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US judge blocks Florida ban on trans minor care in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Saying gender identity is real, a federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction, saying three transgender children can continue receiving treatment. The lawsuit challenges the law Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed shortly before he announced a run for president.“The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset. Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear,” Hinkle said, adding that even a witness for the state agreed.Transgender medical treatment for minors is increasingly under attack in many states and has been subject to restrictions or outright bans. But it has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.Hinkle’s ruling was narrowly focused on the three children...

Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song’s ‘Past Lives’ is not your typical romance

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

TORONTO — While it may sound like a perfect love story, “Past Lives” is not the romance you’re imagining. The childhood sweethearts at the film’s centre, reunited for a few short days in adulthood after being separated as tweens, share both connection and chemistry. But in the hands of Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song, upon whose life the movie is loosely based, “Past Lives” subverts expectations of the romance genre. “The most important part of this movie was to reflect the way that our lives really feel, and the way that time feels,” Song said in a recent interview in Toronto. “So much of the movie is about the way that time has weighed on a person: how time changes a person and doesn’t change a person at all.” Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) are separated at age 12 when she leaves Korea for Canada. They reconnect virtually 12 years later, aided by Facebook and a spotty Skype connection, but part ...

Reports: Italian ex-premier, business executives investigated over Colombia deal for ships, planes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

ROME (AP) — Police on Tuesday searched the offices and homes of a former Italian premier and several leading business executives in an investigation of alleged corruption involving the sale of military planes, ships and submarines to Colombia, Italian state television reported.Massimo D’Alema, a leftist politician who served as Italian premier from 1998-2000, is among those reported to be under investigation.The sales deal, said to be worth 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), has been under scrutiny for some time. Last year, a top Italian CEO, Alessandro Profumo, told the Senate defense commission that D’Alema had no role in the dealings for the sale on behalf of Leonardo, a major Italian aerospace and defense manufacturer. Italian state television, citing Naples-based prosecutors, said that Profumo is among prominent business figures under investigation. Profumo’s mandate as CEO of Leonardo ended last month.Neither Profumo nor D’Alema could be reached for comment on Tuesday...

Two charged in Markham after stolen vehicle found with loaded firearm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

York Regional Police have charged a man and a woman following a stolen vehicle investigation where three loaded firearms were seized in Markham.At approximately 3:20 a.m. on Monday, police in the area of Fairburn Drive and Highway 7 East spotted a black Range Rover in a mall parking lot, the exact vehicle that had been reported stolen from the City of Toronto.After an investigation by an officer, the two passengers of the vehicle were arrested. In a search of the vehicle, police located and seized a loaded semi-automatic handgun.After executing a search warrant at a residence in Pickering, police located two more guns — a loaded semi-automatic handgun stored on a bedside table and a loaded shotgun in a bedroom closet.Sheldon Gayle, 35, of Pickering, has been charged with three counts of careless storage of a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a loaded restricted firearm with readily accessible ammunition...

Man pleads guilty to strangling and dumping body of Missouri woman 3 decades ago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

UNION, Mo. (AP) — A 67-year-old man has pleaded guilty to strangling a woman in Missouri and leaving her bound body in the woods three decades ago, a newspaper reported.Kirby R. King pleaded guilty on Friday to involuntary manslaughter and felonious restraint in the death of 22-year-old Karla Jane Delcour, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. She was found dead with her wrists and neck bound by a cord in Franklin County woods near the city of St. Clair.King, whose social circles overlapped with those of Delcour, was questioned in 1987 after her body was found but never charged. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office reopened the case in 2018 and King was arrested in 2019, initially charged with second-degree murder. Investigators have not said if new evidence led to King’s arrest 32 years after Delcour was killed. “The tireless efforts in unraveling the truth and meticulously piecing together the puzzle have not only provided closure to the victim’s family but have...

