Oscar-winning documentarian and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov has a new film that delves further into the Russia-Ukraine war.

“2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a joint production between the AP and PBS’ “Frontline,” will have its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday.

Chernov won the best documentary Oscar in March for “20 Days in Mariupol,” his harrowing depiction of the early days of the war. That film debuted at Sundance in 2023 before going on to collect many of the film industry’s most prestigious awards, including from the Directors Guild and BAFTA. The film drew on AP reporting that also won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for public service and featured prominently that same year in a Pulitzer for breaking news photography.

The new film takes place during the failing counteroffensive and focuses on a Ukrainian platoon’s mission to try to liberate a strategic village from occupation. They need to traverse “one mile of heavily fortified forest,” the description reads. “But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Kim Yutani, the festival’s director of programming, said she expects audience will be deeply moved by the film.

“It’s an incredible documentary,” Yutani said. “It really takes you into the trenches, literally into the trenches with Ukrainian troops, Ukrainian soldiers, citizens who became soldiers — a beautiful, horrifying portrait of the futility of war.”

The Sundance Film Festival kicks off on Jan. 23 in Park City, Utah, and runs through Feb. 2.

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For more AP coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, visit https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press

Police are asking for the public’s help in connection to a homicide that took place in North Preston back in May.

On May 8, shortly before midnight, Mounties received a report that a man had been shot near Downey Road.

Police said when they arrived, they found a 36-year-old Tyler Beals, of Westphal, with gunshot wounds. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

“Mr. Beals’ homicide remains unsolved and we need information from the public to advance the investigation,” says Cpl. Ryan McCarron of CID. “If you were in the area of Downey Rd. on May 8, or have any details about the events leading up to or after the shooting, please reach out to us; your voice could help bring closure to his grieving family.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.

East Hants District RCMP is asking for the public’s help finding a man wanted on a province-wide arrest warrant.

Mounties said Daniel Gibson, 27, of Truro, is wanted on a province-wide arrest warrant for multiple offences including assault, dangerous operation of a conveyance, flight from peace officer, and theft.

Gibson is described as 5’6″ tall, 180 pounds and has short blond hair and blond facial hair.

Police said they have made several attempts to find him and are now asking for help from the public.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to not approach him and to instead contact police or Crime Stoppers.

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California water agency has approved key funding needed to support plans for a giant underground tunnel that would reroute a big part of the state’s water supply.

The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which along with local agencies provides water to 19 million people, voted Tuesday to allocate about $142 million for pre-construction and planning costs for the Delta Conveyance Project. State officials say the project is critical to help shore up water supplies in the nation’s most populous state due to aging infrastructure and climate-change induced shifts in precipitation.

“After careful consideration, our board took this step because it allows us to gather critical information about the project’s benefits and costs that will allow us to evaluate whether we will participate in the full construction of the project,” said Metropolitan board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr. said in a statement.

Metropolitan is the largest of a dozen water agencies that have voted to continue funding for preconstruction and planning of the 45-mile (72 kilometer) long tunnel. A key vote is expected in 2027 on whether it should move forward.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been advocating for water agencies to continue providing funding for what he has called “the most important climate adaptation project” in the country.

“Nothing else comes close because nothing is more important,” he said earlier this week. “Because this impacts 27 million Californians.”

California officials want to build the tunnel over concerns about the reliability of existing water infrastructure and say it will help capture more water during massive storms and move it from the northern part of the state to the south, where most of the state’s people live. But critics say the project’s $20 billion price tag is too high and there are other ways to strengthen the state’s water system with less impact to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s fragile ecosystem.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, said the tunnel aims to transport too much water to farm operations that should be scaling back on water use as the state faces a potentially drier future. California grows much of the country’s fresh produce.

“There are certain elements that just want to build things for the sake of building things rather than doing the analysis of building the right things,” she said.

The tunnel has been proposed — and disputed — for many years, earning widespread opposition from Central Valley communities that say it would harm their economies and the delta. Last year, the state completed a key environmental review for the project, but it still must pass additional review and obtain various state and federal permits.

The Associated Press

The jihadist rebels who toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad say they want to build a unified, inclusive country. But after 14 years of civil war, putting that ideal into practice will not be easy.

For Syria’s Kurdish minority, America’s closest ally in the country, the struggle for a new order is entering a potentially even more challenging phase.

Over the course of Syria’s civil war, Kurdish fighters have fended off an array of armed factions, partnered with the U.S. to rout the Islamic State group and carved out a largely autonomous region in the country’s oil-rich east.

But the gains of the non-Arab Kurds are now at risk. The ascendance of the Sunni Arab rebels who overthrew Assad — with vital help from Turkey, a longtime foe of the Kurds — will make it hard for the Kurds to find a place in the new Syria and could prolong the conflict.

The jihadist rebels who rode into Damascus over the weekend have made peaceful overtures to the Kurds. But the rebels violently drove Kurdish fighters out of the eastern city of Deir al-Zour days after government forces abandoned it.

To the north, a separate opposition faction backed by Turkey that has been battling the Kurds for years seized the town of Manbij. And Turkey carried out airstrikes on a Kurdish convoy it said was carrying heavy weapons looted from government arsenals.

The Kurds have long counted on U.S. aid in the face of such challenges. Around 900 American troops are in eastern Syria, where they partner with Kurdish forces to prevent an Islamic State resurgence. But the future of that mission will be thrown into doubt under president-elect Donald Trump, who has long been skeptical about U.S. involvement in Syria.

Here’s a closer look at the predicament the Kurds find themselves in.

Who are the U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria?

The Kurds are among the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world, with some 30 million concentrated in a territory straddling Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. They are a minority in each country and have often suffered persecution, which has fueled armed Kurdish uprisings.

In Syria, they carved out an autonomous enclave early in the civil war, never fully siding with the Assad government or the rebels seeking to topple him.

When the Islamic State group seized a third of the country in 2014, Kurdish fighters — who are secular and include women in their ranks — proved their mettle in early battles against the extremists, earning support from the U.S.-led coalition.

They formed a group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab fighters, and drove the Islamic State group out of large areas of Syria with help from U.S.-led airstrikes and American special forces. In 2017, the SDF captured Raqqa, the capital of the extremists’ self-styled caliphate.

Why is Turkey fighting the Kurds?

Turkey has long viewed the SDF as an extension of the decades-old Kurdish insurgency within its own borders. It considers the main Kurdish faction a terrorist group on par with IS and has said it should have no presence in the new Syria.

In recent years, Turkey has trained and funded fighters known as the Syrian National Army, helping them wrest control of territory from the Kurds in northern Syria along the border with Turkey. The SNA has portrayed itself as part of the opposition against Assad, but analysts say the fighters are largely driven by opportunism and hatred of the Kurds.

With IS mostly defeated and an unspoken truce with Assad, the Kurds have been able to focus on battling the SNA in recent years. But the new leadership in Damascus, which also has longstanding ties to Turkey, could open another, much longer front.

How do the Syrian rebels view the Kurds?

The main rebel faction is led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al-Qaida militant who cut ties with the group eight years ago and says he wants to build a new Syria free of dictatorship that will serve all its religious and ethnic communities.

Nawaf Khalil, head of the Germany-based Center for Kurdish Studies, said the early signs were positive. He said the rebels steered clear of two SDF-controlled enclaves of Aleppo when they stormed the city two weeks ago at the start of their rapid advance across the country.

“It is also positive that they did not speak negatively about the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said.

It remains to be seen if those sentiments will endure. After sweeping into Deir al-Zour this week, a fighter from al-Sharaa’s group posted a video saying they would soon advance toward Raqqa and other areas of eastern Syria, raising the possibility of further clashes with the Kurds.

The rebels could still seek some kind of agreement with the Kurds to incorporate them into the post-Assad political order, but that would likely require accepting a degree of Kurdish autonomy in the east. It would also risk angering Turkey, which now appears to be the chief power broker in Syria.

Will the Trump administration support the Kurds?

The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, met with SDF forces in Syria on Tuesday, in a sign of the Biden administration’s commitment to the alliance post-Assad.

