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Speaker McCarthy faces big test as debt bill heads for vote

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy is hurtling toward one of the most consequential weeks of the new House Republican majority as he labors to pass a partisan package that would raise the nation’s debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep cuts that some in his own party oppose.McCarthy has almost no room for error with his slim five-seat majority hold on power in the House, but has scoffed at the drama bearing down on him, mocking public interest at the will-he-or-won’t-he anticipation of the embattled Republican speaker’s ability to bring his fellow Republicans in line. But the political stakes are sky-high for McCarthy, who is trying to entice President Joe Biden to the negotiating table. The nation is teetering toward a debt default crisis, needing to lift the borrowing cap to keep fully paying the bills in a matter of weeks. “We will hold a vote this week, and we will pass it,” McCarthy vowed in a Sunday interview on Fox News.Even if M...

German plane airlifts 58 Canadians from Sudan, as Canadian plane readies for more

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian military will aim to airlift Canadians out of Sudan using a C-17 transport plane that is in the region. He says he heard earlier today that a German plane lifted off from the capital, Khartoum, carrying 58 Canadian citizens and one German citizen.Trudeau made the comments at a photo-op with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Ottawa today, adding that the recent airlift is an example of great co-operation between Canada and Germany.Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said earlier today that Canada is working with “like-minded countries” to help citizens who remain in Sudan flee the country as an armed conflict there escalates.Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in just 10 days after power-sharing negotiations between the country’s armed forces and its paramilitary troops rapidly deteriorated.Joly says Global Affairs Canada is trying to contact all Canadians in Sudan who have registered w...

Canada’s financial support for clean energy compares favourably to U.S: TD Bank

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

CALGARY — The financial support Canada is offering for the clean energy transition is competitive with the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) south of the border, a new report from TD Economics says.The report Monday essentially refutes the arguments made in recent months by Canadian business leaders, who have held up the U.S. IRA as the gold standard in the global race for energy transition investment.TD said it has crunched the numbers and the government of Canada has spent $139 billion since budget 2021, or five per cent of the country’s nominal GDP, on supports for clean energy development.The bank said this compares favourably to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s estimated US$393 billion in spending, or 1.5 per cent of that country’s nominal GDP.“Despite criticism, Canada’s financial support for the clean energy transition is yielding positive results and has established a competitive position relative to the U.S,” the report’s author, TD managing dire...

Boy, 16, facing slew of charges in Toronto carjacking investigation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

A 16-year-old boy is among three people arrested in connection with carjackings that occurred in various areas of the city in mid-April.Toronto police say four carjackings took place between April 17 and April 19 in the neighbourhoods of Parkwoods and Wexford/Maryvale, both near Hwy. 401 and Don Valley Parkway, and Humber Summit near Jane Street and Finch Avenue West.According to investigators, in each incident, a male would approach a driver with a handgun and demand their vehicle. In three of the incidents, the male allegedly drove away with the victim’s vehicle. He left the area empty-handed in the fourth vehicle.Police identified three suspects and spotted two of them — a man and a woman — with the alleged stolen vehicles on April 20, and they were both arrested.At some point in the investigation, police located the third vehicle.Investigators searched all three vehicles and recovered evidence related to the investigation, including an airsoft handgun with an e...

Iqaluit water treatment plant to return to service after more than a year

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

IQALUIT, Nunavut — The City of Iqaluit says its water treatment plant is to return to service Tuesday morning, more than a year after it was shut down due to contamination.The plant was initially shut down in October 2021 after fuel was detected in the city’s water supply.A do-not-consume order was lifted in December of that year, but less than a week later it was discovered the water was contaminated by a tar-like substance.The city has since been using a water treatment bypass system while repairs were completed on the plant.The city says when the plant becomes operational at 8 a.m., residents will be under a precautionary boil water order that could last as long as a week.It says as the filtration system takes over, residents will notice gradual improvement in the taste and clarity of the water coming from their taps. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023. The Canadian Press

