In classic Nova Scotia style, milder temperatures that accompanied the start of spring will give way to a blast of wet snow overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning.

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education says people need to be careful booking schools for after-hours activities or signing up children for summer camp, after an unauthorized website was discovered offering those services.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law.

A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Invoking the law for the first time since World War II, President Donald Trump’s administration deported hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

The Justice Department appealed after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocked more deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas.

The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.

Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

A fire chief in Digby County says his small volunteer fire department is out nearly $7,000 after a break-in earlier this month.

HALIFAX — Almost two years after a wildfire devastated a Halifax-area suburb, municipal council has approved a new emergency exit for a subdivision in the neighbourhood where the fire started.

On the afternoon of May 28, 2023, the blaze that ignited in Upper Tantallon, a suburb in northwest Halifax, spread quickly and engulfed about 128 homes within the first four hours.

The fire, which was one of many in Nova Scotia that year, forced the evacuation of 16,400 people and destroyed 200 structures — including 151 homes.

According to a staff report presented to council, many residents of one subdivision were exposed to life-threatening conditions as they got stuck in a traffic bottleneck while fleeing.

The report recommends that an emergency-only access road be built to connect the subdivision directly to Highway 103, about 500 metres away.

City officials say it will take until next year to complete the road, meaning it will not be available during the coming wildfire season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2025.

The Canadian Press

A Nova Scotia youth court judge is being asked to impose a 27-month sentence on one of four teens charged in the killing of Ahmad Al Marrach last April.

When governments are re-elected, the second terms are historically tougher than the first. There are some key factors that will shape the next four years for the Tory supermajority.

On Wednesday morning, Halifax Regional Police received a report from the public about a suspicious package in Grand Parade. Police determined the package was a "hoax improvised explosive device."

PARIS (AP) — Their collective name, “coalition of the willing,” suggests that the loose grouping of Ukraine’s allies certainly wants to help. But as the nearly three dozen nations gather again for more talks in Paris, it is still far from clear exactly what kind of aid they are preparing that could contribute toward their goal of making any ceasefire with Russia lasting.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been driving the coalition-building effort with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is expecting 31 delegations around the table Thursday morning at the presidential Elysee Palace. That’s more than Macron gathered for a first meeting in Paris in February — evidence that the coalition to help Ukraine, possibly with boots on the ground, is gathering steam, according to the presidential office.

The big elephant in the room will be the country that’s missing: the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has shown no public enthusiasm for the coalition’s discussions about potentially sending troops into Ukraine after an eventual ceasefire to help make peace stick. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has dismissed the idea of a European deployment or even the need for it.

“It’s a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic,” he said in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

That’s not the view in Europe. The shared premise upon which the coalition is being built is that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine — starting with the illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and culminating in the 2022 full-scale invasion that unleashed all-out war — shows that he cannot be trusted. They believe that any peace deal will need to be backed up by security guarantees for Ukraine, to deter Putin from launching another attempt to seize it.

Strengthening Ukraine

European officials say that in any peace-deal scenario, Ukraine’s first line of defense against any future Russian aggression would be Ukraine’s own army. Options for the coalition of allies could include providing more military training to help replenish the Ukrainian army’s losses, which Kyiv keeps secret but are heavy after more than three years of intense fighting.

That’s something allies already have been doing, preparing more than 75,000 Ukrainian troops for battle against Russia’s larger and expanding military.

The 27-nation European Union is also pressing ahead with a so-called steel “porcupine strategy” aimed at making Ukraine an even tougher nut for Russia to crack, by strengthening its armed forces and defense industry. Britain is also pledging continued military aid so Ukraine can keep fighting if peace talks fail or a ceasefire is broken.

Boots on the ground

The basket of possible options that military chiefs and planners have been looking at in their own meetings in Paris and in the U.K. includes an array of scenarios that they’ve been preparing for their government leaders to consider and, ultimately, green light.

A possible option that France has been pushing would be a deployment by coalition members of a sizable force — large enough to serve toward deterrence — in central Ukraine, somewhere along the Dnieper River, away from the frontlines, said a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity about the closed-door military planning discussions.

The official said other possible options being examined are deploying a support force even further away from the fronts, in Ukraine’s far west, or in a neighboring country.

British officials have said a Europe-led force could consist of between 10,000 and 30,000 troops — which would be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming.

A second French official, at the president’s office, said France does not envisage a troop contingent serving in Ukraine as “combat forces” but rather as “reassurance forces. That is to say signals of our presence, of support for Ukraine in various military tasks.” The official also spoke anonymously, under the French presidency’s customary practices.

The official said missions and contours of the proposed force are still a work in progress but the aim remains for France and Britain to put it together with “numerous European countries.”

But some countries are more comfortable with a potential deployment than others — not least because one of the big unknowns is whether U.S. military forces and intelligence agencies would get Trump’s green light to offer back-office support for any European force in Ukraine.

Russia is bristling at the prospect of a force involving NATO-nation troops and demanding that military and intelligence aid for Ukraine cease.

Zelenskyy and Macron meet first

The war has turned the leaders of France and Ukraine into close partners. Macron and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will get the summit ball rolling by meeting first together at the Elysee on Wednesday night, to prepare the talks due to start at 10 a.m. the next morning. Macron will give a press conference after the discussions.

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AP journalists Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

John Leicester, The Associated Press

MONTREAL — WestJet says it has launched an on-board Wi-Fi service powered by Starlink, the satellite internet technology made by Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX.

In an email, the airline says it now offers free Wi-Fi on 16 of its nearly 140 planes following federal certification.

Spokesman Josh Yeats says WestJet plans to complete hardware installations on its narrow-body fleet by the end of this year and on its wide-body aircraft before 2027.

The higher-speed connectivity comes as controversy around Musk grows, thanks to his close ties to U.S. President Donald Trump as well as recent expressions of support for far-right groups, prompting some online backlash to WestJet’s move.

Carriers including United Airlines and Air France have also partnered with Starlink, while more than half of Canada’s provincial and territorial governments buy critical internet and emergency communications services from it — though unease with the Musk connection has grown in communities stretching from northwestern Ontario to Newfoundland and Labrador.

