Moral injury is described as the persistent suffering – including shame or guilt – experienced by those who witness, perpetrate, or fail to stop acts of grievous harm.

The post ‘Naming the causes of harm’: Halifax conference explores moral injury among frontline workers appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Last month Nova Scotia’s health authority trimmed more than 6,000 names off the list of people looking for a primary care provider — a list that some see as a bellwether for the health-care crisis.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — They are the signature spectacles in each racing series, the Indianapolis 500 and all its pageantry with more than a century of tradition and milk drinking in open wheel racing, and the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s season opener run under the Florida sun at the unofficial home of the “ birthplace of speed.”

Indy and Daytona.

Just say the city names to even casual sports fans and they’ll surely know each of them as two of the biggest dates — for sure, two of the biggest parties — in American racing.

They are united by four wheels, 500 miles on a 2 1/2-mile track, and raucous crowds of 100,000-plus fans that spill into Indy’s Snake Pit and Daytona’s Tent City.

And, well, not much else.

“They’re two completely different concepts of racing and I think people don’t really understand the differences,” said Juan Pablo Montoya, a two-time Indy 500 champion with seven starts in the Daytona 500.

Montoya is one of the handful of elite drivers to attempt racing in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. This year’s Daytona 500 field is dotted with drivers who have tried both, including seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson and even a Daytona 500 rookie in four-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves.

While a longshot, the Brazilian star is attempting to match A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti as the only drivers to win the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500.

Castroneves will have some help in the draft — the tricky mix of downforce and drag — from three other teammates at Trackhouse Racing.

“I think the main difference is, they’re both unique to survive,” Montoya said. “The factor with NASCAR that makes it really difficult is that you not only depend on yourself to win the race, you depend on your teammates pushing you, your friends. Having the teammates close to you at the right time makes a bigger difference than anything else.”

Here’s what some of this year’s drivers who steeled their nerves over 500 miles in both races have to say about the challenges of them both — and how Castroneves might fare in Sunday’s race.

Jimmie Johnson

“The race itself and the ways the cars behave in the draft are so different. I’m very curious to see what Helio thinks as he gets more experience on the track. In IndyCar, the tow is just mind-blowing how much it helps cars pick up speed. A tow in the stock car is minimal. All the energy comes from behind the push. Really just different dynamics.”

Johnson is a two-time Daytona 500 winner and the 2022 rookie of the year at the Indianapolis 500.

Kyle Larson

On the crowd:

“Both atmospheres are really good, for sure. I don’t know. They’re still, like, very different. Like, it’s hard to answer that because they’re both the peak of the sport. They just have their differences.

“The infield at Indy has the Snake Pit, but the infield here has all the campers, and that’s really cool. Driver intros sort of similar. The crowd feels closer to you at Indy, at least the grandstand crowd. The frontstretch at Indy is swarmed with people. But pit road is also similar to that here. But it’s more race fans. I don’t know. I feel like maybe Indy just has like a little bit more of the kind of history feel to it than the 500, Daytona 500. Other than that, I mean, they’re both great. The atmospheres at both of them were great.”

On the cars:

“I think the challenging part potentially is just probably the weaker brakes. You don’t slow down as good as you would in IndyCar for like a green-flag pit cycle. Maximizing time for the green-flag ins-and-outs, that’s where it’s going to be probably a challenge. Too, at Indy, it’s so narrow, y’all just follow each other. Here it’s like you’re trying to pass people, braking and stuff. That’s probably where he’ll get a little bit maybe overwhelmed at times. But he’ll get the hang of it. It’s not a big deal. He’ll be fine.”

Larson is NASCAR’s 2021 Cup Series champion, competed in the Indy 500 last year and will return this May.

AJ Allmendinger

On the cars:

“Where do you start, I guess? I think when it comes to the Daytona 500, just that pack racing, right? You’re constantly side-by-side. The Indy 500, the year I ran it, the way the aero was, you make big runs and stuff, but you’re not side-by-side constantly. I think that to me is the bigger difference of the way you race those races. You have to be pinpoint accurate in either car. The consequences are really high in both cars if you make a mistake. I think the stress of not having to be side-by-side at the Indy 500 constantly is a little bit easier. But you’re also running 50 miles-per-hour quicker.”

On the crowd:

“We all love motorsports. There’s a handful of races you can say to somebody that’s not a motorsports person and they know exactly what it is. These two races, you could argue the four biggest races in the world, you could put up Monaco, you could put up Le Mans, maybe. The energy of this race as you build up to it and as you walk out and they announce you, at least for me, it’s the same emotion for sure.”

Allmendinger finished third in the 2009 and 2017 Daytona 500s, and was seventh in the 2013 Indy 500 and leading until he was forced to pit because his seatbelt became undone.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Jenna Fryer And Dan Gelston, The Associated Press

Public Health said it investigated a case in a student last week at Cole Harbour High School. Close contacts were notified and were offered preventative antibiotics and vaccination.

NEW YORK (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned Thursday rather than obey a Justice Department order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The resignation of Danielle Sassoon, a Republican who was the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was confirmed by a spokesperson for the office.

Her resignation came days after a senior Justice Department official directed New York prosecutors to drop the case against Adams, who was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and bribes of free or discounted travel from people who wanted to buy his influence.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said in a memo Monday that the case should be dismissed so that Adams, a Democrat, could help with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and campaign for reelection.

Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro. A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately respond.

The Justice Department’s decision to end the case because of political considerations, rather than the strength or weakness of the evidence, alarmed some career prosecutors who said it was a departure from longstanding norms.

While Bove had directed that the case be dismissed as soon as “practicable,” days went by with no public statements or actions by the prosecution team in New York.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that she would “look into” why the charges had yet to be dismissed.

Sassoon, a former clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, was not the one who brought the case against Adams last year. The prosecutor who did, former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, stepped down after Trump’s election victory.

Sassoon had only been tapped to serve as acting U.S. Attorney on Jan. 21, the day after Trump took office.

Her role was intended to be temporary. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to the post, an appointment that must be confirmed by the Senate.

The office she led, the Southern District of New York, is among the largest and most prominent prosecutor’s offices in the U.S., with a long track record of tackling Wall Street malfeasance, political corruption and international terrorism.

It has a tradition of independence from Washington, something that has earned it the nickname “the sovereign district.”

During Trump’s first term, the office prosecuted both the president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his strategic adviser, Steve Bannon, in separate cases. Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance charges. Trump ended the federal fraud case against Bannon by pardoning him, though nearly identical charges were then brought by state prosecutors.

Sassoon joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2016. In 2023 she helped lead the fraud prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. More recently, she had served as the office’s co-chief of criminal appeals.

Adams was indicted in September on charges that while he worked as Brooklyn Borough President, he accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks such as expensive flight upgrades, luxury hotel stays and even a trip to a bathhouse.

The indictment said a Turkish official who helped facilitate the trips then leaned on Adams for favors, including asking him to lobby the Fire Department to let a newly constructed, 36-story diplomatic building open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.

Prosecutors said they had proof that Adams personally directed political aides to solicit foreign donations and disguise them to help the campaign qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly-funded match for small dollar donations. Under federal law, foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns.

As recently as Jan. 6th, prosecutors had indicated their investigation remained active, writing in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.”

Bove said in his memo that Justice Department officials in Washington hadn’t evaluated the evidence in the case before deciding it should be dropped — at least until after the mayoral election in November.

But he criticized “recent public actions” by Williams that he said had “threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity.” Williams hasn’t spoken publicly about the Adams case since his resignation, but wrote an editorial decrying corruption in politics.

Federal agents had also been investigating other senior Adams aides. It was unclear what will happen to that side of the probe.

Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The conference to chart Syria’s political future will include all segments of Syrian society except for the Kurdish-led administration in the northeast and loyalists of the repressive former government of Bashar Assad, organizers said Thursday.

“This will be the first real gathering of Syrians in 75 years,” said Huda al-Atassi, a former detainee and a member of the organizing committee for Syria’s national dialogue conference. She read the panel’s statement at a news conference in Damascus.

The conference will cover “social, political, economic and governance issues, laying the foundations for a solid future based on national consensus, justice, reform and inclusion,” she said.

In late January, Syria’s former rebel factions appointed Islamist former rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa as interim president of the country after an offensive he led toppled Assad in late December. They also threw out Syria’s constitution, adopted under Assad, saying a new charter would be drafted.

Most of the former insurgent factions also agreed to dissolve and join the new Syrian army and security services, but the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria has so far refused to do the same.

SDF forces have been clashing with Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria, and the Kurds are concerned about losing political and cultural gains they have made since carving out their own enclave in the northeast during the country’s civil war.

Discussions are ongoing between the SDF and the government in Damascus.

Formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa is the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the lightning offensive that ousted Assad. The group was once affiliated with al-Qaida but has since denounced its former ties.

In recent years, al-Sharaa has sought to cast himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance and promised to protect the rights of women and religious minorities.

Since Assad’s fall, HTS has become the de facto ruling party and has set up an interim government largely composed of officials from the local government it previously ran in rebel-held Idlib province.

However, al-Sharaa has promised to launch an inclusive political process to set up a new constitution and representative government for all Syrians. The national dialogue conference has been a key part of that plan.

The date of the dialogue remains undecided as preparations continue, said Hassan al-Daghim, a member of the political guidance in Syria’s National Army. Participants will be chosen based on expertise, public influence and inclusivity, he added.

The preparatory committee is “an independent national body” tasked with organizing the dialogue, gathering public input and ensuring fairness, Daghim said. There is no set quota for participation, and women play an “integral” role in all aspects of preparation, Atassi added.

“No one will be invited based on religion, institutional ties or party affiliation,” said Daghim, who dismissed the SDF as unrepresentative of Syrians but said that Kurdish participation would not be restricted.

The dialogue will produce “recommendations” to be submitted to the Syrian presidency. Assad regime figures will not be included, as “their place is in justice,” Daghim said.

Sally Abou Aljoud And Abdelrahman Shaheen, The Associated Press

Pat Riley’s three-peat trademarks could have led to the Miami Heat president getting a sizable payday if the Kansas City Chiefs had won their third consecutive Super Bowl.

Turns out, the Basketball Hall of Famer actually doesn’t keep that money.

