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By ERIC TUCKER and FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.
The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20. It said in a regulatory filing that an investigation is underway “to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.” It said customer and financial data were so far not affected and that the company’s operations had not been interrupted.
But a major concern was the company’s journalists. News organizations are prime targets for the world’s intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information. Journalists and newsrooms from Mexico and El Salvador to Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, have been hacked with powerful spyware.
Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm examining the hack, said in a statement that it “assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests.”
It was not known when the hackers breached the network or how much data they stole.
In an email to staff, News Corp said the hack “affected a limited number” of email accounts and documents from News Corp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” the email said.
“Our highest concern is the protection of our employees, including our journalists, and their sources,” it added, saying it believed the “threat activity is contained.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech this week that the bureau opens investigations tied to suspected Chinese espionage operations about every 12 hours, and has more than 2,000 such probes. He said Chinese government hackers have been pilfering more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.
While state-backed Russian hacking tends to get more headlines, U.S. officials say China has been stealthily stealing far more valuable commercial and personal data over the past few decades as digital technology took hold.
Major newsrooms, including The New York Times, against which a Chinese cyberespionage operation was uncovered in 2013, have previously been compromised.
Runa Sandvik, former director of information security at the newspaper, said that while major newsrooms have shown a lot of progress in the last few years in helping their journalists navigate an increasingly hostile digital world, those efforts are not adequate to defend against a skilled and determined adversary like China.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
News Corp.’s assets also includes the publishing house HarperCollins, News Corp Australia and Storyful, which the email to employees said were apparently not targeted by the hackers.
____
Bajak reported from Boston. Associated Press writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.
___
The story has been corrected to say that the hacking of Al-Jazeera took place in Qatar.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/news-corp-says-it-was-hacked-believed-to-be-linked-to-china-6/ | 2022-02-04T18:36:41 | en | 0.965234 |
By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.
The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20. It said in a regulatory filing that an investigation is underway “to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.” It said customer and financial data were so far not affected and that the company’s operations had not been interrupted.
But a major concern was the company’s journalists. News organizations are prime targets for the world’s intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information.
Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm examining the hack, said in a statement that it ‘assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests.”
It was not known when the hackers breached the network or how much data they stole.
In an email to staff, News Corp said the hack “affected a limited number of business email accounts and documents from News Corp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” the email said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech this week that the bureau is opening investigations tied to suspected Chinese espionage operations about every 12 hours, and that it has more than 2,000 such probes. He said Chinese government hackers have been pilfering more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.
While state-backed Russian hacking tends to get more headlines, U.S. officials say China has been stealthily stealing far more valuable commercial and personal data over the past few decades as digital technology took hold.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
News Corp.’s assets also includes the publishing house HarperCollins.
____
Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Boston and David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/news-corp-says-it-was-hacked-believed-to-be-linked-to-china/ | 2022-02-04T18:36:48 | en | 0.956439 |
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 50 years after Frank Serpico testified about endemic corruption in the New York Police Department, the department finally recognized his service and injury in the line of duty with an official certificate and inscribed medal of honor.
The former undercover detective, 85, received the honor in the mail Thursday, the New York Daily News reported.
Serpico testified in December 1971 to a panel appointed by Mayor John Lindsay to investigate police corruption, breaking the “blue wall of silence,” the protection that fellow officers sometimes give each other, such as refusing to testify.
Al Pacino went on to portray him in the hit 1973 movie “Serpico,” and his story is also relayed in a book by Peter Maas.
Current Daily News and former Associated Press reporter Larry McShane interviewed Serpico in December about the 50th anniversary of his appearance before the Knapp Commission.
“I felt that finally I was going to tell the world and nobody’s going to interrupt me,” Serpico told the newspaper, speaking from his home in upstate New York. “I thought, ‘I know the truth.’ … Every single word was mine, and it came from the heart.”
Serpico was shot in the face during a drug arrest in Brooklyn in 1971 months before he testified and has maintained that the other officers he was with never made a call for an “officer down.”
While the department gave Serpico a medal recognizing his injury in 1972, it was handed over without ceremony or the accompanying certificate, he told the newspaper.
Mayor Eric Adams responded to the coverage, saying Serpico’s “bravery inspired my law enforcement career. Frank — we’re going to make sure you get your medal.”
On Thursday, Serpico tweeted a photo of the framed medal of honor and certificate that reads in part, “in recognition of an individual act of extraordinary bravery performed in the line of duty.”
He has continued to speak out against corruption and abuse by the police since his retirement in 1972 and says he has supported and listened to other whistleblowers over the years, including those who testified about the now-terminated stop-and-frisk policy.
In 2017, he publicly supported quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who protested against racial injustice while playing in the NFL.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Daily News. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/nypd-honors-whistleblower-frank-serpico-50-years-late/ | 2022-02-04T18:36:54 | en | 0.981493 |
By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo only needed one album to earn her the title of Billboard’s 2022 Woman of the Year, landing her in the same company as Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
The former teen actor turned pop star will be honored as the 2022 Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 2. Previous honorees also include Cardi B, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande.
Rodrigo became 2021′s biggest breakout star with her confessional debut album, breaking chart records and racking up awards and nominations. Rodrigo’s exploration of heartache, jealousy and insecurity on “SOUR” broke streaming records and led to all 11 tracks landing in the top 30 of Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the first female artist to achieve the feat.
“Olivia’s trajectory to superstardom is the stuff of pop music legend,” said Hannah Karp, Billboard’s Editorial Director, in a statement. “Her talents as a storyteller and songwriter have made Olivia one of the most authentic and exciting new artists to explode onto the scene in years.”
Other award recipients at the Billboard Women in Music Awards include Gabby Barrett, Phoebe Bridgers, Doja Cat, Karol G, Bonnie Raitt, Saweetie and Summer Walker.
The awards show will be held at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, hosted by Ciara. Fans will be able to purchase tickets this year for the first time at billboardwomeninmusic.com.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/olivia-rodrigo-named-woman-of-the-year-by-billboard/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:00 | en | 0.912905 |
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police in Canada’s capital said Friday about they will have 150 extra police officers will be deployed to central areas of Ottawa paralyzed by the protest against COVID-19 mandates that has been going on for days.
Embattled Police Chief Peter Sloly gave no indication when the protest would end and police expect it to ramp up again this weekend. Protests are also planned for Toronto and Quebec City this weekend.
Sloly acknowledged “trust has been impacted” as Ottawa residents are furious with the blaring horns, traffic gridlock and harassment they’ve faced. Many complain police have done little and they call it an occupation.
“If we knew that it was going to seep into the neighborhoods we would have deployed more resources into those neighborhoods,” Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell said. “We’ve listened to our community. They are upset, they are fearful.”
Thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital last weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill. Police estimate about 250 remain but Bell said they expect 300 to 400 more trucks this weekend and more than 1,000 protesters on foot. He said up to 1,000 counter protesters are expected as well.
The “freedom truck convoy” has attracted support from former U.S. President Donald Trump and the opposition Conservative party in Canada but one Conservative party lawmaker broke with his party and said the protest needs to end.
“I spent the week undergoing the Siege of Ottawa,” Conservative lawmaker Pierre Paul-Hus tweeted. “I ask that we clear the streets and that we stop this occupation controlled by radicals and anarchist groups.”
Many Canadians were outraged after some protesters urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas. Some compared vaccine mandates to fascism.
Protesters have said they won’t leave until all mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are gone. They are also calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.
Late Thursday, federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had approved the mayor’s request for the national police force to support city police.
Organizers, including ones who have espoused racist and white supremacist views, had raised millions for the cross-country “freedom truck convoy” against vaccine mandates and other restrictions. Protests are planned for Toronto and Quebec City as well. Toronto police closed a street in front of the provincial legislature where major five hospitals are located.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance, a federation representing truckers across the country, has estimated that 85% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated. It opposes the protest.
Some of the demonstrators are protesting a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully immunized against the coronavirus. The U.S. has the same rule for truckers entering the U.S. So if the Canadian government removed it, it would make no difference.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/ottawa-police-expect-covid-protest-to-ramp-up-again-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:07 | en | 0.969716 |
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police in Canada’s capital said Friday about 150 extra police officers will be deployed to the areas of Ottawa most affected by the protest against COVID-19 mandates that has been going on for days.
Embattled Police Chief Peter Sloly gave no indication when the protest would end and police expect it to ramp up again this weekend.
The “freedom truck convoy” has attracted support from former U.S. President Donald Trump and the opposition Conservative party in Canada but one Conservative party lawmaker broke with his party and said the protest needs to end.
“I spent the week undergoing the Siege of Ottawa,” Conservative lawmaker Pierre Paul-Hus tweeted. “I ask that we clear the streets and that we stop this occupation controlled by radicals and anarchist groups.”
Sloly acknowledged “trust has been impacted” as Ottawa residents are furious with the blaring horns, traffic gridlock and harassment they’ve faced. Many complain police have done little and they call it an occupation.
“We’ve have not seen this level of protest that has seeped into our residential neighborhoods ever before, and 20/20 hindsight, if we knew that it was going to seep into the neighborhoods we would have deployed more resources into those neighborhoods,” Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell said. “We’ve listened to our community. They are upset, they are fearful.”
Thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital last weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill. Police estimate about 250 remain but Bell said they expect 300 to 400 more trucks this weekend and more than 1,000 protesters on foot. He said up to 1,000 counter protesters are expected as well.
Many Canadians were outraged after some protesters urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas. Some compared vaccine mandates to fascism.
Protesters have said they won’t leave until all mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are gone. They are also calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.
Late Thursday, federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had approved the mayor’s request for the national police force to support city police.
Organizers, including ones who have espoused racist and white supremacist views, had raised millions for the cross-country “freedom truck convoy” against vaccine mandates and other restrictions. Protests are planned for Toronto and Quebec City as well.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance, a federation representing truckers across the country, has estimated that 85% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated. It opposes the protest.
Some of the demonstrators are protesting a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully immunized against the coronavirus. The U.S. has the same rule for truckers entering the U.S. So if the Canadian government removed it, it would make no difference.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/ottawa-police-expect-covid-protest-to-ramp-up-again/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:13 | en | 0.970224 |
By KEN MORITSUGU
Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — The leaders of Russia and China pushed back against U.S. pressure on Friday, declaring their opposition to any expansion of NATO and affirming that the island of Taiwan is a part of China, as they met hours before the Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping issued a joint statement highlighting what it called “interference in the internal affairs” of other states, as both leaders face criticism from Washington over their foreign and domestic policies.
“Some forces representing a minority on the world stage continue to advocate unilateral approaches to resolving international problems and resort to military policy,” it read, in a thinly veiled reference to the U.S. and its allies.
The two leaders are looking to project themselves as a counterweight to the U.S.-led bloc, as China growingly shows support for Moscow in its dispute with Ukraine that threatens to break out into armed conflict.
China and Russia are committed to “deepening back-to-back strategic cooperation,” Xi was quoted as telling Putin.
“This is a strategic decision that has far-reaching influence on China, Russia and the world,” Xi said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Faced with a “complex and evolving international situation,” the two sides “strongly support each other” in confronting what Xi called “regional security threats” and “international strategic stability,” without directly naming the U.S.
Putin is the highest-profile guest at the Beijing Games following the decision by the U.S., Britain and others not to send officials in protest of China’s human rights abuses and its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Putin praised “unprecedented” close relations with China, in his opening remarks to Xi carried by Russian television.
Relations “are developing in a progressive way with a spirit of friendship and strategic partnership,” Putin said. “They have indeed become unprecedented.”
Putin highlighted close economic ties, including a new contract to supply China with 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year from eastern Russian.
“For our meeting today, our oilmen have prepared very good new solutions for the supply of hydrocarbons to the People’s Republic of China, and another step forward has been taken in the gas industry,” Putin said.
Russia has long been a key supplier of oil, gas and coal for China’s massive economy, now the world’s second largest, along with food stuffs and other raw materials.
China’s state-run news agency reported the two leaders met at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Friday afternoon, but gave no details. They did not appear to shake hands when greeting each other due to COVID-19 precautions.
Putin also recalled his presence in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the Chinese delegation’s attendance at Russia’s 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, calling such exchanges “to a certain extent a tradition.”
Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society and former Australian prime minister, called Beijing’s backing of Moscow over NATO expansion “highly significant.”
“It puts at risk China’s wider relationship with the Europeans. But Xi believes he is now powerful enough and has sufficient economic leverage with Europe to get away with it.
“It also signifies that China now sees itself as a global, not just a regional, security actor,” Rudd said.
The discussions mark their first in-person meeting since 2019 and come as China and Russia increasingly align their foreign policies bilaterally and in world bodies such as the United Nations, in opposition to the Western bloc and other major powers.
Leaders of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, which have close ties with both Russia and China, all followed Putin’s lead in attending the Olympics opening, along with other states that have political and economic interests with Beijing.
A buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has fueled Western fears that Moscow is poised to invade its neighbor. Russia has denied planning an offensive but urged the U.S. and its allies to provide a binding pledge that NATO won’t expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations or deploy weapons there, and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe — demands firmly rejected by the West.
Putin and Xi accused both NATO and the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific strategy of building closer military ties with other countries in Asia as destabilizing and threatening regional security.
“The parties oppose the further expansion of NATO, (and) call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon the ideological approaches of the Cold War,” the joint statement said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a call last week that Moscow’s security concerns need to be addressed, a statement that marked a notable policy shift for Beijing.
Some observers suggested that Beijing is closely watching how the U.S. and its allies act in the standoff over Ukraine as it ponders further strategy on Taiwan, arguing that indecision by Washington could encourage China to grow more assertive.
The U.S. is Taiwan’s main supplier of fighter aircraft and defensive arms and is legally bound to treat threats to the island democracy as matters of “grave concern.”
The joint statement said that Russia reaffirms that Taiwan is an integral part of China and opposes Taiwan’s independence in any form. China claims the self-governing island as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.
Economic and diplomatic cooperation has expanded into the military field in recent years, as Russia and China have held a series of joint war games, including naval drills and patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. In August, Russian troops for the first time deployed to Chinese territory for joint maneuvers.
Putin has also noted that Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/russia-china-push-back-against-us-in-pre-olympics-summit-3/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:19 | en | 0.96123 |
By MOSA’AB ELSHAMY and TARIK EL-BARAKAH
Associated Press
IGHRAN, Morocco (AP) — Rescuers inched closer Friday to reaching a 5-year-old boy trapped for three days in a well in Morocco, in an operation hampered by concerns about ground stability that has captivated the North African country.
The boy, identified as Rayan, fell into a 32-meter (105-feet) deep well located outside his home in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s northern Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.
Search crews first used five bulldozers over days to dig vertically to a depth of more than 31 meters, according to Morocco’s official MAP news agency. Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy, MAP said, adding that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.
Work was temporarily halted, but resumed later.
“Digging has stopped momentarily out of concern that the ground surrounding the well could collapse,” rescue committee member Abdelhadi Temrani told local television 2M.
Rescue workers used a rope to provide oxygen and water to the boy, but were unable to reach him via the hole where he is trapped due to its narrow diameter.
“I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe,” his mother Wassima Kharchich told 2M. “Please God, ease my pain and his, in that hole of dust.”
Medical staff, including specialists in resuscitation, are on site to attend to the boy once he is pulled out, with a helicopter on standby to transport him to the nearest hospital.
The Moroccan government said Thursday that all efforts are being made to help save the boy.
Scores of townspeople and others gathered to help and watch the rescue efforts. Nationwide, Moroccans took to social media to offer their hopes for the boy’s survival, using the hashtag #SaveRayan which has brought global attention to the rescue efforts.
___
El-Barakah reported from Rabat, Morocco.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/shaky-soil-threatens-rescue-of-moroccan-boy-trapped-in-well-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:25 | en | 0.974562 |
IGHRAN, Morocco (AP) — A third day of efforts to rescue a 5-year-old boy who fell into a well in northern Morocco was halted for a time on Friday following concerns about ground stability, fueling despair among those hoping to reach him.
The boy, identified as Rayan, fell into a 32-meter (105-feet) deep well located outside his home in the northern village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.
“Digging has stopped momentarily out of concern that the ground surrounding the well could collapse,” rescue committee member Abdelhadi Temrani told local television 2M.
Search crews used five bulldozers to dig vertically to a depth of more than 31 meters, according to Morocco’s official MAP news agency.
Preparations are underway to start digging horizontally to create a pathway to reach the trapped boy, MAP said, adding that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.
Rescue workers used a rope to provide oxygen and water to the boy, but were unable to reach him via the hole where he is trapped due to its narrow diameter.
Medical staff, including specialists in resuscitation, are on site to attend to the boy once he is pulled out, with a helicopter on standby to transport him to the nearest hospital.
The Moroccan government said Thursday that all efforts are being made to help save the boy.
Moroccans took to social media to offer their hopes for the boy’s survival, using the hashtag #SaveRayan which has brought global attention to the rescue efforts.
