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WHO says COVID emergency is over. So what does that mean?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization downgraded its assessment of the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, saying it no longer qualifies as a global emergency. The action reverses a declaration that was first made on January 30, 2020, when the disease had not even been named COVID-19 and when there were no major outbreaks beyond China.A look at what WHO’s decision means:WHY END THE GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY?WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic has been “on a downward trend for more than a year, with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection.” That, he said, has allowed most countries “to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19,” meaning that the worst part of the pandemic is over.Tedros said that for the past year, WHO and its emergency committee experts have been analyzing COVID-19 data to decide when the time would be right to lower its level of alarm. On Thursday, the experts recommended to Tedros th...

Wood, Jones lead Revolution to 2-0 victory over Toronto

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Bobby Wood scored a first-half goal, DeJuan Jones found the net in the second half and the New England Revolution dispatched Toronto FC 2-0 on Saturday night.Wood staked New England (7-1-3) to an early lead when he scored unassisted in the 19th minute.Jones added an insurance goal in the 62nd minute, scoring unassisted. Wood notched his third goal this season and Jones’ netter was his first.The Revolution, who kept pace with FC Cincinnati atop the Eastern Conference standings with the victory, entered the match with a 1-4-4 record in their last nine trips to Toronto.Toronto (2-3-6) was coming off a 1-0 victory over New York City FC. Toronto has just two wins in its last 17 matches. The two wins and 13 points over that span are league lows.Toronto took 20 shots to 10 for New England, but the Revs had a 6-5 edge in shots on goal.Djordje Petrovic totaled five saves to earn the clean sheet for New England, which entered play having won four one-goal matches. Se...

Gervon Dexter — once opposed to playing football — joins the Chicago Bears as a talented defensive tackle with untapped potential

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

If persistence is the intersection of optimism and grit, Lake Wales (Fla.) High football coach Tavaris Johnson leaned heavily on those traits every time he crossed paths with Gervon Dexter in the hallways of the school.Johnson, who is also a dean, was eager to see Dexter, a hulking freshman and talented AAU basketball player, on the football field. His initial efforts were met with the kind of box-out Dexter would use to corral rebounds easily.“I knew Gervon and I knew his family well,” Johnson said. “I played with a few of his uncles. He comes from a very talented family. The first thing I said to Gervon was, ‘Hey, a guy your size should be on the football field. You are a dream waiting to happen.’ He looks at me and he says, ‘Coach, I’m not playing football.’ I’m like, ‘What?!? You’ve got to be kidding me.’”Undeterred, Johnson kept a full-court press on Dexter into his sophomore year and he remained sing...

Column: Shades of 1997 in Chicago? A Sunday stroll through the start of the Cubs and White Sox seasons.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

Wandering through the start of the baseball season while pulling over to the side of the road for a brief rest on a lazy Sunday morning in early May.Here’s what we’ve learned so far.Shades of 1997The 1997 Cubs lost their first 14 games, setting a National League record and effectively ending their season before it ever got off the ground.The White Sox’s 7-21 start was similar, though manager Pedro Grifol insisted after the 10-game losing streak hope remained despite being 14 games under .500 on April 30. “It doesn’t feel like that,” Grifol said. “I can’t explain that feeling. I wake up every morning, and my feeling is today is going to be the start of something good. That’s how we prepare, that’s how we work, that’s how we address things. That’s what we do. …. I don’t feel this is over by any means.”The Sox scored seventh ninth-inning runs the next day in a comeback win over the Tampa Bay Rays ...

Coronation conversation must include impacts of colonization: On Canada Project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

The Coronation of King Charles III has been widely covered this weekend as a historic day but a local group is highlighting the importance of remembering the impact of the British monarchy and what they call a shameful legacy.On Canada Project is a group that says it aims to dismantle the status quo and champion change, while bridging “information gaps to invite more Canadians into critical conversations about Canada and the world.”Founder Samanta Krishnapillai says conversations and public discourse around the coronation must include more than the new king’s patronage work, how he was the longest-waiting heir apparent in history, and the ongoing royal family drama.“If you’re going to get all hyped up about this coronation, alright — but also speak to the harm that this family has done and continues to benefit from and continues to ignore,” she says, echoing a recent On Canada Project Instagram post that calls for “the whole damn story.” View this ...

