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Judge says fire retardant drops are polluting streams but allows use to continue

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge ruled Friday that chemical retardant dropped on wildfires by the U.S. Forest Service is polluting streams in western states in violation of federal law, but said that it can keep being used to fight fires.The ruling from U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Montana came after environmentalists sued the government for dropping the red slurry material into waterways hundreds of times over the past decade.Government officials say chemical fire retardant is sometimes crucial to slowing the advance of dangerous blazes. Wildfires across North America have grown bigger and more destructive over the past two decades. Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

BONAFIDE collective redefines fine art for the Gen Z generation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

Emerging artists don’t often get their start in major galleries, but rather through grassroots collectives in unassuming parts of our city.BONAFIDE, a new local arts collective is pushing the definition of fine art forward and is challenging the status quo along the way.The Gen Z-led collective, co-founders Halle Hirota, Sarah Ruest, Jahliya Daley, and Erika Lindberg aim to highlight the network of emerging artists across a variety of mediums and industries with a focus on underappreciated and underrecognized art forms through its events.They debuted Organized Chaos in Little Portugal, the first in a series of immersive activations to exhibit a range of underrepresented artistic mediums like pole performances, tattoo artists and skateboard designers.“We wanted to create a space that was just completely like uncensored art for you to just come and experience it live,” explained Hirota. “I think that more of our performance art, especially we had a pole dancing show,...

Berlin police investigate Roger Waters for possible incitement over concert outfit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Police in Berlin said Friday that they have opened an investigation of Roger Waters on suspicion of incitement over a costume the Pink Floyd co-founder wore when he performed in the German capital last week.Images on social media showed Waters firing an imitation machine gun while dressed in a long black coat with a red armband. Police confirmed that an investigation was opened over suspicions that the context of the costume could constitute a glorification, justification or approval of Nazi rule and therefore a disturbance of the public peace.Once the police investigation is concluded, the case will be handed to Berlin prosecutors, who would decide whether to pursue any charges.Waters has drawn ire for his support of the BDS movement, which calls for boycotts and sanctions against Israel. He has rejected accusations of antisemitism. Authorities in Frankfurt tried to prevent a concert there scheduled for May 28, but Waters challenged that move successfully in a local c...

Florida man pleads not guilty after Canada-U.S. human smuggling tragedy in Manitoba

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

DULUTH, Minn. — A Florida man has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges after the frozen bodies of a family of four migrants were found near the Canada-U.S. border last year. Steve Shand, 48, entered the plea today via videoconference as part of his long-delayed arraignment in Duluth, Minn. Shand faces one count each of bringing people into the U.S. illegally and of transporting them inside the country. He was arrested in January 2022 in a remote area of northern Minnesota, where border agents encountered him with two Indian nationals in a rented passenger van. Just over the border, near Emerson, Man., RCMP officers discovered the bodies of four people authorities believe froze to death while trying to slip into the U.S. undetected.Three others in India are facing charges in the deaths of Jagdish Patel, 39, wife Vaishaliben, 37, daughter Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old son Dharmik.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2023.The Canadian Press

Jill Biden to promote women, youth on trip to Mideast, North Africa, Europe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden will promote empowerment for women and young people — and attend a Jordanian royal wedding — during an upcoming trip to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The first lady was scheduled to depart Wednesday on a six-day trip that will take her to Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Portugal. Her office shared some details first with The Associated Press.It will be Biden’s first Middle East visit as first lady. She traveled to Namibia and Kenya in February.“The first lady believes that supporting youth across the world is critical to our common future, with education, health, and empowerment at the heart of it,” said Vanessa Valdivia, her spokesperson.“With her visit to the Middle East and North Africa, the first lady will continue to build on her work to empower young people, and reaffirm our commitment to strengthen our partnerships and advance our shared priorities in the region,” Valdivia said in an email. In Amman, the capital of Jordan, Biden will ...

Russia says its border regions attacked; Moscow’s forces hit clinic in central Ukrainian city

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack Friday from Ukrainian artillery fire, mortar shells and drones, authorities said, hours after two drones struck a Russian city in an area next to the annexed Crimea Peninsula.Moscow’s forces, meanwhile, struck a building containing psychology and veterinary clinics in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine, killing two people and wounding 30, including two children, Ukrainian officials said.Video released by regional Gov. Serhiy Lysak showed fire engulfing the three-story building that appeared almost destroyed, with only parts of a wall standing, as firefighters battled the flames.A Russian S-300 missile hit a dam in the Karlivka district of Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine, threatening nearby settlements with flooding.The town of Graivoron in Russia’s Belgorod region, about 7 kilometers (more than 4 miles) from the Ukrainian border, came under fire for several hours, damaging four h...

Judge halts South Carolina’s new stricter abortion law until state Supreme Court review

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge on Friday put a temporary halt to South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state Supreme Court can review the measure.The ruling by Judge Clifton Newman came just about 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bill. The decision means South Carolina reverts back to a ban at about 20 weeks after fertilization.“The status quo should be maintained until the Supreme Court reviews its decision,” Newman said. “It’s going to end up there.”The law passed Tuesday by the General Assembly is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers passed in 2021.The state Supreme Court decided in a 3-2 ruling that the 2021 law violated the state constitution’s right to privacy. Legislative leaders said the new law makes technical tweaks that should sway at least one justice to change his mind and the author of the January ruling has since retired.The law took effect as soon as...

Technology and base metal stocks help lift S&P/TSX composite, U.S. markets also up

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in the technology and base metal sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain more than 100 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also higher on the final day of the trading week.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 117.83 points at 19,891.91.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 248.37 points at 33,013.02. The S&P 500 index was up 39.50 points at 4,190.78, while the Nasdaq composite was up 206.48 points at 12,904.57.The Canadian dollar traded for 73.36 cents US compared with 73.38 cents US on Thursday.The July crude contract was up 62 cents at US$72.45 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was down nine cents at US$2.39 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was down US$2.30 at US$1,941.40 an ounce and the July copper contract was up eight cents at US$3.67 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Kosovo Serbs clash with police, try to block recently-elected commune heads

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Small groups of ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo on Friday clashed with police while trying to block the entrance of municipal buildings to prevent recently-elected officials from entering them, according to local media.Police fired tear gas and several cars were set ablaze. In response to the clashes, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in a written statement carried on state-run RTS television that he put the army on a “higher state of alert.” Vucic also said that he ordered an “urgent” movement of Serbian troops to the border with Kosovo. Vucic will attend a rally in support of him in Belgrade after two mass shootings earlier this month that killed 18 people and left 20 others wounded.The media reports also said that because of “violence” against Kosovo Serbs, Vucic demanded that NATO-led troops stationed in Kosovo protect them from the Kosovo police.Kosovo police acknowledged their increased presence in the north “to assist mayors of the northern commu...

World Bank approves $300 million financing to help poor people in Lebanon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:18:08 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The World Bank approved a $300 million additional financing to Lebanon’s poor, providing cash payments to help families struggling through the country’s historic economic meltdown, the institution said in a statement Friday. The new financing comes two years after the World Bank approved a $246 million loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to hundreds of thousands in the tiny Mediterranean nation of 6 million people. Lebanon is in the throes of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. The meltdown, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling class, began in October 2019 and has left more than three quarters of Lebanon’s population in poverty. “The additional financing will enable the government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank’s director...