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White House scraps plan for B-52s to entertain at state dinner against backdrop of Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scrapped plans to have the new wave band the B-52s perform at Wednesday’s state dinner for Australia’s prime minister after deciding that it would be inappropriate at a time when “so many are facing sorrow and pain,” in the words of first lady Jill Biden.Without directly referencing the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war, the first lady announced Tuesday that “we’ve made a few adjustments to the entertainment portion” of the dinner. Instead of the band best known for “Love Shack,” the entertainment will be instrumental music provided by the Marine band and the Army and Air Force Strolling Strings. “Nurturing our partnerships and relationships with our allies is critically important, especially in these tumultuous times,” she said. “Food is comforting, reassuring and healing, and we hope that this dinner provides a little of that as well.”Members of the B-52s will instead be guests at the dinner honoring Australian Prime Mini...

First Quantum Minerals earnings rise to US$325 million in third quarter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

TORONTO — First Quantum Minerals Ltd. reported US$325 million in net earnings attributable to shareholders for the third quarter, up from US$113 million a year earlier. Sales revenues totalled US$2.0 billion, up from US$1.7 billion.Diluted earnings per share for the Toronto-based company were 47 cents US, up from 37 cents US a year earlier. CEO Tristan Pascall says production continued to improve during the third quarter at each of the company’s three main copper operations. Earlier in the year, First Quantum’s production took a hit amid a dispute with the Panama government over its Cobre Panamá copper mine. On Monday, the company announced that the bill enacting its mining concession contract for the mine became law, after reaching a deal with the government in March. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:FM)The Canadian Press

Quebec anti-corruption police note proliferation of small-scale schemes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

Quebec’s anti-corruption police force says although the scandals that defined the province’s construction industry in the last decade have subsided, corrupt activities have sprouted on a smaller scale in other sectors.Anti-corruption commissioner Frédérick Gaudreau presented the force’s five-year report in Quebec City today, noting criminal proceedings against 259 people and 57 convictions since 2018.Many of those legal proceedings are ongoing, and 17 of the 57 convictions stemmed from charges filed before 2018, when the anti-corruption unit known as UPAC became a full-fledged police force.Only 44 out of the 259 cases have gone through the entire judicial process in the last five years, and 40 of them resulted in convictions.Instead of large-scale conspiracies, Gaudreau said the force is now seeing smaller, covert corruption schemes.He noted cases at the municipal level, in school administrations and in the health-care sector.This report by The Canadian Press was f...

York U, students’ union, named in $15M lawsuit alleging decades of anti-Semitic campus incidents

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

York University and its students’ union, the York Federation of Students, have been named in a $15 million class-action lawsuit that alleges failure to address recurring anti-Semitic incidents at the school over a span of two decades.Diamond and Diamond Lawyers, which initiated the legal action, says the lawsuit represents current students, recent alumni, and attendees from 1998-2021.“The plaintiffs allege they have been made to feel unsafe on campus, silenced, forced to hide their Jewish identity, been harassed, and even threatened with physical violence,” a release from the law firm states. Related: York U threatens sanctions against student unions over controversial statements about Hamas attacks Diamond and Diamond Lawyers said the school and the student union were negligent “in failing to address anti-Semitic incidents, violating York’s non-discrimination policies, and providing insufficient staff training on handling harassment.&#...

The US is sharing hard lessons from urban combat in Iraq and Syria as Israel prepares to invade Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his military leaders, that intense combat and the thousands of civilians killed in airstrikes and neighborhood gunfights in Mosul and Raqqa are lessons to be shared as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion against Hamas. “In our conversations with the Israelis, and as we’ve made very clear, we’re continuing to highlight, the importance of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that … things like safety corridors are thought through,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday. The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000...

Venezuelan government escalates attacks on opposition’s primary election as turnout tops forecast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government escalated attacks Tuesday on the past weekend’s opposition primary to choose a challenger for President Nicolás Maduro next year, saying the voter turnout claimed by organizers was inflated and amounted to a crime.Maduro’s government and its allies have spent months hindering opposition efforts to hold their primary election and have banned the now-apparent winner from being a candidate — leaving the effectiveness of Sunday’s poll in doubt. The attacks on the legitimacy of the primary also could sow fear among voters already wary of government reprisals for participating in the polling.National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the partial results showing participation of at least 1.6 million voters were mathematically impossible given the number of available voting centers and the time it takes a person to cast a ballot.“What happened this past Sunday was not an election, it was a farce, it was a scam,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. ...

Costa Rica investigating $6.1 million bank heist, the largest in national history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica is investigating the theft of 3.3 billion colons ($6.1 million) in cash from its national bank, the largest bank robbery in the country’s history, anti-corruption authorities confirmed Tuesday.The money was noticed missing from bank vaults three weeks ago, but the robbery itself must have taken place in August, or earlier, said Jaime Murillo, interim manager of Costa Rica’s Banco Nacional.Two area supervisors, a technician, a guard and an accountant — all of whom worked in the area of the bank that handles currency — are under investigation. All five were suspended with pay once the theft was noticed Oct. 3. No one has been arrested.Murillo said in a press conference that the bank had been investigating the theft privately, but that national prosecutors took up the case after details were leaked to the press and the bank brought an official complaint.Authorities have not provided details about how the theft was carried out.The state...

B.C. moves up zero-emission vehicle targets to meet transition goal by 2035

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s government is accelerating its transition to zero-emission vehicles to meet its sales target five years sooner than initially planned.The province says in a news release that, if passed, legislation to amend the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act would increase access and choice for electric vehicle buyers, as new provincial funding expands the charging network.The government would require 100 per cent of new light-duty vehicles, passenger cars and trucks, sold in the province to be emission-free by 2035, five years sooner than the initial goal of 2040.The accelerated timeline calls for automakers to meet the escalating annual percentage for light-duty zero-emission vehicle sales and leases, with targets of 26 per cent by 2026, 90 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.The province says it has consistently exceeded the sales target for zero-emission vehicles since the act was first passed in 2019.It says the province also has the highest percentage of ...

Nicaragua is weaponizing US-bound migrants as Haitians pour in on charter flights, observers say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 260 charter flights believed to be carrying migrants from Haiti have touched down in Nicaragua in recent months, according to flight data and experts in the region, adding to a historic crush of migration by people hoping to reach the U.S.The flow of migrants has left the Biden administration and Latin American leaders scrambling for solutions, and experts say it’s also being used as leverage by governments like Nicaragua’s to get concessions from the U.S. amid tightening sanctions.“The Ortega government knows they have few important policy tools at hand to confront the United States, … so they have armed migration as a way to attack,” said Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue. “This is definitely a concrete example of weaponizing migration as a foreign policy.”Nicaragua has long been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing struggling Caribbean nati...

'He was my best friend': Mother recuperates after 6-year-old boy killed in attack police call a hate crime

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was killed in what police are calling a hate crime in a Chicago suburb has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recuperates from her injuries.Hanaan Shahin issued a statement Tuesday through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after meeting with the group's executive director a day earlier. The written statement marked her first public comments since the brutal Oct. 14 attack that left her with more than a dozen stab wounds and stitches on her face. Chicago Interfaith leaders condemn murder of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoumi Authorities said the family's suburban Chicago landlord singled them out because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war.“Pray for peace,” Shahin said, thanking authorities, doctors and others. She was released from the hospital last week and has declined interviews with reporters.Shahin, who works as a caregiver t...