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S&P/TSX composite edges down at market close, U.S. stock markets also drop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index dropped on Friday as the price of oil stayed below US$70 a barrel and losses in the base metal and battery metal stocks weighed on the Toronto market.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 162.67 points at 19,418.23.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 219.28 points at 33,727.43. The S&P 500 index was down 33.56 points at 4,348.33, while the Nasdaq composite was down 138.09 points at 13,492.52.Allan Small, senior investment adviser at iA Private Wealth, said the tone of the markets shifted earlier this month after U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said two more rate hikes south of the border are expected.“That really turned the markets from being more of a positive trend to obviously a negative trend and this looks like the first negative week in many, especially for the NASDAQ. So I think what you’re seeing is the markets starting to factor in possibly another 50 basis points of interest rate hikes,” ...

Black nun who founded first African American religious congregation advances closer to sainthood

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange — a Black Catholic nun who founded the United States’ first African American religious congregation in Baltimore in 1829 — has advanced another step toward sainthood.Under a decree signed by Pope Francis on Thursday, Lange was recognized for her heroic virtue, and advanced in the cause of her beatification from being considered a servant of God to a “venerable servant.” The Catholic Church must now approve a miracle that is attributed to her, so she can be beatified.Lange grew up in a wealthy family of African origin, but she left Cuba in the early 1800s for the U.S. due to racial discrimination, according to the Vatican’s saint-making office. After encountering more discrimination in the southern U.S., she moved with her family to Baltimore. Recognizing a need to provide education for Black children in the city, she started a school in 1828, decades before the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.In 1829, she founded the Oblate Sisters of P...

Prosecutor quits ‘Cop City’ cases over disagreements with Georgia attorney general

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A metro Atlanta prosecutor announced Friday that her office is withdrawing from criminal cases tied to protests over plans to build a police and firefighter training center, citing disagreements with the state’s Republican attorney general, including the decision to charge a legal observer with domestic terrorism.DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston’s decision means Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr will have sole oversight regarding more than 40 additional cases connected to the “Stop Cop City” movement. Previously, the two offices held joint jurisdiction over those cases, Boston, a Democrat, said in a news release.“It is clear to both myself and to the attorney general that we have fundamentally different prosecution philosophies,” Boston told WABE-FM.Over the past seven months, more than 40 people have been charged with domestic terrorism in connection with violent protests. Fireworks and rocks have been thrown at officers and police ve...

Judicial oversight bill passes, creating new process for punishing judges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

OTTAWA — A new process for how the Canadian Judicial Council will review misconduct allegations against judges has been written into the law.A bill that received royal assent Thursday evening amends the Judges Act to clarify when a judge can be removed and changes the way the council reports recommendations to remove a judge to the federal justice minister.The law also creates a new panel to review complaints and determine whether a judge’s removal is justified, as well as a new process for how judges can appeal disciplinary decisions against them. Justice Minister David Lametti says the new process will lead to timelier and more cost-effective resolutions, and replaces a more expensive, drawn-out process.Anyone can make a complaint against a judge, but it must be done in writing and sent to the judicial council.The judicial oversight process garnered heightened attention earlier this year when the council announced it would review a complaint against former Supreme Court just...

US launches prosecutions of Chinese companies on charges of trafficking fentanyl ingredients

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges on Friday against four Chinese companies and eight individuals for allegedly trafficking the chemicals used to make the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl in the United States and Mexico.The three separate indictments unsealed in federal court in New York represent the first prosecutions to charge China-based chemical companies and Chinese nationals with illegally selling the chemicals used to make fentanyl, which has been blamed for a deadly overdose crisis.Federal prosecutors said the companies marketed the fentanyl precursor chemicals on their websites and social media accounts, advertised that they accepted payment in cryptocurrency and shipped them to drug traffickers including Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.“When I announced in April that the Justice Department had taken significant enforcement actions against the Sinaloa Cartel, I promised that the Justice Department would never forget the victims of the fent...

