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Ontario government plans to recoup COVID-19 loans to province’s doctors

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

TORONTO — The Ontario government says it plans to recoup loan payments issued to doctors at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to cover their increased costs and loss of revenue from lower patient volumes.In a memo issued to the Ontario Medical Association on Friday, which was obtained by The Canadian Press, the province says it is “critical” to recover more than $521 million in outstanding loan payments in order to fund other priorities.Beginning next month, the Ministry of Health will deduct pay from physicians’ monthly OHIP payments over a one-year period, rather than the original five-month timeline it first proposed, with no interest charged.The ministry says it was clear when it launched the COVID-19 Advance Payment Program in April 2020 that monthly loan payments doled out to eligible health-care providers would need to be paid back.Since loan repayments began in April 2021, it says it has recovered nearly $139 million out of the total $660 million provided...

The man who threatened to burn holy books outside the Israeli Embassy in Sweden abandons the plan

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The man who said he would burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm gave up his plan and instead held a one-person demonstration on Saturday against the burning of holy books, the media reported. At the scene, he said he was a Muslim and threw a lighter he held in his hand to the ground, saying he never intended to burn holy books. The man, who is in his 30s and had been issued a permit for the protest by Stockholm police, said such an action would be against the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and that he “will not burn,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.The man, who resides in western Sweden, also said that “no one should do that,” the report said. Israeli officials had called on the Swedish government to stop the protest and the burning of the holy books on Saturday afternoon outside the diplomatic mission. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the World Jewish Congress condemned the action in advance as did Israeli Foreign Minister E...

De Groot secures 11th straight Grand Slam title by winning the women’s wheelchair final at Wimbledon

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Diede De Groot won her 11th consecutive Grand Slam title by beating doubles partner Jiske Griffioen 6-2, 6-1 Saturday in the women’s wheelchair singles final at Wimbledon.De Groot has won 19 major titles overall, including five at Wimbledon. Her current winning streak in Grand Slams dates back to the 2021 Australian Open and she now has a chance to secure a third straight sweep of all four majors if she wins the U.S. Open in September. That would also tie the record of 12 straight Grand Slam wins in wheelchair singles set by Shingo Kunieda between 2007-11.The Dutchwoman also extended her tour-level winning streak to 111 straight matches, dating back to the 2021 Melbourne Wheelchair Open.De Groot could still collect more silverware at Wimbledon — she and Griffioen are also into the wheelchair doubles final. ___AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press

Fire triggers explosions at Louisiana chemical plant as residents warned to stay indoors for hours

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

PLAQUEMINE, La. (AP) — A fire at a Louisiana chemical plant triggered explosions that shook homes several miles away and sent flames and smoke billowing into the air, prompting emergency officials to urge a few hundred nearby residents to shelter indoors for several hours and to turn off their air conditioners.Flames erupted late Friday at Dow Chemical’s plant on the Mississippi River near Plaquemine, south of Baton Rouge. Iberville Parish officials told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate that the fire started in an area of the plant that handles ethylene oxide, a flammable and highly carcinogenic chemical. The parish’s sheriff, Bret Stassi, said no one was injured and that the company had accounted for all its workers. Residents of roughly 350 households within a half-mile (0.80 kilometers) of the plant were told to shelter inside for several hours overnight. As Dow Chemical and environmental officials monitored the air for hazardous materials, emergency offici...

Thai prime minister hopeful says he’s open to let partner party contend for the job if his bid fails

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s rocky road to naming a new prime minister took a fresh turn Saturday as the candidate who led his party to first place in May’s general election said he is open to bowing out of contention if he cannot win a second round of voting in Parliament. Pita Limjaroenrat, the 42-year-old leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, said he would be willing to let a coalition partner party field its candidate. However, he indicated the political battling could continue for weeks.Lawmakers on Thursday failed to confirm Pita as prime minister despite his party’s surprising victory in the May polls, when it garnered 151 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. It then assembled an eight-party coalition that together holds 312 seats, a clear majority in the lower house, giving it the right to nominate a prime minister.To be elected for prime minister, a candidate needs to win a majority of votes in a joint sitting of the lower house and the 250-seat Sena...

