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Trump grand jury poised to take pre-planned break from case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money paid on Donald Trump’s behalf is scheduled to consider other matters next week before taking a previously scheduled two-week hiatus, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. That means a vote on whether or not to indict the former president likely wouldn’t come until late April at the earliest.The break, which was scheduled in advance when the panel was convened in January, coincides with Passover, Easter and spring break for the New York City public school system.The person who confirmed the grand jury’s schedule was not authorized to speak publicly about secretive grand jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity. A message left with the district attorney’s office was not immediately returned.In a statement released through a lawyer, Trump said: “I HAVE GAINED SO MUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY.”The grand jury has been meeting regularly Monday and Wednesday afternoons. It met Monday and a l...

International development groups say budget cut will end Canadian programs abroad

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

OTTAWA — Humanitarian groups are giving Tuesday’s federal budget a thumbs down, saying a projected $1.3-billion cut to foreign aid will end Canadian projects andcreate a backslide in progress on fighting disease and hunger.“There is certainly a gap between rhetoric and reality in this year’s budget,” said Kate Higgins, the head of Cooperation Canada, which represents more than 95 non-profits.“It undermines progress on development and Canada’s contribution to progress on development around the world.”The Liberal budget projects that Ottawa will spend nearly $6.9 billion for international development in the coming fiscal year, a 16 per cent drop from last year’s allocation.That’s despitePrime Minister Justin Trudeau tasking International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan to increase aid spending every year.The Liberals had budgeted for $6.6 billion in foreign aid for the 2019-2020 financial year before the pandemic began, and the govern...

Businesses praise credit card fee relief but consumers savings not guaranteed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

Small business owners are praising a measure in the federal budget to lower credit card interchange fees, but some industry representatives argued the move will do little to save costs for consumers.Ottawa announced it has reached deals with Visa and Mastercard to lower such fees by up to 27 per cent from their current average rates for more than 90 per cent of credit card-accepting businesses.The government estimated this would save businesses $1 billion over five years.Canadian Federation of Independent Business president Dan Kelly called it the “biggest win” of the federal budget.“Credit-card usage has just ballooned over the last number of years and therefore the business is just on the hook for a much larger chunk of sales,” said Kelly.“With margins being constrained for small businesses, costs going up on almost every line of their budget, some relief on this one would be hugely beneficial.”Rich Gowman, owner and operator of Amplifiers Plus ...

Murdaugh judge Newman not surprised by jury’s quick verdict

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

CLEVELAND (AP) — The judge who presided over Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial in South Carolina told his law school he wasn’t surprised the jury came back with a guilty verdict in three hours.Judge Clifton Newman returned to Cleveland State University where he earned his law degree in 1976 to discuss his career and the topic on everyone’s minds — the six-week trial that ended in Murdaugh’s murder convictions for killing his wife and son and life sentence.The three hours of deliberation after hearing from 75 witnesses was about normal, considering they were paying close attention for so long.“When they go back to deliberate, they don’t want to look at those 800 exhibits. They don’t want to spend their time combing through everything they have laboriously sat there and listened to for that period of time,” Newman said.Newman was born in South Carolina, but moved to Cleveland for college and law school after graduating as valedictorian at his racially segregated hig...

Montreal mayor denounces vandalism of synagogue defaced with antisemitic graffiti

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is expressing her support for the city’s Jewish community after a historic synagogue was defaced with antisemitic graffiti.Plante says there’s no place in Montreal for discrimination and racism, adding that the city is working hard to ensure everyone’s safety.Her comments come after Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada circulated photos that showed swastikas spray-painted on the 102-year-old Bagg Street Synagogue.B’nai Brith Canada’s national director for its human rights league also sent a letter to Plante’s administration, asking them to do more to combat antisemitism and a rise in reported hate incidents targeting Jews.Marvin Rotrand says the red-brick property on Bagg Street is the province’s oldest active synagogue building and is recognized as a heritage site by Quebec and Montreal.Montreal police say they’re aware of the incident, and a number of other Jewish organizations, including Friends...

First lady, Sheryl Crow expected at Nashville shooting vigil

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A candlelight vigil Wednesday evening in Nashville will feature first lady Jill Biden, Sheryl Crow and other luminaries as the city grieves the three children and three adults killed in a shooting at a private Christian school.Biden will “join a candlelight vigil to honor and mourn the lives of the victims of The Covenant School shooting,” her spokesperson tweeted. Crow, along with fellow musicians Margo Price and Ketch Secor, will perform, the Nashville mayor’s office said in a news release.The lineup also includes civic leaders, including Mayor John Cooper and Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake.Earlier in the day, Pope Francis sent his condolences to the city and offered prayers to those affected by the violence.In a telegram, Francis asked Bishop J. Mark Spalding, of the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, to convey his “heartfelt condolences” and the assurance of his prayers.“He joins the entire community in mourning the children and adults w...

Vermont deputy charged with attempted murder in NY gunfight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A Vermont deputy sheriff who was involved in a gunfight in upstate New York that left three injured last year was indicted on charges including attempted murder and a felony for possessing a gun in a sensitive location.Vito Caselnova pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Saratoga County Court on Tuesday. “We’re still of the opinion that he’s a victim of this case. He had the authority under New York State law to use deadly physical force when faced with deadly physical force,” Greg Teresi, Caselnova’s lawyer, told The Associated Press. The Rutland County, Vermont, deputy, who lives in Glen Falls, New York, was off-duty at the time of the Nov. 20 gunfight in Saratoga Springs. According to officials and local reports, Caselnova allegedly shot Alexander Colon, of Utica, after a barroom argument spilled onto the street. Saratoga Springs police opened fire when Caselnova did not drop his weapon.The deputy was hit several times but survived, ...

Mortgage moves ‘good news’ for borrowers, but budget lacks housing support: experts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

TORONTO — Real estate observers say a new mortgage code of conduct promised in the federal budget will be handy for Canadians facing financial difficulties, but they still feel the economic plan was lacking needed housing affordability measures.The code of conduct announced Tuesday is meant to ensure federally regulated financial institutions will provide fair and equitable access to mortgage relief measures for people struggling to stay in their homes because of elevated interest rates.It would protect these people from unnecessary penalties, internal bank fees, or interest charges and allow them to extend amortizations beyond 25 years, adjust payment schedules and make lump-sum payments.The code of conduct is “good news” for people with variable rate mortgages facing financial burdens, said Sherry Cooper, Dominion Lending Centres’ chief economist.“If the banks can extend remaining amortizations when borrowers renew, the pressure on their pocketbooks will be...

Musk, scientists call for halt to AI race sparked by ChatGPT

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans? That’s the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks.Their petition published Wednesday is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications.WHAT DO THEY SAY?The letter warns that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity” — from flooding the internet with disinformation and automating away jobs to more catastrophic future risks out of the realms of science fiction.It says “recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy e...

$264M offered in Gulf oil sale held under climate compromise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:34:38 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise.The auction was the first in the Gulf in more than a year and drew interest from industry giants including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron. It could further test the loyalty of environmentalists and young voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but were frustrated by this month’s approval of the huge Willow drilling project in northern Alaska.Developing the leases for sale in public waters in the Gulf of Mexico could produce more than 1 billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet (113 billion cubic meters) of natural gas over 50 years, according to a government analysis. Burning that oil would increase planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by tens of millions of tons, the analysis found.Winning bids Wednesday were 38% higher than the last auction and marked the most received since ...