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Russian advance stalls in Ukraine’s Bakhmut, think tank says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s advance seems to have stalled in Moscow’s campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war.The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said there were no confirmed advances by Russian forces in Bakhmut. Russian forces and units from the Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group continued to launch ground attacks in the city, but there was no evidence that they were able to make any progress, ISW said late Saturday.The report cited the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Eastern Group, Serhii Cherevaty, who said that fighting in the Bakhmut area had been more intense this week than the previous one. According to Cherevaty, there were 23 clashes in the city over the previous 24 hours.The ISW’s report comes following claims of Russian progress earlier this week. The U.K. Defense Ministry said Saturday that paramilitary units from the Kremli...

AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

Oil giant Saudi Aramco has profits of $161B in 2022DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported Sunday its profits surged to $161 billion last year off higher crude prices, a record result for an energy firm crucial to the kingdom’s economy.The firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said in its annual report that the profit represented “its highest annual profits as a listed company.” That came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets. Aramco also hopes to increase its production to take advantage of market demand, raising the billions needed to pay for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to develop futuristic cityscapes to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil. However, those plans come despite growing international concerns over the burning of fossil fuels accelerating climate change.“Gi...

Nature group wants Canada to strengthen reviews of genetically engineered animals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

OTTAWA — A national biodiversity group says Canada needs to keep genetically engineered animals out of the wild, after the federal government recently rejected several attempts to strengthen its existing laws.Canada hasn’t had any accidents with the technology, but Nature Canada senior adviser Mark Butler said we need to prevent wild animals from being exposed to engineered cousins that could breed with them, prey on them or compete with them for food.“Now is the time to act,” he said.The federal government is in the midst of updating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act for the first time in 22 years. The act, usually known as CEPA, governs the management of toxic chemicals and new genetically modified or engineered organisms.An update that was introduced in legislation last year is almost entirely focused on toxic chemicals. The Senate tried to change the bill to include mandatory public consultations on genetically modified organisms, and ensure the risk to...

Sunday's Weather Report and Outlook

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

Southeast winds Sunday morning will become southwest in the afternoon behind the cold front.  Scattered snow showers, with some rain, will remain possible in Chicago Sunday evening.  A few isolated snow showers are possible overnight as temperatures fall into the upper 20s.Chillier weather for start of work week. Extended outlook calls for a return to chillier weather in Chicago for the start of the work week. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a high of 34 is about ten degrees below normal. The chill in the mid 30s continues on Tuesday with a bit more sunshine. Mostly sunny on Wednesday and highs getting back towards the normal of mid 40s. Thursday looks like the mildest day of the week with highs near 50 and a chance of rain. St. Patrick's Day next Friday looks like a rain/snow mix is possible and high in the lower 40s. 

Grow Downtown seeds St. Paul with 10 new retailers through free six-month leases

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

In downtown St. Paul, Alexandra “AJ” Johnson wants her ground-level Wabasha Street storefront, Jack and the Pack, to become a go-to resource for all things joring. For the uninitiated, she explains that joring — the Norwegian word for “pulling” — describes ropes and harnesses for biking dogs, sled dogs, ski dogs, scooter dogs, running dogs or virtually “anything with a dog, and they are pulling you.”Johnson, a residential property manager and former school teacher who lives in St. Paul, had long wanted to evolve Jack and the Pack from an online storefront and event-driven pop-up shop to a brick-and-mortar location. Then a friend showed her a newspaper article about the Grow Downtown program, an effort of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance to connect commercial landlords with new tenants through six-month, rent-free leases.Shop owners, many of them first-time business owners, may be expected to pay utilities, insurance and other incidentals. Otherwise,...

