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Donald Trump wants future Republican debates to be canceled after refusing to participate in them

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

Donald Trump ‘s campaign is calling on the Republican National Committee to cancel all remaining presidential primary debates, saying the RNC must instead “refocus its manpower” on defeating Joe Biden next year. In a statement late Monday, top Trump advisers also repeated debunked falsehoods about election fraud, claiming without evidence that Democrats are working to steal the 2024 election. Trump has maintained that the 2020 election was stolen, despite multiple legal cases, investigations and his own attorney general finding no fraud.In their statement, senior campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita say the November debate in Miami and all future debates should be canceled.“Anything less, along with other reasons not to cancel, are an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously and national Republicans are more concerned about helping Joe Biden than ensuring a safe and secure election,” they said. The former preside...

Serbian authorities have detained the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police on Tuesday detained an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.Police said they also searched the apartment and other property in Serbia belonging to Milan Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with close ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and President Aleksandar Vucic. Police gave no other details. A statement said Radoicic was ordered to remain in custody for 48 hours.Later on Tuesday, prosecutors said Radoicic was questioned under suspicion of a criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of weapons and explosives and grave acts against public safety. Radoicic allegedly got weapons delivered from Bosnia to Belgrade before stashing them in “abandoned objects and forests” in Kosovo, prosecutors said. The statement said that Radoicic and others in his group on Sept. 24 allegedly endangered the live...

Spain’s king asks Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez to try to form a government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s King Felipe VI asked Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday to try to form a new coalition government following talks with political party leaders to determine which of them had the best chance of securing majority support in parliament. Spain’s equivalent of House speaker, Congress of Deputies President Francina Armengol, announced the decision after the king concluded his two days of talks and then summoned her. Sánchez’s Socialist party finished second behind the conservative Popular Party in Spain’s July 23 election. The monarch first asked Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to try to form a government, but Feijóo failed to win sufficient parliamentary support last week.“I have accepted the king’s petition,” Sánchez said during a Tuesday news conference in which he promised to work for a progressive government. Sánchez, 51, has been Spain’s prime minister in a minority leftist coalition for the past five years and is the country’s actin...

Celery spills all over Hwy. 400 after truck rollover in York Region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

A stretch of a major highway in the GTA is closed after a truck that was carrying celery rolled over and spilled its contents onto the roadway.Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are at the scene of a crash involving a transport truck in the southbound lanes of Highway 400, south of Highway 9, in King Township.OPP posted photos to social media that show a commercial truck on its side and celery covering multiple lanes of the highway.#AuroraOPP at a CMV roll over, Hwy 400 S/B, just south of Highway 9. Celery spilled on the Highway. Traffic diverted onto Highway 9 while clean-up continues. Highway expected to be closed for several hours and paitence is appreciated. ^mh pic.twitter.com/XEoQmsXYBb— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) October 3, 2023No injuries have been reported.Traffic is being diverted onto Highway 9 while the crash clean-up continues. The westbound Highway 9 ramp to the southbound 400 is also shutdown, but the eastbound ramp remains open.OPP expect the highway...

Pat King asks to move trial out of Ottawa, claims more notoriety than Randy Hillier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

“Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King has asked the court once again to move his criminal trial out of Ottawa, even though others who were charged during the demonstration have been denied similar requests.King’s lawyer Natasha Calvinho is arguing that King had a greater notoriety than most other convoy organizers and even Ontario MPP Randy Hillier, who also faces charges related to the convoy last winter.Convoy organizer James Bauder and Hillier had said in their own unsuccessful attempts that they felt an Ottawa jury would be prejudiced against them because of the impact the convoy had on Ottawa residents.King was among the original group of organizers that brought big rigs and other trucks to the capital to protest COVID-19 public health restrictions in early 2022, and Calvinho says his name has been highly publicized ever since.The Crown has asked for the request to be dismissed, and Calvinho acknowledged in court that King’s request would be an “uphi...

2 workers conducting polls for Mexico’s ruling party killed, 1 kidnapped in southern Mexico

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Tuesday that assailants have killed two workers who were conducting internal polling for his Morena party in southern Mexico. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a third worker was kidnapped and remains missing. The three were part of a group of five employees who were conducting polls in the southern state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. He said the other two pollsters were safe.It was the latest in a series of violent incidents that illustrate how lawless many parts of rural Mexico have become; even the ruling party — and the national statistics agency — have not been spared.The president’s Morena party frequently uses polls to decide who to run as a candidate, and Chiapas will hold elections for governor in June. Rosa Icela Rodríguez, the country’s public safety secretary, said three people have been arrested in connection with the killings and abduction, which occurred Saturday in the town of Juárez, Chiapas.She said ...

McCarthy to call vote Tuesday on effort to oust him and says he won’t cut a deal with Democrats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to force a vote Tuesday on the far-right effort to oust him from his leadership position and insists he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power, setting the stage for an extraordinary and unpredictable showdown on the House floor. McCarthy’s fate is deeply uncertain as he confronts what’s known as a “motion to vacate” from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a strident critic. It would take the support of only a handful of Republicans to remove McCarthy as speaker, should Democrats vote in favor alongside the conservative rebels.Let’s get on with it, McCarthy told his colleagues in a closed-door meeting, according to a Republican in the room granted anonymity to discuss it.It’s a stunning moment for the embattled McCarthy that serves as the most severe punishment yet — sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown. So far, several hard-right Repub...

S&P/TSX composite down nearly 200 points, U.S. stock markets also lower

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index fell to its lowest point since October last year in late-morning trading while U.S. stock markets also pulled back.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 190.84 points at 18,986.34.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 366.22 points at 33,067.13. The S&P 500 index was down 53.83 points at 4,234.56,while the Nasdaq composite was down 223.52 points at 13,084.25.The Canadian dollar traded for 72.85 cents US compared with 73.96 cents US on Friday.The November crude contract was up 28 cents at US$89.10 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up seven cents at US$2.91 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down US$5.50 at US$1,841.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was down a penny at US$3.63 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian Press

Ald. Lopez announces 4th District bid for Congress

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez announced his 4th District bid for Congress on Tuesday morning.Lopez has been an alderperson of the 15th Ward since 2015, which as of 2020 includes parts of Back of the Yards, Brighton Park, Gage Park, West Englewood, Chicago Lawn, Canaryville and the Stockyards.Jesus "Chuy" Garcia has been serving the 4th District, which includes parts of the Southwest Side and Western suburbs, since 2019.Both ran for mayor in 2022 with Lopez withdrawing before the first round and Garcia finishing in fourth.Garcia took over for longtime U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez in 2019, who retired after serving the district since 1993.Lopez was a vocal critic of former Mayor Lightfoot and has been critical of policies of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. He ended up endorsing businessman Willie Wilson for mayor.

New migrant shelter in Pilsen to house 400 people starting Tuesday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:21 GMT

CHICAGO — Residents in the city's Pilsen neighborhood gathered Monday to share their frustration over the busloads of migrants continuing to arrive in Chicago.The move, starting Tuesday, is expected to bring 400 migrants to a warehouse near the corner of 22nd Place and Halsted — and that number will eventually grow to 1,000.The Pilsen facility is being called the first sanctioned shelter in the ward by Ald. Byron Lopez.It's opening Tuesday after city officials have said they are running out of space to house migrants. Thirty-six new buses have come into the city, with seven arriving just Monday.More than 2,900 migrants are living at police stations and airports.The influx of people coming from Texas has prompted Gov. JB Pritzker to seek help from the Biden administration.In a letter to the administration, the governor said,“The federal government's lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois… There is much more that can and mus...