Judge halts cannabis license lottery that is precursor to Minnesota marijuana retail launch
Warning : This story contains distressing content about residential schools. Northwest B.C. First Nation Nadleh Whut’en has confirmed the identification of potential unmarked graves at the site of the former Lejac Indian Residential School, located at Tseyaz Bunk’ut near Fraser Lake. Earlier in May, the First Nation had said it would search the residential school site using both ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry to detect irregularities underground. Lejac Indian Residential School operated from 1922 to 1976, impacting children from over 70 Nations. Nadleh Whut’en's announcement on November 30 follows nearly two years of geophysical surveys that began after Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation revealed in 2021 that they had identified around 200 potential burial sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Nadleh Whut’en said the preliminary findings from GPR and magnetometry surveys at Lejac uncovered geophysical signatures consistent with burials. These results are part of ongoing efforts to locate and honour the children who died while attending residential schools in Canada, the First Nation said. The survey, conducted by the guiding team of the Nez Keh Hubuk’uznootah project, which translates to "Let's Look for our Children" in Dakelh, covers a 142,500 square-meter area (about 27 football fields). The research is a response to survivor testimony and archival records that suggest numerous children may have been buried in unmarked graves at Lejac. During its operation, at least 7,850 Indigenous children, including day scholars, attended the residential school, which subjected students to harsh conditions, including forced labor, abuse, and the loss of cultural identity. The school’s cemetery, where some graves are marked, has long been known to survivors. However, the recent surveys suggest there are additional unmarked graves that have not been accounted for. “The work is hard and it takes a long time – and we are bringing information forward as we receive it because survivors have a right to know,” Nadleh Whut’en Chief Beverly Ketlo said about the importance of these findings. The Lejac Indian Residential School has had an active cemetery on the grounds since it was founded in 1922. "We have always known that there were children buried at Lejac because many of their graves are marked in a cemetery. I want you to ask yourself if your elementary school had a cemetery,” Ketlo added. Ketlo said this is not just a thing of the past but the horrors experienced at Lejac are still very real for the survivors who lived through this "genocide.” “Lejac relentlessly taught the children that they were inferior. They were forcibly taken from their families, lands, and cultures, leading them to believe that everything about their identity was wrong,” she said. The geophysical surveys, which were conducted in winter 2023 and spring/summer 2024, used advanced technologies to detect disturbances beneath the surface that could indicate burial sites. GPR sends radar pulses into the ground, revealing underground conditions, while magnetometry detects metal objects and magnetic changes. This data is being analyzed by two independent teams of experts and will guide future steps in the search for missing children. Former Chief Archie Patrick of Stellat’en First Nation, a survivor of Lejac, expressed hope that these efforts would help bring justice to those affected. “Lejac is still with me. I continue to deal with the upheaval of being taken from my parents, and the daily trauma of living at that place. But I am so pleased that the stories of survivors are finally being brought to light.” The findings are part of ongoing work, and no immediate plans for excavation or exhumation have been made. The guiding team, made up of survivors and inter-generational survivors, is overseeing the research and will determine the next steps. The federal government has committed to funding these efforts, and an estimated 20 years of work remain to uncover the full truth about the missing children from residential schools across Canada. If you are an Indian residential school survivor or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.
