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Canada pledges Great Lakes funding after Trudeau-Biden talks

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Canada has pledged a significant increase in spending to improve water quality in the Great Lakes following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration also has boosted funding for the shared waters.Following their discussion Friday in Ottawa, Trudeau said his government would spend $420 million — about $306 million in U.S. dollars — over the next decade on the lakes, still suffering fron 20th century industrial pollution and newer challenges such as climate change, PFAS chemicals and microplastics.The announcement came weeks after U.S. Congress members prodded Biden to seek more support for the lakes from Canada, which critics have accused of doing too little.“The Great Lakes are a source of drinking water for 40 million people, and this shared resource needs to be protected,” Trudeau said. “This is why Canada will make a major new investment … to continue safeguarding the Great Lakes for genera...

Brazil’s Lula postpones trip to China because of pneumonia

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has indefinitely postponed his trip to China after contracting pneumonia, the presidential palace said on Saturday.Lula, 77, was admitted to a hospital in the capital of Brasilia with flu-like symptoms and was diagnosed with “bacterial and viral bronchopneumonia due to influenza A,” the palace said in a statement, quoting a medical note signed by Dr. Ana Helena Germoglio.The leftist leader’s health was reassessed on Saturday and, despite improvement, he was advised to “postpone the trip to China until the cycle of viral transmission ends,” the medical note said.Chinese authorities have been informed, “with the reiteration of the desire to schedule the visit on a new date,” the palace said.Lula had been expected to leave for China on a multi-day visit on Friday or Saturday, but the trip was pushed back on Friday.A delegation composed of ministers, senators, lawmakers and hundreds of businessmen had been set to accompa...

Idaho governor signs firing squad execution bill into law

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill allowing firing squads to execute death row inmates when lethal injection drugs are unavailable, making Idaho the fifth U.S. state to allow the execution method. The new law, which takes effect in July, will give the Department of Correction up to five days after a death warrant is issued to determine whether lethal injection is available. If not, the department must carry out the execution by firing squad. Little signed the bill on Friday.“While I am signing this bill, it is important to point out that fulfilling justice can and must be done by minimizing stress on corrections personnel,” Little wrote in a transmittal letter after signing the bill, as reported by the Idaho Statesman. “For the people on death row, a jury convicted them of their crimes, and they were lawfully sentenced to death. It is the responsibility of the state of Idaho to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are...

Push to expand voting rights in US for those held in jails

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The voting precinct could have been any one of hundreds throughout Chicago, except that these voters in the first round of the mayoral election were all wearing the same beige smocks. And the security at this polling place wasn’t intended to keep disrupters and campaigners out, but the voters in.When first-time voter Tykarri Skillon finished studying the list of nine candidates, looking for those who shared his priorities on jobs and affordable housing, he marked his ballot and then was escorted with other voters back to their cells in the Cook County Jail.The 25-year-old, awaiting trial on a weapons charge, is part of a group not always mentioned in discussions about voting disenfranchisement. People serving sentences for felony convictions lose their right to vote. Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences do retain that right, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the United States.The Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and...

Hungary: Criticism makes it hard to cooperate with West

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The West’s steady criticism of Hungary on democratic and cultural issues makes the small European country’s right-wing government reluctant to offer support on practical matters, specifically NATO’s buildup against Russia, Hungary’s foreign minister said.In an interview with The Associated Press, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also said Friday that his country has not voted on whether to allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO because Hungarian lawmakers are sick of those countries’ critiques of Hungarian domestic affairs.Lawmakers from the governing party plan to vote Monday in favor of the Finnish request but “serious concerns were raised” about Finland and Sweden in recent months “mostly because of the very disrespectful behavior of the political elites of both countries towards Hungary,” Szijjártó said.“You know, when Finnish and Swedish politicians question the democratic nature of our political system, that’s really unacceptabl...