But things could change on Jan. 20.

Trump has provided few details about his Middle East policy, aside from saying he wants to end the region’s wars and keep the United States out of them.

In a social media post shortly before Assad was overthrown, Trump wrote that “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”

During his previous term, in 2019, Trump abandoned the Kurds ahead of a Turkish incursion, casting it as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to end U.S. involvement in the region’s “endless wars.”

The move prompted heavy criticism, including from prominent Republicans who accused him of betraying an ally. Trump backtracked weeks later, approving a wider mission to secure oil fields in the east. The troops remained where they were and the alliance endured.

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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.

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Follow the AP’s Syria coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/syria

Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press

IRVING, Texas (AP) — NBA Hall of Famers and former Toronto Raptors Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady are among 10 limited partners who have joined the Buffalo Bills’ ownership group.

The noncontrolling, minority interests were approved Wednesday by NFL team owners at the league’s winter meetings. This is the first time in franchise history that minority owners have been added.

Terry and Kim Pegula bought the Bills for $1.4 billion from the estate of late Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson in 2014. Forbes most recently valued the Bills at $4.2 billion. The Pegulas will retain 79% control of the team, a person with knowledge of the sale told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Bills haven’t revealed details.

Former U.S. National Team soccer player and Toronto FC star Jozy Altidore is among the new limited partners.

The remaining seven partners, pending final closing of the agreements, include: Private investment firm Arctos, Rob Palumbo, co-managing partner of Accel-KKR; Sue McCollum, CEO and owner of beverage distribution companies Eagle Brand Sales and Double Eagle Distributing; Theresia Gouw, co-founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Acrew Capital; Rob Ward, co-founder, general partner of venture capital firm Meritech Capital; Mike Joo, COO, Global Corporate and Investment Banking and Head of North America Corporate and Investment Banking at Bank of America; Tom Burger, co-founder and managing partner of the investment firm Gridiron Capital.

NFL team owners approved a measure earlier this year that allows investments into franchises by private equity funds. The league’s ownership rules had been among the most restrictive in professional sports.

Other teams also are in the process of finalizing the addition of limited partners. Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady already purchased a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders in a deal approved by NFL team owners in October.

“This has been an incredible journey to add such an impressive and diverse group of limited partners along with a reputable private equity partner in Arctos that has an extensive track record of success with professional sports franchises,” Terry Pegula said in a statement.

“They all have achieved high levels of success in their respective industries and we’re grateful for their interest in our team, our sport, and the future of the Buffalo Bills. Most of them have a personal attachment with our team, Western New York or Southern Ontario which was a very important factor to me.”

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AP Sports Writer John Wawrow in Orchard Park, New York, contributed to this report.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, facing questions for the last time about some of the darkest moments of Joe Biden’s presidency: the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The hearing comes at the twilight of Blinken’s diplomatic career, with only weeks left before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and at the end of the chairmanship of Rep. Michael McCaul, who will no longer lead the committee in the next Congress. It’s the capstone to nearly four years of animosity between the two men over the end of America’s longest war.

“This catastrophic event was the beginning of a failed foreign policy that lit the world on fire,” McCaul, a Texas Republican, said in his opening statement. “I welcome your testimony today and hope you use this opportunity to take accountability for the disastrous withdrawal.”

Blinken opened his appearance before the committee by turning to families of U.S. forces killed in the withdrawal and apologizing to them. Cries of “genocide” and other protests from demonstrators in the audience repeatedly interrupted his testimony.

Blinken again defended the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal, saying that the pullout deal that Trump negotiated with the Taliban before leaving office left him no viable alternative.

“To the extent President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said. “Had he not followed through on his predecessor’s commitment, attacks on our forces and allies would have resumed and the Taliban’s assault on the country’s major cities would have commenced.”

His long-awaited testimony comes months after House Republicans issued a scathing report on their investigation into the withdrawal, blaming the disastrous end on Biden’s administration. They downplayed Trump’s role in the failures even though he had signed the withdrawal deal with the Taliban.

The Republican-led review laid out the final months of military and civilian failures, following Trump’s February 2020 withdrawal deal, that allowed America’s fundamentalist Taliban enemy to sweep through and conquer all of the country even before the last U.S. officials flew out on Aug. 30, 2021. The chaotic exit left behind many American citizens, Afghan battlefield allies, women activists and others at risk from the Taliban.

Previous investigations and analyses have pointed to a systemic failure spanning the last four presidential administrations and concluded that Biden and Trump share the heaviest blame.

Farnoush Amiri And Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

Let's be honest: bureaucrats and politicians like using artificial turf because it's low-maintenance compared to natural grass, risk to kids be damned.

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that his government will protect major television stations in the country, like the U.S.-owned TVN, against hostile purchases, in a move aimed at protecting from any such attempts by Russia.

Tusk stressed that the directive to be adopted next week is to safeguard against Russia’s attempts to influence Europe’s democracy and political processes. He pointed to the recent presidential election in Romania that was voided on allegations of Russian influence.

Tusk said that Poland’s most popular station TVN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, and the private Polsat station will be added to a list of protected businesses that require government permission to sell.

“TVN and Polsat will be put in the register of strategic firms that are under protection against hostile takeover or one that is considered dangerous from the point of view of the interest of the Polish state,” Tusk said,

He spoke alongside visiting Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal, as both stressed they share views on protecting the region’s security in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Both countries, who are members of the European Union, provide Ukraine with political and military support.

“We want to protect our countries and the European Union against interference into the electoral processes or attempts at taking over or interfering with the work of our media,” Tusk said.

Media reports say that Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to sell TVN and that the right-wing and EU-sceptic Law and Justice party might be interested in buying it. Polsat is at the center of bitter infighting over its control within its owner, Zygmunt Solorz’s family.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Myha’la is best known for playing a steely, manipulative investment banker on HBO’s “Industry,” so the thought of her breaking into song seems antithetical.

Yet the graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious drama school says when she told friends and former acting teachers she landed a starring role in the series, they assumed it was a stage comedy or musical.

“Nobody saw this trajectory for me. Not even me,” Myha’la told The Associated Press. “This has actually been sort of like a very happy accident and surprise that I have any career at all in TV/film. But I really, really love it and I think I’m more suited for it than I thought.”

Although “Industry” has been around since 2020, it’s this year’s third season that has received the most attention. Myha’la sees this year as the cast and creators’ “collective breakthrough,” but it’s her own work to find vulnerability in the unshakable, calculating, risk-loving Harper Stern that makes her one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2024.

Myha’la, 28, had expected and hoped to start her career in theater when she got the part in “Industry,” and says she — and most of her castmates — have learned on the job. “My first time being #1 on the call sheet was a big deal,” she said. “We’d all basically just come out of school and didn’t know what we were doing.”

Though Harper regularly betrays friends and colleagues for personal gain, Myha’la manages to reveal her soft edges: “I don’t think I could do her justice if I didn’t find the humanity in her. I think, us as human beings, we hold multitudes and contradictions. We are the definition of a contradiction and that’s what makes us human. So to find that in every character I play is the most important to me.”

Besides “Industry,” she’s acted in film with stars who have made an impression. She played Mahershala Ali’s daughter in the Netflix science-fiction drama “Leave the World Behind,” with Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts. Myha’la says she was intimidated to work with “a bunch of legends who’ve been doing it way longer than I have.” But she was pleasantly surprised at how they embraced her. “They treated me like I was just another person in the cast, not a child, not inexperienced, not a junior. None of that,” Myha’la remembered.

Roberts has become a role model after Myha’la observed how she treated everyone on set.

“She’s incredibly patient. She doesn’t behave like she’s the icon that she is,” the actor said. “A generous, respectful person who has integrity. And I really love the way people responded to her. That’s … the person I want to be. I want to come in and command a room with kindness and do my job really well.”

Doing her job well landed her roles in two notable films coming next year — “Swiped,” with Lily James starring as the founder of Bumble, and “They Will Kill You,” with Zazie Beetz — in addition to the fourth season of “Industry.”