Riley said he devotes his share of revenues gleaned from “three-peat” usage — he’s had trademarks on that term for about 35 years — to various charitable organizations. Of particular importance to Riley and his wife, Chris Riley, are groups that help military veterans and their families, including the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in Tampa, Florida.

Riley has said the donations he and the Heat make to veterans’ groups are “very minor in comparison to what they deserve.”

“These are very patriotic, brave and proud people,” Riley said Wednesday. “What they do in serving our country to keep us safe is one of the most courageous sacrifices an American can offer.”

Riley and the Heat created what the team has called the “HomeStrong” initiative 20 years ago, and the team has routinely welcomed returning soldiers and first responders to Miami games over those two decades, plus further honor them with an on-court pregame ceremony. Riley also took the team’s training camp in 2010 to military bases in northwest Florida.

The Special Operations Warrior Foundation — which has received $200,000 in recent years from Riley and his wife, plus another $100,000 that a Heat donor earmarked to the charity of Riley’s choice — honors fallen soldiers and Medal of Honor recipients with grants for education as part of what it calls a “cradle to career” plan that backs the children of those soldiers from preschool through college.

It also provides financial grants to severely combat-wounded, ill, and injured Special Operations soldiers in need of medical care.

Riley has owned multiple “three-peat” trademarks since beginning to file for them in the late 1980s, when the Los Angeles Lakers — who he was coaching at that time — were seeking three consecutive NBA titles.

Riley struck a deal with the Chiefs on three-peat usage, just in case Kansas City had won its third straight Super Bowl. The Chiefs lost to Philadelphia 40-22 on Sunday, ending the three-peat bid.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and some players half-seriously said before the Super Bowl that they were rooting for the Chiefs, with hopes that Riley would gift the team with some wine. But Spoelstra added that there is obviously a deeper meaning, one that Riley has kept largely private.

“There’s a great story to it,” Spoelstra said.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — There’s one essential difference between the two closing arguments at rapper A$AP Rocky ‘s trial: Prosecutors said Thursday that the hip-hop star fired two shots at a former friend from a handgun. Defense lawyers will say he fired blanks from a gun that wasn’t real.

The Grammy-nominated music star, fashion mogul and actor is the longtime partner of singing superstar Rihanna, who entered the courtroom a few minutes into closing arguments. For the first time she brought their two toddler sons with her. They were dressed in suits and could be heard making cooing noises as a prosecutor talked.

“There is one critical question you have to answer,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec told the Los Angeles jurors. “Was it a real gun or was it a fake gun?” he said. “Nothing else is in dispute.”

The closings will likely last into Friday, when jurors should begin deliberating on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for the 2021 shooting. If they convict Rocky of both, he could get up to 24 years in prison.

Testimony ended Tuesday, when Rocky and his lawyers told a judge he would not take the stand.

The prosecution’s case rests largely on the credibility of the man Rocky is alleged to have fired on. A$AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, became friends with Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, in high school in New York, where both were members of a crew of creative types called the A$AP Mob.

Their friendship continued after Rocky gained global fame with a pair of No. 1 albums in 2012 and 2013, but by Nov. 6, 2021 their bond had become a beef.

They met up outside a Hollywood hotel, and scuffled once they saw each other. In a second confrontation moments later, Rocky fired the shots. Relli said his knuckles were grazed by one of them. The fights were partially captured on surveillance videos that are not clear enough for easy interpretation.

A$AP Twelvyy, another member of the crew who was with Rocky, testified that Relli was the aggressor, and that Rocky fired the shots as a warning to stop him from attacking another member of their crew.

Twelvyy testified that Rocky fired blanks from a starter pistol that the rapper had been carrying for security since a music video shoot months earlier, and that everyone involved knew it. Rocky’s tour manager also testified that he carried the phony gun.

Prosecutors argued that the whole idea of the prop gun is a preposterous lie coordinated by Rocky’s inner circle.

Przelomiec zeroed in on Twelvyy.

“This sounds like a man who is giving preprogrammed answers,” he told the jurors. “I don’t have to tell you he was being coached.”

Neither gun was found or presented as evidence.

Police who searched the area after a report of a shooting found no physical evidence, but Relli went to a police department two days later with two shell casings he said he’d picked up after returning to the scene.

In closing arguments, the defense will contend that video evidence and text messages can’t be trusted, nor can Relli. He also filed a lawsuit in the case, and Rocky’s attorneys will cast him as a jealous opportunist out for the money of a former friend who became famous. Relli vowed to do just that in text messages and in phone calls recorded by a mutual friend who gave the recordings to Rocky. Relli said in his testimony that the calls were faked.

The prosecution argued that Relli is justly seeking money after a genuine wrong was done to him. They pointed out during trial that Relli’s communications around the encounter tell a consistent story — and never does he mention making anything up or knowing Rocky carried a prop gun.

The jurors were instructed that if they found that Rocky reasonably believed that he or any of those with him that night were in imminent danger of injury, and that he used reasonable force, they could find him not guilty even if they did not believe the prop gun story.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press

Heather Austin and her husband should be basking in the Floridian sunshine this week, but standing up for her country felt more important. The Nova Scotia couple cancelled their trip just over a week before they were set to leave. The reason? U.S. President Donald Trump's recent attacks on Canada's economy and sovereignty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Canada should be the 51st U.S. state as he proposes to erase the 5,525-mile-long border that separates the two countries. The very notion is ludicrous to Canadians and the hurdles to transforming it into a state are sky high.

But in Trump’s thinking, the traditional Lower 48 states would become the contiguous 50 as the Canadian territory between the U.S. mainland and Alaska disappears, leaving Hawaii as the only non-continental state.

“If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100% certain that they’d become a state,” Trump said recently.

Canada at first reacted as though Trump must be joking, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said flatly his country would never be the 51st state. Trudeau more recently suggested behind closed doors that Trump’s sustained annexation calls may not be just light talk and appear to be “a real thing.”

Here’s what it would take to transform Canada from a nation to a state:

What’s the process for add

ing a state?

Congress has to approve accepting a new state.

It takes only a House majority, but Senate filibuster rules require a minimum of 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to bring a bill to the floor — an insurmountable threshold for all kinds of key legislation.

The Constitution’s Admissions Clause, Article IV, Section 3, states: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

Any measure approving a new state that clears Congress would also have to be signed into law by the president. In the case of Canada, Trump has made it clear he would be eager to do so.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally, joked on X when all 50 states certified Trump’s Electoral College victory last month, “They skipped Canada. We’ll fix that next time!”

No major legislation is advancing that would extend an invitation to statehood to America’s northern neighbor.

Doesn’t Canada have a say?

To say that most Canadian leaders aren’t interested in becoming a state would be an understatement. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, head of Canada’s most populous province, has spun out a counteroffer for Trump.

“How about, if we buy Alaska, and we’ll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time,” he said, adding of Trump’s suggestion: “It’s not realistic.”

There have been multiple past pathways to statehood — from the absorption of the 13 colonies under the Articles of Confederation, to Congress formally agreeing to Texas’ request to be annexed as the 28th state.

Most states were added after Congress accepted a petition from some territorial legislative body, which could include legislatures that Congress itself suggested forming as part of the process.

Canada would probably have to have a referendum to gauge voters’ interests in joining the U.S. before more detailed aspects of the process could begin — and that’s almost certainly a non-starter.

While not addressing Canada as the 51st state directly, polling last year from Gallup and the Pew Research Center shows that Americans overwhelmingly have a positive view of Canada — and that while Canadians view the U.S. more positively than negatively, their view may be a little more muted.

Trump’s threats of tariffs have left Canadians feeling betrayed, and sports fans in Canada have begun voicing their displeasure by booing the U.S. national anthem at NBA and NHL games.

How would adding Canada affect U.S. elections?

Profoundly — and that’s without speculating about whether a majority of Canadians might back Democrats or Republicans for president and in Congress.

If Canada were to join the U.S. — again, a highly unlikely prospect — its population of 41.6 million would make it the largest state, outpacing California’s 39.4 million residents. Canada would get two senators but also 55 House seats based on the average congressional district population following the 2020 U.S. census, which was 761,169 individuals.

That would make Canada the presidential race’s richest prize, with 57 Electoral College delegates — exceeding California’s 54.

The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, meanwhile, caps the number of House seats at 435, meaning that other state delegations would have to shrink to make room for the new Canadian members of the House — and, by extension, its delegates to the Electoral College.

Suddenly, make-or-break swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would not look so important if there were tens of millions of Canadians waiting to be wooed with a presidential election on the line.

What about other potential new states?

Before Trump took office for his second term, debate around adding State No. 51 traditionally centered around Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, and its voters have approved statehood in nonbinding referendums. Proposals to allow it become a state have repeatedly been introduced in Congress but not approved.

Washington, D.C., residents have voted in support of statehood and approved a state constitution and proposed boundaries. A bill admitting into the union the city as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, passed the Democratic-controlled House as recently as 2021 but not the Senate.

Republicans now control both chambers, meaning they’ll likely oppose adding states that could be majority Democratic like Puerto Rico or D.C.

The nation’s capital gets three Electoral College votes for president under the Constitution’s 23rd Amendment, though it lacks voting representation in Congress. That’s why the Electoral College has 538 total delegates: 435 House members, 100 senators and three for D.C.

When was the last time the United States added a state?

Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959, nearly 18 years after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

The island chain about 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) from the mainland United States was annexed as a U.S. territory by Congress in 1898. Many bills offering Hawaii statehood were subsequently introduced, but they stalled for decades amid racial discrimination and partisan disagreement.

By the early 1950s, Hawaii leaned Republican, and Democrats opposed its admission to the union without including Alaska, which was seen as more favorable to their party.

Alaska, separated from the mainland U.S. by about 500 miles (800 kilometers) of Canadian territory, was eventually admitted as State No. 49 in January 1959. That opened the door for Congress to approve Hawaii’s statehood that March, and Hawaiians voted to join the union on Aug. 21, 1959.

It turned out that Alaska has backed Republicans in every presidential election except 1964, while Hawaii has voted Democratic every presidential cycle but 1972 and 1984.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron urged Syria’s interim government to cooperate with a U.S.-led coalition fighting against extremist groups in that region as he hosted a conference Thursday on the Mideast country’s future.

