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Hydro One earnings on the rise after rate hike

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

TORONTO — Hydro One Ltd. says second-quarter earnings ticked up four per cent compared to a year ago.In the three months ended June 30, the power utility says net income attributable to common shareholders rose to $265 million from $255 million in the same period a year earlier.Hydro one is reporting second-quarter revenues that inched up by one per cent to $1.86 billion versus $1.84 billion a year earlier.It says diluted earnings increased to 44 cents per share from 42 cents per share, above analyst expectations of level year-over-year diluted earnings, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.Hydro One attributed its boost in profits to a hike in 2023 transmission rates and lower asset removal costs due to fewer storm-related replacements, and despite higher operations and maintenance costs.The quarter also saw the company break ground on a transmission line between its switching stations in the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the Lakeshore municipality in southwestern ...

Pakistani court seeks government response over Imran Khan’s appeal, refuses to release him

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A top Pakistani court Wednesday said it wanted to hear from the government before deciding over former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s appeal against his imprisonment on corruption charges.Khan was arrested at his Lahore home on Saturday and given a three-year jail sentence on charges of concealing assets. He is held at the high-security prison Attock in the eastern Punjab province while his legal team seeks his release. His appeal hearing is underway, but the Islamabad High Court gave Khan no immediate relief and he remains behind bars. The court said it seeks government response and would hear from the Election Commission of Pakistan’s lawyers before deciding on Khan’s appeal.The commission last year disqualified Khan from holding public office for five years accusing him of unlawfully selling state gifts and concealing assets as premier. Khan was notified of his disqualification again on Tuesday following his sentencing.The court adjourned without s...

Norway considers blowing up a dam after days of heavy rain over Scandinavia cause floods

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Days of heavy rain triggered landslides and flooding in mountainous southern Norway, where authorities said Wednesday they were considering blowing up part of a dam at risk of bursting to prevent downstream communities from getting deluged. The Glåma, Norway’s longest and most voluminous river, is dammed at the Braskereidfoss hydroelectric power plant, which was under water and out of operation. Police said a controlled explosion before the dam fails would allow officials to control the flow of water.“When there is so much water, we can perhaps imagine, in the worst case, a kind of tidal wave coming sailing down the river,” police spokeswoman Merete Hjertø told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.Pål Erik Teigen, a police officer in the Innland region, later told the VG newspaper that the facility “is without power, so we cannot make contact with the hatches. We will soon physically help open a hatch.”A Norwegian woman in her 70s died early Wednesday after falling i...

Niger’s ousted president is said to be running low on food under house arrest 2 weeks after coup

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s deposed president is running out of food and experiencing other increasingly dire conditions two weeks after he was ousted in a military coup and put under house arrest, an advisor told The Associated Press on Wednesday.President Mohamed Bazoum, the West African nation’s democratically elected leader, has been held at the presidential palace in Niamey with his wife and son since mutinous soldiers moved against him on July 26. The family is living without electricity and only has rice and canned goods left to eat, the advisor said. Bazoum remains in good health for now and will never resign, according to the advisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive situation with the media. Bazoum’s political party issued a statement confirming the president’s living conditions and said the family also was without running water.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Bazoum on ...

Amazon nations seek a common voice on climate change and urge action from the industrialized world

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Eight Amazon nations urged industrialized countries on Tuesday to do more to help preserve the world’s largest rainforest as their leaders met at a major summit in Brazil to chart a common course on how to combat climate change. They said the task of stopping the destruction of the rainforest can’t fall to just a few countries when climate change has been caused by many. The members of the newly revived Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, or ACTO, hope a united front will give them a major voice in global environment talks.“It is time to look at the heart of our continent and consolidate, once and for all, our Amazon identity,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The leaders aim to fuel much-needed economic development in their countries while preventing the Amazon’s ongoing demise “from reaching a point of no return,” according to a joint declaration issued Tuesday, the first day of the two-day summit. Some scientists say that when 20%...

