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Brazil: UN regional group has endorsed Amazon city to host 2025 climate conference

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government announced Friday that a U.N. Latin America regional group has endorsed a Brazilian city in the Amazon region to host the 2025 U.N. climate change conference, though the world body has not yet publicly confirmed the venue.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva initially said Brazil will hold the conference, known as COP 30, in the city of Belem, state of Para, in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest, reflecting his intention to bring attention to the Amazon.A statement from the Brazilian government later clarified that the region’s support was merely a step in the selection process. The “support for the Brazilian candidacy demonstrates the region’s confidence in Brazil’s capacity to advance the agenda in the fight against climate change,” the statement read.The latest U.N. climate conference was hosted by Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh, and this year’s will take place in Dubai. The U.N. has not yet announced the 2024 venue, let alone the 2025 one, b...

As Toronto’s Little Portugal faces changes, the ongoing push to protect the area’s heritage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

Little Portugal on Dundas Street West has been a hub for Toronto’s Portuguese and Lusophone communities for decades, but like many other culturally distinct neighbourhoods in the city is changing with redevelopment and other factors.Bairrada Churrasqueira Grill is a 34-year Portuguese restaurant mainstay that has grown to three locations in and around Little Portugal. The location on College Street is the biggest, boasting a 4,000-square-foot patio. Regardless of the locale, their mission is serving up authentic cuisine to the masses.At the restaurant near Sheridan Avenue and Dundas Street West, general manager Denis Pirez and members of his team were working to get ready for the day as CityNews visited. Day in and day out, preparations often involve roasting mouthwatering piri piri chicken — a staple in Portuguese cuisine. “It’s the sauce that really makes the chicken and it’s a special recipe that we’ve had in our family for probably 80 years,&#...

Phoenix faces dueling lawsuits over homeless crisis as advocates scramble for more shelter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix is facing dueling lawsuits as it tries to manage a crisis of homelessness that has converted its downtown into a tent city housing hundreds of people as summer temperatures soar. The city was ordered by the local Superior Court to clear out the downtown encampment because it is considered a “public nuisance.” But Arizona’s American Civil Liberties Union argued in a federal lawsuit that the city is violating the constitutional rights of unhoused people by slowly clearing the area known as “The Zone.”The dilemma faced by Phoenix is an example of the balance municipalities across the United States now must strike when trying to satisfy the demands of residents and business owners while respecting the rights of homeless people. Seattle faced a similar situation in 2020 when a woman sued the city, alleging that a sweep of the homeless encampment where she lived would violate her rights.In New Mexico, as the city of Albuquerque worked to prohibit panhandling a...

Loblaw winding down third-party marketplace, focusing on pharmacy and grocery online

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

Loblaw Companies Ltd. says it’s shutting down its third-party marketplace.Spokeswoman Catherine Thomas has confirmed in a statement that the company will be winding down the marketplace. Loblaw launched the online marketplace in late 2019 to include new vendors through its PC Express service, offering items in the baby, toy, home, kitchen and pet categories.The company said at the time that it would offer brands like Umbra and Lennox Furniture Inc. to provide shoppers with a curated assortment of products. Thomas says Loblaw launched its online marketplace to understand how those products could complement the company’s offerings online.She says the company has learned a lot about what customers are shopping for online, but that given the rapid change in e-commerce over the past three years, Loblaw has decided to focus on its grocery and pharmacy online shopping experiences.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:L)...

Iowa governor signs bill loosening child labor laws

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa teenagers could work more jobs and for longer hours under a bill signed into law Friday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The Republican governor signed the law after it was approved by the Legislature earlier in May with only Republican support. Several states are embracing a rollback of child labor laws in response to complaints from business owners that they can’t find enough workers. Iowa’s April unemployment rate was 2.7%.“With this legislation Iowa joins 20 other states in providing tailored, common sense labor provisions that allow young adults to develop their skills in the workforce,” Reynolds said in a statement.Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a coordinated push to scale back hard-won protections for minors.Legislators removed language in earlier versions of the bill that would have let state officials allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work in jobs now banned for minors. Some potentially dangerous work such as mining and ...

