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Will Smith joins Jada Pinkett Smith at book talk, calls their relationship brutal and beautiful

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Will Smith joined Jada Pinkett Smith on stage as she promoted her new memoir in her Baltimore hometown Wednesday night, pledging lifelong support for her just a week after she revealed that the couple had been separated since 2016.“Jada is the best friend I have ever had on this planet, and I am going to show up for her and support her for the rest of my life,” he told the crowd at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, crediting Pinkett Smith’s sacrifices for his successes, news outlets reported. Smith’s appearance with their two children, Jaden and Willow, and his son Trey Smith, was apparently a surprise for Pinkett Smith. It came at the end of a talk about her book, “Worthy.” Pinkett Smith said the family, including her aunt and uncle and Will Smith’s mother and sister, was in town to celebrate the 70th birthday of her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, on Wednesday.Smith called their relationship “brutiful,” explaining that it was both brutal and beautiful.“It is a...

Israel-Hamas war cannot become another 9/11 moment, says anti-Islamophobia envoy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special representative for combating Islamophobia is warning against allowing the Israel-Hamas war to become a catalyst for the stereotyping of Muslim Canadians. Amira Elghawaby, who was appointed to the new role in January, released a statement on the impact the war is having on members of Canada’s Muslim communities. She says people are expressing fear about a “resurgence” in Islamophobia that “has troubling echoes of the past.”She refers to the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when Muslims and Arabs “felt collectively blamed, stereotyped and racially profiled.” Elghawaby says that locally, Muslims and Arabs “felt pressured to condemn actions unrelated to our communities” and experienced what she calls “a silencing effect” when it came to community members voicing their views about human rights. Her statement says the legacy of 9/11 is “being rekindled&...

Drones attack a US military base in southern Syria and there are minor injuries, US officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A military base in southern Syria where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train forces as part of a broad campaign against the Islamic State group was attacked by drones on Thursday, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press. One drone was shot down, but another caused in minor injuries, said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before an official announcement about the incident.The attacks follow similar drone strikes over the past few days against U.S. and coalition bases in Iraq amid simmering anger in the region after an explosion at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of people. The al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria is located at a sensitive juncture often used by Iranian-backed militants to ferry weapons to Hezbollah. Syrian opposition activists also said Thursday a drone attack was conducted on an oil facility in eastern Syria that houses American troops.Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads ...

NDP MPP Sarah Jama threatens Doug Ford with libel lawsuit over Israel-Hamas statement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

An Ontario NDP MPP is threatening to sue Premier Doug Ford after he made a public statement that she claims has tarnished her reputation.Sarah Jama, the MPP for Hamilton Centre, has given Ford seven days to “formally retract the posts and publicly apologize” or risk facing a libel lawsuit.The cease and desist from Jama’s lawyer references Ford’s Oct. 11 statement in response to Jama’s post where he wrote she “has a long and well documented history of antisemitism.”“We demand that you formally retract the posts and publicly apologize within the next seven calendar days,” reads the letter from her lawyer. “Failing which Ms. Jama has instructed us to escalate matters further, which may include, without limitation, issuing a statement of claim against you personally.” Demand Jama by CityNewsToronto on ScribdThe Ford government introduced a motion this week that could lead to the rookie MPP being censured in the legislature if she d...

An alleged Darfur militia leader was merely ‘a pharmacist,’ defense lawyers tell a war crimes court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Defense lawyers told the International Criminal Court on Thursday that their client was not a Sudanese militia leader who had participated in war crimes, but rather “a no one” who had no involvement in the ongoing conflict in the nation. Prosecutors say Ali Mohammed Ali Abdul Rahman Ali is better known as Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Janjaweed militia. He has denied 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in what the defense claims is a case of mistaken identity. “The man sitting behind me was utterly a no-one,” defense attorney Cyril Laucci told The Hague-based court in his opening presentation. Laucci says his client was working as a pharmacist at a market in a remote part of the Darfur region of Sudan during the conflict, which began in 2003, leaving some 300,000 people dead and driving 2.7 million from their homes. Violence erupted when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency, c...