Students in shortchanged Pennsylvania school districts plug away while lawmakers dither over funding

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nylla Miller didn’t dwell on the shortcomings of her education when she spoke at her high school graduation. Instead she talked about all she and her classmates had accomplished. They had achieved at high levels even in cramped classrooms with no air conditioning that got stuffier as the summer months approached — a reversal from earlier in the year, when the heat wasn’t working and it was almost too cold to focus. Athletes had set new records, even on a dirt track that doesn’t meet state standards.Miller praised the Penn Wood High School Class of ’23 on a hot June morning in Hagan Arena at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia without saying much about all the ways the Pennsylvania public schools had failed them. She told her fellow graduates and their families that they were “the flyest class ever to do it.”“We have left our mark, not only here, but in every room that we have entered,” she said.But overcoming adversity was more than just a graduation ...

Saturday Forecast: Mostly cloudy, chance of isolated storms

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

Saturday: Mostly cloudy & chance of iso. thunderstorms. Decreasing air quality with more Canadian wildfire smoke returning. SSW 10-20 mph. Highs mid 80s, a bit cooler by the lakeSaturday Night: Slight chance of showers/thunderstorms then clearing. WNW 5-15 mph. Lows in the upper 60s outlying areas, low 70s in the city.Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Sunday: Clouds & sun with chance of iso. PM thunderstorms. WSW 10-20 mph. High 84, cooler lakeside.Chicago Area Radar | WGN TVExtended outlook calls for a bit cooler on Monday with highs in the upper 70s with partly cloudy skies. Low 80s with a mix of clouds and sun on Tuesday. Chance of showers/t'storms returns to the forecast for Wednesday with highs in the mid to low 80s. 

Is it possible to increase your Powerball jackpot odds?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - With yet another large lottery jackpot brewing — this time, a $875 million Powerball jackpot — it’s tempting to want to try your luck.But, in a game when you’ll be facing potentially millions of other players, are there any ways to sway your odds of landing the record-setting Powerball prize? First, it’s important to understand what your odds at the jackpot really are. Any ticket has a 1 in 292.2 million chance of matching the winning jackpot numbers, Powerball officials say. You’re more likely to be attacked by a shark (1 in 3.7 million, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History) or being struck by lightning (less than 1 in a million), or even both on the same day, than winning big.  Not sure how to play Powerball? Here’s what you need to know Still, there are some methods lottery players swear by to improve their chances of winning the major payout. Among those are selecting certain numbers. Data shows there are some numbers that are draw...

APD investigating homicide in west Austin 

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Saturday, the Austin Police Department said it was investigating a homicide in west Austin.APD said officers were at an apartment complex in the 3500 block of North Capital of Texas Highway southbound.A public information officer is expected to hold a briefing later Saturday morning, according to APD.This is a developing story. Check back with KXAN for more information.

David Brooks: ‘Human beings are soon going to be eclipsed’?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:22 GMT

Recently I stumbled across an essay by Douglas Hofstadter that made me happy. Hofstadter is an eminent cognitive scientist and the author of books like “Gödel, Escher, Bach” and “I Am a Strange Loop.” The essay that pleased me so much, called “The Shallowness of Google Translate,” was published in The Atlantic in January of 2018.Back then, Hofstadter argued that AI translation tools might be really good at some pedestrian tasks, but they weren’t close to replicating the creative and subtle abilities of a human translator. “It’s all about ultrarapid processing of pieces of text, not about thinking or imagining or remembering or understanding. It doesn’t even know that words <em>stand</em> for things,” he wrote.The article made me happy because here was a scientist I greatly admire arguing for a point of view I’ve been coming to myself. Over the past few months, I’ve become an AI limitationist. That is, I believe that while AI will be an amazing tool for, say, tutoring chi...