Diary of 12-year-old Ukrainian refugee to be released

Canadian labour market still tight as economy sees slight bump in employment

OTTAWA - After sustaining three consecutive months of job losses and propelling fears of an economic slowdown, the Canadian economy posted a modest bump in employment in September, suggesting the labour market is still exceptionally tight.

The unemployment rate for the month fell to 5.2 per cent as fewer people looked for work, down from 5.4 per cent in August, Statistics Canada reported in its labour force survey released on Friday. Meanwhile,the economy added 21,000 jobs.

Economists say the latest jobs report shows employers are still eager to hire, and wages are growing accordingly.

The report showed wages were up by 5.2 per cent in September compared with a year ago, with the average hourly wage at $31.67. It marked the fourth straight month of five per cent or higher wage growth, but still falls short of the rate of inflation.

Stuck ship thrusts sleepy Suez Canal village into limelight

I yearn to see the man at the helm. Does he resemble the overgroomed Francesco Schettino, the captain who steered the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia onto the rocks off Tuscany in 2012 and then hastily hopped off the ship? Are they the same man?

Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was ‘100% real’

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For years, bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, that children weren’t killed and that parents were crisis actors in an elaborate ruse to force gun control.

Under oath and facing a jury that could hit him with $150 million or more in damages for his false claims, Jones said Wednesday he now realizes that was irresponsible and believes that what happened in the deadliest school shooting in American history was “100% real.”

Jones’ public contrition came on the final day of testimony in a two-week defamation lawsuit against him and his Austin-based media company, Free Speech Systems, brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis. Their son was a first grader who was among the 20 students and six teachers killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

“I unintentionally took part in things that did hurt these people’s feelings,” said Jones, who also acknowledged raising conspiracy claims about other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, “and I’m sorry for that.”

Diary of 12-year-old Ukrainian refugee to be released

NEW YORK (AP) — The reflections of a 12-year-old refugee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be published this fall. Yeva Skalietska's book is called “You Don’t Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine.”

Union Square & Co. will release her account Oct. 25.

“Everyone knows what the word ‘war’ means, but practically no one knows what this word really represents,” Skalietska said in a statement released Wednesday. “I want the world to know what we have experienced.”

Skalietska's book begins with her 12th birthday, shortly before the Russians attacked on Feb. 24. She had been living in Kharkiv with her grandmother when the bombing began. (Yeva's parents separated when she was a baby, and her grandmother has raised her).

Hydro Québec faces issue we should avoid

You might be tempted to call it a canary in an electric power generation coal mine.

But instead, it’s just another heads-up into the already-obvious problem with the proliferation of data centres.

This week, Hydro-Québec went before the Régie de l’énergie, Québec’s public utilities board, to change the rules for new and existing large data centres.

Now, it was not that long ago that Hydro Québec was actively wooing data centres — offering bulk power rates to be used to lure labour-intensive, power-hungry heavy industry (think aluminum smelters) with rates substantially lower than they offer Québec’s own residential customers. It was a way to use surplus power to create jobs and drive economic activity.