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UK Conservatives take battering in key local elections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative Party endured big losses in early results from local elections being viewed as a test of support for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s government as a national election approaches. The opposition Labour Party and Liberal Democrats made significant gains.While the bulk of results were due later, the Conservatives acknowledged it had already been “a disappointing night” as ballots were counted from Thursday’s voting.But Conservative chairman Greg Hands argued that it had “not been a resounding result for Labour.” The left-of-center opposition party hopes the results will confirm its front-runner status for a general election that is due by the end of 2024.With about a quarter of results in, the Conservatives had lost more than 200 seats in elections for more than 8,000 seats on 230 local councils across England. The right-of-center party lost control of several councils, including Medway in southeast England, which it had run for a quarter-century, and...

India FM: Global institutions suffer from ‘trust deficit’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

PANAJI, India (AP) — India’s foreign minister on Friday criticized global institutions’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to resolve geopolitical upheaval, saying that alternative forums have an opportunity to tackle such challenges.Subhrahmanyam Jaishankar said the developments have disrupted global supply chains, especially in energy, food and fertilizer, and hit developing nations the hardest. His remarks opened a meeting of foreign ministers as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security pact dominated by Moscow and Beijing that seeks to act as a counterweight to U.S. alliances across East Asia to the Indian Ocean.“These crises have also exposed a credibility and trust deficit in the ability of global institutions to manage challenges in a timely and efficient manner,” he said. “With more than 40% of the world’s population within the SCO, our collective decisions will surely have a global impact.”Jaishankar did not mention ...

Napoli fans celebrated in orderly manner, police chief says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Napoli fans celebrated in an orderly manner deep into the night following the team’s first Italian soccer league title in more than three decades, police chief Claudio Palomba said Friday.While there were dozens of fireworks-related injuries, Palomba said that the death of one person following an apparent gunshot wound was not linked to the celebration.“The organizational plan worked and the authorities maintained order,” Palomba said.Napoli sealed the title with a 1-1 draw at Udinese in northern Italy on Thursday, matching the league record by clinching with five games to spare.It’s Napoli’s first championship since Diego Maradona led the club to its first two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.There were also celebrations in numerous other cities throughout Italy, plus New York and other places in the vast Neapolitan diaspora.Fans were also singing and chanting outside the team’s hotel in Udine.The Napoli squad was due to return to Naples later Friday, and there ...

‘The ship sank all over again’: Families of victims in wreck recall Gordon Lightfoot

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

Darren Muljo was six years old when his teacher asked the students in his elementary school class to pick a song they wanted to learn to play.Muljo, now 52, chose the 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by legendary Canadian folk musician Gordon Lightfoot. Muljo’s mother, Cheryl Rozman, first introduced him to the six-minute-long folk ballad, which chronicles the demise of the Edmund Fitzgerald.The ship sank in Lake Superior near Whitefish Point, Mich., during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 crewmen on board died.One of those men was Muljo’s grandfather, Ransom Cundy, a watchman on the ship.At the time, Muljo was too young to fully understand the significance of the song for the families. But in the years since, it has cemented a bond between them that has lasted decades. “Gordon Lightfoot’s imprint on the healing process for the families cannot be (overstated), especially when he made it a point to develop a personal connection with m...

Senior UN officials seek Canadian cash to help stem gender-based violence abroad

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

OTTAWA — A United Nations initiative aimed at eliminating gender-based violence is asking Canada to put up cash to help stem a backsliding in women’s rights, even though the Liberals are cutting back on foreign aid.“Women’s rights and violence against women and girls is not a side issue,” said Nahla Valji, the UN’s senior gender adviser, a position Canada pushed to have created at the agency’s headquarters in New York.Valji, who grew up in Burnaby, B.C., is on Parliament Hill this week asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help stop an erosion of women’s rights globally.She’s following up on a letter from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who asked Trudeau to help fund what’s called the Spotlight Initiative.The project launched in 2017 with the European Union pledging 500 million euros, or roughly $740 million, for projects that work to curb gender-based violence and to give women a seat at the table in post-conflict ...

