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Ukraine lawmakers vote to legalize medical marijuana and help ease stress from the war with Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday to legalize medical marijuana, after the war with Russia left thousands of people with post-traumatic stress disorder that many believe could be eased by the drug.The new law, which will come into effect in six months’ time and which also allows cannabis to be used for scientific and industrial ends, passed by 248 votes in the 401-seat parliament in Kyiv. A full breakdown of the vote wasn’t immediately available. The law was proposed by Prime Minister Denys Smyhal.The possible legalization of medical marijuana has long been debated in Ukraine. Many people argued in favor of the benefits the treatment can bring, while others feared legalizing medical marijuana would lead to an influx of drugs on the streets of Ukrainian cities.The debate gained new momentum after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly used powerful missiles to blast civilian targets across the country...

Trump transformed the Supreme Court. Now the justices could decide his political and legal future

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump touts his transformation of the U.S. Supreme Court as one of his presidency’s greatest accomplishments. Now his legal and political future may lie in the hands of the court he pushed to the right. With three Trump-appointed justices leading a conservative majority, the court is being thrust into the middle of two cases carrying enormous political implications just weeks before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses. The outcomes of the legal fights could dictate whether the Republican presidential primary front-runner stands trial over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and whether he has a shot to retake to the White House next November. “The Supreme Court now is really in a sticky wicket, of historical proportions, of constitutional dimensions, to a degree that I don’t think we’ve ever really seen before,” said Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Trump’s lawyers plan to ask the Supreme Court to overtu...

Strong winds from Storm Pia disrupt holiday travel in the UK

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

LONDON (AP) — High winds from Storm Pia disrupted holiday travel Thursday in northern areas of the U.K. as flights were grounded, train service was suspended or slowed, and ferries stopped running to islands off Scotland’s west coast.A gust of 115 mph (185 kilometers per hour) was recorded on Cairngorm Summit in the Scottish Highlands. Wind warnings for up to 80 mph (128 kph) were in place in northern Scotland and up to 55 mph (88 kph) in northern England and Northern Ireland. There was also an ice and snow warning for the Shetland Islands, where schools were closed.Gusts knocked down trees that blocked roads and struck power lines, causing blackouts to 40,000 households in northeast England, energy company Northern Powergrid said. High winds toppled a truck on a highway in Manchester and tore part of the the roof off an apartment building in Sheffield.The storm hit amid high holiday travel that is expected to peak Friday.British Airways grounded two dozen flights, British broadcast...

Holocaust past meets Amsterdam present in Steve McQueen’s ‘Occupied City’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

In Steve McQueen’s “Occupied City,” a young woman with an even voice narrates, with rigorous specificity, Nazi encounters and crimes throughout Amsterdam during World War II. The accounts go address by address, and so does McQueen’s camera.Yet the images that play throughout “Occupied City” are of modern day Amsterdam. In the roving, 4 hour-plus documentary made by McQueen, the “12 Years a Slave” director, with his partner, the Dutch documentarian and author Bianca Stigter, past and present are fused — or at least provocatively juxtaposed.The effect can be startling, stirring and confounding. An elderly woman shifts to country music in an apartment complex where, we’re told, a family was once arrested and sent to a concentration camp. A radio throbs with Bob Marley in a park where German officer once resided in the surrounding townhouses. A boy plays a virtual reality videogame where an execution took place.“It’s almost like once upon a time there was this place called Earth,” McQue...

Hundreds alleged assault by youth detention workers. Years later, most suspects face no charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Zach Robinson spent decades trying to fight off nightmares about being raped as a child at New Hampshire’s youth detention center. He died last month, still waiting for accountability for his alleged abusers.“I know that I’ll never forget about what happened,” he said in early 2021. “But just knowing it’s out there and getting the relief of getting it off my shoulders I hope will limit the amount I re-live it.”More than a thousand men and women allege they were physically or sexually abused as children at the Sununu Youth Service Center between 1960 and 2019. But only 11 men have been arrested, none in the last 2 1/2 years, despite a state police task force investigation stretching back more than four years.Authorities cite the statute of limitations as one reason for the lack of further arrests. Yet hundreds of cases remain eligible for possible prosecution, according to an Associated Press analysis of 1,100 lawsuits.While New Hampshire’s statute of limitations...

