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Scalise must sway skeptical GOP colleagues as he tries to round up the votes to be the House speaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise is heading straight into a familiar Republican problem: Skeptical GOP colleagues are reluctant to give their support, denying him the majority vote needed to win the gavel.The House opened its Thursday session at midday in anticipation of floor action to elect a speaker. But Scalise must peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, as lawmakers dig in for a fight to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. No votes were scheduled.“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy said when he arrived at the Capitol.Asked if it was still possible for Scalise, R-La., to find enough support, McCarthy said: “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.” The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function, so the pressure is on Republicans to reverse course,...

Intense shelling has displaced 70,000 people in northwest Syria, UN agencies warn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

DANA, Syria (AP) — United Nations humanitarian officials sounded an alarm Thursday over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria, warning that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks.The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country’s northwest this month, especially after a drone attack targeted a military college graduation ceremony in the heart of the government-held city of Homs. At least 89 officers and civilians were killed, making it one of the deadliest attack in the war-town nation in years.Humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations have reported Syrian and Russian strikes hitting hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure as Syria endures the 13th year of a conflict that has killed a half-million people.“We’re at the most significant escalation of hostilities since 2019,” David Carden, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said after meeting with displace...

Don’t mess with this mama bear: Grazer easily wins popular Fat Bear Contest at Alaska national park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When it comes to packing on the pounds to survive an Alaska winter, this year’s undisputed champ is Grazer.Grazer, also known as Bear 128 to the fans of Fat Bear Week at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, won this year’s contest, handily defeating Chunk 108,321 to 23,134 in the finals.The annual contest, which this year drew more than 1.3 million votes from dedicated fans watching the bears live at explore.org, is way to celebrate the resiliency of the brown bears that live on the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands.Viewers of Alaska’s most-watched popularity contest are glued to computer screens all summer long to see which bears are stocking up the most on salmon. They then vote in tournament style brackets over the course of a week, advancing bears to the next round until a champion is crowned. Grazer took the title Tuesday.According to Grazer’s biography on the Katma...

Loving, proud, kind, joyful: Who were the three Canadians killed by Hamas in Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

OTTAWA — Friends and family have confirmed that at least three Canadians were killed last weekend when Hamas militants conducted a series of brutal attacks in Israel.Two Canadian men were killed by Hamas gunmen who ambushed a music festival in southern Israel, according to their loved ones in Canada. And an Israeli Canadian mother of two was killed in her kibbutz, a communal farming settlement, an Ottawa Jewish group said.At least 2,700 people have been killed so far in the conflict sparked by the Hamas attacks, which has escalated throughout the week as Israel conducts retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip.Canada considers Hamas a terrorist group, and Canadian leaders have decried the violence it waged on the weekend. The federal government is organizing flights for Canadian citizens and permanent residents out of Tel Aviv, but it can do little to help some 70 Canadians trapped in Gaza amid Israel’s siege on the territory.  Global Affairs Canada has not provided official conf...

US arranging evacuation flights for Americans who want to leave Israel as war with Hamas rages

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is expected to announce soon that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to help Americans leave Israel as Israel prepares to escalate retaliatory action against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, according to two people familiar with the plans.The evacuation flights are expected to begin operating as early as Friday, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans before the official announcement.The U.S. government is arranging for at least four charter flights a day out of Israel through Frankfurt, Germany.There are still some commercial carriers flying in and out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, and ground routes are open to leave Israel. White House officials, however, have voiced concern that those options may not be feasible or affordable for some Americans in Israel who want to leave.White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that the administration ...

Leak in LA council racism scandal may have come from 2 ex-labor employees, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say two former employees of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor are the focus of an investigation into a secret recording of several City Council members and a labor leader that entangled City Hall in a racism scandal.The aftermath shook public trust in government and led to the resignations of then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and the powerful labor leader. Councilman Kevin de León has resisted calls for his ouster, including from President Joe Biden, and is running for reelection. The scandal was triggered by a leaked recording of crude, racist comments during a private meeting in 2021 at the labor federation’s headquarters involving Martinez, de León and two others — all Latino Democrats — in which they plotted to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters during a realignment of council district boundaries.Rivalries among groups separated by race, geography, partisanship or religion have a long history i...

Raoul Peck’s ‘Silver Dollar Road’ chronicles a family’s battle to hold onto their land

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — The filmmaker Raoul Peck was sitting in a Toronto hotel lobby talking to a reporter when Barry Jenkins beelined over to embrace him.The two know each other, though it had been years since they saw one another. They also share a mutual affection for James Baldwin. Peck made the incisive, incendiary Oscar-nominated 2017 documentary “I Am Not Your Negro.” Jenkins, following his “Moonlight,” made the 2018 Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.”“Anytime you make work,” Jenkins told Peck, “I will see it.” The latest from Peck is “Silver Dollar Road,” which opens in theaters Friday and streams Dec. 19 on Prime Video. In it, the Haitian-born filmmaker of “Lumumba,” “Sometimes in April” and some of the most thoughtful, prodding essay-film documentaries, chronicles the story of the Reels family in North Carolina.For generations, the Reels have owned and lived on 65 waterfront acres along Adams Creek in Carteret County. The land, known as Silver Dollar Road, has b...

The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital is overflowing as Israeli attacks intensify

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed Thursday as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them on the sixth day of Israel’s heavy aerial bombardment on the territory of 2.3 million people.With scores of Palestinians killed each day in the Israeli onslaught after an unprecedented Hamas attack, medics in the besieged enclave said they ran out of places to put remains pulled from the latest strikes or recovered from under the ruins of demolished buildings.The morgue at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital can only handle some 30 bodies at a time, and workers had to stack corpses three high outside the walk-in cooler and put dozens more, side by side, in the parking lot.“The body bags started and just kept coming and coming and now it’s a graveyard,” Abu Elias Shobaki, a nurse at Shifa, said of the parking lot. “I am emotionally, physically exhausted. I just have to stop myself from thinking about how much worse it will get.” Nearly a w...

Canadian police forces upping local patrols in response to Israel-Hamas war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

TORONTO — Some Canadian police forces say they are increasing local patrols in response to the Israel-Hamas war while offering assurances they have not received any credible threats. Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw says there have been no specific credible threats locally, but the war has shaken the feelings of peace and security in the city.He says police divisions have been directed to “ensure a high visibility presence,” and increased patrols announced earlier this week have now been expanded to include cultural centres, synagogues, mosques, schools and other places of worship. Police in Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg have also announced similar steps.Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Dominic Leblanc says he’s in regular contact with the RCMP and stands with Jewish communities across the country who are feeling vulnerable “ahead of the Hamas-led call for mobilization around the world.”Hundreds of people have been killed after Hamas carried o...

Sailing vessel that suffered broken mast, killing a passenger, had previous incidents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A historic sailing vessel on which a passenger was fatally injured by a broken mast was involved in three previous accidents in 2022 and 2019 when the schooner was under different ownership, according to Coast Guard records.The Grace Bailey, built in 1882, was returning from a four-day excursion when its main mast splintered and tumbled onto the deck, killing a doctor and injuring three other passengers Monday outside Rockland Harbor. The most serious previous incident happened on July 8, 2022, when the Grace Bailey’s skipper apparently misjudged distance while maneuvering and struck another schooner anchored in Rockland Harbor, with the Grace Bailey’s front boom hitting the American Eagle. American Eagle’s mainsail suffered a large gash, and Grace Bailey’s boom crashed into the water, according to a Coast Guard report. The Grace Bailey also ran aground in 2022 and in 2019. Both times, there were no injuries and only minor damage, according to Coast Guar...