Russian authorities launch criminal probe into Wagner Group over threats to oust defense minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities in Russia launched a criminal probe Friday against the owner of the Wagner Group military contractor over his alleged threats to oust Russia’s defense minister.The announcement follows a statement from owner Yevgeny Prigozhin accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner’s field camps in the Ukraine where its soldier are fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukranian forces.Prigozhin said that his troops would now move to punish Shoigu and urged the army not to offer resistance. Prigozhin declared that “this is not an armed rebellion, but a march of justice.”The Russian Defense Ministry rejected Prigozhin’s claim and the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the country’s top counter-terrorism structure, said it opened a criminal inquiry on charges of making calls for a military coup.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the situation, adding that “all th...

Buttigieg warns airlines to finish retrofitting planes to avoid interference from 5G signals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned the nation’s airlines Friday that flights could be disrupted starting next week because some planes lack updated equipment to prevent interference from transmissions by wireless companies.Buttigieg said that only planes retrofitted with the right equipment will be allowed to land when visibility is poor, such as during bad weather.The warning — in a letter from Buttigieg to trade group Airlines for America — comes just before AT&T, Verizon and other wireless carriers will be free to boost the power of their C-Band, 5G signals on July 1.Airlines have told the government they are having trouble getting equipment to retrofit planes because of supply-chain problems. Still, the industry trade group said airlines are confident they will avoid disruptions.Some aviation experts believe that C-Band signals are too close on the radio spectrum to the frequencies used by radio altimeters, which measure the height of a plane above the ground. Ne...

Inside the Sundance Labs, which have helped launch some of Hollywood’s top filmmakers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

Twenty-five years ago, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love & Basketball” was essentially dead.She’d pitched her now classic film all over Hollywood and everyone had said no. Then she got a call inviting her to the Sundance Labs – a creative retreat for aspiring directors and screenwriters at the idyllic Sundance Mountain Resort nestled in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah – where she would workshop her script and get advice from industry veterans. Suddenly it had life again.Later, Sundance helped arrange a reading which got it in front of Spike Lee’s company, who would go on to make the film.“Sundance changed the trajectory of my career,” Prince-Bythewood said in an interview earlier this month from the 2023 Directors Lab, where she’d returned for the first time as an advisor. “I’ve wanted to come back for years.”The Sundance Institute might be best known for its annual film festival in Park City, Utah, but the screenwriting and directing labs have been just as, if not more, influential i...

Transportation Safety Board of Canada to investigate Polar Prince role in Titan implosion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) says it will investigate a Canadian support ship’s role in the catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible. The TSB says the Canadian-flagged cargo vessel Polar Prince was at the Titanic wreck site off Newfoundland providing surface support for the submersible when it began its descent around 8 a.m. on June 18. Approximately one hour and 45 minutes after the submersible began its descent, the support vessel lost contact.Rescue ships, planes and other equipment were rushed to the site of the disappearance but any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive was wiped away early Thursday when the submersible’s 96-hour supply of air was expected to run out. The Coast Guard then announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic and that a “catastrophic implosion of the vessel” had killed everyone on board.The TSB says there were 17 crew members and 24 people on boar...

Oregon county sues oil, coal companies for $51 billion over deadly heat dome

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:51:07 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s most populous county is suing more than a dozen large fossil fuel companies to recover costs related to extreme weather events linked to climate change. The lawsuit filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges the combined carbon pollution the companies emitted was a substantial factor in causing and exacerbating a 2021 heat dome that killed 69 people, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Multnomah County is home to Portland and known nationally for mild weather and rain.The companies named in the lawsuit include Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, among others.The county seeks over $51 billion in damages, including $50 million for costs it says it incurred because the heat dome. Multnomah County is also asking for $1.5 billion in damages to pay for costs associated with future extreme heat events and an additional $50 billion to study, plan, and “weatherproof” against extreme heat. Some of the measures would i...