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Fort Lauderdale residents impacted by historic floods on edge as rain returns; FEMA director says progress made

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

Strong thunderstorms returned to parts of Broward County, putting residents impacted by last week’s historic floods on edge.More rainfall on Sunday was the last thing residents in Fort Lauderdale’s Edgewood neighborhood needed, as they continue to clean up.“When it comes to our home, it’s already pretty damaged, it’s already pretty far gone,” said resident Christopher Kilpatrick, “and, as you can see in the waterline of the house, we’re as ready as we can be and hope for the best.”Some residents said they hoping this weekend’s stormy weather doesn’t make things worse.Others, however, said the damage has already been done.“It don’t matter now; it’s all ruined. A car and my truck? Underwater, they’re totaled,” said resident Jack Grimm. “The house is ruined. It can rain all it wants now.”Residents in Edgewood spent the day cleaning up, throwing out sofas, clothes, chairs. Everyth...

Tempers flare among people waiting for gas at Wawa in Hialeah Gardens amid delivery slowdown caused by floods

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

Tensions ran high at a gas station in Hialeah Gardens as people waited in line to fuel up amid a slowdown of gas deliveries across South Florida.Customers at the Wawa along the 7800 block of Northwest 103rd Street expressed their concerns on Sunday about the limited availability.“It’s definitely concerning,” said customer Dina Roumeliotis.Lines stretched around several gas stations. In some cases, the wait times were upwards of 30 minutes.“We’ve been waiting, what, like around 10 minutes,” said customer Paul Kost.Back at the Wawa, police tried to keep everyone safe after an altercation sparked between customers. Most of them, however, chose to pack their patience.“I think everybody should just be calm, ’cause it’s not that there’s no gas,” said Kost.This is the message that officials want everyone to know: there is no fuel shortage.Last week’s wicked weather and historic flooding prevented many fuel pickups at P...

Broward County schools set to open Monday, but some only partially

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

Broward County schools swamped by the record flooding are set to reopen on Monday, but some schools may only be partially reopened depending on the damage.The historic amount of rainfall that fell across the region last week led to classes being canceled on Thursday and Friday.Walker Elementary in Fort Lauderdale suffered some damage, with water inside the school.The torrential downpours also caused significant roof damage.Officials said most schools were affected.“It’s mainly damage as it relates to water intrusion in some classrooms,” said Valerie Wanza, Ph.D, Broward Schools Associate Superintendent, “the administrative areas of some schools, the front offices, the hallways, and it’s generally on the first floor, and obviously because of the rain, we do have in some areas downed ceiling tiles and things of that nature.”Wanza said there’s $2 million worth of damage to schools district-wide from the preliminary assessment, with that number ...

Israeli judicial reforms still on hold, Netanyahu says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will not immediately resume controversial efforts to alter his nation’s judiciary system.“I’ve decided to take a timeout, try to get a balance between the opposing views, and there are strongly opposing views in both sides of our society,” he told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I hope to reach this by consensus.”Netanyahu’s efforts to pass legislation designed to limit the independence and authority of his nation’s judiciary drew massive protests before he announced in late March that he was temporarily delaying efforts to get the reforms passed. “When there’s an opportunity to avoid civil war through dialogue, I, as prime minister, am taking a timeout for dialogue,” he said then.Speaking to Todd, Netanyahu said that even though he’s not resuming his efforts now, his goal remains the same, limiting judicial overreach and balancing the branches of government.“We’re trying to bring it back into a proper bal...

Inside the European Parliament’s gift vault

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

BRUSSELS — Down a curving corridor on floor five and a half, there’s a dark alcove hiding an unmarked door. This is the final resting place for the European Parliament’s would-be bribes. The secret chamber is piled high with diplomatic gifts, all carefully labeled and left to languish in bureaucratic limbo under lock and key — neither accepted nor rejected. There’s the opulent; there’s the bizarre. One cupboard contains a Taiwanese wristwatch given to a Polish EU lawmaker. Another holds a pot of French mustard, a miniature Saudi Arabian door and a commemorative plaque from the Indonesian parliament.Expensive bottles of wine, children’s toys, wireless headphones, books, stationery, figurines — five dusty containers are brimming with the forsworn freebies that governments and parliaments from all over the globe have showered on EU lawmakers. The crypt — essentially a glorified janitor’s closet — has sat largely unperturbed since the collection began almost 15 ...