After more than a year of war, Ukrainians in Minnesota watch and wait

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

When a fireball erupted at 4:30 a.m. in Maryna Kyrylkova’s quiet suburb outside Kyiv, her 12-year-old son remarked on the flame and ash falling with misleading grace in the distance.“My kid said, ‘Are those butterflies?'” said Kyrylkova, a school teacher, who found herself bathed in the unnaturally bright and devastating light.Ukrainian refugee Maryna Kyrylkova talks about her family’s ordeal at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine during an interview at the International Institute of Minnesota in St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)Then came another explosion. And another. And more the next day, which is when the family hurriedly packed what they could — Kyrylkova threw the family’s belongings in trash bags until her husband convinced her they had just enough time for suitcases — and drove, fleeing toward Romania, logjammed next to hundreds, if not thousands, of other families with the same idea.Changing course, they...

Skywatch: The world-famous Orion’s belt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

If you’ve been kind enough to have read my column for some time, you know how much I love the constellation Orion the Hunter. It’s the absolute king of the winter skies and one of my best non-human friends. I look for Orion as soon as I head outside on clear winter nights. I know I’m not the only Orion lover. Like the Big Dipper, Orion is one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Except that the Big Dipper isn’t actually one of the 88 official constellations seen from Earth. The Big Dipper is an asterism, or a pattern of stars, that makes up the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. So, Orion is the most recognizable constellation as far as I’m concerned. Its calling card is the three stars neatly lined up in a row that make up the celestial hunter’s belt. There’s no other line of stars as bright anywhere else in the celestial dome.Over the years, cultures worldwide have come up with nicknames for Orion’s belt that have nothing to do wi...

Nurses and hospital leaders split on how to address staffing shortages

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

Minnesota nurses and hospital leaders are divided on whether giving caregivers more say in staffing levels will bring nurses back to the bedside.Nurses unsuccessfully pushed the issue during months of contentious contract negotiations and have now turned to the Minnesota Legislature to put new staffing rules in state law. Health system leaders say the proposed changes will result in reduced hospital capacity and worse access to care.Despite those differences, the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee advanced the “Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act” on Wednesday. Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, the chief sponsor of the bill and a nurse, said the Legislature has struggled to address the nurse staffing issue for over a decade.She noted that too many nurses who train to work in hospitals leave because of burnout.“That is a signal we need to do more within these facilities to hold onto our people,” Murphy said. “Pumping people through not only doe...

St. Paul’s Sidewalk Poetry Contest returns to stamp new poems beneath our feet

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

Every summer, the city repairs 10 miles of sidewalk — and your words could be literally set in concrete.St. Paul’s Sidewalk Poetry Contest is returning this spring, allowing people of all ages across the city to submit poems that could be stamped into pavement.Poetry submissions should focus on this year’s contest theme, “network of mutuality,” also the theme of this summer’s inaugural Wakpa Triennial Art Festival. The phrase comes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which the civil rights leader highlights the ways diverse communities are interrelated and should be invested in one another’s equity.A panel of jurors including poets Kevin Yang, Marian Hassan, Fong Lee, Thressa Johnson, Aisha Mohamed, Tanagidan To Win and Michael Kleber-Diggs will pick 15 poems to add to the collection in early June. In addition to having their words stamped onto sidewalks, winning poets also receive $100.Poems can be submitted online in English, Spanish, Hmong, Somal...

Literary calendar for week of March 12

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:27 GMT

BERICA HANNICKEL: Professor of environmental history at Northland College, Ashland, Wis., discusses her new book “Orchid Muse: A History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers,” in the University of  Minnesota Spring Writer Series. Presented by the university English department and environmental humanities initiative. Free. 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 17, Pillsbury Hall, 310 Pillsbury Dr. S.E., Mpls.ROB KIRBY: Discusses “Marry Me a Little: A Graphic Memoir,” in which he recounts his experience of marrying his longtime partner, John, just after same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota in 2013 and their private lives set against historical and political backgrounds. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 16, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin  Ave. S., Mpls.COINNEACH MacLEOD: Introduces his second cookbook, “The Hebridean Baker: My Scottish Island Kitchen,” presented by Magers & Quinn. $15-$40. 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, Peoples Organic, 3001 Hennepin Ave., Mpls. Ticket...