Feds OK natural gas pipeline expansion in Pacific Northwest over environmentalist protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal regulators have approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest over the protest of environmental groups and top officials in West Coast states.The project, known as GTN Xpress, aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho, Washington and Oregon, by about 150 million cubic feet (4.2 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave it the green light in a vote on Thursday.The pipeline belongs to TC Energy of Calgary, Canada — the same company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL crude oil pipeline. TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline — in Kootenai County, Idaho; Walla Walla County, Washington; and Sherman County, Oregon. Compressor stations help maintain the pressure and flow of gas over long distances in a pipeline.The company says the project is necessary to meet consumer demand. The 1,377-mile (2,2...

Accused in London, Ont., truck attack says he knew what happened was terrorism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

The man accused of killing four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., has told a jury he knew his actions were considered a terrorist attack.On the stand in the Windsor, Ont., courtroom where his trial is taking place, Nathaniel Veltman says he was influenced by the writings of a gunman who committed the 2019 New Zealand mass killing of 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques.Veltman says his understanding of terrorism is that it’s any politically-motivated violence and he was a “political person” when he crashed into the Muslim family.The 22-year-old Veltman is accused of deliberately hitting the Afzaal family with his truck on June 6, 2021 while they were out for a walk in London _ prosecutors have alleged his actions amount to an act of terrorism.He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.Veltman told the jury yesterday that he had been considering using his pickup truck, which he bought a month earlier, ...

Lacrosse at the Olympics gives Native Americans a chance to see their sport shine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

One of the first gifts any member of the Onondaga nation receives is called a “crib stick” — a small lacrosse stick given to babies that symbolizes the importance of that sport to people who invented it.Nearly 1,000 years after lacrosse was first played on fields that could sometimes stretch for miles across the Haudenosaunee confederacy, the sport will be on the Olympic schedule in Los Angeles in 2028. Whether the Haudenosaunee, a collection of six Native American nations whose territory covers upstate New York and adjacent sections of Canada, will have a spot in that tournament is a question that will keep the lacrosse world on edge between now and then.The final call will come down to whether the International Olympic Committee will buck a decades-old tradition of only allowing participants from countries with a national Olympic committee, or whether it will find a way to include players under the Haudenosaunee (formerly known as the Iroquois) flag. Such a move would pay homage t...

Canadian firms hit with 25 cyberattacks on average over past year: EY survey

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

TORONTO — A survey by EY shows 81 per cent Canadian companies experienced at least 25 cybersecurity incidents over the past year, compared to 73 per cent of respondents globally.The EY 2023 Global Cybersecurity Leadership Insights study also shows the global median cost of a breach jumped 12 per cent to US$2.5 million this year.In Canada, 44 per cent of businesses reported they collectively spent US$50 million annually on cybersecurity.Yogen Appalraju, a cybersecurity leader at EY Canada, says the country is now starting to experience more costly and high-profile breaches, in line with a trend south of the border.The study suggests despite higher spending by companies, detection and response times appear to be slow, with more than half of respondents saying their business took an average of six months or longer to detect a breach.The survey shows almost half of respondents find it difficult to balance security and innovation, and view cloud and internet of things technologies as big...

MTV cancels EMAs awards show in Paris, citing Israel-Hamas war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:45 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday canceled its performance-packed ceremony slated for next month, citing the Israel-Hamas War.The event had been scheduled for Paris on Nov. 5, with Ozuna, Renée Rapp and Thirty Seconds to Mars among the performers. “The MTV EMAs are an annual celebration of global music. As we watch the devastating events in Israel and Gaza continue to unfold, this does not feel like a moment for a global celebration. With thousands of lives already lost, it is a moment of mourning,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.The statement also said the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution for the thousands of employees, crew members, artists, fans, and partners who travel from all corners of the world to bring the show to life.”MTV said the EMAs would return in November 2024.Taylor Swift was the big winner at last year’s EMAs in Dusseldorf, Germany, collecting four trophies including for best artist, best video and best longform...