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After castigating video games during riots, France’s Macron backpedals and showers them with praise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is extending an olive branch to video gamers after previously linking computer games to rioting that rocked France earlier this year.Posting on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Macron backpedaled on remarks in June where he blamed video games for having “intoxicated” some young rioters. Those comments dismayed some in the gaming community, even beyond France. Japanese game director Kastuhiro Harada tweeted in response that “blaming something is a great way to escape the burden of responsibility.” Macron started his unusually lengthy post this weekend with a mea culpa, saying; “I startled gamers.” He then sought to clarify his thinking and showered video games and the industry with praise. “Video games are an integral part of France,” Macron declared.“I expressed my concerns at the end of June because delinquents had used video game habits to trivialize the violence on social networks,” he said. “It is thi...

Group hopes to resurrect 128-year-old Cyclorama of Jerusalem, near Quebec City

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

MONTREAL — The last cyclorama in Canada has been hidden from public view since it closed in 2018, but a small group of people are hoping to revive the unique Quebec-based attraction.The Cyclorama of Jerusalem — a 360-degree painting 14 metres high by 110 metres around — has sat across the street from the renowned basilica in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, northeast of Quebec City, since 1895. The panorama depicts what the city of Jerusalem may have looked like at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus. But the fate of the attraction has followed the waning interest in religion among Quebecers, and in 2018 the local family that owns the site closed it because it was unprofitable and needed repair. Attempts to sell it were unsuccessful. But the following year, the Quebec government declared the cyclorama a heritage property.Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré resident Annie Lévesque is among a group of volunteers working to find a way to have the massive panoramic painting opened to the public once more.“I...

Debate over pronouns pits parental rights against the rights of children, experts say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

OTTAWA — Politicians and others who support policies that would require parental permission for teachers to use a student’s preferred pronouns at school say they are about including parents in the lives of their children. Those opposed say the issue is not about the rights of parents at all, but rather the protection of children — particularly transgender and nonbinary students who may not feel safe revealing their gender identities at home.The answer to what “parental rights” mean in the context the ongoing debate lies somewhere in the middle, experts say. And rushing to push forward legislation could have dire effects on transgender and nonbinary children.Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, takes issue with the framing of these policies. “That’s an easy sell,” she said. “They’ve set a trap with ‘parental rights’ as a political argument.”She said using ...

The economic roller-coaster of a small Ontario town fuelled by chocolate and cannabis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

SMITHS FALLS, Ont. — A small eastern Ontario town that was once known as the province’s chocolate capital is preparing for the sweet return of Hershey’s.“It’s like an old friend coming home after being gone for 15 years,” said Smiths Falls Mayor Shawn Pankow.That return is the latest in a slew of changes around a facility that has been essential to the town’s identity and economic prosperity. For 45 years, Hershey’s operated a factory in the community of around 9,000 people, which is located about 75 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.There was an image of a chocolate bar on the water tower. School groups making field trips to the capital to see Parliament often sweetened the deal with a stop at the Hershey’s visitor centre. The factory employed about 400 locals, including Richard Kirkwood, who worked there for 35 years.“It was a good place to work. It paid my mortgage for 30 years,” he said, reminiscing about family barbecues,...

State of Texas: The lasting impact of the Paxton impeachment trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- The Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on all articles of impeachment he faced during a nearly two-week trial, salvaging a political career admired by conservatives nationwide but mired in years of legal concerns. COMPLETE COVERAGE: Paxton impeachment trial Senators voted to find Paxton not guilty on every charge, mostly on a 14-16 vote.Only two Republicans -- North Texas' Kelly Hancock and Jacksonville's Robert Nichols -- voted to convict Paxton on any of the charges. All other Republicans voted to find Paxton not guilty on every charge.The Texas Senate has 31 members, comprised of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats. Here's a look at the partisan breakdown for each article of impeachment. As a reminder, Paxton's wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, was present but not allowed to vote.Here's a look at how each senator voted on each of the 16 articles of impeachment against Ken Paxton.Senators only weighed 16 of the 20 original articles of impeachm...

