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Meta begins blocking news access on its platforms in Canada

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

Washington (CNN) — Meta has begun to remove news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada, the social media giant said Tuesday, in response to recently passed legislation in the country that requires tech companies to negotiate payments to news organizations for hosting their content.As a result of the move — which Meta had previously said would occur before the law takes effect — Meta’s Canadian users will no longer be able to click on links to news articles posted to Facebook and Instagram.The changes began Tuesday and will roll out gradually over the coming weeks, said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone.The decision comes amid a global debate over the relationship between news organizations and social media companies about the value of news content, and who gets to benefit from it.Google has also announced that it plans to remove news content from its platforms in Canada when the law takes effect, which could happen by December.The Canadian legislation, known a...

Judge rejects motion to limit what Karen Read’s attorneys can say publicly about case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

A judge has rejected a motion that would have limited what attorneys are allowed to say publicly about the case against a woman accused of killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer.Karen Read is facing murder charges connected to the death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe in January of 2022. Prosecutors have said Read backed her SUV over O’Keefe and left him to die in a snowbank outside a home in Canton. However, her attorneys have said she is being framed and claim there is a cover-up.Prosecutors recently asked the judge to limit what Read’s attorneys can say about the case. In her ruling on Monday, though, Judge Beverly Cannone decided Read’s lawyers have not said anything that could prejudice the case. Read was recently in court on July 25. She is due back in court in September.

Mets deal 3-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander back to Astros: reports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

KANSAS CITY — Justin Verlander is going back to the Houston Astros.The Mets have traded the right-hander back to Houston hours ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline, according to multiple reports. The Mets are getting a pair of highly-touted outfielders in return, Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford.The 40-year-old three-time Cy Young Award-winning Verlander signed a two-year, $86.66 million deal with the Mets as a free agent during the winter meetings in December. The contract also carries a vested option for a third season worth $35.33 million. His signing with the Mets solidified them as bonafide contenders in the National League, but that status didn’t last long.Verlander pitched well in 16 starts with the Mets, going 6-2 with a 3.15 ERA, but the veteran ace looked like a different version of himself than the one who won a Cy Young Award and a World Series with the Astros last season. He started the season on the injured list with a teres major strain in his r...

Henrietta Lacks’ family reaches a deal with a biotech company that used her cells without consent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

By LEA SKENE and SARAH BRUMFIELD (Associated Press)BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.Tissue taken from the Black woman’s tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. HeLa cells went on to become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.Lacks’ cells were harvested in 1951, when it was not illegal to do so without a patient’s permission. But lawyers for her family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific...

Orioles’ lease negotiations frustrate Maryland Stadium Authority board member: ‘I remain perplexed’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

The Orioles remain without a lease keeping them at Camden Yards beyond 2023. In recent weeks, state officials have taken particular note.Maryland Stadium Authority board member William Cole concluded the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday by expressing his frustration with the Orioles over the lack of progress.“With an unprecedented investment of $600 million from the Maryland General Assembly, I remain perplexed why a lease hasn’t been executed already,” Cole said. Last year, the state passed a law providing up to $1.2 billion in public funds, which would eventually be paid for with public lottery funds, to improve the Orioles’ and Ravens’ stadiums.Cole’s remarks come two weeks after Maryland treasurer Dereck Davis, a Democrat, put pressure on both the Orioles and stadium authority to come to a lease agreement, saying: “It’s time to start putting timelines out there so we can get this damn thing done.”The Orioles have played ...

External review found military’s COVID-19 vaccine policy violated Charter of Rights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

OTTAWA — A tribunal that is part of the military grievance process has found that the Canadian Armed Forces COVID-19 vaccine policy violated its members’ Charter rights. The Military Grievances External Review Committee reviews grievances that are referred to it by the chief of defence staff, and provides the chief with non-binding findings and recommendations. In all, 157 grievances have been filed with the independent tribunal over the military’s vaccination policy, which took effect in the fall of 2021 and remained in place for nearly a year before being updated to apply more narrowly. Because dozens of similar grievances are being considered at the same time, the committee took the step of releasing three annexes in mid-July that laid out its analysis in order to streamline future cases. The vaccine policy required Canadian Armed Forces members to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face release.By the time the requirement ended last October, 299 people had been releas...

CEO Brendan Quirk narrows the focus of USA Cycling with an eye on worlds and the Olympics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

It would be an understatement to say that Brendan Quirk took over an organization in turmoil when he moved from his spot as USA Cycling’s chairman of the board to the office of the chief executive in December 2021.The national governing body had churned through CEOs for more than a decade, each with their own vision and ideas but never staying long enough to implement them. Some wanted USA Cycling to be a vehicle to get more people on bikes, tapping into the recreational market, while others wanted to build up lower level and domestic racing programs.Quirk wants all of that to happen, of course, but more as a byproduct of a sharpened focus on Team USA’s elite athletes, the ones that will be competing over the next 10 days at the world championships in Scotland and the Paris Olympics next summer.“There was a period where I think the leadership here tried to become the signature cycling organization across America and the truth is that’s not our mission,” said Quirk,...

‘Euphoria’ stars Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney post heartfelt tributes to late co-star Angus Cloud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

Zendaya has posted a tender tribute to Angus Cloud, her “Euphoria” co-star who died this week at age 25.“I’m so grateful I got the chance to know him in this life, to call him a brother, to see his warm kind eyes and bright smile, or hear his infectious cackle of a laugh (I’m smiling now just thinking of it),” the actor said in an Instagram post Tuesday.Cloud died Monday at his family home in Oakland, California, his publicist said, just days after his father was buried. No cause of death was given.Zendaya said Cloud, who played drug dealer Fezco “Fez” O’Neill on the HBO series, was someone who embodied the phrase “light up any room they entered.”“I’d like to remember him that way. For all of the boundless light, love and joy he always managed to give us. I’ll cherish every moment,” Zendaya’s post said.Fellow “Euphoria” co-star Sydney Sweeney also posted a touching tribute to Cloud on Instagram, along with a photo of her and Cloud hugging.“Angus you were an open soul, wi...

CP NewsAlert: Cyberattack on B.C. health websites may have taken personal information

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

VANCOUVER — A cyberattack on three websites hosted by the Health Employers Association of British Columbia may have seized personal information associated with 240,000 email addresses. Michael McMillian, CEO of the association, says information obtained could include social insurance numbers, home addresses, passport and licence details and other personal information. The Health Employers Association is the bargaining agent for 200 publicly funded health care employers, representing 170,000 unionized workers, including physicians and nurses, to health science workers and paramedics.  More coming.The Canadian Press

An accomplice to convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds gets seven years in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:26 GMT

The man who once headed a highly respected bank in the South Carolina Lowcountry will spend seven years in federal prison for helping convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh steal nearly $2 million from clients’ legal settlements.Russell Laffitte was sentenced Tuesday after a jury found him guilty of six charges related to wire and bank fraud back in November. The ex-CEO of Palmetto State Bank became the first of the disgraced former attorney’s accomplices to face prison time following the June 2021 shooting deaths that stemmed from sprawling investigations into the Murdaugh family finances.The prosecution and defense also agreed that Laffitte will forfeit more than $85,000, local media reported. The former banker has said he will appeal the decision.Murdaugh is serving life without parole for killing his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, at the kennels on their 1,700-acre rural estate. Still outstanding are more than 100 other charges encompassing alleged financial crimes fro...