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MPs debate how to challenge Israel’s judicial reform and push for regional peace

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Canadian MPs are mulling how vigorously and publicly they should challenge moves by Israel’s far-right government to curtail the power of judges and expand illegal settlements on Palestinian land.At an event this week marking 75 years of Israel’s existence, Jewish MPs and their peers are taking stock of Canada’s relations with the Middle Eastern country.The MPs note that Ottawa has increasingly voiced concerns about the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.His government has allowed the expansion of settlements that are illegal under international law, and it wants to allow Israel’s parliament to overturn decisions by the country’s Supreme Court.Liberal MP Ya’ara Saks says it’s important to call out friendly countries when they are headed down a bad path, but another Liberal MP, Anthony Housefather, says most disagreements should be aired in private.A House of Commons committee has opted to study the recent trends i...

Pale Male, red-tailed hawk who nested above NYC’s Fifth Avenue for 30 years, dies at 33

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who brought a touch of the wild to swanky Manhattan as he nested above Fifth Avenue for three decades, has died. Pale Male died late Tuesday after being found ill and grounded in Central Park, wildlife rehabilitator Bobby Horvath posted on Facebook. The hawk was believed to be 33 years old.Horvath posted that he picked Pale Male up and took him to his rehab group’s veterinarian, who did bloodwork and X-rays. The hawk later ate a small meal but remained weak and lethargic, Horvath said. “We hoped for any improvement but sadly it was not meant to be,” he said.Pale Male, so named because of his whitish plumage, was first spotted in Central Park as a juvenile in 1991 and began nesting on Fifth Avenue across from the park in 1993. Bird lovers crowded inside the park to watch as Pale Male and his succession of mates hatched and raised their young each spring.The birders were outraged in 2004 when Pale Male’s nest with then-mate Lola...

Supreme Court lets Illinois keep ban on sale of some semiautomatic guns for now

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday that Illinois can, for now, keep in place a new law that bars the sale of certain semiautomatic guns and large-capacity magazines.The high court denied an emergency request from people challenging the law, which bans so-called assault weapons. The law’s opponents had asked the court to put the law on hold while a court challenge continues. The court did not comment and no justice publicly dissented.The high court’s action comes at a time when gun violence has been heavily in the news. Since the beginning of the year, 115 people have died in 22 mass killings — an average of one mass killing a week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University. The database counts killings involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator. Just recently, on May 6, a man armed with an AR-15 style rifle and other firearms fatally shot eight people, including three c...

Prison sentences for political activists who defrauded Polish Red Cross to fund election campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish court has convicted nine people, including two former activists of the governing Law and Justice party, of using donations to the regional Red Cross to fund an election campaign. The court in the city of Wroclaw estimated the scam cost the Red Cross some 3 million zlotys ($660,000).The court sentenced the former head of the Wroclaw regional Red Cross, identified only as Jerzy G., to three years and five months in prison. His deputy, Piotr B., received a sentence of two years and seven months. Both were activists for Law and Justice, serving as a regional councilor and a lawmaker respectively. They have also been ordered to refund the money and pay fines. Others received prison terms of between 12 and 18 months, two of them suspended terms. The verdict is subject to appeal.The court found them guilty of selling clothes and food donated to the Red Cross in order to funnel money to Law and Justice for its regional campaign during the 2015 parliamentary el...

‘True heroism:’ Biden honors 9 with Medal of Valor including 2 NYPD cops killed during 911 call

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two New York Police Department officers ambushed and killed after responding to a 911 call and the rookie cop who took down the gunman were honored Wednesday, along with six others, by President Joe Biden with the Medal of Valor, the nation’s highest honor for bravery by a public safety officer. The three NYPD officers, a Houston police officer, Colorado police official, Ohio sheriff’s deputy and three FDNY firefighters all received medals in a White House ceremony before Biden departs for Japan and the Group of Seven summit.“I don’t know all of you, but I do know you,” Biden said. “From small towns to big cities, you’re cut from the same cloth. You run into danger when everyone else runs away from danger.”Biden told the crowd the award was given for “actions above and beyond the call of duty,” singling out the families of the officers to thank them. NYPD officer Wilbert Mora and his police partner Jason Rivera were shot Jan. 21, 2022, while respo...