“I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe,” his mother Wassima Kharchich told 2M. “Please God, ease my pain and his, in that hole of dust.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/shaky-soil-threatens-rescue-of-moroccan-boy-trapped-in-well/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:32 | en | 0.979484 |
By STAN CHOE and DAMIAN J. TROISE
AP Business Writers
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wobbling and Treasury yields are jumping on Friday after a blowout U.S. jobs report raised Wall Street’s expectations that the Federal Reserve may soon start raising interest rates sharply.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in afternoon trading after the Labor Department said employers added 467,000 jobs last month, triple economists’ forecasts. Some economists were even expecting a loss of jobs amid January’s surge in coronavirus infections because of the omicron variant.
The stronger-than-expected data seems to lock in the Fed’s pivot toward fighting inflation by raising rates and making other moves that would ultimately act as a drag on markets. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 were falling, though an 13.4% leap for Amazon following a strong earnings report was almost singlehandedly limiting losses for the index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 74 points, or 0.2%, at 35,036, as of 12:24 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq Composite was 1% higher, while the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 were down 0.4%.
“Until you get a more set-in-stone picture for what tightening will be from the Fed, you should expect volatility to be similar to where we’ve been the last two weeks,” said Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth.
Treasury yields leaped immediately following the jobs report’s release, tracking forecasts that the Fed will hike short-term interest rates more aggressively than earlier expected. The two-year yield, which tends to move with expectations for the Fed’s actions, jumped to its highest level since the start of the pandemic and is more than double what it was two months ago.
The wide expectation is for the Fed to raise short-term rates next month off their record low of nearly zero, with the only question by how much. Friday’s jobs report has investors now pricing in a nearly 29% probability of an increase of 0.50 percentage points, instead of the traditional 0.25 points. That’s more than double the probability that Wall Street foresaw a day earlier, according to CME Group.
Any increase would mark an abrupt turnaround from much of the last two years, when ultra-low rates helped prices surge for everything from stocks to cryptocurrencies. Bonds paying more in interest would mean investors feel less need to reach for such risky things for returns.
That’s why Wall Street has been so shaky over the last month, as investors rush to make moves to get ahead of the Fed. On one hand, higher rates will likely mean stock investors pay lower prices for each $1 of profit that a company produces. On the other, stock prices could remain resilient despite that if those corporate profits keep rising.
Stocks seen as the most expensive have taken some of the hardest hits in Wall Street’s reordering. Much of the focus has been on tech and internet stocks that soared through the pandemic on expectations they can continue to grow regardless of the economy.
Even there, uncertainty still reigns as some tech-oriented companies have reported profits that continue to blow past analysts’ expectations, while others like Facebook’s parent company have stumbled.
Amazon joined the list of the former after reporting stronger results for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of the biggest stocks on Wall Street in terms of market value, its movements have an outsized effect on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
Snapchat parent Snap soared 51%, and Pinterest gained 6.1% following their own earnings reports.
Facebook’s parent fell another 1.6% a day after erasing more than $230 billion in its market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company.
Ford slumped 10.6% and was another one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 after it reported weaker revenue and profit for the last quarter than expected.
Shortages of computer chips continue to hurt its auto production. Such supply-chain issues have been at the heart of the high inflation ripping around the world, and increases in prices at the U.S. consumer level are at a nearly 40-year high.
That’s raising the pressure on the Fed to act decisively to rein in inflation. Data on wages within Friday’s jobs report may have upped the pressure.
Average hourly earnings for workers jumped 5.7% in January from a year earlier. That was a faster acceleration from December’s 4.9% rise than economists expected. While such raises are great for workers, higher wages can also feed into longer-lasting inflation than if prices for just gasoline or other commodities were rising.
With the rising expectations for Fed action, the two-year Treasury yield jumped to 1.30% from 1.19% late Thursday. The 10-year yield leaped to 1.91% from 1.82%.
___
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/stocks-dip-yields-fly-as-blowout-data-raises-rate-forecasts-3/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:38 | en | 0.961024 |
Name: Jason Witt
Opponent: Philip Rowe
Odds: +142 (bet $100 to win $142)
We started off the year on the wrong foot with a couple of wrestlers not getting the job done. However, I’m going right back to the wrestling with this pick as I think there’s an advantage to be exploited here.
Jason Witt has some excellent wrestling. He took Bryan Barberena down eight times in their recent fight. Additionally, he has a 100% takedown defense. He’ll be fighting Philip Rowe, who is a guy who is confident in his jiu-jitsu but will have to likely work off his back for that to work here. Not only that but his wrestling and jiu-jitsu have failed him in the past. He gave up two takedowns on as many attempts against Gabriel Green and lost a decision as a result. I think Witt can replicate that offense and control this fight here – winning you some dog money in the process.
2022 Record: 0-2
Earnings (based on $100 bet/event): -($200)
Return on Investment: -100%
Read next | https://thesportsdaily.com/2022/02/04/the-livest-dog-at-ufc-vegas-46-jason-witt-fox11/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:40 | en | 0.983396 |
As NFTs flourish, U.S. Treasury raises alarm over money laundering in art
It said that those most vulnerable in the market are businesses offering financial services that are not subject to anti-money laundering or countering terrorism financing obligations, warning that asset-based lending "can be used to disguise the original source of funds and provide liquidity to criminals." A senior Treasury official told reporters next steps include engaging stakeholders such as those in Congress or in the industry to get their feedback, adding that the Treasury hopes the study will encourage industries to take additional steps to make it harder to launder illicit proceeds through the art market.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday issued a set of recommendations to combat illicit finance in the high-value art market and warned that the emerging digital art market, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), may present new risks.
In a study published on Friday, the Treasury found that there is some evidence of money laundering risk in the high-value art market, but limited evidence of terrorist financing risk, the Treasury said in a statement. It said that those most vulnerable in the market are businesses offering financial services that are not subject to anti-money laundering or countering terrorism financing obligations, warning that asset-based lending "can be used to disguise the original source of funds and provide liquidity to criminals."
A senior Treasury official told reporters next steps include engaging stakeholders such as those in Congress or in the industry to get their feedback, adding that the Treasury hopes the study will encourage industries to take additional steps to make it harder to launder illicit proceeds through the art market. The Treasury will give further thought as to whether additional regulatory steps are needed in this market, the official said. The study also said that depending on the structure and market incentives, the digital art market, such as NFTs, may present new risks, as the characteristics of digital art make it vulnerable to money laundering.
NFTs are a form of crypto asset which exploded in popularity last year. All kinds of digital objects - from art to videos and even tweets - can be bought and sold as NFTs, which use unique digital signatures to ensure they are one-of-a-kind. The study recommended the consideration of several options to address the risks, including updating training for law and customs enforcement, enhancing private sector information-sharing and applying anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing requirements to certain participants in the art market.
But it said that the multi-billion-dollar industry, compared to other sectors that pose terrorist financing and money laundering risk, should not be an immediate focus for the imposition of requirements to combat the illicit financing. Most art market participants are currently not subject to anti-money laundering or counter terrorism financing requirements, though the study said that several qualities inherent to art and the high-value market make it attractive for money laundering.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- Congress | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910744-as-nfts-flourish-us-treasury-raises-alarm-over-money-laundering-in-art | 2022-02-04T18:37:41 | en | 0.949158 |
By STAN CHOE
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping and Treasury yields are jumping on Friday after a blowout U.S. jobs report raised Wall Street’s expectations that the Federal Reserve may soon start raising interest rates sharply.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in morning trading after the Labor Department said employers added 467,000 jobs last month, triple economists’ forecasts. Some economists were even expecting a loss of jobs amid January’s surge in coronavirus infections because of the omicron variant.
The stronger-than-expected data seems to lock in the Fed’s pivot toward fighting inflation by raising rates and making other moves that would ultimately act as a drag on markets. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 were falling, though an 11.8% leap for Amazon following a strong earnings report was almost singlehandedly limiting losses for the index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 300 points, or 0.9%, at 34,811, as of 10:48 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq Composite was 0.4% higher, while the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 were down 0.8%.
Treasury yields leaped immediately following the jobs report’s release, tracking forecasts that the Fed will hike short-term interest rates more aggressively than earlier expected. The two-year yield, which tends to move with expectations for the Fed’s actions, jumped to its highest level since the start of the pandemic and is more than double what it was two months ago.
The wide expectation is for the Fed to raise short-term rates next month off their record low of nearly zero, with the only question by how much. Friday’s jobs report has investors now pricing in a nearly 33% probability of an increase of 0.50 percentage points, instead of the traditional 0.25 points. That’s more than double the probability that Wall Street foresaw a day earlier, according to CME Group.
Any increase would mark an abrupt turnaround from much of the last two years, when ultra-low rates helped prices surge for everything from stocks to cryptocurrencies. Bonds paying more in interest would mean investors feel less need to reach for such risky things for returns.
That’s why Wall Street has been so shaky over the last month, as investors rush to make moves to get ahead of the Fed. On one hand, higher rates will likely mean stock investors pay lower prices for each $1 of profit that a company produces. On the other, stock prices could remain resilient despite that if those corporate profits keep rising.
Stocks seen as the most expensive have taken some of the hardest hits in Wall Street’s reordering. Much of the focus has been on tech and internet stocks that soared through the pandemic on expectations they can continue to grow regardless of the economy.
Even there, uncertainty still reigns as some tech-oriented companies have reported profits that continue to blow past analysts’ expectations, while others like Facebook’s parent company have stumbled.
Amazon joined the list of the former after reporting stronger results for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of the biggest stocks on Wall Street in terms of market value, its movements have an outsized effect on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
Snapchat parent Snap soared 45%, and Pinterest gained 4% following their own earnings reports.
Facebook’s parent fell another 2.3% a day after erasing more than $230 billion in its market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company.
Ford slumped 11% and was another one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 after it reported weaker revenue and profit for the last quarter than expected.
Shortages of computer chips continue to hurt its auto production. Such supply-chain issues have been at the heart of the high inflation ripping around the world, and increases in prices at the U.S. consumer level are at a nearly 40-year high.
That’s raising the pressure on the Fed to act decisively to rein in inflation. Data on wages within Friday’s jobs report may have upped the pressure.
Average hourly earnings for workers jumped 5.7% in January from a year earlier. That was a faster acceleration from December’s 4.9% rise than economists expected. While such raises are great for workers, higher wages can also feed into longer-lasting inflation than if prices for just gasoline or other commodities were rising.
With the rising expectations for Fed action, the two-year Treasury yield jumped to 1.30% from 1.19% late Thursday. The 10-year yield leaped to 1.93% from 1.82%.
___
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/stocks-dip-yields-fly-as-blowout-data-raises-rate-forecasts/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:44 | en | 0.962335 |
AirAsia passengers can now pre-book lounge facilities through its website, mobile app
Budget carrier AirAsia India on Friday announced that its passengers can now pre-book lounge facilities on its website and mobile app.The airline offers these services across 13 airports including at its all four hubs, AirAsia India said in a statement.The services are available at Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Ranchi, it said.
- Country:
- India
Budget carrier AirAsia India on Friday announced that its passengers can now pre-book lounge facilities on its website and mobile app.
The airline offers these services across 13 airports including at its all four hubs, AirAsia India said in a statement.
The services are available at Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Ranchi, it said. Airport lounge services can be purchased at a nominal fee, starting at Rs 800, while making a flight booking or even post-booking, AirAsia India said. ''Extending easy access to airport lounges and offering these facilities to our guests enhances and ensures a more holistic and pleasurable travel experience. As an innovative, digital-first brand, we have taken every opportunity to differentiate our service experience with distinctive offerings,'' said Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer, AirAsia India. The airport lounge services allow passengers avail access to amenities like high speed Wi-Fi, hot food and beverages, snacks, newspapers and magazines, charging stations for laptops and mobiles, wash and change facilities, business centre facilities and lounge bars, the airline said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 160.43 cr | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910748-airasia-passengers-can-now-pre-book-lounge-facilities-through-its-website-mobile-app | 2022-02-04T18:37:49 | en | 0.939161 |
By STAN CHOE
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are mixed and Treasury yields are jumping on Friday after a blowout U.S. jobs report raised Wall Street’s expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon start raising interest rates sharply.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading after the Labor Department said employers added 467,000 jobs last month, triple economists’ forecasts. Some economists were even expecting a loss of jobs amid January’s surge in coronavirus infections because of the omicron variant.
Higher rates would make investing more challenging across markets, and most of the stocks in the S&P 500 were falling. But an 11.2% leap for Amazon following a strong earnings report almost singlehandedly lifted the index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 60 points, or 0.2%, at 35,050, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq Composite was 0.8% higher, and the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 were down 0.4%.
Treasury yields leaped immediately following the jobs report’s release, tracking forecasts that the Fed will hike short-term interest rates more aggressively than earlier expected. The two-year yield, which tends to move with expectations for the Fed’s actions, jumped to its highest level since the start of the pandemic and is more than double what it was two months ago.
The wide expectation is for the Fed to raise short-term rates next month off their record low of nearly zero, with the only question by how much. Friday’s jobs report has investors now pricing in a nearly 29% probability of an increase of 0.50 percentage points, instead of the traditional 0.25 points. That’s more than double the probability that Wall Street foresaw a day earlier.
Any increase would mark an abrupt turnaround from most of the last two years, when ultra-low rates helped prices surge for everything from stocks to cryptocurrencies. Higher rates make investing more challenging across markets because when bonds pay more in interest, investors feel less need to reach for risky things for returns.
January’s strong hiring figures seem to back up the Fed’s belief that the economy is strong enough to withstand an increase in interest rates. The report also seemed to underscore how inflation remains a problem.
Average hourly earnings for workers jumped 5.7% in January from a year earlier. That was an acceleration from December’s 5.2% rise, despite economists’ expectations for a slowdown. While such raises are great for workers, higher wages can also feed into longer-lasting inflation than if prices for just gasoline or other commodities were rising.
Inflation is already at a nearly four-decade high, and the Fed’s main tool for pulling it down has been to increase rates.
Wall Street has been shaky for the last month as investors made moves to try to get ahead of a Fed that will be not just raising interest rates but also removing other supports put in place to prop up markets and the economy.
Stocks seen as the most expensive took some of the heaviest hits in Wall Street’s reordering, such as tech and internet stocks that soared through the pandemic on expectations they can continue to grow regardless of the economy.
But even there, uncertainty still reigns as some tech companies have reported blowout profits that seem to show them remaining as good buys even if interest rates are rising, while others like Facebook’s parent company have stumbled.
Amazon joined the list of the former after reporting stronger results for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of the biggest stocks on Wall Street in terms of market value, its movements have an outsized effect on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
Snapchat parent Snap soared nearly 48%, and Pinterest gained nearly 7% following their own earnings reports.
Facebook’s parent fell another 1.3% a day after erasing more than $230 billion in its market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company.
___
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/stocks-mixed-yields-up-following-blowout-jobs-report-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:50 | en | 0.965167 |
By DAVID SHARP, KATHLEEN FOODY and JILL BLEED
Associated Press
A major winter storm spread misery from the Deep South where a tornado claimed a life and tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy ice all the way to the nation’s northeastern trip where snow and ice caused havoc for travelers on Friday. Hundreds of thousands were without electricity.
In Oklahoma, police were investigating the hit-and-run death of a 12-year-old boy who was sledding when he was hit by a vehicle.
More than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in parts Pennsylvania, New York and New England on Friday but it was freezing rain and ice, accompanied by plummeting temperatures, that threatened to cause the biggest problems for travel and electric service before the storm blows out to sea late Friday and Saturday.
“Snow is a lot easier to plow than ice,” said Rick Otto, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
About 350,000 homes and businesses lost power in an area stretching from Texas to Ohio on Thursday as freezing rain and snow brought down branches and encased power lines. On Friday morning, the power outages were concentrated in Tennessee, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
In Memphis, crews worked Friday to remove trees and downed power lines from city streets, while those who lost electricity spent a cold night at home, or sought refuge at hotels or homes of friends and family. Utility officials said it could take days for power to be restored in the city.
There were 225 downed trees on city streets and crews were working 16-hour shifts to clear them, Robert Knecht, Memphis’ public works director, said Thursday night.
“It’s going to take multiple days, given the inclement weather conditions, to clear the public right of way,” he said.
Many schools and businesses remained closed Friday in areas hit by the frigid weather because roads remained icy and temperatures hadn’t risen above freezing.
Flights were disrupted at major hubs in the U.S. on Friday, including airports in New York City, Boston and Dallas.
The storm represented a “highly energized system” with waves of low pressure riding along like a train from Texas, where there was snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, said Hunter Tubbs, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Maine.
In western Alabama, a tornado on Thursday killed one person, critically injured three others and heavily damaged a home, Hale County Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told WBRC-TV.
Tornadoes in the winter are unusual, but the atmospheric conditions needed to cause them have intensified as the planet warms, scientists say.
The flight-tracking service FlightAware.com showed more than 9,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Thursday or Friday had been canceled, on top of more than 2,000 cancellations Wednesday as the storm began.
For a second straight night, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport officials mobilized to accommodate travelers stranded at the American Airlines hub overnight by cancellations.
