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Senate races to wrap up Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal before default deadline

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

By LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING, STEPHEN GROVES and FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Days away from a default crisis, the U.S. Senate dashed on Thursday to wrap up work on a debt ceiling and budget cuts package that overwhelmingly cleared a House vote, aiming to send it to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber was digging into the bill that Biden negotiated with Speaker Kevin McCarthy and would “keep working until the job is done.”He warned of a crush of ideas from senators anxious to revise the bill’s budget cuts and environmental policy changes, but said, “There is no good reason, none, to bring this process down to the wire.”Passage in the Senate will require cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, much the way the narrowly divided House was able to approve the compromise late Wednesday night. Fast action is vital if Wash...

Thousands march in Jerusalem Pride parade, first under Israel’s most right-wing government ever

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of people on Thursday marched in Jerusalem’s Pride parade — an annual event that took place for the first time under Israel’s new far-right government, which is stacked with openly homophobic members.The march in the conservative city is always tense and tightly secured by police, and has been wracked by violence in the past. But this year, Israel finds itself deeply riven over a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary. The plan has torn open longstanding societal divisions between those who want to preserve Israel’s liberal values and those who seek to shift it toward more religious conservatism.Jerusalem’s march is typically more subdued than the one in gay-friendly Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of revelers pour into the streets for a massive, multicolored party. But Thursday’s parade, amid tight security, drew bigger crowds than usual in a show of force against the government and its plan to reshape the legal sy...

German soccer mourns death of 15-year-old who died after tournament brawl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German soccer federation will hold a weekend of mourning for the 15-year-old player who died after a post-match brawl at an international youth tournament last weekend.“This incredibly sad and shocking act at a soccer tournament for juniors leaves us speechless,” federation president Bernd Neuendorf said Thursday. “It is the ultimate challenge to all of us to take a firm stand against violence — in soccer and in society as a whole.”The player from JFC Berlin died Wednesday from severe brain injuries sustained during a post-match brawl on Sunday. A 16-year-old player from a French team remained in detention in Frankfurt pending further inquiries.The victim was struck in the head or neck area and collapsed, police said. They asked for witnesses who may have video of the brawl to come forward. The federation said a weekend of mourning will begin Friday when the German and French teams contesting the Under-17 European Championship final in Budapest, Hungary, will line ...

MPs say Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza should be given honorary citizenship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

OTTAWA — A cross-party group of MPs and senators is hoping to grant honorary Canadian citizenship to Russian political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza in the coming weeks.Senators are leading the charge to recognize the prominent Russian opposition politician, who helped shape Canada’s sanction regime.Two Liberal MPs say they have support from the federal cabinet for the move, and they were joined by MPs and senators from multiple parties and groups at a press conference this morning.Both chambers could pass motions asking Ottawa to grant citizenship, or the government could unilaterally make that decision, according to former attorney general Irwin Cotler.Parliamentarians last voted to grant someone honorary citizenship in 2014, and Pakistani women’s activist Malala Yousafzai accepted the honour three years later in Ottawa.Kara-Murza is currently imprisoned and in ill health, a situation that Cotler described as a “slow-moving execution” for a man he referred t...

Indianapolis man gets 30 years for fatal 2020 shooting of mail carrier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.Tony Cushingberry, 24, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in July 2022 to second-degree murder and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.Prosecutors said Cushingberry was sitting on his porch on April 27, 2020, when he watched postal carrier Angela Summers, 45, of Indianapolis, walk past his home and proceed to the next residence.According to court records, Cushingberry was upset because his postal deliveries had been suspended due to an aggressive dog at his home. After Summers walked past his home, prosecutors said Cushingberry “aggressively approached” her on his neighbor’s porch and demanded his mail several times. He continued pursuing Summers while displaying a handgun before he pulled the gun from his waistband and shot her in the c...

