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First Nations leaders demand meeting with premier over mining, removed from chamber

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

Two First Nation leaders were removed from Ontario’s legislative chamber on Wednesday for shouting at Premier Doug Ford to meet with them over mining concerns in the province’s north.Dozens of members of five First Nations descended upon Queen’s Park to voice their concerns over the Progressive Conservative government’s plans to expand mining operations on and around their lands in the so-called Ring of Fire region.Those plans include the province’s intention to build a road to the Ring of Fire and mine the large swath of land in northern Ontario that is said to rich in critical minerals, which the government wants to use in its push to build electric vehicles.“There will be no Ring of Fire!” incoming Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias bellowed from one of the galleries in the legislative chamber.Outgoing Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias said there will be no development on First Nation land without consent.NDP Indigenous affairs crit...

UAE leader designates his eldest son as crown prince

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, appointed his eldest son Khaled as crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, placing him as next in line to take over as the leader of the federation.The state-run WAM news agency announced the appointment of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as crown prince late Wednesday, without providing further details.After Sheikh Mohammed, 62, who is commonly known as MBZ, ascended to the presidency last year, rumors swirled about whether he would make one of his brothers his heir. In that case, the front-runners would have been Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, the powerful national security chief, Sheikh Mansour, the owner of the Manchester City football club, or the foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah.Instead, he appears to concentrating power within his immediate family, as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman did by delegating wide-ranging powers to his son and heir, Crown Princ...

‘A crisis’: Calgary charity seeks one-month homes for Ukrainian refugees after influx

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

CALGARY — After six months under Russian occupation, Dmytro Syrman and his family decided to flee Ukraine for a safer life abroad and are now in Calgary. The family lived in Dniprorudne, a mining city of 17,000 in southern Ukraine. Syrman worked as a human resources manager at an iron factory.In August, Syrman, his wife, Anastasiia, and four-year-old daughter Varvara embarked on a six-day, 3,000-kilometre drive to Poland.“On the 24 of February, when the Russian army attacked Ukraine and occupied our city in March 2022, we lost everything,” Syrman said Wednesday. He said they began planning their escape when they realized Russian soldiers weren’t leaving their city.  “We started all of this because we were scared for Varvara,” he said. “When Russian bombs were falling near our city it was really scary.”Their home is still under Russian occupation.For the past year the family stayed in Poland, sent in their paperwork to come to Canada, and two...

Stocks rally on Wall Street as bank fears ease further

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rallying Wednesday as Wall Street shakes off more of the fear that dominated it earlier this month.The S&P 500 was 1.3% higher in late trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 273 points, or 0.8%, at 32,667, as of 3:15 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.7% higher. They followed similar sized gains in other markets around the world, and the S&P 500 is on track to close what’s been a tumultuous month with a modest gain. That’s despite the month being dominated by worries about banks and whether the industry is cracking under the pressure of much higher interest rates.Forceful actions by regulators have helped to calm some of the worries about banks. By Wednesday, a measure of fear among stock investors fell back toward its lowest point since March 9. That’s the day Silicon Valley Bank’s customers suddenly yanked out $42 billion in a panicked dash. It became the second-largest U.S. bank failure in history and sparked har...

With no end to federal deficits in sight, budget spells dismay for some economists

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

OTTAWA — Even as the Liberals keep a tight focus on new clean-tech and health-care spending, the federal budget released Tuesday still projects deficits for the next five years.Many economists are expressing disappointment in those fiscal projections, noting the government could be in trouble if the economy slows more than it is expected to — and saying the Liberals could’ve saved themselves headaches with better planning in previous years. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland promised that Tuesday’s budget would be fiscally restrained in light of a slowing economy that could weigh on government coffers.But the fiscal projections in the budget show the deficit has been revised upward since the fall, showing no end in sight for deficits despite the fall budget update in November projecting a balanced budget in 2027-28. “The idea that you’re not even getting to a balanced budget within this budget horizon, is, in my mind, not fiscally responsible,” said Jam...