Ottawa will host celebrations to mark coronation of King Charles

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

OTTAWA — Canadians will be able to celebrate the coronation of King Charles at a special event in Ottawa on May 6. The federal Heritage Department says an hour-long program is being prepared to mark the occasion featuring music, art and poetry. Those include the Algonquin Eagle River Singers and a speech by Algonquin spiritual adviser Albert Dumont. Canada Post is set to reveal its first stamp with the King’s image at the event.There will also be free activities at Rideau Hall through the weekend and it’s expected that lieutenant-governors will host events across the country. Canadian Heritage says it is spending $257,000 to create learning materials commemorating King Charles’s ties to Canada, focused on the environment and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023.The Canadian Press

Review: ‘Home for Wayward Girls’ about rising above abuse

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

“The Home for Wayward Girls” (Harper) by Marcia BradleyThere have been a number of recent accounts of young people, particularly young women, who were sent to schools for so-called “troubled” or “bad” kids. In 2022, Elizabeth Gilpin published “Stolen: A Memoir,” about her experience in one of these schools that touted therapy for troubled teens. Paris Hilton is the most famous example. She revealed in a 2020 documentary and a recent memoir about how her parents, frustrated with her rebellious teenage behavior, sent her to multiple facilities that promised to straighten her out, places where she says she was abused mentally and physically.“The Home for Wayward Girls” by debut novelist Marcia Bradley takes an inside-out approach to the concept by following a young woman named Loretta, who calls one of these facilities home because it’s at the ranch where she lives with her parents, who also run it.Loretta’s mother and father, William, rule with a tyrannical approach,...

Clinic says promise not to enforce abortion law not enough

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The owner of a Catholic clinic challenging Colorado’s new ban on unproven treatments to reverse medication abortions testified Monday that a state pledge not to enforce the ban for now wasn’t enough to protect her staff and patients. At a hearing in federal court, DeDe Chism, co-founder and CEO of Bella Health and Wellness, said state lawmakers’ comments during debate on the measure about wanting to come after faith-based clinics like hers made her fearful. She said she worried about what could happen if she continued to offer the treatments to women who wanted to stop a medication abortion.“A promise is just a promise. I feel like I need something a little more concrete,” she said at the hearing, which was held to determine if U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico’s judge’s temporary order stopping enforcement of the new law against her clinic should be extended.The clinic claims the ban violates a First Amendment right to free speech and religi...

Pakistani police say 2 blasts at facility in NW kill 12

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two explosions Monday at a counterterrorism police facility in northwest Pakistan killed at least 12 people and wounded at least 50, police said.Senior police officer Ataullah Khan said an initial blast at the facility in the Swat Valley district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was followed by a larger, more intense one.No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but in recent months, the Pakistani Taliban have claimed similar attacks after ending a cease-fire with the government last year.Khan said part of the building collapsed and rescue workers retrieved three bodies and 30 of the wounded people. He said the death toll could increase.The police complex also houses the Kabal city police station and the headquarters of a reserve police force but the main damage was done at the counterterrorism department building, Khan said. The picturesque Swat Valley once had been the stronghold of Islamic militants who imposed strict Sharia rule there until...

Kenyan cult deaths at 73, president likens them to terrorism

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:00 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday compared the dozens of starvation deaths among the followers of a pastor in the south of the country with the results of terrorist acts, as the new death toll rose to 73.He maintained that the pastor, Paul Makenzi, who is in police custody, should be in prison.“What we are seeing … is akin to terrorism,” Ruto said. “Mr. Makenzi … pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal.”Makenzi was arrested on suspicion of telling his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus. A group of emaciated people were rescued alive, but some of them later died. Authorities then turned their attention to dozens of shallow graves marked with crosses on Makenzi’s 800-acre ranch.The total death toll now stands at 73, with 26 new bodies exhumed on Monday, Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi told the Associated Press.Kemboi said investigators had received reinforcements and w...