Mexico lowers alert level for Popocatepetl volcano

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico lowered the alert level on the Popocatepetl volcano Tuesday after more than two weeks of its eruptions of gas and ash had drawn the attention of those living in its shadow and people around the world.The 17,797-foot (5,425-meter) mountain just 45 miles (about 70 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City and known affectionately as “El Popo,” had spread ash over towns downwind for days and spurred authorities to dust off their evacuation plans.Some 25 million people live within 60 miles of its crate r. But ultimately no evacuations were ordered and experts said the emissions from the increased activity actually made a catastrophic eruption less likely.National Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez lowered the alert level back to yellow phase two Tuesday on the recommendation of a scientific advisory panel, according to a statement from the government. It had been at yellow phase three, just a notch below a red alert on the stop light-style scale. Scientists s...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — XXX HOLD HOLD HOLD FOR BLINKEN ARRIVAL SCHEDULED 1635 GMT TUESDAY / GAMBRELL TO CONFIRM XXXU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in Saudi Arabia on a trip in which he plans to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid strained relations between Riyadh and Washington. Blinken’s trip, his second to Saudi Arabia since becoming America’s top diplomat, comes after the kingdom under Prince Mohammed has been more willing to disregard the U.S. in striking its own decisions. Riyadh has clashed repeatedly with President Joe Biden on its supply of crude oil to global markets, its willingness to partner with Russia in OPEC+ and reaching a détente with Iran mediated by China. Biden also pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. However, Saudi Arabia still relies — like other Gulf Arab nations — on the U.S. to be the security guarantor for the wider Middle East as ten...

Bluesky, championed by Jack Dorsey, was supposed to be Twitter 2.0. Can it succeed?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

Bluesky, the internet’s hottest members-only spot at the moment, feels a bit like an exclusive club, populated by some Very Online folks, popular Twitter characters, and fed up ex-users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. Musk is not on it — and this might be part of the appeal for those longing for the way things were before the Tesla billionaire bought Twitter and upended nearly everything about the social network, from rules against harassment to content moderation to its system for verifying prominent users’ identities. It also helps that Bluesky grew out of Twitter — a pet project of former CEO Jack Dorsey, who still sits on its board of directors.“It was designed to replace Twitter,” said Sol Messing, who worked at Twitter as a data scientist until January and is now associate professor at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics. “And you can see it in the way that the the system is designed. It works like Twitter.”But can Bluesky replace Twit...

Key McConnell aide joining Kentucky GOP gubernatorial campaign in senior management role

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A top aide to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has joined Daniel Cameron’s gubernatorial campaign in Kentucky, as the GOP nominee adds another political heavy hitter to his team in trying to defeat Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in one of the nation’s most closely watched races.Terry Carmack, the senator’s chief of staff, will assume a senior management role in Cameron’s campaign, said Sean Southard, a state Republican Party spokesman.The key personnel move this week comes amid a fast-developing campaign, with both candidates on the campaign trail and TV ads already on the air — five months ahead of a general election contest that could send loud signals about the mood of the electorate ahead of next year’s campaigns for the presidency and control of Congress.Beshear, who is seeking reelection to a second term, planned to tout his record on law enforcement issues at a campaign event later Tuesday. Cameron, the state attorney ...

Merck sues federal government, calling plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices extortion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:12 GMT

Merck is suing the federal government over a plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices, calling the program a sham equivalent to extortion.The drugmaker is seeking to halt the program, which was laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act and is expected to save taxpayers billions of dollars in the coming years.Merck said in a complaint filed Tuesday that the program does not involve genuine negotiation. Instead, it said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services selects drugs to be included and then dictates the price, threatening drugmakers with “a ruinous daily excise tax” if they decline to agree.“It is tantamount to extortion,” the drugmaker said in the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.The Rahway, New Jersey-based drugmaker added that it expects its diabetes treatment Januvia to be part of “the IRA’s scheme” starting later this year.Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a prepared statement that they plan to ...