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Stock market today: Wall Street steadies, bank stocks rise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding relatively steady coming off its worst week in nearly two months as stocks of several beaten-down banks rally. The S&P 500 and the Dow were little changed and the Nasdaq composite was barely lower early Monday. Besides a strong reading on U.S. jobs, which calmed worries about a recession but also raised concerns about inflation, last week was dominated by fears about smaller and mid-sized banks. PacWest Bancorp jumped 22% to recover some of its steep drop last week. PacWest said late Friday that it’s cutting its dividend to help build its financial strength. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street pointed higher early Monday as markets gear up for another busy week of earnings and two inflation reports from the U.S. government, all while monitoring the regional banking crisis.Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and futures for the S&P 500 each rose about 0.2% before the bell.Companies this e...

US backs study of safe injection sites, overdose prevention

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

For the first time, the U.S. government will pay for a large study measuring whether overdoses can be prevented by so-called safe injection sites, places where people can use heroin and other illegal drugs and be revived if they take too much. The grant provides more than $5 million over four years to New York University and Brown University to study two sites in New York City and one opening next year in Providence, Rhode Island. Researchers hope to enroll 1,000 adult drug users to study the sites’ effects on overdoses, to estimate their costs and to gauge potential savings for the health care and criminal justice systems.The universities announced the grant Monday. The money will not be used to operate the sites, the universities said.With U.S. drug overdose deaths reaching nearly 107,000 in 2021, supporters contend safe injection sites, also called overdose preventions centers, can save lives and connect people with addiction treatment, mental health services and medical ca...

EU cancels Tel Aviv event in protest over radical minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The European Union said Monday that it canceled a diplomatic reception to prevent a radical ultranationalist Israeli minister from attending. The act of protest by the EU’s delegation to Israel against a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most religious and ultranationalist in the country’s history, could cause a diplomatic spat between Israel and the EU. Relations already have been strained over Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power faction, serves as the national security minister and was assigned to represent the Israeli government at the EU’s Europe Day event on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Sunday in a Kan radio interview that Ben-Gvir had been assigned by the government secretary to attend “not as a representative of the Jewish Power party … but to represent the government of Israel.” The EU said that it decided “to cancel the diplomat...

War overshadows holiday integral to Russian identity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, lauds two tenets that are central to its identity: military might and moral rectitude. But the war in Ukraine undermines both this year.The holiday falling on Tuesday marks the 78th anniversary of Germany’s capitulation in World War II after a relentless Red Army offensive pushed German forces from Stalingrad, deep inside Russia, all the way to Berlin, about 2,200 kilometers (1,300 miles).The Soviet Union lost at least 20 million people in the war; the suffering and valor that went into the German defeat have been touchstones ever since.However, many regions have canceled their May 9 observances because of concerns the events could be targets for Ukrainian attacks. The famed parade in Moscow’s Red Square will go ahead following Russia’s claim of an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, whose spires loom next to the parade venue, but amid ramped-up security measures. The use of drones has been once again ban...

USAID chief Power heads to Serbia, Kosovo to lower tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States’ top international development chief, Samantha Power, is heading to Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with leaders there, as U.S. and European leaders work to stabilize relations between those two former wartime enemies at a time of heightened tensions.Power becomes the first head of the U.S. Agency for International Development to travel to Serbia, which maintains close historical and cultural ties with Russia.Serbia and Kosovo have remained on often hostile terms since Kosovo’s 1990s split from Serbia at the end of the Cold War. Frictions between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and an ethnic Serb minority, have rebounded in the general tensions since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.Power is to meet with the prime ministers and presidents of both countries, encouraging both to stay on a path of normalizing relations between themselves and to keep moving toward membership in the European Union.She “will unde...