US has treaty duty to fund policing on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, judge rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government has a treaty obligation to support law enforcement on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, but declined for now to determine whether the Oglala Sioux Tribe is entitled to as much funding as it’s seeking.Tribal leaders depicted the ruling as a victory, saying the important point is that the court confirmed that the federal government has a duty to fund policing on the reservation and ordered U.S. officials to meet with Oglala Sioux leaders “to work together promptly to figure out how to more fairly fund tribal law enforcement.”The outcome of the case could affect other reservations, including some where Native women are killed at a rate more than 10 times the national average. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana has filed a similar lawsuit.Oglala Sioux officials contend the tribe is entitled to federal funding for 120 fully equipped officers for the sprawling Pine Ridge Reservation, something ...

Federal invasive species fund opens to new projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

VANCOUVER — The federal government is set to begin accepting proposals to spend the remaining money in a multimillion-dollar fund aimed at fighting invasive species across Canada.Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray says the $8.75-million Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Fund is aimed at raising public awareness and working to stop the threat of non-native freshwater and marine species.Last fiscal year, $3.3 million from the fund went to eight multi-year projects including work by the Pacific Salmon Foundation to fight the invasive European green crab in B.C.’s Salish Sea. The foundation’s CEO, Mike Meneer, says the $750,000 it is getting over three years is going towards work to eradicate the crabs, which compete with native species and invade habitats.A call for proposals to spend the remaining money between now and 2026-27 opens Monday and runs until Aug. 31.Murray says the fund is part of $36.6 million the government has earmarked to fight invasive species over five ye...

EU official says Twitter abandons bloc’s code of practice on disinformation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Twitter has dropped out of a voluntary European Union agreement to combat online disinformation, a top EU official said Friday.European Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted that Twitter had pulled out of the EU’s disinformation “code of practice” that other major social media platforms have pledged to support. But he added that Twitter’s “obligation” remained, referring to the EU’s tough new digital rules taking effect in August.“You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton said.San Francisco-based Twitter responded with an automated reply, as it does to most press inquiries, and did not comment.The decision to abandon the commitment to fighting false information appears to be the latest move by billionaire owner Elon Musk to loosen the reins on the social media company after he bought it last year. He has rolled back previous anti-misinformation rules, and has thrown its verification system and content-moderation policies into chaos as he pursues his goal ...

US: Chinese agents paid bribes in plot to disrupt anti-communist Falun Gong movement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested two suspected Chinese government agents in connection with an alleged plot by Beijing to disrupt and ultimately topple the exiled anti-communist Falun Gong spiritual movement.John Chen and Lin Feng were charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with scheming to revoke a New York-based Falun Gong organization’s tax-exempt status and paying bribes to a undercover officer posing as a U.S. tax agent.The undercover officer recorded multiple conversations with Chen, and investigators obtained a wire tap to record phone calls in which Chen and Feng discussed instructions they purportedly received from Chinese government officials, prosecutors said.In one recording, prosecutors said, Chen referred to Chinese government officials as akin to “blood brothers” and, in another, he said Beijing would be “very generous” in rewarding the undercover officer’s help cracking down on Falun Gong’s non-profit status.Chen, a 70-year-old U.S. citize...

Videos, 911 calls capture frantic response to deadly New Mexico rampage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:20 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Hundreds of frantic calls poured in to dispatchers about a barrage of gunfire and bloodied victims along a busy street during this month’s deadly shooting in Farmington, prompting authorities to rush to the chaotic scene not knowing what was in store.Breathless with guns drawn, officers rushed toward the gunman. More shots popped off, and an officer yelled, “Subject down! Cease fire, cease fire!” Another officer who had been shot in the leg was put in a patrol car and taken to a nearby hospital.The minutes that followed were a scramble as authorities searched the neighborhood for a possible second shooter, while other officers huddled to figure out how far the crime scene stretched and which vehicles had been hit by gunfire.Hours of police body and dash camera videos released Friday along with hundreds of dispatch recordings paint a vivid picture of the May 15 shooting that rocked the northwestern New Mexico community. Three women were killed and six o...