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Llama therapy at Portland airport eases holiday travel stress

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (WSVN) — Navigating airports during the holidays can be chaotic, but if you’re passing through Portland, expect a unique stress-busting surprise in the form of therapy llamas.Meet Prince and Benny, two 400-pound fluffballs serving as therapy animals stationed at Portland International Airport earlier this week. Travelers, in need of a calming moment, found solace in these gentle llamas.“It’s the most fun to see everyone’s reactions because you go from stress and concentrated trying to get to your gate on time to looking up and just seeing these 400-pound fluffs walking right by you,” shared Shannon Joy with Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas & Alpacas.Not stopping at llamas, the airport is also employing therapy dogs, ensuring that passengers experience a moment of joy and relaxation amid the holiday rush.

EU countries reach deal on national spending rules

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

BRUSSELS ― EU finance ministers on Wednesday clinched a deal to overhaul the bloc’s spending rules and allow countries more time to rein in spending, according to five officials.After weeks of fraught negotiations, governments finally agreed to the reformed framework that will set out a laxer pace of debt and deficit reduction than had previously been the case.  The decision was taken at a virtual meeting and followed a dinner between the French and German finance ministers in Paris on Tuesday night. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential.The so-called Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) was put on hold at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow governments to increase spending in the wake of the worst recession since World War II. The European Commission proposed changing the old rules because of concerns that they were outdated, inflexible and barely enforceable. The new format is designed to offer more gradual and ta...

Zelenskyy wants more details before authorizing half a million new troops

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on his military to give him a detailed plan before approving a demand to conscript as many as 500,000 soldiers to join the country’s war effort.“The mobilization of an additional 450,000 to 500,000 people will cost Ukraine 500 billion hryvnia [€12 billion] and I would like to know where the money will come from,” Zelenskyy said during a Tuesday press conference in Kyiv. “Considering that it takes six Ukrainian working civilians paying taxes to pay the salary of one soldier, I would need to get 3 million more working people somewhere to be able to pay for the additional troops.”Ukraine is under pressure to increase its forces to deal with its bloody war of attrition with Russia, and also to allow exhausted front-line troops to rotate away from the fighting to rest and recuperate. Zelenskyy said he wants to see a war plan and a project to demobilize those soldiers who have been fighting the Russians for almost two years. Tho...

Boston mayor apologizes to Black men wrongly accused in 1989 murder that shone spotlight on racism

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology Wednesday to two Black men who were wrongly accused in a 1989 murder of a white woman, a case that coarsened divisions in a city long split along racial lines and renewed suspicion and anger directed at the police department by the city’s Black community.“I am so sorry for what you endured,” the mayor said during a news conference. “I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years.”Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett were wrongly named as suspects in the Oct. 23, 1989, death of Carol Stuart, whose husband, Charles Stuart, had orchestrated her killing.Stuart, who was also white, blamed his wife’s killing – and his own shooting during what he portrayed as an attempted carjacking — on an unidentified Black gunman, leading to a crackdown by police in one of the city’s traditionally Black neighborhoods in pursuit of a phantom assailant.Charles Stuart said a Black man forced his way into their car as ...

SiriusXM sued for allegedly trapping customers in unwanted subscriptions

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

New York (CNN) — SiriusXM is the target of a lawsuit from the New York attorney general’s office accusing the satellite radio company of trapping customers in subscriptions and finding ways to prevent them from cancelling.On Wednesday, New York AG Letitia James announced she’s suing SiriusXM after an investigation discovered that the company “forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy” to prevent subscribers from cancelling their packages.In a press release, James said that a company’s difficult cancellation process is illegal.“Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy,” James said. “New Yorkers can trust that when companies like SiriusXM try to take advantage of them and violate the law, my office will step in to stop them.”SiriusXM di...

