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US Defense Secretary Austin to visit Israel on Friday to discuss military aid following Hamas attack

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to visit Israel on Friday, the second high-level U.S. official to visit Tel Aviv in two days, in a deliberate show of support and an effort to determine what additional military aid is needed in the war with Hamas.Austin is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive travel details Austin’s arrival comes just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited and vowed American support for Israel in a meeting with Netanyahu.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Austin said the U.S. is “working urgently to get Israel what it needs to defend itself, including munitions and our iron Dome interceptor interceptors.”THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to...

Canada committing $10M in humanitarian aid for Israel, Gaza as Canadian flights leave

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada is giving an initial $10 million in humanitarian assistance for urgent needs in Israel and the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday, while refusing to say whether he agrees with a United Nations warning that Israel is violating international humanitarian law.Meanwhile, the first airlift of Canadians out of Israel was completed earlier Thursday, with 130 citizens, permanent residents or their relatives landing in Athens on a military flight from Tel Aviv.“The situation on the ground is volatile,” Trudeau told reporters in Yellowknife.Canadian officials said Wednesday that about 700 people with a connection to Canada within Israel have asked for help to leave that country since violence broke out on Saturday. The federal government says each of its military flights can take up to 150 passengers.Canada does not usually provide military air transportation when commercial flights are still operating, but the government says people have been ...

Pharmacare would cost public sector billions more a year, but save economy money: PBO

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

OTTAWA — The parliamentary budget officer says a single-payer universal drug plan would cost federal and provincial governments an additional$11.2 billion in the first year, and $13.4 billion in five years.The PBOreleased a report on Thursday that provides an estimate for the cost of a pharmacare program between 2024-25 and 2027-28. It follows up on a previous costing the PBO published in 2017 for a pharmacare plan. The new report calculates the incremental cost of the program, taking into account current spending by governments on public drug plans as well as revenue that would be generated from co-pays under a pharmacare plan.The Liberals have promised to table pharmacare legislation this fall as part of the supply-and-confidence deal the government struck with the NDP.Currently, Canadians pay for their prescription drugs through a mix of public plans, private insurance and out-of-pocket spending. Excluding hospital drugs, the PBO says total prescription drug spending was $36.6 bi...

Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer struggles in cross-examination of the government’s key witness

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer struggled through a meandering cross-examination of the FTX founder’s former girlfriend Thursday, keeping both the judge and the public guessing as to the defense team’s strategy in countering the testimony of the government’s key witness.Caroline Ellison had testified over the two previous days that Bankman-Fried directed her at several times over the years to pull money from FTX customer accounts to fund investments and trading strategies at Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research. Ellison was the CEO of Alameda when it and FTX collapsed in November of last year. Ellison spent much of her testimony walking the jury through how she repeatedly had to tap into the customer deposits at FTX to solve problems at the hedge fund or at the exchange. FTX deposits would be withdrawn to pay for new investments or political donations, or to hide steep losses on Alameda’s balance sheet, she testified. All of ...

Five months pass since man, 37, with Down Syndrome went missing

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

It has been five months since Nathan, a 37-year-old man with Down Syndrome, went missing and still, police have yet to locate him or provide any updates on where he might be.Police said Nathan was last seen around 7 p.m. on May 12 near Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue West. At the time, the search was upgraded to a level three because police were concerned that Nathan “does not have the ability to take care of himself for this amount of time.”Nathan was new to Toronto after moving to live with his brother and sister. He previously had lived in the Waterloo/Kitchener area and a possible sighting of Nathan in Guelph did not come to fruition. Police took an “all hands on deck” approach that included Toronto police mounted units and police dogs.Jason is Nathan’s cousin who grew up with him. “We were basically like brothers. We lived in the same apartment building, right up until almost our adult years,” said Jason.“And we love playing video games. He was always fu...