The Ohio Valley was especially affected Thursday, with 211 flight cancellations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday. Nearly all Thursday afternoon and evening flights were canceled at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. UPS suspended some operations Thursday at its Worldport hub at the airport, a rare move.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed Friday at LaGuardia Airport in New York, Boston’s Logan Airport and Newark Liberty Airport.
In the Pittsburgh area, commuter rail service was halted Friday when a power line went down, trapping cars at a Port Authority of Allegheny County rail yard.
“With temperatures not expected to rise much throughout the day, quick repairs and restoration of the rail system will be difficult but our crews are out there trying as hard as they can,” the port authority tweeted.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay home if possible to avoid ice-coated roadways and the threat of falling tree limbs in the Hudson Valley and Capital regions. “We’re not out of the danger zone yet,” she said.
In New York’s Hudson Valley, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary was relying on generators for power Friday after the overnight ice storm.
“We had trees down all over the property and trees down on our road,” said Kathy Stevens, founder of the refuge for rescued farm animals. But the roughly 250 animals at the sanctuary in Saugerties were OK, she said.
In Texas, the return of subfreezing weather brought heightened anxiety nearly a year after February 2021’s catastrophic freeze that buckled the state’s power grid for days, leading to hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. But Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday’s power outages were due to high winds or downed power lines, not grid failures. About 18,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without power Friday morning.
The storm came on the heels of a nor’easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.
___
Sharp reported from Portland, Maine; Foody reported from Chicago; and Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Marina Villeneuve and Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; Jake Bleiberg and Terry Wallace in Dallas; Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis and Jay Reeves in Alabaster, Alabama, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/storm-that-slugged-south-midwest-brings-misery-to-northeast/ | 2022-02-04T18:37:57 | en | 0.94882 |
'GAY' code for Gaya airport inappropriate; make all efforts to change it: Par panel tells govt
A Parliamentary panel on Friday said the use of GAY code for Gaya airport is inappropriate for the holy city and asked the government to make all efforts to change the code.The Committee on Public Undertakings, in its first report tabled in Parliament in January 2021, had recommended changing the code of Gaya airport from GAY and also suggested an alternate code name like YAG.According to the civil aviation ministry, IATA has expressed its inability to change the code without a justifiable reason primarily concerning air safety.The International Air Transport Association IATA assigns the code for airports.
- Country:
- India
A Parliamentary panel on Friday said the use of 'GAY' code for Gaya airport is inappropriate for the holy city and asked the government to make all efforts to change the code.
The Committee on Public Undertakings, in its first report tabled in Parliament in January 2021, had recommended changing the code of Gaya airport from 'GAY' and also suggested an alternate code name like 'YAG'.
According to the civil aviation ministry, IATA has expressed its inability to change the code without a ''justifiable reason primarily concerning air safety''.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) assigns the code for airports. The committee said the code name appeared inappropriate, unsuitable, offensive and embarrassing considering that Gaya is a holy city.
In an action taken report tabled in Parliament on Friday, the panel mentioned about the issue and has asked the government to ''make all effort to takeup the matter with the IATA and concerned organisation as the issue involves inappropriate code naming of an airport of a holy city of our country.'' The ministry, in its action taken reply, has submitted that the matter was referred to IATA by Air India.
In this regard, IATA stated that as per Resolution 763, the location codes are considered permanent and a strong justification primarily concerning air safety needs to be given. ''Gaya airport IATA code 'GAY' has been in use since operationalisation of Gaya airstrip. Hence, without a justifiable reason primarily concerning air safety, IATA has expressed its inability to change the IATA code of Gaya airport,'' the ministry told the panel.
The ministry's reply has been mentioned in the panel's report tabled on Friday.
''The committee appreciate the efforts of Air India being a member airline of IATA taking up the request with the international air transport association but, yet, re-emphasise the government also to make all effort to takeup the matter with the IATA...,'' the report said.
In the first report that was tabled in Parliament in January 2021, the panel had mentioned that it was apprised about a request received by the civil aviation ministry regarding change of code name of Gaya airport.
The panel had also recommended that the government and Air India complete all the requisite consultations and formalities in a time-bound manner to change the code name of Gaya airport.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910752-gay-code-for-gaya-airport-inappropriate-make-all-efforts-to-change-it-par-panel-tells-govt | 2022-02-04T18:37:56 | en | 0.964615 |
BEIJING (AP) — The latest on the Beijing Olympics:
___
A correspondent in Beijing for Dutch national broadcaster NOS was manhandled away from his camera during a live news show shortly before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
Sjoerd den Daas, the NOS correspondent in China, was speaking to the camera when security officials pushed him away.
Den Daas remained calm and told the anchor in the Netherlands, “I fear we will have to come back to you later.”
The broadcaster says in a tweet that “sadly, this is increasingly the daily reality for journalists in China.” It adds that Den Daas is fine and was able to “complete his story a few minutes later.”
___
The Olympic flame has now officially arrived at the Beijing Games.
An opening ceremony on a frosty night had a fiery conclusion Friday, when the flame was placed inside a giant snowflake to give China’s first Winter Olympics the symbolic opening — followed by the third major fireworks show of the night.
The snowflake was composed of placards used to introduce the athletes from the 91 different nations that will compete in China through Feb. 20. There was no cauldron to light, the traditional ending to most opening ceremonies.
Competition in some events started Wednesday and Saturday is the first full day of events at the games, with the first medals to be awarded.
It took the flame more than three months to finally make its way to the games. It was lit on Oct. 18 in Ancient Olympia, Greece, the official start of its journey to China.
___
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has spoken at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, thanking those around the globe who he says have gone “beyond the call of duty” to make the events happen as a global pandemic continues raging.
These Olympics are the second to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the Tokyo Games last summer.
Bach talked about how the Olympics highlight “ambition, courage and strength.” He likened those qualities to what China has done to grow Olympic winter sports to its residents.
Bach also addressed the athletes of the Beijing Games directly, saying: “Dear fellow Olympians, your Olympic stage is set. You have arrived here after overcoming so many challenges. … But now your moment has come, the moment you have been longing for, the moment we all have been longing for. Now your Olympic dream is coming true.”
Bach’s remarks immediately preceded the games being officially opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping, his words prompting the setting off of fireworks that lit up the sky over the Bird’s Nest.
___
President Xi Jinping stood and waved as the Chinese delegation entered the Bird’s Nest to complete the parade of athletes at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Games.
The host nation always is the last team announced in the parade, and there were loud roars and flag-waving throughout the stadium as the Chinese athletes made their way into the event.
The Chinese have about 175 athletes expected to compete in the Olympics. They are traditionally not a winter-sports power, though are expected to have opportunities in Beijing to add to the nation’s all-time total of 13 winter golds.
___
Saudi Arabia has made its first appearance at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony after alpine skier Fayik Abdi qualified to compete.
Its small delegation hoisted the Middle East kingdom’s green and white flag while wearing what appeared to be cold-weather versions of the country’s traditional ankle-length national dress.
Also making its first appearance is the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. It is being represented by alpine skier Richardson Viano, who was adopted by Italian parents and raised in France.
___
It has become an Olympic tradition: the shirtless athlete in the opening ceremony.
And Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua now has some company.
Meet Nathan Crumpton. Born in Kenya, resident of Utah, graduate of Princeton, skeleton athlete formerly with the U.S. and now competing for American Samoa — and he grabbed attention Friday night at the Beijing Games, by walking in shirtless and underterred by a temperature of minus 5 C (23 F).
Taufatofua wasn’t at these Olympics, ending his streak of three consecutive games — both summer and winter — representing Tonga. He is currently trying to lead relief efforts there after a tsunami caused catastropic damage.
Crumpton carried the (shirtless) flag. He also competed for American Samoa in track and field at the Tokyo Games last summer. His mother’s family background allowed him to switch his athletic allegiance to American Samoa in 2019.
___
Russian President Vladimir Putin cheered on his nation’s athletes at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, making the trip to Beijing as tens of thousands of Russian troops are poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine.
Putin is one of the most prominent world leaders attending Friday’s ceremony. The United States and Japan, as well as some other nations, staged a diplomatic boycott of the games.
The Russian leader stood and waved to his nation’s athletes as they entered the stadium. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met with Putin earlier Friday in Beijing, also clapped for the Russian team.
The athletes from Russia, a winter sports powerhouse, were introduced and are competing again at the Olympics as the “Russian Olympic Committee” — part of the sanctions levied after numerous doping scandals. Any Russian athlete who wins a gold medal at the games will hear the Olympic anthem instead of that of their home nation.
___
At least two of the women who would have been flagbearers at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics were not in the parade of athletes on Friday night because of virus-related issues.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor had to give up her spot to speedskater Brittany Bowe. Meyers Taylor remains in isolation after a positive test.
And Friday, U.S. Virgin Islands skeleton athlete Katie Tannenbaum revealed that she, too, has tested positive for COVID-19. The Virgin Islands flag was being carried into the stadium by a volunteer.
Tannenbaum is the only athlete representing the Virgin Islands in Beijing at these games. Her coach, Alex Auer, and the nation’s Chef de Mission, Ansen Siglar, were walking to represent the team.
___
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, no detail is overlooked.
Every nation is being led into the stadium by someone carrying a glowing snowflake-shaped placard bearing that country’s name. And each of the snowflakes, when put back together, would form a larger snowflake.
The placard bearers’ costumes has an ice-and-snow pattern, and their hats have a tiger motif — because this year is the year of the tiger in China.
___
The parade of athletes at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics has started.
It’s expected to take about an hour. Representatives from 91 nations are taking part, including about 80% of the U.S. delegation of athletes.
As always at an Olympics, Greece is the first nation to enter the stadium. From there, it goes alphabetically — but by the language of the host country.
That’s why Greece will be followed by, in order, Turkey, Malta, Madagascar, Malaysia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Jamaica, Belgium and then Japan.
The U.S. is 56th in the order, which would be confusing to those thinking it’ll go according to the English alphabet. The U.S. group will be between Bulgaria and American Samoa.
The team of Russian athletes will be the official midpoint of the parade. They’re here competing under the Olympic emblem and not the Russian flag, part of the sanctions handed down to that nation’s Olympic committee for doping scandals such as the one that overshadowed the 2014 Sochi Games.
Tradition also dictates who the last two teams in the parade are. Italy — the host of the next Winter Games in 2026 — will enter next-to-last, and then China will close the parade with its delegation.
___
In China, Friday was “Lichun” — which translates to the beginning of spring.
And in this case, the start of the Winter Olympics.
“Beginning of Spring” is the first of the 24 solar terms of the year, and that number — 24 — carried significance in the early moments of the opening ceremony of these Beijing Games. Organizers say it reflects “the Chinese people’s understanding of time,” also noting that these were the 24th Winter Olympics.
The celebration of the lunar terms was punctuated by the first of what will be multiple pyrotechnic displays at the Bird’s Nest — including using fireworks to spell out the word “Spring.”
It’s also a Chinese belief that extreme cold breeds new life. Temperatures fell below the freezing mark as the ceremony went along; perhaps not extreme cold, but certainly a chilly start to the Beijing Games.
___
The opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics is set to begin, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach now having entered the Bird’s Nest.
The Chinese officially refer to the place as National Stadium — it’s the ‘Bird’s Nest’ because of its design, the web of steel resembling the way branches would be turned into a nest. It becomes the first facility to ever play host to the opening of both a summer and winter games, after it also was where the 2008 Olympics began.
Track and field was contested at the Bird’s Nest then, those games being the ones where Usain Bolt’s reign as the greatest Olympic sprinter began with his world-record times in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Athletes from 91 nations are expected to march in the ceremony, including four from the island of Taiwan — which, for the Olympics and most international sporting events, is referred to as Chinese Taipei.
___
Nordic combined superstar Eric Frenzel and teammate Terence Weber have tested positive for COVID-19 twice in Beijing, landing them in an isolation hotel.
Frenzel won gold on the normal hill at the 2018 Olympics — as he did at the Sochi Games — and also earned gold in the team competition as well as a silver on the large hill, giving him six Olympic medals in his career.
Frenzel is one medal away from matching the Nordic combined record of seven set by Felix Gottwald of Austria. He is tied for the all-time lead in the sport with three golds, matching Gottwald, Finland’s Samppa Lajunen and Ulrich Wehling of Germany.
Frenzel is No. 5 in World Cup standings, and Weber is seventh. “Both still have the chance to come back!” team spokesman Florian Schwarz wrote in an email Friday night.
Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber, ranked No. 2 in the world, also tested positive for COVID-19 and seemed to indicate he was out for the Beijing Games. Riiber posted on Instagram “the (gold) is yours guys.”
The first Nordic combined event at the Beijing Games is Wednesday.
___
Finland women’s hockey coach Pasi Mustonen is leaving the Beijing Winter Games to return home and attend to a family emergency.
General manager Tuula Puputti tells The Associated Press that assistant coach Juuso Toivola will assume head-coaching duties. The switch comes a day after Finland opened the tournament with a 5-2 loss to the United States.
Finland is scheduled to play Canada on Saturday.
Mustonen took over in 2014 and coached the Finns to a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Games. The nation then won its first silver medal at the 2019 world championships on home soil following a 2-1 shootout loss to the Americans.
___
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Games. He’ll also hold talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as the two leaders look to project themselves as a counterweight to the U.S. and its allies.
The Russian leader’s visit comes amid growing Chinese support for Moscow in its dispute with Ukraine that threatens to break out into armed conflict.
Putin’s presence makes him the highest-profile guest at the event following the decision by the U.S., Britain and others not to send officials in protest over China’s human rights abuses and its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
The discussions mark the first in-person meeting between Putin and Xi since 2019.
___
The U.S. leads after the opening day of the team figure skating event at the Beijing Games, with winning performances from Nathan Chen and ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue helping them edge the heavily favored Russians.
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Fraizer did their part, too. They had a season-best score in their pairs short program, helping the Americans amass 28 points. That leaves them two clear of the Russians and seven ahead of third-place China.
The Chinese were helped by a record score in the pairs short program by Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
The team event resumes Sunday with the women’s short program. The top five nations after that will advance to the round of free skates later Saturday and concluding Monday night.
___
U.S. women’s hockey star Brianna Decker will miss the rest of the Olympics after injuring her left leg in the Americans’ tournament-opening victory against Finland.
Decker is expected to remain in Beijing rather than fly back to the U.S. immediately.
The forward was hurt when she was tripped from behind by Ronja Savolainen midway through the first period Thursday night. Decker was unable to put any weight on her left leg. She was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
Decker’s injury was the second to a key player on the first day of women’s hockey in Beijing. Canadian forward Melodie Daoust was injured after being checked hard into the boards by Switzerland’s Sarah Foster.
___
The third round of training for women’s ski jumpers at the Beijing Olympics has been cancelled due to windy conditions.
Wind gusts were measured at 7 meters per second (16 mph.) To make the conditions even more brutal, it was minus 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) on the sunny afternoon. The 40 women in the field had two jumps each, a day after having three rounds of training.
Practice for the men’s ski jumpers later in the day started on time.
Defending Olympic champion Maren Lundby of Norway and top-ranked Marita Kramer of Austria will not vie for medals on Saturday, creating a wide-open competition.
Lundby is taking the season off after gaining weight and refusing to stress her body and mind enough to jump in a sport plagued by eating disorders. Kramer tested positive for COVID-19, knocking her out of the Beijing Games.
Germany’s Katharina Althaus and Japan’s Sara Takanashi are among the contenders to win gold after finishing second and third behind Lundby at the 2018 Olympics.
High winds delayed the start of men’s downhill training earlier in the day and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
___
The U.S. men’s hockey team has held its first pre-Olympic practice in Beijing without two top defenseman and a veteran forward because they tested positive for the coronavirus.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson remains in Los Angeles. Defenseman Steven Kampfer and forward Andy Miele are isolating in the Olympic Village in Beijing.
USA Hockey hopes all three players will be available for the tournament, which begins Wednesday. The U.S. opens against host China on Thursday.
Players and coaches arrived just after midnight. Three goaltenders and 23 skaters were on the ice for practice with coach David Quinn and his assistants.
Canada canceled practice for a second consecutive day. No reason was given.
___
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue have delivered a season-best performance in rhythm dance at the Beijing Olympics, giving Team USA a second straight win on the opening day of figure skating.
Nathan Chen won the men’s short program with a dynamic, high-flying program that featured a pair of quads. Hubbell and Donohue followed up with a near-flawless performance to music from Janet Jackson at Capital Indoor Stadium.
In the team event, 10 points are awarded to first place in each discipline, which means the Americans have a perfect 20 so far. The Russian Olympic Committee is second with 17 after Mark Kondratiuk’s third-place finish and a shaky second-place performance by ice dance world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.
Italy is in third place with 14 points heading into the pairs discipline later Friday.
___
The second men’s downhill ski training session is underway at the Beijing Olympics after a delay due to strong winds.
Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland was first to set off down the slope an hour after originally scheduled Friday.