Jehovah’s Witnesses mourn victims of Hamburg shooting

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany held a memorial service Saturday for the six people killed during a mass shooting at a religious service in Hamburg this month. A 35-year-old German man who opened fire during the March 9 service killed himself as police arrived at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall where the service was taking place. The attack wounded nine people, including a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child.“We are speechless in the face of the violence and brutality. There’s no word for this,” Dirk Ciupek, a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in his sermon. “This was an attack not just on a few of us, but an attack on all of us.”Ciupek expressed gratitude to the police officers who he said prevented more deaths and to the medical personnel who tended to the wounded with dedication and empathy.“Do not let evil defeat you,” he said, addressing the family members of those who died. He spoke about each victim individually, including the unb...

Piquet fined for racist, homophobic comments about Hamilton

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay $950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton.The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term which means “little Black guy,” in 2021. In another interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language.The court in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million Brazilian reals “in collective moral damages, to be allocated to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community.”The charges were filed by several human rights groups, including Brazil’s National LGBTI+ Alliance.Hamilton had condemned “archaic mindsets,” and the Mercedes driver said he had been “surrounded by these attitudes and targeted (his) whole life.” He is the only Black driver in F1 and received honorary citizenship from Brazil last year.Piquet, who won three F1 titles in th...

Florida teen sentenced to life in prison for murder of 13-year-old girl; court releases his apology letter

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WFLA) – Aiden Fucci, the teenager convicted of murdering 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey in 2021, was sentenced to life in prison Friday morning.Fucci pleaded guilty to murdering Tristyn Bailey, who was stabbed 114 times, last February. For the past three days, testimonies were heard as a judge determined what sentence to give the now-16-year-old defendant."Tristyn Bailey was conscious, she was aware, and she was doing everything she could to fend off this attack," Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith said. "She suffered a painful, horrifying death from someone that she trusted.""There was a heightened level of premeditation in this case," he later added. Sister of murdered 13-year-old takes stand, delivers emotional testimony Lee said Fucci's age did play a factor in his decision, saying it is known that the brain is not fully developed at the age of 14, which is how old Fucci was when he committed the murder.However, the judge said Fucci was totally responsible for the murd...

Several thefts, carjackings minutes apart on Back of the Yards street

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

CHICAGO — There were a string of robberies minutes apart that took place on 47th Street in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood Saturday morning. According to police, a 30-year-old man was standing outside near the 1100 block of West 47th Street around 6:35 a.m. when he was approached by three unknown men who exited from a sedan. Police say the men displayed guns and demanded the man's property. The 30-year-old complied and the men fled the scene with the man's belongings. Man dead after hit and run crash in West Loop Police reported another robbery five minutes later in the same block where a 62-year-old man was standing next to his vehicle when he was approached by three unknown men who exited a sedan. The men also displayed firearms and demanded the man's property ad car. Police say the victim also complied and the three men fled with the man's car and other belongings. In the same time frame, police stated that a 46-year-old woman was seated in her parked car in the 600 ...

Crash that killed two Amish children raises questions about buggy safety

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:34:15 GMT

MANTON, Mich. (WOOD) — A wagon bearing two small caskets covered in tarp rounded a corner in the small town of Manton, Michigan, on Thursday, leading a funeral procession for two young Amish children who were killed in an accident this week. A line of Amish buggies stretched behind the caskets for at least a half mile, slowly cresting a hill before crossing the intersection where the children had died on Monday."It's a difficult time," Loyal Gingerich, pastor of the Manton Amish Church, told Nexstar's WOOD. Teen driver in NY crash that killed 5 children didn’t have a permit, officials say The crash is raising new questions about buggy safety in Michigan."We are always mindful that we share the road with automobiles as we drive our horse and buggies up and down the road," Gingerich said. "We appreciate very much our friends driving automobiles, their carefulness, and likewise, we do the same."Sheriff's deputies said the buggy — a two-wheeled, open-air cart — pulled into the path of...