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Ask Amy: My family is trying to keep me a secret. I want the truth to come out.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

Dear Amy: Five years ago, late in life, I learned that I was adopted.My birth parents and adoptive parents have died.“Janice,” my birth mother, moved out of state to give birth to me, telling only her siblings and a few close friends.The biological cousins I’ve located were aware of my birth because of whispered conversations but never spoke directly to Janice about it.My birth family has been extremely warm and welcoming. Despite this, they say they don’t want anyone who might have known Janice to find out about my existence, because they believe that is what Janice would have wanted.I understand wanting to honor her wishes, but I do exist, and the family’s wanting to keep me a secret makes me feel like my birth is shameful.Furthermore, these family members are ignoring the fact that Janice never wanted them to know about me, either, and yet they are happy to have a relationship with me.Similarly, my half-brother from my birth father (“Henry”) doesn’t want me contacting Henry’s wid...

A federal hate crime probe is underway after 3 people were killed in a racist rampage in Jacksonville, officials say. Here’s what we know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

(CNN) — A federal hate crime investigation is underway after a White gunman with a swastika-emblazoned assault-style rifle killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, authorities said.The shooting claimed the lives of Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19, and Jerrald Gallion, 29.The gunman, identified as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter, left racist writings and used racial slurs before launching the attack Saturday and then killing himself, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said. Palmeter had worked at a Dollar Tree from October 2021 to July 2022, the sheriff said.“There’s no question” the killings were racially motivated, the sheriff told CNN on Monday.“He hated Blacks, and I think he hated just about everyone that wasn’t White,” Waters said. “He made that very clear.”The killer was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun – which were both legally purchased, the sheriff said.The Justice Department is investigating...

Police investigation underway in Fort Lauderdale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

A police investigation is currently underway after, neighbors said, a teenage boy was struck by a bullet, Tuesday morning. Multiple police cruisers were dispatched to the vicinity of Northwest 15th Court and 15th Place where they were seen closing off the surrounding area with crime scene tape. A yellow house on the street is at the center of the investigation as authorities were seen entering and exiting the home during their investigation. Neighbors said they heard seven shots around 3:30 a.m. and as another neighbor heard about the incident, they mentioned this was the second time that home was targeted. That incident occurred on Friday and no one was injured when that situation unfolded. Video footage from early Tuesday showed police helicopters overhead as they likely searched for the suspects. Bullet holes were also evident in the home. It is unclear if law enforcement officers captured a suspect in this incident. The teen’s condition is also unknown.Although no details ...

COVID resurgence sparks concerns as hospitalizations increase across Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

Toronto, Ontario (CTV Network) — Although most COVID-19 cases decreased slowly from the beginning of the year until August, there are early signs suggesting a new wave of COVID-19 infections across Canada. As hospitalizations rise, disease experts are also talking about how a new wave could be different from previous ones.The Public Health Agency of Canada reported an 11 per cent increase of COVID-related hospitalizations on Aug. 15 compared to the week before.Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday there are some seasonal components to the rise in COVID cases, however, unlike the flu, this disease is present year-round.“COVID will wax and wane but it just seems to always linger in the background,” he said.But a rise in hospitalizations is not a byproduct of this year’s summer months.According to data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), COVID-related hospitalizations have been resurging since last spring.The...

Cleverly heads to China as UK prepares to re-engage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

James Cleverly will on Tuesday begin the first visit to China by a U.K. foreign secretary in five years, walking a diplomatic tightrope as Tory MPs urge their government not to soften its stance on Beijing.Speaking to press in the Philippines ahead of a four-hour flight to Beijing, Cleverly set out a list of concerns about Chinese behavior and vowed to press his opposite number, Wang Yi, on issues from Ukraine to Hong Kong — while also encouraging China to work more closely with the West on tackling climate change.U.K.-China relations hit rock bottom four years ago when China imposed the national security law on Hong Kong. Two years later Beijing issued sanctions against British lawmakers and academics in response to the U.K.’s sanctioning of Chinese officials involved in Xinjiang, where human rights abuses have been widely reported. “We will be discussing how we can work together and where the relationship can be more productive,” Cleverly said.Security issues wil...

