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Poland gets 1st U.S.-made HIMARS rocket launchers amid concerns over war in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland has received its first shipment of U.S.-made HIMARS rocket launchers as part of a defense upgrade amid security concerns due to the war in neighboring Ukraine. Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and military officials attended an acquisition ceremony at a Warsaw air base on Monday. Blaszczak said that combat in Ukraine had proven the value of the HIMARS and that NATO member Poland was seeking to procure additional launchers, with a goal of acquiring some 500 units. “We are watching the developments in Ukraine, and we know that artillery has a key role in the war, in repelling the Russian invasion,” he said. Under a 2019 contract, Poland is spending some $414 million (380 million euros) to buy 18 advanced combat HIMARS launchers and two HIMARS training launchers, with ammunition and related equipment. The deal includes logistics and training.The launchers will go to the 1st Artillery Brigade in northeastern Poland, Blaszczak said.“Their task will be...

Stock market today: US futures point higher amid US debt ceiling fight, busy week for retail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

Wall Street appeared headed for gains early Monday ahead of a busy week in retail, with a backdrop of debt ceiling negotiations between President Joe Biden and Republican lawmakers.Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 rose 0.4% before the bell.Home Depot, Target and Walmart report earnings this week, which should provide some more clues as to how retailers and their shoppers are coping with rising prices and a slowing economy. Companies have largely been reporting solid quarterly earnings, though expectations have been modest.On Tuesday, the Commerce Department releases U.S. retail sales data for April. In March, Americans cut their spending at stores for the second straight month, suggesting Americans are becoming more cautious.Markets remain prey to worries about recession, high inflation and the U.S. government inching toward what could be a catastrophic default on its debt.President Joe Biden and congressional leaders postponed a meeting set for Friday on th...

The Canadian massacre you’ve never heard of

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, on Halloween night in 2020, a mass shooting took place near the resort community of Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island. Three people are found dead in a make-shift encampment deep in the woods. Beside them, four dead dogs and a burned-out trailer. Now, more than two years on, the case is at a standstill.This week, a new podcast, Island Crime Season 5: Whiskey Creek explores the secrecy and fear surrounding the shootings. And asks the question: Who deserves to have their story told?GUEST: Laura Palmer, host and producer of Island CrimeYou can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

Centerra Gold reports US$73.5-million Q1 loss compared with profit a year earlier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

TORONTO — Centerra Gold Inc. reported a US$73.5-million loss in its first quarter compared with a profit of US$89.4 million in the same quarter last year.The Toronto-based gold miner, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its loss amounted to 34 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 compared with a profit of 30 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue for the quarter totalled US$226.5 million, down from US$295.2 million in the same quarter last year.Gold production was 33,215 ounces, down from 93,784 ounces a year earlier, while copper production totalled 13,355 ounces, down from 20,558 pounds in the first quarter of 2022. On an adjusted basis, Centerra says it lost 24 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 19 cents per share a year earlier.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted loss of seven cents per share and US$165.9 million in revenue, according estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.Th...

Police arrest man accused of sexually assaulting woman in Toronto’s east end

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

Police have arrested a man in connection with a daylight sexual assault in Toronto’s east end over the weekend.Investigators allege the incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. Saturday on Dundas Street East, just west of Broadview Avenue.Police say a woman was walking in the area when a man crossed the street and sexually assaulted her from behind. The suspect was seen running from the area westbound on Dundas.Officers identified the suspect as 27-year-old Odainne Trujillo of Toronto. He was arrested and faces multiple charges including sexual assault and two counts of resisting arrest.Trujillo is scheduled to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Monday morning.Police believe there could be more victims. Anyone with more information is being asked to contact police.