Alex Caruso praises LeBron James’ longevity as the Lakers visit the Bulls: ‘You can get blinded by the greatness’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

Alex Caruso never takes a matchup with LeBron James lightly.After spending three years as James’ teammate — including a run to the NBA title in 2020 — Carusois familiar with what it takes to face one of the best players in league history.When James and the Los Angeles Lakers come to the United Center to play the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, Caruso knows his team will be energized for the matchup.“You play certain players, certain teams, it’s easy to get up for those games,” Caruso said. “Anytime one of the best players to ever play the game comes into your arena, you’re gonna be ready.”James is still dominating the league in the 21st season of his NBA career. This is the same player who scored 25 points in his debut at age 18. Two decades later, he is still a top-15 scorer in the league, averaging 25.2 points, 7.2 assists and 7.6 rebounds per game.For Caruso, those statistics aren’t shocking — but he cherishes a remind...

Hamas leader visits Cairo as talks over another Gaza cease-fire gather pace

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

By WAFAA SHURAFA, JOSEF FEDERMAN and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas’ top leader traveled to Cairo on Wednesday for talks on the war in Gaza, part of a flurry of diplomacy aimed at securing another cease-fire and swap of hostages for Palestinian prisoners at a moment when Israel’s offensive shows no signs of slowing.Hamas has been putting up stiff resistance, even as the Israeli army claims to be making great progress in eradicating them. The visit to Cairo by its top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, came a day after Hamas fired rockets that set off air raid sirens in central Israel. It was a show of strength after a 10-week war that has devastated much of northern Gaza, killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, and driven some 1.9 million — nearly 85% of the population — from their homes.Israel has called on the rest of the world to blacklist Hamas as a terrorist organization, saying it must be removed from power in Gaza in the wake of its Oct. 7 rampage a...

Teachers in Ontario’s French-language public school system to hold strike vote

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

Teachers in Ontario’s French-language public school system will be voting next month on whether to give their union a strike mandate after nearly a year and a half of bargaining.Union president Anne Vinet-Roy says the government is insisting on proposals “that will add to teachers’ workloads and worsen the critical staff shortages” threatening the French-language education system.Strike votes have been set for Jan. 24 to Jan. 26.As well, the Association des enseignantes et enseignants franco-ontariens is asking for a conciliator to help move contract negotiations forward. Related: Ontario English elementary teachers vote in favour of 4-year agreement High school teachers accept Ford government’s binding arbitration proposal Ontario Catholic teachers file for conciliation in contract talks with Ford government Elementary and secondary teachers have reached deals with the province that settle certain issues a...

Feds sign first carbon contract for difference with Calgary-based Entropy

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

CALGARY — A Calgary carbon capture company has signed a first-of-its-kind carbon offtake agreement with the federal government.The federal Liberal government promised in its recent fall economic statement to introduce a carbon contracts for difference framework in order to give certainty to companies considering investing in emissions reducing technology.Carbon contracts for difference reduce the risk for businesses investing in clean technologies by guaranteeing the price of carbon for a fixed period of time.The government said Wednesday it has signed a first contract with Entropy Inc., which has developed a unique modular carbon capture, utilization and storage technology.The agreement will see the Canada Growth Fund provide Entropy with a large-scale, long-term, fixed price carbon credit offtake framework.Many environmental groups have said this type of agreement has long been the missing piece when it comes to encouraging private sector investment in decarbonization.This report ...

Maine governor tells residents to stay off the roads as some rivers continue rising after storm

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:26:15 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A river that runs through Maine’s capital city has risen to levels not seen in decades in the aftermath of a heavy storm, and the state’s governor urged people in heavily impacted areas to avoid travel Wednesday.People across the northeastern U.S. were still mopping up after the major pre-Christmas storm dumped torrential rains and brought damaging winds from Pennsylvania to Maine, as some rivers in the region rose even higher. Some of the worst damage was in Vermont and Maine, where hundreds of thousands of people still lacked power.At least five people in East Coast states were killed in the storms. In Maine, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills planned to address the state while emergency managers tended to dozens of road closures.The Kennebec River, which runs through Augusta, and the Sandy, Swift, Carrabassett and Androscoggin rivers were all seeing higher water levels than typical, leading to damage and closures, the Maine Department of Transportation...