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Zuckerberg calls off Musk cage fight: ‘Elon isn’t serious’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has called off his cage fight with fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk, accusing the Tesla CEO of wasting his time. “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads Sunday night. “Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.”But Zuckerberg left the door open to a fight in the future, continuing: “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me.”It comes after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a “cage match” in June, with the two tech billionaires then seemingly making plans to make it happen, reportedly working with Dana White, president of Mixed Martial Arts organization UFC, to set up a charity bout.But after weeks of trading barbs on their competing social networks — Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter) and Zuckerberg’s Th...

Death toll rises to 96 in Maui with estimated loss of $5.6 billion. Follow live updates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.AUTHORITIES INCREASE DEATHS TOTAL, GOVERNOR SAYS ‘FULL FORCE’ OF GOVERNMENT AT WORKThe Maui Police Department updated the number of confirmed deaths to 96 around 9 p.m. Sunday, Maui County said in a statement.In a video update released earlier on Sunday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said more than 2,700 structures were destroyed in Lahaina and “an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away.” Green said the response has been “comprehensive” in the past several days: “We are bringing the full force of government to try to do all we can to alleviate suffering.”FEMA is overseeing the federal response in Hawaii with 416 personnel inclu...

Crews search for possible missing after a mudslide in the Italian Alps coats city streets in muck

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

ROME (AP) — Rescue crews in an Italian Alpine city were searching Monday for any possible missing people and clearing mud-caked roads after a mountain mudslide sent water and debris pouring into town, bursting riverbanks. Authorities said all residents were accounted for.The streets of Bardonecchia, a city near Turin in the Val di Susa mountain valley, were coated in thick gray mud following the violent mudslides late Sunday. Witness video showed a huge wave of dirt and debris toppling a gate and residents running away as the muck rushed down a city street; other videos showed thick mud coursing through the river banks that pass through town.Piedmont regional governor Alberto Cirio said there were no victims and that five people initially believed to be missing had been accounted for. In a Facebook post, Cirio said damage was significant and that he had already reached out to the national government for help. Civil protection crews were en route to remove the debris from roads and t...

Lawyers and witnesses say Ethiopian police have arrested hundreds during state of emergency

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Authorities in Ethiopia are carrying out mass arrests of hundreds, even thousands, of people in the capital after deadly unrest in the country’s Amhara region, lawyers and witnesses said.Ethiopia’s Cabinet declared a state of emergency earlier this month in Amhara after local militia fighters known as Fano seized control of several major towns, which the military has since retaken by force. The Fano, who fought alongside Ethiopian military forces in a two-year conflict in the neighboring Tigray region, have resisted being disbanded after a peace deal last November.Ethiopia’s parliament is to vote Monday on giving formal approval to extraordinary measures which allow authorities to arrest suspects without a warrant, conduct searches and impose curfews. Under the previous state of emergency imposed during the Tigray conflict, tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans were rounded up across the country.This time, “there has been widespread arrest of civilians who are ...

Thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance found buried in ground at Cambodian school

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian authorities have temporarily closed a high school where thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance from the country’s nearly three decades of civil war have been unearthed. The ordnance was found at the school in the northeastern province of Kratie after deminers were invited to search for buried landmines on the campus before a new building was constructed, Chheang Heng, the provincial deputy chief for education. More than 1,000 students study at Queen Kossamak high school.The site was an ammunition warehouse during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s before being turned into a school and all of the ordnance was thought to have been removed, Chheang Heng said.From Friday through Sunday, 2,116 pieces of ordnance were collected by deminers from the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the government agency’s director general, Heng Ratana, posted on FacebookThey included M79 grenades, FuzeM48 shells and ordnance for the B40 rocket launcher. Photos ...