2 Dec 2024 ‘France needs compromise’ says MP from Macron’s party Ciaran Jenkins Data Correspondent and Presenter The French government looks likely to fall this week – after left-wing and far-right parties lodged no-confidence motions in the prime minister. Michel Barnier has only been in the job since September, but both ends of the political spectrum are unhappy at him using special powers to try and force through a belt-tightening budget without a vote. We spoke to Éléonore Caroit – she’s a member of the French National Assembly from President Macron’s Renaissance party and represents French people living overseas. Share on Facebook Share Share on Twitter Tweet Share on WhatsApp Send Share on WhatsApp Send Share on WhatsApp Email Load more share optionsTORONTO (AP) — Hannah Miller scored a power-play goal with 1:38 remaining in the game, lifting the Toronto Sceptres to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Fleet in the Professional Women’s Hockey League season opener on Saturday. With Boston standout Hilary Knight in the penalty box for a vicious boarding penalty on Sceptres defender Renata Fast, Miller made good on her rebound attempt on a shot by Daryl Watts with a half-open net. Fast recovered for an assist on the winner before 8,089 fans at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The Fleet challenged the goal, but video review deemed Miller’s shot was good. Sarah Nurse got Toronto on the board with a short-handed tally 11:50 into the first period and Emma Maltais added an empty-net strike with 12 seconds left. Boston’s Hilary Knight opened the scoring 3 minutes in, sending a slap shot past Toronto goalie Kristen Campbell, who registered 18 stops on the night. Toronto outshot Boston 41-19. Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, a big reason why her team advanced to the Walter Cup final last spring, had 38 saves. Sceptres: Billie Jean King MVP Natalie Spooner missed the season opener. The PWHL scoring champion underwent left knee surgery in June after getting injured in Game 3 of Toronto’s first-round series against Minnesota. Fleet: Defender Emma Greco played her first game for Boston. She was part of the Walter Cup-winning Minnesota team that defeated Boston in a three-game series last spring. With the game tied 1-1, the Sceptres failed to score during a 59-second 5-on-3 advantage midway through the second period. Boston blocked five shots during the span. Last year, Toronto enjoyed an 11-game win streak en route to its regular-season championship, including three wins against Boston. Boston will play its home opener on Wednesday, a rematch with the Walter Cup-champion Minnesota. Toronto visits Ottawa on Tuesday. AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockeyAfter 20 years and $2.3 trillion spent, after more than 100,000 American and Afghan lives lost, one would think our war in Afghanistan would be more of a reference point today. Yet, outside of a few jabs from conservatives regarding President Biden’s handling of the exit, the war was hardly brought up at all this election cycle — despite having ended just three years earlier. A reminder of how fast society moves and perhaps a glimpse into the future. When was the last time you heard someone mention Ukraine in casual conversation? Back in February 2022, when Russia invaded, there were vigils in our streets. Now, more than 1,000 days later, after Congress has approved $175 billion in aid , it’s likely to fade into distant memory. President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly questioned funding Ukraine, has vowed to end the war quickly. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he would like to do so through “diplomatic means” next year. While the average American probably hadn’t thought much about Ukraine before the 2022 invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been thinking about the country for more than 30 years. “The breakup of the Soviet Union was the collapse of a historic Russia,” he said in a documentary that aired on Russia’s airwaves. Putin has also referred to his country’s 1991 fall as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” For those keeping score at home, he’s ranking the end of the U.S.S.R. as worse than both world wars and the 20 years in Vietnam. “We lost 40% of the territory, production capacities and population. We became a different country. What had been built over a millennium was lost to a large extent.” Make Russia Great Again may not lend itself to a pronounceable acronym, but it does clearly define Putin’s foreign policy agenda. It’s one predicated on a worldview that sees Ukraine as a rebellious commonwealth and not an independent democracy. “Throwing off oppression” is a story we know well in this country. It’s a story we teach our children and base our exceptionalism on. It’s a story of freedom. But as we all know, freedom isn’t free. Under the Biden administration, America was willing to help Ukraine pay to keep its freedom. The incoming Trump administration has signaled this will likely not continue. Other nations will go on to help Ukraine in its fight, but without America’s military and economic power, this coalition will struggle to hold together against Russia’s might. The gamble in not providing aid to Ukraine is that should that country fall, it won’t satisfy Putin. His desire to restore his country’s glory has been burning for three decades. Why would he stop just as resistance crumbles? The phrase “elections have consequences” isn’t just about domestic politics. There are consequences abroad as well. When most voters supported Trump’s candidacy, did they fully understand what walking away from Ukraine would mean? As former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told me: “Ukraine gave up its nukes, in exchange for peace. The fact that Russia is attacking now means that only nukes work as a deterrent, so you can expect nuclear proliferation throughout the world.” As president, Trump was slow to respond after Russia fired on and captured Ukrainian vessels and sailors back in 2018 . Based on that