Interior communities brace for weekend rain as floods forecasted in Okanagan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

People in the British Columbia community of Grand Forks are hustling to get ahead of a deluge of melting snow and heavy rainfall after learning a costly lesson about flooding five years ago.The community not far from the Canada-U. S. border is one of many under threat in B.C.’s southern and central Interior after a week of record temperatures and predicted rain combine for conditions ripe for flooding. Grand Forks Mayor Everett Baker says they’ve been shoring up the city’s defences since 2018 when 95 homes were lost to a flood and they want to avoid a similar situation this year.  Baker says they are keeping a close eye on the weather and focusing on areas of the downtown to protect businesses and infrastructure from the rising waters. He says the province has supplied the city with temporary dams and sandbags, which are being installed with the help of a crew from the B.C. Wildfire Service. Parts of the Village of Cache Creek and Okanagan Indian Band land are alre...

‘We are in a crisis’: Red Dress Day honoured as leaders say more work to be done

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

The head of the Native Women’s Association of Canada says it’s clear there’s an ongoing emergency nearly four years after the final report into missing and murdered Indigenous woman and girls was released. “We are in a crisis,” said Carol McBride. Red dresses are set to be on display across the country Friday to recognize the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People. It has become known as Red Dress Day and the empty garments serve as a symbol of lives that have been lost.Each year there are more events, rallies and art displays. Despite the increased awareness and an extensive national inquiry, McBride said the situation that Indigenous girls and women face has not substantially changed.“I’m a mother. I’m a sister. I’m an aunt,” she said. “And I’m just imagining some of our families and our women are suffering right now.”The inquiry’s final report was released in 2019 and included sweeping calls f...

Robot vs. human: Saskatoon brewer goes head to head with ChatGPT-designed beer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

SASKATOON — It may have been the greatest battle between robots and humans to ever take place inside a Saskatchewan brewery. The grain mash was masterful and the fermentation feisty as a brewer went head to head in a taste-off with ChatGPT to find out who, or what, can make the best beer. The idea for the faceoff against the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot came out of a meeting between staff at 9 Mile Legacy Brewing, a Saskatoon nanobrewery known for making craft beer and pushing boundaries. Garrett Pederson, 9 Mile’s co-founder and head brewer, said they were playing around with the explosively popular chatbot earlier this year and thought it would be fun to test the technology’s usefulness when it comes to one of the oldest drinks humans have produced.“We will challenge it to make a recipe and I’ll essentially make a recipe and we will see where that goes,” Pederson said. Luke Clark, an assistant brewer, became Team Robot and was tasked with asking ChatGPT to come up...

Statistics Canada to release April jobs numbers this morning

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada is set to release its April labour force survey this morning, providing updated numbers on employment levels in the country. RBC says it expects 12,000 jobs were added last month, the lowest number since September.  Employers have kept their hiring appetite in recent months, even as high interest rates make borrowing more expensive for people and businesses. The unemployment rate continued to sit at five per cent in March, hovering near record lows.However, job vacancies have been falling and the Bank of Canada’s recent business outlook survey shows employers reporting less intense labour shortages. The Bank of Canada’s aggressive rate hikes are expected to filter through to the labour market in the coming months, leading to a rise in unemployment. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.The Canadian Press

Leaders express disappointment with changes to Canadian North airline

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:33 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — Northern leaders say they are disappointed with changes that allow Canadian North to increase prices and reduce flight service in remote communities, but the airline says it will be better able to meet demand. Ottawa announced late last month it had approved new terms and conditions for Canadian North’s merger with First Air. Those include permitting the airline to reduce community service to one flight per week and increase fares up to 25 per cent within a calendar year. “People across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are rightfully concerned about the cost of travel in the North,” Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout said in a statement. “After speaking with the company and expressing my concerns, I’m hopeful that northerners won’t see an increase in their costs, but I will continue to keep a close eye to ensure prices and services are fair.” Canadian North serves 25 communities in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and northern Quebec, as well as ...