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Speaker Mike Johnson signals that Ukraine aid, coupled with border security, is next on GOP agenda

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican senators Wednesday that a fresh Ukraine aid package linked to U.S. border security will come quickly in the House, as soon as lawmakers wrap up the $14.5 billion Israel aid package that is heading for passage later this week.Johnson, who has been on the job a week, made the trip across the Capitol to speak privately with GOP senators to outline the agenda ahead. He also said the House plans to pass a stopgap bill to fund the government into next year to avoid a federal shutdown on Nov. 17 when current funding runs out.“Look, we all like the new speaker we want him to be successful,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who opposes more aid to Ukraine, afterward. “And that was the tenor of the conversation.”Johnson was greeted with applause at the start of the lunch meeting, a get-to-know-you session for the new GOP speaker that many senators had never met — or even heard of — until he won a longshot race for House speak...

Spin Master reports higher third-quarter earnings but lowers full-year guidance

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

TORONTO — Spin Master Corp. says its net income for the third quarter was US$155.4 million, up from US$141.4 million from a year earlier. The Toronto-based toy and entertainmentcompany says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was US$710.2 million, up from US$624 million.Excluding its Paw Patrol movie, which came out at the end of September, the company says revenue was US$694.6 million. Diluted earnings per share were $1.45, up from $1.33. Spin Master chief executive Max Rangel says the company expects pressure on the toy industry in the fourth quarter amid macroeconomic pressure on consumer spending.As a result, the company revised its guidance for sales and revenue lower for the full financial year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TOY)The Canadian Press

U.S. prosecutors say two Montreal residents helped ship weapons components to Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

MONTREAL — United States federal prosecutors in New York have charged two Montreal residents with wire fraud conspiracy for allegedly exporting electronic components to Russia for military use.U.S. authorities say some of the electronic components and integrated circuits they are alleged to have exported were found in Russian missile systems, helicopters, drones and battle tanks captured in Ukraine. Nikolay Goltsev, 37, and Kristina Puzyreva, 32, a Russian-Canadian married couple, were arrested Tuesday during a trip to visit alleged co-conspirator Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, 52, who is a Russian and Tajikistan national living in New York City.Prosecutors allege the three — along with co-conspirators in Russia — plotted to evade U.S. sanctions on Russia and controls that limit the export of technologies that have both civilian and military use.They say the alleged conspirators used New York-based front companies to make over 300 shipments valued at over $10 million to Russia,...

Cornell University student accused of posting online threats about Jewish students appears in court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A Cornell University junior accused of posting violently threatening statements against Jewish people on campus was held without bail after his first appearance in federal court Wednesday.Patrick Dai, from the Rochester, New York suburb of Pittsford, is charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. The graphic, anonymous messages posted this weekend on a Greek life forum rattled Jewish students on the Ithaca campus in upstate New York. “While we take some measure of relief in knowing that the alleged author of the vile antisemitic posts that threatened our Jewish community is in custody, it was disturbing to learn that he was a Cornell student,” Cornell President Martha E. Pollack said in a message Wednesday to the university community.Pollack said the Ivy League university will not tolerate antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia or any other form of hatred.Investigators traced the threatening messages to Dai through an IP ...

Carbon pricing in Canada: What it is, what it costs and why you get a rebate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada has had a national price on pollution since 2019, but the policy remains a political battleground — and Opposition Conservatives made clear Wednesday they intend to fight the next election over it. Here is a brief overview. 1. What is the carbon price? In 2018, Parliament passed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which established the legal mechanism under which the federal government requires provinces and territories to either establish a levy on greenhouse gas emissions or adopt the federal system. The legislation was first applied as of April 1, 2019.There are two components to the policy. The first, the “fuel charge,” applies to all purchases of 21 different fuels (including combustible waste like asphalt shingles or tires) that is burned to produce heat or electricity. The distributor of the fuel typically pays the levy, with the cost passed down through the supply chain to consumers when they gas up their car, pay the household gas bill or f...