Former senior judges to have last word on disclosure of sensitive laboratory records

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Three former senior judges will have the final say on the public disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s highest-security laboratory.The Liberal government says former Supreme Court justices Ian Binnie and Marshall Rothstein, along with Eleanor Dawson, who sat on the Federal Court of Appeal, will assist an ad hoc committee of MPs reviewing the records.Opposition parties believe the documents will shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired in January 2021.They also want to see documents related to the transfer, overseen by Qiu, of deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.The MPs on the committee are Liberal Iqra Khalid, Conservative John Williamson, René Villemure of the Bloc Québécois and the NDP’s Heather McPherson.Each of the four parties...

Movie Review: A delicious Jason Momoa saves ‘Fast X’ from furiously speeding off into numbness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

Fans and critics may disagree over when exactly the “Fast & Furious” franchise jumped the shark, but there is only one correct answer: When the Pontiac Fiero went into space.Weightless and violating every physical law, the floating car — tasked with bumping a satellite in the ninth installment — was the very symbol of how bloated and crazed the once-plucky series had become. There really was no way down after that.And yet we have come to 10, part of a planned series of films finally saying goodbye. “Fast X” is, thankfully, shackled to Earth’s gravity — sometimes tenuously, it must be said — but it has become almost camp, as if it breathed in too much of its own fumes.“Fast X” reaches into the fifth movie — 2011’s “Fast Five” — for the seeds to tell a new story. In a memorable moment five movies ago, Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto wrecked a bad guy and his team on a bridge in Rio de Janeiro. Little did we know then, but that bad guy had a son who survived and now, years lat...

Ukrainian artist painting historic section of Uptown 'en plein air'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

CHICAGO — A Chicago-based artist from Ukraine is busy painting one of Uptown's most historic sections.Zhanna Biletska has been painting for over 20 years and doesn't take too long to create a masterpiece.The Ukrainian, who came to Chicago in 2013, specializes in the French style "en plein air" — which means painting outside with the subject in full view.From CloudGate to the Chicago Theatre to Rogers Park's beaches — Biletska's busy as a professional artist since returning from basic training for the U.S. National Guard in 2020 — which she joined to speed up her citizenship.Lately, Biletska has started working on one of the most historic streets in all of Chicago — Uptown's Castlewood Terrace.Chicago was known as one of the early epicenters of the silent film industry. Due to the Essanay Film Company, several stars, including Charlie Chaplin, lived in the neighborhood.The street contains 26 homes built between 1897 and 1927. In 2009, Castlewood Terrace was added to the National Regi...

What's the 'best' home improvement store?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Where do you go when it's time for home repairs? New data from J.D. Power shows America's got a favorite. For the fifth consecutive year, Ace Hardware has topped J.D. Power's U.S. Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study. To determine the highest customer satisfaction, J.D. Power surveyed 2,728 customers who purchased home improvement-related products from a retailer between December 2022 and March 2023. Stores were ranked on a 1,000-point scale weighing in-store experience, merchandise, price and more. These are the top 10 U.S. summer destinations on Airbnb Of the stores listed, Ace Hardware was the only home improvement retailer to earn a score higher than the study average of 851.StoreScoreAce Hardware873Lowe's849The Home Depot849Menards839Ace Hardware — known as "the place with the helpful hardware folks," per its famous jingle — was founded in 1924 in Chicago and currently has over 5,000 stores around the globe, the company says. New Orleans woman trades Tay...

Grand jury indicts Bryan Kohberger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:29 GMT

(NewsNation) — A grand jury has indicted Bryan Kohberger on charges connected to the deaths of four Idaho college students. In December, prosecutors announced he was facing four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, though it's not immediately clear what charges the grand jury indicted him on Wednesday.Prosecutors took the case against Bryan Kohberger before a grand jury instead of going through with an initially scheduled preliminary hearing. In criminal cases, both procedures can be used to determine whether or not the prosecution has sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against someone. Kohberger, a graduate student studying criminal justice in Washington, was accused of stabbing four Idaho college students to death in November. Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed in an apartment near the University of Idaho. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived in the apartment with two other roommates, while Chapin, Kernodle's boyfrie...