Macron’s comments come amid uncertainty over the United States’ commitment to the region. Thursday’s conference in Paris among European and Arab nations was the third on Syria since the repressive government of Bashar Assad was ousted in December, and was attended by Syria’s interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.

“Syria must very clearly continue to fight against all the terrorist organizations that are spreading chaos,” Macron said. “If Syria decides to offer cooperation” with the international coalition Inherent Resolve, France would support the move, he added.

The Paris conference of foreign ministers and other officials from participating countries was meant to coordinate efforts to support a peaceful transition, as the new government in Damascus underlines its desire to improve relations with the West

Macron’s call to integrate Kurdish-led forces

Macron also called on the Syrian interim government to “fully integrate” the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the Syrian transition, calling them “precious allies.”

“I think your responsibility today is to integrate them and also to allow these forces to join in,” he said.

On Thursday, Syrian organizers of a conference in Damascus to chart the country’s political future said those talks will include all segments of Syrian society except for the Kurdish-led administration in the northeast and Assad loyalists.

Most of the country’s former insurgent factions have agreed to dissolve and join the new Syrian army and security services, but the Kurdish-led SDF so far has so far refused to do the same. SDF forces have been clashing with Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria, and the Kurds are concerned about losing political and cultural gains they have made since carving out their own enclave in the northeast during the country’s civil war.

Discussions are ongoing between the SDF and the government in Damascus.

Billions in aid needed

More aid is crucial to achieve a peaceful reconstruction during the post-Assad transition. The country needs massive investment to rebuild housing, electricity, water and transportation infrastructure after nearly 14 years of war. The United Nations in 2017 estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion, while some experts now say the number could reach at least $400 billion.

With few productive sectors and government employees making wages equivalent to about $20 per month, Syria has grown increasingly dependent on remittances and humanitarian aid. But the flow of aid was throttled after the Trump administration halted U.S. foreign assistance last month.

The effects were particularly dire in the country’s northwest, a formerly rebel-held enclave that hosts millions of people displaced from other areas by the country’s civil war. Many of them live in sprawling tent camps.

The freeze on USAID funding forced clinics serving many of those camps to shut down, and nonprofits laid off local staff. In northeastern Syria, a camp housing thousands of family members of Islamic State fighters was thrown into chaos when the group providing services there was forced to briefly stop work.

A workshop bringing together key donors from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, the United Nations and key agencies from Arab countries will be held alongside the conference to coordinate international aid to Syria.

Doubts over U.S. military support

Uncertainty also surrounds the future of U.S. military support in the region.

In 2019 during his first term, Trump decided on a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops form the northeast of Syria before he halted the plans. And in December last year, when rebels were on their way to topple Assad, Trump said the United States should not “ dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war.”

Now that Syria’s new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa is trying to consolidate his power, the U.S intentions in the region remain unclear. A U.S. official attended Thursday’s conference in Paris.

The commander of the main U.S.-backed force in Syria recently said that U.S. troops should stay in Syria because the Islamic State group will benefit from a withdrawal.

Since Damascus fell on Dec. 8 and Assad fled to Moscow, the new leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how the country will be governed.

The Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – a former al-Qaida affiliate that the EU and U.N. consider to be a terrorist organization – has established itself as Syria’s de facto rulers after coordinating with the southern fighters during the offensive late last year.

___

Sewell reported from Beirut.

Samuel Petrequin, Abby Sewell And Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development asked a federal judge on Thursday to keep blocking an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to pull all but a fraction of worldwide staffers off the job.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, handed the administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk a setback last week by temporarily halting plans that would have put thousands of workers on leave and given those abroad only 30 days to return to the United States at government expense.

Nichols’ order was set to expire by the end of the day.

Two associations representing federal employees want him to continue it, as well as suspending Trump’s freeze on almost all foreign assistance. The president’s pause has shut down clinics, emergency water deliveries and almost all of the thousands of other U.S.-funded aid and development programs around the globe, USAID workers and humanitarian groups say.

Nichols grilled lawyers for USAID unions in Thursday’s hearing, probing how workers were being affected by stopping funding for the agency’s work.

The judge’s questions probed the concept of legal standing – whether the unions can show the kind of legal harm that would justify a continued block on the Trump administration’s plans.

Standing is a legal technicality, but an important one. A different judge cited it when he sided with the Trump administration and allowed a Musk-backed plan to cut the federal workforce through deferred resignations, often known as buyouts.

While the administration and Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have taken aim at other agencies, they have moved most destructively against USAID, asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful and out of line with Trump’s agenda.

In a court filing, deputy USAID head Pete Marocco argued that “insubordination” made it impossible for the new administration to undertake a close review of aid programs without first pushing almost all USAID staffers off the job and halting aid and development work. He did not provide evidence for his assertion.

USAID staffers, in court filings, have denied being insubordinate. They said they were doing their best to carry out what they describe as vague and confusing orders, some of which were said to come from a Musk associate and other outsiders.

Agency supporters told Democratic senators earlier this week that the shutdown — along with other administration steps, including revoking USAID’s lease on its Washington headquarters — was really about eradicating USAID before lawmakers or the courts could stop it.

The employee groups, the Democratic lawmakers and others argue that without congressional approval, Trump lacks the power to shut USAID or end its programs. His team says the power of courts or lawmakers to stand in the way is limited at best.

“The President’s powers in the realm of foreign affairs are generally vast and unreviewable,” government lawyers said in court documents.

Lindsay Whitehurst And Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

Nova Scotia's capital plan for the 2025-26 fiscal year nearly doubles the number of new public housing units planned in the province.

The RCMP says five Nova Scotians are facing charges after drugs and weapons were seized from a home in Pictou last week.

According to police, the Pictou County Integrated Street Crime Enforcement Unit (PCISCEU), a unit that includes RCMP, Stellarton Police and Westville Police officers, started an investigation into potential drug trafficking from a home on Poplar St. in December.

Authorities then executed a search warrant on Thurs. Feb. 6 at the home and found cocaine, methamphetamine and a “bladed weapon”.

Five people were arrested:

-Emily Jessica Barker, 31, of Masstown
-Amanda Michelle Binder, 23, of Stellarton
-Amanda Leeanne Deyoung, 45, of New Glasgow
-Colin Martin Graham, 34, of Stellarton
-Jarom Elliott Merriam, 40, of Truro

They’ve been charged with drug trafficking and weapon offences and are expected in Pictou Provincial Court in April.

OTTAWA — Canada’s aid sector is rallying around a call for Ottawa to use its place on the world stage to promote education as a way of shoring up global security.

Canada is hosting the G7 leaders’ summit this June in Alberta and typically the host makes an international development pledge.

Aid groups and Canadian senators have joined to ask Canada to use that opportunity to champion “peace, education and security.”

They are focusing on how Canada can bolster security at home by preventing youth from being recruited by armed groups.

Former senator Roméo Dallaire, who led Canada’s peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in the 1990s, says education can stem insecurity that leads to violence.

Canada has not indicated its plans for the summit yet with uncertainty about who the prime minister will be at that time and global pressure on all aid projects following the U.S. funding pullback under President Donald Trump.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision at sea with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt, the Navy said Thursday.

The collision occurred late Wednesday while both ships were moving. It did not result in flooding or injuries aboard the carrier, and there was no damage to the ship’s propulsion systems, the Navy said in a statement.

None of the crew on the merchant ship, the Besiktas-M, were injured either, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been made public.

The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.

Tara Copp, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative lawyer Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday as secretary of agriculture, placing a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position at a time when mass deportation plans could lead to farm labor shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.

Rollins, who served as chief for domestic policy during Trump’s first administration, was confirmed overwhelmingly by the Senate in a 72-28 vote.

Rollins will now lead a department tasked with overseeing nearly all aspects of the nation’s food system, including standards on farming practices and livestock rearing, federal subsidies to farmers or agribusinesses and setting nutrition standards for schools and public health officials nationwide.

The Department of Agriculture was at the center of Trump’s trade war in his last administration, when it increased subsidies to farmers growing the nation’s two biggest crops, corn and soybeans, after retaliatory tariffs were levied by China on the grains and international markets were disrupted. The United States is the world’s largest food exporter.

In her Senate confirmation hearing, Rollins acknowledged that Trump’s plans for the mass deportation of people in the country illegally could led to farm labor shortages. Growers of some vegetables and crops such as apples as well as dairy operations are especially dependent on migrant labor.

But Rollins said Americans support Trump’s plans and she would work to help the president while also trying to protect farmers.

“The president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said.

Rollins is a conservative legal activist and public policy analyst who most recently served as president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank that developed policy and cultivated a network of personnel for the second Trump administration.

Other AFPI alumni in the administration include the group’s chair, Linda McMahon, who was tapped to lead the Education Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, among others.

Rollins served as acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term, where she oversaw a portfolio that included agriculture policy. She also served as president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Rollins’ nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate’s agriculture committee. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., called Rollins a “superstar” while Rollins’ home state senators, Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, testified on her behalf ahead of her confirmation hearing.

Rollins promised to “modernize” USDA in line with Trump’s vision for the department that included faster procession of disaster aid for farmers and tackling animal diseases. She also vowed to “immediately begin to modernize, realign, rethink the United States Department of Agriculture” on policies like remote work, in line with the Trump administration’s broader stance.

Democrats expressed concern that federal funding freezes had disrupted aid to farmers and land grant universities and pressed Rollins on how her support for farming communities may clash with Trump’s immigration and trade agenda.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member of the agriculture committee, pressed Rollins on how she would respond to retaliatory tariffs on U.S. crops, given Trump’s previous trade wars.

“Beyond just getting extra payments to make up for it, will you be a voice to make sure people understand the importance of exports for rural America? And it’s not just farming but manufacturing and the like,” Klobuchar asked.

Rollins promised that her team “would be at the table fighting for what we believe is necessary for these communities.

“Of all of the portfolio that, if confirmed, I am taking on, the one that excites me the most is the opportunity to put forward a vision and build a program around revivifying, restoring and bringing back rural America,” Rollins said. She cautioned that “clearly, the federal government itself can’t do that” but said that an “all approach” would be needed to help rural communities.

___

McFetridge reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Matt Brown And Scott Mcfetridge, The Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A head-on collision between a bus and a truck killed 24 people in Zimbabwe on Thursday, police said.

Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said the accident happened near Beitbridge, a town on the southern border with South Africa.

