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Dutch business envoy to Ukraine quits over book comments

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A veteran diplomat who was appointed less than three weeks ago to promote Dutch involvement in the reconstruction of Ukraine has quit over remarks he made — reportedly about Russia — in a new book, the government announced Thursday.The Dutch foreign ministry said that Ron van Dartel would step down with immediate effect. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher “respects the decision and has accepted his resignation,” the ministry said in a statement.Van Dartel, a former Dutch ambassador to Serbia, Poland and Russia, quit over comments he made to the author of a new book. Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that they include him saying “Ukrainians are also Russians. We must not forget that. That is the reality.”The ministry said Van Dartel’s comments were made before his appointment earlier this month, but only published after he took up his new role.Van Dartel “has realized that he can no longer function credibly with the...

North Dakota governor signs law limiting trans health care

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill into law that restricts transgender health care in the state, immediately making it a crime to give gender-affirming care to people younger than 18.Gender-affirming care for minors has been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations, but it has increasingly come under attack in many conservative legislatures, including North Dakota’s, where lawmakers have passed at least three anti-trans bills this year. The measure that Burgum signed Wednesday received veto-proof support from GOP lawmakers — though some Republicans did vote against it, alongside all Democrats.The new law takes immediate effect and allows prosecutors to charge a health care provider with a felony — up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines — for performing sex reassignment surgery on a minor.It also enables prosecutors to charge a provider with a misdemeanor — up to 360 days in prison and $3,000 in fine...

Former Wisconsin parole board chair charged with felony

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The former chair of the Wisconsin Parole Commission who until this week was also an alderman in Racine has been charged with a felony, accused of using his capacity as a public official for private interests.John Tate II was charged Tuesday with one count of “private interest in a public contract while working in a public capacity” in Racine County, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. According to the complaint, Tate unlawfully negotiated terms of his employment for Racine’s new violence interruption coordinator position, after approving the creation of the job as president of the Common Council. Prosecutors argue that Tate’s applying for the job, and negotiating terms of his employment agreement, “acted on behalf of his own pecuniary interest.”Tate initially announced that he would resign as an alderman to begin as violence interruption coordinator in mid-November. However, he didn’t resign until his term finished Monday after he said he had been a...

Sudan army demands rivals’ surrender, threatening cease-fire

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan’s military ruled out negotiations with a rival paramilitary force on Thursday, saying it would only accept its surrender as the two sides continued to battle in central Khartoum and other parts of the country, threatening to wreck the latest attempt at a cease-fire. The military’s statement raised the likelihood of a renewed surge in the nearly week-long violence that has pushed Sudan’s population to the breaking point. Alarm has grown that the country’s medical system was on the verge of collapse, with many hospitals forced to shut down and others running out of supplies. The 24-hour cease-fire, declared Wednesday evening, had brought only marginal calm to parts of the capital of Khartoum, but many residents took advantage to flee the homes where they have been trapped for days. “Massive numbers” of people, mostly women and children, were leaving in search of safer areas, said Atiya Abdulla Atiya, secretary of the Doctors’ Syndic...

The federal government promised to plant 2 billion trees by 2030. It’s nowhere close.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

OTTAWA — Two years ago, Canada embarked on an odyssey to plant two billion trees in just 10 years. An audit of the program so far says that unless things drastically change, it won’t even get one-tenth of those trees in the ground in time. The audit was one of five reports issued Thursday by Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco, who said he cannot stress enough how important it is for the government to live up to its commitment on trees.“There is no solution to climate change and terrestrial biodiversity loss that does not include forests,” DeMarco’s report said.The Liberals first made the massive tree-planting promise during the 2019 federal election campaign, as part of their overall strategy to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by mid-century.They followed through a year later, earmarking $3.2 billion for tree planting in the 2020 fall economic statement.DeMarco’s office looked at how things went over the first two years. He concluded ...

