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Wagner boss Prigozhin says his soldiers won’t sign contracts with Russian army

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

Fighters of the Wagner paramilitary group will not sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said, countering an effort by the ministry in Moscow to integrate the mercenaries in the ordinary army.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Saturday ordered all “volunteer detachments” at the front in the Ukraine war to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry by July 1, in order to increase the effectiveness of the army.He did not specifically mention Wagner, but the soldiers are frequently referred to as “volunteer assault detachments.”In reaction to that, Prigozhin posted a statement on Telegram on Sunday saying that “Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu.”Prigozhin cited as the reason for his refusal that the Russian military cannot hold up to the efficiency of his group, because of “Shoigu’s inability to properly manage the military formations.” But the Wagner boss added that in ge...

Children found after 40 days in Amazon survived by eating ‘cassava flour’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

(CNN) — Eating cassava flour helped save the lives of four children found alive in the Amazon jungle more than a month after their plane crashed, according to a Colombian military special forces official.The children ate “three kilograms (six pounds) of farina,” a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon region, said spokesperson Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez.“Days after the crash, they ate the farina which they had carried there… but they (eventually) ran out of food and decided to look for a place where they could stay alive,” Suárez said.“They were malnourished but fully conscious and lucid when we found them,” he added.“Their indigenous origins allowed them to acquire a certain immunity against diseases in the jungle and having knowledge of the jungle itself – knowing what to eat and what not to eat – as well as finding water kept them alive – which would not have been possible (if they) were not used to that type of hostile environment...

Section of northbound I-95 collapses in Philadelphia after tanker truck catches fire underneath highway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

(CNN) — A section of northbound I-95 in Philadelphia has collapsed after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway, Philadelphia officials said Sunday morning.“We did have a collapse of 95 on the northbound side, and the southbound side is compromised by heavy fire,” Derek Bowmer, battalion chief for the Philadelphia Fire Department, said during a news conference Sunday morning. “It looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”Firefighters are still battling the blaze, Bowmer said.Explosions around the highway collapse were caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” said Bowmer.“We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said.The mayor’s office told CNN a large tanker truck fire caused the collapse. The highway is closed in both directions around the area and the fire is under control, according to Sarah Peterson, the office’s communications director.Dominick Mireles, director...

Fire under I-95 in Philadelphia causes section to collapse, closing interstate in both directions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A large vehicle fire under an elevated section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia caused a huge portion of the interstate to collapse, closing the highway in both directions, authorities said.Video from the scene showed a massive slab covering an entire section of the northbound lanes collapsed onto the surface roadway in northeast Philadelphia. Officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries.Capt. Derek Bowmer of the Philadelphia fire department said emergency crews responding shortly before 6:30 a.m. Sunday to an accident report found heavy fire from a vehicle or vehicles. Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials said that hadn’t yet been confirmed. The fire was reported to be under control.Bowmer said the northbound lanes were gone and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire. He also said runoff from the fire or perhaps compromised gas lines were causing explosions underground. Offi...

Quebec now taking the offensive against forest fires: natural resources minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s natural resources minister says wilderness firefighters are now taking the offensive against the province’s forest fires instead of just reacting to the blazes. Maïté Blanchette Vézina says coordinated attacks against the fires are now possible due to reinforcements from other jurisdictions, including a team of wilderness firefighters from France.She says there are still 131 fires burning in the province, but the number of out of control fires has dropped by 28 to 44.But she says it’s not yet safe to allow people to return to any of the communities that have been evacuated.Blanchette Vézina says discussions with local officials about allowing people to return to Chibougamau, Que., where around 7,500 people were forced from their homes, and the surrounding area will take place today and Monday but the situation has not improved enough around evacuated communities in western Quebec. With no rain expected in affected areas before Tuesday, she says ...

