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EU leaders welcome Israel-Hamas temporary truce, hostage deal

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

European leaders on Wednesday applauded a temporary cease-fire deal struck overnight between Israel and Hamas, which includes a prisoner exchange for the release of 50 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she “wholeheartedly welcome[d]” the agreement. “I share the joy of the families who can soon embrace their loved ones again,” von der Leyen said in a statement, adding that the Commission would “upscale” aid deliveries to Gaza “as quickly as possible to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.”The European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the truce “must be used to provide as much urgently needed aid as possible to the civilians” in Gaza and pledged the EU would “do its part” in providing such assistance.European Council President Charles Michel, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude to Qatar and Egypt, who he said “helped broker&#...

Single-use fast-food packaging hangs in the balance

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

LILLE, France — Throwaway fast food packaging is under notice in the EU. Or, at least, it was. Brussels is working on new rules to slash the amount of packaging waste mounting up across the bloc. That includes a ban on single-use packaging for customers eating in fast food restaurants, like french fry wrappers and paper cups that typically end up littering city streets.The proposed EU rules largely echo legislation already in place in France, where, since January, fast-food customers eating on-site are served french fries and fizzy drinks in reusable plastic containers, rather than single-use paper cups and cartons. Green-minded lawmakers and campaigners want to see that model expanded and applied across the bloc, arguing it will cut down on packaging waste and help the bloc achieve its circular economy goals. But that’s sparked fierce pushback from fast-food giants and paper packaging lobbyists, who have spent the past year, and a lot of money, lobbying MEPs to make sure...

Two charged in connection with running high-end brothels in Watertown, Cambridge expected in court

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

Two suspects facing charges in connection with the operation of high-end brothels in parts of Massachusetts and Eastern Virginia are expected in court today.The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced the brothel network’s breakup earlier this month, which officials believe had clients who included “elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, attorneys, scientists and accountants, among others.”Han Lee, 41, of Cambridge, Mass., and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Dedham, Mass., are expected in court today. A third suspect, James Lee, 68, of Torrance, Calif., is under investigation.Citing charging documents at the time of their arrest, the US Attorney’s Office said that since at least July 2020, the suspects had operated an “interstate prostitution network” with brothels in Cambridge and Watertown in Massachusetts, along with locations in Fairfax a...

Howie Carr: John F. Kennedy was the last good Democrat

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

President John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas 60 years ago today – on Nov. 22, 1963.And it’s been all downhill since then.It doesn’t matter what you think of JFK’s presidency – I’d say he was okay, but not great – but who can argue that the country hasn’t changed for the worse since that terrible Friday?In the aftermath, much of the nation’s elite – the best and the brightest – had a collective nervous breakdown, and they and their descendants have never recovered. They now careen from one “existential” crisis to the next – one hysteria after another, decades of panic, from global cooling to global warming to acid rain right up to the present.Trump! COVID! George Floyd! Trump!The country stumbles on, more and more resembling, in the prescient words of Richard M. Nixon, “a pitiful, helpless giant.”It’s easy to overstate how much that one assassination has changed everything. As Adam Smith observed after a British defeat in 1777: “There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”Which if...

In the news today: Poll suggests pausing price on carbon popular

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Poll finds Canadians want carbon price paused on all home heating fuelA new poll suggests most Canadians support the federal government’s decision to pause the carbon price on home heating oil for three years. Polling firm Leger surveyed more than 15-hundred Canadians online, asking a range of questions about the carbon price. Sixty-three per cent of respondents say they support the move — and it’s most popular in Atlantic Canada, where it will have the biggest impact. About one-third of homes in the Atlantic region use heating oil. Seventy per cent of the people surveyed say they would support the government expanding the exemption to include all other forms of home heating fuel. —Here’s what else we’re watching …Feds promise Indigenous loan guarantee programThe federal government is promising a new Indigenous loan guarantee...

