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Ex-health secretary Matt Hancock defends his record at UK’s COVID inquiry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Former British health secretary Matt Hancock defended his record at the U.K.’s COVID-19 inquiry on Thursday, contesting widespread accusations of incompetence in leading the response to the biggest public health crisis Britain faced in a century. The inquiry, which began public hearings this summer, is questioning key government officials about their political decision-making — namely when they decided to impose national lockdowns — during the pandemic.Hancock played a key role in the U.K.’s pandemic response but resigned in 2021 after he was caught on camera kissing his aide in his office, breaking the social distancing rules in place at the time.A number of officials who gave evidence at the inquiry have accused Hancock of being “overoptimistic” and recalled concerns at the time about poor organization within the health department under him.The inquiry heard that in one WhatsApp message, Mark Sedwill, the U.K.’s most senior civil servant at the time, joked to D...

‘Super pigs’ took over the prairies. Now they’re spreading further, quickly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

For years, some researchers have been sounding the alarm, about the spread of wild boars—also called ‘super pigs”—on Canada’s prairies. A few years ago, the situation was bad. Now it’s critical. The pigs are multiplying and becoming harder to hunt or capture. They’ve now been seen in British Columbia and Ontario. And the US media is now reporting on the threat of invading Canadian super pigs.Dr. Ryan Brook, a professor in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Saskatchewan, says the response to the spread of the pigs, to this point, has involved too much talk and too little action. “I’ve sort of said, you know what, I’m not coming to a meeting anymore unless everybody shows up with at least four dead pigs in the back of their truck, because we can talk about this until the end of time, but we have to actually get serious and do something,” says Brook.  How did these pigs become “super” in the first place? What...

Pakistan police arrest 4 men in the death of a woman after a photo with her boyfriend went viral

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities have arrested four people who allegedly killed an 18-year-old woman in the purported name of honor after a picture of her sitting with a boyfriend went viral on social media, police said Thursday.The woman’s father and three other men were detained days after the slaying in Kohistan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Police said they told about the killing on Nov. 24 and officers were still investigating.According to the local police chief, Masood Khan, the four arrested men apparently killed the woman on orders from village elders, who thought she had brought shame to her family by posing for pictures with a boy. Khan said the investigation determined that the photo of the couple that went viral had been edited by someone before it was shared on the social media. He said investigators are trying to trace whoever edited and posted the image since it led to her killing.It was not immediately clear if...

On 1st day, UN climate conference sets up fund for countries hit by disasters like flood and drought

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world just took a big step toward compensating countries hit by deadly floods, heat and droughts.Nearly all the world’s nations on Thursday finalized the creation of a fund to help compensate countries struggling to cope with loss and damage caused by climate change, seen as a major first-day breakthrough at this year’s U.N. climate conference. Some countries started putting in money right away — if little compared to the overall anticipated needs. Sultan al-Jaber, the president of the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, hailed “the first decision to be adopted on day one of any COP” — and his country, the United Arab Emirates — would chip in $100 million to the fund. Other countries stepped up with big-ticket commitments, including Germany, also at $100 million. Developing nations had long sought to address the problem of inadequate funding for responding to climate disasters caused by climate change, which hit them especially hard, and f...

BRP reports Q3 profit down from year ago, lowers guidance for full year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

VALCOURT, Que. — BRP Inc. reported its third-quarter profit and revenue fell compared with a year ago and lowered its financial guidance for its full year.The manufacturer of Sea-Doos and Ski-Doos reported a profit of $63.1 million or 81 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct. 31, down from $141.6 million or $1.76 per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue for the quarter totalled $2.47 billion, down from $2.71 billion in the same quarter last year. BRP says its normalized earnings per share for its most recent quarter amounted to $3.06 per diluted share, down from $3.64 per diluted share a year earlier.In its outlook, the company now says revenue for its 2024 financial year is expected to grow four to five per cent, compared with earlier expectations for growth of seven to 10 per cent.BRP also says it now expects its normalized earnings per share for its full year to come in between $11.10 and $11.35, a result that would mean a drop of six to eight per cent compared to $12...

What to know about Hannukah and how it’s celebrated around the world

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah — a multibranched candelabra. In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.With the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple, they lit the menorah — and it stayed lit for eight days. The ritual of lighting a nightly candle, as well as the emphasis on cooking foods in oil such as potato pancakes called latkes, memorialize this miraculously long-lasting oil.When is Hanukkah 2023?The dates of the holiday are based on Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually coincides with November-December in the Gregorian calendar.This year, Hanukkah will be celebrated from Dec. 7 through Dec. 15.Does...

Breaking the chains: Creator of comic strip ‘Mutts’ frees his Guard Dog character after decades

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Something is different on the comics pages this week. In the panels of “Mutts,” there’s the long-delayed sight of freedom.Patrick McDonnell, the cartoonist who draws the popular strip, is freeing his character Guard Dog, liberating an animal who has become for decades a symbol of the cruelty of dog chaining.“I think it just hit me that I can’t do it forever and that it has to happen,” McDonnell told The Associated Press ahead of the publication of Thursday’s panel showing Earl’s owner kneeling beside the dog and announcing: “We have to remove this chain.” On Friday’s strip, it will be gone.“I had a vague idea what the story was going to be, but I finally took some time and said, ‘Well, what is that story?’ And I was happy with what I came up with. So I said, ‘Now’s the time to do it.’”“Mutts” premiered in 1995 with two heroes — the small canine Earl and the feline Mooch, fond of saying “Yesh.” There’s also Woolfie, Sid the fi...

Thousands of fake Facebook accounts shut down by Meta were primed to polarize voters ahead of 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday.The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues.Instead of spreading fake content as other networks have done, the accounts were used to reshare posts from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that were created by politicians, news outlets and others. The interconnected accounts pulled content from both liberal and conservative sources, an indication that its goal was not to support one side or the other but to exaggerate partisan divisions and f...

Pressure builds to eliminate fossil fuel use as oil executive, under fire, takes over climate talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Pressure to phase out fossil fuels mounted Thursday on the oil company chief who took over fragile international climate negotiations that opened in Dubai amid concerns about what some say is contradictory dual roles.The climate talks newly installed boss began on the hot seat and not just because the planet keeps smashing heat records this year. Days before the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP28) began, reports published meeting preparation notes that linked efforts by the United Arab Emirates national oil company ADNOC to push fossil fuel sales at the same time its CEO and new COP president, Sultan al-Jaber, was meeting to curb climate change. The burning of coal, oil and gas are chief causes of global warming.Al-Jaber vehemently denied the revelations from the BBC on Wednesday, But several climate negotiations experts say it will likely change the tenor and maybe even the outcome of the two weeks of intense negotiations, taking place ab...

Israel kills 2 Palestinian boys in West Bank Raid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:08 GMT

JERUSALEM — Two Palestinian boys, including an 8-year-old, were killed by Israeli military officials Wednesday during a military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. The circumstances of the boys' shooting were unclear. Security camera footage showed what appear to be children gathered on a street. The children run away, while one boy remains standing until he falls to the ground and another appears to disappear next to a car. Health officials identified the boys as Adam Samer al-Ghoul, 8, and Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa, 15.The video could not be independently verified. In a statement, the army said troops opened fire at suspects in the area who hurled explosives at them. “Hits were identified,” it said. The children in the video are not seen throwing objects, and the army did not say whether the young boys were suspected of throwing explosives.Separately, the military said it had killed two wanted militants. They were identified as Mohammed Zubeid...