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Russia bombards Odesa and other southern Ukraine port cities for 3rd night since end of grain deal

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded Ukraine’s southern cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night Thursday, keeping Odesa in the Kremlin’s crosshairs after a bitter dispute over the end of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain through the key Black Sea port.The strikes killed at least two people in Odesa. In Mykolaiv, a city close to the Black Sea, at least 19 people were injured, including a child, Ukrainian officials said.Russia has targeted Ukrainian critical grain export infrastructure since it vowed “retribution” this week for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge between Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Russian officials blamed that strike on Ukrainian drone boats.The strikes on Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure have helped drive up food prices in countries facing hunger. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the end of the deal Monday would result in more human suffering, with potentially millions of peop...

Oklahoma executes a man for the 1995 butcher knife slaying of a Tulsa woman

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.Jemaine Cannon, 51, received a lethal injection at 10:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead 12 minutes later at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It was the second execution in Oklahoma this year and the ninth since the state resumed lethal injections in 2021.Cannon was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark, a mother of two with whom Cannon had been living at an apartment in Tulsa after his escape weeks earlier from a prison work center in southwest Oklahoma. Cannon had been serving a 15-year sentence for the violent assault of another woman who suffered permanent injuries after prosecutors say Cannon raped her and beat her viciously with a claw hammer, iron and kitchen toaster.A federal appeals court late Wednesday denied Cannon’s last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution in which Cannon claim...

Q&A: ‘Barbie’ filmmaker Greta Gerwig on art, commerce and embracing the mess

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

Barbie, the doll, may be 64 years old, but “Barbie,” the movie, is a pandemic baby. Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind “Little Women” and “Lady Bird,” started dreaming it up at a time when she wasn’t sure movies would ever come back.“I wanted to channel something that had that ache in it, but also something so wild and unruly and something that was so just spilling out over the edges of it that you want to be in a group and see it big,” Gerwig told The Associated Press this week. “Because I thought we’ll never make any movies again, but if they’re going to, I’d like this.”Her “Barbie,” which releases in theaters on Friday, is a joyful, maximalist, deeply weird, insightful and defiantly pink confection starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. She co-wrote it with her partner, Noah Baumbach, with whom she shares two sons — a toddler and a five-month-old whom they welcomed into the world while getting “Barbie” out to the world.Gerwig spoke to the AP th...

Florida school shooting reenactment set for Aug. 4 using live ammunition, judge told

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The reenactment of a 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high school will take place early next month as part of a civil lawsuit and will use live ammunition with a bullet safety device, a judge was told Thursday.Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips endorsed an agreement reached by attorneys for victims’ families and former Broward Deputy Scot Peterson to conduct the reenactment Aug. 4 at a three-story classroom building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. An ballistics expert for the families, former FBI agent Bruce Koenig, testified that live rounds make a different sound than blanks. A key issue in the lawsuit is what Peterson could hear during the shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, in which 17 people died and 17 more were wounded with an AR-15-style rifle.“You want to imitate the situation as close as possible,” Koenig said. Blanks, he added, are “almost as loud, but there definitely is a difference.”Peterson, the school’s on-campus de...

Americans descend on New Zealand to cheer for the US women’s soccer team

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — The Americans are here.They may still be jet-lagged, they may still be wearing sweats, and they may have been stumbling through the streets of Auckland for the past few days, but some fans of the U.S. women’s national team broke through with their unmistakable red, white and blue costumes as part of a boisterous crowd at the opening match of the Women’s World Cup.The thing was, the Americans weren’t even playing.The U.S. women kick off Saturday against Vietnam. But David Tritz of Laguna Hills, California, wore a full-body, stars-and-stripes rain suit to see co-host New Zealand upset Norway 1-0 on Thursday.Tritz is just one of an estimated 20,000 Americans who have already traveled Down Under to support the reigning World Cup champions.“We flew all this way,” Tritz said at Eden Park, “you can’t not represent. You only live once.”Tritz came to New Zealand with his wife and five daughters, four of whom played soccer and range from 34 down to 21-year-old twi...

