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Alberta government report on safe consumption ‘pseudoscience,’ says medical journal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

A paper in a prominent medical journal says an Alberta government report that influenced safe drug consumption policy is so badly flawed it’s harming people and should be withdrawn.The paper in the Canadian Journal of Public Health calls the government’s 2019 report into seven supervised consumption sites pseudoscience.It says the United Conservative-commissioned report is biased in three major ways, all of which distort its findings against such sites. It points out the government study was not peer-reviewed, unlike the journal article. Lead author Ginetta Salvalaggio from the University of Alberta, one of 14 co-authors, says the government’s paper has been cited widely by opponents of safe injection sites despite its weakness. She calls the report “creating evidence” and says there are real dangers to basing decisions on bad data.  Salvalaggio points out that 2023 is shaping up to be the deadliest year on record for opioid poisoning in Alberta. A spok...

BU finds Ibram X. Kendi’s antiracist research center managed funds properly, despite turmoil

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

Boston University said Tuesday that its initial inquiry into the antiracist research center run by best-selling author and academic Ibram X. Kendi found no issues with how it managed its finances. After the announcement, Kendi said he was eager to get back to work.The university launched the inquiry into the financials of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, or CAR, in September, after acknowledging the organization was laying off about half of its staff and changing its operating model. “Our auditors concluded that CAR’s financial management of its grants and gifts was appropriate,” Gary Nicksa, BU’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said in a statement Tuesday.The university hired Kendi in 2020 to found the center and join the faculty as a history professor after his 2019 memoir, “How to Be an Antiracist,” catapulted him to national prominence, which was only heightened after the murder of George Floyd by then-police officers in Minneapolis. “Unfortunately, one of the...

Activist hands ICC evidence he says implicates Belarus president in transfer of Ukrainian children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An exiled Belarus activist on Tuesday presented a second dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court that he said proves the personal involvement of President Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal transfer of children to Belarus from Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine.Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister, said some of the new information came from “insiders” in Belarus.“We share additional evidence proving Lukashenko’s direct participation in the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus as leader of the so-called Union State of Belarus and Russia,” Latushka told The Associated Press outside the court’s headquarters in The Hague.The dossier also includes “evidence and previously unknown facts regarding the involvement of various Belarusian and Russian organizations, as well as their leaders and members, in the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus,” he said, and gives more detailed information o...

Federal Fisheries Department doing a poor job of monitoring fishing industry: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

OTTAWA — A new report slams the federal Fisheries Department for failing to properly monitor Canada’s commercial fishing industry.The report from the federal environment commissioner, Jerry DeMarco, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada lacks the ability to collect timely and dependable data about what is being caught.DeMarco says the dearth of reliable data means the department can’t protect Canada’s fish stocks from overfishing.The commissioner says the problem is that the department has failed to deliver on most of the corrective measures it committed to seven years ago, when the federal auditor general called for changes to ensure sustainable management of the industry.DeMarco’s audit says the department responded to the auditor general by creating a new fishery monitoring policy, but he says that policy has yet to be implemented.As well, the audit found the department has been slow to modernize its information systems, even though it has spent about $31 million on ...

Cornell student accused threatening Jewish people had mental health struggles, mother says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — The mother of a Cornell University student accused of making online threats against Jewish people on campus said he had mental health struggles and later posted an apology.Patrick Dai, 21, faces a federal charge of posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications after authorities say he made threatening comments on an online Greek Life forum late last month. The anonymous postings included threats to shoot and stab Jewish people on the upstate New York campus, rattling students and prompting police to increase security.Dai admitted that he posted the threatening messages in an interview with law enforcement authorities, according to the federal complaint.Dai’s mother, Bing Liu, told the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester on Monday she thinks the threats were partly triggered by his use of a medication for depression and anxiety. She also shared an apology posting she said was given to her by Dai’s defense lawyers after they received ...