Hungary’s Orbán says he agreed to a future meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says he has accepted an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy to hold a bilateral meeting in the future, a potential first between the two leaders since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Speaking at an annual international news conference in Budapest on Thursday, Orbán said he agreed to Zelenskyy’s proposal for a future meeting during a brief conversation between the two leaders on the sidelines of a Dec. 10 swearing-in ceremony for Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei. “(Zelenskyy) said, ‘We should negotiate,’ and I told him I’d be at his disposal. We just have to clarify one question: about what?” Orbán said, adding that the Ukrainian leader requested a discussion on his country’s ambitions to join the European Union. Relations between the two leaders have been fraught as Hungary has repeatedly blocked EU efforts to provide financial aid to Ukraine and ref...

Man wanted for allegedly harassing, following teen girl home in downtown Toronto

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

Toronto police are looking for a suspect who allegedly repeatedly harassed a girl in downtown Toronto.In a release, police say a teenage girl was talking home from school near Dundas Street West and Beverly Street when she was approached by a stranger who asked her to follow him behind a building.Police say the girl declined and continued walking home but has since seen the same man on the TTC several times.On Monday, police allege the same man followed the girl home from school.Toronto police are looking for a suspect described as a 20 to 25-year-old man, five foot seven to five foot nine inches tall with a slim build. He was last seen wearing a white/grey/black camouflage jacket with a hood, black pants, and black running shoes with white soles.Anyone with information is being asked to contact police.

World Bank projects that Israel-Hamas war could push Lebanon back into recession

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The ripple effects of the war in Gaza are likely to knock Lebanon’s fragile economy, which had begun making a tepid recovery after years of crisis, back into recession, the World Bank said in a report released Thursday.Before the outbreak of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the World Bank had projected that Lebanon’s economy would grow in 2023, by a meager 0.2%, for the first time since 2018, driven largely by remittances sent from Lebanese working abroad and by an uptick in tourism.However, since the war in Gaza began, there have been near-daily clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border, with fears of an escalation to a full-scale war. The tensions put a major damper on travel to Lebanon, at least temporarily. Data analyzed by the World Bank in the economic monitor report shows that the percentage of scheduled flights to Lebanon that were actually completed plummeted from 98.8% on Oct. 7 to 63...

Waukegan man charged with DUI, 2 felonies after hitting squad car on scene for previous crash in Lake Forest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — A Waukegan man has been charged with driving under the influence and two separate felonies after injuring a Lake County Sheriff's Deputy in Lake Forest early Thursday morning. The crash occurred while the deputy was stationed at a traffic control post during the investigation of another crash that resulted in two serious injuries.The series of crashes began late Wednesday night in the area of Route 41 and Route 60. Lake Forest Police Department officers responded to the area for a traffic crash with serious injuries. A preliminary investigation determined a silver 2022 Ford Explorer was traveling southbound on Rte. 41 at a high rate of speed.According to police, after crossing Rte. 60, the driver of the Explorer veered into the traffic control devices at the intersection for unknown reasons, causing extensive damage to the poles. At some point during the crash, police say, two people were ejected from the vehicle.Both drivers were transported to area hospitals wi...

Man charged with murder after 2 men killed near Humboldt Park tennis courts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:20 GMT

CHICAGO — A man was charged with first-degree murder after two men were shot and killed near the Humboldt Park tennis courts last year.Ronnie Henderson, 27, of Chicago, was arrested Wednesday in the 8500 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue.He's accused of participating in a shooting on May 9, 2022 near the Humboldt Park tennis courts, located in the 1300 block of North Luiz Munoz Drive.At around 3:05 p.m., police responded to the scene and found Devel Jones, 34, and Antwon Gee, 35, shot and killed.The park was full of families at the time – many said they jumped down on the ground to escape the gunfire.CPD said two other suspects were involved. Previous: CPD looking for 3 suspects after 2 men shot, killed by Humboldt Park tennis courts Henderson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.