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‘Significant risk’ for debt default in early June, CBO reinforces

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

(CNN) — There is a “significant risk” that the federal government will no longer be able to pay all its obligations in the first two weeks of June if the debt limit remains unchanged, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.The forecast reinforces both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s estimate and the agency’s earlier warning that House Republicans and President Joe Biden may only have a few weeks to address the debt ceiling or unleash global economic and financial upheaval. Talks are underway between White House and congressional staffers.Predicting just when the nation hits the so-called X-date, when a default would occur, is uncertain because of the timing and amount of revenue Treasury collects and the bills it has to pay.If government collections wind up being enough to keep Treasury’s coffers flush through early June, then it’s likely the government won’t default at least until the end of July, the C...

Twitter’s new CEO is an NBCUniversal executive with deep ad industry ties

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, MATT O’BRIEN and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Technology Writers)Elon Musk confirmed that the new CEO for Twitter will be NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, an executive with deep ties to the advertising industry. “I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations” while Musk will stay closely connected to product design and new technology.Before that announcement, NBCUniversal said Friday that Yaccarino would step down immediately as chairwoman for global advertising and partnerships. Musk, who bought Twitter last fall and has been running it since, has long insisted that he would step down as top executive at the company, which is now called X Corp. Few expect Musk to remove himself from the decision making process at Twitter, however. “While he’s stepping back from the CEO title, Musk is far from likel...

‘It’s horrible, disgusting:” Police investigating racist posters found outside Ajax school

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find disturbingPolice in Durham Region are investigating after a series of flyers with anti-Black messaging and offensive illustrations were found outside an Ajax school, prompting an emergency parent council meeting.Staff at Eagle Ridge Public School were alerted to the incident on Thursday after students found one of the flyers pinned to a portable on the school’s property.“A poster was found depicting inappropriate and offensive racist slurs, messaging, and imagery,” reads an email sent from the school’s principal to parents on Thursday afternoon. “Unfortunately, some of our students were exposed to this poster and brought it to the attention of staff.”The email advised that the school had contacted police who would be looking into the matter. Durham Police tell CityNews they were contacted about the incident and are in possession of one of the flyers.A photo of the flyer found by the studen...

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan leaves high court after getting protection from arrest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan left a high court in Islamabad on Friday after being granted broad protection from arrest in multiple legal cases against him. The ruling struck a blow to the government in a stand-off that has sparked days of rioting by Khan’s followers and raised the scepter of widespread unrest in the country.After the court granted him bail, Khan spent hours more in the building, as he and his legal team were locked in apparent negotiations over his exit from the site. He was to head to his home in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, according to his lawyers.Security was extremely tight around the court ahead of Khan’s departure as authorities have expressed concerns for the former leader’s safety. Clashes between his supporters and police have periodically erupted outside the building.Khan and his lawyers were also working to ensure the rulings were fully documented, trying to close off any legal lo...

‘The devil’: Métis settlement looks to rebuild from wildfire as hot weather to return

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

A Métis settlement devastated by an out-of-control blaze remains at risk as hot and dry conditions in Alberta’s forecast threaten to worsen an already intense wildfire season.“That fire, I call it the devil. I’ve never seen a fire like that in my life,” said Raymond Supernault, chair of the East Prairie Métis Settlement.“I never seen a fire like that come that quick and fast and go through the settlement and burn everything in its sight.”Driving through the settlement around 165 kilometres east of Grande Prairie, the ground is charred black, electrical poles look like matchsticks and 14 homes were consumed by the inferno.  Around 80 per cent of the community was touched by the blaze in some way or another. It’s an overwhelming loss for the community of around 300, Supernault said.Family pictures, heirlooms and important history for the Métis families vanished in ash. A bridge needed by some families to return home was also destroyed.The sett...

New musical track released by Canadian charity aims to help plants flourish

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

May 12 is designated as International Day of Plant Health by the United Nations to raise awareness about how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty and boost economic development. A Canadian charity is helping to further those goals by helping small scale farmers in Africa.Farm Radio International creates as well as fosters the continued development of informative radio programming that provides vital information to rural farmers in the region.“The men and women in Africa who grow most of the food, certainly for their families, their communities, but even the nation, and have so much potential to produce more, grow more and improve the quality of their lives doing it, but are held back by inadequate, unreliable or irrelevant information about the kind of changes they can make,” explains executive director Kevin Perkins.He says in places where access to the internet is limited or non-existent, radio is the most accessible and ubiquitous way to reach people....

‘Succession’ star Jeremy Strong lands a role on Broadway in 2024 in ‘An Enemy of the People’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Strong is going from a corporate boardroom on TV to a whistleblower on Broadway.The actor who plays Kendall Roy in the HBO television series “Succession” has signed on to play a man who tries to expose water contamination in a Norwegian spa town in Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play “An Enemy of the People.”The play — with a rewrite from Amy Herzog, whose adaptation of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” just won a Tony nomination — will premiere on Broadway in early 2024 at a theater to be revealed later, producers said. The rest of the cast will be announced later. Sam Gold, who won a Tony directing “Fun Home,” will helm the revival.It will be Strong’s second time on Broadway. He was in “A Man for All Seasons” in 2008 with Frank Langella and Patrick Page. Since then, his work on “Succession” has earned him an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Strong will play a public-minded doctor in a small town who discovers the water supply for the public spa is contaminated and may have ...

California’s governor says state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday, saying the state’s challenges are partly due to high federal inflation rates and the state’s decision to let some people delay filing their taxes after winter storms.That’s about $10 billion more than Newsom predicted in January, when he offered his first budget proposal. He’s now detailing his latest proposal for state spending in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The state’s total budget is about $306 billion, which is far larger than any other state budget.California is one of the only states to have a shortfall this year. That’s mostly because its progressive tax code relies on wealthy taxpayers whose income is closely tied to the performance of the stock market.In January, Newsom proposed a number of ideas to cover the deficit, including $9.6 billion in spending cuts. His latest proposal adds another $1.1 billion in spe...

Hodding Carter III, State Department spokesman during Iran hostage crisis, dies at 88

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Hodding Carter III, a Mississippi journalist and civil rights activist who updated Americans on the Iran hostage crisis as U.S. State Department spokesman and won awards for his televised documentaries, has died. He was 88.His daughter, Catherine Carter Sullivan, confirmed that he died Thursday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.Before moving to Washington in 1977, Carter was editor and publisher of his family’s newspaper, the Delta Democrat-Times, in Greenville, Mississippi. Carter had been co-chair of the Loyalist Democrats, a racially diverse group that won a credentials fight at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, unseating the all-white delegation by Mississippi’s governor, John Bell Williams.Carter’s campaign work in 1976 for Jimmy Carter, no relation, helped secure him a job as assistant secretary of state for public affairs. It was in this role that he was seen on television news during the 444 days that Iran held 52 Americans hosta...

Ng announces India trade mission, pledges a limited deal within months

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:02:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Trade Minister Mary Ng says it is “not going to be years” before Canada and India sign some form of trade agreement, more than a decade after negotiations began.Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Ottawa and Toronto this week, where he told media that New Delhi wants to vastly increase its trade with Canada.The two countries are negotiating a possible agreement that is limited to certain sectors, instead of a comprehensive deal that covers most of the economy.Industry groups have been urging Canada to push for a deal to be signed this year, but a former Canadian envoy to India, Nadir Patel, says a deadline would likely make it harder for both sides to feel like they reached a fair agreement.Ng has also announced that she will be leading a trade mission to India this October, possibly with provincial representatives. The Asia-Pacific Foundation says Canada could benefit from India’s booming population by selling more produce, chemicals, wood produ...