Author: Press Room

An outback town is still “flat out” recovering months after rolling power outages, which shut down a major mine and cut off phone services.

Tensions between the United States and Canada took center stage at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, and, according to Canada’s foreign minister, it’s for good reason. The political rift between the two countries first began at an NHL game Feb. 1 when Ottawa Senators fans booed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Toronto Raptors fans followed suit the next day, but the controversy reached another level at the hockey tournament when the booing drew national attention. Sidney Crosby (87), Brandon Hagel (38) and their Team Canada teammates stand at their bench during pregame ceremonies before the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game against the United States at TD…

Under the Biden administration, Israel’s far-right finance minister was the rare Israeli official whom the United States rebuked by name for his views, like his opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza.Under the Trump administration, he is a welcome guest in Washington, where top U.S. officials are now aligning with some of his beliefs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The minister, Bezalel Smotrich, met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday, remarking in a statement about his embrace after years of being effectively shunned.“After four years during which, under the Biden administration, there was no ministerial-level meeting between the U.S. Treasury Department and…

Elon Musk arrived on Wednesday at Senate Republicans’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill ready to field questions about the work he is doing for President Trump at the Department of Government Efficiency, the office he formed that has taken a hatchet to the federal bureaucracy with no input from Congress.They had plenty.Republican senators have raised few public complaints about Mr. Musk as he has undertaken mass firings across the government without consulting or informing them. But during the nearly two-hour closed-door meeting, the senators gently questioned him about how they might share feedback, minimize blowback from their constituents and, perhaps,…

Thousands of Agriculture Department employees who were fired last month must be reinstated in their old positions for at least 45 days, a board that handles federal worker disputes ordered on Wednesday.The fired employees were on probationary status and relatively new in their positions, swept up in the Trump administration’s push to rapidly reduce the size of the federal work force in part by targeting those types of workers. Probationary employees have fewer Civil Service protections than other government workers who have been in their jobs longer, and have been seen by President Trump and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire…

Descrease article font size Increase article font size West Kelowna city council is vowing to do better after its new city hall build went way over budget. The new city hall opened last May and, according to city staff, West Kelowna’s bill is $24.17 million. That’s up from an estimated $18 million in 2021, a difference of $6.17 million.The city said that despite the overrun taxpayers will be unaffected.“We’re using some money from various sources to make up the difference of the $6.17 million overage. So, in a way, we’re using some of our reserves and over time we will…

Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s health secretary. Mr. Cassidy wondered aloud for days how Mr. Kennedy, the nation’s most vocal and powerful critic of vaccinations, might handle an infectious disease crisis.Now, as a measles outbreak rages in West Texas, Mr. Cassidy has found out. It all comes down, he said, to “the gestalt.”On Monday, days after the Texas outbreak killed an unvaccinated child, Mr. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, was clipping down a Capitol corridor…

Whitetop, a 27-year-old llama who works at Victory Junction camp, was declared the world’s oldest llama in captivity by the Guinness World Records last week.Victory Junction is a year-round, free camp in North Carolina designed for chronically ill and disabled children. It was founded by NASCAR star Richard Petty and his family.Whitetop is known for his relaxed, sweet and empathetic personality. He comforts campers by lying still while they pet him.A bucktoothed llama that spends his days comforting chronically ill children at a North Carolina camp founded by NASCAR royalty has been crowned the world’s oldest llama in captivity.At 27…

Just off Interstate 94 in Collegeville, Minnesota, is a striking architectural wonder that was brought to life by renowned architect Marcel Breuer: Saint John’s Abbey Church at Saint John’s University.”He was from Hungary, originally studied at the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, and then when Hitler took over the Bauhaus, he moved to London,” said abbey monk Brother Alan Reed. “Eventually, he moved to the United States.”The Oscar-winning film “The Brutalist” — a fictional story about a Holocaust survivor and immigrant architect — was inspired by the abbey’s church, thanks to a book written by a monk…

Over the last month, the U.S. government has worked quickly to pause, disband and dismantle the U.S. effort to fight foreign meddling in elections, raising concern among federal lawmakers and election officials across the country who rely on the federal cybersecurity agency and its counterparts to warn them about attacks on election systems. First came a flurry of notices forcing out Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency personnel who are tasked with stopping foreign interference in U.S. elections — at least a dozen have been put on leave or fired over the past month. Then, on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s first day…