Five more names to be added to Ontario Police Memorial on Sunday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

Five more names will be added to the Ontario Police Memorial on Sunday, honouring those who are killed in the line of duty. The sacrifices of Const. Andrew Hong of the Toronto Police Service, Const. Devon Northrup and Const. Morgan Russell of the South Simcoe Police Service, Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala of the Ontario Provincial Police, and Const. Vicki Lynn Wilson of the Durham Regional Police Service will be recognized during a ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Wall of Honour.Hong, a 22-year veteran motorcycle officer, was on his lunch break in a coffee shop in Mississauga when he was approached by a man carrying a gun and fatally shot in September 2022 what police say was an ambush attack. Northrup and Russell were killed after exchanging gunfire with a man while responding to a disturbance at a home in Innisfil, Ont., in October 2022. Pierzchala was shot and killed after stopping to check on a vehicle that had become stuck in a ditch in Hagersville, Ont., in December 2022. He had just pa...

Kentucky GOP aims for strong matchup versus Dem Gov. Beshear

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

LIBERTY, Ky. (AP) — As Kentucky’s GOP primary campaign sprints toward the finish line, some Republicans are looking ahead to the November election with an eye toward who best can reclaim the governorship — a job that the state’s dominant party has struggled to hold despite its strong showing in other races.With candidates dashing from the hills of Appalachia to the suburbs of Lexington and Louisville and rural communities out west, some of the voters they meet along the way say they are basing decisions in the May 16 primary mostly on which Republican would pose the toughest challenge to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is facing nominal party opposition.The contest, coming a year before national elections will determine control of the presidency and Congress, is expected to send loud signals about whether Democrats can remain competitive in what has become rock-solid Republican territory.Republican voters are handicapping a crowded pack of candidates vying for the gube...

High costs putting farming out of reach for young people, affecting all Canadians

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

MONTREAL — When Myriam Landry started raising goats for their meat in 2018, she started small — because she had to.She opened Chèvrerie aux Volets Verts, in St-Esprit, Que., with two goats; she couldn’t afford a large herd and chose animals small enough that she could handle on her own while pregnant with her third child.“I should have started bigger … but then I would have needed more money, which I didn’t have,” Landry, 33, said in a recent interview from her farm 50 kilometres north of Montreal. “It’s really hard for young people to start … I don’t even have land, I don’t have tractors, even my goats (I paid for) on loans.”The rising cost of land is making it harder than ever for young farmers to enter the business. And those barriers come at a time when a growing number of older farmers are planning to leave the industry. Organizations promoting farm succession worry that if young people are unable to enter the industry, only...

Czech opera singer Soňa Červená dies at age 97

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — Soňa Červená, a Czech opera singer who became known for playing Carmen and more than 110 roles in San Francisco and other opera houses behind the Iron Curtain, has died. She was 97.Červená died Sunday at a hospital in the Czech capital where she was being treated for an unspecified illness, the National Theater in Prague said.Born Sept. 9, 1925 in Prague, Červená was as a guest singer at the Unter den Linden opera and the Berlin State Opera in the Soviet-controlled part of Berlin when she emigrated to West Berlin in January 1962 through the last opened crossing in the newly built Berlin Wall.“I couldn’t live and sing without freedom,” she once told the Czech public radio.The Iron Curtain kept her outside her country for 30 years.In the West, Červená was based at the Frankfurt Opera, but she became known for her guest performances in numerous opera house in Europe and the United States, including in Vienna, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Chicago and festivals at ...

7 people shot in overnight shootings on city's South Side

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:37 GMT

CHICAGO — Seven people are injured from overnight shootings on the city's South Side in Englewood, Back of the Yards and Hyde Park.Police reported that three men were leaving a business near the 5300 block of South Lake Park Avenue in Hyde Park when an unidentified man fired shots into a crowd. One man suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and another man was shot in the abdomen.Both men were located to the hospital and listed in good condition. Another man suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and ride side of the hip and was transported to the hospital in critical condition. Police said a black charger was seen driving away at a high speed at the same time. Police also confirmed a 22-year-old woman was shot in the upper back when a fight broke out near the 1300 block of West 47th Street around 11:00 p.m. in Englewood. She was transported to the hospital in good condition. CPD: Woman dies after being dragged under mini van in church parking lot An hour later, police reporte...