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McConnell opposes as Senate nears repeal of Iraq war powers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he opposes repeal of the 2002 and 1991 authorizations of force against Iraq, arguing that that authority “bears directly on the threats we face today in Iraq and Syria from Iran-backed terrorists.” McConnell, who is home recovering from a fall earlier this month, is weighing in for the first time as the Senate is poised, as soon as Wednesday, to repeal the decades-old authority for the Iraq war. While supporters say the repeal would reinforce today’s strategic partnership between Iraq and the United States, McConnell and other Republican opponents say a withdrawal of those war powers would project U.S. weakness in the Middle East and embolden Iran and other terrorist groups. “I am opposed to Congress sunsetting any military force authorizations in the Middle East,” McConnell said. “Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them wi...

Daughter: Mississippi tornado victim was ‘beautiful soul’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — With her sister behind the wheel, Queen’terica Jones rushed across the flat Mississippi Delta as a powerful tornado bore down on their mother’s home. The howling winds lifted the rear of their car off the ground and slammed them into a churchyard.They arrived too late. The tornado had already killed their mother, ruined her home and devasted the town of Rolling Fork. With no electricity, survivors used cellphone flashlights to pick through the wreckage. Jones said she found her mother’s lifeless body face-down in the yard, bloodied by nails that struck her head.“I wouldn’t wish this pain upon nobody, not even an enemy,” Jones said Tuesday.Her mother, Erica Moore, worked as a personal care assistant and is survived by six children. She was “a beautiful soul” who loved to pray and help people, Jones said.“She was amazing. A sweetheart,” Jones said. “I mean, ain’t nobody perfect. Everybody goes through something, but our mom — everybod...

Hot Docs film festival to spotlight Inuit rights, Lac Mégantic, Canucks riot

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

TORONTO — This year’s Hot Docs festival will open with an intimate look at Inukactivist and lawyer Aaju Peter and her work to defend the human rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic.The Denmark-Canada-Greenland co-production “Twice Colonized” is helmed by Danish director Lin Alluna and produced by Iqaluit filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Denmark’s Emile Hertling Péronard.Arnaquq-Baril said she’s known Peter since she was a little girl, noting Peter was born in Greenland and moved to Canada as a young adult.“In Canada, we’ve been having the beginnings of a reckoning with the colonization of Indigenous Peoples. I just found it really interesting that a young Danish woman wanted to confront her own country with the questions that we’re talking about here,” said Arnaquq-Baril, who has been making documentaries for about 20 years. “I think the film is starting at a point of the conversation about reconciliation where we currently are,” said Arnaquq-Ba...

‘It’s really sad’: Neighbour describes chaotic scene after Calgary house explosion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

CALGARY — Rima Rifai thought her furnace had exploded Monday when the house across the street burst into a ball of fire, sending 10 people to hospital with serious injuries.When she opened the front door to the street, Rifai saw the home her neighbour has lived in for 20 years was destroyed.“The whole top of the house was completely blown off and there were all of these people coming out of the house,” Rifai said in an interview Tuesday outside her home in the neighbourhood east of downtown.“There was a gentleman actually right between these two vehicles here. You could tell after the explosion he had made it out first and he was just wandering the streets in absolute shock.”The explosion also damaged several other homes and sent part of the roof of the house that blew up into a yard across the street.Calgary Emergency Medical Services has said all the victims were adults. Six had life-threatening injuries and four were seriously hurt. Rifai and her neighbour...

$491B federal budget invests heavily in green economic transformation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2023 federal budget promises “transformative investments” in Canada’s green economy as the country tries to maintain its place in the global clean tech revolution and realign its supply chains toward allies who won’t use energy as a political weapon.“Together these two great shifts represent the most significant opportunity for Canadian workers in the lifetime of anyone here today,” Freeland said Tuesday in the House of Commons, according to her prepared remarks.She is also using the budget to provide another top-up of the GST rebate to low-income Canadians feeling the pinch of inflation, continue to fulfil parts of the Liberal supply-and-confidence deal with the NDP and react to some of the political fires burning around the Liberals in recent weeks and months, including adding some money to combat foreign interference.The 2023-24 spending plan will cost $491 billion, with $8 billion in new prog...