Stock market today: Tesla, AT&T help drag Wall Street lower

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is slipping Thursday following mixed earnings reports from big companies and more signals the U.S. economy may be slowing. The S&P 500 was 0.5% lower in early trading after drifting through a listless early part of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 149 points, or 0.4%, at 33,747, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower. Tesla weighed heavily on the market for a second straight day on worries about how much profit it’s making on each of its electric vehicles. It dropped 6.2% in its first trading after reporting revenue for the first three months of the year that fell short of analysts’ expectations as it repeatedly cut prices on its models. Several banks also tumbled after reporting weaker profits and revenue than expected, including KeyCorp and Zions Bancorp. The spotlight has been particularly harsh on smaller and mid-sized banks amid worries their customers may pull out deposits following the second-...

Daffodils bloom as symbol of Warsaw ghetto uprising memory

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Yellow daffodils are everywhere in Warsaw this week, a symbol of remembrance for the 1943 uprising by Jews in the city’s ghetto against Nazi German occupiers.There are the real daffodils that residents and visitors to the Polish capital place on memorials to honor Holocaust victims, and little paper daffodils worn on lapels.The presidents of Germany, Israel and Poland wore them Wednesday when they led official commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the uprising, on the site of the former ghetto.Even members of the European Parliament wore them in Strasbourg, France, as lawmakers paid tribute to the Jewish victims.Someone seeing the six-petaled flower badges for the first time might confuse them with the yellow Star of David that the Nazis forced Jews to wear in Germany and some occupied countries, as a prelude to deporting them to ghettos and death camps.But those displaying them in Warsaw associate them with memory, respect and a communal coming toge...

US home sales fell in March in tepid homebuying season start

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in March and prices edged lower for the second month in a row, a tepid start to the spring homebuying season as buyers contend with sharply higher mortgage rates and a near record-low number of properties on the market.Existing home sales fell 2.4% last month from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s below the 4.5 million home sales economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales were down 22% compared with March last year.The national median home price slipped 0.9% from March last year to $375,700, the NAR said. That’s the biggest annual median home price drop since January 2012.The inventory of homes on the market rose 1% from February, with some 980,000 properties on the market by the end of March. That’s a 5.4% increase from March last year and amounts to a 2.6-month supply at the current sales pace. In a more bal...

Criminal probe begins after campfire-sparked blaze threatened homes in Kamloops, B.C.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Electricity has been restored to nearly 4,000 homes and businesses in Kamloops, B.C., after a rapidly spreading grass fire swept through an area not far from the city centre.A statement from Kamloops RCMP says the blaze was sparked Wednesday by a campfire in Strathcona Park and a criminal investigation has begun as police search for the person who lit it.Flames came within metres of homes and structures but RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley says in the statement that Kamloops firefighters and the BC Wildfire Service “did an amazing job” controlling and dousing the fire.The BC Hydro website shows power in the area on either side of the Thompson River, overlooking the Overlanders Bridge, was cut just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, but had been restored about seven hours later.The fire was fanned by gusty winds and spread quickly through the grass and sagebrush in the park but officials say it was controlled before any homes or structures were damaged.The wildfire service r...

CPS to take over 2 Urban Prep campuses after charter school's appeal denied

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Two Urban Prep Academy schools have lost their appeal to have their charter status renewed.According to Chalkbeat Chicago, the charter school network however has filed a lawsuit to stop both the Bronzeville and Englewood campuses being controlled by Chicago Public Schools.The schools were both nationally recognized for their graduations rates with African American boys, but CPS said they were financially mismanaged and moved last fall to take control of the charters.There were also allegations of sexual misconduct by the schools founder who left the charter school network.CPS said it will do what it can to ease the transition for students and try and keep staff members who qualify at the schools. Man stabbed several times during business robbery in Loop Chicago Board of Education moved to take control of the schools last fall. Urban Prep then appealed that decision to the state board of education, which denied Urban Prep's request over the objection of some state lawmake...