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Justices wary of tax law challenge 

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed inclined to uphold a tax on foreign income while leaving questions about a broader, never-enacted tax on wealth for another day.On the first issue, conservative and liberal justices voiced concerns that ruling for a Washington state couple challenging a provision of the 2017 tax bill would threaten other provisions of the tax code.After two hours of arguments, there seemed to be a consensus on the court that “there is room for some narrow ground” to decide the case, as Justice Neil Gorsuch said. Such an outcome would avoid what Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said would be “several trillion dollars in lost revenues.”At the same time, the court would not address the bigger question of Congress’ ability to enact taxes based on wealth, instead of income.The case argued Tuesday was brought by Charles and Kathleen Moore of Redmond, Washington. They challenged a $15,000 tax bill based on Charles Moore̵...

Biden says he wouldn’t be seeking re-election if Trump wasn’t running

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

President Biden, stopping in Boston today to raise campaign cash, made the startling announcement he probably wouldn’t be running for re-election at his age if Donald Trump was not the GOP front-runner.“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” Biden said at a fundraiser at a private home near Boston, according to a pool report. Biden just celebrated his 81st birthday.Biden went on to warn Trump has made clear what his plans would be if he wins.“Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore. He’s telling us what he’s going to do. He’s making no bones about it.”Biden cited Trump’s comments he’s out for “retribution” if he wins — to root out the “vermin” in the country, the latter of which Biden said echoes the language used in Germany in the 1930s.“He didn’t even show up at my inauguration. I can’t say I was disappointe...

UN food agency stops deliveries to millions in Yemen areas controlled by Houthi rebels

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations food agency said Tuesday it is stopping food distribution in areas of war-torn Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, a move that will impact millions of people.The World Food Program said the “pause” was driven by limited funding and the lack of agreement with the rebel authorities on downscaling the program to match the agency’s resources.“This difficult decision, made in consultation with donors, comes after nearly a year of negotiations, during which no agreement was reached to reduce the number of people served from 9.5 million to 6.5 million,” WFP said in a statement.U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said WFP has tried unsuccessfully “to establish a system that is safe and accountable for the aid going through” to the rebel-held areas. The war in Yemen has raged for eight years between the Iran-backed Houthis and pro-government forces, backed by a coalition of Gulf Arab states. The Houthis swept down from the mountains in 2014, seized mu...

Review: Swan song or not, Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is a master surveying his empire

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

When Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said in his introductory remarks: “We are privileged enough to be living in a time where Mozart is composing symphonies.”You might be tempted to call that hyperbole, but — this being Miyazaki, the legendary anime filmmaker of “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” — it’s closer to fact. The occurrence of a new film from Miyazaki deserves to be treated like the coming of a seldom-seen comet or something rarer still, like a winning New York Jets season. Ten years ago, Miyazaki released the profoundly personal “The Wind Rises.” It was then expected to be his swan song. But the 82-year-old filmmaker — known for his propensity for retiring again and again — soon announced that he would make one more. A decade of anticipation followed. Then, just as “The Boy and the Heron” finally debute...

Video shows Alabama police officer using stun gun against handcuffed man

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

REFORM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama police officer is on leave after video circulated on social media showed her appearing to shock a handcuffed and compliant man with a stun gun and telling him to shut up after he cried out in pain.The video shows a white female police officer shocking a Black man after placing him in handcuffs and leaning him against a car.In the 45-second video clip, which went viral, the handcuffed man is not resisting and tells the officer he has a gun on him. She retrieves it and places it on the hood of the car, saying, “Oh, yeah.” He asks her, “What you saying, ‘Oh, yeah’ for?” She then appears to shock him with the stun gun pressed to his back and tells him to be quiet.“Oh, my God,” he cries out and continues to bellow. “You want it again? … You was big and bad,” she says before using profanity to tell him to shut up. Friends and family said the man, identified as 24-year-old Micah Washington, was changing a tire on the side of the road w...

