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Supreme Court rules in favor of Black Alabama voters in unexpected defense of Voting Rights Act

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case from Alabama, with two conservative justices joining liberals in rejecting a Republican-led effort to weaken a landmark voting rights law.Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven congressional districts in a state where more than one in four residents is Black. The state now will have to draw a new map for next year’s elections. The decision was closely watched for its potential effect on control of the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives. Because of the ruling, Republican-led legislatures in Alabama and Louisiana will have to redraw maps so that they could increase Black repr...

Wakefield man charged in alleged terrorist financing scheme

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

A Wakefield man has been charged with allegedly providing support to terrorism in the form of a string of gift cards to a supposed ISIS agent for resale on the dark web, according to federal authorities.Mateo Ventura, 18, was charged with one count of concealing terrorist financing by the US. Attorney’s office in Boston.Ventura is due to appear in federal court in Worcester.According to the charging documents Ventura provided  “multiple gift cards to an individual he believed was an ISIS supporter.”In reality, he was communicating with an undercover FBI agent, according to federal documents.According to the FBI, Ventura allegedly stated that he wanted the proceeds to go to ISIS “for war on kuffar,” (disbelievers).”According to court documents, Ventura provided a total of $1,670 in gift cards to the agent: $965 as a juvenile and $705 after his 18th birthday. The gift cards ranged from Google Play cards to Gamestop, to Amazon. He even provided a gift card to Dick’s Sportin...

GOP set to encourage early voting, mail balloting after years of opposite messaging to its voters

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — After years of criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting as ripe for fraud, Republicans at the top of the party want to change course.They are poised to launch aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns for 2024 that employ just those strategies, attempting to match the emphasis on early voting Democrats have used for years to lock in many of their supporters well ahead of Election Day. The goal is to to persuade voters who support GOP candidates that early voting techniques are secure and to make sure they are able to return their ballots in time to be counted, thus putting less pressure on Election Day turnout efforts. It marks a notable shift from the party’s rhetoric since 2020, when then-President Donald Trump was routinely sowing doubt about mail voting and encouraging his voters to wait and vote in-person on Election Day. As recently as last year, Republican activists peddling the stolen election narrative were telling GOP voters who received mai...

As Blinken visits, top Saudi diplomat says kingdom seeks US nuclear aid but ‘others’ also bidding

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said after meeting with the visiting U.S. secretary of state on Thursday that while the kingdom would welcome U.S. aid in building its civilian nuclear program, “there are others that are bidding.”Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan was responding to a question about recent news reports that Saudi Arabia is asking for U.S. aid in building its own nuclear program in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.“It’s no secret that we are developing our domestic civilian nuclear program and we would very much prefer to be able to have the U.S. as one of the bidders,” he said. “Obviously we would like to build our program with the best technology in the world.”Prince Faisal went on to say that normalization with Israel would have “limited benefits” without “finding a pathway to peace for the Palestinian people.” He did not say whether the nuclear issue is linked to normalization.The exchange ca...

Sheriff: White Florida woman claims Black neighbor she shot and killed threatened her first

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A white Florida woman accused of shooting and killing her Black neighbor told investigators she had been threatened by the victim in the months before the slaying, according an arrest report released Thursday.The report from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office came out as Susan Louise Lorincz made her initial appearance in court Thursday. She appeared via video hookup wearing a dark protective vest. It was not immediately clear if she had a lawyer to represent her.In a statement to investigators after the shooting of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four, Lorincz was quoted as saying she had problems for two years with children in the neighborhood not respecting her — including the victim’s children, who range in age from 3 to 12 years old.“Lorincz advised that the children of (Owens) have told her in the past they would kill her,” the report says.The day of the shooting, Lorincz told investigators she had a headache and that “neighbo...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts as investors await inflation data, Fed; GameStop tumbles

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting in mixed trading Thursday, continuing this week’s lull as Wall Street waits for several big events next week.The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher, and it hasn’t moved by more than 0.4% in any day this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 89 points, or 0.3%, at 33,754, as of 11:25 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 and across Wall Street were falling, though, after a report showed the highest number of workers applied for unemployment benefits since October 2021. Until now, the job market has remained remarkably solid and helped keep the economy out of a recession. GameStop was one of the bigger movers, falling 19.4% after ousting its CEO who was brought in to turn around the struggling video game retailer. The company, whose stock became a sensation in 2021 during the meme-stock craze, also reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than expected.On the winning side was ...

Shooting connected to Palestinian criminal groups in northern Israel kills 5

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

Five people were killed in a shooting Thursday in an Arab town in northern Israel, police said, the latest in a wave of criminal violence tearing through the country’s Palestinian communities. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said a gunman arrived at a car wash in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, near the city of Nazareth, and opened fire. It quoted police as saying they believe the shooting was connected to a dispute between organized crime families.Shortly afterward, a shooting in a nearby Arab town left a 30-year-old man and 3-year-old girl seriously wounded, police said. The circumstances of that shooting and the identities of the two wounded were not immediately known.Israel’s Palestinian sector has long suffered from poverty, discrimination, crime and neglect by the national government.Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, promised to crack down on crime in Israel’s Palestinian sector when he took office late last year. But the v...

‘Belligerent’ Ontario man charged for starting fire during active ban

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has charged a man after he was involved in having a backyard fire in northeastern Ontario during an active fire ban.OPP said members from its East Algoma Detachment were called to assist a local fire department at a residence in the Town of Blind River, Ont. in the Algoma region.It’s alleged a person at the residence was belligerent and upset at fire department members because they couldn’t have a fire during the ban.Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Graydon Smith confirmed this week that there are fire restrictions in most of the province’s eastern, central, northeast and northwest regions. Municipalities can impose fire bans as warranted.Police said 35-year-old Joshua McRae of Blind River, Ont. was charged with unlawfully starting a fire in a restricted fire zone.RELATED: When can we expect wildfire smoke to clear out of the GTA?“The East Algoma OPP responded to recent calls for service related to fire bans around the E...

Quebec fires: fierce fight in Normétal as flames within 500 metres of municipality

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s wildfire fight is focused today in the province’s northern region where flames have reached the doorstep of a municipality of roughly 800 people.Authorities say a wildfire is within 500 metres of Normétal, Que., located 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal.Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency says it is confident the small community can be protected and that winds in the region are less strong than feared.Agency spokeswoman Karine Pelletier says the government is also focusing efforts on Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Que., a northern municipality where 2,100 people were evacuated and where two separate large fires could merge.There’s another fire near the northern communities of Chibougamau and Mistissini.The forest fire agency — Société de protection des forêts contre le feu — says there are 150 active fires in the province and that so far more than 639,000 hectares have burned, representing the worst fire season on record.This report by The Can...

Weekend need-to-know: Do West Fest, Ride to Conquer Cancer and the 2nd weekend of Pride

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:11 GMT

With the air quality expected to start improving by the weekend, there are lots of events still on the schedule over the next three days. The annual Do West Fest will be on all weekend and it’s the second weekend of Pride Month with lots of events to celebrate.Here’s what’s going on across Toronto on June 10 to 11:Do West FestThe annual Do West Fest will shut down Dundas West from Shaw Street to Lansdowne Avenue for the annual celebration of music, arts, food, and community in Little Portugal. There will be live music, extended patios, local food trucks and vendors and artisan and craft vendors spread across 16 blocks.It kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday night and runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.The annual festival used to be called Dundas West Fest but was recently changed in light of city council’s decision to rename Dundas Street which is named for Henry Dundas who is infamous for playing a pivotal role in delaying the ...