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Stock market today: Asian shares track Wall Street rally, Bank of Japan stands pat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares logged moderate gains on Friday after Wall Street benchmarks swept higher, extending their longest rally in a year and a half. The Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meeting by keeping its ultra-lax monetary stance unchanged, as expected. It is a standout among central banks, most of which have sought to rein in inflation by raising interest rates. The key Japanese rate has stayed at minus 0.1% for a decade and policymakers have indicated they are not convinced that current inflation, which finally has surpassed the BOJ’s target of about 2%, will be sustained. “With extremely high uncertainties surrounding economies and financial markets at home and abroad, the Bank will patiently continue with monetary easing while nimbly responding to developments in economic activity and prices as well as financial conditions,” the BOJ said in a statement.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index edged 0.1% higher to 33,518.93. Share prices have been trading around their hig...

REVIEW: The Flash runs into a dead end

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

Over the past ten years, D.C. Studios has released 14 films that make up a cinematic universe. It’s been constantly criticized and compared to Marvel’s more successful model, but the DCEU has had a variety of high points. The first time Batman ever fought Superman in live action, three outstanding performances from Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and of course Jason Momoa looking amazingly attractive as Aquaman. With the studio’s newest release, the film is putting this cinematic universe in the past and jumping ahead into a new one.Ezra Miller in the Flash, courtesy of Warner Media.The Flash is both the end of a chapter, and an attempted beginning in a bold new direction. Ezra Miller (from We Need to Talk About Kevin) excels in their best performance as the speedster Barry Allen. Accustomed to his role in the Justice League, Allen discovers he can travel back in time and decides to do so to attempt to save the life of his mother (played by Maribel Verdú from Y tu m...

US guided-missile submarine arrives in South Korea, a day after North Korea resumes missile tests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States deployed a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying about 150 Tomahawk missiles to South Korea on Friday, a day after North Korea resumed missile tests in protest of the U.S.-South Korean live-fire drills.The USS Michigan’s arrival in South Korea, the first of its kind in six years, is part of a recent bilateral agreement on enhancing “regular visibility” of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program, according to South Korean officials.With the deployment of the USS Michigan, the U.S. and South Korean navies are to conduct drills on boosting their special operation capabilities and joint ability to cope with growing North Korean nuclear threats, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.It said the U.S. submarine arrived at the southeastern port city of Busan but didn’t say how long it would stay in South Korean waters.The USS Michigan is one of the biggest s...

Trump’s promise of payback for prosecution follows years of attacking democratic traditions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

As Donald Trump became the first former president to face federal charges, he and his supporters went through a familiar routine of mounting a victimhood defense in the face of unprecedented allegations of wrongdoing. But this time, the stakes are higher.Trump upped the level of his claims and threats as he faces the potential of years in prison if convicted on 37 charges of obstruction, illegal retention of defense information and other violations. Hours after pleading not guilty, Trump claimed he is being targeted by the special prosecutor, who is nonpartisan, for political reasons and vowed to retaliate against President Joe Biden if he is elected president in 2024. “There was an unwritten rule” to not prosecute former presidents and political rivals, Trump told supporters in a speech at his golf club in New Jersey. “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of America, Joe Biden, and go after the Biden crime family.”The vow is...

Court set to rule on Iowa governor’s bid to reinstate strict abortion limits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa court ruling expected Friday could outlaw most abortions in the state or keep the procedure legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy, at least for now.Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds aims to reinstate the blocked 2018 “fetal heartbeat” law that does not allow abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. Currently, abortions are allowed up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.Most Republican-led states have severely curtailed access to abortion in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court stripped women’s constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade and handing authority over the issue to states.Reynolds signed the 2018 law despite state and federal court decisions at the time, including Roe, affirming a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Planned Parenthood sued and a state judge blocked the law the following year. Reynolds did not appeal the decision at the time....

Biden is returning to his union roots as his 2024 campaign gears up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden opened his 2020 presidential run at a Pittsburgh union hall, declaring, “I’m a union man. Period.” As he gears up for reelection, the president’s first political rally is being held at a union gathering on the other side of Pennsylvania, punctuating just how much Biden is counting on labor support to carry him to a second term — especially in a critical battleground state. The symmetry is no accident. Rallying labor activists on Saturday at Philadelphia’s convention center can help Biden’s campaign spark enthusiasm and tap early organizing muscle. That may eventually boost Democratic voter turnout in the city’s suburbs and other key parts of Pennsylvania, which in 2020 helped him flip the state where Biden was born from Donald Trump. “It speaks to this president’s visceral understanding that, when the labor movement in the United States is strong, the economy and our democracy are strong,” said Mary Kay Henry, internati...

Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mother, set to plead guilty in US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The daughter of an American woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at an Indonesian resort island is scheduled to appear in Chicago federal court on Friday to change her plea to guilty on charges she helped kill her mother in Bali nine years ago.Heather Mack, 27, was convicted in Indonesia in 2015 of being an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder with her then-boyfriend in a bid to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl, prosecutors say.The change-of-plea hearing is the latest chapter in a story that garnered international attention in part because of photographs of the suitcase, which seemed too small to hold an adult woman’s body. Mack’s Chicago trial on conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and obstruction of justice had been set for Aug. 1. Mack, who lived with her mother in suburban Chicago’s Oak Par...

US attorney general in Minneapolis to share results of police department probe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The findings of a two-year investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, prompted by the death of George Floyd, are expected to be announced Friday by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.The Department of Justice on Thursday announced a news conference “on a civil rights matter” was scheduled for Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. Justice Department and city officials declined to confirm about whether they will announce findings of that police department investigation.A Justice Department advisory said Garland will be joined by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Police Chief Brian O’Hara and others. A link to a Justice Department public webinar scheduled for Friday afternoon has the heading: “DOJ Presentation for MPD Investigative Findings.”The “pattern or practice” investigation was launched in April 2021, a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of...

Border agency reassigns chief medical officer after custody death of 8-year-old girl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reassigned its chief medical officer after the in-custody death of an 8-year-old girl whose mother’s pleas for an ambulance were ignored despite her daughter’s chronic heart condition, rare blood disorder, high fever and other ailments, authorities said Thursday.Dr. David Tarantino was CBP’s first person to hold the job, which was created in 2020 amid growing numbers of families and young children who have presented Border Patrol agents with complex medical challenges.CBP commended Tarantino for “years of service” and role in expanding medical services for people in custody but signaled it was time for change. He is expected to take a temporary position next week at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes CBP. His reassignment was first reported by The Washington Post.Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez was moved with family to a Border Patrol station Harlingen, Texas, after being diagnosed with the flu u...

Years of exposed, unmaintained sewage system causes serious concerns in St. Louis County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:32 GMT

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - For a couple that lives off Sontag Road, the site and smell of an unmaintained sewage system have worsened dramatically over the last few months. A situation that's gone on for years, and now the community and a councilman are speaking out about the issue and similar ones in the area.“Right in the middle of a number of homes is this septic system that has failed, so I think it's a perfect storm of a problem," said Councilmen Mark Harder.He became aware of the issue just a few days ago. When he went out to visit the site, his concerns and frustrations with the county's lack of action started to surmount.For 20-year resident Bill Cochran, the 10-by-10 open sewage system has made it hard to bring over family and friends. The retired veteran and school teacher went into explained one of the biggest safety concerns for him. A Missouri doctor’s death is steeped in mystery and speculation. Authorities aren’t talking “I have a five-year-old granddaughter, and that'...