WestJet, which first activated the speedier Wi-Fi earlier this month, says it chose Starlink in a multi-year agreement between the two parties and Telus that was announced in July after a competitive bidding process that began in 2023.

— With a file from Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, N.L.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Nova Scotia’s police watchdog says it will not lay charges against a Halifax Regional Police officer after a man was injured during an arrest in Dartmouth last year.

The Serious Incident Response Team, or SiRT, was called in to investigate the case from December 11.

SiRT says officers were called to Wyse Road in Dartmouth after a man was seen there who was wanted on offences including flight from police and theft. Police also believed the man “may have been involved in a stabbing” according to SiRT.

The watchdog says the suspect ran from police and squared up to fight the officer who managed to catch up with him.

“The officer brought the male to the ground and a struggle took place as he continued to resist arrest,” reads the release from SiRT. “The officer delivered strikes to the male’s face to gain control. Other officers then arrived to assist in the arrest and take the male into custody.”

The suspect was diagnosed with a broken collarbone.

SiRT says it found no reasonable grounds that the officer acted with excessive force.

Victoria County Warden Jackie Organ says a recent public meeting on the sewage system 'went really well,' despite a cease-and-desist letter sent to a resident who accused the county and its CAO of colluding with a private developer.

"I had always been a music fan, and never really much into sports. But baseball was different than sports."

The post On opening day, there is crying in baseball appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A panel of Brazil ’s Supreme Court reunited on Wednesday for a second day of proceedings to decide whether former Jair Bolsonaro and several close allies will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup.

The five Supreme Court justices began the session at around 9:50 a.m. (1250 GMT) in the capital, Brasilia.

As well as charges of participating in a coup, Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices stand accused of involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage characterized by violence and a serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet on Tuesday said that those facing the charges sought to maintain Bolsonaro in power “at all costs,” in a multi-step scheme that accelerated after the far-right politician lost to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 2022 election.

Like in his February indictment of Bolsonaro and 33 others, Gonet said that part of the putsch plot included a plan to kill Lula and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who were put under surveillance by the alleged conspirators. The plan did not go ahead only because at the last minute the accused failed to get the Army’s commander on board, Gonet said.

“Frustration overwhelmed the members of the criminal organization who, however, did not give up on the violent seizure of power, not even after the elected president of the Republic was sworn in,” Gonet said.

That was a reference to the Jan. 8, 2023 riot, when Bolsonaro’s die-hard supporters stormed and trashed the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress in Brasilia a week after Lula took office. Gonet said the rampage was a last-ditch attempt to hold onto power.

The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says that he’s being politically persecuted.

Local newspaper O Globo reported that Bolsonaro would not be present at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, unlike the previous day.

Speaking on Tuesday morning to journalists at Brasilia’s airport, Bolsonaro again denied the accusations.

“I’m fine. I always hope for justice. Nothing is substantiated in the accusations, made in a biased way, by the Federal Police,” Bolsonaro said, referring to the 884-page report filed in late November.

Under Brazilian law, a coup conviction alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years, but when combined with the other charges, it could result in a sentence of decades behind bars.

Observers say that it’s likely that the charges will be accepted.

The Supreme Court is analyzing whether to accept the charges against eight of the 34 people accused by Gonet of participating in the coup plan.

As well as Bolsonaro, the court will vote on the accusations faced by his running mate during the 2022 election and former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, ex-Justice Minister Anderson Torres and his aide-de-camp Mauro Cid, among others. The court will decide on the fate of the others at a later date.

Eléonore Hughes, The Associated Press

What goes down your toilet can end up on farm fields across the United States.

Biosolids, or sewage sludge, are the solid byproducts of the wastewater treatment process. Rich in nutrients, they can be used as fertilizer on agricultural fields or compost on lawns.

But the process for producing these materials can vary greatly, and some unwanted things can end up in those biosolids. A recent study released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggested that human health risks associated with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were elevated in some places where sludge was applied to farm fields.

The amount of these “forever chemicals” that could end up in biosolids depends on how much were in the water coming into the plant.

“They are very widespread,” said Carsten Prasse, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies biosolids. But they’re not in all biosolids and sometimes it’s only in small amounts, he added.

Here’s how they’re made:

At most treatment plants, wastewater is pumped in through large pipes and large debris removal begins immediately. At a facility just outside Columbus, Ohio, a machine screens out large debris such as toilet paper and trash. That debris is collected, compacted and taken to a landfill for disposal.

After large debris is removed, the wastewater flows into a sedimentation tank, a large, open-air and cone-shaped tank where gravity pulls heavier solids to the bottom. A long mechanical arm corrals floating solids into a drain on the top of the tank. A similar arm at the bottom of the tank gathers up the solids there.

The liquid is moved from the sedimentation tanks to an aeration tank where air encourages the growth of microbes that further break down organic particles. The wastewater then gets moved back to another sedimentation tank where more solids are removed.

The solids that are removed at each step of the process are put through thickening centrifuges, then go into these tanks for anaerobic digestion, where microbes continue breaking down organic matter. The tanks are heated to a prescribed temperature for a certain number of days to kill off most pathogens.

After another thickening step, the solids are ready to apply to farm fields based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations for land-applied biosolids.

“There are values in using biosolids in agriculture because of their high nutrient concentrations,” including nitrogen and phosphorus, Prasse said. They can also help strengthen soil and help with irrigation, he added.

Some treatment facilities further dry out sludge, turning it into a dirt-like material that can emit steam as microbes do their work in decomposition.

The waste that make up biosolids can vary widely depending on what’s in the water. In addition to human waste, biosolids might contain all kinds of everyday household chemicals like beauty products and pharmaceuticals, some of which may contain forever chemicals, Prasse added. At the Columbus facility, the majority of their waste comes from households and businesses.

The Columbus facility tests the final product for metals and nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen every month even when they are being stored before land application.

In Columbus, the city takes half of these dirt-like biosolids to a composting facility nearby, where they are mixed with other organic material like trees and leaves and turned into compost after an additional round of heating and aeration to further kill off pathogens. These biosolids are less regulated and can be used on land such as parks or a residential yard.