Congress approves measure to toss Biden’s water protections

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Wednesday approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as a burden on business, advancing a measure that President Joe Biden has promised to veto.Republicans have targeted the Biden administration’s protections for thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, labeling it an environmental overreach that harms businesses, developers and farmers. They used the Congressional Review Act that allows Congress to block recently enacted executive branch regulations. The Senate voted in favor 53 to 43 Wednesday to give final legislative approval to the measure. Four Democrats and Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona joined Republicans to vote in favor of the resolution.“The overreach, basically, it’s unreal,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D.-W. Va., a critic of some of the White House’s environmental policies.The Senate vote is the latest development in a lon...

GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use.The votes to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto were lopsided in both legislative chambers — where the GOP wields supermajorities — and came on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session.The debate is likely to spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign in Kentucky and could reach the courts if opponents follow through on a threat to mount a legal challenge against the bill.Activists on both sides of the impassioned debate gathered at the statehouse to make competing appeals shortly before lawmakers took up the transgender bill.A few hours before the vote, as transgender-rights advocates rallied outside Kentucky’s Capitol, trans teenager Sun Pacyga held up a sign summin...

‘Small world’: Luke Schenn, long-time Maple Leaf Tomas Kaberle are neighbours

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

A text message popped up from a number so old, Luke Schenn had forgotten it was still among his contacts.The returning Maple Leafs defenceman had just moved his growing family into his new Toronto home, excited about his third baby and his shot at a third Stanley Cup.“Hey, it’s Kabby. I heard we’re neighbours.”Sitting in the middle of the defencemen’s bank of stalls inside the Leafs Scotiabank Arena dressing room, Schenn motions across the logo on the carpet toward Auston Matthews’ stall on the other side.That’s how far away, he said, the Kaberles’ driveway is from the Schenns’.Unbeknownst to him, the newly reacquired Schenn has moved in directly across the street from his original Maple Leafs D partner, Tomas Kaberle, now 45.“It’s a small world. You don’t anticipate that,” Schenn, 33, said with a wide grin.“Different paths in life, but here we are.”Kaberle “a great mentor” for Sche...

Colorado man cites fear of homelessness in ax killings case

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

DENVER (AP) — An 81-year-old Colorado man accused of killing his wife and daughter with an ax told police he lost his job and was afraid they would end up homeless. Reginald Maclaren told police he didn’t regret killing them because he “knows they are in a better place,” according to court documents.Maclaren was arrested Saturday in the killings and booked into jail Tuesday after being taken to the hospital for what police have described as a preexisting medical condition, Crystal Essman, a spokesperson for police in the Denver suburb of Englewood, said Wednesday. Maclaren is scheduled to appear in court Monday, when prosecutors say they plan to file formal charges against him. Police said Maclaren called authorities Saturday to tell them that his wife and adult daughter had been killed and that he thought he knew who the suspect was. When officers arrived at his apartment, they found the bodies of two women in trash cans in the living room, police said in a press release. One of th...

Couple says city is forcing them to pay red light violation that isn't theirs

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:29:55 GMT

CHICAGO (WGN-TV) — A couple says the City of Chicago is coercing them into paying a red light ticket for a car that isn't theirs.Steve Stallings and his wife, Celeste Galizia, received a $100 red light violation in the mail four months ago. The catch is that the car on camera isn't theirs, and they say the camera misread the plate.The license plate shown in the photo starts with the letters "CE." Stallings and Galizia said their plate starts with "CL.""It's clearly not ours," Scalling said. "We weren't there or nothing. It's got a Kansas City Chiefs decal on it, and we wouldn't own one of those." Chicago-area native being hailed a hero after Nashville school shooting The couple, who live in a suburb outside Chicago, appealed the violation, but a judge ruled against them. After that, they sent the Department of Finance proof the car and plate isn't theirs through the mail, but it was also refused and sent back."We're completely innocent, yet they want us to jump through hoops," Sca...