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Unionized UPS workers vote to authorize a strike in high-stakes negotiations for a new contract

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Unionized UPS workers voted overwhelmingly on Friday to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a potential work stoppage if the package delivery company and Teamsters can’t come to an agreement before their contract expires next month. The Teamsters have urged workers to authorize a strike to give them more leverage in negotiations with the company, but a yes vote does not mean a strike is imminent. The Teamsters represent about 340,000 UPS employees, more than half of the company’s workforce. A quarter of a century ago, 185,000 UPS employees walked off the job for 15 days after a contract dispute and it crippled the company. UPS has grown vastly since then and become even more engrained in the U.S. economy. UPS says they deliver the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product. If a strike occurs, its expected to be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – company walkout in U.S. history, carrying with it far-reaching implications for th...

Tennessee panel suspends former officer’s certification for now in Tyre Nichols’ death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A state commission that enforces standards for police voted Friday to temporarily suspend a former officer from serving in law enforcement in Tennessee while a federal investigation proceeds into the death of Tyre Nichols.The vote in Preston Hemphill’s case in front of the Tennessee Police Officer Standards and Training Commission delays the final decision over whether the fired Memphis officer will face a permanent ban on working in law enforcement in the state.The district attorney decided not to charge Hemphill with a crime for his interactions with Nichols in January. Hemphill hit Nichols with a stun gun at an initial traffic stop. But he did not run after the fleeing man to a second scene where other officers brutally beat Nichols.During a hearing Thursday, officials with the state board and Memphis police said they don’t know whether Hemphill is a target of the federal investigation.Five other former officers face charges of second-degree mu...

The latest on the deadly crash between seniors’ bus and semi truck in rural Manitoba

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

RCMP say 15 people are dead and 10 are injured after a bus carrying seniors to a casino crashed with a semi truck on the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Man., on Thursday morning.Here are the latest developments (all times CT): 10:30 a.m.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the flag will fly at half-mast on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in honour of the Manitoba crash victims.He says he can’t imagine what families are going through.Trudeau also says it brings back terrible memories of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan in 2018 that left 16 dead and 13 injured._8:45 a.m. Brad Michaleski, the legislature member for Dauphin, says it will be hard to find anybody in the western Manitoba community who isn’t directly affected by the deadly bus crash, or knows someone who is. He says the city of 8,600 and surrounding region is a tight-knit community. Michaleski says it’s a shocking tragedy and people are trying to get a handle on its magnitude.Flags are ...

A nun commends Dodgers’ handling of Pride Night controversy. Some archbishops call it blasphemy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

Devout baseball fans might view their teams’ performance as heavenly or hellish, depending on the quality of play. Currently, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers’ handling of their annual Pride Night — not the team’s record — that has provoked emotional reactions from religious people, including prominent faith leaders, Catholic nuns, and even the team’s All-Star ace.Indeed, three high-ranking U.S. Catholic leaders this week suggested the team had committed blasphemy.The Dodgers have been holding Pride Nights for 10 years, but this year’s edition — taking place Friday night — became entangled last month in a high-profile controversy.Under a barrage of criticism from some conservative Catholics, the team rescinded an invitation to a satirical LGBTQ+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to be honored at Pride Night. The Sisters’ performers — mostly men who dress flamboyantly as nuns — are active in protests and charitable programs.A week later, after a vehement backlash from LGBT...

Serbia opens proceedings against arrested Kosovo policemen, ignores US call for their release.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian prosecutors on Friday opened legal proceedings against three Kosovo police officers arrested earlier this week, defying U.S. and other demands for their immediate and unconditional release.Serbian officials have said the three Kosovo Albanians were arrested by Serbian security on Wednesday deep inside Serbia and close to the border with Kosovo, and that they were heavily armed when seized. Kosovo officials insist they were “kidnapped” inside Kosovo and taken to Serbia by force.The dispute adds to tensions between the two countries that have flared into recent violent clashes in the Serb populated northern Kosovo, stirring fears of a renewal of the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians.The United States on Thursday joined calls from the European Union and other Western countries on both Kosovo and Belgrade to “take immediate steps to deescalate tensions.”“That includes the unconditional release of th...