Myha’la’s personal life also blossomed this year when she got engaged to her boyfriend of four years. She loves telling the story of their ultimate meet-cute, which started when he direct messaged her on Instagram during the pandemic saying he was an “Industry” fan.

“He was incredibly invested in me, and not in a creepy way — in a really sincere, curious way. And I was so struck by that,” she said.

Grateful for the TV and film roles, Myha’la still holds out hope that one day she’ll make her Broadway debut. “The dream is not dead!” she said with a smile.

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For more on AP’s 2024 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers

Brooke Lefferts, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aaron Pierre is closing out his big year on a literal high note.

After donning Malcolm X’s distinctive browline glasses in the “Genius: MLK/X” series and getting his modern-day Rambo on in the Netflix action hit “Rebel Ridge,” the 30-year-old English actor showcases his vocal talents in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

To deliver as the titular regal lion, Pierre trained under Lin-Manuel Miranda in what he calls a “wonderful singing boot camp.”

“My voice was doing things I never imagined it could do. I was hitting notes that I didn’t think existed for my range,” Pierre said. “I’m just really hoping the footage of me singing these songs doesn’t come out because I’m using all the techniques. Lin’s like ‘Throw the baseball!’ So I’m throwing the baseball trying to hit that high note.”

His Hollywood trajectory keeps going up: He’s been named one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2024 and HBO announced in October that, opposite Kyle Chandler, Pierre will lead “Lanterns.”

That’ll be the broad-shouldered, hazel-eyed actor’s second DC Comics-based series, following his 2018-2019 run on SyFy’s “Krypton,” which explored early days on Superman’s home planet.

As for Pierre’s own origin story: He grew up in South London as the oldest of three, with childhood aspirations of being a track star and a criminologist. At 13, he joined a local theater troupe that performed in a warehouse, sometimes with just several people in the audience.

“That’s actually where I learned some of my foundations. And one of those is irrespective of whether there is one person in the audience or 1,500 people … you give the same performance, you give the same energy,” Pierre said.

Mark “Moonlight” and “Mufasa” director Barry Jenkins down as impressed by that energy. After watching Pierre play Cassio in the Globe Theatre’s “Othello,” Jenkins cast him as Caesar in “The Underground Railroad.” The small part grew and grew after Pierre arrived on set in Atlanta.

“I found myself just creating scenes for him,” Jenkins said. “You know, that character is in the show for much longer, much longer than his character exists in the narrative (Colson Whitehead’s novel). He just keeps reappearing. And that’s just because it was just a joy to work with him. And it was so clear that his presence was just immediately a part of the spiritual essence of the show.”

Counting Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones and Sidney Poitier as career role models, Pierre has been deliberate with his choices as he moves deeper into stardom. Art is the end goal — not fame or even fun, really. He hopes new fans go back to watch his 2022 indie “Brother,” about family bonds in 1990s Toronto.

“I always want my community to feel seen. I want them to feel respected. I want them to feel heard and understood. And I think the projects that I choose, that’s my small contribution hopefully to that manifesting itself,” he said.

Pierre, now living mostly in Los Angeles, says he’s been reaching out regularly to his mom back in London as he navigates the Hollywood circuit.

“Any time I speak with her, any time I’m present with her, I feel safe. I feel reassured, I feel rejuvenated,” he said. “I definitely call her phone a lot and she’ll answer even if she’s at work. Yes, I’m 30 and 6-foot-3 and doing Terry Richmond in ‘Rebel Ridge.’ But like to me, I’m still her baby and I’m still her little boy and she always makes time for me, no matter what the situation.”

Both on and off-set, Pierre carries himself with a sense of purpose and seriousness. “I don’t know that there’s anything frivolous about Aaron Pierre, even in downtime, which is — I mean that as a compliment,” Jenkins said.

“He’s very intellectually engaged. But he also looks like a superhero. And there’s a version of him that is only viewed that way. He’s always diligent about protecting against that by doing things that are maybe a bit outside the box,” Jenkins added. “And for me, I just hope that he gets to grow and express himself in all the different ways that I think he’s capable of.”

Indeed, when asked about his aspirations for future creative collaborators, the first name out of Pierre’s mouth might surprise: “Women Talking” writer-director Sarah Polley.

“If you could put a word in for me, please,” he said.

“Yeah, just to continue to work with filmmakers who inspired me and whose work I admire and respect and that will inevitably put me in a situation where I’m forced to evolve and develop and grow and challenge myself as an actor. And I want to be doing that until the day that I decide to stop doing this,” Pierre added. “I want to always feel like I’m growing, like I’m shifting the needle. You know, I never want to feel stagnant. I never want to feel comfortable.”

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For more on AP’s 2024 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers

Ryan Pearson, The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Fred Hechinger dreamed of running away to join the circus. Now, as his acting career takes off, he jokes that it feels like he’s finally living that childhood dream.

“I thought that looked really fun. And now I kind of feel like I work in the circus,” Hechinger told The Associated Press, which selected him as one of its Breakthrough Entertainers of 2024.

Levity suits the 25-year-old, despite his role as the tyrannical Emperor Caracalla in “Gladiator II.” While his year — which has included the highly praised “Thelma,” with June Squibb — has been “fun and busy,” Hechinger says, it also “feels in some ways like a reflective year at the moment.”

Hechinger kicked off his acting career in Bo Burnham’s adolescent dramedy “Eighth Grade,” released in 2018. In 2020, he found himself alongside Tom Hanks in the Paul Greengrass-directed Western “News of the World.” But it was in 2021, playing Quinn Mossbacher in the first season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” that he really made a splash.

With the success of “Gladiator II” and “Thelma,” and the upcoming “Nickel Boys,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — not to mention the anticipation for the Spider-Man spinoff “Kraven the Hunter” — Hechinger is cognizant of the challenges that come with fame. However, blending his private and public lives doesn’t seem to faze him — within reason, of course.

“We’re all human and everyone should be treated as full humans. But I don’t have any particular gripes at the moment,” Hechinger says.

Instead, he expresses gratitude for having the opportunity fulfill his dream.

“For so many years I wanted to tell stories and be an actor,” he says. “So, the moment I started to get paid to do it, where it was a job, an actual real job to do this thing that I loved to play and focus and work in this way, that’s something I count as a blessing.”

With his busy schedule, Hechinger has picked up a valuable lesson: Once filming wraps, it’s time to let go. He acknowledges that after he’s done his part, it’s out of his hands. Although he doesn’t have kids of his own, he compares finishing a movie to raising children and sending them off into the world.

“You’re always there for them, you care about them, but you can’t be with them every step of the way. You have to let them stand on their own,” Hechinger compares. “It’s the same with a movie — once it’s done, you’ve done all you can, and now it’s time to release it, share it, and hope people connect with it.”

With his breakthrough year coming to a close, Hechinger wants to continue the momentum of telling stories.

“I love that I’m able to do it and I just want to keep doing it in ways that push and scare me a little bit,” he says, “and also take those creative risks and hopefully give people stories that that can mean something to them.”

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For more on AP’s 2024 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers

John Carucci, The Associated Press

Four speakers attended public hearing Tuesday night to oppose demolition plans.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Fueled by pricier used cars, hotel rooms and auto insurance, inflation in the United States moved slightly higher last month while remaining far below its peak of two years ago.

Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier, up from a yearly figure of 2.6% in October. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices increased 3.3%, the same as in the previous month.

From October to November, consumer prices climbed 0.3%, the biggest monthly increase since April. Core prices also rose 0.3% for a fourth straight month.

Wednesday’s inflation figures from the Labor Department are the final major piece of data that Federal Reserve officials will consider before they meet next week to decide on interest rates. The relatively mild increase won’t likely be enough to discourage the officials from cutting their key rate by a quarter-point, as most economists and Wall Street traders expect.

The Fed slashed its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by a sizable half-point in September and by a quarter-point in November. Those cuts lowered the central bank’s key rate to 4.6%, down from a four-decade high of 5.3%.

Though inflation is now way below its peak of 9.1% in June 2022, average prices are still about 20% higher than they were three years ago — a major source of public discontent that helped drive President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Still, most economists expect inflation to decline further next year toward the Fed’s 2% target.

