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Canada’s defence minister says Hamas a threat to world, must be ‘eliminated’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Bill Blair says Hamas is a terrorist organization that is a threat to the whole world and must be “eliminated.” Blair also says he has no expectation that Hamas would respect international law, including any agreement on a ceasefire.His comments are the furthest any Canadian minister has gone in explaining why Canada does not support calls for a ceasefire.The defence minister also appeared unwilling to back more recent calls for a “humanitarian pause,” but says there are talks underway to get more aid into the Gaza Strip. More than one million Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and they face shortages of food, water and fuel.European foreign ministers agreed Monday that a temporary halt to fighting was needed to get aid into Gaza and French President Emmanuel Macron is in Israel pushing for such a pause today.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023. The Canadian...

Spain’s acting government to push for a 37½-hour workweek. That’s if it can remain in power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The parties forming Spain’s acting government said Tuesday that they will push for a 37 1/2-hour workweek as part of an agreement the coalition partners struck as they try to remain in power following an inconclusive election in July.Spain has had a 40-hour workweek for the past two decades. Now, the government wants to move toward a shorter workweek like in neighboring France, where the workweek is 35 hours. The proposal is for Spain to have a 38 1/2-hour workweek next year and for that to fall to 37 1/2 hours in 2025.Spain’s Socialist Party and its junior coalition partner, the leftist Sumar (Joining Forces), have until Nov. 21 to earn the backing of the majority of Spain’s Parliament to form a new government. If not, a new national election will be held in January.Tuesday’s agreement was the first, and likely the easiest, step that the two parties face ahead of what promises to be a difficult task of earning the support of myriad smaller parties. The Socialists and ...

UAW strikes at General Motors SUV plant as union starts targeting profit centers or automakers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union has turned up the heat on General Motors as 5,000 workers walked off their jobs Tuesday at a highly profitable SUV factory in Arlington, Texas.The move comes just a day after the union went on strike at Stellantis’ pickup truck factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, north of Detroit.The Texas strike brings the total of UAW members that have walked off their jobs to 46,000 in a series of strikes that is entering its sixth week.UAW President Shawn Fain last week threatened further strikes in an effort to get GM, Ford and Stellantis to increase their pay offers.But GM CEO Mary Barra said on Tuesday morning’s earnings conference call that the company already has made a record offer and won’t agree to a contract that jeopardizes the company’s future.The Associated Press

‘Torontohenge’ phenomenon to offer striking sunset views tonight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

Torontonians who find themselves in the downtown core on Tuesday evening will get an opportunity to catch a glimpse of a local solar phenomenon.It’s the time of year for ‘Torontohenge,’ an event when the sun lines up perfectly with the city’s east-west downtown streets at sunset.CityNews 680 meteorologist Jill Taylor says the clear sky conditions on Tuesday evening should cooperate and allow for a good view of the sunset at 6:20 p.m. The sun will line up again at 6:18 p.m. on Wednesday but the forecast is calling for cloudier skies.People will be able to view the solar event by looking west down skyscraper-lined streets in the city’s downtown core during the sunset.“Just a caution for drivers that the glare could be intense,” Taylor says. “Pedestrians should be careful as well.” Related: Toronto to see big warmup on heels of coldest morning of the fall so far The best streets to view ‘Torontohenge’ ar...

Young women should invest differently — and more seriously — than men, experts say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

Ageand income are usually the biggest factors in determining one’s investment strategy, but some personal finance experts believe it’s time for gender to become a larger part ofthe decision-making process.Women are more likely than men to experience a wide range of life and career events, making a gendered approach to investing key for young women looking to build a comfortable retirement fund, said Zena Amundsen, a certified financial planner at Astra Financial with a largely female clientele.“It’s generally women who are expected to take time off from work for child care, or to care for an elderly parent,” said Amundsen. “With that comes an earlier career plateau and the gender pay gap, and with that pay gap comes lower (Canadian Pension Plan) contributions, as well as a lower likelihood of being able to max it out and have as much in our pockets during retirement.”This is exacerbated by women’s longer average lifespan, she added, which is likely to extend five years beyond the av...