6 tanker crew members seized by pirates freed in W. Africa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Six crew members of a Liberian-flagged tanker held hostage for more than a month by pirates in West Africa have been freed, the Danish shipping company that owns the vessel said Monday. On March 25, pirates boarded the Monjasa Reformer southwest of Port Pointe-Noire, Congo. The ship was found abandoned five days later by a French navy patrol off the small island nation of Sao Tomé and Principe north of where the attack took place.The pirates left 10 of the 16 crew members on board, kidnapping the remaining six and taking them to shore in Nigeria.In a statement, Monjasa company spokesperson Thorstein Andreasen said that the ordeal of the six crew members had ended Monday and they were “now safely recovered from an undisclosed location in Nigeria.”All “are in a relatively good health condition given the difficult circumstances they have been under in the last more than five weeks,” Andreasen said in the statement. He added that they had received ...

Nigeria court hears opposition’s presidential vote challenge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian court on Monday began its hearing on separate suits filed by the opposition to challenge the incumbent party’s victory in the country’s presidential election.The presidential tribunal at the Court of Appeal in the capital, Abuja, heard the opening statements of lawyers representing opposition parties, which are the challenging the outcome of the February vote won by Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress.As the court hearing began, armed security personnel blocked major access roads and prevented a handful of journalists and lawyers from entering the facility. Some protesters waved Nigerian flags and displayed placards, alleging that the electoral process was flawed.“Why I am demonstrating is because of the anger and the pain I have as a Nigerian not allowed to express and enjoy the resources of the land,” said protester James Mike, who accused the Nigerian political class of pilfering the country’s wealth from huge mineral a...

Waukegan High School volleyball coach dies after she was shot over weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

WAUKEGAN — A Waukegan High School volleyball coach was shot and killed over the weekend.Niolis Collazo, 23, was killed in a shooting on 10th Street and Lewis Avenue in Waukegan around 10:45 p.m. Saturday. Investigators found several shell casings on the street near a white sedan.The circumstances surrounding the shooting have not yet been released and it is unknown if anyone is in custody.The school sent out the following email Monday to its community confirming Collazo's death, saying, in part:It is with great sadness that we report the unexpected passing of Ms. Niolis Collazo. Ms. Collazo worked as an assistant boys volleyball coach at Waukegan High School. She was also a counselor with Youth Guidance’s Working On Womanhood program, where she worked with young ladies at Smith Middle School. CPD investigates death of 24-year-old officer fatally shot outside home According to the district's spokesperson, Collazo coached the boys volleyball team and graduated from the high school i...

15-year-old facing 10 charges after Lake Central bomb threat message

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

ST. JOHN, Ind. — A 15-year-old boy is facing 10 charges after allegedly sending a bomb threat to other students at Lake Central High School.Last Monday, the school's administration and police began a preliminary investigation after learning at least two students received an airdrop message on their cell phones."Bombing the school, it will go off soon as the bell rings this is not a joke," the message read.No bomb was located after St. John police and K9 units responded to the scene and school was dismissed early as a precaution.After reviewing security cameras, police determined that two students entered the classroom directly before the airdrop message was sent and then were observed leaving the classroom.Police said neither students was supposed to be in that particular class. Warrants issued for parents after Northwest Indiana infant dies from ‘massive’ brain injury Detectives interviewed both students in the presence of their parents over the next two days. The FBI was request...

Best cities for freelancers and self-employed workers in 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

(NerdWallet) - Though some workers have returned to offices, remote work has been normalized for others over the last three years. And some now have more autonomy to choose where they live.For freelancers in particular, it’s becoming more common for workers to settle in a city they like and then seek contracts with companies anywhere, says Keith Hall, president and CEO of the National Association for the Self-Employed.“I don't remember a time that I have heard more comments from self-employed people that they are looking to where they live based on their quality of life,” Hall says. “They pick a place to live for their quality of life, and then manage the business around that. I think that is a significant change from 15 years ago,” when the priorities were reversed.“That’s a fundamental shift that I think, long-term, is positive,” Hall adds.Here’s the 2023 list of the 10 best U.S. cities for freelancers and self-employed workers. Our analysis used recent metro-area data from the U....