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Stranded at a closed border as bombs fall, foreign nationals in besieged Gaza await evacuation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — For more than a week, Talaat Ghabayen, a citizen of Norway who spent his whole life in Oslo, has waited days and nights at the Gaza Strip’s land crossing with Egypt as his embassy advised, hoping to flee Israel’s bombardment and looming ground invasion and reunite with his wife and sons back home.“Egypt is literally meters away, I can see it,” Ghabayen, a 54-year-old insurance agent who traveled to Gaza before the war erupted for his mother’s funeral, said Tuesday from the Rafah crossing. Under intense Western pressure, the gates at Rafah opened over the weekend for the first time since the war broke out, letting a trickle of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip and stoking hopes that hundreds of foreign nationals trapped in Gaza would be able to cross into safety.But with each passing hour, Ghabayen loses hope. And each day that Rafah remains shut, he said, is another day that he could die. “They tell us to go south, then they bo...

‘It is pure hate’: Groups condemn protests at Cafe Landwer in Toronto, Ottawa conference

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

The leaders of two prominent Canadian Jewish groups are questioning the approach police and Crown prosecutors are using when it comes to protests that have been condemned for targeting a Jewish business in Toronto and an antisemitism conference in Ottawa.Videos shared on social media showed a group of protesters, including many holding Palestinian flags, gathered in front of a Toronto restaurant this weekend, where some in the crowd could be heard calling it a “Zionist café” — referring to a movement to establish, and develop, a Jewish homeland in Israel — and chanting for a boycott.“Lines have been crossed,” Michael Mostyn, the CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said Monday.Silence is complicity. Toronto has 25 MPs, 25 MPPs, 25 councillors & the mayor. Of the 76, I can count on my hands how many condemned the blatant #antisemitism at @CafeLandwer.#NeverAgain is not about history, it’s about now.Every act of antisemitism must be condemned. pic.twitter...

New Toronto Raptors assistant coach ready to take on first NBA role

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

A new era begins Thursday night for the Toronto Raptors with a nearly brand-new coaching staff including head coach Darko Rajaković and assistant coach James Wade. Just one assistant coach, Jim Sann, will be returning from last season.Just a few months ago, James Wade was head coach and General Manager of the Chicago Sky, one of the teams involved in the first WNBA game ever played in Canada.He’s now back in Toronto and excited for his new journey with the Raptors.“A humbling experience. And, you know, we’re just happy that it was able to work out the way it didWade coached the Sky to their first WNBA title in 2021 and was with the team this summer, when he got a call out of the blue that Rajaković wanted to speak to him.They had no previous working relationship, but the two met over zoom and shortly after, Wade joined the Raptors coaching staff.“It’s been a whirlwind, something that wasn’t really a part of my process every day of thinking about t...

Burying friends, updating death lists: The morbid routine of displaced survivors of a Hamas massacre

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

EIN BOKEK, Israel (AP) — For evacuees of Kibbutz Be’eri, the salty waters of the lowest point on earth, known for their healing powers, are little comfort for a grief that feels bottomless.More than two weeks after Hamas militants killed more than 100 of some 1,100 members of their community, torturing scores and kidnapping 10, the Israeli government has relocated most of the kibbutz to an upscale resort. The hotel-turned-refugee camp is nestled among the jagged bluffs surrounding the Dead Sea, some 1,000 feet (305 meters) below sea level. The survivors now follow a morbid routine. They wake up and board tour buses repurposed into funeral shuttles. Some attend five services a day, burying friends and family in temporary graves because the Be’eri cemetery is off limits, located in the closed military zone now encircling the kibbutz. At nightly meetings, they gather in the main hall to hear the news of the day. Kibbutz leaders recite the names that have officially migrated from ...

UN chief warns that the risk of the Gaza war spreading is growing as situation becomes more dire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief warned at a high-level U.N. meeting Tuesday that the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour with the risk of the Gaza war spreading through the region increasing as societies splinter and tensions threaten to boil over.Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to deliver desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel. He appealed “to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther.”Guterres told the U.N. Security Council’s monthly meeting on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict — which has turned into a major event with ministers from the war’s key parties and a dozen other countries flying to New York -– that the rules of war must be obeyed.The secretary-general said the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify “the horrifying and unprecedented Oct. 7 acts of terror” by Hamas in Israel and dema...

Uber driver called cops on passenger accused of stabbing 2 people at Whitby bar

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

An Oshawa man is in custody after allegedly stabbing two employees at a bar and then having his Uber driver report him to police while he was fleeing the scene.Durham Regional Police officers were called to Hotel Royal near Brock and Dundas streets in Whitby around 2:20 a.m. Monday for reports of someone armed with a knife.Upon arrival, officers located two employees at the scene suffering from stab wounds. Both were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Their conditions have since been upgraded to stable.The suspect left the bar before police arrived.Police say a short time later an Uber driver reported a suspicious passenger to police. Officers initiated a traffic stop on the Uber driver’s vehicle and were able to confirm the passenger was the stabbing suspect.He was arrested during the traffic stop without incident. Police say 22-year-old Tyrese Widsom, of Oshawa, is facing six charges including two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of ...

Forced labor concerns prompt U.S. lawmakers to demand ban on seafood from two Chinese provinces

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of U.S. lawmakers wants the Biden administration to ban seafood processed in two Chinese provinces from entering the U.S. market. They also say that Chinese facilities using forced labor should be banned from doing business with American companies.The request was sent Tuesday by the chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to the Department of Homeland Security. The commission is a congressional group charged with monitoring China’s compliance with international human rights standards.It’s the latest effort by U.S. lawmakers to restrict imports of Chinese goods on the grounds of rights abuse, a move that is certain to irk Beijing at a time of tensions over trade and other issues.The commission cited investigations by the nonprofit journalist organization The Outlaw Ocean Project that revealed human rights abuses on China’s fishing fleet and the forced labor of ethnic Muslim Uighurs from the northwestern region of Xinjiang in sea...

States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harming children’s mental health

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

Dozens of US states, including California and New York, are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. The lawsuit filed in federal court in California also claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law. “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”In addition to the 33 states, nine other attorneys general are filing in their respective states, bring...

Woman shot in head near South Side strip mall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

CHICAGO — A woman was shot in the head while in a car near a South Side strip mall Tuesday morning.At around 10 a.m., officers responded to the 100 block of West 87th Street, located in Chatham, on the report of a person shot.Authorities said a 42-year-old woman was inside of a vehicle when a bullet went through the glass and struck her in the head.She was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.SkyCam9 over the scene showed a heavy police presence around the sedan, parked on 87th Street, near the Starbucks.It's unknown if anyone is in custody at this time.

No charges for man who fired gun in the air near rallies in Skokie

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:51 GMT

SKOKIE, Ill. — No charges will be filed against a man who was arrested after firing a gun into the air near a pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel rally in Skokie on Sunday, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.In a statement Monday, the office said that the man is a FOID card holder and acted in self-defense upon being surrounded by the crowd.The full statement reads:The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) has reviewed the events that took place yesterday along Touhy Ave in Skokie and Lincolnwood during the Israeli and Palestinian demonstrations.  After reviewing the evidence, which includes surveillance video and witness statements, we have determined the individual, who holds a valid FOID card and Conceal Carry License and has no criminal history, acted in self-defense upon being surrounded by a crowd and attacked by some of those individuals. No charges will be filed in this case.  Cook County State's Attorney's OfficeThe incident happened Sunday evening at At...