The Columbus facility, like most such operations, doesn’t test the incoming material for PFAS, an expensive proposition. Dixon said any future testing or treatment of wastewater for PFAS at his facility would depend on future federal regulations.

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Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

——

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Joshua A. Bickel, The Associated Press

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — One person is dead and two are missing after a nickel waste disposal site collapsed on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, officials said Wednesday. It was the latest deadly accident at Chinese-funded nickel smelting plants there.

The Indonesian victims were operating dump trucks on Saturday when they were engulfed by sludge-like material that is removed in ferronickel burning, said Deddy Kurniawan, spokesperson for PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP.

The collapse occurred after torrential rains.

The body of a 23-year-old was pulled out a day after the accident, and two others are feared dead under tons of waste material, police said.

Authorities are looking into whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, police said.

Nickel smelting plants in Indonesia are part of China’s global development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative. Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies.

Nickel is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles.

In December 2023, about 21 workers, including eight Chinese, died when the furnace at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Steel exploded while they were repairing it. The accident occurred inside a nickel processing-based industrial area under the management of PT IMIP.

In 2022, a truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area.

___

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Mohammad Taufan, The Associated Press

WELLSTON, Okla. (AP) — When Leslie Stewart moved to her home in a rural expanse of Lincoln County outside of Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago, she thought she’d found a slice of heaven. In a town of fewer than 700 people, her son could attend a good school and her acreage offered plenty of room to raise goats and let her dogs run.

But several years ago, her neighbor began applying sewage sludge, which consists largely of human waste left over from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as a fertilizer on his farmland, causing a rancid smell so powerful it nearly took her breath away.

“The smell is so overwhelming that it goes through my oxygen machine and straight up my nose, which makes it very difficult for me to even walk out my door,” said Stewart, 53, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In the summer, the sewage sludge, referred to in the industry as biosolids, attracted so many flies there was no way to keep them out of the house.

“They come through the vents. They come through the vent on the stove,” she said. “It’s just absolutely miserable.”

Stories like Stewart’s are common in rural areas across the U.S. And while the application of sewage sludge as a fertilizer on farmland has been happening for decades, opposition is mounting amid growing environmental concerns about potential pollution of groundwater from toxic chemicals in wastewater. One county in Texas declared a state of disaster this year amid reported deaths of fish and cattle, as well as the contamination of groundwater, in areas where sewage sludge was being used as fertilizer.

Now the battle over how to place guardrails on the practice is playing out in legislatures even in red states like Oklahoma. Maine has temporarily banned the land application of sewage sludge and Oklahoma is considering a similar ban. Many other states are more closely regulating the practice.

One big concern is the human health risk from toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals because they don’t degrade in the environment. They’re linked to health issues such as low birth weight and liver disease along with certain types of cancers. These chemicals, which are found in some nonstick cookware, grease-resistant food packaging, carpet fibers and certain cosmetics, can end up in wastewater and ultimately in the sludge that is used to fertilize farmland.

Farmers typically get the sludge for free, saving them hundreds of dollars per acre over synthetic fertilizer, said Brian Arnall, a professor of plant and soil sciences at Oklahoma State University.

A study released this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests human health risks exceeding EPA’s thresholds, sometimes by “several orders of magnitude,” for scenarios where farmers applied the sludge to their land. Another study published last year by the American Chemical Society found that PFAs can leak from biosolids into groundwater after a single application.

In Oklahoma, the issue has become so contentious at the state Capitol that a longtime state House member was upset in a GOP primary last year after he acknowledged using sewage sludge during a town hall-style forum and defended the practice as a private property rights issue.

Rep. Jim Shaw, the winner of that race, called the issue a major reason for his victory. He’s now seeking to ban the practice statewide.

“I think we’re rapidly approaching an emergency issue in our state and across the nation,” Shaw said. “It is absolutely at the top of my list as needing traction on it immediately.”

The issue is particularly acute in Shaw’s part of the state, where nearby Oklahoma City has an estimated 5,000 acres that have been permitted for land application of its sewage sludge.

Among those who want to keep using sewage sludge as fertilizer are cities and towns across the state who have found it cheaper than other ways of getting rid of the material, like burning it or putting it in landfills. Oklahoma City wastewater officials declined to be interviewed but provided a fact sheet on their use of biosolids that estimated developing an alternative to land application would cost more than $100 million in capital improvements and take as long as 10 years to implement.

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality has rules that require any biosolids used as fertilizer to meet certain criteria on levels of heavy metals and pathogen reduction requirements, but the agency acknowledged they aren’t currently testing for PFAS.

Several Oklahoma farmers who apply sewage sludge to their property, including Stewart’s neighbor, declined to speak to The Associated Press.

Synagro, the nation’s largest processors of biosolids, said in a statement that all the sewage sludge used by the company and its customers meets federal and state requirements.

“Biosolids provide multiple benefits to overall soil quality and health, including improved moisture absorption ability, recycling of micro and macro nutrients, carbon sequestering, reduced nutrient leaching, and lower use of industrially produced chemical fertilizers,” the company said. “Another key benefit is keeping biosolids out of landfills where they can cause methane emissions that contribute to climate change.”

None of that satisfies Saundra Traywick, who raises donkeys with her family in the town of Luther outside of Oklahoma City and has become a fierce opponent of sewage sludge as fertilizer.

After getting Luther to ban the practice several years ago, she has taken her crusade to the state Capitol and found herself fighting against cities that want to maintain the status quo.

“They can not have to pay for a landfill or to upgrade their wastewater treatment plants, and instead spend money on art, parks and beautification projects and arenas, and continue to dump this on people outside their districts,” she said. “The injustice of that just blows my mind.”

___

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Joshua A. Bickel And Sean Murphy, The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff came home to Atlanta Saturday to rally core Democrats desperate for effective action now against President Donald Trump’s administration.

“Georgia will bow to no king!” Ossoff proclaimed at the end of a 20-minute speech that labeled Trump as corrupt, out of touch with the problems of regular people, and “trying to poison our democracy with fear and intimidation.”