Fed officials have made clear that they expect inflation to fluctuate along a bumpy path even as it gradually cools toward their target level. In speeches last week, several of the central bank’s policymakers stressed their belief that with inflation having already fallen so far, it was no longer necessary to keep their benchmark rate quite as high.

Typically, the Fed cuts rates to try to stimulate the economy enough to maximize employment yet not so much as to drive inflation high. But the U.S. economy appears to be in solid shape. It grew at a brisk 2.8% annual pace in the July-September quarter, bolstered by healthy consumer spending. That has led some Wall Street analysts to suggest that the Fed doesn’t actually need to cut its key rate further.

But Chair Jerome Powell has said that the central bank is seeking to “recalibrate” its rate to a lower setting, one more in line with tamer inflation. In addition, hiring has slowed a bit in recent months, raising the risk that the economy could weaken in the coming months. Additional rate cuts by the Fed could offset that risk.

One possible threat to the Fed’s efforts to keep inflation down is Trump’s threat to impose widespread tariffs on U.S. imports — a move that economists say would likely send inflation higher. Trump has said he could impose tariffs of 10% on all imports and 60% on goods from China. As a consequence, economists at Goldman Sachs have forecast that core inflation would amount to 2.7% by the end of 2025. Without tariffs, they estimate it would drop to 2.4%.

When the Fed’s meeting ends Wednesday, it will not only announce its interest rate decision. The policymakers will also issue their latest quarterly projections for the economy and interest rates. In September, they projected four rate cuts for 2025. The officials will likely scale back that figure next week.

Christopher Rugaber, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House that could serve as a road map for the incoming administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the White House said Wednesday.

Biden administration officials began developing the guidance this summer. It was shaped to be a document that could help the next administration build its approach from Day 1 on how it deals with the tightening relationships involving America’s most prominent adversaries and competitors, according to two senior administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the classified memorandum would not be made public because of the sensitivity of some of its findings.

The document includes four broad recommendations: improving U.S. government interagency cooperation, speeding up the sharing of information with allies about the four adversaries, calibrating the U.S. government’s use of sanctions and other economic tools for maximum effectiveness, and bolstering preparation to manage simultaneous crises involving the adversaries.

The U.S. for many years has been concerned about cooperation among the four countries. Coordination has accelerated between the countries in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The officials noted that as Russia has become more isolated by much of the world, Moscow has turned to Iran for drones and missiles. From North Korea, the Russians have received artillery, missiles and even thousands of troops that have traveled to help the Russians try to repel Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region. China, meanwhile, has supported Russia with dual use components that help keep its military industrial base afloat.

In return, Russia has sent fighter jets to Iran and assisted Tehran as it looks to bolster its missile defense and space technology.

North Korea has received from Russia much-needed fuel and funding to help build out its manufacturing and military capabilities. The officials added that Russia has “de facto accepted North Korea as a nuclear weapon state.”

China, meanwhile, is benefiting from Russian know-how, with the two countries working together to deepen their military technical cooperation. The two nations are also conducting joint patrols in the Arctic region.

Biden and Trump have sharply different worldviews, but officials in both the incoming and outgoing administrations said they have sought to coordinate on national security issues during the transition.

One of the officials said that the Biden White House memo “isn’t trying to box (the Trump administration) in or tilt them toward one policy option or another.”

The official said the document is intended to help the next administration build “capacity” as it shapes its policies on some the most difficult foreign policies it will face.

Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

TikTok has challenged a Canadian government order to shut down the Chinese video-sharing app’s business operations in the country that was imposed over national security concerns.

The company said Tuesday that it filed an application for a judicial review with the Federal Court in Vancouver on Dec. 5, which seeks to set aside the order for TikTok to wind-up and cease its business in Canada.

The Canadian federal government last month announced it was ordering the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. after a national security review of its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd.

The government is not blocking access to the TikTok app, which will continue to be available to Canadians. TikTok said it has 14 million users in Canada, which is about a third of the population. It has offices in Toronto and Vancouver.

The wildly popular platform is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020, but is under increasing pressure in the West. It’s facing a possible ban in the U.S. and intensifying scrutiny in Europe over issues including election influence campaigns allegedly coordinated by Moscow.

TikTok argues in its court application, which was posted online, that Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes.” It says the order is “grossly disproportionate” and the the national security review was “procedurally unfair.”

The review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate foreign investment with potential to harm national security.

Champagne said in a statement at the time that the government was taking action to address “specific national security risks,” but did not elaborate. His office said in response to the filling that the government’s decision was informed by a “thorough national security review and advice from Canada’s security and intelligence community.”

TikTok said Champagne “failed to engage with TikTok Canada on the purported substance of the concerns” that led to the order.

It argues the government ordered “measures that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies” and that the reasons for the order “are unintelligible, fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis and are rife with logical fallacies.”

The platform says there were “less onerous” options than shutting down its Canadian business, which it said would eliminate hundreds of jobs, threaten business contracts and “cause the destruction of significant economic opportunities.”

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press

After 50 years of the oppressive Assad regime, the people of Syria will get a new government.

In just two weeks, rebel forces swept through the country and took control of the capital of Damascus.

Now, the hard work of nation building begins. Can a new regime heal a traumatized country and usher in an era of peace and prosperity for the long-suffering Syrian people?

Host David Smith speaks with professor Elliot Tepper, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, about what’s next for the country.

Staff present first overview of capital budget to Halifax Regional Council on Tuesday.

The post Halifax council approves advanced tenders, $2.3 million more for Lockview school park field appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston met with members of the Province House press gallery on Tuesday for the first time since his party’s decisive election win. He covered a range of topics.

Mayor Cecil Clarke says the land could also be used for a parkade or for sports facilities that complement the arena.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine vice president on Wednesday skipped the first hearing into threats she made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying she did not believe the investigation will be fair.

Vice President Sara Duterte was subpoenaed to appear before the National Bureau of Investigation but instead sent her lawyer, who submitted a letter saying their client vehemently “denies having made any threat constituting grave threat” under the law.

Duterte has tried to walk back her comments in a Nov. 23 online news conference where she publicly threatened Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez with death. She later said it was rather an expression of concern for her own safety, claiming to have received death threats.

Marcos and Duterte have fallen out since winning the 2022 election. The two offices are elected separately in the Philippines, which has resulted in rivals occupying the country’s top political posts.

Duterte is the 46-year-old daughter former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is being investigated by the International Criminal Court over the killings of thousands of suspects during a crackdown on illegal drugs he had ordered.

NBI Director Jaime Santiago told reporters that the preliminary investigation of Sara Duterte will proceed with or without her presence or counter-affidavit, and that his office will submit by early January its report to the Department of Justice. The investigation was supposed to start on Nov. 29 but was rescheduled on Duterte’s request.

“I don’t think this investigation will be fair,” she told reporters Wednesday. “Even if they say there is an investigation, from the very beginning they already decided to file cases.”

Duterte said she has no plans of leaving the country to hide, and the she and her lawyers were preparing for impeachment cases filed against her.

She is facing two impeachment complaints of violating the constitution, betrayal of public trust, mishandling of government funds and other crimes including the death threats she made against Marcos.

The House has been investigating the alleged misuse of 612.5 million pesos ($10.3 million) of confidential and intelligence funds received by Duterte’s offices as vice president and education secretary. She has since left the education post.

The Associated Press

Canada Post and the union representing postal workers are in a war of words as a countrywide strike enters its 27th day.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers pushed back on recent criticisms from Canada Post in a bulletin to members Tuesday evening, giving a list of proposals it said are meant to bring the two parties closer together.

The statement came after Canada Post said Monday that the union’s latest proposals widen the gap between the two parties, claiming in some cases the union has increased its demands.

The union said its latest proposals included wage increases lower than previously demanded, as well as a cost-of-living allowance and better job security.

The strike by more than 55,000 workers is approaching the four-week mark with no end in sight.

Federal mediation was put on pause two weeks ago, and calls for government intervention from the business community have so far been rebuffed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to meet with provincial and territorial premiers this afternoon to talk Canada-U.S. relations.