Police report ’emergency incident’ after airliner returns to Sydney Airport

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — A commercial airline flight from Australia to Malaysia returned to Sydney on Monday after an emergency incident, officials and media reported.Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 left Sydney Airport at 1:40 p.m. for an eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and landed back on the runway at 3:47 p.m., Nine News reported.Someone purporting to be on board tweeted that a person was “threatening staff and passengers,” Nine reported.It said a passenger holding a backpack had threatened to “blow the plane up.” Crew had checked the backpack and found no explosives, it added.Australian Federal Police said in a statement they were responding to an “emergency incident” at the airport, but provided no other details.The plane was parked on the end of a runway hours later with emergency vehicles nearby, Nine reported.Sydney Airport said it was supporting “emergency agencies in the management of an incident.”“The airport is operational with flights arriving and departing,” an airport statement ...

In the news today: Heat wave in B.C., wildfires prompt evacuation in NWT

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Heat wave expected to expand into B.C. InteriorHealth authorities and local and provincial governments across British Columbia are providing guidance on how best to deal with a sweltering heat wave that began in the province’s southern coast this weekend and is expected to expand into the Interior starting today.Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health say temperatures are the most important determinant of health outcomes, noting that it can take hours for people’s bodies to cool and for physiological strain to decrease after sustaining high temperatures.Forecasts in those regions are calling for daytime high temperatures reaching the high 20s or low 30s on the coast and for inland temperatures reaching the mid to high 30s. Wildfires close evacuation routes out of NWT towns, some being transported by airResidents of a second town near the Alberta-...

As B.C. temperatures soar, advocates call for rules to keep rental housing cool

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

VANCOUVER — Advocates for renters in British Columbia say it’s time to consider setting a maximum temperature for rental housing to protect vulnerable tenants from dangerous heat.The call comes as a heat wave blankets much of the province, raising memories of the deadly 2021 heat dome event. It isn’t expected to get as hot this week, but the advocates say municipalities need to ensure that tenants don’t face deadly risks of overheating in their homes.  Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says the city has nearly finished a study on indoor heat that could lead to changes to the city’s building code or bylaws.While B.C. municipalities set bylaws mandating the minimum temperatures rental units must be able to maintain, there are no similar rules for how hot a home is allowed to get.Emily Rogers, director of operations for Victoria’s Together Against Poverty Society, says amending property bylaws to include a maximum temperature “seems like a very reasonable step.̶...

Sexual assault trial to begin for Haydn Edmundson, former head of military HR

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

OTTAWA — A sexual assault trial for the military’s former head of human resources is expected to hear from its first witness in an Ottawa court today. Vice-admiral Haydn Edmundson has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent acts and one count of sexual assault in an incident that allegedly happened in 1991. He stepped down as head of military personnel command in March 2021 after CBC reported that a former Armed Forces member had accused him of rape.The complainant is expected to testify in the case, which was delayed last week. Edmundson was one of several high-profile military members to be accused of sexual misconduct in early 2021, kicking off a crisis that led to an external investigation of the Armed Forces.The case is being heard in the Ontario Court of Justice, which is in line with the government’s policy to have civilian authorities take over such cases. That change was recommended by former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, who wrote a report calling fo...

Long way home: Blamed for affordability crisis, Liberals look to pivot on housing

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:31 GMT

OTTAWA — Chris Burke and his fiancée have been less than a year away from buying their first home for the past three years.Saving for a down payment was the first challenge. Now, rising interest rates have kicked home ownership down the road again, stalling the couple’s plans to get married and have children. “Any gains we make towards purchasing a house, we’re watching the goalposts move further and further away,” the 31-year-old Ottawa resident said.Feeling “stuck,” as Burke put it, is a sentiment shared by many young Canadians who are increasingly pessimistic about their home ownership prospects. For the federal Liberals, the growing discontent with the state of the housing market is becoming a political threat.“I’m a former Liberal voter,” Burke said. “I certainly wouldn’t be voting for them this time around.”Experts say the housing crisis poses a great risk to the incumbent government in the next election i...