The bus was traveling from the capital, Harare, to Beitbridge with 65 passengers on board. Nyathi said preliminary investigations indicated that the bus was trying to overtake another vehicle when it collided with the haulage truck. He said police are uncertain how many people were injured.

State media showed pictures of some covered bodies lying on the ground and the mangled wreckages of the bus and truck. The State-run Herald newspaper quoted a government medical officer in Beitbridge as saying 17 people died at the scene of the accident, while seven others died from head injuries at a hospital in Beitbridge. The newspaper reported that 30 others were injured and in the hospital.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the crash a national disaster and said the government will take care of funeral and burial expenses.

Road accidents involving buses are frequent in the southern African country, where drivers often exceed the speed limit in order to make as many trips as possible per day.

Roads are also poor. The road where the accident occurred was recently resurfaced as part of government attempts to improve infrastructure.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The Associated Press

While the province says some recommendations from the Desmond inquiry have been fulfilled, some say there's still work to be done.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The U.N. children’s fund on Thursday accused armed men, likely on both sides of the conflict in eastern Congo, of raping scores of children over the past weeks as rebels expand their footprint and push government forces out.

The accusation came as the conflict in the mineral-rich region shows no signs of abating. UNICEF cited reports of the abuses, saying the offenders were apparently from among both the M23 rebels and the government forces fighting them.

“In the North and South Kivu provinces, we are receiving horrific reports of grave violations against children by parties to the conflict, including rape and other forms of sexual violence at levels surpassing anything we have seen in recent years,” UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“One mother recounted to our staff how her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were systematically raped by armed men while searching for food,” Russell added.

Health facilities in the restive region reported during the week from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 a total of 572 rape cases — more than a fivefold increase compared to the week before, Lianne Gutcher, UNICEF’s communication chief in Congo, told The Associated Press.

Of those, 170 of those treated were children, she added.

Armed men perpetrated the rapes but it was unclear what specific armed group or army they belonged to, Gutcher said. “It is suspected that all parties to the conflict committed sexual violence,” she added.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are the most prominent among more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. In late January, the rebels captured Goma, the region’s largest city, in a major escalation of the fighting.

Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched a commission that will investigate atrocities, including rapes and public killings committed by both the Congolese army and the M23 rebels in the region since the beginning of the year.

On Monday, 84 Congolese soldiers accused of murder, rape and other crimes in the country’s east went on trial in the city of Bukavu. The city is under control of the government forces but the rebel offensive has inched closer to it recently.

Mark Banchereau, The Associated Press

The financial blueprint of where people’s tax dollars and funds from other levels of government was released on Thursday morning, showcasing the investment priorities for the province over the next year.

The Capital Plan details that the province is set to fund more than $2.35 billion in health care facilities, housing and other projects that help communities grow. It vows that Nova Scotians will see job opportunities and economic growth from the “historic” plan and improved hospitals, schools and roads.

“Moving our province forward requires a new mindset. That vision is captured this year in the largest-ever capital plan that will position us for future growth,” John Lohr, finance and treasury board minister, said in the press release. “These investments will support Nova Scotians and unlock opportunities to grow the economy.”

Many people across the province, and the country, still don’t have a family doctor forcing many to wait hours in emergency rooms and clinics each day.

During the election campaign in 2021, Tim Houston promised he would “give you everything I have to fix health care.”

The province’s Need A Family Practice Registry — a key health-care indicator — was updated in early November for the first time since June when it reached a record 160,234 people without a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

While the latest figures pointed to a big improvement, with 145,114 people now on the registry, that number is far higher than in the spring of 2021, when there were half as many people on the list.

Here is a partial breakdown of where some of the money will go in health care:

• The Halifax Infirmary expansion project and Cape Breton Regional Municipality healthcare redevelopment project: $750.9 million
• For construction and renewal of other hospitals and medical facilities including projects in Amherst, Yarmouth, on the South Shore and at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax: $131.9 million
• For health records digital transformation (One Person One Record): $90.9 million
• Nova Scotia Health to repair and replace medical facilities: $42 million
• Repair and replace medical equipment: $32 million
• New modular dialysis: $19.2 million
• New diagnostic imaging equipment: $15.3 million
• The second year of the multi-disciplinary oncology partnership: $3.1 million

Housing continues to be top of mind for many people, as homelessness grips the provincial capital and municipalities beg for more funding and resources to tackle the problem head-on.

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia says that as of Dec. 10, 1,238 people in the Halifax Regional Municipality reported they were homeless. That figure does not include the more than 200 children who are homeless and receive support from Adsum, said Sheri Lecker, the group’s executive director.

In response, the government said it is planning on diverting $47.4 million for new public housing units, which it says is the first new funding for the projects in more than 30 years.

“Building more public housing is a key part of addressing the housing needs of our communities,” Colton LeBlanc, growth and development minister, said. “Hundreds more Nova Scotians will have access to the housing they need to thrive.”

The 242 units are an addition to the 273 homes the government announced in the last year, bringing the total to 515. An additional $31.6 million will go to repair and modernize existing housing.

The government also highlights:

• To build and renovate schools, including three that will open during the 2025-26 school year and two more planned Halifax Regional Municipality schools in Bedford and Dartmouth: $210 million
• Buy land for future needs: $50 million
• For information technology projects: $90.2 million
• Funding envelope for storm damage repairs: $22.5 million
• For provincial park repairs and upgrades: $9.2 million

Further funding of more than $500 million is going to projects in the Five-Year Highway Improvement Plan, including $55 million for gravel roads and $60 million for bridges.

BENGALURU, India (AP) — At first glance, the photograph of two fighter jets — one parked on the tarmac and other zooming past it in the air — appears entirely commonplace. In reality, it is anything but.

The Russian Su-57 Felon and the American-made Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II — both advanced fifth-generation fighter aircraft made by rival countries— have been sharing the same space in India since Monday, a move described by India’s defense ministry as historic. The participation of the two at the Aero India 2025 international airshow comes at a time when India is seeking to bridge its fifth-generation fighter gap.

India depends on Russia for nearly 60% of its defense equipment, but the war in Ukraine has added to doubts about future supplies, and New Delhi has been looking more toward the U.S., Israel, Britain, and others.

Aijaz Rahi, The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Work to give 21st-century London yet another skyscraper has uncovered traces — in fact chunks — of the city’s origins almost 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologists exploring the site of a planned 32-story office tower announced Thursday that they have unearthed the remains of a Roman basilica that once stood at the heart of the city known as Londinium.

Excavations in the basement of a building slated to be demolished for the tower at 85 Gracechurch St. uncovered flint, brick and ragstone walls and foundations, up to 1 meter (over 3 feet) wide, 4 meters (13 feet) deep and two millennia old.

Sophie Jackson of Museum of London Archaeology called it “one of the most significant discoveries” in years in London’s oldest quarter, the City – the square-mile financial district where modern glass high-rises stand atop the remnants of Victorian, medieval and even earlier structures.

What’s been uncovered are the foundations of a two-story building, almost as big as an Olympic swimming pool. It was constructed between 78 and 84 A.D., about three decades after Roman troops invaded Britain and some 20 years after forces of the Celtic warrior queen Boudicca sacked the fledgling settlement.

The basilica was part of the forum, the social, political and commercial heart of Roman London, where people went to shop, mingle, seek justice and hear the latest edicts from political leaders. The newly discovered remains are believed to form part of the tribunal, a raised area of the forum where politicians and officials made decisions about the city’s governance.

“It’s thetsite beating heart of the city,” said Andrew Henderson-Schwartz, head of public impact at Museum of London Archaeology. “It kind of towers above the city. And so it’s a real symbol of Roman power and authority.

“We’re talking about the early stages of London here, but it’s a real sign of investment in the city, even in its early infancy,” he said.

Developer Hertshten Properties, which owns the site and has planning permission for a new office tower, has agreed to incorporate the remains into its plans and put them on display in a visitor center.

Henderson-Schwartz said the extent of the “absolutely massive” foundations discovered in several test pits suggests an “extraordinary” level of preservation.

Further digging could answer intriguing questions, including why the original forum was only used for 20 years before being replaced by a much larger one, which remained in use until the collapse of Roman rule in Britain three centuries later. Items such as writing tablets, styluses — even ancient trash — could give glimpses into the daily lives of Roman Londoners.

Property developers in Britain routinely have to consult archaeologists as part of their planning process, a practice that has uncovered finds from Saxon jewelry to medieval ice skates to the skeletons of 14th-century plague victims.

The latest discovery adds to the scant traces of Roman London that can be seen around the city, including a section of ancient wall, a portion of amphitheater beneath the Guildhall and a temple to the god Mithras which lies incongruously under the modern headquarters of information company Bloomberg.

“We do have these little windows into Roman London that are all over the city,” Henderson-Schwartz said. “But this is really in some ways the site that connects them all together. This is the heart of Rome in London, where all the decisions were made.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — English soccer will use semi-automated offside technology for the first time in the fifth round of the FA Cup at the start of March.

The AI-based player tracking technology was supposed to be introduced by the Premier League after one of the international breaks in the early months of the season but was delayed because of issues in the testing process.

After progress in recent weeks, Premier League chief executive Tony Scholes said last week, the technology will first be used in the FA Cup, which has reached the last-16 stage. However, it will be employed only in seven of the eight matches over March 1-2, the Football Association said on Thursday.

“Semi-automated offside technology will provide more efficient placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and produce virtual graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters,” the FA said. It added the technology “does not change the accuracy of the decision making but enhances the speed and efficiency of the process.”

Premier League officials have said they hope the technology will reduce the time it takes to check for offside by an average of 31 seconds.

The FA says the Premier League will look to implement the system later this season after seeing it in operation in the FA Cup.

Semi-automated offside technology was used at a World Cup for the first time in the men’s tournament in Qatar in 2022.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The Associated Press

Interviews with Dave Simpson, Russell Borden, and Tod Augusta-Scott who work with men at risk of committing or who have committed intimate partner violence.

The post ‘That’s where it begins’: Men need to talk with other men to prevent intimate partner violence appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected last month at a time when progress against inflation appears to have stalled, undercutting expectations for lower interest rates this year.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.4% from December and 3.5% from January 2024. Forecasters had expected a 0.2% change month over month and 3.2% year over year.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices rose 0.3% last month from December and 3.6% from a year earlier.

