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Canada, Saudi Arabia restore full diplomatic ties, appoint envoys after 2018 spat

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada and Saudi Arabia are normalizing diplomatic relations and appointing ambassadors five years after the Liberal government’s public comments on women’s rights led Riyadh to expel the top Canadian envoy.In 2018, Global Affairs Canada tweeted that it wanted Saudi Arabia to “immediately release” human-rights activists who had been detained.Both countries maintained their embassies, but Saudi Arabia downgraded its presence in Ottawa and halted trade talks with Canada, saying it was unacceptable for the Canadians to weigh in on Saudi Arabia’s justice system.Global Affairs Canada said in a statement Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed during a chat last November that they wanted to restore diplomatic relations.The department said this discussion took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok.At the time, reporters noted Trudeau had attended a lunch...

Trudeau promises to update act around use and development of water in Canada

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

WINNIPEG — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated promises Tuesday to update legislation that governs water use while formally announcing the Canada Water Agency is to be headquartered in Manitoba’s capital city. Trudeau said his government’s first priority is to update the act regulating the use and development of the resource in Canada.“The threats and realities facing our environment have changed since it was written in 1970,” he said in a news conference Wednesday.“Updating this act is about ensuring that we have the tools to work with provinces and territories on protecting and restoring shared waters.”Trudeau didn’t provide details about how the Canada Water Act would change.The current act provides a framework for co-operation with the provinces and territories concerning the conservation, development and use of Canada’s water resources. It does not account for the effects of climate change or the importance of Indigenous rights...

Judge greenlights JPMorgan lawsuit blaming ex-executive in Jeffrey Epstein scandal

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge said Wednesday that he won’t block JPMorgan’s legal efforts to blame a former executive of hiding Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long sex abuse to keep the financier as a client.Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan denied requests by lawyers for the executive, Jes Staley, to toss out claims the bank made against Staley after it was sued last year by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein maintained a residence, and a woman who identified herself as one of Epstein’s victims.The judge said he’ll explain his reasoning later in a written decision.Staley’s lawyers had asked in court papers for dismissal of JPMorgan’s claims, saying the bank was using Staley as a “public relations shield” by asserting claims with no legal basis.They said Staley had no decision-making authority over Epstein’s accounts and was not alleged to have seen any of the suspicious account activity that other JPMorgan employees ignored.Epstein was 66 when he apparently killed himself ...

After years of controversy, national bio-defense lab opens in Kansas

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — After more than a decade of controversy and delays, the nation’s most secure biosecurity laboratory for research on potentially deadly animal and plant diseases has opened in Manhattan, Kansas. Although a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday, researchers at the $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility are not expected to begin working on biohazards for more than a year, officials said. For now, staff will conduct compliance and regulatory work, prepare protocols and operating procedures and train before working with any pathogens, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. “They will check all the systems according to the international standards and national standards,” NBAF director Alfonso Clavijo said. “And only after we have that approval will we be able to actually do any work. We expect that by late 2024, we should be able to have that approval.”Initially estimated to cost $451 million, the price tag more than doubled after the National...

Tributes for Tina Turner, the global music superstar, after her death at 83

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

A collection of tributes that poured in Wednesday from musicians, actors and athletes following the death of musical superstar Tina Turner,“I’m so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.” — Mick Jagger said on Instagram. Turner performed with Jagger during a show in 1985 and toured with the band in the 60s.“We have lost one of the word’s most exciting and electric performers. A total legend on record and on stage. She was untouchable. Condolences to Erwin and her family. The saddest news.” — Elton John said on Instagram.“How do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world? Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock ...

