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Ukraine’s outrage grows over video seeming to show beheading

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

By SAMYA KULLAB and HANNA ARHIRIOVA (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine launched an investigation Wednesday into a gruesome video that purportedly shows the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier, in the latest accusation of atrocities said to have been committed by Russia since it invaded in February 2022.The video spread quickly online and drew outrage from officials in Kyiv, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as international organizations. The Kremlin called the footage “horrible” but said it needed to be verified.The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the video or the circumstances of where and when it was shot. The AP is not distributing the video or using frame grabs due to its extremely graphic nature.Meanwhile, a Russian defense official claimed that fighters from Russia’s paramilitary Wagner group have seized three districts of Bakhmut, the embattled city that for months has been the focus of...

Stocks slip in mixed trading following US inflation report

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

By STAN CHOE (AP Business Writer)NEW YOR (AP) — Stocks are swaying lower Wednesday following the latest update to show inflation continues to cool.The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in midday trading after an early gain faded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 32 points, or 0.1%, at 33,691, as of 11:10 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower. The main focus on Wall Street for more than a year has been high inflation and how much painful medicine the Federal Reserve will have to dole out to contain it. A report Wednesday morning showed that prices at the consumer level were 5% higher last month than a year earlier. That’s still well above the Federal Reserve’s comfort level, and some underlying trends within the data were also concerning. That weighed down financial markets. But on the upside for investors, the overall inflation number was still better than the 5.2% that economists expected. It also marked a continued slowdown from inflatio...

Republican Tim Scott unveils 2024 White House exploratory committee

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is taking the next official step toward a bid for president in 2024.In a video released Wednesday morning, Scott announced he was forming an exploratory committee, which moves him closer to a formal campaign for the White House. He leaned into his biography as a Black man who overcame poverty to argue that Democrats are too liberal and have needlessly divided the country by fostering a “culture of grievance.”“All too often when they get called out for their failures, they weaponize race to divide us, to hold onto their power,” he said. “When I fought back against their liberal agenda, they called me a prop. A token. Because I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control.”If he enters the field, Scott will join another South Carolinian, former Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as former President Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and “anti-woke” biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Others, including Florida Go...

Pedestrian hit, killed by train in Carlsbad

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. — One person was killed Monday night after being hit by a train in North County, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said.The incident marks the second deadly train collision at this location in April.The crash happened around 7:20 p.m. on the train tracks south of Tamarack Avenue in Carlsbad when a North County Transit District Coaster train collided with a pedestrian on the tracks.The Sheriff's Transit Enforcement Unit was dispatched to the scene. The pedestrian was found dead at the scene by authorities. Cooler temperatures, chance of rain heading to San Diego The circumstances that led to the incident are under investigation and the sheriff's department asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477 or download the P3 anonymous tip app.No information was immediately available regarding the person was killed. Their identity and manner of death will be determined by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.

Toronto mayoral candidates targeted by negative websites and fake social media video

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

It’s become the norm to see and hear things during an election campaign that goes beyond candidates telling you what they stand for.There is inevitably negative messaging that comes along, including from third parties. But the Toronto mayoral election is unlike anything we’ve seen before.Those messages circulating on websites and social media are the focus of targeted campaigns, including videos that look and sound like mayoral candidates. One from a Twitter account called @BradFactsTO re-edits a video released by his campaign and includes a voice that sounds like him. What you hear, however, is fake and likely uses artificial intelligence (AI).(Example of Twitter account with fake video)It’s time. Toronto needs more talk, less action. Let’s do this #Toronto #TOPoli pic.twitter.com/97Eu7iR7OJ— Bradford Facts (@BradfordFactsTO) April 4, 2023“This speaks to the fact that just how easy it is how difficult it is to decipher fact from fiction. And all you need is ...

Biden urges N Ireland to sustain peace, seize economic gains

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Northern Ireland must “not go back” to the violence that scarred it for years before a U.S.-brokered peace deal 25 years ago, nudging politicians to resolve a political crisis that has left this part of the United Kingdom without a functioning government.Speaking of the economic growth Northern Ireland has experienced since the Good Friday Agreement ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed, Biden said: “It’s up to us to keep this going.”On his first presidential visit to Northern Ireland, Biden dangled the prospect of more American investment to help fuel economic growth — especially if Belfast’s fractious politicians resolve a stalemate that has put their government on pause.“The simple truth is that peace and economic opportunity go together,” Biden said during a speech at Ulster University’s new campus in Belfast. He noted that the glass-clad downtown building would have been unthinkable during the years of bom...

Florida set to execute ‘ninja killer’ in couple’s 1989 death

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida has ramped up executions under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, with a man known as the “ninja killer” set to die Wednesday for the 1989 slayings of a couple visiting the state from New Jersey.Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. by lethal injection for the deaths of Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, on Dec. 20, 1989, in their Flagler County winter home on Florida’s northeastern coast. DeSantis has been signing death warrants at a rapid pace this year as he prepares his widely expected presidential campaign. He oversaw only two executions in his first four years in office, both in 2019. This execution comes six weeks after Donald Dillbeck, 59, was put to death for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann, 44, in Tallahassee, and three weeks before the scheduled execution of Darryl B. Barwick for slaying Rebecca Wendt, 24, in 1986 in Panama City. Barring any stays for Gaskin and Barwick, it will be the shortest period tha...

Stiff EPA emission limits to boost US electric vehicle sales

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is proposing strict new automobile pollution limits that would require up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032, a nearly tenfold increase over current electric vehicle sales.The proposed regulation, announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, would set tailpipe emissions limits for the 2027 through 2032 model years that are the strictest ever imposed — and call for far more new EV sales than the auto industry agreed to less than two years ago.If finalized next year as expected, the plan would represent the strongest push yet toward a once almost unthinkable shift from gasoline-powered cars and trucks to battery-powered vehicles.A look at what the EPA is proposing, how the plan serves President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal to cut America’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and whether the auto industry can meet the new EV targets:Q. What is the EPA proposing?A. The p...

Man stabbed onboard TTC bus after argument between two passengers

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

Police are investigating after a man was stabbed onboard a TTC bus on Tuesday evening.The incident occurred on an Eglinton West bus travelling westbound near Black Creek Drive around 11:40 p.m.Police say two men on the bus got into an argument that turned physical. One man allegedly stabbed the other man.The victim called an ambulance and was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.The investigation is ongoing. No suspect description has been made available.STABBINGApril 11, 2023, 11:42 pm– 2 passengers in argument onboard westbound Eglinton West bus– physical altercation ensues– man stabs other man, deboards @ Black Creek Dr– victim calls emergency services– non-life threatening injuries– ongoing investigation#GO800493^vk— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) April 12, 2023

Duelling U.S. court rulings over abortion drug set stage for Supreme Court showdown

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:47:11 GMT

WASHINGTON — The debate over abortion rights in the United States is likely headed back to the Supreme Court — this time to settle a federal stalemate.Last week’s duelling court decisions over the drug mifepristone, one in Texas and another in Washington state, have put abortion issues back on centre stage in the U.S. A judge in Texas invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the so-called abortion pill less than an hour before a separate ruling in Washington effectively ordered the agency to stand its ground. The Supreme Court could be asked to intervene as early as Friday, less than a year after its June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that made abortion a federal right. Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Council of Canada says that ruling did not trigger a flood of U.S. patients headed north, in part because the procedure is still legal in several states. Arthur says that even if the Supreme Court were to uphold the Texas...