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Toronto opens new 24-hour respite centre but admits challenges remain when it comes to unhoused people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

City of Toronto officials are providing more indoor space for people experiencing homelessness this winter, including a new 24-hour respite centre. Those on the front lines say it’s important to read between the lines and that the devil is in the details.In an update to its Winter Services Plan, the city confirmed the Better Living Centre on the grounds of Exhibition Place will serve as a 24-hour respite site until March 2024. Officials say while the facility is accepting upwards of 40 people a day through referrals only from Dec. 21 to Dec. 26, once fully operational, there will be space for 240 people.The City notes that many of the spaces will already be accounted for as it will refer people from existing outdoor locations but it will add what it calls “critical capacity” for January and February, considered the coldest months of the winter season.The 180 additional spaces opened in the shelter system this winter is an increase of 44 per cent over the last coupl...

Federal judge blocks California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September was set to take effect Jan. 1. It would have banned people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos. It would apply whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon or not. One exception would be for privately owned businesses that put up signs saying people are allowed to carry guns on their premises.U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law, which he wrote was “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”The decision is a victory for the California Rifle and Pistol Associati...

Brampton man charged in $500K international fraud scheme targeting elderly victims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

Police have arrested a 34-year-old Brampton man as part of a year-long international fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims across Canada.Police in Peel Region say between January 2020 and February 2022, a group of individuals operated a technical support scam that tricked victims into believing their personal computers were infected with a virus or malware using pop-up ads on computer screens or spam phone calls. The victims were put in contact with call centre agents who convinced them to give them remote access to their computers and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for unnecessary repairs.Police say approximately 330 Canadians fell victim to the scheme which netted the fraudsters $500,000.Jayant Bhatia of Brampton has been charged with unauthorized use of a computer, fraud Over $5000, and possession of property obtained by crime.Police say the scheme used the following business names – A2Z Consultants Group Inc., QB Services, and SSS Consultants – and operate...

China emerged from ‘zero-COVID’ in 2023 to confront new challenges in a changed world

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s prospects for 2024 look uncertain, as a year that opened free of COVID-19 lockdowns winds down without the dreamed of robust recovery for the world’s No. 2 economy.The wars in Gaza and Ukraine are straining China’s ties with the West. A U.S.-China leaders’ summit helped get relations back on track, but also clearly defined the stark divide between the two global powers. To counter a U.S.-led world order, China is pushing alternative visions for global security and development whose prospects depend partly on restoring its own economic vitality.Pandemic-related restrictions ended, China still faces long-term, fundamental challenges: a falling birthrate and aging population — India surpassed it as the world’s largest country in April — and its rivalry with the United States over technology, Taiwan and control of the high seas. Another: to balance the ruling Communist Party’s tightening grip on myriad aspects of life with the flexibility needed to keep the econom...

Newly released video shows how police moved through UNLV campus in response to reports of shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officers shouted over blaring alarms and knocked down reports of additional gunfire while responding to what became a deadly shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, body camera footage released Wednesday showed. In one video, police officers moved hastily through the university’s business school on Dec. 6 amid a loud, piercing sound and called out for the alarm to be cut off. Commands were difficult to hear and, one officer noted, there was “blood everywhere” near a doorway on the fifth floor, the footage showed.The suspect, Anthony Polito, was killed in a shootout with police outside the building after fatally shooting three professors, police later said. Reports of gunfire after Polito’s death turned out to be the sounds of police trying to break down locked doors to clear classrooms, evacuate students and assess any remaining threats.The more than five hours of video made public Wednesday was the first of several releases by the Las Vegas Met...

UN is seeking to verify that Afghanistan’s Taliban are letting girls study at religious schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is seeking to verify reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are allowing girls of all ages to study at Islamic religious schools that are traditionally boys-only, the U.N.’s top official in the country said Wednesday.U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva told the U.N. Security Council and elaborated to reporters afterward that the United Nations is receiving “more and more anecdotal evidence” that girls can study at the schools, known as madrassas.“It is not entirely clear, however, what constitutes a madrassa, if there is a standardized curriculum that allows modern education subjects, and how many girls are able to study in madrassas,” she said.The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from secondary school and university, and allowing girls to study only through the sixth grade.Taliban education authorities “continue to tell us that they are working on creating conditions to allow girls to return to school. But t...

Electric scooter Bird Global steers into bankruptcy protection in bid to repair its finances

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances.The move marks a sobering comedown for a formerly high-flying startup that was trying to make it easier to get around big cities in an environmentally friendly way with its fleet of electric scooters. The concept attracted about $500 million in investments from prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners before becoming a publicly traded company in 2021.Now, the Miami-based company finds itself struggling to survive after losing more than $430 million since the end of 2021.Bird has lined up $25 million in financing from MidCap Financial, a division of Apollo Global Management, as it tries to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida.Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, predicted the company will be able to bounce back and continue its “mission to make ...

A white couple who burned a cross in their yard facing Black neighbors’ home are investigated by FBI

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

The FBI is investigating a white South Carolina couple for racial discrimination after they set a cross on fire in their yard last month facing toward their Black neighbors’ home.Federal civil rights investigators searched the white couple’s home in Conway on Wednesday, according to FBI spokesperson Kevin Wheeler. The retired Black couple also recorded video of the cross being burned on Thanksgiving weekend and described days of repeated threats from their neighbors. The next week, Worden Evander Butler, 28, and Alexis Paige Hartnett, 27, were arrested on state charges of harassment and later released on bond.Cross burnings in the U.S. are “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the action “is a particu...

Ad campaign calls out Northwestern University over antisemitism concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

EVANSTON — A Jewish advocacy group will air an advertisement during this weekend's Northwestern-Utah bowl game following claims that Northwestern University has not been proactive about speaking out against antisemitism. Northwestern University graduate Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor for Defense of Democracies, spoke out about his alma mater concerning campus fairness. "I’ve heard from some of the religious leaders on the campus, the rabbis, some of the Jewish students as well that there is a fear of the climate there," Goldberg said.SEE ALSO: Former NU athletes share experience with racism, hazing for first timeThe group created print, TV, and social media ads calling out Northwestern University and its president, Michael Schill, over concerns of hostility on campus aimed at Jewish students in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. "When you have chants, intimidation and disruption of classrooms saying, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' which is a ca...

Sheriff: Revenge after fight led to deadly Glenview apartment complex shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:55 GMT

GLENVIEW, Ill. — Four individuals face first-degree murder charges for their involvement in a deadly Glenview apartment complex shooting in August.According to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the 14000 block of Michael Todd Terrace in Glenview on reports of shots fired just after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19.Upon arrival, authorities discovered 16-year-old Jose Guzman-Ezquivel and 19-year-old Carlos Guzman-Ezquivel, who had been shot multiple times.Jose was pronounced dead at the scene, while Carlos was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. A third victim, a 16-year-old, reportedly suffered a graze wound to his back.Further investigations showed that Jose Guzman-Ezquivel and Carlos Miranda, 22, of Prospect Heights, were involved in a physical altercation in July. Following the fight, a 15-year-old offender obtained a picture of Jose in order to allegedly identify him and seek revenge for the fight.On Aug. 19, Miranda and the 15-year-old offende...