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Biden says he had to use Trump-era funds for the border wall. Asked if barriers work, he says ‘No’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday defended his administration’s decision to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow for construction of roughly 20 miles of additional border wall, saying he had no choice but to use the Trump-era funding for the barrier to stop illegal migration from Mexico.Asked if he thought such walls work, he said flatly, “No.”The new construction was announced in June, but the funds were appropriated in 2019 before the Democratic president took office. Biden said he tried to get lawmakers to redirect the money but Congress refused, and the law requires the funding to be used as approved and the construction to be completed in 2023. “The money was appropriated for the border wall,” Biden said. “I can’t stop that.”Still, the waiving of federal laws for the construction — something also done when Republican Donald Trump was president — raised questions, particularly because Biden condemned border wall spending when he was running for the...

Hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of victims in Prigozhin’s plane crash, Putin claims

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of people who died in the Aug. 23 crash of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane.Experts investigating the crash found no indication the private jet had suffered an “external impact,” he said. Prigozhin and two of his top lieutenants of the Wagner private military contractor were among the 10 people killed when the jet came down as it flew from Moscow to St. Petersburgh.There was no way to independently verify Putin’s statement.A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Putin foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin called allegations he was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”A Russian investigation was launched but no findings have been released. Moscow rejected an offer from Brazil, where the Embraer business jet was built, to join the inquiry...

US shoots down armed Turkish drone after it came too close to US troops in Syria

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Thursday shot down an armed Turkish drone that had come too close to U.S. troops on the ground in northeastern Syria, U.S. officials told The Associated Press, in a rare use of force by one NATO member against another. The drone had been dropping bombs on targets near Hasakah, and while it was not aiming at U.S. troops the bombs were determined to be close enough to pose a danger to U.S. forces, one of the officials said. The officials said the shootdown was ordered after more than a dozen calls to Turkish military officials stating that U.S. forces were on the ground in the area and that the U.S. military would take action to protect them if the drone didn’t leave. The drone was shot down by a U.S. F-16 fighter jet, one official confirmed to the AP. Typically, the U.S. and Turkish militaries, which are NATO allies, work in close coordination in conducting air maneuvers. But American troops also work closely with Kurdish-led forces to counter the ...

Former Rogers CEO responds to countersuit, alleges ‘campaign of dishonesty’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

TORONTO — The former chief executive of Rogers Communications Inc. has fired back at the company, alleging Rogers is carrying out “a campaign of dishonesty” surrounding his ouster in November 2021 by fabricating claims in its defence to his lawsuit.In court documents filed Thursday, Joe Natale accused Rogers of altering business documents to support its position in the ongoing legal battle between the two sides.“In an egregious violation of ethics for one of Canada’s largest public companies, RCI has altered meeting minutes from RCI Board meetings from the relevant period to change statements made by Edward Rogers to the Board to better align with RCI’s self-serving narrative of events,” Natale’s filing stated.It said Edward Rogers, the company chairman, previously filed “different, contemporaneous versions of these meeting minutes in British Columbia Supreme Court in 2021, representing their accuracy to the Court at that time.”Natale sued t...

B.C. sets out law to ban use of illegal drugs in many public places

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia is setting out new rules as it attempts to navigate a way to curb the overdose crisis with drug decriminalization. Possession of small amounts of many illicit drugs was decriminalized in B.C. in January after the federal government issued an exemption, but legislation introduced by the province today would make their use illegal in many public spaces. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says the government is committed to its initiatives to fight the crisis, but the public consumption of illegal drugs can’t happen everywhere.Instead, the changes, if passed, would ban illicit drug use in public and recreational spaces, similar to tobacco, cannabis and alcohol use. Farnworth says the law wouldn’t criminally punish people using drugs in public areas but enforcement officers will ask them to stop or direct them to another area.Local politicians in B.C. passed three resolutions last month at their annual convention on the issue, including asking ...

