Lopez’s attorney formally declared a doubt about her mental competency, prompting a medical review that may get her sent to a state hospital if doctors agree she can’t understand the proceedings, court records show.Hayward police allege that the mother was walking her son home from school March 6 when Lopez walked across four lanes of traffic to approach them, brandished the knife, and said, “Give me your kid.” The mother was able to flag down a passing driver who pulled ov...

Ukraine latest: Russia says two commanders killed in Donetsk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

Bloomberg NewsPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy traveled to Berlin on Sunday, where he met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other leaders, a day after a visit to Rome that included an audience with Pope Francis.Germany on Saturday announced it’s preparing a record military aid package for Ukraine worth almost $3 billion. On Sunday, Scholz reiterated a pledge to continue to support the government in Kyiv for as long as needed.Ukraine fired on targets in the occupied Luhansk region on Friday using Storm Shadow missiles provided by the UK, Russia’s defense ministry said. Russia said Sunday that two of its commanders had been killed in action in the Donetsk region.Key DevelopmentsRamaphosa, Zelenskiy Hold Talks Amid Russia Weapons Dust-upScholz Welcomes Zelenskiy to Berlin With Pledge of Continued AidUkraine Cites Gains on Russian Troops Near Embattled BakhmutGermany Announces Record €2.7B in Military Aid for UkraineG-7 Finance Chiefs Unite to Condemn Russia and Counter China(All times CET)R...

Over decades, Congress failed repeatedly to address immigration dysfunction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:26:06 GMT

WASHINGTON — For nearly a quarter century, as successive waves of migrants have tried to enter and work in the United States, presidents have appealed to Congress to address gaps in an immigration system nearly everyone agrees is broken.Yet year after year, congressional efforts to strike a wide-ranging bipartisan deal — one that would strengthen border security measures while expanding avenues for people to immigrate to the United States in an orderly and lawful way — have fractured under the strain of political forces.Immigration has proved to be a potent political messaging tool, particularly for Republicans, who have rallied voters behind campaigns to close the border with Mexico — and denounced anything other than stringent security proposals as amnesty. And Democrats have long resisted border security initiatives without measures to grant legal status to millions of immigrants residing in the United States without permission and to expand immigration in the future.While many l...