TORONTO - CBC is restoring its annual live New Year’s Eve celebration. A year after the national broadcaster cancelled the 2024 special due to “financial pressures,” it says the countdown is back on the TV schedule to mark the dawn of 2025. Programming begins Dec. 31 with the one-hour “22 Minutes New Year’s Eve Pregame Special,” a satirical reflection on the year passed with the cast of the political comedy series “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” It will be followed by “Canada Live! Countdown 2025,” a special hosted by news anchor Adrienne Arsenault and singer Jann Arden broadcasting live from Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, and anchor Ian Hanomansing and comedian Ali Hassan at Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden. The coast-to-coast show will feature CBC reporters across the country as they count down to the new year in each of the six time zones. Last year, the CBC replaced its live New Year’s programming with a taped Just For Laughs special hosted by comedian Mae Martin. It left Canadian viewers without a homegrown countdown on any of the major networks. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024.Germany has pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people-smugglers enabling small-boat crossings to Britain, as the two countries signed a new deal aimed at tackling immigration crime. Berlin confirmed plans to reform its legal framework make it a clear criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK” as part of the agreement, the Home Office said. The Home Office said the move would give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous small boats. Both countries will also commit to exchange information that may help to remove migrant-smuggling content from social media platforms and tackle end-to-end routes of criminal smuggling networks as part of the deal. It comes ahead of the UK and Germany hosting the so-called Calais Group in London, which sees ministers and police from the two countries, alongside France, Belgium and the Netherlands, gather to discuss migration in Europe. Delegates are expected to agree a detailed plan to tackle people-smuggling gangs in 2025 at the meeting on Tuesday. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “For too long organised criminal gangs have been exploiting vulnerable people, undermining border security in the UK and across Europe while putting thousands of lives at risk. “We are clear that this cannot go on. “Germany is already a key partner in our efforts to crack down on migrant smuggling, but there is always more we can do together. “Our new joint action plan with deliver a strengthened partnership with Germany, boosting our respective border security as we work to fix the foundations, and ultimately saving lives.” Nancy Faeser, German federal minister of the interior said: “We are now stepping up our joint action to fight the brutal activities of international smugglers. “This is at the core of our joint action plan that we have agreed in London. “I am very grateful to my British counterpart Yvette Cooper that we were able to reach this important agreement. “It will help us end the inhumane activities of criminal migrant smuggling organisations. “By cramming people into inflatable boats under threats of violence and sending them across the Channel, these organisations put human lives at risk. “Many of these crimes are planned in Germany. “Together, we are now countering this unscrupulous business with even more resolve. “This includes maintaining a high investigative pressure, exchanging information between our security authorities as best as possible, and persistently investigating financial flows to identify the criminals operating behind the scenes.”mcw casino 55 。

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Canucks: History proves it's prudent to be above playoff bar at quarter pole(The Center Square) – Adoption of institutional neutrality is supported by better than 6 in 10 tenured and nontenured faculty at the University of North Carolina, Wake Forest University and Duke University, a report says. Nationally, 66% of faculty say “colleges and universities should not take positions on political and social issues,” says Silence in the Classroom, the 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report. At Duke, the percentage is 71%, at Carolina 65%, and at Wake 64%. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, said Thursday it had donated $1 million to the inaugural fund of President-elect Donald Trump. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the donation, which The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday night. The donation is the latest swing in the up-and-down relationship between Trump and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company. Earlier this year, Trump publicly threatened Zuckerberg with “life in prison” if he did anything Trump viewed as illegal during this year’s presidential election campaign. The two men had dinner together last month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Zuckerberg declined during the campaign to endorse either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, although he did praise Trump’s response to an assassination attempt in July, calling his raised fist after the shooting “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” The company’s relationship with Trump and other politicians has long been complicated because of how many people get their news from Meta’s apps. Trump’s successful 2016 campaign credited Facebook with helping to reach voters with digital advertising. In 2021, Meta suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts , as did some other platforms like Twitter, after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s accounts have since been restored. But in recent years, the company has said it is trying to reduce the amount of politics in people’s feeds. Over the next four years, Trump’s administration will determine federal policy in a wide variety of areas that are important to Meta and other tech companies, including regulation of artificial intelligence and antitrust enforcement. At the tail end of Trump’s first term, in December 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sued to try to break up Meta , then known as Facebook. The vote was 3-2, with then-Chairman Joseph Simons, a Trump appointee, joining two Democratic appointees in approving the lawsuit. The case is still pending . One Meta board member, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, told the Free Press website this week that he has spent about half his time since the Nov. 5 election at Mar-a-Lago helping with the transition. Peter Thiel, another investor and a former Meta board member, is also a longtime Trump adviser.Walton Hi-Tech and Monik Trading join forces to bring innovative home appliances to Sri Lanka

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