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Sudan army demands rivals’ surrender, threatening cease-fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 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...

Man, 27, seriously injured in drive-by shooting on South Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 GMT

CHICAGO — A 27-year-old man was seriously injured in a drive-by shooting on the city's South Side.Police said the shooting happened around 5:20 a.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of West 75th Street. The man told officers he was outside when a silver SUV approached and the passenger inside fired shots. The SUV then fled the scene.The man was shot in the hip and self-transported himself to South Shore Hospital in serious-but-stable condition.No other injuries were reported.No one is in custody. Area One detectives are investigating.

Where recreational marijuana is - and isn't - legal in 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - Nearly half of the U.S. has legalized recreational marijuana use, with states throughout the Northeast becoming the latest to expand regulated cannabis use. Despite efforts by multiple other states to do the same, marijuana use still isn't widely legalized. Voters across several states approved recreational marijuana use in 2022, and a few more states were hoping to be added to the list. Can you bring marijuana on a plane? Oklahoma voters rejected the legalization of recreational marijuana in March. A proposal to legalize marijuana in Indiana was voted down in early April. Thousands of supporters have signed a petition to have a proposed constitutional amendment regarding marijuana legalization added to Florida ballots in 2024.Though they haven't legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, nine states have authorized the use of CBD and products low in THC. Previously among those states was Kentucky, which has since legalized medical marijuana.The map below ...

Video shows correctional officer beating inmate 'more than 30 times' in Illinois

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:46 GMT

Note: Viewer discretion is advised in the video above.CHICAGO (WGN) — Surveillance footage shows an inmate being beaten for nearly a minute at Illinois' Cook County Jail last year. The correctional officer accused of the beating has been charged.Richard Smith, 44, was charged with official misconduct and aggravated battery following the incident at the jail on Sept. 20, 2022.In the video, a 24-year-old inmate is seen speaking with two guards for about 40 seconds in the jail's residential treatment unit. Previous: Cook County correctional officer charged; accused of beating inmate ‘more than 30 times’ Video shows the confrontation turn violent with a correctional officer seeming to throw the first punch. After a few seconds of the man defending himself with some punches back, Smith allegedly started to knee him while throwing uppercuts as the other correctional officer, who has not been identified, held him.The inmate then falls to the ground as Smith is shown continuing to beat th...