The premiers will virtually discuss a joint plan to tackle the threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump.

The meeting is the first time Trudeau will address the premiers following his dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

It comes one day after Trump made a social media post referring to Trudeau as a governor of “the great state of Canada” — a nod to his ribbing that Canada should join the U.S. as its 51st state.

The meeting also comes as the countdown begins for an extended winter break for the House of Commons starting next week.

MPs cleared a hurdle last night by approving $21.6 billion in additional spending in the House of Commons in a vote that came down to the wire to meet a deadline for the parliamentary green light.

The additional cash, which is supplementary to this year’s federal budget, will fund various programs including First Nations child and family services, dental care and compensation for Quebec for the costs of caring for asylum seekers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is set to make its final interest rate announcement of the year this morning.

Forecasters are widely expecting a half-percentage point interest rate cut.

That would bring the Bank of Canada’s key rate down to 3.25 per cent.

The November labour force survey solidified those expectations, as the latest employment figures showed the jobless rate rose to 6.8 per cent.

The central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point in October in response to inflation returning to its two per cent target.

Governor Tiff Macklem wouldn’t say at the time whether the central bank would follow up with another jumbo cut in December, and instead said the decision would be data-dependent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

The provincial government has made the first move toward lowering the harmonized sales tax.

Finance minister Timothy Halman introduced a motion on Tuesday to reduce the provincial portion of HST by one per cent.

“Today’s motion is the next step to reduce the HST for good in Nova Scotia by one percentage point from 10 per cent to nine per cent,” Halman said. “I’m proud this is my first act with the new government because I know what a difference this will make for Nova Scotians.”

The change would take effect on April 1, 2025, making the new combined sales tax rate 14 per cent in Nova Scotia.

Government says the final step toward the change is a regulation change by the federal government.

The one per cent reduction to HST, which was a campaign promise from the Progressive Conservatives, is forecast to reduce provincial revenues by $260 million in the next fiscal year.

CAIRO (AP) — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 26 people overnight and into Wednesday, including one that hit a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north, killing 19, according to Palestinian medical officials.

That strike occurred in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight were among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.

Another strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. Records show the dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza since early October. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.

The army said militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Samy Magdy, The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An 11-year-old girl who fell through the ice while trying to help a 12-year-old boy who plunged in before her over the weekend has also died, authorities said Tuesday.

The two children were at Washington Park Lake in Albany at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday when the boy tried to walk across the frozen lake and fell through the ice, Albany police said in a news release.

The girl followed to try to help the boy but she fell in also, police said.

Albany police officers and firefighters responded and rescued the girl, who was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital in critical condition. On Tuesday, police said the girl had died from her injuries.

A New York State Police dive team found the boy’s body at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said it was surprising that the children made it as far as they did, given how thin the ice was.

“It’s just a reminder of how fragile life can be and how important it is that we ensure that our children know and that everyone in our community knows that venturing out onto the ice is not a safe thing to do on any of the bodies of water here,” Sheehan told TV station WNYT.

The Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Vandals torched a car and sprayed graffiti with anti-Israel slogans on Wednesday in a Sydney suburb that is home to Australia’s largest Jewish community. Officials condemned the attack as antisemitic.

The incident in the eastern suburb of Woollahra came after federal police this week established a task force to investigate increasing antisemitic crimes across the country. Police said they are searching for two suspects, aged between 15 and 20, who were seen at the scene of the attack, wearing face masks, or balaclavas, and dark clothing.

Police cordoned off the scene of the attack. It wasn’t immediately known what the graffiti said.

Last week’s arson at a Melbourne synagogue marked an escalation in targeted attacks in Australia since the war began between Israel and the militant Hamas group started over a year ago in the Gaza Strip.

Cars and buildings have previously been vandalized and torched across Australia in protests inspired by the war. This week, authorities declared the attack on Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue a terrorist attack, which increases the resources and information available to investigators.

Also this week, federal police announced Special Operation Avalite to target those behind antisemitic attacks around the country — including the arson at the Melbourne synagogue, the attack on Jewish lawmaker Josh Burns’ Melbourne office in June, and an attack last month on a car in Woollahra.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Woollahra attack on Wednesday as an “outrage” and a “hate crime.”

“It is another antisemitic attack and all Australians must condemn it,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There’s no place for antisemitism in this country or anywhere else for that matter.”

He said he had been briefed by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw on the attack and would soon be briefed by Special Operation Avalite officials, and rejected allegations the attack could be a criticism of Israel rather than Jews.

“This isn’t an attack on a government, this is an attack on people because they happen to be Jewish,” Albanese said. “The idea that we take a conflict overseas and bring it here is something that is quite contrary to what Australia was built on.”

Government opponents argue that Albanese has been too slow to call out rising antisemitism for fear of alienating pro-Palestinian groups.

Opposition Sen. Jane Hume said she knew a Jewish couple who were considering moving from Australia to Israel because they would feel safer there, despite the raging Mideast wars.

“Because the government has prevaricated, because it has used weasel words and wishy-washy language, it does seem that those that are committing these offenses have been emboldened if not enabled by a government that has failed to take leadership,” Hume said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish global human rights organization, issued a travel warning on Tuesday, urging Jews to “exercise extreme caution” in Australia as “a result of the failure of Australian authorities to stand up against persistent demonization, harassment and violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in Australia.”

Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — After being acquitted of homicide, the military veteran who choked a volatile, mentally ill man on a New York subway told an interviewer he put himself in a “very vulnerable position” but felt compelled to act.

“I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Daniel Penny told Fox News in a clip that aired Tuesday, a day after the verdict.

Meanwhile, scores of New Yorkers protested the trial outcome, holding signs and chanting Jordan Neely’s name in a Manhattan square Tuesday evening.

“Yes, he was acting erratically. But personally, I don’t believe being mentally unwell and being homeless is a crime worthy of death,” said one of the organizers, Sean Blackmon.

An anonymous Manhattan jury cleared Penny of a criminally negligent homicide charge in the death of Neely, 30. The jury had deadlocked last week on a more serious manslaughter charge, which was dismissed.

Penny, who had served four years in the Marines, put Neely in a chokehold for about six minutes after Neely had an outburst that frightened riders on a subway car on May 1, 2023. Penny is white. Neely was Black.

According to passengers, Neely hadn’t touched anyone but had expressed willingness to die, go to jail — even to kill, some said. The former street performer was homeless, had schizophrenia, had synthetic marijuana in his system and had been convicted of assaulting people at subway stations.

In his first extensive comments since the trial began, Penny told Jeanine Pirro that he’s “not a confrontational person.” But he said he wouldn’t have been able to live with “the guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do.”

He said he put himself in a “very vulnerable position” as he restrained Neely on the subway floor.

“If I just let him go, I’m on my back now, he could just turn around and start doing what he said to me…killing, hurting,” Penny said in the clips, aired ahead of the planned release of the full interview Wednesday on the Fox Nation streaming service.

Penny, 26, also criticized officials involved in his prosecution as “self-serving,” suggesting that they were refusing to scrutinize their own roles in the conditions that led to his encounter with Neely.

“These are their policies that clearly have not worked,” Penny said. But, he added, “their egos are too big just to admit that they’re wrong.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat whose office brought the case, said after the verdict that prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end.” His office had no further comment Tuesday.

During the monthlong trial, prosecutors said Penny went too far in responding to Neely, who was unarmed. The veteran’s lawyers argued that he put his own safety on the line to protect other passengers from a threatening man.

The case sparked national debate and divided New Yorkers over issues of homelessness and public safety in a city where millions ride the subway every day.

Penny chose not to testify at the trial, but the anonymous jury heard what he told police in the minutes and hours after his encounter with Neely. Describing Neely as “a crackhead” who was “acting like a lunatic,” Penny said he put the man in a chokehold and “just put him out” in order to prevent him from injuring anyone.

“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” he told detectives in a recorded interview. “I’m just trying to de-escalate the situation.”

A city medical examiner determined that the chokehold killed Neely, but Penny’s defense challenged the finding.