Marshall fire rebuild: Residents face confusion, waits to get Xcel approval on energy-efficient homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

7People who lost their homes in the 2021 Marshall fire, Colorado’s costliest at $2 billion in property damages, have spent much time going back and forth with insurance and mortgage companies as they rebuild their homes and lives. Those who want to add solar-power systems say there’s another entity they have had to keep prodding: Xcel Energy.Xcel Energy serves Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County, where on Dec. 30, 2021, the fire, stoked by winds of up to 90 mph and drought-parched grasses, killed two people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.A recent drive on a long road that winds up and down a hill in Louisville revealed a neighborhood abuzz with the sounds of saws, hammers and the beeps of construction equipment. The street was lined with work trucks and full of people in hard hats putting up homes to reestablish what was lost.Susan Nedell stood on the sidewalk as workers went in and out of the 3,000-square-foot house being built on the site of the...

Blake Street Bombers: Rockies “need to bully” teams at Coors Field

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

“Like classic rock.”That’s how Rockies Hall of Famer Larry Walker referred to the Blake Street Bombers Saturday when they gathered at Coors Field as part of the franchise’s ongoing 30th anniversary celebration.Joining Walker were Dante Bichette, Ellis Burkes and Vinny Castilla. The only player missing from the festivities was Andres “The Big Cat” Galarraga, who’s proven quite elusive in his post-baseball, always-on-the-golf-course life in West Palm Beach, Fla.“I’ve got his phone number and we live in the same complex and I don’t ever see him,” joked Walker.The Blake Street Bombers are remembered for their prodigious scoring power during the Rockies’ pre-humidor days at Coors Field. The 1996 team remains the only team in major league history to hit 200 or more home runs (221) and steal 200 or more bases (201) in the same season.The Bombers would like to see some of that classic rock return to Coors and lift the R...

Nuggets Journal: New NBA rule on resting multiple stars doesn’t affect Denver … unless Jamal Murray has eyes on All-NBA prize

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

Kick back and relax, Jamal Murray. Go dip your feet in the pool a little while longer, Nikola Jokic. While the NBA community clamors over the league’s new rules designed to regulate exploitation of load management, the one star-studded team spared of the headache for now is, ironically, the team that just won the championship.That’s because, according to the Player Participation Policy’s arbitrary definition of a star player, the Nuggets have only one.The PPP, approved by the board of governors Wednesday, is one of the most consequential developments of this offseason. Cornered by the increasing trend of ticket-selling players sitting out marquee regular-season games, the NBA overlooked the real cause of this issue (82 games) and instead imposed new watchdog policies that will increase workload and injury risk before the playoffs for many contenders.The headlining directive: Starting this season, teams cannot rest multiple healthy star players in the same game. Tea...

Coaches under pressure: How parent influence on high school athletics is producing tension, upheaval in Colorado

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

Before Chad Hanson coached a game for the Heritage High School girls basketball team last season, he had problems with two parents.The first was the mother of a senior who demanded her daughter be placed back on the team after getting cut. When Hanson did, because he says he was under pressure from athletic director Jill Schrader, that uncorked turmoil with another parent.Hanson says that second parent, Reggie Sanchez, was so infuriated by the re-addition of the cut player to the team that he “made it his mission” to get Hanson removed as coach. Sanchez wrote numerous emails to the Heritage and Littleton Public Schools administration throughout the season calling for Hanson’s termination.Sanchez’s emails accused Hanson of verbal abuse, intimidation and, ultimately, grooming — claims the coach says are “completely unsubstantiated and fabricated,” but led to his resignation “to save face for the district” on Feb. 6, with five games left.Hanson’s situation at Heritage epitomizes ...

Disinformation campaign against Bangladesh: Setting the record straight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:47 GMT

A smear campaign has been going on abroad for quite some time to discredit the government of Bangladesh, particularly before the Western world - writes Syed Badrul Ahsan. Such attempts are being made by elements who in the recent past expressed, in more ways than one, their unhappiness at the moves by the Bangladesh authorities to bring the local Bengali collaborators of the Pakistan army in 1971 to justice over their participation in the genocide committed by the army in the nine months of Bangladesh’s war of liberation.Judging by these attempts as well as others to paint Bangladesh in the wrong colours over the crimes allegedly committed by the authorities in Dhaka, one would imagine Bangladesh is today in the grip of a tinpot dictatorship, indeed by an entrenched autocracy that has foisted itself on the country through sheer force of arms rather than assuming power through general elections.The disinformation has been acquiring intensity in recent months, as can be observed fro...