Report of fatal New Jersey car crash fills in key gap in Menendez federal bribery investigation

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

BOGOTA, N.J. (AP) — The then-future wife of powerful U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, Nadine Menendez, killed a man with her car in December 2018 and was sent from the scene without being charged, according to new details that match an auto “accident” that prosecutors cite in their sweeping federal indictment of the pair as a pivotal motivation for one of the senator’s alleged bribes.Richard Koop, 49, was in front of his Bogota, New Jersey, home when he was killed almost instantly around 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2018, according to details of a police investigation first reported Wednesday by The Record of New Jersey. Relatives and friends of Koop told The New York Times that Koop had left a bar in an rideshare that dropped him off across the street from his apartment.A Bogota Police Department report said Nadine Menendez, who wasn’t yet married to the senator at the time and went by Nadine Arslanian, “was not at fault in this crash. Mr. Koop was jaywalking and did not cross...

Women’s Equality Coalition applauds sex-work ruling, calls on Ottawa to do more

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

OTTAWA — A coalition of women’s groups that support Canada’s laws criminalizing some aspects of prostitution are calling on the federal government to do more to support and protect vulnerable people in the sex trade.Last week, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed a Charter challenge to prostitution-related criminal offences brought in by the former Conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harper in 2014.The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, which launched the challenge, had argued the laws, which prohibit paying for sexual services, violated the rights of sex workers by fostering stigma and preventing them from obtaining meaningful consent before engaging with clients.The Women’s Equality Coalition had been an intervener in the case, arguing that sex work is a form of violence by men against women and that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should not be there to protect it.That coalition is welcoming the ruling by Justice Robert Goldstein that up...

Joel Embiid decides to play for USA – not France – in Paris Olympics

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

Joel Embiid will wear red, white and blue in Paris next summer — not rouge, blanc and bleu.The NBA’s reigning MVP and scoring champion has told USA Basketball that, after more than a year of deliberating, he has picked the Americans over France as his team for the Paris Olympics.The Philadelphia 76ers’ star let USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill know his mind was made up and then made the decision public on Thursday. And one of the reasons Embiid cited in what had him pick the U.S.: His son is American.“I’ve been here for such a long time,” Embiid said in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the 76ers are having training camp — and where Embiid met with Hill this week. “For the past few years, every decision I’ve made has been based on just family. My family, my son, and having the chance to represent a country like the U.S., with my son being born here … I love my home country, but I really wanted to play in the Olympics.”France had given Embiid an O...

‘Unacceptable’: Group says government ignored process in awarding Afghan monument

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

OTTAWA — An architectural group that was chosen by a jury to build a monument to Canada’s mission in Afghanistan says the government’s decision to award the contract to a different group is outrageous and anti-democratic.Veterans Affairs Canada announced the approximately $3-million commission in June, awarding it to a team led by Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson.“This is so anti-democratic,” said Renée Daoust, a spokesperson for Team Daoust, which placed first in the competition. “They’re not respecting their own procurement rules that they have set up, and to us that’s really unacceptable,” she said The team included the firm Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker, artist Luca Fortin and former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, who acted as an adviser on the mission in Afghanistan.Daoust said they learned they won the competition just a couple of hours before Veterans Affairs Canada held a press conference on June 19 — and then they were ...

Man encouraged by chatbot to kill Queen Elizabeth II sentenced to 9 years

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 06:31:51 GMT

A Star Wars fanatic who was encouraged by a chatbot “girlfriend” to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for taking his plot to Windsor Castle, where he scaled the walls and was caught with a loaded crossbow nearly two years ago.“I’m here to kill the queen,” Jaswant Singh Chail, wearing a metal mask inspired by the dark force in the science fiction and fantasy franchise, declared on Christmas Day in 2021 when a police officer on the grounds of the castle asked, “Can I help, mate?”As a Sikh Indian, Chail wanted to kill the monarch to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre when British troops opened fire on thousands of Indians gathered in Amritsar and killed hundreds, a judge said in reciting the facts of the crime.Chail said the assassination was his life’s mission, something he’d thought about since adolescence, but had only shared with Sarai, the artificial intelligence-generated “girlfriend” he created on Replika, whic...