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A gunman in New Zealand kills 2 people ahead of Women’s World Cup tournament

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — A gunman killed two people at a downtown construction site in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland on Thursday, as the nation prepared to host games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament. Authorities said the shooter was also dead.Authorities said six other people, including at least one police officer, were injured during the shooting, which took place near hotels where Team Norway and other soccer teams have been staying. New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead as planned.“Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland,” Hipkins said. “The government has spoken to FIFA organizers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned.”“I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat. This appears to be the action of one individual.”Hipkins said the shooter was armed with a pump-action shotgun. Police arrived one minute aft...

CLIMATE GLIMPSE: Here’s what you need to see and know today

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

As intense heat batters much of the planet, people cool off however they can. In Pasadena, California, where Wednesday’s high was “only” in the mid-90s, seniors found relief — and some fun — in a morning swim class in this image made by Associated Press photographer Ryan Sun.Elsewhere, things were more serious. As southern Europe bakes under a heat wave, firefighters in Greece continued battle Wednesday with wildfires near Athens that have prompted days of evacuations. Aircraft and crews from other countries were heading to join the fight. Heat in southern Greece was expected to grow worse later this week, approaching 44 Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).Here’s what’s happening related to extreme weather and the climate right now:—In Texas, crushing heat is raising concern for families with loved ones in state prisons that lack air conditioning. One woman blames her son’s death on excessive heat, Juan A. Lozano reports.—As destructive floods hammer different parts of the gl...

White House says Russia is preparing for attacks on civilian ships in Black Sea

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days after Russia suspended participation in a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries around the world, the White House on Wednesday warned that the Russian military is preparing for possible attacks on civilian shipping vessels in the Black Sea.Since leaving the Black Sea Grain Deal this week, Russia has already struck Ukraine’s grain export ports in Odesa with missile and drone attacks. Some 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in the attacks.“Our information indicates that Russia laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said in a statement. “We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks.”The Russian Defense Ministry has declared international waters in northwestern and southeastern parts of the Black Sea “temporarily dangerous” for shipping. That follo...

IRS whistleblowers air claims to Congress about ‘slow-walking’ of the Hunter Biden case

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, which looked into his failure to pay taxes, for six hours of what was often grueling back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax charges in what Republicans have derided as a “sweetheart” deal. Still, House Republicans are deepening their own investigation, making broad claims of corruption and wrongdoing by the Bidens, which they acknowledge have not been proven to be true.“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, as he opened the ses...

4 members of a Florida family are convicted of selling a fake COVID-19 cure through online church

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Four members of a Florida family were convicted Wednesday of selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church.A federal jury in Miami found Mark Grenon, 65, and his sons, 37-year-old Jonathan, 35-year-old Joseph and 29-year-old Jordan, guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs, according to court records. That charge carries up to five years in prison. Their sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 6.The Grenons represented themselves but declined to speak during the two-day trial, the Miami Herald reported. After the jury delivered its verdict, Joseph Grenon said they would be appealing.Prosecutors called the Grenons “con men” and “snake-oil salesmen” and said the Bradenton family’s Genesis II Church of Health and Healing sold $1 million worth of their so-called Miracle Mineral Solution. In videos, it was pitched as a cure for 95% of known diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, autism, brain ca...

Man, 24, pleads guilty to 3 charges in Mississauga mosque attack

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

A 24-year-old man has pled guilty on charges connected to a bear spray attack at a Mississauga mosque last year.Officers received a call regarding an assault just before 7 a.m. on March 19 at the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre, near Matheson Boulevard and Kennedy Road.A witness said that several people were inside the mosque for morning prayers when multiple people were sprayed in the eyes and throat with bear spray. Members of the mosque were able to subdue the man while someone called the police.Mohammed Moiz Omar of Mississauga was arrested at the scene.Omar had initially been charged with assault with a weapon along with a slew of other weapons related charges. But police upgraded the charges, saying the offenses Omar is charged with constitutes terrorist activity under the criminal code.He pled guilty to three of the seven charges he was facing on Wednesday, including administering a noxious substance and assault with a weapon.The court heard the suspect had been planning the ha...

California Sen. Feinstein seeks more control over her late husband’s trust to pay medical bills

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress who has been beset with serious health problems, assert in a court filing that she is being stiffed on payments for “significant” medical bills by a trust created for her benefit by her wealthy late husband. Trustees for the fund said they were “perplexed” by the filing and they have never denied any disbursement for the 90-year-old Feinstein, who was absent from the Senate for two-and-a-half months this year as she contended with shingles and other complications, including a brief bout of encephalitis. In the Monday petition in San Francisco Superior Court, attorneys for the Democratic senator and her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, wrote that the longtime lawmaker had built up “significant” medical expenses and sought reimbursement from the marital trust, which was established in 1996 by her husband, investor Richard Blum, who died last year. The senator is the “sole income benefic...

Explainer: What does Bill C-18, the Online News Act, mean for your access to news?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

The government of Canada recently passed Bill C-18 — “An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada,” commonly known as the Online News Act — in a bid to protect Canadian journalism. But the response from big tech companies, including Google and Meta, means there could potentially be less news on your social media feeds.Professor Daniel Tsai from the University of Toronto explains that Bill C-18 lays the groundwork to charge big tech companies for Canadian news content made available on their sites, like search results on Google and links published on Facebook and Instagram.“So [tech companies] would compensate Canadian news media organizations for the revenue that they’re taking away in terms of online advertising,” he says.“Put this in perspective– just between the duopoly of Google and Meta, they have 80 per cent online advertising market share — that’s the ...

US Soccer players call on Congress to reform SafeSport Center

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

A group of more than 100 U.S. soccer players is calling on Congress to improve the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which is tasked with protecting athletes from abuse. The U.S. Soccer Athletes Council sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday signed by current and former national team players, including the entire U.S. team playing in the Women’s World Cup. “As athletes, we want to take a lead in collaborating with Congress and National Governing Bodies of Sport in order to create a safe and supportive environment that allows soccer players — and all other athletes in the Olympic movement — to thrive both on and off the field. We are committed to working with you and other stakeholders to make the necessary changes to ensure that players are safe and protected from abuse. And that means that we need to create an efficient, fair, and effective system for athletes to report,” the letter said. The move comes after an abuse and misconduct scandal that r...

Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina as other parts of US reel from scorching heat, floods

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:17 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, the latest in a string of extreme weather events plaguing the U.S. on a day when floods deluged communities in Kentucky and scorching heat smothered Phoenix and Miami. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down near Rocky Mount, but said via email that it had no reports of serious injuries there. It said in a later email, without giving workforce numbers, that the plant employees followed safety procedures and evacuated and all “are safe and accounted for.” Parts of roofs were ripped open atop its massive buildings. The Pfizer plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about by the storm, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone, adding, “I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind.”The plant produces a...