Wholesale services prices rose 0.3%, pushed higher by increasing hotel costs. Goods services climbed 0.6% on higher energy prices.

The wholesale price report arrived a day after the Labor Department delivered some bad news about inflation at the consumer level. Its consumer price index rose 3% in January from a year ago, up from a 2.9% year-over-year increase in December.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index.

Inflation flared up in early 2021 as the economy rebounded with unexpected strength from COVID-19 lockdowns, overwhelming factories, ports and freight yards and leading to shortages, delays and higher prices.

In response, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate — the fed funds rate — 11 times in 2022 and 2023. Inflation began tumbling — from a four-decade high 9.1% in June 2022 to a low of 2.4% in September, tantalizingly close to the central bank’s 2% target. The Fed was satisfied enough to reverse course and cut its rate three times in the last four months of 2024.

Then the improvement on inflation stopped. Year-over-year consumer price inflation has now risen for four straight months.

And economists and financial markets are worried that President Donald Trump’s policies will push inflation higher yet. His tariffs on foreign goods and plans to deport millions of undocumented workers could translate into higher prices.

In response to stubborn inflation, the Fed may hold off on further rate cuts. Back in December, it signaled that it expected to cut two more times in 2025. That seems far less likely now. Wall Street investors anticipate only rate cut this year and don’t expect that one until October.

Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press

KHMELNYTSKI, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday he will not accept any agreements about Ukraine that do not include his country in talks.

In his first comments to journalists since U.S. President Donald Trump held individual calls first with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and then Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader said the main thing was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan.”

“We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreements (made) without us. I articulate this very clearly to our partners –- any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine, not on other topics, but any bilateral talks about Ukraine without us –- we will not accept,” Zelenskyy said as he visited a nuclear power station in western Ukraine.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Russian officials and state media took a triumphant tone Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump jettisoned three years of U.S. policy and announced he would likely meet soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace deal in the almost three-year war in Ukraine.

Trump’s change of tack seemed to identify Putin as the only player that matters in ending the fighting and looked set to sideline Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, as well as European governments, in any peace negotiations. The Ukrainian leader recently described that prospect as “very dangerous.”

Putin has been ostracized by the West since Russia’s Feb. 2022 invasion of its neighbor, and in 2023 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader for war crimes.

Here’s a look at some reactions to Wednesday’s events.

Russia rejoices at Putin’s spotlight role

“To us, the position of the current (U.S.) administration is much more appealing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

Russian officials and state-backed media appeared triumphant after Wednesday’s call between Trump and Putin that lasted more than an hour.

“The presidents of Russia and the U.S. have talked at last. This is very important in and of itself,” the deputy chair of Russia’s National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an online statement.

Senior lawmaker Alexei Pushkov said that the call “will go down in the history of world politics and diplomacy.”

“I am sure that in Kyiv, Brussels, Paris and London they are now reading Trump’s lengthy statement on his conversation with Putin with horror and cannot believe their eyes,” Pushkov wrote on his messaging app.

Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said in an opinion column: “The U.S. finally hurt Zelenskyy for real,” adding that Trump had found “common ground” with Putin.

“This means that the formula ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ — a sacred cow for Zelenskyy, the European Union and the previous U.S. administration — no longer exists. Moreover, the opinion of Kyiv and Brussels (the European Union) is of no interest to Trump at all,” it added.

Russian popular pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda went even further and published a column stating in the headline that “Trump signed Zelenskyy’s death sentence.”

“The myth of Russia as a ‘pariah’ in global politics, carefully inflated by Western propaganda, has burst with a bang,” the column said.

Alarm bells ring in Europe and NATO

Trump appears minded to make a deal over the heads of Ukraine and European governments.

He also effectively dashed Ukraine’s hopes of becoming part of NATO, which the alliance said less than a year ago was an “irreversible” step, or getting back the parts of its territory, estimated at close to 20% of the country, captured so far by the Russian army.

The U.S. administration’s approach to a potential settlement is notably close to Moscow’s vision of how the war should end. That has caused alarm and tension within the 32-nation NATO alliance and 27-nation European Union.

Some European governments who fear their countries could also be in the Kremlin’s crosshairs were alarmed by Washington’s new course, saying they must have a seat at the negotiating table.

“Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media Wednesday.

Others balked at Trump’s overtures and poured cold water on his upbeat outlook.

“Just as Putin has no intention of stopping hostilities even during potential talks, we must maintain Western unity and increase support … to Ukraine, and political and economic pressure on Russia,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “Our actions must show that we are not changing course.”

A Ukrainian soldier is resigned to Trump and Putin talking

A soldier from Ukraine’s 53rd Brigade fighting in the eastern Donetsk region said it was normal for Trump and Putin to speak to each other.

“If dialogue is one way to influence the situation, then let them talk — but let it be meaningful enough for us to feel the results of those talks,” the soldier said, insisting on anonymity due to security risks for her family in occupied Ukrainian territory.

But she was skeptical about the negotiations, given the incompatible demands tabled in the past by Russia and Ukraine.

“The conditions are unacceptable for everyone. What we propose doesn’t work for them, and what they propose is unacceptable for us,” she said. “That’s why I, like probably every soldier here, believe this can only be resolved by force.”

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Associated Press, The Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — In just one speech by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week, the most powerful member of NATO has thrown the world’s biggest military alliance into disarray, raising troubling questions about America’s commitment to European security.

Hegseth told almost 50 of Ukraine ’s Western backers on Wednesday that he had joined their meeting “to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”

“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must — and we are — focusing on security of our own borders,” he said.

Reading the riot act to U.S. allies, Hegseth said that Ukraine will not get all its territory back from Russia and will not be allowed to join NATO, which would provide the ultimate security guarantee to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin never attacks it again.

He insisted NATO will not be involved in any future force that might be required to police the peace in Ukraine. European and other nations will, but the Europeans will have to pay for it. No American troops would take part in such an operation, he warned.

Beyond that, Hegseth said that NATO will not come to the rescue of any European nation involved in that force if it is attacked by Russia. It’s unclear what role the U.S. would play, if any, although Russia is sure to test the force’s resolve if America does not provide backup.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that NATO faces “a real moment of truth.”

“To say that it’s the biggest and most robust alliance in history is true, historically speaking. But the real question is will that still be the case in 10 or 15 years,” he said.

What is NATO?

Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed by 12 nations to counter the threat to European security posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Dealing with Moscow is in its DNA. Keeping the peace outside the Euro-Atlantic area is not.

NATO’s ranks have grown since the Washington Treaty was signed 75 years ago — to 32 countries after Sweden joined last year, worried by an increasingly aggressive Russia.

NATO’s collective security guarantee — Article 5 of the treaty — underpins its credibility.

It’s a political commitment by all member countries to come to the aid of any member whose sovereignty or territory might be under attack. Hegseth has now raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to that pledge, although he did say that his country is not planning to leave the alliance.

NATO’s doors are open to any European country that wants to join and can meet the requirements and obligations. Importantly, NATO takes its decisions by consensus, so every member has a veto. This week, Hegseth took Ukraine’s candidacy off the table.

Who’s in charge?

The United States is the most powerful member. It spends much more on defense than any other ally and far outweighs its partners in terms of military muscle. So Washington drives the agenda. Hegseth’s speech, essentially saying “this is how it’s going to be,” was further proof.

NATO’s day-to-day work is led by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

As NATO’s top civilian official, he chairs almost weekly meetings of ambassadors in the North Atlantic Council at its Brussels headquarters. He chairs other “NACs” at ministerial level and summits of heads of state and government. Rutte runs NATO HQ, tries to encourage consensus and speaks on behalf of all 32 members.

NATO’s military headquarters is based nearby in Mons, Belgium. It is always run by a top U.S. officer. The current supreme allied commander Europe is Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli.

What is NATO doing to help Ukraine?

Even though most allies believe that Russia could pose an existential threat to Europe, NATO itself is not arming Ukraine. As an organization, NATO possesses no weapons of any kind. Collectively, the alliance provides only non-lethal support — fuel, combat rations, medical supplies and body armor, as well as equipment to counter drones or mines.

But members do send arms on their own or in groups. European allies provided 60% of the military support that Ukraine received in 2024.

NATO has also helped Ukraine’s armed forces shift from Soviet-era military doctrine to modern thinking, and has strengthened Ukraine’s defense and security institutions.

Much of what NATO does for Ukraine, and indeed for global security, is misunderstood. Often the alliance is thought of as the sum of all U.S. relations with its European partners, from imposing sanctions and other costs on Russia to sending arms and ammunition.

But as an organization, its brief is limited to the defense by military means of its 32 member countries — the sacred Three Musketeers-like vow of all for one, one for all — and a commitment to help keep the peace in Europe and North America.

At least that was the case until this week.

Why has NATO stationed more troops on its European borders?

While some allies have left open the possibility of sending military personnel to Ukraine, NATO itself has no plans to do this, and Hegseth ended any speculation over whether it might.

But a key part of the commitment for allies to defend one another is to deter Russia, or any other adversary, from launching an attack in the first place. Finland and Sweden joined NATO recently because of this concern.

With the war in Ukraine soon to enter its fourth year, NATO has 500,000 military personnel on high readiness to counter any attack, whether it be on land, at sea, by air or in cyberspace.

Isn’t the U.S. doing the heavy lifting?

Due to high U.S. defense spending over many years, America’s armed forces benefit not only from greater troop numbers and superior weapons but also from significant transport and logistics assets.

Other allies are starting to spend more, though. After years of cuts, NATO members committed to ramp up their national defense budgets in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

The aim was for each ally to be spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense within a decade. In 2023, they agreed to make 2% a spending floor, rather than a ceiling. A record 23 countries were expected reach that spending target last year, up from only three a decade ago.

But Rutte has said they will need to raise that to 3% or more.

France’s Lecornu claims that the wrangling over defense spending is “a false debate” as governments and parliaments across Europe are already approving more weapons purchases and bigger military budgets, all while arming Ukraine so it can defend itself.

Lorne Cook, The Associated Press

TORONTO — Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. reported its fourth-quarter profit rose compared with a year earlier as its revenue crept higher.

The retailer says its net income attributable to shareholders totalled $411.5 million or $7.37 per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 28, up from $172.5 million or $3.09 per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter was $4.51 billion, up from $4.44 billion, as consolidated retail sales rose 1.1 per cent.

