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Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher after US inflation data ease rate hike worries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

NEW YORK — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after a highly anticipated report showed inflation accelerated across the U.S. in August, but not by much more than expected. The subdued increase in prices eased worries over the likelihood of another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, leading Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 to surge 1.2% to 33,104.79.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.2% to 17,969.38 on renewed concern over China’s property sector. Major real estate developer Country Garden’s Hong Kong-traded shares sank 4.6% ahead of a deadline for a bond repayment. The Shanghai Composite index was flat, at 3,124.43, while Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 2,556.60. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5% to 7,189.70. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 4,467.44 after flipping between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2% to 34,575.53, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to 13,813.59.The inflation rep...

At the University of North Carolina, two shootings 30 years apart show how much has changed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

Three decades ago, as a University of North Carolina student, he covered a deadly shooting for the school newspaper. Last month, as a journalism professor at the same school, Ryan Thornburg kept his students safe during a lockdown — after another shooting. In some ways, the era of campus shootings has come full circle. Other UNC-Chapel Hill alumni who remember the 1995 tragedy now have children enrolled at their alma mater, where an associate professor was shot to death Aug. 28 (and a where a second brief lockdown was imposed on Wednesday). But vast changes in the way information spreads make their recent experiences less like replays and more like double exposures: new technology, new emotions superimposed upon the same setting.Twenty-eight years ago, there was no way for university officials to alert the entire community that a gunman had opened fire on the edge of campus, killing two people and wounding two others. E-mail existed but wasn’t widespread. Calling home meant long-dis...

New England has been roiled by wild weather including a likely tornado. Next up is Hurricane Lee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — Hurricane Lee looks poised to wallop New England later this week even as the region still deals with the impact of days of wild weather that produced torrential rain, flooding, sinkholes and a likely tornado.A hurricane watch stretches from Stonington, Maine to the U.S.-Canadian border, where hurricane conditions, heavy rainfall and coastal flooding are possible Friday night and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday night. Areas from Watch Hill, Rhode Island, to Stonington, Maine — including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket — are under a tropical storm watch. A storm surge watch has also been issued for Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket with the potential for life-threatening flooding there late Friday and Saturday.The looming arrival of the hurricane threatened to unleash more violent storms on a region that earlier in the week saw 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain that fall over six hours and on Wednesday saw communities in Massachu...

On the road again: Commuting makes a comeback as employers try to put pandemic in the rearview

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — If you think U.S. roads have gotten busier on your morning commute, you’re not alone.The rate of workers driving to their jobs creeped upwards nationwide last year, as did those who carpool to work by car, truck or van. The mean commuting time jumped by almost a minute in 2022 from the previous year, as more businesses ended full-time remote work, a sign that post-pandemic life edged closer in 2022 to what it was before COVID-19.The rate of people working from home dropped from almost 18% in 2021 to 15.2% in 2022, according to new survey data on life in America released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey covers commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service, and employment, among other topics.Mark Behrens, a human resources data analyst in Orlando working for a Fortune 500 company, started driving to his office in March 2022 after working from home for two years because of the pandemic. M...

Firefighters fear PFAS in their gear could be contributing to rising cancer cases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Boston firefighter Daniel Ranahan had heard about colleagues getting cancer but he was stunned when doctors discovered a large tumor in his chest.He was only 30 and had been in the Boston Fire Department less than a decade. But as he investigated his diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October 2020 and sought successful treatment, he learned he and others wore gear that contained the toxic industrial compound PFAS.“You always hear about the dangers. You just never think it’s going be you,” said Ranahan, who stopped working due to the cancer and is among thousands of firefighters nationwide who sued PFAS manufacturers and companies that make firefighting gear and foam, seeking damages for their exposure.“These guys put this on day in and day out to protect neighborhoods and wherever they are working,” he said. The multi-layered coats and pants worn by firefighters have become the latest battleground over PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances. It’...