Environmental officials kill moose after it wanders onto Connecticut airport, didn’t reach runway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) — Environmental officials killed moose in Connecticut after it wandered onto the grounds of a major airport.The moose was spotted Friday morning wandering along a road at Bradley International Airport. Officials decided to put the animal down, citing safety concerns for air travelers and drivers along a nearby highway.“When moose are roaming in high-traffic areas such as airports and public roadways it can be a public safety concern and both DEEP and airport staff are authorized to euthanize a moose if deemed necessary,” James Fowler a spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said in a statement.The animal never breached the perimeter fence that protects the airport’s runways, and no flights were affected. The animal had not been injured. It’s unclear why the animal could not be moved. DEEP did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment Sunday. The DEEP estimates there are between 100-150 moose in Connecticu...

Fire under I-95 causes section to collapse, closing interstate in both directions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A large vehicle fire under an elevated section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia caused a huge portion of the interstate to collapse, closing the highway in both directions, authorities said.Video from the scene showed a massive slab covering an entire section of the northbound lanes collapsed onto the surface roadway in northeast Philadelphia. Officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries.Capt. Derrick Bowmer of the Philadelphia fire department said emergency crews responding shortly before 6:30 a.m. Sunday to an accident report found heavy fire from a vehicle or vehicles. Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials said that hadn’t yet been confirmed. The fire was reported to be under control. Bowmer said the northbound lanes were gone and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire. He also said runoff from the fire or perhaps compromised gas lines were causing explosions undergro...

Increasing international delegations as Saskatchewan sets sights on global markets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

SASKATOON — Saskatchewan politicians have rapidly increased international travel since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were loosened as Premier Scott Moe remains laser-focused on global markets.A Canadian Press analysis of publicly available data on out-of-province ministerial expenses shows a more than 33 per cent increase in spending on international trips for Moe and his ministers from 2018 to 2022.“This is how Saskatchewan creates wealth,” Moe said in April after a speech focused on the province’s international trade missions at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities convention in Saskatoon.“It is the recipe for success for us to attract investment.”Moe has been touting how his Saskatchewan Party government is planting the province’s flag in key markets around the world while arguing the federal Liberal government’s policies are harming industry.Jason Childs, an associate professor of economics at the University of Regina, said the province is pursuing its own export priorit...

In backrooms and on social media, battle rages over law to expand railway competition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

MONTREAL — A new rail shipping rule is poised to drive up inefficiency and consumer costs.Or it will drive them straight down. It depends who you ask.Set to come into effect with Ottawa’s federal budget bill, an obscure law has Canada’s two main railways fighting back over concerns about expenses and congestion, with the drama playing out in social media posts and a backroom lobbying push.At the centre of the tempest in a train yard is legislation that aims to expand what’s known as extended interswitching, a seldom-heard term that describes a critical practice in the rail industry.Interswitching refers to the transfer of cargo between two rail companies at a point where their tracks meet. Extended interswitching is when Company A must transport that cargo along its own tracks to a point where it meets Company B’s rails, and it’s currently required on request for distances of up to 30 kilometres.The practice seeks to spur competition, as someone shipping from a gra...

Fungi may offer ‘jaw-dropping’ solution to climate change

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:59 GMT

(The Hill) - As planet-warming carbon emissions rise, a major solution to climate change is growing beneath our feet.A study published in Current Biology on Monday found that fungi gobble up more than a third of the world’s annual fossil fuel emissions.As such, fungi “represent a blind spot in carbon modeling, conservation, and restoration,” coauthor Kate Field, a professor of biology at the University of Sheffield, said in a statement.“The numbers we’ve uncovered are jaw-dropping,” Field added. Field’s team found that fungi pulled down 36 percent of global fossil fuel emissions — enough to cancel out the yearly carbon pollution from China, the world’s largest carbon emitter. China beats out its nearest polluting competitor, the United States, by a factor of two.Fungi are the broad biological kingdom that produces mushrooms — the fruiting bodies of far larger organisms that sprawl beneath the surface.  Massive sargassum seaweed bloom takes surprising turn ...