The company says comparable sales at its Canadian Tire stores grew 1.1 per cent, while SportChek comparable sales gained 0.4 per cent.

Mark’s comparable sales rose 1.8 per cent.

Canadian Tire says normalized earnings for the quarter amounted to $4.07 per diluted share, up from $3.38 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CTC, TSX:CTC.A)

The Canadian Press

Some schools are closed or dismissing early on Thursday across the mainland of Nova Scotia as a messy mix of winter weather heads toward the region.

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is travelling to Europe today.

The minister will be in Europe until Feb. 18, traveling to France, Germany and Belgium to take part in conferences, meet with officials to discuss topics like geopolitical conflicts and foreign interference and speak in a roundtable on Arctic security.

Joly will start her trip in Paris on Thursday, where she and Canada’s newly-appointed Special Envoy for Syria Omar Alghabra will attend the Paris Conference on Syria. While in Paris, the minister will meet with Jean-Noël Barrot, minister for Europe and foreign affairs of France.

Joly will then be in Munich, Germany, where she will attend the Munich Security Conference from Feb. 14 to 16, speak at a roundtable on Arctic security and gather with other G7 foreign ministers as Canada takes on the presidency this year.

Joly will then travel to Brussels, Belgium, from Feb. 16 to 18, where she plans to meet with officials from the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament and NATO.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13. 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — After a choppy couple of years for Canada’s largest ports, a new paper argues that automation can provide a path to higher productivity.

Terminals are in dire need of tech upgrades ranging from crane automation to robots that ferry cargo along the docks, despite union resistance, said Shal Marriott, who authored the Montreal Economic Institute publication.

“When our ports are performing as poorly as they are and resulting in as slow of a process as they seem to be, why would someone come here when they could come to a country that’s quicker and therefore more competitive?” Marriott asked in a phone interview, calling current vessel turnaround times “rather dismal.”

The argument marks the latest thrust in a decades-long push toward automation on the waterfront, with evidence on its efficiency mixed as the battle plays out at bargaining tables, corporate conferences and policy forums.

A performance assessment by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence places Canada’s three biggest ports in the bottom 15 per cent of more than 400 container ports for 2023, due mainly to vessel wait times. Montreal came in 348th, Vancouver 356th and Prince Rupert, B.C., 399th out of 405 ports on its list.

In 2022, the Port of Vancouver placed second-to-last after some cargo ships waited weeks to unload their freight due to supply chain snarls stemming from COVID-19.

Marriott said the threat of sweeping tariffs by the Trump administration makes the need for an overhaul all the more urgent.

“The ability to pursue new international trading partners such as in Europe and Asia, which would benefit from increasing our productivity at ports, can allow Canadian consumers and producers access to new markets,” she said.

“And this can in fact help to grow jobs and increase development across the entire Canadian economy.”

The report puts the blame for lagging innovation on unionized employees, who were “often opposing modernization and automation efforts” in recent years.

Unions have pushed back on the notion that automation equals efficiency. They have also stressed that their bargaining power derives from strength in numbers — leverage that is undercut by layoffs made possible through technology.

“When controlled by employers for their benefit, modern automation disrupts the dependence upon workers’ labour, and so attacks an essential mechanism of leverage in the fight for decent work and well-being for all people,” states a 2020 report from the B.C. Federation of Labour.

The 38-page paper also found “modern automation cannot be stopped outright, but can be harnessed” to improve working conditions and benefits — by establishing a joint committee of employers and workers for input into technological changes, for example.

Automation became a key sticking point last year in negotiations at B.C. ports, where a strike notice from 700 workers prompted an 11-day lockout in November. The province currently has two semi-automated container terminals: one south of Vancouver and one in Prince Rupert.

Montreal dockworkers also took strike action last fall, with automation now one of the main topics on the table as mediation plays out.

Last autumn saw 45,000 American longshoremen go on strike to demand a total ban on automation for cranes and container-hauling trucks. Under a six-year deal reached in January, the ports on the East and Gulf Coasts will be able to implement partial automation — with new jobs created in tandem — but not “fully automated” systems.

There is no consensus around whether robots on the waterfront hold the key to high performance.

Last year, a report from a U.S congressional watchdog found that automation was overhyped but nonetheless a potential path to improved port efficiency if other supply chain players come on board. High costs and a long recovery time for investment were cited as other hurdles.

A 2021 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development concluded that “automated ports are generally not more productive than their conventional counterparts.” A McKinsey survey from 2017 found port automation cuts labour costs, but also productivity — by up to 15 per cent.

The low grade received by Canadian ports speaks not just to their operations in isolation, but the vast supply network they sit within as well as snarls and bottlenecks specific to Canada, such as the 13-day B.C. port strike in July 2023.

As of four years ago, only a small minority of container ports could claim partial automation, according to the OECD. Just a few have dispatched robots to move freight between the quay and the container yard, and virtually none feature automated gantry cranes on the piers.

But that could be changing. So-called autonomous guided vehicles — robots that move along set pathways marked by lines or wires — are increasingly used to transport containers between crane and yard, tracing one route to modernization.

The Port of Singapore, which ranked 17th overall in the World Bank study, deploys the driverless conveyances. Yokohama, Japan — ranked No. 2 among medium-sized ports — also relies heavily on automated systems to manage cargo, vehicles and cruise ships.

However, so does Rotterdam. It opened its first automated terminal in 1993 and today stands as one of the most highly automated ports in the world. It ranked 91st, well below many manual peers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

As MLAs prepare to return Friday for the start of a winter session at the Nova Scotia Legislature, Premier Tim Houston has been setting the stage for the direction his government will follow at the beginning of its second mandate with headwinds already looming.

Huijun Long received a notification on the Virgin Plus app that her service with the company had been cancelled. Turns out, her phone number had been 'mistakenly transferred' to a Bell Mobility account.

Murray Cook starts his day the same way he's started it for most of his 97 years. He has hot porridge for breakfast, takes a couple of vitamins, and sets out to chop wood and do other chores to maintain his family home at Cooks Cove, just outside of Guysborough, N.S.

The bulletin from the national forecaster states that the freezing rain will be preceded by accumulating snow and ice pellets, which are likely to exacerbate hazards for motorists during the afternoon commute. Conditions will improve in the evening as temperatures rise well above zero and precipitation transitions to rain. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways, and parking lots may become icy and slippery, and utility outages may occur.

95.7 NewsRadio Weather Specialist Allister Aalders said precipitation on Thursday will begin around noon with flurries. From 3 pm to 6 pm, it will switch over, first to ice pellets and then to freezing rain, creating slippery road conditions during the afternoon commute.

“Precipitation amounts will not be significant,” said Aalders, “but this will be problematic for the afternoon commute.”

“You will want to use extra caution on the roads and sidewalks today, tonight, and tomorrow morning,” he advised.

Aalders also mentioned that winds will pick up on Thursday. Strong winds are expected to begin ranging from 40-60 km/h, increasing to 70 km/h later in the day.

Conditions are expected to improve into the evening and overnight hours as temperatures rise and the freezing rain switches over to showers.

Much of southern Ontario and Quebec is under winter storm and snowfall warnings as a low-pressure system moves east toward the Atlantic provinces.

Between 15 and 40 centimetres is forecast to fall by this afternoon across an area stretching from Windsor, Ont., to Gaspé in Quebec.

New Brunswick could see up to 25 centimetres in some areas as snowfall continues into tonight.

Snowfall in western Newfoundland is expected to continue into Friday, with at least 10 to 20 centimetres forecast.

Meanwhile, several provinces out west are dealing with an extended period of extreme cold.

Parts of southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, along with sections of Alberta and northern Ontario, are expected to see wind-chill values of -40 or lower this week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Two Nova Scotia men are asking the Federal Court to declare the current suspension of Parliament illegal because there must be a “reasonable justification” for hitting the pause button.

Federal lawyers contend in response that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s advice to the Governor General to prorogue Parliament is not subject to review by the courts, and that the ultimate judgment rests with the voting public.

The court will hear arguments from both sides of the dispute during a two day-hearing that gets underway this morning.

In their application filed last month, David MacKinnon of Amherst, N.S., and Aris Lavranos of Halifax seek an order setting aside Trudeau’s decision to advise Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to exercise her power to prorogue Parliament until March 24.

MacKinnon and Lavranos also request a declaration that this session of Parliament has not been prorogued.

On Jan. 6, Trudeau fought back tears as he announced plans to resign as prime minister once a new Liberal leader is chosen.

Trudeau also said Simon had agreed to his request to prorogue Parliament, wiping the legislative slate clean and pausing the business of the House of Commons and Senate.

MacKinnon and Lavranos asked the court to expedite a hearing of their application for judicial review, citing the urgent U.S. threat of steep tariffs on goods from Canada.

They maintain that Trudeau’s decision effectively denies Parliament the ability to carry out its constitutional functions in the “exceptional and compelling” circumstances posed by the tariff threats.

“While a prime minister does have the power to advise the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, such power cannot be used in the absence of reasonable justification,” they say in their written submission to the court.

“It cannot be used to enable the government to ‘ride herd’ over Parliament. That, quite simply, would be tyranny, which must be firmly rejected by this Court.”

Section 5 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires that Parliament sit at least once every 12 months.

MacKinnon and Lavranos disagree with the notion that this is the only limit on prorogation powers, and argue in their application that the very existence of Section 5 “demonstrates that a prime minister’s discretion to advise prorogation is not absolute.”

“Prorogation is not universally available at his or her slightest whim,” they add.

The pair argue the section provides no guidance on when, and under what circumstances, a prorogation can lawfully begin. “That is an altogether different question,” they write.

MacKinnon and Lavranos also argue that unwritten constitutional principles indicate Parliament, not the executive, is supreme, and that to maintain authority to govern, the government must remain accountable to — and retain the confidence of — Parliament.

In an affidavit filed with the court, MacKinnon, who has worked extensively as a lawyer, says there is no one in Parliament able to pass legislation or otherwise conduct business to assist the government in the event urgent legislative steps need to be taken.

“In particular, I am concerned that Parliament is unable to react to or otherwise deal with the looming, unprecedented economic and political threat that Canada faces from the U.S., as announced and repeatedly stated by President Donald Trump,” MacKinnon writes.