Jurors heard testimony from other passengers on the train and saw videos that some recorded. The jury also heard from police, pathologists, a psychiatric expert, a Marine Corps instructor who taught Penny chokehold techniques and Penny’s relatives, friends and fellow Marines.

Jennifer Peltz And Sanya Mansoor, The Associated Press

Watch Tom Murphy's interview with Sanja Stanojevic, an associate professor in Dalhousie University's department of community health and epidemiology.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

He will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars’ worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior.

It was one of several evening announcements Trump made via his social media platform, including that he was naming Kimberly Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece, a longtime supporter who was engaged to his son Don Jr., and ally and former inaugural chairman Tom Barrack as Ambassador to Turkey.

Ferguson is already one of the FTC’s five commissioners, which is currently made up of three Democrats and two Republicans.

“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.”

The replacement of Khan likely means that the FTC will operate with a lighter touch when it comes to antitrust enforcement. The new chair is expected to appoint new directors of the FTC’s antitrust and consumer protection divisions.

“These changes likely will make the FTC more favorable to business than it has been in recent years, though the extent to which is to be determined,” wrote Anthony DiResta, a consumer protection attorney at Holland & Knight, in a recent analysis.

Deals that were blocked by the Biden administration could find new life with Trump in command.

For example, the new leadership could be more open to a proposed merger between the country’s two biggest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons, which forged a $24.6 billion deal to combine in 2022. Two judges halted the merger Tuesday night.

The FTC had filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this year to block the merger, claiming the deal would eliminate competition, leading to higher prices and lower wages for workers. The two companies say a merger would help them lower prices and compete against bigger rivals like Walmart.

One of the judges said the FTC had shown it was likely to prevail in the administrative hearing.

Yet given the widespread public concern over high grocery prices, the Trump administration may not fully abandon the FTC’s efforts to block the deal, some experts have said.

And the FTC may continue to scrutinize Big Tech firms for any anticompetitive behavior. Many Republican politicians have accused firms such as Meta of censoring conservative views, and some officials in Trump’s orbit, most notably Vice President-elect JD Vance, have previously expressed support for Khan’s scrutiny of Big Tech firms.

Barrack, a wealthy financier, met Trump in the 1980s while helping negotiate Trump’s purchase of the renowned Plaza Hotel. He was charged with using his personal access to the former president to secretly promote the interests of the United Arab Emirates, but was acquitted of all counts at a federal trial in 2022.

Trump called him a “well-respected and experienced voice of reason.”

Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Trump called her “a close friend and ally,” and praised her “sharp intellect make her supremely qualified.” She had been engaged to Don Jr. since 2020, they arrived together at the convention center on election night and she was on stage with the family.

“I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” Don Jr. posted.

Trump also announced Tuesday that he had selected Jacob Helberg as the next undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, and Dan Bishop as deputy director for budget at the Office of Budget and Management.

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Christopher Rugaber And Jill Colvin, The Associated Press

As Kyle Moore reports, it comes in the wake of the dismissal of the entire board after a last-minute meeting over the weekend.

“This election, the voters sent a clear message, and I respect that,” Churchill said.

The post Zach Churchill steps down as Nova Scotia Liberal Party leader appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

It's a busy time of year for socializing, and for those who don't want to drink alcohol, there are more and more options out there. Watch Amy Smith's interview with Jay Hiltz, the owner of Soberish Mocktail Shoppe in Halifax.

CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon says in addition to strong gusts, there will be rain that could create icy conditions on Friday into the weekend.

The only daily TV news package to focus on Nova Scotians and their stories

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional task force investigating the attempts to kill Donald Trump during his presidential campaign is recommending changes to the Secret Service, including protecting fewer foreign leaders during the height of election season and considering moving the agency out of the Homeland Security Department.

The 180-page report by the bipartisan task force released Tuesday is one of the most detailed looks so far into the July assassination attempt against Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and a second attempt in Florida two months later.

Like the series of other investigations and reports, the task force railed at the agency tasked with protecting the top echelon of America’s democratic leaders.

“The events of July 13, 2024, were tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable,” the authors wrote. “The Secret Service’s zero fail mission allows no margin for error, let alone for the many errors described in this report.”

In the July shooting, a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building, wounding Trump in the ear, killing one rallygoer and wounding two others. He was killed by a countersniper.

In another assassination attempt in September, a gunman waited for hours for Trump to appear at his golf course in Florida, but a Secret Service agent thwarted the attack by spotting the firearm poking through some bushes.

Here are the highlights of the new report and its recommendations:

Reducing the number of people protected — specifically foreign leaders

The report’s authors noted that the number of people the agency is tasked with protecting has “greatly expanded.” At the same time, the presidential campaign season is getting longer and more intense.

The agency is also tasked with protecting foreign dignitaries during the U.N. General Assembly, when heads of state and government flood into New York. That event happens every September, which comes at the “height of campaign season,” the report noted, adding to the agency’s staffing crunch.

“Congress, DHS, and the USSS should jointly consider the protective role the USSS plays for foreign leaders and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS’s primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders,” the report said.

Drop some investigative work, especially during elections

The Secret Service is known for its high-profile work of protecting the president, the vice-president, presidential candidates, their families and others.

But agents also carry out a wide range of investigations not related to their protective mission — investigating fraud and financial crimes, for example. Stemming from when the agency was part of the Treasury Department, those investigations are an important part of training Secret Service officers for skills they’ll need on protective details, agency leaders say.

But the task force recommended reviewing these investigative responsibilities — especially during campaign season — so the agency “can prioritize the protection of U.S. leaders and candidates running for office.”

“These non-protective, investigative functions require systemic review because of the USSS’s stunning failure to protect President-elect Trump on July 13,” the report said. “The Secret Service’s protective mission is at the core of the agency’s purpose — anything that distracts or diverts resources from the agency’s zero fail mission must be reconsidered.”

Questioning whether the Secret Service should stay in the Homeland Security Department

After DHS was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Secret Service was moved there from the Treasury Department.

The task force suggested reevaluating that move. During the time Secret Service has been in the Homeland Security Department, “USSS has not benefited from stable leadership,” the lawmakers said.

They said the structure “potentially weakens USSS, a small but critically important agency, in advocating for its budget and other priorities inside a much larger entity.”

“A fresh look at whether USSS might benefit from the status of an independent agency, with more freedom to make budget requests and advocate for itself, would be a healthy discussion for former USSS leaders to have with Congress,” the task force said.

Staffing problems

The task force said the gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, Thomas Crooks, exploited gaps in protection because of a lack of assets and staff.

Specifically, the panel noted that the Secret Service, already dealing with the increased tempo of a presidential campaign, was protecting not one but two high-profile people that day in close vicinity to each other, with first lady Jill Biden at a nearby event.

In one example highlighting the lack of resources at the Trump rally, the task force said there should have been a counter-surveillance unit in Butler, and if there had been one assigned that day, it might have spotted the shooter earlier.

Such a counter-surveillance team was in place for the Biden event, the report noted, although that event was indoors.

“From interviews with special agents on the ground, it appears that the main factor in the decision to not request (the counter-surveillance unit) was an assumption that the request would be denied due to the protectee’s status as a former President at the time of the event,” the report said.

Pointing to bad communications and faulty planning

Much of the criticism in the aftermath of the July assassination attempt has centered on how the shooter could have gotten access to a roof with a clear line of sight to Trump and why there was such poor communications between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.

The Secret Service often relies on local law enforcement to secure large events. The report detailed how local law enforcement had one idea of its responsibilities while the Secret Service had another.

But the task force emphasized that ultimately the Secret Service is responsible for ensuring that coordination runs smoothly.

“The Secret Service must own responsibility for the security of the site,” the report said.

Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was “stupid” not to put his own name on pandemic relief checks in 2021, noting that Donald Trump had done so in 2020 and likely got credit for helping people out through this simple, effective act of branding.

Biden did the second-guessing as he delivered a speech at the Brookings Institution defending his economic record and challenging Trump to preserve Democratic policy ideas when he returns to the White House next month.