“Atlanta, this is not a drill. Atlanta, this is not a bad dream,” said Ossoff, who could be the Republicans’ No. 1 Democratic target in the 2026 elections. “As citizens, this is the test of our lifetime. So tell me, Atlanta, are you ready to fight?”

Ossoff’s campaign tried to play down the idea that Saturday’s event was the launch of his 2026 reelection campaign, and he never specifically asked the 2,000 Democrats gathered in a music hall on Atlanta’s gentrified east side for their votes. But others, including fellow Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, made that explicit, and Ossoff’s campaign handed out yard signs to people as they left.

It’s still so early that it’s not clear what Republicans will oppose the first-term Democrat. Many Republicans would like to see Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp enter the race. But the second-term governor has been holding back a decision and could opt instead to run for president in 2028 or to retire from politics. If Kemp declines to run, Republicans including U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter, Rich McCormick and Mike Collins could seek the nomination, as well as state Insurance Commissioner John King. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has also mused about a possible run for Georgia governor or Senate in 2026.

Any race in Georgia is likely to be closely contested and fantastically expensive. The twin Senate races in 2020, when Ossoff and Warnock narrowly won and flipped control of the Senate to Democrats, cost more than $900 million combined, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending. Warnock’s 2022 reelection over Republican Herschel Walker cost more than $470 million, OpenSecrets found.

Ossoff, keeping his focus off 2026, tried to speak to the alarm that Democratic voters say they are feeling, and promising he was doing everything he could to fight back.

“Maybe right now you feel surrounded by darkness. You might be a little numb. You might be wondering if there’s a way out,” Ossoff said. “But Atlanta, we don’t have the luxury of despair.”

Ossoff tried to carve out a lane as a traditional senator who could do bipartisan work in his first four years. With Democrats restive and in the minority, he may be looking to shift his tone to something more antagonistic towards Trump. But some themes that Ossoff sounded Saturday are consistent with his first four years, including opposition to what he sees as corruption rooted in the influence of money in politics.

“This is why things don’t work for ordinary people,” Ossoff said. “It’s not because of trans kids or woke college students or because our new archenemy, Canada. The corruption is why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. The corruption is why your insurance claim keeps getting denied. The corruption is why hedge funds get to buy up all the houses in your neighborhood.”

Ossoff showcased people who said they’re being harmed by Trump’s policies, but in the hometown of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it wasn’t hard to find others in the audience. Bev Roberts, attending with her mother, described herself as a “Trump refugee,” saying she was laid off by the U.S. Agency for International Development and forced to come home from Cairo. Like many Democrats, Roberts is unhappy with what she sees as ineffective opposition thus far.

“I want to hear practical solutions, I don’t want to hear rhetoric,” Roberts said before the speech. “I think Democrats need to change.”

Some questioned whether a campaign rally was suited to this moment. Thomas McCormick, who drove 140 miles to Atlanta from the central Georgia town of Dublin, said he’s not seeing any effective opposition from Democrats, with the possible exception of Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. He expressed disgust with Saturday’s event and mused about supporting a third party, saying that Democrats can’t wait until 2026, likening the impact of Trump’s work so far to the explosion of the Hindenburg airship in 1937.

“That’s two years, that’s two years of damage,” McCormick said, as strains of “Macarena” echoed through the hall before the rally began. “I have been on the left side of politics my whole life. This is the best I’ve got?”

Jeff Amy, The Associated Press

The Charlottetown Islanders rallied in the third period, and dominated the shootout to defeat the Halifax Mooseheads 3-2 in the shootout, in the final game of the regular season at the Scotiabank Centre.

The Mooseheads scored the lone goal of the first period as Amelio Santini sprung Callum Aucoin on a breakaway, Aucoin firing a shot at Islanders goaltender Donald Hickey that made its way past the netminder and into the Charlottetown net.

The Islanders responded in the third as Jude Herron and Will Shields added two goals in the period to take their first lead of the contest. Liam Kilfoil responded for the Herd tipping a shot from Brady Schultz past Hickey to send the game to overtime and eventually a shootout.

In the shootout, Matthew Butler and Pavel Simek both scored against Nick Cirka while Hickey stood tall for Charlottetown as the Herd fell in the shootout.

With the loss the Herd’s record a final record of 19-35-10, while the Islanders secure a final record of 30-29-5

The three stars went to the Mooseheads graduating players Brady Schultz, Braeden MacPhee and Jacob Steinman.

The Mooseheads now wait for the result of the Drummondville Voltigeurs matchup with the Gatineau Olympiques to decide their playoff matchup. If Gatineau defeats the Voltigeurs the Herd will face Drummondville but if the Olympiques are defeated the Herd will face the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

The playoffs will begin for the Herd on Friday, Mar 21 with more details to come.

A beloved bald eagle who gained popularity for incubating a rock in 2023 is being mourned Saturday after the 33-year-old avian died following intense storms that recently moved through Missouri.

Murphy, who surpassed the average life span of 25 years, died last week at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri. Sanctuary officials believe the violent storms that ripped apart homes and claimed 12 lives last weekend may have factored in the bird’s death.

They said birds have access to shelters where they can weather storms and the sanctuary has contingency plans for different environmental situations. But evacuations weren’t performed since no tornadoes approached the sanctuary. Three other birds who were in the same shelter with Murphy survived.

A veterinarian performed a necropsy and found the bald eagle sustained head trauma. “We are unable to determine if Murphy was spooked by something and hit his head while jumping off a perch or if wind and precipitation played a part in the injury,” a statement shared by the sanctuary on social media said.

Murphy lived in the sanctuary’s Avian Avenue exhibit area and rose to prominence in 2023 when he incubated a rock. His instincts were rewarded when he was allowed to foster an injured eaglet that he nurtured back to health. The eaglet was eventually released back to the wild and another eaglet was entrusted to Murphy’s care. The second eaglet is expected to be released into the wild this summer.

“In honor of Murphy’s legacy, we plan to name the eventual eagle fostering aviary Murphy’s Manor, so that we can continue to remember him for decades to come,” the sanctuary’s statement added.

The Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — A Sudanese pro-democracy activist group said Saturday that at least 45 people have been killed after members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group entered a city in the western region of Darfur.