In its written submission to the court, the government asks that the case be dismissed.

Federal lawyers say the basis for the current prorogation and its duration are entirely consistent with the exercise of the power in Canada and that it has met the only constitutional requirement — that Parliament sit at least once every 12 months.

“During the brief period of the prorogation, only five scheduled sitting weeks of the House of Commons will have been interrupted and the executive branch of government has and will continue to function effectively,” the federal submission says.

“Any intervention by a court would be contrary to binding authority and unwarranted.”

The prime minister’s advice to the Governor General is given in keeping with a well-established constitutional convention and is not reviewable by the court, the federal submission adds.

“The government will be accountable to the House of Commons and, ultimately, the electorate for the decision to prorogue.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Karina Gould says she would work toward establishing a basic personal income if she wins the party’s leadership race next month.

Gould is in Fredericton this morning visiting the city’s food bank, where she will speak about the policy.

The Liberal grassroots have backed at least four resolutions for basic income programs at policy conventions including by a vote of 77 per cent at a virtual convention held in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it has never appeared in a campaign platform.

In a policy document provided by a campaign official to The Canadian Press, Gould says within one year of being elected she would begin the process of establishing a basic income.

She would also establish a system within one year to modernize social safety programs like employment insurance to make them easier to access and faster to deliver.

Basic income programs provide a set amount of money to individuals but can either be universal, where every citizen receives the money no matter their other sources of income, or scaled based on existing income to cover gaps for those at the lower end of the spectrum.

The idea of a basic personal income in Canada gained traction after the pandemic when the government provided an emergency income benefit to millions of Canadians who lost their jobs because of COVID-19 restrictions.

NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced a private member’s bill in 2021 to create a national framework for a universal basic income but the bill never made it beyond first reading.

A similar bill introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kim Pate was in the midst of being studied by a committee when Parliament was prorogued last month.

In 2021, the parliamentary budget officer published an analysis suggesting it would cost $85 billion to provide $17,000 to low-income Canadian families and would cut poverty rates in half.

There are about three and a half weeks left before the Liberals elect their new leader on March 9.

Gould, the MP for Burlington who stepped down as Liberal House leader to join the race last month, is one of five candidates in the running.

She is joined by former central banker Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, and former MPs Frank Baylis and Jaime Battiste.

A Leger poll published this week showed Carney with a wide lead with the support of 68 per cent of Liberal supporters, followed by Freeland with 14 per cent and Gould at three per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

The Canadian Press

New research suggests male baleen whales looking for love sing a different tune when attracting a mate, and it all depends on if they are more likely to fight or flee from a predator.

Killer whales are the only natural predator of baleen whales — those that eat using a system in their mouths to sieve their plankton diet from the water.

Experts have divided baleen whales into two categories based on how they are likely to respond to killer whales.

The whales that travel in groups and are more likely to fight a killer whale, include right, bowhead, grey and humpback, while those that travel solo and are more prone to flight include blue, fin, sei, Bryde’s and minke whales.

Trevor Branch, a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington, reviewed more than 250 research papers last summer on whales and found that most of the baleen whales more prone to flee from predators will sing at a bass level low enough to avoid being heard by killer whales.

“I think the astonishing thing for me is that you can have animals that produce some of the loudest sounds in nature, and yet their predators can’t hear them,” he said.

“A whale you can hear for hundreds of kilometres away, and yet a killer whale could be right next to it and couldn’t hear it. They could hear, probably, the sound of the blow, or the sound of them splashing, but as soon as you get beyond the range of that it’s like they’re completely acoustically invisible. Like ghosts in the water.”

Branch said most killer whales have poor hearing below 1500 Hz and can’t hear at all below 100 Hz.

He found only 24 per cent of flight species call above 1500 Hz, and generally very quietly, so they can’t be heard further than one kilometre away. Blue whales, for example, don’t call above 100 Hz.

Branch said it makes sense that females that are part of a flight species would be attracted to a male with a call that does not attract predators.

“Blue whales everywhere in the world, every population, over any time period you look at, their calls have been getting deeper and deeper over time and this is a completely unexplained mystery,” he said.

“So, maybe the females are basically forcing the males, through sexual selection, to sing a bit lower every year because the females find it more attractive to go toward a male that can sing deeply. And maybe one part of that is the deeper you sing, the less likely you attract killer whales.”

About 89 per cent of the whales that will fight against killer whales call above 1500 Hz.

Whales in the “fight club” travel in groups and the males sing highly varied, beautiful, intricate songs that change every few years, Branch said.

“If you’re in a big aggregation with lots of males competing, then maybe singing low and monotonously is not going to get you a mate. You want to be singing in a way that shows off your abilities to sing. And maybe that’s a good indication of your fitness,” he said.

Branch said his findings are just the latest in a long line of facts about baleen whale life linked to how they respond to killer whales.

“Killer whale predation drives all kinds of aspects of whale ecology, where they move, where they stay, how they mate, why they sing, how they sing, where they go to breed, how long they suckle their calves until they wean them,” he said.

“All these aspects of life of baleen whales seem to be driven, at least in part, by killer whale predation, or at least the fear of killer whale predation.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

As Ontario’s snap winter election campaign reaches its halfway point, Progressive Conservatives’ main opponents are still scrambling to pitch themselves to voters, while polls suggest the incumbents maintain a significant lead.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford called the early vote for Feb. 27, more than a year before the next fixed election date, in what some observers say was a strategic move intended to catch his rivals at a disadvantage.

Ford has said his government needs an even bigger mandate from Ontarians in the face of looming tariffs and four years of U.S. President Donald Trump.

But other party leaders have accused Ford of calling the snap election for his own benefit, calling it unnecessary and a waste of money.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie acknowledged last week that figuring out when an election might come was difficult.

“He was musing about election calls. We didn’t know when the timing would be,” she told reporters at a campaign event in Toronto.

In the lead-up to the winter, Ford had consistently refused to rule out a 2025 vote.

While some anticipated an election in the spring, the window for a provincial contest seemed to quickly narrow after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would resign as Liberal leader and prorogued federal Parliament until late March — after which a federal election seemed all but certain.

It was widely expected that Ford wouldn’t risk having an election at the same time – and the U.S. tariffs he was road-testing as a reason for the vote threatened to come early in the new year.

The snap call at the end of January gave the opposition parties even less time than they might have expected to patch together a platform and convince voters it’s time for a change.

Philippe Fournier, a polls analyst, said the short campaign period was a clear strategic move from Ford.

“There’s no doubt it was by design that the PCs decided to have the minimum length duration for this election,” said Fournier, who serves as editor-in-chief of 338Canada, a poll analysis and vote projection website.

All four of the main parties have announced a full slate of candidates, with the NDP reaching that milestone more than a week into the campaign, the Liberals last weekend and the Greens this week.

Crombie and NDP Leader Marit Stiles, seen as Ford’s main competitors, both made several announcements in the first two weeks of the election that included no details on how much the measures would cost taxpayers.

Crombie has said her party needs to do some more work to fully develop its platform since it has been “a little abrupt to get it all costed.”

She said at a press conference Wednesday she would release the party’s full platform soon. The NDP has said the same.

Meanwhile, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is the first and only leader to release a fully costed platform.

“We want to be honest and transparent with the people of this province, because that’s the kind of government they deserve,” Schreiner said at a platform launch event Wednesday.

Kayla Iafelice, a Conservative political strategist, isn’t buying the argument that the snap election timing is why opposition parties haven’t fully developed their plans.

“There had been talk for quite some time that there was going to be an early election,” said Iafelice, a former spokesperson for Ford. “Anybody who’s worked in politics and anybody who understands politics knows … you get to work, and you start to be prepared.”

Iafelice acknowledged that both the NDP and Liberals seem to lack the “infrastructure” they need to respond quickly to a situation like this, and they don’t have the number of people they need behind the scenes to piece a comprehensive platform together.

“I think part of the problem why they don’t have these fully costed and fully detailed platforms is primarily a resource problem,” she said in a phone interview.

Ford has not released a fully costed platform for the PCs, either.

But as premier, he has had control over the provincial budget during his incumbency, and his government would have been preparing a fully costed provincial budget for release in early 2025.

Fournier, the poll analyst, said the early election gamble seems to be paying off.

“Since the campaign began, we have not seen clear trends other than Doug Ford’s PCs should win a landslide majority at Queen’s Park if the numbers hold.”

Fournier said based on aggregate analysis of recent polls the PCs are currently projected to win about 45 per cent of the popular vote and hold around 100 seats.

He said it’s difficult at this point to determine whether the NDP or the Liberals will have the upper hand when it comes to forming the Official Opposition.

While the Liberals are projected to have the edge over the NDP in the popular vote, as of the halfway point, there’s a possibility they split the vote while the PCs win “almost everything” said Fournier.

The contest, which Elections Ontario says will cost up to $189 million, will see voters heading to the polls in a rare winter election.

If the NDP, Liberals and Greens were caught by surprise, that’s even more so the case for the average voter.

Lydia Miljan, a political science professor at the University of Windsor, told The Canadian Press earlier this month that Ford’s decision to call an election nearly 1 1/2 years before the fixed date caught Ontarians “off guard.”

The short campaign leading up to a February vote — when some people may be travelling for winter vacations and others, depending on the weather, may find themselves less motivated to make the trip to their local polling station — could lower voter participation, she said.

There has been minimal fanfare during the election campaign’s first half. Campaign events from all parties have been kept to organized numbers, and none have held large-scale rallies or crowded events.

Leaders’ debates are scheduled for the awkward times of Valentine’s Day afternoon and Family Day evening.

But for Iafelice, there’s little excuse for the opposition to have a muted response to this opportunity.

“When you are an opposition party, your goal is to have a very clear agenda of what you’re pushing back on against the government, it is your job to make sure Ontarians know what the alternative is and to keep the government in check,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Rianna Lim and Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press

BOISSEVAIN, Man. — The International Peace Garden that straddles the Canada-United States border has for more than 90 years been a quiet, pastoral place to celebrate friendship between the two countries.

People can stroll through flower gardens and see displays about international co-operation, often without noticing that they’ve crossed the border between Manitoba and North Dakota several times.

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of imposing tariffs on Canada and making it the 51st state, some people are feeling a bit less neighbourly and saying they have no plans to visit this year.