Thailand’s opposition parties, after stunning election win, set plans to enlist allies to take power

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Fresh off a stunning election victory in which they together captured a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, Thailand’s top two opposition parties began planning Monday for the next stage in their bid to replace the military-dominated government.Monday’s headliner was 42-year-old businessman Pita Limjaroenrat, who led his Move Forward Party to a first-place finish, surpassing most expectations. It squeaked past the Pheu Thai Party, its opposition partner, which had been favored to top the polls.Pheu Thai stumbled despite the star power of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former populist prime minister who was toppled by a 2006 military coup and is the driving force behind the party.“The overwhelming electoral victory by Move Forward and Pheu Thai is a decisive sign that voters want a polity where the people, not the military, decide their future,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, a Thai studies scholar at the University of Wisconsin. “Vo...

Linda Yaccarino may be “exactly what Twitter needs.” But is the new CEO being set up to fail?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

Less than two months into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk declared that whoever took over as the company’s CEO “ must like pain a lot.” Then he promised he’d step down as soon as he found a replacement “foolish enough” to want the job.That person, Musk announced Friday, is Linda Yaccarino, a highly-regarded advertising executive from NBCUniversal. She’ll start in six weeks. How long she’ll last might depend on her pain tolerance. When Musk tweeted on Thursday that he’s found a new CEO but didn’t say who, one word stuck out: “she.” Some of his more extreme Twitter followers took immediate issue with the new CEO’s gender, but the fact that Musk hired a woman is actually notable simply because it is so rare — in business overall and especially in the tech industry — to see female chief executives. Her appointment renewed questions about the “glass cliff,” a theory that women — as well as underrepresented minorities — are more lik...

Croatian army steps in as heavy rains flood homes, roads and schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Rescue teams and hundreds of soldiers were deployed Monday to help people in parts of Croatia hit by floods.Heavy rain in recent days caused some rivers to overflow their banks, flooding homes, roads and public buildings in some towns. Classes in the town of Obrovac were canceled after water got into in the schools there..Parts of the town were left without electricity, and water covered the center of Obrovac. In nearby Gracac, about a dozen people had to move to upper floors or evacuate their homes to avoid surging water.Some 300 army troops stepped in to help people in need and to bolster flood defenses, authorities said. Emergency crews said they were bringing food to people stuck in their homes. Photos from the scene showed people using small boats to move around and water going over sand bags put in place to prevent flooding. A rescuer could be seen carrying a small dog he saved from the floods.Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said his government ...

4 killed in Detroit when SUV crashes into highway bridge pier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — An SUV slammed into a bridge pier along an interstate highway in Detroit, throwing four young men from the vehicle and killing them, state police said.The GMC Yukon was going fast when it hit the pier around 8 p.m. Sunday night on westbound Interstate 96 near Grand River Avenue in Detroit, witnesses told state troopers. The four men in the SUV died in the crash, state police said.Killed were the 21-year-old driver and passengers ages 20, 22 and 25, police said Monday morning. An investigation continues, and autopsy results and a vehicle inspection are pending, police said.“Once again, a driver’s decision to drive recklessly cost lives on our roadways,” Lt. Mike Shaw of the Michigan State Police said in a statement on Twitter. “This decision will not only affect those families involved but also witnesses and first responders on scene. Please drive responsibly. Lives are at stake.”The Associated Press

Cartier’s use of images of Amazon tribe prompts Indigenous advocates to allege hypocrisy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:36:26 GMT

BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) — Until two months ago, Cartier’s website showed Yanomami children playing in a green field.The French luxury jewelry brand said it was working to promote the culture of the Indigenous people and protect the rainforest where they live, in a vast territory straddling Brazil and Venezuela. But the project that the site described protecting the Amazon never took place. And Cartier published the photo without the approval of Yanomami leadership, violating the beliefs of a people who had been living in almost total isolation until they were contacted by outsiders in the 1970s.Some of the Yanomami and their defenders praise Cartier’s promotion of Yanomami causes. However, advertising by one of the world’s biggest jewelers with images of an Indigenous people devastated by illegal gold mining has some complaining of greenwashing, a corporation promoting its own image by supporting a cause.“How can a gold jewelry company, which we, the Yanomami people, are against, use...