The Resistance Committees, a network of youth groups tracking Sudan’s war, said the RSF carried out attacks in the city of al-Maliha over the past two days.

The dead included at least a dozen women, according to a partial casualty list published by the activist group.

The paramilitary group claimed Thursday that it seized al-Maliha, a strategic desert city in North Darfur near the borders with Chad and Libya.

Sudan’s military has acknowledged fighting around al-Maliha, but has not said it lost the city.

Al-Maliha is around 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the city of el-Fasher, which remains held by the Sudanese military despite near-daily strikes by besieging RSF.

The Associated Press

TEL AVIV (AP) — Unlike many families who blame Israel’s government for not getting their loved ones released from captivity in Gaza, Adi Alexander is hesitant to point fingers. Pragmatic and measured, the father of the last living American being held hostage by Hamas just wants his son to come home.

“I don’t want to get into who came first, the egg or the chicken,” Alexander told The Associated Press on Friday from his New Jersey home. Still, with the once-promising ceasefire giving way to renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas, he wonders whether Israel can secure his son’s freedom and is more hopeful about the U.S.’s chances to do it.

Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the U.S., is one of 59 hostages still in Gaza, more than half of whom are believed to be dead. Last week, Hamas said it would release Edan and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel recommitted to the stalled ceasefire agreement.

Days later, though, Israel launched rockets across Gaza, breaking the two-month-old deal and killing hundreds of Palestinians. The hostilities show no signs of abating, with Israel vowing Friday to advance deeper into Gaza until Hamas releases the remaining hostages.

The return to fighting has inflamed the debate in Israel over the fate of those held captive. Netanyahu has come under mounting domestic pressure, with mass protests over his handling of the hostage crisis. But he also faces demands from his hard-line allies not to accept any deal that falls short of Hamas’ destruction.

A father’s hope

Adi Alexander said he thinks Netanyahu wants to bring everybody home, but on his own terms. He questions Netanyahu’s plans whereas he believes U.S. President Donald Trump’s message is clear: He’s focused on bringing the hostages home. Alexander said he’s counting on the U.S. to bridge the large gap between Israel and Hamas. His message to Trump about his administration’s efforts to free his son and the others: “Just keep this job going.”

Many families of the hostages say Trump has done more for them than Netanyahu, crediting the president with the ceasefire. In December, before taking office, Trump demanded the hostages’ immediate release, saying if they weren’t freed before he was sworn in for his second term there would be “hell to pay.”

Phase one of the deal began weeks later, and saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire was supposed to remain in place as long as talks on the second phase continued, but Netanyahu balked at entering substantive negotiations.

Instead, he tried to force Hamas to accept a new ceasefire plan put forth by U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. That plan would have required Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the original ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

The US engages directly with Hamas

As a soldier, Edan would have been released during the deal’s second phase. But Hamas announced this month that it would release Edan after the White House said it had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with the group — separate from the main negotiations. It is the first known direct engagement between Hamas and the U.S. since the State Department designated it a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

Adi Alexander said Adam Boehler, who’s helping spearhead the Trump administration’s efforts to free the hostages, led those separate talks because phase two was stalled. But he said he didn’t believe Hamas’ claim that it would release his son because it came out of left field and wasn’t being considered as part of the discussions between the group and Boehler.

The anxious father said he speaks with Witkoff and Boehler almost daily and understands the negotiations are ongoing despite the resumption of fighting.

A native of Tenafly, a New Jersey suburb of New York City, Edan moved to Israel in 2022 after high school and enlisted in the military. He was abducted from his base during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 others hostage.

The grueling wait

Since Edan’s abduction, there’s been little news about him.

Hamas released a video of him over Thanksgiving weekend in November. His family said it was difficult to watch as he cried and pleaded for help, but it was a relief to see he was alive.

Freed hostages have given the family more news, according to his father. Some said Edan had lost a lot of weight. Others said he’d been an advocate for fellow hostages, standing up for kidnapped Thai workers and telling their captors that the workers weren’t Israeli and should be freed.

Although he knows the resumption of fighting means it will take more time to get his son back, Adi Alexander said he thinks both sides had became too comfortable with the ceasefire and that this was one reason phase two never began. He wants the war to end, and hopes the fighting will be limited and targeted and push everyone back to the table.

“Somebody, I think had to shake this tree to create chaos, and chaos creates opportunities,” he said. “The only objective is to get back to the bargaining table to get those people out.”

Sam Mednick, The Associated Press

More than 200 new spaces for children are coming to rural parts due to provincial funding trickling down.

According to a press release from the Nova Scotia government, it is providing $5.3 million in funding to support three child-care operators. This, the province says, will add more than 200 new spaces for children in Annapolis Valley and the South Shore.

“Investments in child care are investments in families to participate in the workforce and grow our economy,” Brendan Maguire, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, said in the release.

The three recipients are:

• Dare to Dream, New Minas, N.S.; 78 new spaces
• Coldbrook YMCA, Coldbrook, N.S.; 62 new spaces
• Small World Learning Centre, Bridgewater, N.S.; 86 new spaces

The New Minas and Coldbrook centres are expected to open this fall, the release notes. The Small World Learning Centre is the second location of an already established operator set to open in 2026.

The province is funding the spaces through the Canada-Nova Scotia $ 10-a-day child care agreement, which is set to last five years. The funding from the federal government will increase by 3 per cent each year starting in 2027.

“We have seen first-hand the positive impact of affordable, high-quality licensed child care and believe all children and families across Nova Scotia should have what they need to achieve their best start and thrive,” Yvonne Smith, CEO, YMCA of Southwest Nova Scotia, said in the release.

This comes after another investment in child care to the Halifax area and East Hants where the government gave more than $7.6 million to six operators in the region.

OTTAWA — The federal health minister says that as of May, all eligible Canadians will be able to apply for the federal dental care program.

The program was launched initially for seniors in December 2023 and has been expanded in phases to cover children and people with disabilities.

In May, the program will open to other Canadians who have household incomes of less than $90,000 and don’t have private insurance.

The government says coverage will start as early as June 1.

The announcement comes a day before Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call a federal election.