Denny Laine, founding member of the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings, dead at 79

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Denny Laine, a British singer, songwriter and guitarist who performed in an early, pop-oriented version of the Moody Blues and was later Paul McCartney’s longtime sideman in the ex-Beatle’s solo band Wings, has died at age 79.Laine, inducted five years ago into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues, died Tuesday in Naples, Florida. The cause was interstitial lung disease, according to an announcement on Laine’s Instagram page by his wife, Elizabeth Hines.His death comes almost exactly 50 years after the release of McCartney’s acclaimed “Band On the Run” album, on which Laine played guitar and provided backing vocals. On Tuesday, McCartney posted a tribute to Laine on Instagram, calling him a “great talent with a fine sense of humor.”“We had drifted apart but in recent years managed to reestablish our friendship and share memories of our times together,” McCartney wrote.Laine was born Brian Frederick Arthur Hines, and ch...

Global Affairs Canada says two Canadians dead in Antigua

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada says two Canadians have died in Antigua.The department has not provided more information about the deaths on the Caribbean island, citing privacy considerations, but it says consular officials are providing assistance and are in contact with local authorities to get more information. Local media outlets are reporting that a Canadian woman and child died in rough waters last week. The Canadian Press has not independently verified the reports. The Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force said in a press release that a 911 call came in on Nov. 30 at around 6:45 a.m. about a woman and child entering the water at a rock formation locally known as Devil’s Bridge.The release said members of the force had to navigate choppy waters before locating the bodies of both people, as well as a “visibly distraught” man who survived.This past April, another Canadian was reported to have died in the same area, with authorities saying in a press release they ha...

Former Colorado officer accused of parking patrol car hit by train on railroad tracks pleads guilty

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A former Colorado police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of reckless endangerment for parking his patrol car on railroad tracks before a handcuffed woman was put inside and seriously injured when it was hit by a freight train.Pablo Vazquez had been charged with five misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in connection with the crash that injured Yareni Rios last year but reached a plea deal with prosecutors.A judge sentenced Vazquez to 12 months of unsupervised probation. If he stays out of trouble during that time, the misdemeanor charge will be dismissed and the case will be sealed, KUSA-TV reported. Another former officer who put the woman in the patrol car after a traffic stop, Jordan Steinke, was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault for the crash near Platteville. A judge acquitted her of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter after a bench trial in July.Steinke was sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of comm...

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai urges world to confront Taliban’s ‘gender apartheid’ against women

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said Tuesday that the world needs to recognize and confront the “gender apartheid” against women and girls imposed by the Taliban since they seized power in Afghanistan more than two years ago.She urged the international community to take collective and urgent action to end the “dark days” in Afghanistan. Yousafzai was awarded the peace prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan. She is the youngest Nobel laureate.Two years earlier, she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban — a separate militant group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban — when she was shot in the head on a bus after school.The 26-year-old activist spoke to The Associated Press after delivering the annual Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg on the 10th anniversary of the death of South Africa’s anti-apartheid leader and Nobel laureate.Yousafzai is also the youngest person to...

'He's a gentle giant': CFD members step up to help fellow firefighter battling A-Fib

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:15:45 GMT

CHICAGO — For nearly a decade, he put his life on the line, serving some of the city's most underprivileged neighborhoods as a fire paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. Now, his fellow firefighters are stepping up to help one of Chicago's very own as he battles a heart ailment that nearly took his life.Nick Temen’s story as a Chicago firefighter goes back to 2013, when he first applied to join the department and was put on a waitlist. Two years later, he got the call, joined the academy, and was officially hired full-time as a fire paramedic to work in the Beverly neighborhood.“Beverly is a really nice neighborhood, pretty slow with not a very high call volume,” Temen said in an interview with WGN News. “So, when I was there for like three-to-four months, my buddies would tell me about shootings going on, delivering babies and all the experience I wasn’t getting [in Beverly].”When Temen originally sought to become a firefighter, he pursued the career because he wanted to find ...