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Transgender sports ban heads to North Carolina governor’s desk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender girls in North Carolina would no longer be allowed to play on the school sports teams that align with their gender identity under a proposal that received final legislative approval on Thursday.The GOP-controlled state House voted 62-43 to send the bill to the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has little power to block it now that Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. House Republicans were joined by one Democrat — Rep. Michael Wray of Northampton County — in voting for the measure.Initial votes in the House and Senate indicate any veto from Cooper, a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, would likely be overridden in the final weeks of the session. Cooper’s office did not respond immediately Thursday to an email seeking comment.At least 22 other states have now banned trans athletes from participating in the school sports consistent with their gender identity. North Carolina, like many other Republican-led stat...

Group promoting plant-based eating wants a new name for Macon Bacon baseball team

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A doctors’ group that promotes plant-based eating and animal rights is makin’ a fuss over the Macon Bacon baseball team.The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has sent a letter urging the Georgia summer collegiate team to change its name, WMAZ-TV reported. The group has also sponsored a billboard imploring Macon fans to “keep bacon off your plate.”“Macon Bacon’s glorification of bacon, a processed meat that raises the risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases, sends the wrong message to fans,” Anna Herby, the group’s nutrition education program manager, wrote to the team’s president.The Macon Bacon had its first season with the Coastal Plains League in 2018 after the name was chosen in a vote by fans. The team’s mascot, Kevin, won over “Footloose” actor Kevin Bacon, who once wore a Macon Bacon hat in an Instagram post.And it’s not just a name. The ballpark concession menu includes bacon-wrapped bacon, steak-cut baco...

Canada, United States expand agreement to help each other fight wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada and the United States are expanding an agreement to share people and equipment to fight wildfires.Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and U.S. Ambassador David Cohen are signing the memorandum of understanding in Ottawa today.The two countries have repeatedly relied on each other to help when the wildfire situation grows beyond what they can handle on their own.The new agreement replaces a number of separate deals between the two countries in a bid to make the sharing of firefighters, incident managers and equipment more efficient.It comes as Canada continues to battle its worst wildfire season in history, with more than 61,000 square kilometres of land burned so far this year, which is about the same size as Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island combined.The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre says nearly 2,000 international firefighting personnel are in Canada right now, including several hundred from the U.S.This report by The Canadian Press was first...

Rep. George Santos’ aunt and dad signed his bail bond to keep him out of jail while awaiting trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The two people who bailed Rep. George Santos out of federal custody have been revealed to be his father and his aunt, a detail the Republican fought to keep secret as he faces criminal charges and swirling questions about his finances.Gercino dos Santos Jr. and Elma Preven were named in a court filing on Thursday as the co-signers of Santos’ $500,000 bond, which enabled his release as he awaits trial on federal charges of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. Santos, R-N.Y., had fought to keep their names secret. They were revealed after media organizations, including The Associated Press, petitioned the court for the records to be unsealed, citing the right of public access to court proceedings.In a court filing earlier this month, his attorney, Joseph Murray, said Santos would rather go to jail than subject his guarantors to the “great harm” that could come from public disclosure. Under the bond agreement, the co-signers did not have to pay any m...

Live updates | Search for Titan shows need for more deep-sea technology, researcher says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Follow along for live updates on the submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.___SEARCH FOR TITAN SHOWS NEED FOR MORE DEEP-SEA TECHAn underwater researcher says the search for the Titan shows the desperate need for more deep-sea technology in the U.S.The unsuccessful efforts have “really opened up people’s eyes that we need a much more robust capability over larger areas of the ocean to be able to detect and sense where things are,” said Nick Rotker, who leads underwater research for non-profit research and development company MITRE.The U.S. needs more underwater robots and remotely operated underwater vehicles, known as ROVs, to ensure safety, he said, especially as private exploration of the ocean expands.“The issue is we don’t have a lot of capability or systems that can go to the depth this vessel was going to,” Rotker said.Several ROVs are in the North Atlantic waters to search for the missing submersible. One found a debris field near...

