BREAKING Louis Gossett Jr., 1st Black man to win supporting actor Oscar, dies at 87
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries 'Roots,' has died. He was 87.
Turkiye's parliament on Thursday ratified Finland's application to join NATO, lifting the last hurdle in the way of the Nordic country's long-delayed accession into the Western military alliance.
All 276 lawmakers present voted in favor of Finland's bid, days after Hungary's parliament also endorsed Helsinki's accession.
"This will make the whole NATO family stronger & safer," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter in welcoming Turkiye's action.
Alarmed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland and Sweden abandoned their decades-long policy of nonalignment and applied to join the alliance.
Full unanimity is required to admit new members into the 30-member alliance, and Turkiye and Hungary were the last two NATO members to ratify Finland's accession.
Sweden's bid to join the alliance, meanwhile, has been left hanging, with both Turkiye and Hungary holding out on giving it the green light despite expressing support for NATO's expansion.
Turkiye's government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups it deems to be terrorist organizations and security threats, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
More recently, Turkiye was angered by a series of demonstrations in Sweden, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy.
Hungary's government contends some Swedish politicians have made derisive statements about the condition of Hungary's democracy and played an active role in ensuring that billions in European Union funds were frozen over alleged rule-of-law and democracy violations.
Turkish officials have said that unlike Sweden, Finland fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year under which the two countries pledged to address Turkiye's security concerns.
"As a NATO member, we naturally had some expectations and requests regarding the security concerns of our country," Akif Cagatay Kilic, a legislator from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governing party, told parliament before the vote. "I would like to underline the concrete steps and their implementation by Finland, which supported and shaped the decision we are taking here."
Kilic added: "I'm aware that there is a large number of people watching us from Finland. ... We can say to them: `Welcome to NATO."'
Some opposition parties were critical of the Turkish government's position toward the two Nordic countries.
"Unfortunately, (Erdogan's ruling party) turned the right to veto Finland and Sweden's membership bids into a tool for blackmail and threat. We do not approve of it," said Hisyar Ozsoy, a legislator from the pro-Kurdish party. "We find the bargaining process (to press for) the extradition of Kurdish dissident writers, politicians and journalists ... to be ugly, wrong and unlawful."
Asked earlier this week about Sweden's NATO membership, Erdogan told reporters: "There are certain things we expect of them. They must be fulfilled first."
Sweden, which made constitutional changes to pass tougher anti-terrorism laws, has expressed hope that it will be able to join before NATO's July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
"Sweden faces more significant obstacles in its bid," Hamish Kinnear, Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, wrote in emailed comments.
"Turkiye is unlikely to approve its acceptance into the alliance before the election in May. The Quran burning incident sparked popular rage in Turkiye and President Tayyip Recep Erdogan won't want to risk angering his conservative base ahead of the polls," Kinnear said.
The accession of Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) border with Russia, has geographic and political importance for NATO, said Mai'a Cross, professor of political science at Northeastern University.
"Finland is at a very important strategic location and having that kind of shift from neutrality to respond to Russia's aggression is bolstering the demonstration of the political will of NATO," she said.
Cross added that the delay gave Finland more of a chance to prepare.
"Finland is already sitting in the meetings with NATO. It's already revamping its armed forces," she said. "So when it steps into NATO formally, it can actually hit the ground running."
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries 'Roots,' has died. He was 87.
Warnings of up to 60 millimetres of rain and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces and one territory ahead of the Easter weekend.
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Luxury operator Regent Seven Seas Cruises is raising their price tag to eye-watering levels, with a suite on an upcoming 140-day world voyage costing US$1.7 million.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
An Ontario man who built a garage on his property has been locked in a battle with his electricity provider for a year and half over a severed power line.
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.