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Finland considers reopening border with Russia after immigrant row

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

Finland hopes to ease restrictions on its eastern border with Russia after the traffic of migrants stopped following Helsinki’s complete closure of the frontier last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.“We are closely following the situation, how it evolves,” Valtonen told POLITICO in an interview on Friday. “And now that it has been peaceful, we hope that we can, if not go directly to normal … at least open a few border crossings if possible.”Finland last week closed its entire eastern border with Russia for two weeks amid accusations that Moscow was encouraging asylum seekers to travel across its frontier into the EU and NATO country.Valtonen said Finland has evidence that Russian authorities have been actively helping people reach the border, by oganizing group transports and providing people with equipment, for example, and recruiting people. “This is an active measure of instrumentalizing third-country citizens, which Finland cannot accept,” she said....

Temporary shelter site at state Transportation Building to shut down Friday

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

A temporary shelter site at the state Transportation Building in Boston will shut down Friday, a matter of weeks after it opened last month, the state’s emergency assistance director confirmed. Emergency Assistance Director General Scott Rice in a statement Friday morning said authorities will “transition operations” to Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and open a new clinical and safety risk assessment site in Revere. From there, Rice said authorities “will soon be opening an additional safety net site.” Officials opened the Transportation Building as a temporary safety net site on Nov. 20, housing people in conference rooms within the building as they continued to grapple with the surge of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts. The shelter had space for up to 25 families and aimed to provide a safe and warm place to sleep in cases where families were eligible for state emergency assistance but where there was not another shelter unit immediately available.&nbs...

Harvard president apologizes for remarks on antisemitism as pressure mounts on Penn’s president

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MARC LEVY (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Harvard University’s president apologized as pressure mounted for the University of Pennsylvania’s president to resign over their testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism that critics from the White House on down say failed to show that they would stand up to antisemitism on campus.In an interview Thursday with The Crimson student newspaper, Harvard President Claudine Gay said she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.Meanwhile, lawyers for a major donor to Penn, Ross Stevens, wrote to Penn’s general counsel on Thursday to threaten to withdraw a gift valued at $100 million because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Penn President Liz Magill is replaced.Gay’s and Magill’s testimony have drawn intense national backlash, as h...

‘It’s just annoying everyone’: Scarborough residents complain about GO Train whistles after policy change

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

For 33 years, Tamra Harris has lived near the GO Train tracks that cross over Manse Road in Scarborough, and has grown accustomed to the noise.“It’s common to hear the trains whiz by, but that used to be all we heard,” said Harris.Now, more sounds are prompting her and neighbours to speak out. Every 10 to 15 minutes a series of loud train whistles go off.“It’s just constant,” she said. “Anywhere from five to 10 whistles each time, day in and day out. It’s never been this bad.”The timing wasn’t great for Harris, who became a new mom two months ago.“As a new parent you’re already sleep deprived,” Harris said. “This is just making it impossible.”Residents say they’ve reached out to Metrolinx for answers, but have been unable to get any.So, Harris reached out to CityNews instead.According to Metrolinx, it’s all due to a new policy enacted last month following a series of safety concerns. On Nov. 17, a suspected drunk driver abandoned her car on the tracks which collided with...

Mormon church selects British man from lower-tier council for top governing body

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday the newest member of the faith’s top governing body to fill a vacancy when a member died last month will be a man raised in England who had been previously serving on a middle tier leadership council.Patrick Kearon, 62, becomes the first new member since 2018 named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, where members serve until they die helping to oversee the business interests and global development of the faith known widely as the Mormon church. The Quorum serves under the church president and his two top counselors. All 15 church leaders are men, in accordance with the its all-male priesthood.Like most recent appointees, Kearon had been serving as the senior president of a lower-tier church leadership council called the Presidency of the Seventy, often a stepping stone to higher office. He is well known for his 2016 speech urging compassion for refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the Middl...

