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Stock market today: Asian shares mixed as investors await Fed policy decision, price data

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday after the S&P 500 logged its fourth winning week in a row, while investors await another decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.Most observers expect no change in rates given recent data showing the U.S. economy slowing. This week also brings price data that might indicate whether the Fed is succeeding in snuffing inflation. Friday also will bring a policy meeting of the Bank of Japan, which has refrained from making any major changes to its minus 0.1% benchmark interest rate despite rising prices, citing a need to wait and see if the inflation is sustained. Tokyo’s benchmark NIkkei 225 added 0.3% to 32,362.58, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up 0.6% to 19,279.66. In Seoul, the Kospi declined 0.5% to 2,627.52. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.3% to 3,222.35. Shares rose in Taiwan and India but fell in Bangkok. Australian markets were closed for a holiday. Stocks inched higher Friday to close out a li...

Political collateral? Oregon GOP walkout on ‘culture war’ bill threatens billions in school funds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Funding for schools, literacy programs and special education teachers in Oregon — a state where 60% of third graders can’t read at grade level — could be jeopardized by a Republican walkout that has stalled hundreds of bills and derailed the Legislature for nearly six weeks.The standoff over a bill that would expand access to abortion and gender-affirming health care could scuttle much-needed education funding in a year when the stars seemed to align for Oregon’s budget. Tax revenues have exceeded state economists’ projections, allowing lawmakers to approve a record K-12 budget of $10.2 billion. But the education spending legislation needs a vote from the Senate, which hasn’t been able to conduct business since May 3 because of the GOP boycott, and time is running out, with just two weeks left until the legislative session ends.“Supporting strong schools and improving student outcomes should be enough to make anyone show up for work,” De...

Iraq’s parliament approves budget, ending dispute over oil revenue sharing with Kurdish region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament belatedly approved a record $152 billion budget for 2023 on Monday, after months of wrangling over the sharing of oil revenue between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region in the north. The process was also hampered by infighting between different Iraqi Kurdish parties. The budget — approved six months into the fiscal year and after four chaotic late-night voting sessions — allocates 12.6% of the revenue to the Kurdish region and is seen as strengthening Baghdad’s hand on the oil revenues. The central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government in the city of Irbil have been locked in a dispute over oil revenue for years, while competing Kurdish parties are also at loggerheads over their shares.In the absence of a binding law detailing the sharing of funds from oil and gas exports, the Kurdish region has moved ahead with exports on its own, while Baghdad has maintained that all exports shou...

Pope recovering well from surgery but skips Sunday blessing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

Pope Francis' recovery from surgery is going well but doctors advised him not to deliver his Sunday blessing from a hospital balcony to avoid strain on his abdomen.Briefing reporters at the Gemelli hospital on Saturday, chief surgeon Sergio Alfieri also said the 86-year-old had agreed with doctors to stay there for at least all of next week.Francis underwent a three-hour operation to repair an abdominal hernia on Wednesday (7 June)."Only three days have passed. We asked the Holy Father to be prudent and avoid the strain (of standing at the balcony)," Alfieri said. "Each time he gets out of bed and sits in an armchair puts stress on the abdominal walls."A mesh prosthetic was inserted into the abdominal wall to help it heal and doctors want it to settle and attach properly to avoid another operation if it breaks, he added."You can understand how that would not be pleasing for him, and for me," Alfieri joked.PORTUGAL, MONGOLIA TRIPS STILL ON SCHEDULEVatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni sa...

Attempted break-ins have Upland neighborhood on alert

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

Residents of an Upland neighborhood are on edge after a series of attempted break-ins over the weekend, with one person waking up to someone trying to kick the door of his home in.  Home surveillance cameras captured what appears to be the same man banging on different doors in the neighborhood and then running off when he sees either the video doorbell or realizes that someone is inside the home.  The suspect does the same thing at least three times Friday night on Ukiah Way in Upland. Neighbors told KTLA that there were also three to four other people inside a car on the street that was waiting for the suspected robber.  One resident, Richard Castellano, said the man his surveillance cameras captured appeared to be casing the street before them approaching his front door. “The gentleman who was at my door was in a hoodie and sweats, and he saw my doorbell ring and the light went off and he took off. So, I was very fortunate,” he said. “You hear about this happe...