Two prominent Egyptian rights figures released from prison following pardons

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Thursday released two human rights defenders, including one who has ties with Italy, their lawyers said, ending two cases that have drawn significant international criticism and attention.The releases of Patrick George Zaki, an activist and postgraduate student in Italy, and Mohamed el-Baker, a human rights lawyer, came a day after they were pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi along with four other people. Confirmation of the pardons was published in Egypt’s Official Gazette.The release of Zaki, whose case was championed by Italy’s government, was announced by Hossam Bahgat, founder of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who posted a picture of the bearded postgraduate student on Facebook on Thursday afternoon. His sister, Marise Zaki, also confirmed his release, posting a photo on Facebook of him speaking to journalists after his release.“Patrick is on the Asfalt,” she wrote on Facebook, using a phrase that activists often use...

Illinois police seize carnival ride after boy, 10, was thrown from ride and seriously injured

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

ANTIOCH, Ill. (AP) — Northern Illinois police have seized a carnival ride as they continue investigating a Sunday incident in which a 10-year-old boy was seriously injured when he was thrown from his seat.After the Illinois Department of Labor finished inspecting the ride Wednesday, police in the village of Antioch and the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office sought and obtained a search warrant from a judge to seize the ride as part of an “ongoing criminal investigation into the incident,” village officials said.“The outcome of this week’s inspections of the ride necessitated us to immediately secure it as evidence,” Antioch Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow said in a news release.Police towed the Moby Dick ride on Wednesday from the village of Shorewood in Chicago’s south suburbs, where the ride’s owner had towed it on Monday, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) back to Antioch, near the Wisconsin border, village spokesman Jim Moran said Thursday.Guttschow said ...

Consumer spending to soften in second half of 2023: Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says while consumer spending remained strong in the second quarter, it turned a corner after the Bank of Canada ended its pause on interest rate hikes. Chamber chief economist Stephen Tapp says consumer spending will likely slow noticeably in the second half of the year as people cut back on discretionary purchases. He says population growth has been supporting strong spending.The Chamber’s business data lab found that consumer spending saw a resurgence in April and May following a post-holiday slump.However, it says that after the Bank of Canada hiked its key policy rate to 4.75 per cent in June, spending started to dip.The central bank hiked its trendsetting rate again last week to five per cent.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2023.The Canadian Press

S&P/TSX composite down as tech stocks fall, U.S. stocks mixed

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

TORONTO — Losses in the technology stocks helped lead Canada’s main stock index lower in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 57.74 points at 20,433.43.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 234.85 points at 35,296.06. The S&P 500 index was down 16.44 points at 4,549.28, while the Nasdaq composite was down 177.37 points at 14,180.65.The Canadian dollar traded for 75.87 cents US compared with 75.93 cents US on Wednesday.The September crude oil contract was up 44 cents at US$75.73 per barrel and the August natural gas contract was up 15 cents at 2.76 per mmBTU.The August gold contract was down US$8.30 at US$1,972.50 an ounce and the September copper contract was up four cents at US$3.85 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Quebec police watchdog investigates death of man who allegedly fired at officers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:02:00 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s police watchdog is investigating the death of a man who allegedly got into a shootout with provincial police officers on Wednesday.The watchdog — known as the BEI — says police responded to a call around 7 p.m. about a person in possible distress inside a home in Cleveland, Que., about 115 kilometres east of Montreal.The BEI says that when police spotted the man inside the home he allegedly started shooting at the officers, who shot back.He allegedly opened fire a second time while the officers were crouched behind their patrol vehicles.The BEI says that after police called for backup they heard a loud bang inside the home.Police allegedly found the man unresponsive inside the home, and he was declared dead in hospital.The BEI says there is no criminal investigation underway in this case, and Quebec provincial police have decline to comment.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2023.The Canadian Press