lukewarm response, and his comments about helping Ukraine, it does make one wonder if Trump has any “red line” for Putin, and if so, what it is and what he is prepared to do to defend it. Unfortunately, there weren’t many opportunities to have these conversations during this election cycle. If there had been, perhaps voters would have a better understanding about the money for Ukraine. According to Kinzinger, a member of the Air National Guard and an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, “the money spent on weapons is actually produced here in the United States and we send our old [weapons] to Ukraine. So, we’re actually building jobs and refreshing our own weapons.” Normally the U.S. pays to have old weapons destroyed, Kinzinger said. None of this rose above the noise that surrounded a campaign season saturated with misinformation. Trump’s pitch for isolationism, or his willingness to ignore Ukraine, apparently resonated with many voters. And given our habit of quickly moving on from talking about war, it’s doubtful many of us would even remember just how much supporting Ukraine cost us. On the other hand, we might find abandoning Ukraine and caving to Russia has a far steeper cost — one that will be impossible for us to forget. @LZGranderson
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel's military launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, unleashing explosions throughout the country and killing at least 12 while Israeli leaders appeared to be closing in on a negotiated ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group. Israeli strikes hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut as well as in the port city of Tyre. Military officials said they targeted areas known as Hezbollah strongholds. They issued evacuation orders for Beirut's southern suburbs, and strikes landed across the city, including meters from a Lebanese police base and the city's largest public park. The barrage came as officials indicated they were nearing agreement on a ceasefire, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Cabinet prepared to discuss an offer on the table. Massive explosions lit up Lebanon's skies with flashes of orange, sending towering plumes of smoke into the air as Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs Monday. The blasts damaged buildings and left shattered glass and debris scattered across nearby streets. No casualties were reported after many residents fled the targeted sites. Some of the strikes landed close to central Beirut and near Christian neighborhoods and other targets where Israel had issued evacuation warnings, including in Tyre and Nabatieh province. Israeli airstrikes also hit the northeast Baalbek-Hermel region without warning. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Monday that at least 12 people were killed in the strikes in the Tyre province, adding to the more than 3,700 people in Lebanon who have been killed since Israel launched its invasion two months ago. Many of those killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have been civilians , and health officials said some of the recovered bodies were so severely damaged that DNA testing would be required to confirm their identities. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Lebanon's Health Ministry says the war has displaced 1.2 million people. The latest round of airstrikes came weeks after Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon in early October, meeting heavy resistance in a narrow strip of land along the border. The military had previously exchanged attacks across the border with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that began firing rockets into Israel the day after the war in Gaza began last year. Lebanese politicians have decried the ongoing airstrikes and said they are impeding U.S.-led ceasefire negotiations. The country's deputy parliament speaker accused Israel of ramping up its bombardment in order to pressure Lebanon to make concessions in indirect ceasefire negotiations with Hezbollah. Elias Bousaab, an ally of the militant group, said Monday that the pressure has increased because “we are close to the hour that is decisive regarding reaching a ceasefire.” Israeli officials voiced similar optimism Monday about prospects for a ceasefire. Mike Herzog, the country's ambassador to Washington, earlier in the day told Israeli Army Radio that several points had yet to be finalized. Though any deal would require agreement from the government, Herzog said Israel and Hezbollah were “close to a deal." “It can happen within days,” he said. Israeli officials have said the sides are close to an agreement that would include withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and a pullback of Hezbollah fighters from the Israeli border. But several sticking points remain. Two Israeli officials told The Associated Press that Netanyahu’s security Cabinet had scheduled a meeting for Tuesday, but they said it remained unclear whether the Cabinet would vote to approve the deal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations. Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, told reporters Monday that he expected a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah to have stages and to be discussed by leaders Monday or Tuesday. Still, he warned, “it’s not going to happen overnight.” After previous hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials cautioned that negotiations were not yet complete and noted that there could be last-minute hitches that either delay or destroy an agreement. "Nothing is done until everything is done," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday. The proposal under discussion to end the fighting calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River. The withdrawals would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, who have been largely sidelined in the war, to patrol the border area along with an existing U.N. peacekeeping force . Western diplomats and Israeli officials said Israel is demanding the right to strike in Lebanon if it believes Hezbollah is violating the terms. The Lebanese government has said that such an arrangement would authorize violations of the country's sovereignty. A ceasefire could mark a step toward ending the regionwide war that ballooned after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250 . The lack of a ceasefire has emerged as a political liability for Israeli leaders including Netanyahu, particularly while 60,000 Israelis remain away from their homes in the country's north after more than a year of cross-border violence. Hezbollah rockets have reached as far south into Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers died fighting in the ground offensive in Lebanon. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the strongest of Iran’s armed proxies , is expected to significantly calm regional tensions that have led to fears of a direct, all-out war between Israel and Iran. It’s not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah had long insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition. While the proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu brings it to a vote in his security Cabinet, one hard-line member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it. He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.” If the ceasefire talks fail, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, “it will mean more destruction and more and more animosity and more dehumanization and more hatred and more bitterness.” Speaking at a G7 meeting in Fiuggi, Italy, the last summit of its kind before U.S. President Joe Biden leaves office, Safadi said such a failure "will doom the future of the region to more conflict and more killing and more destruction.” Federman reported from Jerusalem and Metz from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Nicole Winfield in Fiuggi, Italy, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-warJoe Biden’s Pardon of Hunter Further Undermines His Legacy
NEW YORK (AP) — Remember what you searched for in 2024? Google does. Google released its annual “Year in Search” on Tuesday, rounding up the top trending queries entered into its namesake search engine in 2024. The results show terms that saw the highest spike in traffic compared to last year — ranging from key news events, notably global elections , to the most popular songs, athletes and unforgettable pop-culture moments that people looked up worldwide. Sports — particularly soccer and cricket — dominated Google's overall trending searches in 2024. Copa América topped those search trends globally, followed by the UEFA European Championship and ICC Men's T20 World Cup . Meanwhile, the U.S. election led news-specific searches worldwide. Queries about excessive heat and this year's Olympic Games followed. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump topped searches in Google's people category this year — followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales , U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif , who also led athlete-specific searches. Meanwhile, the late Liam Payne , Toby Keith and O.J. Simpson led search trends among notable individuals who died in 2024. In the world of entertainment, Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” was the top trending movie of the year, while Netflix's “Baby Reindeer” led TV show trends. And Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” dominated song trends. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Queries for the Olympic village's chocolate muffin , made famous by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen over the summer games, led Google's global recipe trends this year. The New York Times' “Connections” puzzle topped game searches. And in the U.S., country-specific data shows, many people asked Google about online trends like the word “demure” and “ mob wife aesthetic .” You can find more country-specific lists, and trends from years past , through Google’s “Year in Search” data published online . The California company said it collected 2024 search results from Jan. 1 through Nov. 23 of this year. Google isn't the only one to publish an annual recap or top trends as 2024 draws to a close. Spotify Wrapped , for example, as well as Collins Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s words of the year, have offered additional reflections for 2024.EA FC 25 vs FIFA 19 compared - I played both to find out if EA Sports' game has actually improvedConnor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Has $515,000 Stock Holdings in Resources Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGP)
IPL 2025 mega auction As a passionate WWE content writer, Raunak craft engaging narratives that bring the thrilling world of wrestling to life, capturing the drama, excitement, and heroism of the ring. His work fuels the imagination of WWE fans, making every match and storyline unforgettable. Read More 2nd Test: India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets to sweep series 2nd Test, Day 4: India push for victory with T20-style batting 2nd Test, Day 1: B'desh 107/3 vs India on rain-shortened opening day Ashwin shines as India hammer Bangladesh in Chennai Test 1st Test, Day 3: India hold upper hand despite spirited Bangladesh chase 1st Test, Day 2: India in box seat after Bumrah takes four-for vs B'desh 1st Test, Day 1: Ashwin, Jadeja dig India out of trouble vs B'desh France waves farewell to Paralympics with spectacular ceremony Navdeep's gold, Simran's bronze take India's medal tally to 29 Paris Paralympics: India's flag bearers for closing ceremonyNew York Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said Aaron Rodgers “absolutely” will remain the team's starting quarterback and start Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Rodgers, who turns 41 next Monday, has been hampered at times during the Jets' 3-8 start by various injuries to his left leg, including a sore knee, sprained ankle and balky hamstring. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Bills activate LB Matt Milano from injured reserve