Ohtani decision ‘imminent,’ could be as early as today: report

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

A decision by free agent Shohei Ohtani as to which club he is going to sign with is “imminent” and could come as early as Friday, Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported Friday.Ohtani, considered a generational star and by far the top player available in Major League Baseball’s free agency pool, is reportedly deciding between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, although other teams could also still be in the mix.Source: Shohei Ohtani’s decision is imminent, possibly as early as today. @MLBNetwork @MLB— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 8, 2023An accomplished pitcher and hitter, Ohtani’s signing is likely to set a record for the biggest contract in baseball history.Ohtani, the biggest free agent in MLB history, is coming off a season that saw him hit .304 while blasting 44 home runs in just 135 games. The two-way star also posted a 3.14 ERA over 132 innings while racking up 176 strikeouts.The 29-year-old had his 2023 season cut short after under...

Two Ontario men face neo-Nazi-linked terror, hate propaganda charges

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

RCMP says two Ontario men have been arrested for allegedly helping to make videos and manifestos in support of the neo-Nazi terror movement and far-right extremism. Police say the men allegedly participated in making recruiting videos for Atomwaffen Division, an international neo-Nazi terror group, and “manifestos” on a group of messaging channels known to circulate neo-fascist ideology and manuals on how to carry out racially-motivated violence. RCMP say they executed search warrants in Niagara and Toronto as part of the 18-month investigation. One man is facing several charges, including three counts of making hate propaganda for a terrorist group, while the other man faces one charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.It comes after RCMP laid the first ever terrorism and hate propaganda charges in Canada against a 26-year-old Ottawa man in July for allegedly making videos for the Atomwaffen Division.RCMP say the two men are next set to a...

Feds recover $40M from defunct Quebec vaccine developer Medicago

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government says it has recovered $40 million from the now-defunct Quebec-based vaccine developer Medicago, and the intellectual property will remain in Canada under a new firm. The government provided Medicago a $173-million advance in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to develop and produce a plant-based vaccine in Quebec City.The company’s Japanese parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, shut down Medicago’s operations in February as global demand for vaccinations plummeted. Though Medicago’s vaccine was approved for use in Canada, it was not approved by the World Health Organization due to the company’s ties with tobacco giant Philip Morris.The agreement between Canada and Mitsubishi Chemical Group will transfer the research, intellectual property and equipment to a new operation: Aramis Biotechnologies.Aramis Biotechnologies is also based in Quebec City and is led by former Medicago employees.This report by The Canadian Press...

New York can enforce laws banning guns from ‘sensitive locations’ for now, U.S. appeals court rules

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York can continue to enforce laws banning firearms in sensitive locations and require that handgun owners be of “good moral character,” a federal appeals court ruled Friday in its first broad review of a host of new gun rules passed in the state after a landmark Supreme Court ruling last year.But in a 261-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of appeals also blocked some aspects of New York’s new gun licensing rules, including a requirement that applicants turn over a list of their social media accounts.The court also said the state can’t enforce part of the law that made it a crime to carry a concealed gun onto private property without the express consent of the owner — a restriction that would have kept guns out of places like shops, supermarkets and restaurants unless the proprietor put a sign up saying guns were welcome.The ruling by the appeals court was at an early stage of a legal battle seen as eventually likely to w...

Massachusetts attorney general files civil rights lawsuit against white nationalist group

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:37:08 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ attorney general has filed a lawsuit accusing a white nationalist group of civil rights violations, saying it repeatedly subjected LGBTQ+ events and facilities sheltering migrant families to intimidation and harassment.The complaint filed Thursday against NSC-131 and two of its leaders, Christopher Hood of Newburyport and Liam McNeil of Waltham, accuses the group of engaging “in violent, threatening, and intimidating conduct that violated state civil rights laws and unlawfully interfered with public safety.” “NSC-131 has engaged in a concerted campaign to target and terrorize people across Massachusetts and interfere with their rights. Our complaint is the first step in holding this neo-Nazi group and its leaders accountable for their unlawful actions against members of our community,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a statement.According to the complaint, the group repeatedly targeted drag story hours around the state between July 2022 an...