The federal Conservatives have not said whether they would keep funding the program, which was the product of a supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the NDP.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2024.

The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is eliminating or reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations, which meteorologists and former agency leaders said will degrade the accuracy of forecasts just as severe weather season kicks in.

The normally twice-daily launches of weather balloons in about 100 locations provide information that forecasters and computer models use to figure out what the weather will be and how dangerous it can get, so cutting back is a mistake, said eight different scientists, meteorologists and former top officials at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the weather service’s parent agency.

The balloons soar 100,000 feet in the air with sensors called radiosondes hanging about 20 feet below them that measure temperature, dew point, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction.

“The thing about weather balloons is that they give you information you can’t get any other way,” said D. James Baker, a former NOAA chief during the Clinton administration. He had to cut spending in the agency during his tenure but he said he refused to cut observations such as weather balloons. “It’s an absolutely essential piece of the forecasting system.”

University of Oklahoma environment professor Renee McPherson said, “This frankly is just dangerous.”

“Bad,” Ryan Maue, who was NOAA’s chief scientist at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, wrote in an email. “We should not degrade our weather system by skipping balloon launches. Not only is this embarrassing for NOAA, the cessation of weather balloon launches will worsen America’s weather forecasts.”

Launches will be eliminated in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, “due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing,” the weather service said in a notice issued late Thursday. It also is cutting from twice daily to once daily launches i n Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gaylord, Michigan; North Platte, Nebraska and Riverton, Wyoming.

The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency fired hundreds, likely more than 1,000, NOAA workers earlier this year. The government then sent out letters telling probationary employees let go that they will get paid, but should not report to work.

Earlier this month, the agency had announced weather balloon cuts in Albany, New York and Gray, Maine, and in late February, it ended launches in Kotzebue, Alaska. That makes 11 announced sites with reduced or eliminated balloon observations, or about one out of nine launch locations which include part of the Pacific and Caribbean.

Among regularly reporting weather stations, NOAA had averaged about only one outage of balloon launches a day from 2021 to 2024, according to an Associated Press analysis of launch data.

Meteorologists Jeff Masters and Tomer Burg calculate that 14 of 83 U.S. balloon sites, or 17%, are doing partial or no launches. That includes two stations that aren’t launching because of a helium shortage and a third that is hindered because of coastal erosion.

“The more data we can feed into our weather models, the more accurate our forecasts, but I can’t speculate on the extent of future impacts,” weather service spokesperson Susan Buchanan said in an email.

University at Albany meteorology professor Kristen Corbosiero looked at the map of launches Friday and said “wow, that is an empty area … That’s not great.”

Corbosiero works in the building where the Albany weather service used to go to the roof to launch twice-daily weather balloons. It’s now down to one at night, which she said it is worrisome heading into severe weather season.

“For those of us east of the Rocky Mountains, this is probably the worst time of year,” said Oklahoma’s McPherson. “It’s the time of year that we have some of our largest tornado outbreaks, especially as we move into April and May.”

Former National Weather Service Director Elbert “Joe” Friday said the weather balloons get “the detailed lower atmospheric level of temperature and humidity that can determine whether the atmosphere is going to be hot enough to set off severe storms and how intense they might be.”

Satellites do a good job getting a big picture and ground measurements and radar show what’s happening on the ground, but the weather balloons provide the key middle part of the forecasting puzzle — the atmosphere — where so much weather brews, several meteorologists said.

All of the 10 announced reductions are in the northern part of the United States. That’s about where the jet stream — which is a river of air that moves weather systems across the globe — is this time of year, so not having as many observations is especially problematic, McPherson and Corbosiero said.

Weather balloons are also vital for helping forecast when and where it will rain, said Baker and another former NOAA chief, Rick Spinrad.

The weather agency has been launching balloons regularly since the 1930s. During World War II, weather balloon launches in the Arctic helped America win the air battle over Europe with better forecasts for planes, former weather chief Friday said.

It takes 90 minutes to an hour to fill a weather balloon with helium or hydrogen, get it fitted with a sensor, then ready it for launch making sure the radiosonde doesn’t drag on the ground, said Friday, who recalled launching a balloon in Nome, Alaska with 30 mph winds and windchill of about 30 degrees below zero.

Meteorologists then track the data for a couple hours before the balloon falls back to the ground for a total of about four of five hours work for one person, Friday said.

“It’s kind of fun to do,” Friday said on Friday.

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Data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires seafood to be labelled according to where it was processed, not where it was caught.

Nova Scotia is making the change to extended producer responsibility, or EPR — a policy shift that puts the responsibility of the recycling materials on the producers that make those materials.

LONDON (AP) — London Heathrow Airport said it was “fully operational” on Saturday, after an almost daylong closure sparked by an electrical substation fire. But airlines warned that severe disruption will last for days as they scramble to relocate planes and crews and get travelers to their destinations.

Inconvenienced passengers, angry airlines and concerned politicians sought answers about how one seemingly accidental fire could shut down Europe’s busiest air hub.

“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers traveling through the airport,” Heathrow said in a statement. “Passengers traveling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight.”

British Airways, Heathrow’s biggest airline, said it expects to operate about 85% of its scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday.

More than 1,300 flights were canceled and some 200,000 people stranded Friday after an overnight fire at a substation 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the airport cut power to Heathrow, and to more than 60,000 properties.

Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion and then seeing a fireball and clouds of smoke when the blaze ripped through the substation. The fire was brought under control after seven hours, but the airport was shut for almost 18. A handful of flights took off and landed late Friday.

Police said they do not consider the fire suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the electrical distribution equipment at the substation.

Still, the huge impact of the fire left authorities facing criticism that Britain’s creaking infrastructure is ill-prepared to deal with disasters or attacks.

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel, and saw 83.9 million passengers last year.

Passengers on about 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced found themselves landing in different cities, and even different countries.

Friday’s disruption was one of the most serious since the 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and shut Europe’s airspace for days.

Mark Doherty and his wife were halfway across the Atlantic when the inflight map showed their flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Heathrow was turning around.

“I was like, you’re joking,” Doherty said before the pilot told passengers they were heading back to New York.

