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The latest on the deadly explosion at the Canada-U.S. border crossing in New York

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Four of the busiest border crossing points between Canada and the United States were abruptly closed Wednesday after a vehicle exploded at a U.S. checkpoint in Niagara Falls. The FBI is investigating the blast, which took place on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge crossing in Upstate New York.Here are the latest developments (all times are ET):—4:30 p.m.A spokeswoman for the RCMP says officers are working with domestic and international partners on the deadly explosion at the U.S. border crossing in Niagara Falls.She provided no further details.The Niagara Regional Police Service says border bridges in Niagara remain closed due to the blast.It says it’s monitoring developments, and there is no known threat on the Canadian side of the border.—3:50 p.m.Authorities say two people are dead after a vehicle exploded at a checkpoint on the American side of a bridge in Niagara Falls.The blast has prompted the closure of four border crossings in the ...

Youth charged in murder of Brampton food delivery driver

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

A young person has been charged in the homicide of a Brampton food delivery driver who was violently assaulted, carjacked and left on the side of the road this past summer.The male driver was working in the Britannia Road and Creditview Road area around 2:10 a.m. on July 9, 2023, when he arrived at an address to drop off an online order.Investigators said the man was confronted by unknown suspects who tried to take his vehicle, leading to a physical altercation.The group of suspects fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle, leaving him at the side of the road with life-threatening injuries. Related: Food delivery driver critically injured in violent Mississauga carjacking Family, friends mourn tragic loss of international student in fatal Mississauga carjacking The victim was rushed to a local trauma centre, where police said he died of his injuries on July 14, 2023. He was identified as 24-year-old Gurvinder Nath of Brampton. Nath’s vehicle...

Montreal airport moves to reduce car congestion after traffic backups

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

MONTREAL — The authority overseeing the Montreal airport is rolling out measures to reduce congestion after a post-pandemic surge in car traffic over the summer prompted a wave of frustration among passengers trying to make their gate on time.Gridlock on the road leading to Trudeau airport routinely pushed passengers to exit their vehicles and haul their bags hundreds of metres to the entrance, with pedestrians on the highway off-ramp becoming a routine site — particularly in late afternoon and early evening.The Aéroports de Montréal says that by next summer it will set up two alternative drop-off and pick-up zones to divert car traffic from the airport’s main entrance, both served by a five-minute shuttle service for arriving and departing travellers.In an interview, CEO Yves Beauchamp said parking will also be free for roughly 40 minutes within a four-hour window between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., when flights butt up against afternoon rush hour.A new airport parking lot hosting 2,8...

Jury finds former RCMP official guilty of breaching secrets law 

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

A jury has found former RCMP official Cameron Jay Ortis guilty of breaching Canada’s secrets law.Ortis, 51, had plead not guilty to all charges, including violating the secrets law by revealing classified information to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance.The Crown argued Ortis lacked authority to disclose classified material and that he was not doing so as part of a sanctioned undercover operation.The defence contended that Ortis did not betray Canada, but was rather acting on a “clear and grave threat.”He testified he offered secret material to targets in a bid to get them to use an online encryption service set up by an allied intelligence agency to spy on adversaries.

Air Force base defends itself from claims of political bias over conservative rally warning

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

The Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota is defending itself from claims of political bias after an unofficial message cautioning airmen to not attend a conservative political rally began circulating on social media. At issue is the Dakota Patriot Rally, an event held Friday in Minot featuring a pro-Trump group known as Turning Point Action. The group’s founder is Charlie Kirk, a white conservative agitator who has built a following inflaming racial divides. For instance, “scumbag” is how he has described George Floyd, the Black man whose murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer set off a global reckoning over racial injustice.A message that was re-posted to a public Facebook page and was purported to be from base leadership described the group as an “alt-right organization.” It said that “participation with groups such as Turning Point Action could jeopardize their continued service in the U.S. military.”The outcry was immediate, with Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cra...

