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Japanese economic growth surges on strong exports and tourism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s economic growth jumped at an annual pace of 6% in the April-June period, marking the third straight quarter of growth as exports and inbound tourism recovered.Real gross domestic product, which measures the sum value of a nation’s products and services, grew 1.5% in the fiscal first quarter for the world’s third largest economy, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday.The annualized pace shows what the growth would have been if what was marked during the quarter had continued for a year. The rate outpaced what analysts had forecast at 3.1% growth. The latest quarter showed the strongest growth since October-December 2020, when Japan’s GDP grew 1.9% on-quarter, and 7.9% annualized rate.Exports grew 3.2% in the three months through June, according to the government. Auto exports have grown lately, after a period in which they had stalled on the shortage of computer chips and other parts. Production was crimped because of social restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemi...

City of Yellowknife declares state of local emergency due to wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — Hundreds of northerners were being airlifted from at least three communities in the face of wind-whipped wildfires as the Canadian Forces arrived in the Northwest Territories and ashes rained down on its capital city, where a state of local emergency has been declared.“Over the past 24 hours or so there has been an airlift like this territory has never seen,” N.W.T. fire information officer Mike Westwick said Monday.“Planes flying out of Hay River, planes flying out of Fort Smith, planes flying out of Jean Marie River.“The highways are compromised. It’s a very serious situation.”Jane Groenewegen was helping a friend leave the hamlet of Enterprise just south of Hay River on Sunday evening when RCMP officers knocked on the door.“They said, ‘No, you have to evacuate immediately.’ It was probably only 30 to 45 minutes after that when basically the entire town of Enterprise burned down,” she said in a phone intervi...

Police say brother of Colombian Women’s World Cup player Carabalí has been shot dead at a nightclub

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The younger brother of Colombian Women’s World Cup player Jorelyn Carabalí was killed in the early hours of Monday in a nightclub shooting, local police in the city of Cali said.Jorelyn Carabalí was one of the key players in Colombia’s run that ended in a 2-1 quarterfinal loss to England in Sydney on Saturday.Colombia’s soccer federation issued a statement saying the welcome-home festivities for the squad’s return from Australia will go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday despite the incident.Local media reported that Carabalí’s 23-year-old brother died after the shooting in a Cali nightclub, where police said he worked as a DJ.The national soccer federation said Carabalí thanked her teammates for their support after her brother’s death, but did not say whether she will attend the official team functions on Tuesday.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cu...

Indonesian protesters begin hunger strike as bill to protect domestic workers stalls in parliament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian domestic workers and activists began a hunger strike on Monday to protest against the parliament’s delay in passing a bill to protect domestic workers.Sunrise-to-sunset fasting protests were happening simultaneously in the capital, Jakarta, and other major cities and will be held every day until the bill is passed, said Lita Anggraini of the National Advocacy Network for Domestic Workers.“The hunger strike reflects the situation of many domestic workers in this country who don’t have protection from the government,” Anggraini said. “We call on lawmakers to immediately pass the domestic worker protection bill into law. The more delays, the more workers who will experience violence and discrimination.”In Jakarta, about 40 fasting activists from the Domestic Workers Alliance sat under tents in front of the parliament compound. They held clocks, baby pacifiers, napkins and other cleaning equipment, as well as chains they said symbolized t...

U.S. Department of Education reaffirms Baylor’s religious exemption in response to sexual harassment complaints

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) — The U.S. Department of Education exempted Baylor University from sexual harassment claims regulated under Title IX last month after the Christian university asked the agency to dismiss discrimination complaints made by students, arguing that the claims were inconsistent with the university’s religious tenets.After LGBTQ+ students filed several Title IX discrimination complaints against the Waco-based university — in one case for failing to address homophobic harassment by a former student’s peers — Baylor wrote to the agency’s Office for Civil Rights, arguing that the federal government previously recognized that the university is exempt from certain aspects of civil rights laws.Lori Fogleman, the university’s assistant vice president of media and public relations, lamented that Baylor’s religious exemption was being mischaracterized as a “broad-based exception to sexual harassment.”Instead, she said in a statement that “Baylor is responding to current consi...