Confusion, frustration and hope at Gaza’s border with Egypt as first foreign passport-holders depart

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of foreign passport-holders and dozens of other seriously wounded Palestinians desperate to escape Israel’s bombardment of Gaza crowded around the black iron gate on the Egyptian border Wednesday, hoping to pass through the enclave’s only portal to the outside world for the first time since the war began.Restless children pressed their faces against the wire mesh as families with backpacks and carry-on suitcases pushed and jostled. The air was thick with apprehension.Everyone was waiting for the Hamas authorities to call their names over the scratchy loudspeaker. Each name represented another individual with a chance to escape the punishing war that has killed over 8,800 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, and forever altered the enclave they had called home. “We are relying on God and hoping that we get out,” said Rania Hussein, a Jordanian resident of Gaza, as she breathlessly described the horrors she had fle...

Opposition mounts in Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Arab nations where monarchies typically quash dissent and that have normalized or are considering improving relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of Israel’s war with Hamas.Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rabat and other Moroccan cities in support of the Palestinians. In Bahrain — a country that almost never allows protest — police stood by as hundreds of people marched last month, waving flags and gathering in front of the Israeli Embassy in Manama.The demonstrations, which mirror protests across the Middle East, present an uncomfortable dilemma for governments that have enjoyed the benefits of closer military and economic ties with Israel in recent years.In Egypt, which has had ties with Israel for decades, protesters rallied in cities and at universities, at times chanting “Death to Israel.” A parliamentary committee in Tunisia last week advanced a draft law that would cr...

GFL Environmental reports revenue boost from price hikes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

VAUGHAN, Ont. — Waste removal company GFL Environmental Inc. says it saw a boost in revenue last quarter thanks in part to higher prices. Revenue came in at $1.89 billion in the third quarter, up from $1.83 billion in the quarter last year, as it carried out an 8.8 per cent increase in its solid waste core pricing.The company says it had a net income of $18.3 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $183.7 million in the same quarter last year. Its adjusted net income from continuing operations came to $116.8 million, or 32 cents per diluted share, compared with $74 million, or 20 cents per diluted share, for the quarter last year.Analysts had expected adjusted earnings per share of 27 cents, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.The company, which had about $8.8 billion in long-term debt at quarter end, said it managed to lower its cost of borrowing by 0.6 percentage points under its senior secured term loan in the quarter.This report by The Can...

Canadian family of Hamas hostages calling for their release at any cost

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

As the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt opens to people for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began, families of Hamas hostages are calling on the Canadian government to secure their release. At least 20 Palestinian patients and 110 dual nationals have left so far and over 200 have been approved to leave. None of them are Canadian citizens.It’s been 25 days for families of the Hamas hostages as they continue waiting for word on their loved ones.  Canadian Aharon Brodutch is speaking out about the violent kidnapping of his close relatives, including children and the desperation to get them homeA non-stop roller coaster of emotion is how Brodech described the last three weeks. The Toronto resident’s sister in-law Hagar, 10-year-old niece Ofri, two young nephews Yuval and Uriah, were taken by Hamas during a rampage at their Kibbutz near the Gaza border. “My niece, hopefully, she’s just an incredible child. So fun-lov...

Israel criticizes South American countries after they cut diplomatic ties and recall ambassadors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:30 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Israel criticized Bolivia, Chile and Colombia on Wednesday after the South American countries undertook a series of diplomatic moves to protest Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.Other Latin American countries, including Argentina and Brazil, have also increased their criticism of the impact that Israel’s military operations are having on civilians.Israel on Wednesday called on Colombia and Chile to “explicitly condemn the Hamas terrorist organization, which slaughtered and abducted babies, children, women and the elderly,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The call came hours after Chile and Colombia both recalled their ambassadors to Israel on Tuesday evening amid criticism of the killing of civilians in Gaza.“Israel expects Colombia and Chile to support the right of a democratic country to protect its citizens, and to call for the immediate release of all the abductees, and not align themselves with Ve...