Doherty called the situation “typical England — got no back-up plan for something happens like this. There’s no contingency plan.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.N. children’s agency on Saturday urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately lift a lingering ban on girls’ education to save the future of millions who have been deprived of their right to education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

The appeal by UNICEF comes as a new school year began in Afghanistan without girls beyond sixth grade. The ban, said the agency, has deprived 400,000 more girls of their right to education, bringing the total to 2.2 million.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education, with the Taliban justifying the ban saying it doesn’t comply with their interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

“For over three years, the rights of girls in Afghanistan have been violated,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, said in a statement. “All girls must be allowed to return to school now. If these capable, bright young girls continue to be denied an education, then the repercussions will last for generations.”

A ban on the education of girls will harm the future of millions of Afghan girls, she said, adding that if the ban persists until 2030, “more than four million girls will have been deprived of their right to education beyond primary school.” The consequences, she added, will be “catastrophic.”

Russell warned that the decline in female doctors and midwives will leave women and girls without crucial medical care. This situation is projected to result in an estimated 1,600 additional maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths. “These are not just numbers, they represent lives lost and families shattered,” she said.

The Afghan Taliban government earlier this year skipped a Pakistan-hosted global conference where Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai condemned the state of women’s and girl’s rights in Afghanistan as gender apartheid.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press

It was a very tough game for the Halifax Mooseheads on Friday night at the Avenir Center when they played their second last game of the regular season against the Wildcats.

The regular season champion won 14 games in a row when the beat the Herd 7-2

Shawn Carrier put the Herd on the board in the second period and Quinn Kennedy followed up with goal number 2 in the third.

The Mooseheads will play their last game of the 2024/2025 season on Saturday afternoon at 3PM Atlantic time at the Scotiabank Centre against the Charlottetown Islanders.

Garreth MacDonald will have all the play-by-play action on 95.7 News Radio.

OTTAWA — Former cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault says he will not run again in the upcoming election.

The Liberal party had confirmed Boissonnault as a candidate in Edmonton Centre, a riding he won in 2015, lost in 2019, then reclaimed in 2021.

In a statement posted to X today, the former cabinet minister says the past year had been a difficult one for he and his family.

Boissonnault resigned from cabinet in November amid controversy over his business dealings and skepticism about his claims of Indigenous identity.

The move is sure to further fuel speculation about where Prime Minister Mark Carney will run, who grew up in Edmonton and skated with his beloved Oilers hockey team on Thursday.

Pressed by reporters leaving the first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Friday, Carney wouldn’t reveal which riding he’ll seek election.

Other ridings he is believed to be considering are the Toronto Centre riding being vacated by former cabinet minister Marci Ien and the Nepean riding in Ottawa, freed up by the Liberals’ decision to oust MP Chandra Arya from the ballot on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press

<!– Photo: 8b17ed4e09219cd5d962ee169bb4e61257e0a6678a22ab57de4361d81512652a.jpg, Caption:

Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Minister Randy Boissonnault takes part in a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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Halifax Regional Police have said the vehicle could pull civilians or officers from dangerous situations like shootings, but will be mostly used by the city's emergency response team for high-risk calls involving weapons.

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

Earlier this month, Millbrook Chief Bob Gloade issued a strongly worded letter to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, outlining the band’s refusal to abide by the government’s elver management plan and warning of unspecified actions if fisheries officers 'harass' its members.

Megan Cooper has been granted a conditional discharge and been given 18 months' probation after stealing nearly $19,500 from the Village of Baddeck. She's also been ordered to pay back the money.

Complaint made by police union regarding lack of an armoured vehicle means HRM could face fines for not having one.

The post Halifax budget committee votes in favour of purchasing armoured vehicle for police appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Nova Scotia MLAs voted unanimously on Friday to scrap the province’s electric vehicle rebate for new Tesla products.

The sister of a 32-year-old woman who was killed in 2023 says she was a 'dedicated mother' who tried to improve her daughters' lives from the day they were born, going back to school later in life to pursue business administration.

A murder charge will proceed in the Nova Scotia courts against a man who's been found not criminally responsible for previous acts of violence. Mohamed Issak, 32, was charged with second-degree murder in December.

Screen Nova Scotia will be ready to start TV and movie productions in Mount Uniacke, N.S., later this summer. Two buildings at the site will be used as sound stages.

Entering details on types of burning and your civic address provides information on burn restrictions.

The post Halifax releases new ‘Before You Burn’ website detailing burning restrictions appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

It hasn't exactly been a conventional spring sitting in the House of Assembly. CBC's Jean Laroche and Michael Gorman explain how some controversial bills and amendments have created some unexpected unity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department, with other agencies taking over responsibility for federal student loans and programs serving students with disabilities.

The executive order Trump signed Thursday to do away with the department did not offer a timeline or instructions, but his administration appears poised to carve away all but the department’s most vital operations.

Trump said student loans will be handled by the Small Business Administration, and “it will be serviced much better than it has in the past.” He also said programs involving students with disabilities would be shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Republican president announced the changes at the beginning of an Oval Office event focused on developing a next-generation fighter jet.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she is preparing to relocate the department’s core operations to other agencies and roll back federal regulations. In an opinion piece published Friday by Fox News Channel, she said abolishing the department “will not happen tomorrow,” but she plans to pave the way.

“We will systematically unwind unnecessary regulations and prepare to reassign the department’s other functions to the states or other agencies,” McMahon wrote.

The functions to be reassigned include the distribution of federal money to support low-income students and students with disabilities, the department’s management of student financial aid, civil rights enforcement and data collection, she wrote.

Only Congress has the power to bring a full end to the Education Department. Republicans in Congress are planning legislation to eliminate the agency, though they face heavy opposition from Democrats.

Opponents already vowed to challenge Trump’s order in court.

Some Democratic governors say it will lead to bigger class sizes and fewer after-school programs. Opponents say Trump’s order will hurt students who rely on federal money and widen gaps between higher- and lower-achieving states.

Already the department has used layoffs and buyouts to halve its workforce while cutting dozens of contracts deemed wasteful or overly liberal.