Biden: GOP policies would surrender tech economy to China

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

DURHAM, North Carolina (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans’ ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy.Speaking at a semiconductor maker in North Carolina to highlight his own policies, Biden is trying to shape public sentiment as he faces off with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., about whether the federal government should raise its legal borrowing capacity. McCarthy sent a letter Tuesday saying that talks should start about possible spending cuts in return for the debt limit increase. Biden has said Republicans need to put forth their own budget plan before negotiations start. Without an agreement, the federal government could default on its financial obligations. The president tried to ratchet up pressure on Tuesday by saying that the GOP demands on the budget would only empower China, the country’s key geopolitical rival. Being tough on China has been a core part of the identit...

Quick quotes from the release of Canada’s 2023 federal budget

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals released their 2023-24 budget on Tuesday.Here are some quotes about the spending plan from the finance minister, opposition leaders and the head of the Assembly of First Nations. ———Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland:“We are reducing government spending while taking great care not to reduce the services and direct support that Canadians rely on.”—“By exercising fiscal restraint, we’re ensuring that we can continue to invest in Canadians and in the Canadian economy for years to come, just as we have done since 2015.”—“I am ready to take on anyone in this room or outside this room who wants to challenge the idea that we needed to make a targeted and temporary investment in affordability for Canadians. It’s something we needed to do; there are vulnerable people in Canada who need that support.”—“I am so proud to announce the creation of a new Canadian Dental Care Plan. By the end of this year, by the en...

Construction company fined $20K after worker injured in N.W.T.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — A construction company has been fined $20,000 almost two years after a worker was injured in the Northwest Territories. Arctic Canada Construction Ltd. pleaded guilty Friday to a single count under the territory’s Safety Act. The fine is to be paid to the worker’s protection fund, as well as a $3,000 surcharge. In April 2021, a worker in Fort Simpson was thrown from the basket of a telehandler to the ground after outriggers meant to stabilize the machine were not used. A year later, the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut laid seven charges against the company. Six of those charges were withdrawn through the plea agreement. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.The Canadian Press

After school shooting, Tenn. gun laws likely to remain lax

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As Nashville residents reeled from a fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, a federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age for Tennesseans to carry handguns publicly without a permit to 18 — just two years after a new law set the age at 21.The move marked yet another relaxation of gun laws in ruby red Tennessee, where GOP leaders have steadily chipped away at firearms regulations and lambasted those who have warned that doing so comes at a cost. It’s a familiar scene playing out across the United States, with Republican-dominant states rebuffing calls to strengthen gun safety laws in the wake of violent tragedies and Democrats in blue states championing gun control proposals. “This isn’t freedom. Our families don’t deserve this. I am sick of living in fear that our loved ones won’t make it home because of gun violence,” said state Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat from Memphis, shortly after Monday’s shooting. “...

Final week as Vallas, Johnson close in on Election Day

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:12 GMT

CHICAGO -- Jammed packed schedules for the Chicago mayor candidates with one week to go.Tuesday morning, Paul Vallas secured the backing of a former Feb. 28 mayoral rival.Alderwoman Sophia King, chair of City Council’s Progressive Caucus, says Vallas won her support because of his proven leadership skills.  WGN Poll: Vallas leading Johnson in Chicago Mayoral runoff election "The city cannot take four more years of fighting while moving backwards, descension or someone learning the office while leading the office," Alderwoman Sophia King (4th Ward) said."I think that this is just further evidence of my ability to build a broad coalition," Paul Vallas said. "We don’t agree on everything, but I think we agree on most things."After the endorsement, nine members of City Council’s Progressive Caucus supporting Brandon Johnson released a statement saying King doesn’t speak for them.   Rewatch the entire WGN Chicago Mayoral Debate here By early afternoon, Vallas was playing defense...