The world’s best skiers only got the chance to see the Rock course up close for the first time on Thursday. There is a third training session scheduled Saturday before the men’s downhill opens the Alpine competition the following day.
___
Three-time men’s figure skating world champion Nathan Chen has delivered a strong short program to open the team competition at the Beijing Games. That gets the Americans off to a good start in their pursuit of a third straight medal in the event.
Chen, who struggled in the team event in Pyeongchang, opened with a big quad flip and hit his difficult quad lutz-triple toe loop combination to deliver the highest score among the men Friday and give the U.S. the maximum 10 points.
Reigning Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno was second to give Japan nine points. Eighteen-year-old Mark Kondratiuk was third for the Russian Olympic Committee, which is favored to win the team event.
The short program for ice dance and pairs are later Friday, then the teams get a day off before the women’s short program on Sunday. The top five teams after that advance to free skates for the medals Sunday and Monday.
___
Organizers say nine more athletes and officials tested positive for COVID-19 in cases confirmed on Thursday, raising the total to 111 since the Beijing Olympic period started on Jan. 23.
Seven cases were detected at the Beijing airport, making it 77 out of 5,255 athletes and officials who arrived through Thursday. The other two cases came from daily PCR testing that all people inside the Olympic bubbles must undergo.
Organizers say 12 more positive cases were detected among “stakeholders” — mostly workers at the Games including media. Seven of those were at the airport and five in daily tests.
The overall total of positive cases is 308 through Thursday. Almost 12,000 people have arrived in Beijing from outside China.
___
Organizers have delayed the start of the second men’s downhill training session at the Beijing Olympics due to strong winds.
The session had been scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Beijing time, but organizers will only make a decision then whether it can start at the new scheduled time of noon.
The world’s best skiers only got the chance to see the Rock course up close for the first time on Thursday. There is a third training session scheduled Saturday before the men’s downhill opens the Alpine competition the following day.
Weather is yet another source of stress for competitive skiers who can do nothing to control changing conditions on the slopes.
___
Chinese figure skating judge Huang Feng, who was suspended in 2018 for biased judging at the Pyeongchang Olympics, was among the three officials on the technical panel for the team event to start the Beijing Games.
Huang served a one-year suspension after he was accused of biased judging in the pairs event in Pyeongchang.
The International Skating Union, which assigns the judges and technical panel, said in a statement that Huang was cleared to work the Olympics after serving his suspension provided he continues to abide by the organization’s code of ethics. The technical panel is responsible for identifying all the elements that skaters execute during their programs.
Huang received a round of applause from the several hundred fans, all Chinese citizens, who were allowed into Capital Indoor Stadium for the start of Friday’s program. He stood and gave a brief wave before sitting back down.
___
More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/the-latest-dutch-vj-manhandled-during-olympic-live-shot/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:03 | en | 0.966683 |
European stocks slide as automakers fear tougher emission standards
Regional stocks deepened their losses after data showed U.S. payrolls rose more-than-expected in January, giving the Federal Reserve more space to tighten policy this year. The Bank of England raised rates this week, while the ECB hinted at possible hikes this year, pushing up yields and pressuring markets as they face the end of pandemic-era liquidity measures.
European shares fell on Friday, with automobile stocks hitting a one-month low on the prospect of tougher emissions tests, while a hawkish shift from the European Central Bank continued to rattle markets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 closed 1.4% lower, extending losses after a near 2% drop in the previous session. The index lost 0.7% this week, despite initial gains on a positive earnings season. Automobile stocks fell the most on Friday, down 3.2% after Reuters reported the European Union plans to toughen its method for measuring carbon dioxide emissions from plug-in hybrid cars.
The move would mean automakers will be required to sell more battery-operated vehicles to meet emissions targets. Regional stocks deepened their losses after data showed U.S. payrolls rose more-than-expected in January, giving the Federal Reserve more space to tighten policy this year.
The Bank of England raised rates this week, while the ECB hinted at possible hikes this year, pushing up yields and pressuring markets as they face the end of pandemic-era liquidity measures. "Inflation concerns are looming ever larger with the cost of living squeeze intensifying, as monetary policy tightening ramps up, and no let-up in soaring energy prices in sight," said Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
The prospect of higher rates has walloped technology stocks, with the index having lost more than 14% this year. Bank stocks were the best performers this week, up 2.4%, given they benefit from a higher-rate environment.
German and Dutch five-year bond yields turned positive for the first time since 2018. Meanwhile, German industrial orders grew more than expected in December, data showed, with stronger domestic demand offering cause for optimism.
Among individual stocks, French home care operators Korian and Orpea slumped 16.8% and 12.4%, respectively, after a French investigational TV show host said more information on malpractice in the sector would be revealed soon. Orpea has lost about half its value since the first extracts of the "Les Fossoyeurs" book alleging malpractice in its care homes were published on Jan. 24.
Assa Abloy, the world's biggest lockmaker, gained 7.0% after posting better-than-expected quarterly profit growth. Danish brewer Carlsberg rose 0.5% after posting quarterly sales above expectations, while Spanish power and gas group Naturgy fell 1.2% despite a slight beat on its 2021 earnings guidance.
TomTom plunged 16.1% after the Dutch navigation and digital mapping firm reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly core loss.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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U.S. House panel turns to oil major boards in next climate probe | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910755-european-stocks-slide-as-automakers-fear-tougher-emission-standards | 2022-02-04T18:38:05 | en | 0.947571 |
By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of teachers across Puerto Rico left their classrooms and took to the streets on Friday to demand higher wages, improved working conditions and better pensions amid an economic crisis.
Several schools were completely void of teachers as protesters gathered in the capital of San Juan and other cities including Mayaguez and Aguada and marched, clapped and banged on pots while supporters honked their horns as they drove past.
“We are tired, tired of not being recognized,” said Joalice Santiago, a 34-year-old who teaches Spanish and science to fourth and fifth graders. “It’s about time that teachers rise up and explain to the world the value of their profession.”
She said she tutors after school to boost her salary and that many teachers in Puerto Rico are forced to work two or three jobs to make ends meet as the cost of food, power and water increases as the island struggles to emerge from bankruptcy and tries to recover from Hurricane Maria and a spate of strong earthquakes.
The protest is the biggest one so far this week, with Puerto Rico’s Department of Education announcing on Thursday that some 5,000 teachers, or about 25% of those working in public schools, were absent. On Friday, officials said more than 70% of teachers were absent. Alexis Ramos, an education department spokesman, said no official was immediately available for comment.
The protests come just days after a federal control board that is overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances and the U.S. territory’s exit from bankruptcy approved a fiscal plan that contains salary increases for teachers and other public employees. Teachers would see an average increase of 27% compared with what they made in fiscal year 2019. They would receive half that increase on July 1, with the other half tied to them finishing a payroll and attendance system and providing for student attendance keeping.
Puerto Rico’s Association of Teachers rejected the move, saying it only increases base salaries to $2,220 a month instead of the $3,500 it is requesting.
“Bankruptcy cannot continue to be used as an excuse,” the association said. “Teachers do not want to be rendered invisible any more nor offered any more crumbs, but rather a concrete solution that provides them with a better quality of life.”
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said his administration respects the right to freedom of expression and promised that his administration is still working to secure even higher increases for all public servants.
“This fight has not ended,” he said, but warned that certain responsibilities cannot be ignored. “Our students more than ever need the guarantee of adequate face-to-face education, and for this, they need their teachers in the classroom.”
Santiago said teachers at her school earlier this week protested before the school bell would ring, but that on Friday, all of them closed their classrooms to join the protest with the director’s backing. She noted that many teachers across the island also are forced to paint their own classrooms or buy fans because the government does not provide sufficient resources.
“It’s hard,” she said. “The governor has a lot to think about…a lot to do.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/thousands-of-puerto-rico-teachers-protest-for-higher-wages-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:09 | en | 0.978324 |
WRAPUP 4-U.S. labor market defies Omicron surge; economy on solid footing ahead of rate hikes
The U.S. economy created far more jobs than expected in January despite the disruption to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, pointing to underlying strength that should sustain the expansion as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates. The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday also showed a whopping 709,000 more jobs were added in November and December than previously estimated.
The U.S. economy created far more jobs than expected in January despite the disruption to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, pointing to underlying strength that should sustain the expansion as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates.
The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday also showed a whopping 709,000 more jobs were added in November and December than previously estimated. Wage gains accelerated last month and the labor pool expanded. The upbeat report ended days of anxiety among economists and White House officials who had frantically tried to prepare the nation for a disappointing payrolls number.
"This is a strong jobs report," said Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial in New York. "The odds of quelling inflation without a recession look better today than yesterday." Nonfarm payrolls increased by 467,000 jobs last month, the survey of establishments showed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 150,000 jobs would be added in January. Estimates ranged from a decrease of 400,000 to a gain of 385,000 jobs. Employment is 2.9 million jobs below its pre-pandemic peak.
Part of the broad increase in payrolls likely reflected low layoffs after the holiday hiring season because of worker shortages. Though the drop in actual employment in January was in line with prior years, there were large differences at the industry level. The government also reported that 374,000 more jobs were created in the 12 months through March 2021 than previously reported.
The labor market resilience could alter expectations that economic growth would slow significantly in the first quarter, after consumer spending exited 2021 with a whimper. The economy grew at a 6.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. Growth estimates for the first quarter are below a 2% pace. Strong employment gains, accompanied by the biggest annual increase in wages since May 2020, pave the way for the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates in March by at least 25 basis points to tame high inflation. Economists expect as many as seven rate hikes this year.
"The report is unequivocally good for the economy, but not for markets as the strength in the numbers presents another data point which supports more aggressively hawkish Fed action," said Cliff Hodge, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stocks on Wall Street were mixed. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell.
LABOR POOL EXPANDS Economists had been bracing for a weak jobs report as the government surveyed businesses for payrolls in mid-January, when Omicron infections were peaking. The Labor Department said 3.616 million people who had a job were absent during the survey week because of illness.
Workers who are out sick or in quarantine and do not get paid during the payrolls survey period are counted as unemployed in the establishment survey even if they still have a job. Lower-paid hourly workers in industries like healthcare as well as leisure and hospitality, who typically do not have paid sick leave, bore the brunt of the winter COVID-19 wave. According to the latest government data, paid sick leave was available to 79% of civilian workers in March 2021.
The leisure and hospitality industry added 151,000 jobs in January. Healthcare employment increased by 18,000. There were gains in retail, professional and business services employment as well as transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade. Manufacturing payrolls rose by 13,000, but construction employment fell 5,000, likely because of freezing temperatures. Government payrolls increased by 23,000 jobs.
Employment could increase further as coronavirus infections continue to subside. First-time applications for unemployment benefits dropped for a second straight week https://www.reuters.com/business/us-weekly-jobless-claims-drop-more-than-expected-2022-02-03 last week. The United States is reporting an average of 354,399 new COVID-19 infections a day, sharply down from the more than 700,000 in mid-January, according to a Reuters analysis of official data.
The government introduced new population estimates for the household survey, from which the unemployment rate is derived. The new assumptions had a negligible effect on the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.0% from 3.9% in December. The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, increased to 62.2% due to the changes in the composition of the population, from 61.9% in December. The workforce increased by 1.393 million people. The employment-to-population ratio rose to 59.7% from 59.5% in December.
Other details of the household survey were strong. Employment increased by 1.199 million. The survey counts people who have a job as employed regardless of whether they got paid during the survey week if they were temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal reasons. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 7.1% from 7.3% in December.
With some lower hourly paid workers at home, wage growth accelerated in January. Average hourly earnings increased 0.7%, which raised the annual increase to 5.7%, the largest gain since May 2020. But Omicron's surge shortened the average workweek to 34.5 hours from 34.7 hours in December. "All in all, the U.S. economy appears to be on a strong footing," said Noah Williams, adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Chinese shares fall as weakness in tech, healthcare stocks weigh | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910762-wrapup-4-us-labor-market-defies-omicron-surge-economy-on-solid-footing-ahead-of-rate-hikes | 2022-02-04T18:38:12 | en | 0.977082 |
By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of teachers across Puerto Rico left their classrooms and took to the streets on Friday to demand higher wages, improved working conditions and better pensions amid an economic crisis.
Several schools were completely void of teachers as protesters gathered in the capital of San Juan and other cities including Mayaguez and Aguada and marched, clapped and banged on pots while supporters honked their horns as they drove past.
“We are tired, tired of not being recognized,” said Joalice Santiago, a 34-year-old who teaches Spanish and science to fourth and fifth graders. “It’s about time that teachers rise up and explain to the world the value of their profession.”
She said she tutors after school to boost her salary and that many teachers in Puerto Rico are forced to work two or three jobs to make ends meet as the cost of food, power and water increases as the island struggles to emerge from bankruptcy and tries to recover from Hurricane Maria and a spate of strong earthquakes.
The protest is the biggest one so far this week, with Puerto Rico’s Department of Education announcing on Thursday that some 5,000 teachers, or about 25% of those working in public schools, were absent. Updated numbers for Friday’s protest weren’t immediately available. Alexis Ramos, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s Department of Education, said officials would soon comment on the situation.
The protests come just days after a federal control board that is overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances and the U.S. territory’s exit from bankruptcy approved a fiscal plan that contains salary increases for teachers and other public employees. Teachers would see an average increase of 27% compared with what they made in fiscal year 2019. They would receive half that increase on July 1, with the other half tied to them finishing a payroll and attendance system and providing for student attendance keeping.
Puerto Rico’s Association of Teachers rejected the move, saying it only increases base salaries to $2,220 a month instead of the $3,500 it is requesting.
“Bankruptcy cannot continue to be used as an excuse,” the association said. “Teachers do not want to be rendered invisible any more nor offered any more crumbs, but rather a concrete solution that provides them with a better quality of life.”
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said his administration respects the right to freedom of expression and promised that his administration is still working to secure even higher increases for all public servants.
“This fight has not ended,” he said, but warned that certain responsibilities cannot be ignored. “Our students more than ever need the guarantee of adequate face-to-face education, and for this, they need their teachers in the classroom.”
Santiago said teachers at her school earlier this week protested before the school bell would ring, but that on Friday, all of them closed their classrooms to join the protest with the director’s backing. She noted that many teachers across the island also are forced to paint their own classrooms or buy fans because the government does not provide sufficient resources.
“It’s hard,” she said. “The governor has a lot to think about…a lot to do.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/thousands-of-puerto-rico-teachers-protest-for-higher-wages/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:15 | en | 0.975438 |
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — UCLA men’s basketball player Mac Etienne was arrested and cited on suspicion of misdemeanor assault after appearing to spit toward a fan after the Bruins lost a road game to Pac-12 rival Arizona, a University of Arizona police spokesman said Friday.
The alleged incident occurred Thursday night as UCLA players left the McKale Center playing floor and entered a tunnel to go to their locker room, said the spokesman, Officer Jesus Aguilar.
Etienne was allowed to go to the locker room and was then arrested, cited and released, Aguilar said.
Local media outlets reported that fans jeered UCLA players when the incident occurred. The Wildcats beat the Bruins 76-66.
UCLA officials knew of the incident and were reviewing it, university spokesman Scott Markley said in a statement.
“UCLA Athletics is committed to and expects the highest level of sportsmanship,” the statement said.
Etienne, a redshirt freshman, was not in uniform and did not play in the game.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether saliva landed on any fans but the misdemeanor assault charge alleges intent, Aguilar said.
“We did have a willing victim who did want to press charges,” he said.
Etienne wasn’t taken into custody or booked into jail but he will be expected to either appear in court on a future date or make alternative arrangements with court officials, Aguilar said.
“We had no reason to take him into custody,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/ucla-player-arrested-after-allegedly-spitting-at-arizona-fan-3/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:22 | en | 0.971069 |
Kerala CM inaugurates Kerala pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020
- Country:
- India
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday inaugurated the Kerala pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 and welcomed the companies and businesses in the UAE to take advantage of the present business friendly environment in the southern state.
Vijayan, while addressing a gathering at the Expo, said over the years, Kerala has invested heavily in connectivity, communication networks, skill development and infrastructure, giving the State an intrinsic advantage for growth in industry.
Making it clear that Kerala aims to attract investment in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Petrochemical, Aviation, Defence, Food Processing sectors, Vijayan said about 52 per cent of the existing industrial units in the State were established in the last six years. ''Our strategic sectors seeking investments are the ones in the knowledge sector and highly skilled sectors... Healthcare, Life Sciences, Petrochemical, Aviation, Defence, Food Processing are some of the sectors where the State is keen to attract investments,'' he said.
He said Kerala was committed to improving the ease of doing business in the state through a number of initiatives including simplification of procedures, enablement of digital engagement channels such as Kerala – Single Window Interface for Fast and Transparent Clearance (K-SWIFT) and Kerala-Central Inspection System (K-CIS).
''On the industrial front, through a series of legislations and rules the process of industrial licensing has been moved to online platforms and made automatic and transparent,'' he said.
The chief minister said Kerala is regarded as the social capital of India and it is now emerging as an important destination for investments.