Trump has denounced the department as a waste of taxpayer money, saying it has become infected by liberal ideology. He said its power should be turned over to states, which he sees as a remedy for America’s lagging education system.

“The cost will be half, and the education will be maybe many, many times better,” Trump said at a Thursday signing ceremony.

Trump’s executive order said the Education Department is not big enough to handle its loan portfolio, adding that “it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students.”

Conservatives have long dreamed of closing the department, calling it an unneeded layer of bureaucracy that burdens local schools. Among those at the signing were the governors of several Republican states along with activists who say parents should have more power over their children’s education.

Much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money. It oversees a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and sends billions of dollars a year to public schools. Most of the aid comes from federal law, with programs targeting low-income schools and students with disabilities and special needs.

It also oversees student financial aid including Pell grants and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA.

Since the Education Department was created in 1979, the nation’s student test scores have remained flat despite $1 trillion in agency spending, McMahon said in her Fox News piece.

The oddity of the task before McMahon, being responsible for the permanent closure of the department she leads, wasn’t lost on her.

“This is not a routine mission,” she wrote. “It is a transformation, driven by the clear will of the American people to return education to the states — and the decisive election of President Donald Trump.”

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

New spaces will be available in Bridgewater, New Minas and Coldbrook by 2026.

Sarah Mitton won her second straight women's indoor shot put world championship — posting throws measuring over 20 metres three different times in the competition.

Spring is in the air but the chill that gripped Nova Scotia for much of the winter was a boon to operators of some of the province's ski hills and trails.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors filed charges Friday against a former defense minister who declassified parts of a plan for national defense that had been prepared years before under an earlier government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Mariusz Błaszczak, the defense minister in a national conservative government that held power from 2015-2023, revealed in 2023 a military defense plan that had been drawn up in 2011. The document laid out plans for the Polish army to retreat westward to the Vistula River, which runs through the center of Poland, in case of an invasion from the east by Russia.

Błaszczak was read the charges at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw on Friday, he told reporters afterward, according to the state news agency PAP.

He said he believed the allegations were unfounded.

Earlier in the day he wrote on X that the prosecutor’s office was to “bring charges against me for declassifying the plan of the first Tusk government to give up half of Poland without a fight.”

“I would do it again without hesitation. I had not only the right, but also the duty” he said.

Addressing Tusk, he added: “Thanks to this, Poles know the truth about the fate you prepared for the inhabitants of Eastern Poland. Thanks to this, no one will ever return to such plans.”

The Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Hashim Thaci, a former president of Kosovo who is facing war crime charges, was temporarily released from custody at a court based in the Netherlands on Friday to visit the tomb of his father who died last weekend.

Thaci, 56, wasn’t allowed to attend Tuesday’s funeral, which leaders and local politicians from Kosovo and neighboring Albania were present for. Kosovo Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu complained to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague that Thaci was barred from going.

“I was the last to come, dad,” Thaci wrote on the wreath he put at his father’s tomb on Friday in the village of Buroje, 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of the capital, Pristina. He was accompanied by police officers from the Kosovo-based European Union Rule of Law mission, known as EULEX.

Thaci was then taken to his house, where only close relatives could meet with him. It wasn’t immediately clear when he would be returned to the custody of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague.

His father, Haxhi Thaci, died on March 16 at age 87.

Three days before his father’s death, Hashim Thaci was allowed to visit his father for about three hours at a public hospital in Pristina accompanied by close family members.

Thaci and other senior leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, which waged Kosovo’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia, have been in custody in The Hague since November 2020. They face charges including murder, torture and persecution during and after the war.

The court and a linked prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations haven’t been included in indictments issued by the court.

Around 11,400 people who died in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting, but tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade and its key allies Russia and China refuse to recognize.

A European Union-facilitated dialogue on normalization of their ties, which started in 2011, has given scarce results.

The Associated Press

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was sworn in as Namibia’s first female president on Friday, reaching the highest office in her land nearly 60 years after she joined the liberation movement fighting for independence from apartheid South Africa.

The 72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah won an election in November to become one of just a handful of female leaders in Africa after the likes of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi and Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania.

Sirleaf and Banda, now former leaders of their countries, and current Tanzania President Hassan all attended Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration.

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s swearing-in coincided with the 35th anniversary of Namibia’s independence, but the ceremony was switched from a soccer stadium where thousands were due to attend to the official presidential office because of heavy rain.

The new president made her pledge to defend, uphold and support the constitution in front of other visiting leaders from South Africa, Zambia, Congo, Botswana, Angola and Kenya.

Nandi-Ndaitwah succeeds Nangolo Mbumba, who had stood in as Namibia’s president since February 2024 following the death in office of President Hage Geingob. Nandi-Ndaitwah was promoted to vice president following Geingob’s death.

Nandi-Ndaitwah is just the fifth president of Namibia, a sparsely populated nation in southwestern Africa which was a German colony until the end of World War I and then won independence from South Africa in 1990 after decades of struggle and a guerilla war against South African forces that lasted more than 20 years.

“The task facing me as the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia is to preserve the gains of our independence on all fronts and to ensure that the unfinished agenda of economic and social advancement of our people is carried forward with vigor and determination to bring about shared, balanced prosperity for all,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah is a veteran of the South West Africa People’s Organization, or SWAPO, which led Namibia’s fight for independence and has been its ruling party ever since.

She was the ninth of 13 children, her father was an Anglican clergyman, and she attended a mission school that she also later taught in. She joined SWAPO as a teenager in the 1960s and spent time in exile in Zambia, Tanzania, the former Soviet Union and the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s.

She had been a lawmaker in Namibia since 1990 and was the foreign minister before being appointed vice president.

She said she would insist on good governance and high ethical standards in public institutions and would promote closer regional cooperation. She pledged to continue calling for the rights of Palestinians and the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and demanded the lifting of sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

She also said Namibia would continue to contribute to efforts to fight climate change, a persistent threat for an arid country of just three million people that regularly experiences droughts.

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s husband is a retired general who once commanded Namibia’s armed forces and was formally given the title “first gentleman.” Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration came a day after Namibia’s Parliament elected its first female speaker.

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More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Sonja Smith, The Associated Press