As Biden focused on his legacy with his term ending, he suggested Trump should keep the Democrats’ momentum going and ignore the policies of his allies. The president laid out favorable recent economic data but acknowledgedhis rare public regret that he had not been more self-promotional in advertising the financial support provided by his administration as the country emerged from the pandemic.

“I signed the American Rescue Plan, the most significant economic recovery package in our history, and also learned something from Donald Trump,” Biden said at the Washington-based think tank. “He signed checks for people for 7,400 bucks … and I didn’t. Stupid.”

The decision by the former reality TV star and real estate developer to add his name to the checks sent by the U.S. Treasury to millions of Americans struggling during the coronavirus marked the first time a president’s name appeared on any IRS payments.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him as the Democratic nominee, largely failed to convince the American public of the strength of the economy. The addition of 16 million jobs, funding for infrastructure, new factories and investments in renewable energy were not enough to overcome public exhaustion over inflation, which spiked in 2022 and left many households coping with elevated grocery, gasoline and housing costs.

More than 6 in 10 voters in November’s election described the economy as “poor” or “not so good,” according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. Trump won nearly 7 in 10 of the voters who felt the economy was in bad shape, paving the way for a second term as president after his 2020 loss to Biden.

Biden used his speech to argue that Trump was inheriting a strong economy that is the envy of the world. The inflation rate fell without a recession that many economists had viewed as inevitable, while the unemployment rate is a healthy 4.2% and applications to start new businesses are at record levels.

Biden called the numbers under his watch “a new set of benchmarks to measure against the next four years.”

“President-elect Trump is receiving the strongest economy in modern history,” said Biden, who warned that Trump’s planned tax cuts could lead to massive deficits or deep spending cuts.

He also said that Trump’s promise of broad tariffs on foreign imports would be a mistake, part of a broader push Tuesday by the administration to warn against Trump’s threatened action. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also issued a word of caution about them at a summit of The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council.

“I think the imposition of broad based tariffs, at least of the type that have been discussed, almost all economists agree this would raise prices on American consumers,” she said.

Biden was also critical of Trump allies who have pushed Project 2025, a policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that calls for a complete overhaul of the federal government. Trump has disavowed participation in it, though parts were written by his allies and overlap with his stated views on economics, immigration, education policy and civil rights.

“I pray to God the president-elect throws away Project 2025,” Biden said. “I think it would be an economic disaster.”

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Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

Josh Boak, The Associated Press

Sixteen mixed doubles curling teams, including 2019 world championship silver medallists Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, will compete later this month for the right to represent Canada at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy.

HALIFAX — Fishers raised questions today about how federal enforcement officers will cope if a proposal to increase the number of people licensed to net baby eels in the Maritimes goes ahead next year.

The concerns emerged during a meeting held by the federal Fisheries Department at which current licence holders heatedly suggested the federal minister hadn’t thought through the proposed changes.

The Fisheries Department is proposing to redistribute about 28 per cent of the allowable catch of 9,960 kilograms from nine commercial licence holders — creating about 150 new commercial licence holders — and providing half of the total catch to First Nations fishers.

Robert Mark Weldon, a fisher who works for Atlantic Elver Fishery, said during the meeting he may receive one of the licences but is worried about his safety as the number of people on the rivers seeking the lucrative baby eels increases.

Dawn Reiss, who works for commercial licence holder Atlantic Canada Eels, asked enforcement officers at the meeting how enforcement will change in 2025 under the proposed pilot project and questioned whether there will be enough officers.

Chris Ferguson, an enforcement officer with DFO, told the meeting that he couldn’t say how the project would affect enforcement as it wasn’t yet clear how many people would be taking part in the fishery.

He said his fellow officers tried to deter illegal fishing this year but their staffing is limited and he recognizes there is a lot of illegal fishing going on.

Trevor Lushington, another DFO enforcement officer, described the current enforcement climate as “hell,” saying both fishers and officers have been threatened while working on the rivers during the spring elver season.

Ferguson said 169 arrests were made on the rivers this year, but it is not clear how many of those will proceed to prosecutions.

Under the federal government’s proposed changes, the nine existing commercial licence holders will be left with just under 22 per cent of the total catch.

Fisheries Department officials have said the federal minister “supports broadening the distribution of benefits of the elver fishery,” including an increased participation of First Nations in the regulated fishery.

Under the proposed pilot project allocation, the federal department is offering licences to 120 fishers currently employed by commercial licence holders, representing 27 per cent of the overall quota. A further 1.5 per cent would be allocated to licences offered to 30 fishers who currently catch adult eels.

During the meeting, federal fisheries officials said under the pilot project the goal would be to have the “one licence holder per river approach,” on the roughly 123 rivers where elvers are fished.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Progressive Conservative candidate David Bowlby was confirmed as the winner in the riding of Annapolis after a nearly five-hour judicial recount Tuesday at a fire hall in Annapolis Royal, N.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a GOP luncheon on Tuesday, the latest in a series of medical incidents for him in recent years.

McConnell, who is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year, was walking out of his weekly party lunch with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso when he tripped and fell, Barrasso said, before walking back to his office on his own. Medical personnel were seen heading into his office minutes later.

The longtime Republican leader, 82, also has a cut on his face, his office said, but “has been cleared to resume his schedule.” He did not attend a scheduled news conference immediately after the luncheon.

Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate leader and a doctor, said McConnell was “fine” and “100 percent” alert after he tripped and fell.

His fall came after he was hospitalized with a concussion in March 2023 and missed several weeks of work after falling in a downtown hotel. After he returned, he twice froze up during news conferences that summer, staring vacantly ahead before colleagues and staff came to his assistance.

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs. In addition to his 2023 fall, he also tripped and fell in 2019 at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery.

McConnell has been in the Senate since 1984 and has been Republican leader since 2007. South Dakota Sen. John Thune will become Senate majority leader next year when Republicans retake the majority.

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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Mary Clare Jalonick And Stephen Groves, The Associated Press

If you want to get yourself thoroughly depressed, spend a little time looking at statistics about Americans’ retirement preparedness.

In  Vanguard’s most recent How America Saves report, the average participant balance in Vanguard plans was $134,000 in 2023, but the median balance was just $35,000. For workers with Vanguard plans who were between ages 55 and 64, the average and median balances were $245,000 and $88,000, respectively, in 2023. Roughly half of people between age 55 and 66 have no retirement savings at all, according to  U.S. Census Bureau data, and women are in worse shape than men from the standpoint of retirement preparedness.

Clearly, many people are hurtling toward a shortfall, or living through one. And for people who are dramatically undersaved and largely reliant on Social Security for in-retirement living expenses, there’s no getting around the fact that their standard of living in retirement is going to be lower than it was when they were working.

Rather than looking to a single blockbuster solution to help make up for a savings gap, what if you were to consider a little bit of several prudent strategies—being willing to cut your standard of living a bit in retirement, working a bit longer, and investing a bit better, for example?

Employing more modest changes around the margins of your plan means they’re apt to be more palatable from a lifestyle perspective, too; the thought of working until age 70 might not appeal but holding out until age 67 may be more doable.

Work longer

As pre-retirees have no doubt heard, working even a few years past traditional retirement age can deliver a threefer on the financial front, allowing additional savings and tax-deferred compounding, fewer years of portfolio drawdown, and perhaps delayed Social Security filing. Being willing to work part-time in retirement is another variation on this idea. Yet, as attractive as working longer looks by the numbers, it’s a poor idea to make it the sole fallback plan, as many who plan to work longer are not able to.

Delay Social Security

This is another exceptionally powerful lever, allowing individuals to pick up an increase in benefits for every year they delay Social Security filing beyond their full retirement ages up until age 70. In order to pull this off, however, an individual may need to work longer or draw from a portfolio earlier.

Save more before retirement

The good news is that from a household budgetary standpoint, many individuals are best equipped to crank up their savings rates later in their careers. They’re often in their peak earnings years, and other big-ticket preretirement expenses, such as home purchases and college funding, may be in the rearview mirror.

The bad news is that with a shorter time horizon, those newly invested dollars will have less time to compound before they’ll need to withdraw them. That doesn’t mean that late-start retirees shouldn’t bother with additional contributions: Even an additional $5,000 invested per year, earning a modest average return of 4% for 10 years, would translate into more than an additional $60,000 in retirement.