Shipping company ordered to pay $2.25M after discharging oily bilge off Rhode Island

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The owner of a Greek oil tanker has been ordered by a U.S. judge to pay $2.25 million in fines and penalties after discharging oily bilge water into the ocean during a trans-Atlantic voyage and admitting to other environmental violations by its captain and chief engineer.Zeus Lines Management S.A. was fined over $1.68 million at a formal sentencing Tuesday and will pay an additional $562,500 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund projects that benefit marine and coastal natural resources in Rhode Island, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney in the state.The company and the two crew members had agreed to the penalties in May.The Galissas, owned by Zeus, was transporting a cargo of diesel from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Rhode Island in February 2022 when it discharged nearly 10,000 gallons (about 37,000 liters) of bilge water, and also failed to report a hazardous condition in the cargo tanks to the U.S. Coast Guard, prosecutors said.Th...

Donald Trump wants his election subversion trial moved out of Washington. That won’t be easy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his legal team face long odds in their bid to move his 2020 election conspiracy trial out of Washington, arguing the Republican can’t possibly get a fair trial in the overwhelmingly Democratic nation’s capital.Criminal defendants routinely try to have their cases moved to increase their chances of getting a favorable jury. Trump and his attorney say they’re eying West Virginia, which Trump easily won in 2020. But there’s a notoriously high bar for proving the jury pool is so biased or tainted by pretrial publicity that the trial must be moved. Such efforts have failed in some of the most high-profile American trials in recent memory. And judges appointed by presidents of both political parties in Washington’s federal court — including the judge overseeing Trump’s trial — have repeatedly rejected similar attempts by many of the more than 1,000 Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol....

Huge blast at Moscow area factory adds to Russian jitters as new drone attacks are blamed on Ukraine

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — An explosion Wednesday on the grounds a factory north of Moscow that makes optical equipment for Russia’s security forces injured 45 people, six of them severely, officials said.The blast occurred at a warehouse storing fireworks, though it was on the grounds of the Zagorsk optics manufacturing plant, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital.Vorobyov said the company had rented out the warehouse for storage, but later claimed the plant itself was mostly producing pyrotechnics. He said the facility “has had nothing to do with optics or mechanics for a long time,” even though the company’s website says it still manufactures those products, as well as medical apparatus.Whatever the cause, the explosion produced a tall plume of black smoke and added to Russian jitters over nighttime drone attacks on Moscow, as well as alarm about smoke over the port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Wednesday.The Zagorsk plant ...

EU leader promises aid and support to flood-ravaged Slovenia during visit

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Slovenia on Wednesday and promised EU help to the small member state which was ravaged by recent floods that killed at least six people and caused extensive damage.Von der Leyen said after meeting with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob that they discussed a package of “three components” designed to provide immediate financial aid but also mid and long-term support for reconstruction. “I am here today to let Slovenia and the Slovenian people know that Europe stands by your side,” said von der Leyen, who visited a hard-hit village in northern Slovenia, by the border with Austria, to get a first-hand view of the devastation. Von der Leyen said 100 million euros ($110 million) this year from the EU’s Solidarity Fund and 300 million euros ($3.3 million) in 2024 will be made accessible to Slovenia. Additionally, it can draw from other funds or reprogram existing ones, she added. “A lot of inves...

Is far-right extremism gaining ground in Canada?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:25:11 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, a new report looking at the circumstances that led to the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa (and other places across Canada) in early 2022 found that it stems from a series of events that began in 2015. The movement took years before efforts at forming a convoy and rolling to Ottawa actually came together — and there were several failed tries along the way.Stephanie Carvin is a national security expert and author of Polarization and Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism in Canada since 2015. She said the pandemic was the perfect catalyst to bring many very different groups on the right together.“Prior to the 2022 convoy … all [the far-right’s] attempts to get a convoy going had never really worked … But if you say, I’m tired of the pandemic, you’re tired of the pandemic, let’s go protest in Ottawa. That’s a much more accessible message.”So what changed during the pandemic? How were far-right Canadians able to band ...