Unifor kicks off grocery talks with 100 per cent strike vote by ‘fed up’ workers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

TORONTO — Unifor says grocery workers have more resolve than ever to achieve higher wages and better working conditions as it heads into a two-year stretch of bargaining for more than a dozen collective agreements.The work will begin with negotiations next week for a contract covering 3,700 Metro workers across the Greater Toronto Area, who —  in an unusual move — have already voted 100 per cent in favour of a strike if a deal can’t be reached.The strike vote sends a strong signal not just to Metro, but to all three grocery giants, that their workers are fed up, said Unifor national president Lana Payne. “We need to send a signal and a very serious message to the supermarket barons that workers deserve a piece of these profits, and they deserve to have better pay, better working conditions and more full-time jobs,” she said.“We want to make important gains in this round of bargaining. We feel we’re in a good place to do that.” Unifor represents mo...

Vatican sends Bolivia diary of late priest who allegedly abused minors in the Andean nation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The Vatican has sent to Bolivia the diary of the late Alfonso Pedrajas, a Jesuit priest who allegedly confessed to abusing dozens of minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1970s, the latest development in a pedophilia scandal that has shaken the Andean country.In a statement released Thursday, the Society of Jesus of Bolivia said the diary was sent to them by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith — which handles clergy sexual abuse cases — and then turned over to the prosecutor’s office in the city of Cochabamba, where the alleged abuse took place.The Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are known, said it will request a copy of the diary written by Pedrajas, who died in 2009, in order to know its full contents, since only a few excerpts were released in April by Spanish newspaper El País, which first reported on it. In the diary, Pedrajas allegedly confesses to having abused 85 minors, mostly in boarding schools in Cochabamba between the 1970s and 1990s...

Former UN chief says Israel’s treatment of Palestinians may constitute apartheid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel is inching toward apartheid and drifting further away from the hopes of creating a Palestinian state alongside it, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told The Associated Press Thursday on a visit to the region.Ban said that throughout his three-day visit, which coincided with a spike in deadly violence in the West Bank, he encountered a bleaker reality than the one he faced while head of the world body from 2007 to 2016. He said he had seen signs, through expanding West Bank Jewish settlements and tighter restrictions against Palestinians, that an apartheid system was taking root.“I think the situation has worsened,” Ban said. “I’m just thinking that, as many people are saying, that this may constitute apartheid.” He said he was concerned that a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict was ”fading away.”Ban was in the region on behalf of The Elders, a group of statespeople that engages in peacemaking and human rights...

Bridge sitting on key Russian supply route near Crimea struck by missiles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia-appointed officials in Crimea said that a bridge between the Moscow-annexed peninsula and Russia-occupied areas in southern Ukraine was hit by missiles Thursday, threatening a key supply link to Russian forces amid the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.The Russian military has relied on the Chongar bridge as the principal connection to its forces in the Kherson region, part of which is controlled by Moscow. Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed Kherson governor, said the bridge was hit by air-launched Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the U.K.Ukrainian authorities, who usually refrain from commenting on specific attacks, didn’t directly claim responsibility for the strike, but spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk for the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command emphasized the importance of derailing Russia’s logistics in televised comments. “We are destroying enemy plans, destroying the enemy’s capability to stand up against us,” she said.Russia-appo...

Diplomats from Western countries, developing economies to meet in Denmark for Ukraine talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark will host a meeting this weekend of national security advisers from Western countries backing Ukraine and countries that have refused to condemn the Russian invasion, officials said Thursday.The U.S. will send national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to the meeting in Copenhagen, which will focus on how to achieve a just peace in Ukraine, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because the trip hasn’t been formally announced.India, Brazil and South Africa, which have refused to condemn the invasion and join Western sanctions on Moscow, have also been invited to the talks, the official said, but couldn’t say which countries would attend.South Africa foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela confirmed the country would send national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi and Foreign Ministry Director-General Zane Dangor to the meeting in the Danish capital.Danish officials didn’t respond to reque...