Unification Church in Japan offers to set aside up to $66 million in a compensation fund

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The Unification Church’s Japanese branch announced plans Tuesday to set aside a fund up to 10 billion yen ($67 million) to cover possible compensation for those seeking damages they say were caused by the group’s manipulative fundraising tactics.The move is seen as an attempt to allay any suspicion that the group would try to avoid later payouts by hiding assets overseas while a government-requested dissolution order is pending.The announcement by head of the controversial church’s Japanese branch, Tomihiro Tanaka, came a month after Japan’s Education Ministry asked the Tokyo District Court to revoke the legal status of the group. The ministry investigation concluded that the South Korean-headquartered group for decades has systematically manipulated its followers into donating money, sowing fear and harming their family ties. The investigation followed public outrage and questions about the group’s fundraising and recruitment tactics that surfaced in the in...

Montreal police investigating two firebombings at Jewish institutions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

Montreal police are investigating overnight firebombings at two Jewish institutions in the on-island suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux.Police spokesperson Sabrina Gauthier says incendiary devices caused minor damage to the front door of a synagogue and the back door of another building across the street that houses a Jewish organization.Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada says the synagogue is called Congregation Beth Tikvah.Cantor Henry Topas says synagogue members are horrified by the firebombing, which occurred exactly one month after the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel that killed more than 1,400 people.Montreal police have not confirmed a motive for the firebombings, but they come amid rising tensions linked to the Israel-Hamas war.Police recorded 38 reports of hate crimes and incidents targeting the Montreal Jewish community between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2023.The Canadian Press

U.S. dismisses charges against Saskatoon mother accused of faking deaths

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

SASKATOON — A United States court has dismissed charges against a Saskatchewan woman accused of faking her death and that of her child before they crossed the border. Dawn Walker was given a one-year conditional sentence in Saskatoon court last Thursday, after she pleaded guilty to charges of forgery and abduction.The following day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office asked a district court in Oregon to dismiss her charges there, saying it was in the interest of justice based on Walker’s plea and sentencing in Canada. The court granted the motion. Walker had been facing two charges in the U.S. related to identity fraud for allegedly crossing the border with fake identification.Walker and her child were reported missing in July 2022, after her pickup truck was found near a river at a park south of Saskatoon. Some people feared the pair drowned, and a vigil and searches were organized.U.S. authorities found them two weeks later in Oregon City, Ore.Provincial court Judge Brad Mitchell said last...

Nia DaCosta makes her mark on Marvel history with ‘The Marvels’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Nia DaCosta, director of the upcoming “The Marvels,” has a diagnosis for the recent struggles of superhero movies. It basically comes down to, she says, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”Success inevitably breeds bigger budgets. Box-office expectations get inflated. Even superhero spandex can’t sustain endless cycles of wash, rinse and repeat. “Growth has to stop at some point,” says DaCosta. “As you make more and more films, you want those films to be more interesting, more dynamic and to appeal to different audiences. But that requires risk. And there’s a conundrum where you’re so big that you can’t take risks. I think that’s what the audience is feeling. They’re like: ‘I’ve seen it before, and I liked it the first time.’”When “The Marvels” opens in theaters Friday, it will be debuting in uncommonly uncertain times for superhero films. There’s talk of over-saturation. DC and Warner Bros. are in makeover mode. Box office-dominance this year has been ceded to Barbie and Mari...

Memo: Overview of Austin airport safety operations expected next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:34 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Interim Austin City Manager Jesús Garza sent a memo to the mayor and city council members following a second death of an employee working at the Austin airport this year. Employee dies after being hit by fuel truck at Austin airport Garza said in the memo he asked Jim Smith, interim director of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, to review the Department of Aviation's safety programs to "help identify what elements of the airport enterprise is specifically under the City’s purview, the initiatives currently underway by the Department to support safety at the airport, and how we can influence safety measures outside of the City’s direct control." Garza also noted in the memo that an overview that "lays out our operations related tosafety including these tragic events and following recent near-miss incidents involving federalair traffic controllers and aircraft operators" will be provided to the mayor and council members next week. OSHA investigation clo...