Bosnian Serb leader says Bosnia should join BRICS, not EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said Bosnia and Herzegovina should apply to join the BRICS group as an alternative to the European Union.“Given that new and unclear conditions for admission to the European Union are always emerging from Brussels, I believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina should submit an application for membership in BRICS,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I believe that it would be accepted before the EU.”Dodik — the Serb member of the three-person presidential body governing Bosnia — said representatives from Republika Srpska will send a proposal to the Bosnian government “in the coming days,” asking them to consider this plan.Dodik, leader of Serb-majority entity of Republika Srpska, one of the two administrative units in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has had a troubled relationship with the EU for years. He has repeatedly voiced secessionist rhetoric, fomented nationalist sentiment and threatened to create a breakaway Serb army.He is currently ...

China should come clean on vanishing minister, top EU official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

BRUSSELS — Beijing is facing calls from the European Union’s most senior Asia policy official to explain the sudden disappearance of China’s former foreign minister. In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, the EU’s outgoing Asia chief Gunnar Wiegand said Beijing should set out the reasons why Qin Gang — who has not been seen in public for two months — was relieved of his duties in July, after only seven months in the job.“I do not wish to comment on the sudden disappearance of the former minister Mr. Qin Gang, whom I happen to know from the time when he was vice-minister,” Wiegand said in the interview earlier this month. “I do hope that, indeed, the Chinese leadership will give more information about what has happened,” he added. “Was it a health issue? Or was it another reason which has brought about this sudden disappearance from the public scene and from the international projection of China?” The intervention from the se...

UK confirms fifth delay to post-Brexit border checks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. has confirmed a further delay to post-Brexit border checks on food coming from the EU for a fifth time in order to give businesses “additional time to prepare” for the changes.New checks on some food and animal products coming from the EU will now begin in January, instead of October 31 as previously planned, with further checks introduced in two stages throughout 2024.The delay was initially reported last week, with suggestions that the government chose to enact this latest delay to avoid further inflationary pressures on the British economy.POLITICO first reported in April that businesses were expecting red tape connected to the new checks at the border to add to Britain’s inflation woes by decreasing the supply of goods coming from the EU.The U.K. has the highest inflation rate in the G7, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) growing by 6.8 percent in the 12 months to July.The U.K. has the highest inflation rate in the G7, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) ...

Orioles minor league report: From Cade Povich to Seth Johnson, a look at how Baltimore’s pitching prospects are performing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

For much of Mike Elias’ tenure, the Orioles’ best two pitching prospects were drafted by the previous regime.Since taking over as Baltimore’s general manager in November 2018, Elias’ front office built the sport’s best farm system, but that was mostly because of elite position player prospects such as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall, pitchers selected by the Orioles in the first round of the two drafts before Elias took over, have headlined Baltimore’s crop of pitching prospects for several years, including entering the 2023 season inside Baseball America’s top 100 list.Now, both Rodriguez and Hall are in the major leagues. Rodriguez has graduated from prospect status and emerged this summer as one of the Orioles’ best starters, while Hall has battled through an up-and-down 2023 to join Baltimore as a reliever for the stretch run.With the two talented arms both no longer in the mino...

UNC Chapel Hill shooting suspect’s motive in the killing of a faculty member is unclear, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:54:00 GMT

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Police were searching for both the weapon and the motive in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that left one faculty member dead and prompted an hourslong lockdown amid a search for the suspect. The assailant in Monday afternoon’s shooting at a science building in the heart of the flagship university’s campus was taken into custody about an hour and a half after the gunfire was first reported, officials said at a news conference. Neither the suspect nor the victim was immediately identified and it wasn’t clear whether they knew each other. Formal charges were pending.“To actually have the suspect in custody gives us an opportunity to figure out the why and even the how, and also helps us to uncover a motive and really just why this happened today. Why today, why at all?” UNC Police Chief Brian James said. “And we want to learn from this incident and we will certainly work to do our best to ensure that this never h...