Globe and Mail CEO Phillip Crawley to retire, Andrew Saunders named as successor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

Longtime Globe and Mail CEO Phillip Crawley is retiring later this year, set to be succeeded by Andrew Saunders.Saunders, who is the newspaper’s chief revenue officer, first joined the Globe in 2002 as director of advertising.He will take on the role of president and CEO on Sept. 1, following Crawley’s retirement at the end of August. Crawley joined the Globe in 1998 at a time of heightened competition among national newspapers after the launch of the National Post, and has since seen the company through a migration to online news.Company chairman David Thomson says Saunders has helped lead the newspaper’s transformation from a print-centric organization to a digitally driven model, while emphasizing both subscriptions and advertising.Crawley calls his successor a “natural leader” who believes in fostering a collaborative culture.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2023.The Canadian Press

Alabama deputies fatally shoot man who fired at utility worker, sheriff says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (AP) — Deputies on Wednesday fatally shot a man who earlier had fired a gun at a utility worker trying to shut off his water and later pointed a firearm at deputies, authorities said. The shooting happened in Russell County, in eastern Alabama near the Georgia state line. The man “fired a round” at the water works employee who had gone to the home to shut off water service, Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said at a news conference. Deputies were then sent to the water works building to take a report, and saw the man leaving the parking lot, Taylor said. They pulled the man over during a traffic stop and shot him after he “presented a firearm out the window” of his vehicle, Taylor said. The man’s name was not released. The deputies and the utility worker were not hurt. Taylor said he did not think the man fired at the deputies, but their actions were appropriate. “This is a bad scenario. You don’t point a weapon at law enforcement, whether you are le...

Tommy Prine doesn’t dodge his father’s legacy but makes his own way in compelling debut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Standing before a packed house at The Basement, one of Nashville’s most intimate music venues, Tommy Prine talked about the death of his father.“It sucks to lose a parent at any age — in my case when he was the world’s greatest songwriter,” he said during a recent sold-out show.Prine’s father, singer-songwriter John Prine, died of complications from the coronavirus in April 2020 at the age of 73. His death prompted a surge of worldwide mourning remarkable even for a time in which grief had become an everyday thing.The heartbreak was especially acute in the music world. John Prine’s kindness to aspiring musicians only added to the connections he made with his music. Many channeled their grief into tribute songs, straining to process the unthinkable.It turns out something similar was happening in Prine’s own family.Last year, Tommy Prine released “Ships in the Harbor,” a song as moving and vulnerable as anything written by anyone about Prine’s father. It doesn’...

Cyprus ex-bishop who indecently assaulted teen girl in 1981 gets suspended sentence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A court in Cyprus on Thursday gave a former bishop in the Greek Orthodox Church to a 12-month suspended sentence after he was found guilty of indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl 42 years ago. In passing sentence, Larnaca District Court Judge Evie Efthymiou noted the severity of the offense but said she took into account former Kition Bishop Chrysostomos’ advanced age, deteriorating health and clean criminal record, as well as the significant span of time that had elapsed from when the assault took place.According to the Cyprus News Agency, the judge also weighed Chrysostomos’ charity work as an elected bishop for 46 years before his resignation in 2019.But she said the fact that the 85-year-old bishop exploited his position of authority as a senior clergyman “not only runs counter to Christian values, it also lends great weight to his actions.”The judge added Chrysostomos appeared to “cleverly” set his plan in motion by choosing the time and place of thei...

UK government refuses to hand Boris Johnson’s unredacted messages to coronavirus inquiry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:57 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British government has refused an order to hand over a sheaf of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s personal messages to the country’s COVID-19 pandemic inquiry. It said Thursday it would try to challenge the order in court, setting up an extraordinary legal battle with an inquiry that Johnson himself set up.The notebooks, diaries and WhatsApp messages between Johnson and other officials form key evidence that the head of the probe, retired judge Heather Hallett, wants to see. The government has handed over incomplete versions, saying it cut personal and private information that is “unambiguously irrelevant” to the investigation. Hallett — who has the power to summon evidence and question witnesses under oath — wants to judge for herself, and set a deadline of 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) Thursday for the government to hand over the unredacted documents, covering a two-year period from early 2020.Soon after the deadline passed, the government said it would seek to challenge...