Canada’s astronauts set to receive new assignments during space agency announcement

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

LONGUEUIL, Que. — Some Canadian astronauts are set to get new assignments today.François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister of innovation, science and industry, will announce the roles at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters, just south of Montreal.There are currently four active Canadian astronauts, with the most junior pair – Jenni Sidey-Gibbons and Joshua Kutryk – selected in 2017.They joined David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen, both of whom became part of the astronaut corps in 2009. Saint-Jacques spent more than six months aboard the International Space Station in 2018 and 2019, while the other three have yet to fly in space.Hansen is set to take part in the Artemis II mission, which will send a crew of four into space as early as November 2024 for a flight around the moon.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2023.The Canadian Press

Public sector general strike in Quebec enters Day 2, more walkouts later this week

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

MONTREAL — Unions representing hundreds of thousands of Quebec public sector workers, particularly in health care and education, are on strike again today.The workers are part of a “common front” of four major unions that have planned a three-day strike until Thursday, which has closed schools and delayed surgeries.The unions say the government’s most recent contract offer, a 10.3-per-cent salary increase over five years and a one-time payment of $1,000 to each worker, isn’t enough.Josée Fréchette, a vice-president at a large health-care union, told reporters Tuesday that workers want additional pay for night and weekend shifts and more vacation.Treasury Board Chair Sonia LeBel, who is leading the negotiations for the government, says she’s waiting to hear a counter-offer from union leaders.The union representing 80,000 nurses and other health-care workers will strike on Thursday and Friday, while a teachers union with 65,000 members is launching an unl...

Israel-Hamas hostage deal offers pause in fighting, hope for Canadians still in Gaza

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

There is hope more Canadians will soon be able to leave the Gaza Strip, after Qatar announced a truce-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas that would bring a four-day halt in fighting in the devastating six-week war.Qatar’s Foreign Ministry — which had led weeks of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas — said it would announce within a day when the clock will start ticking on the truce, during which 50 hostages will be released in stages in exchange for what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinians prisoners held by Israel.The Israeli government said it would extend the lull by an additional day for every 10 hostages released.Global Affairs Canada has said one Canadian is missing, but won’t confirm if that person is being held hostage, a possibility Washington hinted at in a statement over the weekend.On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly expressed hope that a deal would allow all foreign nationals in Gaza to get out of the war zone, in...

Feds promise long-awaited Indigenous loan guarantee program, but offer few details

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The “next steps” for a long-awaited Indigenous loan guarantee program will be announced in next year’s federal budget, the Liberal government promised in its fall economic statement on Tuesday.But industry groups and Indigenous leaders are still waiting for details on whether the program, which the fiscal update said would help communities invest in the natural resource sector, will facilitate equity ownership in oil and gas projects. It is important for help to be available across all sectors, the First Nations Major Project Coalition said on Tuesday after the government promised to “advance development” of loan guarantees.“We hope to see a program that ultimately seeks to respect the rights of First Nations to participate in projects on their lands, as they wish,” said a statement from the coalition, a group of more than 130 Indigenous Nations working to ensure First Nations communities get a fair share of the benefits from projec...

Fear of avian flu descends on B.C. farms as millions of chickens are killed

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:00 GMT

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — It’s the first thing poultry farmers in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley think about in the morning, and the last thing they worry about at night, according to industry spokeswoman Amanda Brittain.The threat is avian flu, which has resulted in the deaths of millions of birds from infection or culling, and has become a pervasive fear for farmers as infections spread, said Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association.She said the industry has placed itself on level “red” — the highest of three levels — in its biosecurity program as farmers fight to fend off the outbreaks, which have been triggered by migrating wild birds.“Before anybody goes into the barn, they’re changing their shoes two or three times,” said Brittain.“They’re changing their clothing or putting on a biosecurity suit over their clothing. Extra precautions are taken to disinfect any vehicles that come on and off the farm, th...