Small airports could be affected by WestJet possibly integrating Swoop

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

A tentative deal between WestJet and the union representing its pilots likely includes a provision to fully integrate Swoop into WestJet by October of 2024, eliminating the airline.WestJet has declined to comment, citing the fact the agreement is tentative and hasn’t been ratified.However, the development could be a big deal to the 13 Canadian airports that welcome the airline, most of them smaller operations welcoming just a handful of carriers.“Generally, in the short term, there’s not a whole lot of change, but what happens is the parent airline that they’re getting merged into starts looking at the profitability of the routes. And over time what you’ll see is eventually those smaller routes and the less profitable routes start to get eliminated,” explained Wayne Smith, a hospitality professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.Smith said the loss of Swoop could represent a five-to-10-year setback for some of these smaller airports.In a written reply...

Trans girl who missed graduation over clothing code: `We deserve rights as humans’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A transgender Mississippi girl who skipped graduation because school officials told her to follow the boys dress code says she celebrated the conclusion of high school with a tropical-themed party at home with family members who embrace her full identity.The 17-year-old girl and her parents told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that they will remain outspoken about trans people’s rights, even as states restrict or ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Mississippi enacted such a law this year, and a 2021 law bars trans people from girls or women’s sports.The girl requested to be identified only by her initials, L.B., because of her family’s concerns about her safety. AP is not identifying the parents by their names because of those concerns.“We deserve rights as as humans,” L.B. said Wednesday. “And I feel like there’s definitely a stigma towards our community. … It’s very disappointing.”L.B. ...

Woman who fled US to keep child custody more than a decade ago says her lawyer encouraged flight

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

A Virginia woman who left the United States for more than a decade with her child to avoid sharing custody of her daughter with her former partner says her lawyer suggested she flee.In a document filed May 19 in federal court in Vermont as part of a long-running civil case, Lisa Miller outlined what led her to leave the country in September 2009 with her then 7-year-old daughter when it was becoming clear she would lose custody of the girl to her former partner Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven, Vermont.The filing is the latest chapter in a more than two-decade-long legal saga that began in 2000 when Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union, the first statewide legal recognition of same-sex couples.Their daughter, Isabella, was born to Miller in 2002. The couple split up in 2003. The Vermont family court gave custody of Isabella to Miller, but gave Jenkins regular visitation. Over the years Miller wouldn’t comply with the court ordered visitations. There were a series of le...

Charcoal cooking, week-long queues for gasoline: Fuel shortages slam Cuba’s countryside

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

MARIEL, Cuba (AP) — Rosa López, a 59-year-old housewife, lit a charcoal stove to boil sweet potatoes and prepare scrambled eggs for her grandchildren. The gas cylinders she normally uses to cook her meals have not been available for almost two months in Mariel, a port town west of Havana.Not far from there, on the highway to Pinar del Río and under a scorching sun, Ramón Victores spent one week waiting in line at a gas station, hoping to fuel up the 1952 red Chevrolet he uses for work, moving produce from one town to another.Cuba’s most recent fuel shortage has crippled an already fragile economy, but it is hitting rural villages particularly hard, with residents resorting to coal fires to cook their food, scrambling to find transport to take them to work and spending days — and nights — at the gas station waiting to fuel up.The Associated Press visited a dozen villages in the provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque, to the east and west of Havana, to talk to people about how the fuel s...

Greece says it’s investigating claim migrants were illegally deported back to Turkey

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:51:33 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s outgoing prime minister says he has ordered a probe into a report that authorities illegally deported a group of migrants who had reached an eastern Aegean island from Turkey, allegedly leaving them on a raft at sea for Turkish authorities to pick up.Kyriakos Mitsotakis — who will be replaced Thursday by caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas, a senior judge, ahead of elections on June 25 — strongly denied that Greece has an official policy of returning newly arrived migrants to Turkey. Such illegal deportations are known as pushbacks.In an interview with CNN late Tuesday, Mitsotakis said that he takes the alleged incident reported by the New York Times “very seriously.”“It is already being investigated (by) my government,” he said. “I have made numerous times the distinction between (the reported pushback), which is a completely unacceptable practice, and between our obligation, which is … intercepting (migrants) on our sea border with Tu...