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Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher ahead of a key US jobs report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday ahead of a U.S. government jobs report, after Wall Street rose Thursday to snap its first three-day losing streak since Halloween.U.S. futures were lower and oil prices gained more than $1. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index shed 1.8% to 32,254.82, as investors speculated that the Bank of Japan may end its negative interest rate policy.Before meeting Thursday with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda told parliament the central bank would face an “even more challenging” situation at the year’s end and in early 2024. On Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 143.79 Japanese yen from 144.12 yen. It was trading above 150 yen until mid-November. Updated data released on Friday showed Japan’s economy shrank by 2.9% year-on-year in the July-September quarter, worse than estimated earlier. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.3% to 16,394.90 and the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.4% at 2,977.83. The Kospi in Seoul gained 1...

High-profile attacks on Derek Chauvin and Larry Nassar put spotlight on violence in federal prisons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

Derek Chauvin was stabbed nearly two dozen times in the law library at a federal prison in Arizona. Larry Nassar was knifed repeatedly in his cell at a federal penitentiary in Florida.The assaults of two notorious, high-profile federal prisoners by fellow inmates in recent months have renewed concerns about whether the chronically understaffed, crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons is capable of keeping people in its custody safe.In the shadow of gangster James “Whitey” Bulger’s 2018 beating death at a West Virginia federal penitentiary and financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 suicide at a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, the Bureau of Prisons is again under scrutiny for failing to protect high-profile prisoners from harm.Chauvin, 47, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020, was hospitalized for a week after he was assaulted Nov. 24 at a medium-security federal prison in Tucson, Arizona — the same comple...

Census Bureau wants to change how it asks about disabilities. Some advocates don’t like it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

The U.S. Census Bureau wants to change how it asks people about disabilities, and some advocates are complaining that they were not consulted enough on what amounts to a major overhaul in how disabilities would be defined by the federal government.Disability advocates say the change would artificially reduce their numbers by almost half. At stake are not only whether people with disabilities get vital resources for housing, schools or program benefits but whether people with disabilities are counted accurately in the first place, experts said.Some also question the timing of the change, which comes just as more people are living with new, long-term conditions from the COVID-19 pandemic.Census Bureau officials say the proposed change on its most comprehensive survey of American life will align the U.S. with international standards, allowing comparisons among countries. They also say it will better capture how disabilities occur in the real world, since they rarely fit neatly into sta...

A Chinese military surveillance balloon is spotted in Taiwan Strait, island’s Defense Ministry says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says a Chinese military surveillance balloon was spotted in the Taiwan Strait, as well as a large-scale dispatch of military aircraft and ships. The ministry said the balloon passed southwest of the northern port city of Keelung on Thursday night, then continued east before disappearing, possibly into the Pacific Ocean. Taiwan has threatened to shoot down such balloons, but the ministry did not say what, if any, action was taken. It said the balloon was monitored flying at an altitude of approximately 6,400 meters (21,000 feet).It also said 26 Chinese military aircraft were detected, along with 10 Chinese navy ships, in the 24 hours before 6 a.m. Friday. Of the aircraft, 15 had crossed the median line that is an unofficial divider between the sides, but which Beijing refuses to recognize. Some also entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone outside the island’s airspace. Taiwan’s military monitored the situation with ...

Attention all Barbz: Nicki Minaj has released ‘Pink Friday 2,’ 13 years after the original

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nicki Minaj ‘s highly anticipated fifth studio album, “Pink Friday 2,” is finally here. Out Friday, the 10-time Grammy nominee’s 41st birthday, “Pink Friday 2” is Minaj’s first full-length release since 2018’s “Queen.”The 22-track release is stacked with features, including contributions from Drake, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Lil Uzi Vert and Future among others.“This entire album will be the biggest gift I have ever given humanity thus far,” Minaj said in a recent livestream. “I have never in my life been so in love with something that I’m working on.”The original “Pink Friday” was released in 2010, with her sophomore album, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” following two years later.The road to “Pink Friday 2” has been long. Fans suspected it was on the horizon when the rapper tweeted a simple three-character message, “PF2,” in the summer of 2020. But it wasn’t until this past June that Minaj announced the album title. The release...