Explaining the importance of the United Arab Emirates India and vice versa, Vijayan said it houses over two million Indians who are well represented in all spheres of work and they contribute greatly to the economic development of UAE.
''As far as Keralites are concerned, UAE is their second home, with nearly 1.2 million Malayalis residing here. The Malayali community in UAE has played a significant role in nurturing and further strengthening the friendly relations between the two regions,'' he said. The Left leader said the Dubai Expo will enrich the state with ideas and avenues that will go a long way in strengthening ties and cementing the future of both the regions.
''Kerala has consistently been among the top 5 States in India for social development and sustainability indicators, as per the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With its high Human Development Index (HDI), and a host of reforms initiated on the industrial front, Kerala is all set to achieve the next wave of economic development through investments,'' he said.
During his address, Vijayan explained the projects under the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) which is the nodal agency to scrutinise, approve and fund major infrastructure projects with its target of Rs. 60,000 crore, over the next 5 years.
He also said that the Left government was building a statewide optical fibre network – Kerala Fiber Optic Network (KFON), with a vision to ''transform Kerala into an intelligent, innovative and inclusive society''.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910766-kerala-cm-inaugurates-kerala-pavilion-at-dubai-expo-2020 | 2022-02-04T18:38:20 | en | 0.951972 |
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — UCLA men’s basketball player Mac Etienne was arrested and cited on suspicion of misdemeanor assault after appearing to spit toward a fan after the Bruins lost a road game to Pac-12 rival Arizona, a University of Arizona police spokesman said Friday.
The alleged incident occurred Thursday night as UCLA players left the McKale Center playing floor and entered a tunnel to go to their locker room, said the spokesman, Officer Jesus Aguilar.
Etienne was allowed to go to the locker room and was then arrested, cited and released, Aguilar said.
Local media outlets reported that fans jeered UCLA players when the incident occurred. The Wildcats beat the Bruins 76-66.
UCLA officials knew of the incident and were reviewing it, university spokesman Scott Markley said in a statement.
“UCLA Athletics is committed to and expects the highest level of sportsmanship,” the statement said.
Etienne, a redshirt freshman, was not in uniform and did not play in the game.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether saliva landed on any fans but the misdemeanor assault charge alleges intent, Aguilar said.
“We did have a willing victim who did want to press charges,” he said.
Etienne wasn’t taken into custody or booked into jail but he will be expected to either appear in court on a future date or make alternative arrangements with court officials, Aguilar said.
“We had no reason to take him into custody,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/ucla-player-arrested-after-allegedly-spitting-at-arizona-fan/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:28 | en | 0.971069 |
Energy stocks support FTSE 100's first weekly gain in three; financials dip
London's FTSE 100 ended the week in positive territory after two weeks' of losses despite edging lower on Friday as banks retreated a day after the Bank of England raised interest rates to curb soaring inflation.
London's FTSE 100 ended the week in positive territory after two weeks' of losses despite edging lower on Friday as banks retreated a day after the Bank of England raised interest rates to curb soaring inflation. The FTSE 100 index closed 0.2% lower, reversing earlier gains and leaving it 0.6% higher over the week. Meanwhile, the mid-cap index declined 1.2% but still recorded its first weekly gain after a four-week losing streak, advancing 0.5%.
Energy stocks outperformed, rising 3.8% to their highest level in nearly two years as oil prices extended gains on U.S. supply concerns amid frigid U.S. weather and ongoing political turmoil. Base metal miners ended the day flat, while banks dropped 1.2% after rallying as much as 2.4% this week.
"If you've got a rising interest rate into an economy that is weakening, consumer sentiment crashing, and many other factors that domestic UK banks are facing right now, that can push traders to sell off a little bit after a week's rally," said Keith Temperton, a sales trader at Forte Securities. The Bank of England raised interest rates to 0.5% on Thursday and nearly half of its policymakers wanted a bigger increase to contain rampant price pressures, as the central bank warned inflation will soon top 7%.
Two-year yields on British bonds rose to their highest since April 2011, while the five-year yields touched a level last seen in October 2018. Shares in SSP rose 0.7% as the Upper Crust owner said its sales were recovering after a slowdown in recent weeks when fewer people travelled due to Omicron-led curbs, hitting its stores at train stations and airports.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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FACTBOX-Corporate Australia burdened by Omicron surge | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910768-energy-stocks-support-ftse-100s-first-weekly-gain-in-three-financials-dip | 2022-02-04T18:38:31 | en | 0.969053 |
By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has backed Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in his standoff with the West over Ukraine as the two leaders met before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The leaders used a joint statement to call out what they called a “minority on the world stage” for advocating “unilateral approaches to resolving international problems and resort to military policy.”
Meanwhile, the leaders of European Union powerhouses France and Germany announced plans to head to Moscow and Kyiv soon for talks aimed at easing tensions.
Here are things to know Friday about the international tensions surrounding Ukraine, which has an estimated 100,000 Russian troops massed along its borders.
PUTIN IN CHINA FOR WINTER OLYMPICS
Putin got the support of his Chinese counterpart amid fears in the West that Moscow is preparing for military action against Ukraine.
Putin met with Xi before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the leaders issued a joint statement highlighting what it called “interference in the internal affairs” of other states, as Russia amasses troops on its border with Ukraine.
“Some forces representing a minority on the world stage continue to advocate unilateral approaches to resolving international problems and resort to military policy,” it read, in a thinly veiled reference to the U.S. and its allies.
The meeting came amid fears in the West that tensions between Russia and Ukraine could spill over into armed conflict. On Thursday, the U.S. accused the Kremlin of an elaborate plot to fabricate an attack by Ukrainian forces that Russia could use as a pretext to take military action against its neighbor.
— By Ken Moritsugu in Beijing.
___
MACRON TO MOSCOW, KYIV
Diplomatic moves to ease the crisis are set to continue next week when French President Emmanuel Macron heads to Moscow and Kyiv for talks.
Macron is following a French tradition of striking a separate path from the United States in geopolitics, as well as trying to make his own mark on this crisis and defend Europe’s interests.
Macron spoke by phone to U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday to update Washington on his diplomatic push. And on Thursday night the French leader discussed with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ways to “identify elements that could lead to de-escalation,” and “conditions for strategic balance in Europe, which should allow for the reduction of risks on the ground and guarantee security on the continent.”
While France is a major player in NATO and is moving troops to Romania as part of the alliance’s preparation for possible Russian action, Macron has also been actively pushing for dialogue with Putin and has spoken to him several times in recent weeks. The two will hold a one-on-one meeting Monday, Macron’s office said Friday.
— By Angela Charlton in Paris.
___
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ALSO VISITING RUSSIA, UKRAINE
Macron is not the only European leader heading east. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Ukraine and Russia in mid-February, adding to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis centering on Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders.
Government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said Friday that Scholz will travel to Kyiv on Feb. 14 and Moscow on Feb. 15.
The trip will follow a previously planned meeting in Washington on Monday with Biden.
Buechner said the German government is consulting with France and Poland on a meeting between the leaders of the three countries, but a date hasn’t yet been set.
He said that, on Thursday, Scholz will welcome the leaders of the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the chancellery.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday, a trip that will include a visit to the “contact line” with rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine.
— By Geir Moulson in Berlin.
___
POLISH PRESIDENT TO DISCUSS UKRAINE IN CHINA
Poland’s president was the only European Union leader to attend the Winter Olympics opening Friday, in what his office said was a bid to maintain good ties with China and lobby for an easing of Russia-Ukraine tensions.
President Andrzej Duda is scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday, his office said, but is not scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also is in Beijing.
Other EU leaders have followed the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others, in a stated or unstated diplomatic boycott of the Games due to China’s human rights record — while allowing their athletes to compete.
Duda’s foreign policy advisor, Jakub Kumoch, has said the president wants to seize “certain diplomacy chances” that the gathering of many leaders in Beijing.
“The goal of these talks is to encourage the interlocutors to play an active role in leading to Russia-Ukraine talks,” Duda’s press office says.
— By Monika Scislowska in Warsaw.
___
RUSSIA VS. UKRAINE PLAYS OUT IN FUTSAL SEMIFINAL
Amid the simmering tensions between their two countries, five-a-side soccer teams from Russia and Ukraine face one another in the semifinals of the Futsal European Championships in Amsterdam.
European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, has ensured that Ukrainian and Russian teams aren’t drawn to play one another since 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea.
But in a written statement UEFA said that the measure to keep teams apart “for obvious reasons cannot apply to the entire knockout stages of tournaments like the UEFA Futsal EURO 2022.”
“UEFA expects fair play by the two teams, on and off the pitch,” the organization said, adding that local organizers of the tournament in the Dutch capital are working “to ensure that the event will take place safely and, in this respect, is working on implementing specific security plans.”
— By Mike Corder in The Hague.
___
Follow all AP stories on Russia and Ukraine tensions at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/ukraine-russia-crisis-what-to-know-about-rising-fear-of-war-25/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:34 | en | 0.950987 |
Minda Corp Q3 net grows 41 pc to Rs 70 cr
The consolidated operating revenue during the quarter declined marginally to Rs 738.3 crore as compared to Rs 739.8 crore in Q3 FY21.Strong business fundamentals and focus on strengthening core business helped deliver stable sales, the company said in the statement.
- Country:
- India
Auto components maker Minda Corporation on Friday reported a 41 per cent growth in consolidated Profit After Tax (PAT) at Rs 69.9 crore for the December quarter on the back of exceptional gain of Rs 32.74 crore due to revaluation of its stake in Minda Stoneridge. The company had posted a profit of Rs 49.50 crore in the third quarter of the financial year ended March 2021, according to a statement. The consolidated operating revenue during the quarter declined marginally to Rs 738.3 crore as compared to Rs 739.8 crore in Q3 FY21.
Strong business fundamentals and focus on strengthening core business helped deliver stable sales, the company said in the statement. It also said it has filed an application under the PLI Scheme for developing best-in-class and industry leading products.
''In the third quarter of FY22, Auto industry continued to be plagued with challenges in supply chain, threat from Covid waves and overall subdued sentiments. There was a broad based impact on all vehicle segments and the industry declined by around 10 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. ''On a year-on-year basis, industry has declined by around 20 per cent as last year Q3 FY21 recorded steep pent-up demand and filing of BS-VI inventory,'' the company's Chairman and CEO Ashok Minda said. Amidst these challenging circumstances, he said, Minda Corp has delivered consistent and stable performance with consolidated revenue of Rs 7,383 million. Besides, EBITDA margin improved to 10.7 per cent on sequential basis, he said, adding ''our PAT came at Rs 699 million which had an exceptional gain of Rs 3 27.4 million due to revaluation of our stake in Minda Stoneridge.'' Also, the transaction for the acquisition of Minda Stoneridge has been completed, and the entity has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Minda Corp. The acquisition will aid in augmenting our core capabilities, he said. ''We have further strengthened our leadership by welcoming Vinod Raheja as Group Chief Financial Officer. His steady leadership and vast experience will further help us in creating value for all stakeholders. He will be instrumental in strategic finance, strengthening controls and robust governance,'' Minda added.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910771-minda-corp-q3-net-grows-41-pc-to-rs-70-cr | 2022-02-04T18:38:38 | en | 0.957464 |
By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — This was the week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoped to get a grip on his government after weeks of scandal. By Friday, he was struggling to hang on after a scathing report on lockdown-breaching parties and the departure of several top aides.
Johnson was rocked Thursday by the resignation of his policy chief, Munira Mirza, a trusted adviser who worked with him for more than a decade. Mirza stood by the prime minister amid “partygate” revelations that Johnson and his staff broke the rules they had imposed on the country. But she said Johnson’s “scurrilous accusation” this week that an opposition leader had failed to stop a notorious pedophile was the final straw.
“This was not the normal cut-and-thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse,” Mirza wrote in a resignation letter, which was published by The Spectator magazine.
After Mirza quit, Johnson’s office announced the departure of three more top staffers: chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, communications director Jack Doyle and principal private secretary Martin Reynolds. Elena Narozanski, who worked in Murza’s policy unit, resigned Friday.
Conservative lawmakers loyal to Johnson depicted the departures as part of a planned overhaul to restore order to his 10 Downing Street office.
“The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No. 10 and that is what he has delivered,” Energy Minister Greg Hands said. “This is the prime minister taking charge.”
Others weren’t so sure. The prime minister’s grip on power has been shaken by public anger at revelations that his staff held “bring your own booze” office parties, birthday celebrations and “wine time Fridays” at times in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of COVID-19 restrictions.
A total of 16 parties have been investigated by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, with a dozen of them also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
On Monday, Gray released an interim report looking at the four parties police are not probing. She found that “failures of leadership and judgment” allowed events to occur that “should not have been allowed to take place” and described a Downing Street operation marked by excessive drinking and dysfunctional dynamics.
Johnson apologized and pledged to fix the problems in his office, though he didn’t admit personal wrongdoing.
Rosenfield, Doyle and especially Reynolds — who sent 100 government staff an invitation to a BYOB garden party in May 2020 — were always likely to be ousted as part of Johnson’s post-“partygate” shakeup.
But Mirza’s departure was a major blow. In her resignation letter, she said Johnson had not heeded her advice to apologize for accusing Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in the House of Commons on Monday of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” when Starmer was the U.K.’s director of public prosecutions. Savile was a long-time presenter of youth television shows who was exposed after his death in 2011 as a sexual predator who had abused hundreds of children.
Starmer said the accusation was “a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls.” A 2013 report found that Starmer hadn’t been involved in decisions about whether Savile should be prosecuted.
Some Conservatives also recoiled at the use of Savile in a political attack. In her resignation letter, Mirza said Johnson had let himself down “by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition.”
The Downing Street exodus is sending further shockwaves through Conservative lawmakers as they mull whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago. Under party rules, such a vote is triggered if 15% of party lawmakers — currently 54 people — write letters calling for one. If Johnson lost such a vote, he would be replaced as party leader and prime minister.
Only about a dozen Conservative legislators have publicly called for Johnson to quit, though the number who have written letters may be higher.
Aaron Bell, a lawmaker who asked in Parliament on Monday whether Johnson thought he was a fool for following social distancing rules at his grandmother’s funeral in 2020, added his name on Friday to those calling for a no-confidence vote. He wrote on social media that “the breach of trust that the events in No. 10 Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, makes his position untenable.”
Many others are biding their time, waiting to see whether police censure the prime minister and what Gray will say in her final report, due once the criminal investigation is over.
Huw Merriman, a moderate Conservative lawmaker, said the prime minister had to shape up or ship out.
“My constituents are upset,” he told the BBC. “I feel like we’ve lost face and public trust with them. We’ve got to gain that back.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/uks-boris-johnson-ends-week-of-turmoil-in-weakened-position-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:41 | en | 0.97991 |
By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — This was the week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoped to get a grip on his government after weeks of scandal. By Friday, he was struggling to hang on after a scathing report on lockdown-breaching parties and the departure of several top aides.
Johnson was rocked Thursday by the resignation of his policy chief, Munira Mirza, a trusted adviser who worked with him for more than a decade. Mirza stood by the prime minister amid “partygate” revelations that Johnson and his staff broke the rules they had imposed on the country. But she said Johnson’s “scurrilous accusation” this week that an opposition leader had failed to stop a notorious pedophile was the final straw.
“This was not the normal cut-and-thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse,” Mirza wrote in a resignation letter, which was published by The Spectator magazine.
After Mirza quit, Johnson’s office announced the departure of three more top staffers: chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, communications director Jack Doyle and principal private secretary Martin Reynolds. Elena Narozanski, who worked in Murza’s policy unit, resigned Friday.
Johnson tried to reassure staff that he remained in control by quoting the wise monkey Rafiki from “The Lion King,” telling a meeting: ”Change is good” even if it is difficult.
Conservative lawmakers loyal to Johnson depicted the departures as part of a planned overhaul to restore order to his 10 Downing Street office.
“The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No. 10 and that is what he has delivered,” Energy Minister Greg Hands said. “This is the prime minister taking charge.”
Others weren’t so sure. The prime minister’s grip on power has been shaken by public anger at revelations that his staff held “bring your own booze” office parties, birthday celebrations and “wine time Fridays” at times in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of COVID-19 restrictions.
A total of 16 parties have been investigated by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, with a dozen of them also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
On Monday, Gray released an interim report looking at the four parties police are not probing. She found that “failures of leadership and judgment” allowed events to occur that “should not have been allowed to take place” and described a Downing Street operation marked by excessive drinking and dysfunctional dynamics.
Johnson apologized and pledged to fix the problems in his office, though he didn’t admit personal wrongdoing.
Rosenfield, Doyle and especially Reynolds — who sent 100 government staff an invitation to a BYOB garden party in May 2020 — were always likely to be ousted as part of Johnson’s post-“partygate” shakeup.
But Mirza’s departure was a major blow. In her resignation letter, she said Johnson had not heeded her advice to apologize for accusing Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in the House of Commons on Monday of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” when Starmer was the U.K.’s director of public prosecutions. Savile was a long-time presenter of youth television shows who was exposed after his death in 2011 as a sexual predator who had abused hundreds of children.