Love it, or hate it? Feelings run high over candy corn come Halloween

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

Cruel joke for trick-or-treaters or coveted seasonal delight? The great Halloween debate over candy corn is on.In the pantheon of high-emotion candy, the classic shiny tricolour kernels in autumn’s white, orange and yellow are way up there. Fans and foes alike point to the same attributes: the plastic or candle-like texture (depending on who you ask) and the mega-sugar hit it packs.“I am vehemently pro candy corn. It’s sugar! What is not to love? It’s amazing. It’s like this waxy texture. You get to eat it once a year. It’s tricolour. That’s always fun,” comedian Shannon Fiedler gushed on TikTok. “Also, I know it’s disgusting. Candy corn is objectively kind of gross, but that’s what makes it good.”Or, as Paul Zarcone of Huntington, New York, put it: “I love candy corn even though it looks like it should taste like a candle. I also like that many people hate it. It makes me like it even more!”Love it ...

Music Review: Celebrate the spooky season with a Duran Duran album, ‘Danse Macabre’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

There aren’t that many Halloween albums out there and so tip your masks to Duran Duran for giving us a treat this spooky season.“Danse Macabre” is a 13-track — even the number is unsettling — mix of playfully dark original tunes and some seasonably appropriate covers, like Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend.” It all works better than you expected, a seminal ’80s band luxuriating in the thick synth dance hooks of an over-the-top holiday.The title track is full blast of classic Duran Duran — a gothic slice of disco with an arch Simon Le Bon singing the band’s signature word soup: “Zombie in the back room, nuns in the bed/Kids in KISS makeup toasting the bread.”The band’s original lineup — Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, John Taylor and Andy Taylor — gather for a fine “Rio”-era sounding “Nightboat” and the unmistakably funky Nile Rodgers enlivens “Black Moonlight,” the album’s high point.But there a...

The damage to a Baltic undersea cable was ‘purposeful,’ Swedish leader says but gives no details

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The damage to a telecommunications cable running under the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Tuesday but declined to be drawn on the details. “We will not be more precise than that as of today,” Kristersson said at a press conference, after Swedish divers had investigated the seabed.A spokesman for the Swedish Navy, Jimmie Adamsson, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that “we see seabed tracks nearby, but we don’t know if it’s deliberate or an accident.”On Oct. 17, Sweden reported damage to an undersea telecommunications cable that authorities believe occurred at the same time as damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecom cable between Finland and Estonia. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said at the time that the cause of the damage was unclear, adding that it was “not a total cable break” but “a partial damage.”NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the p...

Police in Massachusetts are searching for an armed man in connection with his wife’s shooting death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

GARDNER, Mass. (AP) — Police in Massachusetts are searching for a man in connection with the shooting death of his wife, who was found in their home on Sunday. Police said they consider Aaron Pennington, 33, to be armed and dangerous. They found his car Monday night in the woods in the city of Gardner in the northern part of the state, about 15 miles from the New Hampshire line. Police had temporarily issued a shelter-in-place order for a street near the woods.Gardner city officials posted online that out of an abundance of caution, police remain stationed in the area through Tuesday. The car was unoccupied. Police using search dogs and helicopters did not find Pennington in the woods, local and state police and the Worcester County District Attorney’s office said in a joint news release Tuesday morning. Pennington’s 30-year-old wife, Breanne Pennington, was found dead in their Gardner home on Sunday. City property records show Aaron Pennington has owned the home since J...

House Republicans gather to pick third Speaker nominee: Live coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:30 GMT

House Republicans on Tuesday will try for a third time to pick a nominee for Speaker who can get 217 votes on the House floor.The conference's first nominee for Speaker — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) — withdrew his name before even receiving a floor vote when it became clear he couldn't reach that threshold. Its second nominee — House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — lost three votes on the House floor before the House GOP voted to remove him as its nominee.Now, eight Republicans are vying for the nomination: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.).Republicans came out of a candidate forum Monday night sounding upbeat, even as ...