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Non-binary Montrealer on hunger strike to get ‘X’ gender marker on Quebec health card

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

QUEBEC — Non-binary Montrealer Alexe Frédéric Migneault is on Day 3 of a hunger strike to pressure Quebec’s public health insurance board to add a third gender option to health cards.Migneault, whose pronouns are they/them, is camping near the board’s office in Quebec City and says they won’t give up their strike until the cards carry an alternative to the traditional “M” or “F” identifiers.Migneault, whose strike involves only consuming vegetable broth, sports drinks and water, says they’ve been trying to get an “X” gender marker on their card since 2021 and that the board has been too slow to accommodate non-binary Quebecers.The board won’t comment on individual cases but says the Health Department is analyzing how such a change would impact the province’s health and social services network.Quebec’s secretariat for the condition of women says the health board is participating in an interdepartmental comm...

The average long-term US mortgage rate falls to 7.29% in fourth-straight weekly drop

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the fourth time in as many weeks, more positive news for prospective homebuyers who have been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale.The latest decline brought the average rate on a 30-year mortgage down to 7.29% from 7.44% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Wednesday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.58%.Despite the recent pullback, the average rate on a 30-year home loan is still sharply higher than just two years ago, when it was around 3%. Higher rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford in a market already out of reach for many Americans. They also discourage homeowners who locked in far lower rates two years ago from selling.The elevated mortgage rates and a near-historic-low supply of homes on the market have stymied sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which slumped in Octob...

Debate begins on replacement workers bill, as Poilievre stays mum on Tory position

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

OTTAWA — A government bill banning the use of replacement workers in federally regulated workplaces is putting a spotlight on the federal Conservatives, who have yet to state their position in a debate that pits labour groups against business.The House of Commons is set to begin debating the recently tabled legislation later today, which would apply to workplaces including transportation hubs and the telecommunications sector.Labour leaders have long called for the measure, as have the federal New Democrats, who used their supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals to expand the proposal to cover strikes in addition to lockouts.The Bloc Québécois is challenging the Liberals to scrap a clause in the bill that stipulates the law take effect after an 18-month waiting period, a delay that Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says was requested by two agencies involved in ending labour disputes.Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre would not tell reporters this morning whether his MPs will...

Less than 2 years after nearly being killed by Russian bomb, Fox’s Benjamin Hall returns to Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, nearly killed by Russian bombs while reporting in Ukraine less than two years ago, returned to the country this week to interview Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Hall has endured dozens of surgeries since the March 14, 2022, blast. He lost his right leg below his knee and part of his left foot, the eyesight in his left eye and suffered burns across his body. His two Fox reporting colleagues that day, photographer Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian “fixer” Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, were both killed.Besides the Zelenskyy interview, Hall told Fox’s Bret Baier on Tuesday that he returned to Ukraine to pay tribute to Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova.“It was also an opportunity to remind people that journalism will never be stopped, despite the dangers,” he said.The staggering toll in the Israel-Hamas war is another reminder. The Committee to Protect Journalists said 53 journalists and media workers have been killed there sinc...

Mexican activist who counted murders in his violence-plagued city is himself killed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An activist who documented murders in one of Mexico’s deadliest cities has himself been killed, authorities confirmed Wednesday.Adolfo Enríquez was killed in the city of Leon, in north-central Guanajuato state. The city has the third-highest number of homicides in Mexico, trailing only the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.Enríquez described himself on his social media profiles as an “activist, demanding a country with the rule of law.”For years, Enríquez has posted a simple, moving tally of each murder in Leon, writing just hours before his death that “murder number 55 in Leon so far in November just occurred in the Margaritas neighborhood.”He himself became murder victim number 56 late Tuesday, local police confirmed, without providing details on the attack. State prosecutors confirmed his death and said it was under investigation.Local media reported Enríquez was shot to death after leaving a restaurant, and that the attacker fled on a motorcycle.The n...

The US has thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader, an AP source says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has thwarted a plot to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Wednesday.U.S. authorities have raised concerns with New Delhi that the Indian government may have had knowledge of the plot, according to the official who was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter.The official declined to comment on when or how U.S. officials became aware of the plot as well as how the alleged assassination attempt was derailed. The FBI is investigating the matter, the official said.Spokespeople for the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment Wednesday. The revelation follows the September disclosure by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of what he said were credible allegations that the Indian government may have had links to the assassination in that country of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India rejected the accusation as absurd, but Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat...

Finland erects barriers at border with Russia to control influx of migrants. The Kremlin objects

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish border guards and soldiers have begun erecting barriers including concrete obstacles topped with barbed-wire at some crossing points on the Nordic country’s long border with Russia to better control the flow of undocumented migrants, officials said Wednesday.Some 600 migrants without proper visas and documentation, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, have arrived in Finland in November compared to a few dozen in September and October. The arrivals include residents of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Kenya, Morocco and Somalia, border officials said. “We need to do this to maintain order (at the crossing points) and guarantee the security of legal border traffic,” Tomi Tirkkonen, deputy commander of the Kainuu border guard district in eastern Finland, told The Associated Press. The Kremlin has voiced regret about Finland’s decision to close the checkpoints and rejected Finnish authorities’ claims that Russia has encouraged the influx of migrants at the bo...

Olympic organizers to release more than 400,000 new tickets for the Paris Games and Paralympics

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Olympic organizers will release 400,000 extra tickets for next year’s Paris Games and the Paralympics at the end of the month.Organizers said Wednesday the sale will start on Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. on the official ticketing website, with seats available for all sports except surfing, in all price categories. Tickets will be sold on a first come-first serve basis, without a lottery.Most of the tickets are for Olympic sporting events, organizers said, adding that tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are also available.A third of the tickets in the new allotment will be sold under 50 euros ($55). The most expensive Olympic tickets are 2,700 euros ($2,900) for the opening ceremony. The cheapest tickets are 24 euros ($26).Organizers said they have already sold 7.2 million tickets out of 10 million available for the Olympics, with further tickets to be released next year.The sales for the Paralympics have not been revealed. Organizers aim to sell 2.8 million of th...

Immigration minister welcomes news Canadians can get tourist visas to India again

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Marc Miller says he’s happy to hear that Canadians can once again apply online for tourist visas to India after two months of diplomatic tensions.The decision, which is effective as of today, was confirmed in a statement on social media by the High Commission of India in Ottawa. In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced there were “credible allegations” that India was involved in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The 45-year-old was shot by masked gunmen outside a Surrey, B.C., gurdwara in June. The Indian government had accused Nijjar of being linked to terrorism but it has also denied involvement in his death, calling the allegations absurd.Since then, the two countries have expelled one another’s diplomats and India introduced a visa ban on Canadians, though it began easing those restrictions last month.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2023.— With files from The Associ...

Leaders of 4 Central European states disagree on military aid for Ukraine but agree on other support

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:45 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — The presidents of four Central European countries found some common ground Wednesday on Ukraine despite their governments’ diverging views on military support for its fight against Russia’s invasion.The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, all four post-communist European Union and NATO members, form an informal collective known as the Visegrad Group.At their annual meeting, the host, Czech President Petr Pavel, noted the leaders didn’t have sharply different opinions on the war, saying that “we’ve all agreed that it is in our imminent interest that Ukraine succeeds.”“We’ve agreed that we have to support Ukraine with all kinds of help,” Pavel added. Polish President Duda echoed that: “Ukraine needs help and we should provide it.”The Czech Republic and Poland have been have been staunch supporters of Ukraine, opening their borders for refugees and donating arms, though Polish-Ukrainian relations soured in September over Ukrainian grain entering and ...