Federal judge tosses suit against Biden student loan forgiveness plan for long-term borrowers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two conservative groups intended to halt the Biden administration’s plan to cancel $39 billion in student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers.In an order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington of the Eastern District of Michigan dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, arguing that the groups did not have the standing for their complaint. Ludington said that the groups’ alleged injuries were not sufficient. “But—even assuming that Plaintiffs’ alleged injury was sufficient—they have not adequately demonstrated a causal link between Defendants’ action and an identifiable injury,” the judge wrote in the 18-page order.The complaint — which was filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Cato Institute earlier this month — argued that the administration overstepped its power when it announced the forgiveness in July. The lawsuit came just weeks after the Supreme Cou...

New details in redevelopment of riverfront area south of Gateway Arch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

ST. LOUIS – There's big news about one of the biggest projects ever in St. Louis: a dramatic, billion-dollar-plus overhaul of the South Riverfront, known as Gateway South.FOX 2 has confirmed key developments; the project is actually happening.Nearly a year ago, FOX 2 learned of the massive plan to revitalize the derelict old warehouse district just south of the Gateway Arch, which is roughly bounded by Interstates 64, 55, 44, and the Mississippi River. If you didn’t know better, you’d think the plan was dead because things look the same now as they did then.We’ve confirmed that much is going on behind the scenes.Property records show multiple LLCs with the same New York address buying key tracts of land in the project zone, including a $1.8 million purchase earlier this year.“No, it hasn’t gone away,” Alderwoman Cara Spencer (Ward 8) said of the project.The site is in her ward. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Su...

Cardinals fans heat up as the temperatures cool down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

ST. LOUIS – According to fans, the weather on Monday has been cooler, calmer, and very much Cardinals-approved. By the afternoon, much of the city was spending more time outside than indoors.“Every day is a new day,” said Phil Melcher, director of security for the St. Louis Cardinals. “I think it’s great. Hopefully, it brings a lot more fans out.”A few hours later, that was the reality in Ballpark Village prior to the first pitch against the Oakland Athletics.“It’s been very hot the past couple weeks, so I like that it’s nice and cool today,” said members of the Jones family, happy to see the weather holding out during their time in Ballpark Village ahead of the game. City of St. Charles shuts down water treatment plant due to ammonia drop Even the Cardinals team staff is happy to see the change in climate.“This is great because I don’t have to change shirts midway through the game,” Melcher said.Cardinals fans are enjoying their stadium seats with few concerns beyond the diamond....

Keeler: Broomfield football coach Robert O’Brien didn’t just inherit one of Colorado’s toughest jobs. He embraced it. “He’s honestly amazing.”

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

When his bosses made Robert O’Brien ride shotgun to the corner of politics and nepotism, the Broomfield football coach took one glance at the neighborhood and did the only thing he could. He jumped from the dang car.“I was removed for benching a quarterback who was the athletic director’s nephew,” O’Brien explained to me Monday at Empower Field, “and the district athletic director’s son.”This was back at Citrus High School in Inverness, Fla., during the fall of 2019. His first autumn as a prep head coach. Did we mention that his team was 8-1 during Coach OB’s first nine games at the helm?Or that Citrus was cruising to its first playoff berth in six years? Or the ’Canes’ stellar record of 13-25 in the four seasons before O’Brien showed up?“I was asked to move to a middle school 30 minutes away,” the first-year Eagles coach continued. “They said that if I wanted to stay in the district and stay in Florida, that was going to be the move.”Instead, O’Brien threw open th...

Local golf shop owner Nick Nosewicz, 39, “still chasing it” as he competes against top young talent at U.S. Amateur Championship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:58 GMT

PARKER — Unlike the majority of the field at the U.S. Amateur Championship, Nick Nosewicz is not chasing a pro dream. The 39-year-old’s been there, done that.And, as co-owner of a local golf/ski shop, his clubs collect dust about six months a year while the Aurora resident tends to his business.But that’s no issue for Nosewicz, who is redefining a golfer’s prime as he competes in this week’s U.S. Amateur. Nosewicz is a generation older than the tournament’s 22-year-old mean, but don’t tell him that, as he believes he’s still coming into his own on the course amid a career year.“I don’t feel like I’ve hit my ceiling yet,” Nosewicz said. “I’m still hungry, I’m not satisfied and I want more. I just keep getting up early to play. I’m still chasing it. And maybe every year, I do something better than I did the year before.”That’s been the case this year, when Nosewicz won the Color...