Starmer said the accusation was “a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls.” A 2013 report found that Starmer hadn’t been involved in decisions about whether Savile should be prosecuted.
Some Conservatives also recoiled at the use of Savile in a political attack. In her resignation letter, Mirza said Johnson had let himself down “by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition.”
The Downing Street exodus is sending further shockwaves through Conservative lawmakers as they mull whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago. Under party rules, such a vote is triggered if 15% of party lawmakers — currently 54 people — write letters calling for one. If Johnson lost such a vote, he would be replaced as party leader and prime minister.
Only about a dozen Conservative legislators have publicly called for Johnson to quit, though the number who have written letters may be higher.
Aaron Bell, a lawmaker who asked in Parliament on Monday whether Johnson thought he was a fool for following social distancing rules at his grandmother’s funeral in 2020, added his name on Friday to those calling for a no-confidence vote. He wrote on social media that “the breach of trust that the events in No. 10 Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, makes his position untenable.”
Many others are biding their time, waiting to see whether police censure the prime minister and what Gray will say in her final report, due once the criminal investigation is over.
Huw Merriman, a moderate Conservative lawmaker, said the prime minister had to shape up or ship out.
“My constituents are upset,” he told the BBC. “I feel like we’ve lost face and public trust with them. We’ve got to gain that back.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/uks-boris-johnson-ends-week-of-turmoil-in-weakened-position-4/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:47 | en | 0.979371 |
IndiGo posts Rs 130 cr Q3 profit on higher passenger revenues; appoints Rahul Bhatia as MD
- Country:
- India
Fuelled by higher passenger revenues, the country's largest airline IndiGo on Friday posted a profit after tax of Rs 129.8 crore in the three months ended December 2021 amid the pandemic clouds.
InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, had slipped into a loss of Rs 620.1 crore in the year-ago period.
In a significant development, the company has appointed its co-founder Rahul Bhatia as Managing Director with immediate effect and he would oversee all aspects of the airline.
Reflecting signs of slow recovery in the pandemic-hit airline industry, IndiGo's revenue from operations jumped to Rs 9,294.8 crore in the latest December quarter compared to Rs 4,910 crore in the same period a year ago.
Total income surged 84.3 per cent on an annual basis to Rs 9,480.1 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
''For the quarter, our passenger ticket revenues were Rs 80,731 million, an increase of 98.4 per cent and ancillary revenues were Rs 11,417 million, an increase of 41.3 per cent compared to the same period last year,'' it said in a statement.
The higher revenues also offset the increase in expenses, including the more than doubling of fuel cost in the latest December quarter to Rs 3,269.3 crore. In the year-ago period, the fuel cost stood at Rs 1,142.9 crore.
Total expenses climbed 62.1 per cent to Rs 9,346.4 crore in the three months ended December 2021.
During a post-earnings call, IndiGo Whole Time Director and CEO Ronojoy Dutta said while the airline is going to see a decline in revenue in the March quarter, a recovery is likely to take place in the first quarter of next financial year owing to the rebound in demand.
''Fourth quarter fiscal year 2022 capacity in terms of ASKs is expected to reduce by around 10-15 per cent as compared to the third quarter fiscal year 2022,'' the statement said.
ASK or Available Seat Kilometre indicates an airline's capacity for carrying passengers.
''I am pleased that we were able to report a profit for the third quarter. It demonstrates that our business model is fundamentally strong. Our employees have remained a pillar of strength throughout this health crisis and have steadfastly provided superior service to our customers,'' Dutta said.
IndiGo had a fleet of 283 aircraft, including 56 A320 CEOs, 140 A320 NEOs, 52 A321 NEOs and 35 ATRs at the end of December 2021. It operated a peak of 1,574 daily flights during the quarter, including non-scheduled flights.
''The capitalised operating lease liability was Rs 307,645 million. The total debt (including the capitalised operating lease liability) was Rs 351,534 million,'' the statement said.
At the end of the December quarter, the company had a total cash of Rs 17,318.9 crore, including free cash of Rs 7,814.1 crore.
The board of directors, during its meeting on Friday, unanimously approved the appointment of Bhatia as Managing Director with immediate effect, subject to the approval of the shareholders.
The move also assumes significance against the backdrop of differences between Bhatia and co-promoter Rakesh Gangwal that had come into the public domain in July 2019. In September 2021, the London Court of International Arbitration gave the final arbitration award in the matter related to the spat.
In December 2021, IndiGo shareholders approved a special resolution to remove a clause in the company's Articles of Association (AoA). The clause had given Bhatia and Gangwal the power of right of first refusal when one of them wanted to sell his shares. The passage of the special resolution was likely to have paved the way for resolution of the differences.
On Friday, Bhatia said his agenda would be transformational and would focus on expanding the airline's presence in India and in international markets and building for the long term.
IndiGo Chairman Meleveetil Damodaran said the move will further strengthen the airline in the years ahead. Bhatia would oversee all aspects of the airline, and actively lead the management team.
''I would describe Rahul as a restless and driven entrepreneur, who is always looking for bigger and improved opportunities in any business or venture. For example, our initiative into cargo, as well as the entire digitisation in the last couple of years were spearheaded by Rahul.
''We are now entering a new phase in our journey, with more international and long-haul flights. In this evolving and exciting environment, strengthening the thought leadership in the company is a timely and welcome move,'' Dutta said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 160.43 cr | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910780-indigo-posts-rs-130-cr-q3-profit-on-higher-passenger-revenues-appoints-rahul-bhatia-as-md | 2022-02-04T18:38:46 | en | 0.967615 |
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprising burst of hiring, American’s employers added 467,000 jobs in January in a sign of the economy’s resilience even in the face of a wave of omicron infections last month.
The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000. It also said the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to a still-low 4%, mainly because more people began looking for work and not all of them found jobs right away.
The strong hiring growth for January, which defied expectations for only a slight gain, demonstrates the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic raged. Businesses appear to have seen the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary impact on the economy and remain confident about longer-term growth.
“Employers have assumed that omicron would be painful but short term, so they haven’t changed their hiring plans,” said Mathieu Stevenson, the CEO of Snagajob, a job listings site focused on hourly workers. “Demand from employers is as strong as ever.”
At the same time, the magnitude of the job growth points to an economy in which high levels of hiring and spending, combined with supply shortages, are accelerating inflation, wiping out pay raises and intensifying pressure on households. Those factors will likely give the Federal Reserve leeway to raise interest rates, perhaps even faster than it had planned, to cool inflation. The Fed has already indicated that it will begin raising rates in March, and it could do so again at its next meeting in May.
Stock futures dipped immediately on the expectation that the Fed could speed up its efforts to tighten credit, which would potentially weaken the economy, before partly recovering by mid-morning.
Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the employment website Glassdoor, said the healthy hiring — not only for January but also for November and December — is a sign that last month’s gains weren’t merely a blip.
“This is an actual trend, and job growth was faster than we realized,” Zhao said.
A greater proportion of Americans are also now working or looking for work, the report showed, a trend that makes it easier for companies to find workers. It may suggest that concerns about long-term labor shortages have been overblown, at least in some industries.
“There are workers out there — it’s just taking time to integrate them back into the labor force,” Zhao said.
The overall outlook for the job market remains bright, with openings near a record high, the pace of layoffs down and the unemployment rate having already reached a healthy level. The nation gained more jobs last year, adjusted for the size of the workforce, than in any year since 1978. The unemployment rate fell by nearly 3 percentage points — from 6.7% to 3.9% — the sharpest yearly decline on records. Much of that improvement represented a rebound from record job losses in 2020 that were driven by the pandemic recession.
Yet the economy’s strong growth and hiring gains were accompanied by the highest inflation in four decades, magnified by brisk consumer spending on furniture, electronics, appliances and other goods and vast infusions of federal aid that has now largely expired.
Snarled supply chains hampered the availability of many goods, especially new and used vehicles, forcing prices up sharply. Prices of food, energy and housing soared, too. High inflation has wiped out many Americans’ pay gains.
Omicron infections are likely slowing the economy in the January-March quarter, particularly compared with the rapid expansion in the final three months of 2021, when it grew at a robust 6.9% annual rate. Some analysts have forecast that growth will weaken to an annual rate as low as 1% in the first three months of this year.
One reason for the slowdown: Americans cut their spending in January as the spread of the coronavirus discouraged some people from eating out, traveling and going to movies and other entertainment venues.
Yet as omicron fades, there are signs that consumers are poised to spend again. Auto sales jumped in January after several months of declines. Carmakers have managed to slowly ramp up production. And Americans’ incomes rose at a solid pace last month, providing fuel for future spending.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/02/04/us-economy-defies-omicron-and-adds-467000-jobs-in-january/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:53 | en | 0.973842 |
News Corp says it was hacked; believed to be linked to China
News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20.
- Country:
- United States
News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.
The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20. It said in a regulatory filing that an investigation is underway “to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.” It said customer and financial data were so far not affected and that the company's operations had not been interrupted.
But a major concern was the company's journalists. News organisations are prime targets for the world's intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information.
Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm examining the hack, said in a statement that it 'assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests.” It was not known when the hackers breached the network or how much data they stole.
In an email to staff, News Corp said the hack ''affected a limited number of business email accounts and documents from News Corp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” the email said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech this week that the bureau is opening investigations tied to suspected Chinese espionage operations about every 12 hours, and that it has more than 2,000 such probes. He said Chinese government hackers have been pilfering more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.
While state-backed Russian hacking tends to get more headlines, US officials say China has been stealthily stealing far more valuable commercial and personal data over the past few decades as digital technology took hold. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return an email seeking comment. News Corp.'s assets also includes the publishing house HarperCollins.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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EDMC panel chief visits hospital, assures docs on release of due salaries
- Country:
- India
Chairman of the standing committee of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) Beer Singh Panwar on Friday met a group of doctors at Swami Dayanand Hospital who are on strike and assured them that their due salaries will be paid soon, officials said.
Swami Dayanand Hospital is the only civic-run facility in east Delhi, and the municipal commissioner on Thursday had said that ''no order has been issued'' on suspension or termination of medics.
On Friday, Panwar visited the facility and met the doctors and appealed to them to call off their strike. The corporation is taking their ''valid demands seriously and their one month's salary will be given within 15 days positively''.
Panwar also said that the doctors have assured that they will call off their strike.
East Delhi Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal also appealed to the doctors to call off the strike.
He said Swami Dayanand Hospital provides medical services to the people earning low income and poor sections of east Delhi and adjoining areas.
People coming to this hospital for treatment do not have the financial capacity to get treatment at private hospitals and the marginalised poor section is being affected the most by this strike, Aggarwal said.
On Thursday, AAP's MCD-incharge Durgesh Pathak, in a tweet, had alleged that authorities have ''removed the doctors from jobs'', who have not been paid salaries for the last couple of months.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910798-edmc-panel-chief-visits-hospital-assures-docs-on-release-of-due-salaries | 2022-02-04T18:39:02 | en | 0.970827 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1016-a-m-est-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:38:59 | en | 0.82511 |
Floating carpet of dead fish found off French coast after trawler incident
Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world's second-biggest fishing vessel, shed over 100,000 dead fish into the Atlantic Ocean off France, forming a floating carpet of carcasses that environmental campaigners spotted. The spill, which happened in early Thursday, was caused by a rupture in the trawler's net, said fishing industry group PFA, which represents the vessel's owner.
Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world's second-biggest fishing vessel, shed over 100,000 dead fish into the Atlantic Ocean off France, forming a floating carpet of carcasses that environmental campaigners spotted.
The spill, which happened in early Thursday, was caused by a rupture in the trawler's net, said fishing industry group PFA, which represents the vessel's owner. In a statement, the group called the spill a "very rare occurrence". An environmental group disputed that account, saying it was an illegal discharge of over 100,000 unwanted fish. The French arm of campaign group Sea Shepherd first published images of the spill, showing the ocean's surface covered by a dense, layer of blue whiting, a sub-species of cod, used to mass-produce fish fingers, fish oil and meal.
Sea Shepherd France said it did not believe the incident was accidental, but rather an attempt by the trawler to discharge a type of fish that it did not want to process, a practice known as discharging bycatch which is banned under EU fishing rules. Lamya Essemlali, head of the campaign group in France told Reuters she believed the fish were deliberately discharged. Sea Shepherd France said the spill affected over 100,000 fish.
France's Maritime Minister Annick Girardin called the images of the dead fish "shocking" and said she had asked the country's national fishing surveillance authority to launch an investigation into the accident. Trawlers like the Margiris use drag nets measuring over a kilometre in length and process the fish in on-board factories, a practice heavily criticised by environmentalists.
Following protests by activists, the Margiris was forced to leave Australian waters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-fishing-ban-idUSBRE88A05D20120911 in 2012. Traffic data by marinetraffic.com on Friday showed the vessel, which is owned by the Dutch company Parleviliet & Van der Plas and sails under the flag of Lithuania, was still engaged in fishing activities off France's coast.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- Maritime | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910805-floating-carpet-of-dead-fish-found-off-french-coast-after-trawler-incident | 2022-02-04T18:39:10 | en | 0.959438 |
Holiday in Shimla on Saturday as roads blocked after snowfall: DM
- Country:
- India
Government offices in Shimla city will remain closed on Saturday as roads have been blocked after a recent snowfall, a senior official said here.
In an order on Friday night, Shimla District Magistrate and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Chairman Aditya Negi stated, ''All government offices/boards/corporations/autonomous bodies/educational institutions etc. shall remain closed on 5 February, 2022 (Saturday) within the territorial limits of the Municipal Corporation Shimia.'' However, this order shall not apply to the department offices or agencies dealing with maintenance of essential emergency services and the offices dealing with preparation of Budget, he added.
Issuing the order under section 34 of the Disaster Management Act, Negi stated that Shimla district has experienced heavy snowfall on February 3 and 4 which has disrupted movement of vehicles, and public transport taxis, and all major internal roads in the town and some parts of the district have been blocked because of the continuous snowfall.
The district administration and all other government agencies have relentlessly put in all efforts and deployed all resources, including men and machinery, to restore the movement of vehicles and all essential services, he added.
Due to heavy snowfall, the influx of tourist vehicles in Shimla town has also increased manifold, and it has been observed that it shall take some more time for restoration of roads and services, Negi said.
Therefore, taking into consideration the present situation and in view of the safety and convenience of the general public, one-day holiday on Saturday has been announced, he added.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910809-holiday-in-shimla-on-saturday-as-roads-blocked-after-snowfall-dm | 2022-02-04T18:39:18 | en | 0.967954 |
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Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1030-a-m-est-8/ | 2022-02-04T18:39:13 | en | 0.82511 |
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1033-a-m-est-8/ | 2022-02-04T18:39:26 | en | 0.82511 |
Paytm Q3, FY'22 loss widens to 778.4 crore
- Country:
- India
Digital payments and financial services firm One97 Communications, which operates under the Paytm brand, on Friday reported widening of consolidated loss to Rs 778.5 crore in the December 2021 quarter.
The company had registered a loss of Rs 535.5 crore in the same period a year ago, according to financial results of the company filed at the BSE.
The consolidated revenue from operations of Paytm, however, increased by about 88 per cent to Rs 1,456.1 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 772 crore it posted in the December 2020 quarter.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- Digital | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910828-paytm-q3-fy22-loss-widens-to-7784-crore | 2022-02-04T18:39:26 | en | 0.959077 |
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1034-a-m-est-6/ | 2022-02-04T18:39:32 | en | 0.82511 |
Reckitt Benckiser mulls sale of baby-food business - Bloomberg News
Reckitt Benckiser is considering options for its infant nutrition business including a potential sale, Bloomberg News reported https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-04/reckitt-benckiser-is-said-to-weigh-sale-of-infant-nutrition-unit?sref=ZoyErlU1 on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Last year, Reckitt sold its baby formula business in China to investment firm Primavera Capital Group.
Reckitt Benckiser is considering options for its infant nutrition business including a potential sale, Bloomberg News reported https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-04/reckitt-benckiser-is-said-to-weigh-sale-of-infant-nutrition-unit?sref=ZoyErlU1 on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The British consumer goods giant, whose brands include Enfamil formula, is reviewing its baby-food business globally and has been informally weighing buyer interest in the operations, the report said.
The deliberations are at an early stage and the London-listed firm could decide to keep the division, according to the report. Reckitt did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Reuters had reported in 2020 that the company was preparing to sell some non-core brands and was seeking out private equity bidders. Last year, Reckitt sold its baby formula business in China to investment firm Primavera Capital Group.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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China daily local confirmed COVID cases fall to nearly two-month low | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910829-reckitt-benckiser-mulls-sale-of-baby-food-business---bloomberg-news | 2022-02-04T18:39:33 | en | 0.927856 |
News Corp says it was hacked; believed to be linked to China
- Country:
- United States
News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.
The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20. It said in a regulatory filing that an investigation is underway “to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.” It said customer and financial data were so far not affected and that the company's operations had not been interrupted.
