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Brazil’s Lula places new restrictions on gun ownership, reversing predecessor’s pro-gun policy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree Friday tightening restrictions on civilian access to guns in Brazil, in a move aimed at reversing the pro-firearms policies of his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.The decree reduces the number of guns civilians can possess for personal safety from four to two, reduces the allowed ammunition for each gun from 200 rounds to 50 and requires documentation proving the need to hold the weapons. It also bars civilians from owning 9 mm pistols, restricting them to members of the police and military.“It’s one thing for the regular citizen to have a gun at home for his protection, as a guarantee, because some people think this is safety. Let them have it. But we cannot allow gun arsenals to be in the people’s hands,” Lula said Friday during a signing ceremony.During Bolsonaro’s presidency from 2019 through 2022, the former president had said “good citizens” should be entitled to protec...

DeSantis downplays Jan. 6, says it wasn’t an insurrection but a ‘protest’ that ‘ended up devolving’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday downplayed the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, saying it was not an insurrection but rather a “protest” that “ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate, of course.” DeSantis, speaking in an interview on the podcast of comedian Russell Brand, said the idea that Jan. 6 “was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it’s something that the media had spun up.”The violent attack by a mob of supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump was fueled by lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Rioters stormed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, breaking windows, fighting police officers and forcing lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence to flee for their lives. Nine deaths were linked to the attack, including four officers who later died by suicide.“If somebody is honestly doing an insurrection...

New Jersey school bus monitor charged after using cellphone as disabled girl suffocated

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

FRANKLIN. N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey school bus monitor has been charged with manslaughter and child endangerment after authorities say she was using her cellphone and failed to notice a disabled 6-year-old being suffocated by a seat belt. Amanda Davila, 27, of New Brunswick, was charged in the death of Faja Williams, who was found unresponsive when she arrived at Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Park on Monday. She was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after.Davila was sitting near the front of the bus when it hit bumps on the road in Franklin Township, authorities said. The bumpy ride caused Williams to slump in her wheelchair, and the four-point harness that secured her to her chair tightened around her neck, restricting her airway, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.Davila was charged Wednesday and made her initial court appearance Thursday. It wasn’t clear Friday if she has retained an attorney, according to the prosecutor...

Stock market today: Wall Street closes another winning week by barely moving

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed out another winning week with a quiet Friday, as stocks found some stability after sliding the day before.The S&P 500 edged up by 1.47, or less than 0.1%, to 4,536.34 to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2.51 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,227.69. The Nasdaq composite slipped 30.50, or 0.2%, to 14,032.81 a day after tumbling to its worst loss in more than four months.Roper Technologies rallied 3.7% for one of the larger gains in the S&P 500 after it reported better profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The company, which looks to dominate niche tech markets, also raised its financial forecasts for the full year.The earnings reporting season is gaining momentum, and a majority of companies are reporting better results than expected. They’re doing so by a bit less than usual, though, according to FactSet. On the losing side of Wall Street was American Express, which ...

S&P/TSX composite moves higher on energy and telecom strength, U.S. markets mixed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index gained more than 100 points Friday, led by strength in energy and telecom stocks, while U.S. markets were mixed. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 110.64 points at 20,547.51.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.51 points at 35,227.69.The S&P 500 index was up 1.47 points at 4,536.34, while the Nasdaq composite was down 30.50 points at 14,032.81.Canadian retail sales for May came in weaker than expected, said Konstantin Boehmer, co-head of fixed income at Mackenzie Investments.Retail sales were up 0.2 per cent in May, according to Statistics Canada, led by gains at new car dealers and grocery stores. Early estimates for the month had indicated a gain of 0.5 per cent. The weaker retail sales combined with last week’s inflation print are helping lower the probability that the Bank of Canada will continue hiking interest rates, said Boehmer.“It starts to become a little bit clearer that the Bank of Canada probably does ...

A former Republican legislative candidate has been charged for his role in the US Capitol riot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A former Republican legislative candidate who traveled to Washington for former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally was arrested Friday and charged with federal crimes for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot, officials said. Matthew Brackley, 39, of Waldoboro, Maine, entered the the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and asked for the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office before shouting, “Let’s go,” according to prosecutors. He was arrested on felony charges including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and civil disorder, along with several misdemeanors. He made his initial court appearance on Friday. It was not clear if Brackley had a lawyer, and he did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Brackley tried unsuccessfully to unseat Democratic state Sen. Eloise Vitelli of Arrowsic last year. His campaign website described him as a Maine Maritime Academy graduate whose approach would be to have “respectful...

Uruguay suicide rate reaches new record in 2022, cementing position as outlier in region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The suicide rate in Uruguay increased once again last year, reaching a new record and cementing the small country’s position as an outlier in the region.The South American country’s suicide rate reached 23.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, when the number of deaths by suicide totaled 823, marking an increase from the previous record of 21.6 that had been set in 2021, according to figures from Uruguay’s Health Ministry released this week.“Suicide rates have been on the rise since the 1990s up until the present, with some minimal declines in a few years,” said Gonzalo Di Pascua, a psychologist who is a member of the Coordinator of Psychologists of Uruguay and has studied suicide extensively. “The pandemic, much like in numerous other areas of healthcare and mental health, mainly exacerbated a pre-existing trend, which was the increasing suicide rate.”Uruguay is by far an outlier in the Americas, where the average suicide rate was nine per 100,000 peop...

AI is the wild card in Hollywood’s strikes. Here’s an explanation of its unsettling role

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Artificial intelligence has surged to the forefront of Hollywood’s labor fights. Standing alongside more traditional disputes over pay models, benefits and job protections, AI technology is the wild card in the contract breakdowns that have led actors and writers unions to go on strike. The technology has pushed negotiations into unknown territory, and the language used can sound utopian or dystopian depending on the side of the table. Here’s a look at what the unions and their employers each say they want.WHY IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUCH A HOT-BUTTON ISSUE?As the technology to create without creators emerges, star actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses. Unknown actors fear they’ll be replaced altogether. Writers fear they’ll have to share credit or lose credit to machines. The proposed contracts that led to both strikes last only three years. Even at the seeming breakneck pace at which AI is moving, it’s very unlikely there woul...

FBI wrongly searched for US senator and state senator in Section 702 spy data, court says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI employees wrongly searched foreign surveillance data for the last names of a U.S. senator and a state senator, according to a court opinion released Friday. The disclosure could further complicate Biden administration efforts to renew a major spy program that already faces bipartisan opposition in Congress. Another FBI employee improperly queried the Social Security number of a state judge who alleged civil rights violations by a municipal chief of police, according to the opinion by the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.News of the latest violations comes as the Biden administration faces a difficult battle in persuading Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows spy agencies to collect swaths of emails and other communications. Already this year, U.S. spy officials have disclosed that the FBI improperly searched Section 702 databases for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at th...

Thousands of Muslims took to the streets to express outrage over Quran desecration in Sweden

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:20 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of people took to the streets in a handful of Muslim-majority countries Friday to express their outrage at the desecration of a copy of the Quran in Sweden, a day after protesters stormed the country’s embassy in Iraq.The protests in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran that followed weekly prayers were controlled and peaceful, in contrast to scenes in Baghdad on Thursday, when demonstrators occupied the Swedish Embassy compound for several hours and set a small fire.The embassy staff had been evacuated before the storming, and Swedish news agency TT reported that they were relocated to Stockholm for security reasons.For Muslims, any desecration of the Quran, their holy text, is abhorrent. Under scorching heat Friday, thousands gathered in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a stronghold of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, some of whose followers took part in the attack on the Swedish Embassy. They brandished Qurans, burned the Swedish flag and ...