New York governor backs suspension of ‘right to shelter’ as migrant influx strains city

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting the city’s effort to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to homeless people, as a large influx of migrants overwhelms the city’s shelter system. Hochul endorsed the New York City’s challenge to the requirement in a court filing this week, telling reporters Thursday that the mandate was never meant to apply to an international humanitarian crisis.The city has for months sought to roll back the so-called right to shelter rule following the arrival of more than 120,000 migrants since last year. Many of the migrants have arrived without housing or jobs, forcing the city to erect emergency shelters and provide various government services, with an estimated cost of $12 billion over the next few years. The shelter requirement has been in place for more than four decades in New York City, following a legal agreement that required the city to provide temporary housing for...

Federal effort to boost child care in three provinces off to ‘slow start’: report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

An analysis by a public-policy group has found that federal funding meant to bring $10-a-day child care across Canada has stumbled with a “slow start” and “underwhelming results” in three provinces where data is available.The report by Cardus looking at the roll out of the programs in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick found that issues ranging from unspent funding to skilled labour shortages led to missed child care targets.The federal government signed separate, five-year funding agreements with provinces and territories in 2021, committing up to $30 billion in five years toward the establishment of $10-a-day child care.The Cardus report found that B.C. spent just 11 per cent of its federal funding from the initiative in its first year, while only nine per cent of the funding set aside for Indigenous child care was allocated. The report says similar issues arose in Saskatchewan, where a shortage of early-childhood educators limited the provinc...

Bernie Sanders to address NDP convention in pre-recorded video

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

HAMILTON — United States Sen. Bernie Sanders is throwing his support behind Canada’s New Democrats in a pre-recorded video the party aims to play at its policy convention on Friday.The former U.S. presidential candidate says in the seven-minute video that he’s a long-time fan of the NDP.He delivers a warning to party faithful about what he says are massive attacks on the foundations of democracy and rule of law around the world. He says that in his own country, millions of people are giving up on democracy and turning to autocracy to answer the crises of the day. Sanders says he believes the NDP can address such challenges in Canada, and they must expand a multi-racial, multi-generational movement that demands an economy and government that work for everyone.Sanders also calls for a quicker transition to green energy, citing this year’s Canadian wildfires. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2023. The Canadian Press

Man guilty of incel-inspired terror attack on Toronto spa employee apologizes to victims

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

A man who pleaded guilty to the incel-inspired murder of a Toronto massage parlour employee says he has changed in the three years since the terrorist attack and doesn’t hate women anymore. The man apologized in court today to the family and friends of 24-year-old Ashley Noelle Arzaga, who was killed in the February 2020 stabbing attack at a spa in north Toronto, as well as to a woman who was seriously injured.The man, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 17 at the time of the attack, pleaded guilty last year to charges of murder and attempted murder.Justice Suhail Akhtar ruled in June that the attack amounted to an act of terrorism for its links to so-called “incel” ideology, short for the “involuntary celibate” fringe internet subculture dominated by men who blame women for their lack of sexual relations.The court heard the man planned to seek out women to violently attack with a 17-inch sword in order to p...

In many Indigenous cultures, a solar eclipse is more than a spectacle. It’s for honoring tradition

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:18:30 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — For a few hours, Krystal Curley and her Indigenous women’s work group took over a college auditorium to share traditional Navajo practices regarding this weekend’s highly anticipated solar eclipse. More than 50 people — young and old — showed up for the chance to either connect with or remember cultural protocol going back hundreds of years.They laid out books on Navajo astronomy and corn pollen used for blessings. A medicine man fielded questions from the majority Navajo, or Diné, audience on what to do when the moon partially shrouds the sun.Don’t: Look at the eclipse, eat, drink, sleep or engage in physical activity.Do: Sit at home and reflect or pray during what’s considered an intimate, celestial moment. “There’s so many things we’re not supposed to do as Diné people compared to other tribes, where it’s OK for them to look at the eclipse or be out or do things,” said Curley, executive director of nonprofit Indigenous Life Ways.The be...