But a major concern was the company's journalists. News organizations are prime targets for the world's intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information. Journalists and newsrooms from Mexico and El Salvador to Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, have been hacked with powerful spyware. Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm examining the hack, said in a statement that it ''assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests.” It was not known when the hackers breached the network or how much data they stole.
In an email to staff, News Corp said the hack “affected a limited number” of email accounts and documents from News Corp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” the email said.
“Our highest concern is the protection of our employees, including our journalists, and their sources,” it added, saying it believed the “threat activity is contained.” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech this week that the bureau opens investigations tied to suspected Chinese espionage operations about every 12 hours, and has more than 2,000 such probes. He said Chinese government hackers have been pilfering more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.
While state-backed Russian hacking tends to get more headlines, U.S. officials say China has been stealthily stealing far more valuable commercial and personal data over the past few decades as digital technology took hold. Major newsrooms, including The New York Times, against which a Chinese cyberespionage operation was uncovered in 2013, have previously been compromised. Runa Sandvik, former director of information security at the newspaper, said that while major newsrooms have shown a lot of progress in the last few years in helping their journalists navigate an increasingly hostile digital world, those efforts are not adequate to defend against a skilled and determined adversary like China.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
News Corp.'s assets also includes the publishing house HarperCollins, News Corp Australia and Storyful, which the email to employees said were apparently not targeted by the hackers.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Top diplomats for U.S., Russia meet in Geneva on soaring Ukraine tensions
U.S. House panel turns to oil major boards in next climate probe | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910830-news-corp-says-it-was-hacked-believed-to-be-linked-to-china | 2022-02-04T18:39:41 | en | 0.968048 |
With the brutal omicron wave rapidly loosening its grip, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. are falling in 49 of 50 states, even as the nation's death toll closes in on another bleak round number: 900,000.
The number of lives lost to the pandemic in the U.S. stood at over 897,000 as of midday Friday, with deaths running at an average of more than 2,400 a day, back up to where they were last winter, when the vaccine drive was still getting started.
New cases per day have tanked by almost a half-million nationwide since mid-January, the curve trending downward in every state but Maine. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen 15% over that period to about 124,000.
Deaths are still on the rise in at least 35 states, reflecting the lag time between when victims become infected and when they succumb.
But the trends are giving public health officials hope that the worst of omicron is coming to an end, though they caution that things could still go bad again and dangerous new variants could emerge.
Los Angeles County may end outdoor mask requirements in a few weeks, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. But that is unlikely to happen before the Feb. 13 Super Bowl, which will draw as many as 100,000 people to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Ferrer said COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in California’s biggest county are falling, and deaths may start to drop as well.
“Post-surge does not imply that the pandemic is over or that transmission is low, or that there will not be unpredictable waves of surges in the future.” she warned.
Arizona has also seen its daily case and hospitalization numbers decline, though deaths are still on the rise, climbing from average of about 61 a day last week to almost 79 as of Tuesday.
“We have reason to be hopeful, but we are by no means out of the woods,” Elizabeth Jacobs, a University of Arizona professor of epidemiology, said Thursday on Twitter.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she is calling an end to the state's coronavirus public health emergency, a move that will limit the release of health data.
The step reflects the governor’s long-held belief that it is time to get past pandemic restrictions and move toward the point when COVID-19 becomes, like the flu, a manageable part of everyday life.
Overall, new cases in the U.S. have plummeted from a record-obliterating average of more than 800,000 a day in mid-January to about 357,000.
____
AP Reporter Becky Bohrer contributed to this report from Juneau, Alaska. Paul Davenport contributed to this report from Phoenix. Robert Jablon contributed to this report from Los Angeles. | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/nation-world/covid-falling-in-49-states/507-dfac4128-ec3b-4d36-823c-a9322f2b7384 | 2022-02-04T18:39:47 | en | 0.96647 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1036-a-m-est-13/ | 2022-02-04T18:39:39 | en | 0.82511 |
The end of pink ham? France to cut use of nitrite in cured meats
French parliament has approved a bill that aims to gradually reduce the use of nitrite in cured meats and has ordered a review of the potential health risks by the end of June. Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon and sausages, extend the shelf life of processed meats and give boiled ham its pink colour.
French parliament has approved a bill that aims to gradually reduce the use of nitrite in cured meats and has ordered a review of the potential health risks by the end of June.
Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon and sausages, extend the shelf life of processed meats and give boiled ham its pink colour. But a 2015 World Health Organization report https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr240_E.pdf classified processed meat as carcinogenic because curing - by adding nitrates or nitrites or by smoking - can lead to the formation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.
Proposed by an MP of the Modem party - which is part of President Emmanuel Macron's ruling coalition - the new bill stopped short of an outright ban from 2023, but has set a timetable for reducing nitrites use. National health agency Anses will publish a report about the health risks of nitrite by end June, after which the government will have 12 months to outline a trajectory for reducing or phasing out the preservative.
Implementation of the new law would fall to a new government following presidential elections in April. "Even if this law delays a decision on the issue, it commits government and parliament to take decisions in coming months," said French food quality app Yuka, the French anti-cancer league and the Foodwatch NGO in a joint statement.
Fabien Castanier, director of cured meat industry federation FICT, said his group welcomed the fact that any decision would be based on a scientific report. He said nitrites are deemed to be safe additives under current French and European legislation and that the French "charcuterie" industry already used less nitrite - about 110 miligrammes per kilo - than the 150 mg/kg allowed by EU rules.
Currently, 90% of all cured meats include nitrites but some of the biggest firms such as Nesltle-owned Herta or Fleury Michon are already experimenting with nitrite-free products, Castanier said. However, he said the nearly 300 small to medium-size companies in the sector would struggle to manufacture their products without the use of nitrites, as lack of the preservative would reduce shelf life and increase the risk of bacterial infection.
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France's Macron to talk to Putin on Friday about Ukraine | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1910840-the-end-of-pink-ham-france-to-cut-use-of-nitrite-in-cured-meats | 2022-02-04T18:39:49 | en | 0.959304 |
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the Hawkeyes’ home game against Minnesota on Sunday.
Assistant Billy Taylor will serve as the acting head coach in McCaffery’s absence.
Iowa has lost three of its last four games.
The Hawkeyes’ game at Ohio State scheduled for Thursday was postponed because of inclement weather. | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/sports/ncaa/iowa-hawkeyes/fran-mccaffery-tests-positive-covid-hawkeyes/524-53f0c835-fc27-4950-97ae-7f9c1e20f443 | 2022-02-04T18:39:53 | en | 0.976375 |
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1057-a-m-est-7/ | 2022-02-04T18:39:55 | en | 0.82511 |
Gauhati HC upholds govt decision to convert madrassas into general schools
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had pushed the Assam Repeal Bill as the state education minister in 2020, tweeted Division Bench of Honble Gauhati High Court in a landmark judgment delivered today upheld the Act of 2020 to repeal Madrassa Education Procincialisation Acts and also upheld all other notifications to convert 397 provincialised madrrassas to general educational institutions. The Bill was passed by the state Assembly on December 30, 2020, under which all the provincialised, government-funded madrassas were to be transformed into general schools.
- Country:
- India
The Gauhati High Court on Friday upheld The Assam Repealing Act, 2020, under which all provincialised (government-funded) madrassas are to be converted into general schools in Assam. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia said the changes brought about by the legislative and executive action of the state are for the provincialised madrassas alone, which are government schools, and not for private or community ones.
It also dismissed a writ petition challenging the validity of the Act. The writ petition was filed by 13 individuals in the HC in 2021 against the state government's decision to transform the state-funded madrassas to general schools. The Court had concluded the hearing on January 27 and had reserved its judgement, which was passed on Friday. The madrassas which are wholly maintained by the state cannot impart religious instructions in terms of the mandate of Article 28(1) of the Constitution of India, the Court said in its judgement. It also pointed that the services of the teachers of the provincialised madrassas have not been dispensed away with and they will be trained for teaching other subjects, if required. "The division bench of the honourable High Court has upheld The Assam Repealing Act of 2020, which had repealed the Madrassa provincialisation acts of 1995, 2011 and 2018," Assam Advocate General Devojit Saikia told PTI. In the same judgement, the HC also upheld all subsequent notifications issued by the government of Assam to convert madrassa institutions into general educational institutions.
The court upheld the Act on the basis of Article 28(1) of the Constitution, which mandates that any educational institution cannot impart any religious instruction if such institution is wholly funded from state budget or public funds, Saikia said. The Assam Repealing Act does not affect the privately or community run madrassas and will only impact 397 madrassas and four Arabic colleges run by the government, he added. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had pushed the Assam Repeal Bill as the state education minister in 2020, tweeted "Division Bench of Honble Gauhati High Court in a landmark judgment delivered today upheld the Act of 2020 to repeal Madrassa Education Procincialisation Acts and also upheld all other notifications to convert 397 provincialised madrrassas to general educational institutions." The Bill was passed by the state Assembly on December 30, 2020, under which all the provincialised, government-funded madrassas were to be transformed into general schools. It sought to abolish The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995, and The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018. Following the passage of the Bill another act relating to provincialisation of madrassas, which was passed by the state government in 2011 stood repealed. The state government has assured that there will be no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the madrassas under the Assam Repealing Act, which was passed during the tenure of the first BJP-led government in the state. PTI SSG KKKK KK
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- KK
- Assam Repealing Act
- Madrassa Education
- Himanta Biswa Sarma
- Article 28(1
- High Court
- Madrassa
- Arabic
- Provincialisation) Act
- Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/education/1910746-gauhati-hc-upholds-govt-decision-to-convert-madrassas-into-general-schools | 2022-02-04T18:39:57 | en | 0.949859 |
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1102-a-m-est-7/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:01 | en | 0.82511 |
Schools, colleges, gyms to reopen in Delhi; drivers travelling alone exempted from wearing masks
- Country:
- India
Relaxing COVID-19 restrictions further in view of a dip in the number of cases, the Delhi government decided on Friday to reopen schools in phases, starting with classes 9-12 from next week, colleges, gymnasiums and spas, and exempted drivers travelling alone in cars from wearing face masks.
At its meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) also reduced the duration of the night curfew by an hour. The curfew will now be effective from 11 pm instead of 10 pm. Restaurants can also operate till 11 pm.
All offices can now operate with 100 per cent capacity, while swimming, coaching and yoga institutes will also be reopened in the national capital. The DDMA also gave its nod to organising business-to-business exhibitions.
According to an order issued by the DDMA, all the relaxations except the reopening of schools and colleges for which specific dates have been given, will come into force with immediate effect. It also allowed private offices to function with 100 per cent attendance, but advised them to follow the work-from-home practice as far as possible.
The phase-wise relaxations come as the number of Covid cases in the national capital has been declining after touching a record high of 28,867 on January 13. The case positivity rate dropped to 4.3 per cent on Thursday. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14.
Addressing an online media briefing, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said schools for classes 9-12 will reopen from Monday and for nursery to Class 8 from February 14, even as the classes will continue in a hybrid mode. Teachers who are not vaccinated will not be allowed to come to schools.
While the Centre has dropped the mandatory parental consent for students to physically attend schools from its guidelines and left it to the states, the Delhi government has decided to continue with it.
There is no cap of 50 per cent student strength and the schools will be free to decide the proportion of students based on their infrastructure so that the Covid protocols are followed.
Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said the DDMA has decided to allow reopening of colleges, ITI and polytechnic institutes from Monday, making it clear that higher education will take place in the offline mode only.
''Easing these Covid restrictions will help us bring lives back on track and in recouping the losses witnessed during the lockdown,'' he said.
In another important decision, the DDMA exempted drivers travelling alone in vehicles from wearing masks. It comes three days after the Delhi High Court termed a Delhi government order making it compulsory to wear a mask while driving alone ''absurd'' and asked why the decision was still prevailing.
''It is a Delhi government order, why don't you withdraw it? It is absurd actually. You are sitting in your own car and you must wear a mask?'' the court had said.
After the DDMA meeting, the LG said in a tweet: ''While appreciating the efforts put in by all agencies in the management of Covid-19 in Delhi, emphasised the need to maintain continued vigil and not to lower the guard, while focussing on enhancing vaccination coverage and ensuring enforcement of Covid protocols.'' The owners of various gyms welcomed the city government's decision to allow the reopening of their establishments and said it will help ''five lakh families'' survive the pandemic.
''This is now a fight for survival for the gym owners. We request that gyms should be kept out of the yellow zone (of the Graded Response Action Plan) as this decision impacts over five lakh people in the national capital. We request the authorities to also waive the fixed charges for electricity and water to help the gym owners survive these tough times,'' said Chirag Sethi, vice president of the Delhi Gym Association.
He also promised that the gym owners will ensure that the Covid protocols are followed and everyone in a gym will be mandated to comply with the safety norms.
School principals also welcomed the decision to reopen schools following a prolonged closure and expressed hope that there will be no further disruption in learning, while a section of parents was sceptical about the schools reopening for junior classes.
The Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools said the reopening of schools for classes 9-12 is welcome but the decision is disappointing as well.
''Schools should have been reopened for all classes and all levels, irrespective of the vaccine status or any other factor,'' it said.
At its last meeting, the DDMA had scrapped the weekend curfew and allowed bars and restaurants to function at 50 per cent of their seating capacity.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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A generation of children will be left behind if we do not reopen schools now: Manish Sisodia
Will recommend reopening of schools in DDMA meeting: Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/education/1910765-schools-colleges-gyms-to-reopen-in-delhi-drivers-travelling-alone-exempted-from-wearing-masks | 2022-02-04T18:40:05 | en | 0.96216 |
BEIJING (NEXSTAR) – The Beijing Winter Olympics are operating under a ‘closed loop system.’ So how does the system work?
Limited movement, frequent testing, and mask wearing are all part of the strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19 at the Beijing Olympics.
Everyone involved in the Games is operating in a bubble.
“It’s a pretty strict command and control of what is going on here, so as long as the staff and the people working the event are under similar sorts of confines and testing strategies then it actually should work to keep infection numbers down,” said Dr. Stephen Thomas, SUNY Upstate Director of Global Health.
Dr. Stephen Thomas said vaccines and boosters will be a game changer, however, “The thing that is not working in your favor is that this omicron variant is much more infectious than what was circulating around the globe at the last Olympics.”
Testing at the airport and daily testing in the bubble should help limit the spread, said Dr. Brian McCloskey, chair of the Beijing 2022 Medical expert panel. “After four or five days in the closed loop, the risk comes down to the local population risk, very, very low,” said Dr. McCloskey.
Athletes are also part of the bubble and tested daily.
“Our team has a pretty tight bubble, we’re doing daily antigen testing, wearing masks in the house most of the time, trying to keep our distance and having good protocol,” said Julia Kern, who is competing in cross country skiing.
Everyone is doing their best to stay safe and grateful for the chance to compete. | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/beijing-2022-a-look-at-how-the-olympic-covid-19-bubble-strategy-works/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:07 | en | 0.967977 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1104-a-m-est-9/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:07 | en | 0.82511 |
LONDON -- Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn't born to wear the crown. But destiny intervened.
The woman who became Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne Sunday, an unprecedented reign that has made her a symbol of stability as the United Kingdom navigated an age of uncertainty.
From her early days as a glamorous young royal in glittering tiaras to her more recent incarnation as the nation's grandmother, the queen has witnessed the end of the British Empire, the advent of multiculturalism, the rise of international terrorism, and the challenges posed by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world of relentless change, she has been a constant - representing the U.K.'s interests abroad, applauding the nation's successes and commiserating in its failures, and always remaining above the fray of politics.
That constancy should earn Elizabeth a royal epithet like those of her predecessors such as William the Conqueror, Edward the Confessor and Alfred the Great, said royal historian Hugo Vickers.
"I've always thought she should be called Elizabeth the Steadfast," Vickers told The Associated Press. "I think it's a perfect way of describing her. She wasn't necessarily expecting to be queen, and she embraced that duty.''
As the elder daughter of King George V's second son, Elizabeth, now 95, was expected to live the life of a minor royal when she was born on April 21, 1926. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match - a comfortable but uneventful life - seemed her future.
But everything changed a decade later when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth's father became King George VI, making the young princess heir apparent.
George VI, whose struggles to overcome a stutter were portrayed in the 2010 film "The King's Speech," endeared himself to the nation when he refused to leave London as bombs fell during the early months of World War II.
Elizabeth followed her father in leading by example, joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service in early 1945, becoming the first female member of the Royal Family to join the armed services as a full-time active member. On her 21st birthday, she dedicated her life to the nation and the Commonwealth, the voluntary association of states that grew out of the British Empire.
"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong," she said in a radio address broadcast around the world.
In 1952, the young princess embarked on a tour of the Commonwealth in place of her ailing father. She was at a remote Kenyan lodge, where she and her husband Prince Philip watched baboons from the treetops, when she heard her father had died.
She immediately returned to London, disembarking the plane in black mourning clothes, to begin her life as queen. She has reigned ever since, with crown and scepter on big occasions, but more commonly wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a simple handbag.
