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Live updates | Israeli troops tighten encirclement of Gaza City as top US diplomat arrives in Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to press for a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting with Hamas and for more aid to be allowed into besieged Gaza.Tensions continued to escalate along the northern border with Lebanon ahead of a speech planned later Friday by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. It is his first public speech since Hamas attacked Israel last month, stoking fears the conflict could become a regional one.Roughly 800 people — including hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports and dozens of injured — have been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing under an apparent agreement among the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.Israel has allowed more than 260 trucks carrying food and medicine through the crossing, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough. Israeli authorities have refused to allow fuel in.The Palestinian d...

Storm Ciarán sweeps into Italy with record rainfall, killing 3 and bringing toll to 10

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Record-breaking rain produced floods in a vast swath of Tuscany as Storm Ciarán pushed into Italy overnight Friday, trapping residents in their homes, inundating hospitals and overturning cars. At least three people were killed, bringing the storm’s death toll in western Europe to 10.Italian Civil Protection authorities said 200 millimeters (nearly 8 inches) of rain fell in a three-hour period, from the city of Livorno on the coast to the inland valley of Mugello, and caused riverbanks to overflow. Video shows at least a dozen cars getting pushed down a flooded road.The dead in Tuscany included an 85-year-old man found in the flooded ground floor of his home near the city of Prato, north of Florence, and an 84-woman who died while trying to push water out of her home in the same area, according to Italian news agency ANSA. The other victim was reported in Livorno.At least three people were missing Friday in Tuscany, and one person was reported missing in the mountains o...

Stock market today: Asian shares follow Wall St higher on hopes for an end to Fed rate hikes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares advanced on Friday after Wall Street roared higher on bets that market-rattling interest rate hikes are coming to an end. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.6% to 17,680.01, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.7% to 3,026.32. Tokyo markets were closed for a holiday.In China, a services industry survey showed a slight improvement in October, though retail sales hit its lowest level in 10 months. Similar surveys for the manufacturing sector released early this week showed more sluggish market conditions overall. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1% to 6,978.20. South Korea’s Kospi surged 1.1% to 2,368.34. India’s Sensex was 0.6% higher and Bangkok’s SET rose 1.4%.Hopes that the Federal Reserve may finally be done with raising rates after it opted to keep its benchmark rate unchanged pushed shares higher around the world on Thursday. The Fed has jacked up rates furiously since early last year to try to slow the economy and starve high inflation of its fuel...

Statistics Canada to release October jobs report this morning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada is set to release its October labour force survey this morning.RBC says it expects the economy added a modest 15,000 jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate ticked higher to 5.6 per cent.Strong population growth has bolstered Canada’s labour force, but the pace of job creation is trailing. The Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hikes have dampened economic growth this year as people and businesses pull back on spending.Economists are watching for more evidence that this economic softness is spilling over into the labour market.The unemployment rate has risen by half a percentage point so far this year to 5.5 per cent and is expected to continue rising.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2023.The Canadian Press

Finance ministers, Freeland set to meet to discuss Alberta CPP exit proposal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

OTTAWA — Finance ministers from across the country will meet up virtually with their federal counterpart Chrystia Freeland today to discuss Alberta’s proposal to quit the Canada Pension Plan.Freeland called the meeting amid concerns about the ramifications of Alberta leaving the federal retirement plan to set up its own standalone program.The Alberta government says its workers have contributed an oversized share to the national fund and would be in line for big savings and payouts if it were to leave the CPP.Freeland says Albertans need to know the CPP delivers among the best returns in the world and that an Alberta pullout would put the program at great risk for millions.Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner says he looks forward to discussing the pension issue, along with other points of inter-governmental dispute, including the federal carbon tax.Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had planned to hold a possible referendum on leaving the CPP in 2025, but now says she won’t hold it unt...

Foreign affairs minister says Canadians will soon be cleared to leave Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s minister of foreign affairs is reconfirming that Canadians and their families will be able to leave Gaza beginning in the coming days.Melanie Joly issued a late Thursday update on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, saying she has spoken with her counterpart in Israel, Eli Cohen, about the matter.She says she also received confirmation of Egypt’s co-operation.While the flow of foreign nationals leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday has been slow, officials with Global Affairs Canada say they are working around the clock to evacuate Canadians from the war zone. They are asking Canadians to get their documents and “be ready to depart once we are informed that they can cross the border.” However, as of Friday, at 5 a.m. Eastern, Canada has not been added to the official approval list of “foreign passports” for travel through the Rafah crossing.Joly’s message also noted that G-A-C will comm...

Judge orders Montreal suburb to compensate residents for excessive traffic noise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

MONTREAL — A Montreal suburb has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars to around 300 residents who say they’ve suffered from years of unreasonable traffic noise.The residents, who filed the class-action lawsuit a decade ago, live along a stretch of a road — chemin Des Prairies — in the city of Brossard, where traffic has steadily increased over the years as the community has grown. The neighbourhood used to be largely farmland, but now chemin Des Prairies connects to a major boulevard and a large shopping mall, and 10,000 vehicles travel on it every day, Quebec Superior Court Justice Dominique Poulin wrote in her Oct. 10 decision.“The court has heard 11 credible, sincere, convincing and disheartened residents who are significantly affected by the traffic, which they consider excessive … which causes them inconveniences that exceed, in the eyes of the court, by their severity and recurrence, the normal inconveniences they must endure as a result of living along the str...

Judge in ‘Freedom Convoy’ trial expected to rule on admissibility of police evidence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

OTTAWA — The judge in the criminal trial of two “Freedom Convoy” organizers is expected to deliver a ruling today about the admissibility of internal police documents as evidence. Crown prosecutors and the Ottawa Police Service have argued the heavily redacted documents, which include emails and information about a software update for officers’ cellphones, are irrelevant or protected by solicitor-client privilege. The software update for officers’ cellphones may have deleted messages between organizer Chris Barber and police liaison officer Const. Nicole Bach.Defence lawyers are set to begin their cross-examination of Bach today, but they say they will not be able to complete their cross-examination of any police liaison officers until Justice Heather Perkins-McVey makes a ruling about the documents.Barber and Tamara Lich face multiple charges, including mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation in relation to the 2022 protests against ...

Trudeau in D.C. to talk hemispheric trade, migration at White House summit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the U.S. capital today to represent Canada at the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity summit. The White House meeting, hosted by President Joe Biden, marks the first official gathering of all 12 countries in the hemispheric trade framework. The partnership, known as APEP, marks the earliest beginnings of a north-south trade corridor meant to foster economic growth and strengthen supply chains.The White House is hoping that in turn, more stability in South America and the Caribbean will help ease the pressure from irregular migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to the U.S. and Canada, the framework includes Mexico, Chile, Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic.It’s not clear whether Biden and Trudeau will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one on the margins of the half-day summit.“We’re glad to have the participation of all members of t...

UAE-based broadcaster censors satiric ‘Last Week Tonight’ over Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:58 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Dubai-based television network broadcasting across the Mideast cut substantial portions of an episode of the satiric news program “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” over references to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince being implicated in the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The decision by OSN highlights the continued limits of speech in both the United Arab Emirates, which has vowed it will allow protests at the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks it will host later this month, as well as neighboring Saudi Arabia. It also highlights just how sensitive Khashoggi’s dismemberment and killing in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul remains over five years later, as Prince Mohammed has sought to rehabilitate his image through diplomatic efforts. “Criticizing the royal family, criticizing the crown prince in Saudi Arabia is a terrorist offense and you can be prosecuted for terrorism,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the e...