Free toy store in Nashville gives families the dignity of choice while shopping for holiday gifts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When country music star Brad Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, helped create a free grocery store in Nashville, Tennessee, their goal was to give families in need the ability to choose their own food in a place that felt like a normal store. This year, The Store is offering that same dignity of choice to parents looking for gifts for the holiday season. During a two-day event starting Friday, selected families will shop at a free toy store, stocked with brand new toys, video games, stuffed animals, scooters, clothes, makeup and musical instruments. “The emotional aspect of being able to give your child something your child wanted versus just something to sort of get you through the holidays, that’s such a load off the minds of somebody who maybe didn’t think they were going to be able to do that,” Paisley said. The Paisleys got a sneak peak on Thursday before the free toy store opened, marveling over the stacks of gifts, wrapping statio...

Is the US economy on track for a ‘soft landing’? Friday’s jobs report may offer clues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Can the U.S. economy achieve a much-hyped “soft landing”? Friday’s jobs report for November will provide some signs of whether that elusive scenario is coming into view. Many of the most recent economic figures have been encouraging. Companies are advertising fewer job openings, and Americans are switching jobs less often than they did a year ago, trends that typically slow wage growth and inflation pressures. Hiring is cooling, and price increases have moderated significantly.All of which means the Federal Reserve may stand an increasingly good chance of bringing inflation down to its 2% annual target without causing a deep recession — the common definition of a soft landing.Yet that effort isn’t without risks. The economy could slow so much as to slide into a recession. The unemployment rate, which began the year at an ultra-low 3.4%, has since risen to 3.9% as more Americans have come off the sidelines to look for jobs and not found them right away. ...

Michigan school shooting victims to speak as teen faces possible life sentence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A teenager who killed four other students at a Michigan school will listen to their families and survivors of the mass shooting before a judge decides whether the attack will carry a life prison sentence.Crime victims in Michigan have a right to speak in court, and the final hearing Friday in suburban Detroit is likely to be tense and emotional.Ethan Crumbley, 17, could be locked up with no chance for parole, a punishment sought by the Oakland County prosecutor. But because of the shooter’s age, Judge Kwamé Rowe also could order a shorter sentence — anywhere from 25 years to 40 years at a minimum — that would eventually make him eligible for release by the state parole board.The shooter pleaded guilty to all 24 charges in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, including first-degree murder and terrorism. “I’m excited to have my words heard and my story heard,” Kylie Ossege, 19, who was severely wounded, recently told The Associated Press.Crumbley, who was ...

Drought vs deluge: Florida’s unusual rainfall totals either too little or too much on each coast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — In Florida, this year has been a tale of two states as far as rainfall totals, with the southeast coast deluged by sometimes-record rainfall and much of the Gulf of Mexico coast facing a drought.Counties up and down Florida’s west side are under new water use restrictions, especially in one area where the water table has gotten so low that wells could dry up. Now Florida’s wettest season is over until late spring. What’s happening in Florida could soon become a reality elsewhere, as farmers and residents increasingly have to deal with changes in weather patterns because of climate change. This means hotter temperatures in summer, more powerful hurricanes and other heavier rainstorms and droughts during unexpected seasons. “You know, as the climate changes, we’re going to have to adapt to these extremes,” said Dan Durica, a board member at Tampa’s Sweetwater Organic Community Farm. “And so you have to know how to deal with like the boom and bus...

Austin City Council approves HOME initiative after full day of public comment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:59 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After nearly 12 hours of public comment, Austin City Council members approved the HOME initiative late Thursday night. The initiative is intended to create more housing options for Austinites. The initiative was brought forward by Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool of District 7, who thanked her colleagues on their passing of the plan shortly before midnight. "It was an extraordinary effort and I thank you all, thank you all. My thanks to all the City staff who have contributed to the HOME effort," she said. But hundreds of Austinites showed up at City Hall Thursday to speak against the initiative, and expressed concerns that developers would demolish existing single-family homes and replace them with expensive townhomes. "My decision, again, is rooted in the genuine concerns raised by constituents," Council Member Mackenzie Kelly said. Her and Council Member Alison Alter voted no. Council members thanked the huge number of speakers who showed up Thursday and sa...