2023’s most important election: Turkey

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

For Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, next month’s election is of massive historical significance. It falls 100 years after the foundation of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular republic and, if Erdoğan wins, he will be empowered to put even more of his stamp on the trajectory of a geostrategic heavyweight of 85 million people. The fear in the West is that he will see this as his moment to push toward an increasingly religiously conservative model, characterized by regional confrontationalism, with greater political powers centered around himself. The election will weigh heavily on security in Europe and the Middle East. Who is elected stands to define: Turkey’s role in the NATO alliance; its relationship with the U.S., the EU and Russia; migration policy; Ankara’s role in the war in Ukraine; and how it handles tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.The May 14 vote is expected to be the most hotly contested race in Erdoğan’s 20-year rule — as t...

After 3 Czech diplomats die suddenly, Prague urges staff to improve work-life balance

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has sent a letter to foreign ministry staff asking them to find a better balance between professional and personal lives, after three Czech diplomats aged 46 to 55 died suddenly in the past five months.In the letter, seen by POLITICO, Lipavský asks foreign ministry employees not to underestimate the need to care for their physical and mental health. “Do not to forget that every job, including ours, has its own values and ambitions, but also ‘healthy’ boundaries,” read the letter, adding that it would be advisable to find a balance between work and family life.The deaths of the three diplomats, who died of natural causes, “show that the position of a diplomat involves working in extremely difficult conditions and often in isolation from family,” Lipavský said. “Our colleagues carry out this service even in war zones under tight security measures with limited mobility in the country of posting. Diplomats are...

We need to talk about NGOs 

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

William Nattrass is a freelance journalist and commentator based in Prague and covers Central Europe.Since the European Union’s Qatargate corruption scandal erupted late last year, much of the debate has increasingly focused on the blame apportionable to Brussels’ sprawling NGO sector.Along these lines, conservatives argue there’s now a pressing need to impose stricter transparency requirements on NGOs — after all, those skeptical of ulterior motives among such organizations couldn’t have dreamt up a better example of hypocrisy than allegations that an organization called Fight Impunity was sitting at the center of a web of international bribery.  Meanwhile, left-wing groups are countering this argument, saying that one or two bad apples are being used as an excuse to scapegoat the whole fruit barrel. But not only is their argument flawed — it also fails to see the opportunity such requirements could bring.In light of Qatargate, the European Commission is now trying ...

Biden’s Northern Ireland ultimatum looks doomed to fail

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

LONDON — Joe Biden is not someone known for his subtlety.His gaffe-prone nature — which saw him last week confuse the New Zealand rugby team with pro-British soldiers from the Irish civil war — leaves little in the way of nuance.But he is also a sentimental man from a long gone era of Washington, who specializes in a type of homespun, aw-shucks affability that would be seen as naff in a younger president.His lack of subtlety was on show in Belfast last week as he issued a thinly veiled ultimatum to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) — return to Northern Ireland’s power sharing arrangements or risk losing billions of dollars in U.S. business investment.The DUP — a unionist party that does not take kindly to lectures from American presidents — is refusing to sit in Stormont, the Northern Ireland Assembly, due to its anger with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol, which has created trade friction between the region and the rest of the U.K.The DUP is also refusing to support the ...

Local surfer, SDSU grad paralyzed in Easter weekend accident

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:31:52 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A local surfer and San Diego State University graduate suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury on Easter weekend that has left him paralyzed. According to his family, 23-year-old Collin Bosse was swimming in Mission Bay with his friends on Saturday, April 8 when the unexpected happened -- he unknowingly dove into shallow waters. Community rallies behind San Diego woman paralyzed from rare neurological disorder Instead of gliding through the bay as anticipated, Collin hit his head with force on the bottom. Summer Bosse, Collin's sister, told FOX5SanDiego.com her brother immediately felt a strange sensation in his body before he sunk under the water and was unable to move.His friends -- one of them a lifeguard -- noticed something was wrong, immediately springing into action. Summer says one person stabilized his neck while others called emergency services.Once at the hospital and assessed my medical professionals, Collin's family said doctors told them he had suffere...