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Big jump in migrants crossing Panama’s dangerous Darien Gap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s government said Wednesday that 50,000 migrants crossed the treacherous Darien Gap linking Colombia and Panama in the first two months of 2023, five times more than in the same period last year. For 2022 as a whole, a total of 250,000 migrants made the crossing, with big spikes in September and October, a trend that suggests the number that is likely to increase even more later this year.The increase was particularly noticeable among children and underage migrants. The People’s Defense Office said 9,683 migrants younger than 18 crossed the jungle-clad Darien route in January and February. That was seven times as many minors as crossed in the same period last year. The office said 1,119 of the latest young migrants were not accompanied by adults.The office and U.N. rights organizations said the Darien Gap crossing has now become an established route for migrants heading from South America to the U.S. border. “Year by year the number of migrants crossing thr...

Saskatchewan budget projects $1B surplus, more money for health care

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

REGINA — The Saskatchewan government projected a $1-billion surplus in its budget Wednesday, with no new taxes and millions in new spending.The budget for the coming fiscal year is fuelled by higher non-renewable resource and tax revenue, which Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said reflects “balanced management.”Harpauer said the government is to use much of the surplus topay down debt, but there is $431 million in new health-care funding.“When we can, I think it’s very important to break down debt,” she told reporters. “It goes to good balance.” The 2023-24 budget projects revenues of $19.7 billion, a nearly 15 per cent increase from last year’s budget.The government expects to spend $18.7 billion, with $7.1 billion earmarked for health care and $4 billion for child care, as well as primary and post-secondary education.Operating debt is expected to fall to $7.5 billion. Gross debt, which includes the debt of Crown corporations, is pegged at $30.9 billion. Critics said the budg...

Senate votes to keep 2001 authorization for war on terror

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to continue congressional authorization for the use of military force in the global fight against terror, turning back an effort by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to repeal the 2001 measure.Senators rejected the amendment 86-9 as they are debating a separate repeal of two authorizations of military force in Iraq. There is broad bipartisan support to withdraw that congressional approval granted in 1991 and 2002 for military strikes against Saddam Hussein’s regime. While those two authorizations are rarely used and focused on just one country, Iraq, the 2001 measure gave President George W. Bush broad authority for the invasion of Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism, approving force “against those nations, organizations, or persons” that planned or aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Passed in October 2001, it is still used to this day to justify U.S. military action against terror groups — including al-Q...

A hectic week for abortion policy with laws and lawsuits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

Nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a nationwide right to an abortion, the landscape is far from settled, with lawmakers considering broader bans or stronger protections and legal challenges popping up nationwide.It’s been a hectic week for abortion policy with Republican-dominated states seeking to tighten restrictions, Democratic lawmakers trying to protect abortion access — and court fights playing out on multiple fronts.Here’s what’s happening: WHAT’S THE STATUS OF ABORTION PILLS?This question lies at the heart of the most closely watched current abortion-related lawsuit.A combination of two drugs is the nation’s most common method for ending pregnancies.But Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposed abortion, has asked a Texas judge to revoke or suspend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of one of the drugs, mifepristone. The legal question looms as the Biden Administration is working on rules to make the pills more widely av...

Police find vehicle of Denver school shooting suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The vehicle of a Denver high school student suspected of shooting two school administrators on Wednesday was found abandoned in a mountain community west of Denver as the search for the teenager continued.Police were searching for Austin Lyle, 17, who they say shot the administrators as they were searching him at East High School.A shelter in place order was issued by authorities around the small town of Bailey, in Park County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Denver. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.DENVER (AP) — A student shot and wounded two administrators at a Denver high school Wednesday morning, after a handgun was found during a daily search of the boy that was being conducted because of behavioral issues, authorities said.The 17-year-old suspect remained at large. Denver school officials, facing criticism over lax security, said they would put armed officers into the city’s public high schools.The shooting occurred at a sch...

Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians and Israel clashed over the future intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far right-wing government at a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday, with the Palestinian U.N. ambassador pointing to an Israeli minister’s statement “denying our existence to justify what is to come.”Israel’s U.N. ambassador countered that the minister had apologized, and accused the Palestinian leadership of regularly inciting terrorism and erasing Jewish history.The council’s always contentious monthly meeting on the Mideast was even more acrimonious in the face of comments and actions by Israel’s new coalition government, which has faced relentless protests over its plan to overhaul the judiciary and strong criticism of Tuesday’s repeal by lawmakers of a 2005 act that saw four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank dismantled at the same time that Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip.Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Securi...

Starbucks workers protest before annual shareholder meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks workers and labor activists rallied outside the company’s Seattle headquarters Wednesday to protest what they describe as union-busting efforts by executives.Organizers said employees also walked off the job at more than 100 stores in 40 U.S. cities, though the company disputed the breadth of the protests and said nearly every store remained open. It did not immediately indicate how many locations closed. Some stores remained open because workers remained on the job, while others were staffed by employees from nearby stores who took additional shifts to cover for strikers, Starbucks said.The demonstrations came on the eve of the company’s annual shareholders meeting and were designed to urge new Chief Executive Officer Laxman Narasimhan to take a more welcoming approach to unionization efforts, said organizers with Starbucks Workers United, which has asked shareholders to vote for a third party to assess the company’s commitment to labor rights.“Starbu...

AP source: Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed jerseys

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday’s Pride Night game against Vancouver because of security concerns involving a Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country.The decision was made by the NHL organization following discussions with security officials within and outside the franchise, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke to the AP on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the move.The Blackhawks have worn Pride warmup jerseys previously and donned special warmup jerseys on some other themed nights this season. There had been ongoing conversations about a Pride jersey with the players, according to the person who talked to the AP, but the organization made the decision to hold Pride Night without the jerseys this year.Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law in December that significantly expands restrictions on act...

Brazil’s Bolsonaro to return jewels from Saudi Arabia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian government watchdog voted Wednesday to give former President Jair Bolsonaro five working days to return to authorities a set of jewels he received from Saudi Arabia in 2021. All nine members of the government watchdog voted in favor of requiring Bolsonaro to turn the jewels over to the state-owned Caixa Economica Federal bank in the capital city of Brasilia.The five days start counting as soon as Bolsonaro’s lawyers are officially notified, which had not happened, according to the government watchdog.Another set of jewels from Saudi Arabia estimated to be worth several million dollars and also sent to Bolsonaro, according to one of his former ministers, was seized by customs at Sao Paulo’s international airport.Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since he left office in January, is under preliminary police investigations at home since Brazilian media started reporting on the jewels earlier this month. The Federal Court of Accounts, a...

North Dakota House passes school gender pronoun prohibition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:04:54 GMT

Public schools and state agencies in North Dakota would be prohibited from referring to students and employees by any pronouns that don’t reflect the sex assigned to them at birth, under a bill approved by the legislature. The House approved the bill 60-32 on Wednesday. It passed the Senate last month and now awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Doug Burgum. In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have restricted transgender students from participating in public elementary and secondary school sports. But Burgum has not said publicly if he supports this latest measure. The bill is among hundreds nationwide that are taking aim at nearly every facet of transgender existence, from pronouns to bathroom use to health care to athletics. In North Dakota, similar bills to restrict transgender athletes have passed the House this session with veto-proof majorities. The Senate has not yet voted on them. Last week, Wyoming became the 19th state to ban transgender athletes from playing...