“I have received strong emails from individuals in our local communities and cannot fault them for feeling the way they do,” Tim Chapman, the garden’s chief executive officer, wrote in a recent message to supporters.

In an interview, Chapman said the emails came from Canadians dismayed at rhetoric from south of the border.

The garden is a non-profit operation that raises money from admission fees, private donations and regular funding from state and provincial governments and Parks Canada.

It is a non-political place, stressed Chapman, that honours the people of both countries, not politicians or parties.

“We really don’t have any control over the political rhetoric that is obviously causing some feelings, but we can continue … to serve as an example of what friendly neighbours are,” he said.

The garden sits right on the border. A small creek that runs through the middle of the park, along with a cairn in one area, are the only real signs of any boundary. Roughly 35,000 people visit a year and the garden regularly hosts small conferences with attendees from the two countries.

One of the park’s displays contains damaged girders from the World Trade Center targeted in the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. The display is, in part, a tribute to Canada’s support following the attack.

Visitors don’t have to formally enter the other country through a border crossing. The park entrance and driveway is on a short stretch of highway between Canada and U.S. customs offices. People only have to show identification to their home customs office after leaving the garden.

The mayor of Boissevain-Morton, a community on the Canadian side of the border, said she expects the garden will be hit by a lack of visitors because many have told her they’re not going to travel to the U.S. this year.

“If you’re not going across the line, what is the chance of going to the peace garden? “Judy Swanson asked.

“Usually you go there, you tour the garden and then you go across the border, either north or south.”

Chapman said that since he reached out to supporters, people on both sides of the border have responded positively and expressed a desire to visit.

“In one email that an individual sent … she just detailed that the garden is more important than ever — a place without borders where, for a few hours, life is as it’s supposed to be: free.'”

— By Steve Lambert in Winnipeg

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

The Canadian Press

As “Saturday Night Live” marks its 50th anniversary, The Canadian Press looks back on some of the sketch comedy show’s most notable Canadian musical performances.

Musical Guest: The Tragically Hip

Song: “Grace, Too” and “Nautical Disaster”

Host: John Goodman

Date: March 25, 1995

THE SHOW: Due to scheduling conflicts with his TV sitcom “Roseanne,” host John Goodman appeared in only a few sketches, so special guest Dan Aykroyd stepped in. The Kingston, Ont.-native, and former “SNL” cast member, leaned heavily into impressions, including U.S. politician Bob Dole and “Unsolved Mysteries” host Robert Stack. He also joined Goodman in the opening monologue to reprise his Blues Brothers persona.

THE REHEARSAL: Fellow Kingstonians the Hip were in the midst of a club tour when they rolled into NBC Studios and got a rude awakening on the mechanics of live TV. “We’re told just before dress rehearsal that we’ve gotta be four minutes (a song), or something like that,” recalled bassist Gord Sinclair. The problem was the Hip was in “full jam mode” at the time, playing seven-to-10-minute versions of many of their songs each night. They needed a quick solution, so rather than carve out portions of Gord Downie’s lyrics, they decided to trim the intros and outros of each song and share visual cues to smooth out the process. “That really added to the nerve factor,” Sinclair said.

BACKSTAGE: Feeling the pressure, the band decided to take the edge off with a few puffs of marijuana before showtime. “We got this cool dressing room, and it’s got a nice little vent,” Sinclair remembered. “You were allowed to smoke inside still in those days… (We thought,) ‘Let’s just get high and try to relax.’” Did the weed calm the band down? “I was relaxed, let’s put it that way,” Sinclair said. “Gord was pretty relaxed as well.”

LIVE ON AIR: They may have been too relaxed, Sinclair acknowledged in hindsight. Downie flubbed the opening line of “Grace, Too,” replacing, “He said, ‘I’m fabulously rich’” with “I said, ‘I’m Tragically Hip,’” which he delivered with a dazed smirk. “On Gord’s part, it was probably a response to the nerves, to the weed, and to the very fact that he just repeated the last thing he heard Dan Aykroyd say before we started to play,” Sinclair said. “Afterwards, he said, ‘Did I really mess up that first line?’”

THE LEGACY: From then on, Downie replaced the opening lyrics of “Grace, Too” in practically every Hip performance. However, little else changed. After “SNL,” the band headed to St. Louis to play a venue they didn’t recognize the name of. They thought it might be an upgrade from the “dumpy club” their tour manager usually booked. “We drive all night only to realize it’s the same club,” Sinclair said. “They just changed the name.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

David Friend, The Canadian Press

The Nova Scotia government has announced plans for two new schools in Dartmouth and Bedford.

This comes as part of the province’s five-year capital plan for schools, which is aimed at ensuring all students in the province have a learning space that prepares them for the future.

“The addition of a new school in Bedford will ensure that students have access to modern facilities that support learning and development,” said Bedford Basin MLA Tim Outhit. “This is a much-needed investment for families in the area.”

The updated plan includes 19 new and replacement schools, three of which are set to open in 2025-2026 school years.

“Education is a cornerstone of community growth, and this new school will help meet the demands of our expanding population,” said Bedford South MLA Damian Stoilov. “Parents want to know their children have the best possible opportunities, and this school is an important step toward that goal.”

12 of the 19 new schools are in HRM, and three are CSAP schools that support French first-language learning.

The release on Wednesday from the provincial government did not indicate the locations that these schools would be built.
This school year saw five new schools open in the province, including ones in New Waterford, Springhill, Wedgeport, Tor Bay, and East Chezzetcook.

The capital plans include more than one billion dollars to build and fund school maintenance.

A blast at a government ministry compound in Kabul killed one person and injured three, a spokesman said Thursday.

Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesperson for the Urban Development and Housing Ministry, said a man had attempted to carry out an attack inside the compound but was killed by guards before he reached his target.

There was an explosion due to the incident, leading to casualties, according to the spokesperson. He did not clarify the source of the blast and provided no further details.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attempted assault.

On Tuesday, at least five people died and more than seven were injured in a bombing near a bank in the northern province of Kunduz. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack, although they gave higher casualty figures.

The Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Several NATO allies stressed on Thursday that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations, after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that he would hold talks soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Let’s not forget, Russia remains a threat well beyond Ukraine,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey after the United States rattled NATO by saying that Ukraine should never join the alliance and that European allies should take responsibility for Ukraine’s security going forward.

“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” Healey told reporters at NATO headquarters, as the organization’s 32 defense ministers met for talks on Ukraine.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said European nations provided about 60% of the military support to Ukraine last year and must be involved, especially given U.S. demands that Europe take more responsibility for Ukraine’s security in the longer term.

“It’s very natural that we’re engaged into the discussions,” Jonson said.

His Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, underlined that the European Union has driven sanctions against Russia, has invested heavily in Ukraine’s defense, and will be asked to foot the bill for rebuilding the war-ravaged country.

“We have to be there. So there is no question about it. Otherwise this peace will not be long lasting,” Pevkur warned.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine’s Western backers on Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic. He suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.

After talks with Putin and then Zelenskyy, Trump said on Wednesday he would “probably” meet in person with the Russian leader soon, and suggested that the meeting could happen in Saudi Arabia.

The Associated Press

President Donald Trump has just started his second term, his last one permitted under the U.S. Constitution. But he’s already started making quips about serving a third one.

“Am I allowed to run again?” Trump joked during the House Republican retreat in Florida last month. Whether teasing or taunting, it seems to be part of a pattern. Just a week after he won election last fall, Trump suggested in a meeting with House Republicans that he might want to stick around after his second term was over.

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we got to figure something else out,’” Trump said to laughs from the lawmakers.

Over the years, Trump and his supporters have often joked about him serving more than his two constitutionally permitted terms. But his musings often spark alarm among his critics, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has repeatedly said that this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution.

Here are some questions and answers related to Trump’s occasional comments about a third term:

What does the Constitution say?

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” begins the 22nd Amendment, adopted after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times in a row. He was last elected in 1944.

It’s a fairly straightforward ban on serving more than two terms. Some Trump supporters argue the language is meant to apply only to two consecutive terms because Roosevelt’s terms were consecutive, but notably that’s not what the amendment says.

Others contend that because the ban is just on being “elected” more than twice, Trump could run as the next president’s vice president and, if the ticket won, could simply replace that person if he or she resigns. To put it mildly, that would be quite a complex plan to pull off, in no small part because Trump would be 82 during the next election, a year older than former President Joe Biden was during last year’s campaign.

At least one Republican in Congress has been bold enough to propose a constitutional amendment that would allow Trump to seek another term. It has no chance of going anywhere, given the high bar for amending the Constitution.

Who would stop Trump?

Even assuming Trump would attempt another run, a combination of election officials and courts would virtually ensure that he stayed off the ballot.

State officials have long kept would-be candidates off presidential ballots if they didn’t meet the basic constitutional criteria, such as being a natural-born U.S. citizen or being at least 35 years old. They would do the same with someone clearly violating the limit on presidential terms.

A version of this unfolded in 2023, when a few states tried to keep Trump off the ballot because they found he violated the 14th Amendment’s ban on officials who engaged in insurrection. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed those decisions because no one had ever used the insurrection clause on a presidential candidate before and there were a lot of legal questions about its implementation.

There would be no similar questions about the meaning of the 22nd Amendment, said Derek Muller, a professor at Notre Dame Law School.

“You would not have the factual disputes, so it would be much wider,” Muller said of the number of states keeping Trump off their ballots. “I’m not persuaded the Supreme Court is going to roll over.”

So why is Trump doing this?

Trump has a long history of taunting his critics to flex his power, but there also could be a strategic reason for his keeping the third-term discussion alive.

Trump is a lame duck president in his final term. Because these politicians will never be on the ballot for the same office again, their political clout usually wanes quickly. The third-term flirtation is a way to try to convince people that Trump will be around in the future.

Trump’s aggressive actions at the start of his new term shows that Trump knows his time is dwindling, Muller said.

“He’s governing like he’s a lame duck right now, with nothing to lose,” Muller said.

__

Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Elon Musk called Thursday to “delete entire agencies” from the United States’ federal government.

Musk has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with President Donald Trump ’s blessing since assuming leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. That’s included sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.

Musk made the comments to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person through his investments in SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla, wore a black T-shirt that read: “Tech Support.” He also joked that he was the “White House’s tech support,” borrowing from his profile on the social platform X, which he owns.

“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press