Health Canada approves nationwide removal of blood donor ban sparked by mad cow fears

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

Health Canada is lifting a ban on blood donations from people who lived or travelled in the United Kingdom, Ireland or France for long periods of time in the 1980s and 1990s. The decades-long rule was a precaution to prevent the transmission of mad cow disease through blood transfusions from people who had a higher likelihood of being exposed.Canadian Blood Services says almost 30 years of research and surveillance have made it clear that people who weren’t eligible to donate under the travel criteria can do so safely. The agency’s medical officer, Dr. Aditi Khandelwal, says lifting the ban will not impact the safety of the blood supply and will allow thousands more people to donate much-needed blood.   The news comes hours after Health Canada authorized Héma-Québec – which manages the blood supply in Quebec – to remove the same ban. The change takes effect across Canada on Dec. 4.The United States and Australia each lifted similar ba...

Mexico rights agency says soldiers fired ‘without reason’ in border city in 2022, killing a man

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s governmental human rights agency said Wednesday that soldiers opened fire “without reason” a year ago in the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo, killing a man. The National Human Rights Commission said soldiers had argued that the occupants of a pickup truck had opened fire first on a road in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. But the commission said no gunshot residue was found on any of the four people in the truck following the confrontation on Nov. 4, 2022. The commission said none of the victims had fired a gun, and issued a call for the Defense Department to cooperate in the investigation and take action to compensate the survivors. It would hardly be the first time that soldiers had engaged in such acts in Nuevo Laredo, where troops regularly come under fire from the Northeast drug cartel, which dominates the city.In February, the army acknowledged that four soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck in Nuevo Laredo, killing five men ...

What the events leading up to Sam Altman’s reinstatement at OpenAI mean for the industry’s future

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been quite a week for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — and co-founder Sam Altman.Altman, who helped start OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab back in 2015, was removed as CEO Friday in a sudden and mostly unexplained exit that stunned the industry. And while his chief executive title was swiftly reinstated just days later, a lot of questions are still up in the air.If you’re just catching up on the OpenAI saga and what’s at stake for the artificial intelligence space as a whole, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know.WHO IS SAM ALTMAN AND HOW DID HE RISE TO FAME?Altman is co-founder of OpenAI, the San Francisco-based company behind ChatGPT (yes, the chatbot that’s seemingly everywhere today — from schools to health care ).The explosion of ChatGPT since its arrival one year ago propelled Altman into the spotlight of the rapid commercialization of generative AI — which can produce novel imagery, passages ...

Christian school that objected to transgender athlete sues Vermont after it’s banned from competing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

A Vermont Christian school that withdrew its girls basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team is suing Vermont for barring it from state tournaments and a state tuition program.Mid Vermont Christian School of Quechee forfeited the Feb. 21 game, saying it believed that the transgender player jeopardized “the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”The executive council of the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs school sports and activities, ruled in March that Mid Vermont Christian had violated the council’s policies on race, gender and disability awareness, and therefore was ineligible to participate in future tournaments.The school filed a federal lawsuit in Burlington on Tuesday, saying the Vermont Agency of Education’s refusal to designate it as an approved independent school amounted to discrimination against religious schools.A separate entity, the Vermont State Board of Educa...

Former Chicago track coach pleads guilty to tricking women into sending him nude photos

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:22:13 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A former college track and field coach accused of setting up sham social media and email accounts in an attempt to trick women into sending him nude or semi-nude photos of themselves pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston, prosecutors said Tuesday.Steve Waithe, 30, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and one count of computer fraud, prosecutors said.Waithe also pleaded guilty to cyberstalking one victim through text messages and direct messages sent via social media, as well as by hacking into her Snapchat account, prosecutors said. ORIGINAL: Former Chicago track coach charged with nude photo scheme A lawyer for Waithe did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.Sentencing is scheduled for March 6, 2024. Waithe was originally arrested in April.Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy called Waithe's behavior despicable.“For almost a year, he manipulated, exploited and in one ca...