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Congressional Democrats on Wednesday unveiled legislation they say would eliminate the statute of limitations shielding sex traffickers and enablers from civil accountability, invoking the legacy of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and naming the bill in honor of one of his most prominent accusers. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez introduced “Virginia’s Law” alongside survivors of abuse and members of Virginia Giuffre’s family at the U.S. Capitol. The proposal would end the statute of…

HONG KONG — Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, drawing swift condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and several Western governments. Lai’s son, Sebastian, said the punishment was expected but “no less devastating,” and described his 78-year-old father’s courtroom demeanor as defiantly calm. Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was convicted in December on two counts of foreign collusion under…

Nine dead, 27 wounded in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., school shooting; suspect also dead, RCMP says Nine people were killed and 27 wounded in a mass shooting that centered on a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, marking one of the deadliest acts of violence in the province in recent years. The suspected shooter is also dead, police said. RCMP said seven people were killed at the school. Officers found six victims shot dead during a sweep of the building; a seventh person with…

Netanyahu to press Trump on tougher Iran deal as White House weighs second carrier deployment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to push U.S. President Donald Trump to harden Washington’s stance in nuclear talks with Iran during a hastily arranged White House meeting today, as the president signals he may send a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. The talks, set to begin at 11 a.m. local time (4 p.m. Irish time), come days after Iran resumed negotiations with the United States in Oman…

BOGODUKHIV, Ukraine — A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bogodukhiv killed four people, including three young children, a regional official said. Two one-year-old boys and a two-year-old girl died as a result of the strike, according to Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration. A 34-year-old man in the same house as the children also died from his wounds, he said in a statement posted on Telegram. Synegubov added that a 74-year-old woman was wounded and was receiving medical…

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said, the latest violence to strain a four-month-old, U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Two people riding an electric bike were killed in an airstrike in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. Later, Israeli drone fire killed a woman in the same area and troops shot dead a man in Khan Younis in the south, according to the medics. Another man was killed by Israeli gunfire in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The…

Britney Spears has sold the rights to her songs to music publisher Primary Wave, according to The Hollywood Reporter, marking the latest high-profile catalog deal in a music industry that has seen a flurry of such transactions in recent years. The 44-year-old pop star, whose hits include “Toxic” and “Oops!... I Did It Again,” would place her body of work with Primary Wave under the reported sale. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. Representatives for Spears and Primary Wave have been approached for comment.…

An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national whose high-profile arrest became a flashpoint in the crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism, her lawyers said. In a Jan. 29 decision, Immigration Judge Roopal Patel in Boston concluded the Department of Homeland Security failed to meet its burden to prove Ozturk was removable and terminated proceedings, according to a filing her attorneys made with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of…

Greenlandic siblings Sondre and Ukaleq Slettemark are competing in biathlon at the Winter Olympics under the Danish flag, a high-profile reminder of Greenland’s complicated status in international sport and the pride its athletes carry onto the world stage. Although they hail from Greenland, the autonomous Arctic territory within the Kingdom of Denmark has not been recognized by the International Olympic Committee. As a result, Greenlandic athletes must represent Denmark at the Games. That arrangement puts the…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday denied having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as calls for his resignation intensified and newly released Justice Department files appeared to undercut his earlier account of severing contact more than two decades ago. “Over a 14 year period, I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person,” Lutnick told a Senate committee, adding that while in New York he met Epstein and later had lunch with him during a family vacation around 2012.…