Valentino challenges masculine notions, opening Milan Fashion Week menswear previews

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

MILAN (AP) — The cries of adoring fans filled the air as stars like actor Jacob Elordi and Italian singer Elodie arrived for the Valentino show, which opened Milan Fashion Week menswear previews on Friday.The Milan menswear calendar was missing some mainstays, but the return of Valentino’s menswear for this season kicked off the week with high energy. British singer Labrinth provided a live soundtrack from center stage, pumping music into the colonnaded courtyard of Milan’s state university.Students, taking a break from their regular class schedule, watched from beneath the colonnade, while the fashion crowd tented show notes on their head to protect from the beating sun — many regretting dressing in black.The show was a homecoming of sorts for the French-owned Italian brand: Fashion house founder Valentino Garavani staged his first menswear runway show in Italy’s fashion capital in 1985, and regularly showed menswear in Milan until his retirement in 2008.Some highlights from Friday...

S&P/TSX composite edges lower in late-morning trading, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index edged lower in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the energy and base metal stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 7.92 points at 20,019.43.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 21.57 points at 34,429.63. The S&P 500 index was up 5.56 points at 4,431.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 6.66 points at 13,776.16.The Canadian dollar traded for 75.81 cents US compared with 75.46 cents US on Thursday.The August crude contract was up 44 cents at US$71.25 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$2.62 per mmBTU.The August gold contract was up US$2.60 at US$1,973.30 an ounce and the July copper contract was down less than a penny at US$3.90 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Japan raises the age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, which was among the world’s lowest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s parliament on Friday raised the age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, a limit which had remained unchanged for more than a century and was among the world’s lowest, amid calls for greater protection of children and women.The revision was part of a revamping of laws related to sex crimes. Separately, Parliament passed a new law on Friday to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ issues which activists criticized for not guaranteeing equal rights for sexual minorities.Reforms providing greater protection for victims of sexual crimes and stricter punishment of assailants have come slowly in a country where the legislative and judicial branches have long been dominated by men. Japan in 2017 revised its criminal code on sexual crimes for the first time in 110 years. A series of acquittals in cases of sexual abuse and growing instances of sexual images taken of girls and women without their consent have triggered public outrage, prompting the new revisions.The change...

Police charge suspect with 3 counts of murder in rampage that rocked English city of Nottingham

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Police have charged a 31-year-old man with three counts of murder in the knife and van attack that killed two student athletes and a school caretaker earlier this week in the English city of Nottingham.The suspect, Valdo Calocane, is also accused of three counts of attempted murder after he allegedly drove a stolen van at pedestrians during the rampage that began before dawn on Tuesday.Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19 and students at Nottingham University, were stabbed to death on a street near their homes. Ian Coates, 65, was killed more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away as he headed to work at a local school.Following the stabbings, the attacker allegedly stole Coates’ van and ran down a group of pedestrians, injuring three people, one critically. The attacks unfolded across a large swath of Nottingham, a university city of about 350,000 some 110 miles (175 kilometers) north of London. “These charges are a significant development and arise as a ...

Father planned killings of 3 young sons, lined them up to shoot them in Ohio home, prosecutors say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:31 GMT

MONROE TOWNSHIP, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three young sons admitted to planning the killings and lined them up before executing them with a rifle, prosecutors said Friday. Chad Doerman, 32, who is also accused of wounding the boys’ mother at the family’s home, has been charged with aggravated murder, authorities said. His bail has been set at $20 million and he was being held in Clermont County Jail. Deputies responded to the home in Monroe Township shortly before 4:30 p.m. Thursday after receiving a pair of 911 calls, one apparently from the mother who was screaming that “her babies had been shot” and another from a passing motorist who said a girl was running down the street saying her father was killing people, a news release from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office said.The deputies found three boys, ages 3, 4 and 7, outside the home with gunshot wounds and tried to save their lives, but the children died at the scene. Their names have not b...