Wisconsin Senate to vote on firing state’s nonpartisan top elections official

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate was set to vote Thursday on firing the battleground state’s top elections official — a move that was denounced by Democrats as illegitimate and is expected to draw a legal battle.Nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plan to rig the 2020 vote in Wisconsin. GOP leaders have vowed to oust her before the 2024 presidential election.Election observers have voiced concerns that replacing Wolfe with a less experienced administrator or continuing to dispute her position could create greater instability in a high-stakes presidential race where election workers expect to face unrelenting pressure, harassment and threats.The bipartisan elections commission deadlocked in June on a vote to nominate Wolfe for a second four-year term. Three Republicans voted to nominate her and three ...

Paintings on pesos illustrate Argentina’s currency and inflation woes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A jaguar lies beside George Washington. The United States’ first president holds a rifle with one hand as he rests the other on the dead Argentine predator.The backdrop is a U.S. dollar and an Argentine 500-peso note joined like a book, a clear allusion to the rapid depreciation of the local currency, the peso. That has made it difficult for Argentines to make ends meet. The peso has depreciated around 60% compared to the U.S. dollar over the past year. It has occurred in parallel to one of the world’s highest inflation rates. Together, the economic travails have have bolstered an anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump.As millions of Argentines express dismay and anger, a group of artists is seeking to show the economic damage the best way they know how, with art. And as they express themselves, the artwork increases the value of the increasingly worthless bills they use as material. It’s one of the starkest illust...

Biden rules on clean cars face crucial test as Republican-led challenges go to appeals court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts by the Biden administration to limit pollution from automobile tailpipes — a major source of planet-warming emissions — face a crucial test as legal challenges brought by Republican-led states head to a federal appeals court.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments Thursday and Friday on three cases challenging Biden administration rules targeting cars and trucks. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, and the legal cases could go all the way to the Supreme Court.Republican attorneys general say the legal challenges are needed to curtail government overreach, while environmental groups and the Biden administration say an adverse ruling could jeopardize protections against deadly pollution that contributes to climate change.The cases before the appeals court will test a 2021 Environmental Protection Agency rule that strengthened tailpipe pollution limits an...

Defense set to begin in impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lawyers for impeached Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton were set to begin presenting their defense Thursday as the trial that will determine whether the Republican is removed from office winds down.Attorneys for the bipartisan group of lawmakers prosecuting Paxton’s impeachment rested their case Wednesday after a woman who was expected to testify about an extramarital affair with Paxton made a sudden appearance at the trial, but never took the stand. The affair is central to the historic proceedings and accusations that Paxton misused his power to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was under FBI investigation and employed the woman, Laura Olson. One of the 16 articles of impeachment against Paxton alleges that Paul’s hiring of Olson amounted to a bribe. Olson was called to the stand Wednesday morning in the Texas Senate and waited outside the chamber. But her testimony was delayed for hours before Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting as the...

Chilly Thursday morning, but sunshine continues in Chicago; indication of summer-like warmth setting up for next week. Little rain in the forecast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:15 GMT

Thursday Morning ChillClear skies, light winds a perfect recipe for a cool morning—many areas away from the residual warmth of Lake Michigan  see lows dip into the 40s early Thursday morning: FORECAST THURSDAY MORNING LOWS Summer-Like Warmth Stages ComebackWhile still several days away, growing indications of 80 degree-plus temperatures returning to the area next week, as early as Tuesday for parts of the area, more likely on WednesdayFORECAST TUESDAY HIGH TEMPERATURESFORECAST WEDNESDAY HIGH TEMPERATURESTemperatures to be near or slightly below normal through the weekend and into early next week before significant warming occurs Forecast temperature anomalyMassachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a state of emergency Tuesday night following the “catastrophic flash flooding and property damage”Rain created several sinkholes in Leominster, Massachusetts, including one where several cars were swallowed up. CONTINUE READINGLee Approaching New EnglandSource: Meteorologist Matt DevittTrop...