VIDEO: Owner reunites with French bulldog weeks after being stolen in Oakland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

(KRON) -- A French bulldog named Boba was stolen during an Oakland smash-and-grab back in April. The theft, in which the suspect grabbed Boba out of a Tesla in Jack London Square, was caught on video. Suspect arrested in standoff that temporarily shut down Coliseum BART station After weeks of separation, Boba was reunited with her owner Toya Zheng on Sunday. The happy reunion, which took place in Union City, was also captured on video (watch in the player above). Zheng says Boba was abandoned by a man in Antioch who left the Frenchie at a dog park. The man asked a woman there to watch over Boba but never came back.The woman took Boba, who had no collar or ID tag, for a microchip check, according to Zheng. After the microchip failed because Boba was not microchipped, the woman searched for missing dog posts online about Boba.Eventually, the woman got a hold of Zheng, and they arranged a meeting to reunite Boba and her owner. KRON On is streaming news live now.embed-container { pos...

ANÁLISIS | Por qué la segunda acusación de Trump puede no hundirle en 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

(CNN) — Las pruebas de la acusación contra Donald Trump por su presunta mala gestión de documentos clasificados tras dejar el cargo pueden parecer “asombrosas”.El caso supone la primera vez que un expresidente es acusado ante un tribunal federal y apenas la segunda vez que un expresidente es acusado en cualquier lugar (después del propio Trump, a principios de este año en un tribunal del condado de Nueva York).Lo que hace que los cargos sean aún más ahistóricos es que llegan en un momento en el que Trump se presenta a las elecciones presidenciales. ¿Cómo influirá esta nueva acusación en la campaña electoral?Digamos que debemos ser, al menos inicialmente, escépticos de que Trump vaya a ser penalizado en las encuestas.Una encuesta de ABC News/Washington Post realizada a principios de mayo preguntaba si Trump debería enfrentarse a cargos penales por sus presuntas acciones con los documentos clasificados. La mayoría de los estadounidenses (54%) dijo que debería hacerlo...

From GPS-guided bombs to electronic warfare, Russia improves its weaponry in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

Ukrainian troops are probing Russian defenses as spring gives way to a second summer of fighting, and Kyiv’s forces are facing an enemy that has made mistakes and suffered setbacks in the 15-month-old war. But analysts say Moscow also has learned from those blunders and improved its weapons and skills.Russia has built heavily fortified defenses along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, honed its electronic weapons to reduce Ukraine’s edge in combat drones, and turned heavy bombs from its massive Cold-War-era arsenal into precision-guided gliding munitions capable of striking targets without putting its warplanes at risk.The changing Russian tactics along with increased troop numbers and improved weaponry could make it challenging for Ukraine to score any kind of quick decisive victory, threatening to turn it into a long battle of attrition.U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that while Ukraine’...

Food prices are squeezing Europe. Now Italians are calling for a pasta protest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

MILAN (AP) — When it comes to skyrocketing pasta prices, Italians are crying: Basta!They have had enough after the cost of the staple of every Italian table soared by twice the rate of inflation. One consumer advocate group is calling for a weeklong national pasta strike starting June 22 after the Rome government held a crisis meeting last month and decided not to intervene on prices. “The macaroni strike is to see if keeping pasta on the shelves will bring down the prices, in the great Anglo-Saxon tradition of boycotting goods,” said Furio Truzzi, president of the group, Assoutenti. “The price of pasta is absolutely out of proportion with production costs.”Grocery prices have risen more sharply in Europe than in other advanced economies — from the U.S. to Japan — driven by higher energy and labor costs and the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine. That is even though costs for food commodities have fallen for months from record highs, including wheat for the flour used to make p...

Annecy knife attack suspect detained, prosecutor says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:51:57 GMT

The suspect in a knife attack in which four toddlers and two pensioners were wounded in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday has been placed in detention, the local prosecutor said on Saturday.The suspect, a Syrian refugee born in 1991, is under formal investigation for attempted murder and resisting arrest with a weapon, the prosecutor said.The injured are no longer in critical condition, Annecy Prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis told a news conference, adding that the four children were still in hospital.The stabbing was the first violent attack targeting children since 2012, when gunman Mohamed Merah shot three Jewish children and one of their parents, and then three soldiers, in Toulouse in 2012.The suspect has chosen not to speak while in police custody and when presented before judges, the prosecutor said.He was examined by a psychiatrist who considered that he was fit to be held in custody.Drug and alcohol tests were negative."Presently it is premature to assess his ...