Lower investment costs

This one’s a gimme. Lower mutual fund expenses are correlated with better returns, so why wouldn’t you work to bring your portfolio’s total costs down? Lowering costs can be particularly advantageous as you enlarge your portfolio’s stake in safer investments like bonds, where absolute investment returns, while better today than just a few years ago, are apt to be relatively low. Moreover, the differential between very strong- and very poor-performing investments can boil down to expenses.

Employ a flexible approach to portfolio withdrawals

Retirees seeking the same dollar amount, adjusted for inflation, year after year in retirement will generally want to be more conservative with their starting amount for portfolio withdrawals. Meanwhile, those who are willing to employ a dynamic withdrawal approach, varying withdrawals based on how their portfolios have performed, can generally take a higher starting withdrawal percentage, as illustrated in  our team’s annual retirement-spending research.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to  https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance

Christine Benz is the director of personal finance and retirement planning at Morningstar.

Christine Benz Of Morningstar, The Associated Press

It’s a discombobulating experience, after a “Lord of the Rings” trilogy that was built, down to every frame and hobbit hair, for the big screen, to see something so comparatively minor, small-scaled and TV-sized as “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.”

The film, set 183 years before the events of “The Hobbit,” is a return to Middle-earth that, despite some very earnest storytelling, never supplies much of an answer as to why, exactly, it exists.

“Rohirrim,” which sounds a little like the sound an orc might make sneezing, is perhaps best understood as a placeholder for further cinematic universe extrapolation from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. (A live-action movie about Gollum is due out in 2026.) Here, the thin basis in Tolkien comes from the “Lord of the Rings” appendix, which lists a history of Rohan, the plains kingdom south of the Elven forest of Lothlórien.

A small army of screenwriters – Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou – have from those faint embers conjured a fiery war movie, made as an anime by director Kenji Kamiyama (“Ghost in the Shell: Stand Along Complex,” “Blade Runner: Black Lotus”). The obviously talented Kamiyama fashions some dazzling vintage anime visuals that — and perhaps this isn’t all bad — feels a world apart from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth features.

But “The War of Rohirrim” also feels conspicuously closer to 1990s direct-to-video release than an heir to some of the grandest big-screen fantasy storytelling of the past 25 years. Though there are many — too many — examples of Hollywood over-mining once-rich intellectual property, this dull, appendix-extracted anime adds to a not particularly Tolkienist tradition.

Tolkien diehards, though, may be grateful for whatever “The Lord of the Rings” morsels they can find. And there is some precedent. Before Jackson (an executive producer here) built Middle-earth in New Zealand, “The Lord of the Rings” prompted a pair of 1970s animated TV specials and a not-much-remembered animated 1978 movie.

“The War of Rohirrim” concerns the adventures of Hera (voiced by Gaia Wise), daughter of Helm Hammerhand ( Brian Cox ), the Rohan king. Cox, coming off of “Succession,” again finds himself beset with trouble over the future of his throne.

Things get underway when Freka (Shaun Dolley), leader of the Dundelings, offers his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) to marry Hera and take the throne. After a swift refusal, a fight ensues, and with a mere punch, Helm accidentally kills Freka. Given how extreme Wulf’s vengeance is following this punch, it’s fair to wonder if “The War of Rohirrim” could have been started just as easily with a slap or, perhaps, an overly aggressive noogie.

But only self-seriousness reigns in this “Lord of the Rings” adventure. When the battle begins, Hera must save her people, which she strives to do by retreating to a fortress dug into a mountainside. Hera’s story is said to be one lost to history in the opening narration, but “The War of Rohirrim” is just as much an origin story for the stronghold that will later be known as Helm’s Deep.

I don’t begrudge any Tolkien addict a little anime fun — and maybe these references and callbacks will be enough to conjure some of the majesty of the books or Jackson’s movies. You can tell “Rohirrim” was made with sincere belief in the world Tolkien created. But I found the connective tissue, like the few notes from Howard Shore’s original score that float in, only reinforced how such grander movie ambitions once came to Rohan. “The War of the Rohirrim” does manage to recapture one trait of the earlier films: at 134 minutes, it’s long.

“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” a New Line release is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong violence. Running time: 134 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Venezuela’s political opposition on Tuesday signaled a shift toward a flexible timeline for a government transition that it had long insisted would come next month when the new presidential term is set to begin.

The change came as the faction’s candidate in the July presidential election, Edmundo González, remained in exile in Spain and its leader Maria Corina Machado continued to hide in Venezuela, both efforts meant to avoid arrest, with only 30 days left before Venezuela’s constitutionally mandated swearing-in ceremony.

The move underscores the challenges the opposition coalition faces to deliver on its promise to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office, even as dozens of nations back the faction’s claim to victory and denounce the government for electoral fraud.

“On January 10, the one who is against the wall is really Maduro, not us,” Machado said via livestream during an event in Madrid, that highlighted the repression ruling party opponents have faced since the July 28 election. “When will that understanding really be reached and trigger the transition? It could be before, it could be on January 10, it could be after.”

Machado did not give details of the “terms of a negotiation” which she said the opposition has offered the government. But the faction has repeatedly said that a top priority is the release from prison of hundreds of people detained for being actual or perceived government opponents.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the election winner hours after polls closed. But unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts.

Meanwhile, the main opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines, posted them online and said the voting records showed González won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro. The government ignored calls for transparency from inside and outside Venezuela, and instead, the ruling party-controlled National Assembly sent Maduro an invitation for his swearing-in ceremony.

González left Venezuela in September for exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the vote tally sheets, while Machado has been hiding for months at an undisclosed location, which she says is in Venezuela.

González again told reporters Tuesday that he is willing to return to Venezuela to take office. “I see myself assuming the position for which I was voted by the majority of Venezuelans on July 28,” he said without offering a timeframe.

Dozens of governments, including the United States, have recognized González as the election winner, but it is unclear whether Maduro and allies would allow him to enter Venezuela.

Anti-government protests erupted nationwide the day after the election, drawing repression from state security forces, which arrested more than 2,200 people, including political leaders, lawyers, poll workers, election volunteers and protesters, both minors and adults. Relatives of a few of the detained attended the event in Madrid and spoke of the conditions detainees face.

The arrests had a chilling effect across the country, with people carefully choosing what they say in public or on social media. The move also hit the opposition’s capacity to summon thousands to the streets. Not a single massive rally has taken place since August, but Machado sought to quelch doubts about the strength of her movement, arguing that it continues to gain “more and more support” and characterizing the repression as the actions of a government “in a terminal state.”

“We were told that it was impossible for us to defeat the regime on July 28, and we did,” she said. “The voices that today want us to believe that it is not possible to enforce (the election’s result) will be wrong again. So, it is time to move forward firmly.”

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A biologist’s debut poetry collection that weaves science with a condemnation of slavery and colonialism has received a $10,000 literary award. The Cave Canem Prize helped launch the career of such acclaimed poets as Natasha Trethewey and Tracy K. Smith.

Dr. Brandon Kilbourne’s “Natural History” is this year’s winner of the Cave Canem award, given for work by an unpublished Black poet. The award was first presented, in 1999, to Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate who was the judge for Kilbourne’s prize.

“A research biologist working at the Berlin Museum of Natural History, Dr. Kilbourne has examined the artifacts and plumbed their meanings,” Trethewey’s citation reads in part. “The result is a complex meditation on wonder and devastation of the natural world and an elegy for the earth by an observer who sees, clear-eyed, the ways it ‘premonishes disappearance.’”

Kilbourne’s book will be published next fall by Graywolf Press, Cave Canem announced Tuesday. Cave Canem is a nonprofit center based in New York that helps develop and promote the works of Black poets.

“As someone whose formal training was in the sciences and not in creative writing, winning the Cave Canem Prize feels unbelievably special,” Kilbourne said in a statement. “However, what makes this an even more exceptional honor is to have Natural History selected for this prize by Natasha Trethewey.”

The Associated Press