In the intervening seven decades, the queen has shared confidences with 14 prime ministers and met 13 U.S. presidents.
Once a year, she travels the mile or so from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords for the ceremonial opening of Parliament. And when world leaders come to call she hosts state banquets during which her diamonds flash under the TV lights and presidents and prime ministers worry about whether to bow and when to offer a toast.
But it is the less lavish events that give the queen a link to the public.
At the garden parties that honor the service of everyone from soldiers and charity workers to long-serving school librarians and crossing guards, guests wear festive hats and drink tea as they try to catch a glimpse of the queen on the lawn outside Buckingham Palace. The honorees can spot her at a distance, as it is said she favors bright colors so the public can spot her in a crowd.
Then there is the annual wreath laying at the memorial to those who have died during conflicts around the world, as well as the numerous school openings, hospice visits and tours of maternity wards that have filled her days.
Britain's longest-serving monarch, the only sovereign most Britons have ever known, has been a constant presence from the Suez Crisis of 1956, when Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal underscored Britain's declining might, through the labor strife of the 1980s and the 2005 terror attacks in London..
When Prince Philip died during the pandemic, she donned a black face mask and sat alone during his socially distanced funeral, silently demonstrating that the rules applied to everyone - particularly her.
"She's not beholden to the electorate. She's not dependent on her latest hit or her latest movie,'' said Emily Nash, royal editor of HELLO! magazine. "She's just there. She does what she does. She carries out her duties without ever complaining or making any personal drama. And people respect her for that."
Not that there haven't been controversies.
In the early 1990s, criticism of the monarchy increased amid reports of the queen's private wealth and concerns about the expense of the monarchy. In 1992, the queen agreed to pay the expenses of most of her family and become the first monarch to pay income taxes since the 1930s.
Tensions flared again in 1997 when the royal family's silence after the death of Princess Diana, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, fueled the resentment of Diana's many fans.
Even now, the monarchy is struggling to distance itself from the scandal caused by a sex abuse lawsuit filed against Prince Andrew, the queen's second son, and the fallout after two of the royal family's most popular members, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, ditched their royal duties and departed for California.
But the queen has transcended scandal and remained popular throughout it all, said Kelly Beaver, the CEO of polling firm Ipsos UK, which has tracked her popularity for decades.
"Part of this because she is so synonymous with ... the monarchy, which is something the British people are proud of,'' Beaver said.
Still, Tiwa Adebayo, a social media commentator and writer who inherited a fascination with the monarchy from her grandmother, believes younger people want "more transparency" - to see the royal family move beyond the adage of "never complain, never explain'' that has typified the queen's reign.
For the queen, Sunday is likely to be bittersweet, marking both her long reign and the 70th anniversary of her father's death.
"I've always thought that one of her philosophies really was that, you know, she just wanted to be a really good daughter to her father and fulfill all his hopes for her,'' Vickers said. "And, you know, assuming that there is an after-life and they meet again, my goodness he will be able to thank her for doing just that."
Queen Elizabeth II marks 70 years on the throne
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn't born to wear the crown. But destiny intervened.
QUEEN ELIZABETH | https://6abc.com/queen-elizabeth-royal-family-70-years-on-the-throne-united-kingdom/11537925/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:13 | en | 0.971721 |
(NEXSTAR) As the Olympics begin, you’ll likely see imagery of the giant panda: one of China’s national treasures. It was once on the endangered species list and still considered venerable. Pandas are now doing much better thanks to active conservationism.
Giant pandas are gentle black and white bears that live on bamboo. They can climb to 13,000 feet are are surprisingly good swimmers.
Once gifted to countries as a token of goodwill and friendship, they’ve helped shape China’s diplomatic strategies. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of “panda diplomacy” was in 1972 when China delivered Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to Washington DC’s National Zoo after a visit from former U.S. President Richard Nixon.
“It’s really a sources of pride and also putting tremendous resource there have been a lot of improvement and resources going into preserving and developing the habitat of Chinese panda so the more that they can find a comfortable home, the more we don’t worry about them disappearing one day,” said Shenzhan Liao, Head Teacher China Institute.
There are now more than 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild. | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/giant-pandas-a-source-of-pride-in-china/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:13 | en | 0.945719 |
Smriti Irani lambasts AAP govt's new excise policy
- Country:
- India
Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Friday slammed Kejriwal government's new excise policy, saying it was shocking that liquor vends were opened near schools and religious places in Delhi.
Addressing a virtual rally organised by the Delhi BJP, she also took a dig at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying ''the leader, who talked of Swaraj and wrote in his book about picketing liquor shops and shutting them down, was now exploring opportunities to open liquor shops in each ward.'' Hitting back, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that there was a ''nexus'' between the BJP and liquor mafia through which it used to earn Rs 3,500 crore.
''The back of liquor mafia has been broken due to the new excise policy and the illegal earning of BJP has stopped. Rattled by this the BJP leaders are pedalling lies and making non-sense allegations,'' the AAP said in a statement.
Irani said the BJP is determined to continue its protest against the new excise policy till it's withdrawn by the Kejriwal government.
''The BJP is getting a temple constructed while Kejriwal government is opening a liquor shop close to it,'' she charged referring to a temple in Chandni Chowk.
''The Kejriwal government has given a message to the society that it is ready to go to any length for profit. I want to ask the AAP government who will be answerable for the families that will be destroyed in this quest for profit,'' she said.
She also said the civil society should ponder whether the money earned through sale of liquor will suit work of welfare and development.
While liquor stores were opened close to gurdwaras in Tilak Nagar, another was opened near a school in Shahdara, she said.
The locals in Mandawali had frequent altercations due to a liquor store in their neighbourhood, the BJP leader said.
Irani said the liquor vends also jeopardised safety of women. She claimed women were forced to pass through crowds of people including drunkards near the liquor shops praying for their safety and modesty.
''The Centre gave Rs 1,500 crore to Delhi for opening of labs in schools which was not spent, Rs 1,000 crore was given for better health infrastructure but Kejriwal government is opening liquor shops,'' she said.
''While the Centre is giving over two crore vaccines to Delhi, Kejriwal government is selling 'maut ka saman' by opening these liquor joints,'' she was quoted as saying in a Delhi BJP statement.
The virtual rally was watched by thousands of party workers and people at LED screens installed across the city. Over one crore people connected to the virtual rally through different modes including various social media platforms, it said.
Several senior leaders including national vice-president and Delhi BJP in charge Baijayant Jay Panda said the Kejriwal government is opening three liquor shops in each ward ''even without caring for whether they are in close vicinity of a school or a religious place''.
''The BJP is not going to sit back quietly and rather we have already got over 300 such shops closed,'' he claimed.
The Kejriwal government has moved out of liquor sale in Delhi, licensing out 849 liquor vends to private firms through open tendering under its new excise policy. So far, over 550 liquor stores have been opened in many parts of the city while rest are coming up.
Delhi BJP Adesh Gupta on Thursday warned that the liquor stores near schools and religious places will be sealed after 48 hours if the Delhi government failed to shut them down.
The municipal corporations of Delhi ruled by the BJP have closed down several liquor shops over alleged violations of Master Plan and other norms.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Smriti Irani lambasts AAP govt's new excise policy
To condemn every marriage as violent and every man a rapist not advisable: Smriti Irani | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/education/1910769-smriti-irani-lambasts-aap-govts-new-excise-policy | 2022-02-04T18:40:12 | en | 0.97807 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1127-a-m-est-14/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:14 | en | 0.82511 |
WASHINGTON -- Facing criticism for civilian deaths in U.S. airstrikes, President Joe Biden targeted the leader of the Islamic State group on Thursday in an approach - a ground raid by special forces - that was riskier for American troops but intended to be safer for the innocent.
Dozens of U.S. commandoes landed outside Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi's Syrian hideout and warned people in nearby homes to stay inside, U.S. officials said. As one of their first moves, they called out to families living inside the same building as al-Qurayshi. By the time the operation ended, the officials said, 10 civilians had been led to safety.
But the U.S. raid still brought the deaths of women and children. Al-Qurayshi's wife and two children were killed along with the militant leader when he detonated a suicide bomb. A lieutenant of the militant leader and that man's wife also died along with a child, after the pair fired upon U.S. forces, officials said. The deaths from the high-stakes mission highlight the challenge U.S. forces face in targeting violent militants, while bound by ethics and international laws and treaties to try to avoid killing non-combatants.
Biden, speaking from the White House, said he directed the military to take "every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties."
"Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than target him with an airstrike," he said. Biden described al-Qurayshi's decision to blow himself up while surrounded by family members as "desperate cowardice."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon would review the operation.
"We know that al-Qurayshi and others at his compound directly caused the deaths of women and children last night. But, given the complexity of this mission, we will take a look at the possibility our actions may also have resulted in harm to innocent people," he said in a statement.
U.S. officials reported no American injuries.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called for an investigation of the civilian deaths in Thursday's strike, "while keeping in mind the history of ISIS leaders using civilians as human shields."
By one estimate, that of Brown University's Costs of War project, close to 400,000 civilians have died in fighting since the United States and its allies launched what Americans called their war on terror, in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks.
Military strikes of all kinds have declined dramatically under Biden, according to Airwars, which tracks U.S. attacks.
The number of strikes dropped 54% from 2020 to 2021, a period when the Biden administration was moving toward with what in August became a complete U.S. withdrawal from the 20-year Afghanistan conflict, according to Airwars.
However, the Biden administration has come under criticism for civilian casualties, including during the withdrawal from Kabul in August.
After a bombing claimed by the Islamic State's Afghanistan branch killed U.S. service members and Afghans at the gate to the city's airport, the Pentagon responded with airstrikes against suspected Islamic State members.
Although U.S. officials defended the actions, it eventually became clear that a final drone strike as Americans completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan killed 10 civilians, including seven children, but no militants. The U.S. has not punished any American for what the Pentagon described as a tragic mistake.
Modern laws and rules of war broadly require militaries to distinguish between combatants and civilians and try to minimize the loss of civilian lives.
Rights advocates and legal experts have faulted successive Republican and Democratic U.S. administrations for their heavy reliance on airstrikes in the fight against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere. Opponents argue that attacks by air, while minimizing risk to American forces, increases the risks of civilians with the misfortune to be near a U.S. target.
Priyanka Motaparthy, who works on counterterrorism issues at Columbia University's Human Rights Institute, was heartened that Biden emphasized efforts to limit civilian casualties in his remarks.
Given how details about previous strikes have trickled out over time, she said she's "cautious about accepting the initial picture as the final one." But the decision by U.S. forces to warn people in the building "definitely speaks to their work to prevent civilian casualties."
"Their obligation is to take all feasible precautions," Motaparthy said.
She said Biden should continue to be outspoken about the need for safeguards in military operations.
"As the commander in chief, he should not just be claiming successes, but he should also be leading reforms," she said.
Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to give details of the military operation, described what they depicted as painstaking efforts in the leadup to Thursday's strike to reduce the risk to civilians. That included weeks of preparation, including rehearsals of the raid.
Al-Qurayshi lived in a house that also housed multiple families, going outside only to bathe on the roof occasionally, one official said. That meant any airstrike would have all but unavoidably killed women and children and other noncombatants as well.
Given another Islamic State leader's last act in 2019 of blowing himself up with a suicide belt when confronted by U.S. commandoes, planners for Thursday's raid made a point of analyzing whether al-Qurayshi's house would collapse upon all the people inside if he did similar, as he did.
They decided the building would stand.
Luke Hartig, a former senior director for counterterrorism in President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said ground raids aren't always safer, given that civilians can be caught in the crossfire.
However, months of preparation, like what took place before Thursday's raid, can help limit the danger.
"Traditionally when we've had time to properly plan operations, that's when you see the greatest precision, the greatest care for civilian harm," Hartig said.
___
Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.
US strike against ISIS leader in Syria framed to spare civilians after mounting criticism
Biden said he directed the military to take "every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties."
SYRIA | https://6abc.com/syria-raid-isis-abu-ibrahim-al-hashimi-al-qurayshi/11537852/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:19 | en | 0.975648 |
(NEXSTAR) – Fans of Olympic figure skating should prepare to be dazzled with all the loops, Lutzes and Axels they can handle at this year’s Winter Games. But what they shouldn’t expect to see is someone sitting on their partner’s head, or one teammate swinging the other by their ankles.
But why not?
Well, as exciting as these maneuvers sound, they’re currently banned in professional competition by the International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body for competitive figure skating events.
In fact, the ISU outlines at least 10 “illegal” elements, movements and poses in its official rulebooks, though several of the descriptions are somewhat vague. For instance, the ISU prohibits “lifts with wrong holds” and “somersault-type jumps,” both of which could cover a variety of possibly dangerous maneuvers.
Perhaps the most common example of an illegal move is the backflip, prohibited along with other aforementioned “somersault-type jumps.” Though sometimes seen at exhibition performances, the move is rarely executed in professional competition, and has been considered “illegal” since 1976.
One notable exception occurred at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, when Surya Bonaly of France performed a backflip during her free skate routine, despite knowing she would be docked for the maneuver. As the story goes, Bonaly knew she wasn’t in contention for a medal after falling earlier in the routine, so she decided to leave viewers with something to talk about.
“I had a standing ovation before I ended my program,” Bonaly remarked in an episode of the Netflix docu-series “Losers,” released in 2019. “People were just crazy about it. Except the judges.”
She also landed the backflip on one skate — drawing praise from Olympic gold-medalist Scott Hamilton.
“[She’s] so strong to be able to do that,” remarked Hamilton, a commentator at the Nagano Games, while watching a replay. “I’ve been doing backflips for 14 years, and I can’t land one on one foot.”
Bonaly finished in 10th place, but it didn’t matter much. As Hamilton himself later acknowledged, he barely remembers who finished ahead of her in that event.
Of course, there are plenty of other “illegal” maneuvers that aren’t allowed in professional competition, despite being performed at exhibition shows all the time. (Ever see a skater being swung by her ankles, or crisscrossing her legs around her partner’s neck during a hands-free spin? If so, it almost surely wasn’t during the Olympics.)
A complete list of other illegal elements, as described in the ISU’s Special Regulations & Technical Rules, are as follows:
Illegal maneuvers for Singles and Pairs events
- Somersault-type jumps
- Lifts with wrong holds
Illegal maneuvers for Ice Dance events
- Sitting on the partner’s head
- Standing on the partner’s shoulder
- Lifted partner in upside-down split pose (with sustained angle between thighs more than 45 degrees)
- Lifting partner swinging the lifted partner around by holding the skate(s)/boot(s) or leg(s) only with fully extended arm(s)
- Lifting partner swinging the lifted partner around without the assistance of hand(s)/arm(s) and the lifted partner holds only with legs/feet around the lifting partner’s neck
- Point of contact of the lifting hand(s)/arm(s) of the lifting partner with any part of the body of the lifted partner is sustained with the fully extended arm(s) higher than the lifting partner’s head (the supporting arm may be sustained and fully extended above the head)
- Jumps (or throw jumps) of more than one revolution except Jump Entry and/or Jump Exit
- Lying on the ice
Despite these rules, the ISU notes that some of the above poses may be allowed for a “brief moment,” though only “if it is not established and sustained or if it is used only to change pose.”
Obviously, those who ignore these rules and attempt an illegal maneuver during a professional program will face consequences. “Performing illegal elements/movements results in valuable point deductions,” a representative for U.S. Figure Staking told Nexstar. And in some cases, if an illegal pose or element is performed during the execution of a legal element, the judges can deem the entire thing to be of no value to the score.
Perhaps the worst consequence, however, is severe injury.
“The rules are in place to protect the athletes’ safety,” said a representative for U.S. Figure Skating. | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/olympic-figure-skating-what-moves-are-considered-illegal-in-competition/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:19 | en | 0.963075 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1148-a-m-est-4/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:20 | en | 0.82511 |
J&K govt approves new sports policy
- Country:
- India
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday approved the new J&K Sports Policy, 2022, incorporating awards for excellence in sports, special cash awards for winners of international championships and annual recruitment of outstanding sportspersons.
To promote sporting culture and harness the energy of the youth in Jammu and Kashmir, the Administrative Council (AC), which met here under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, approved the roll-out of the J&K Sports Policy, 2022, an official spokesperson said.
The new policy is aimed at promoting sports in the union territory by developing sports infrastructure and incentivising sportspersons to excel in their craft, he said.
The policy strives to achieve excellence by involving all stakeholders and establishing inter-departmental synergies for composite development of sports.
The basic cannons of the policy are to 'scout' – identify talent and catch them young; 'engage' – ensure grassroots inclusive engagement in sports and games; 'facilitate' – provide sports infrastructure, facilities, know-how, and training; and 'recognise' – acknowledge the achievements and contributions through awards and further employment, the spokesperson said.
The policy incorporates various annual awards like those for excellence in sports, for sports associations, and for best coaches in different disciplines, he said.
To further motivate the UT's sporting talent, the sports policy announces special cash awards to the winners in Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Championship, World Cup, championships, Youth Olympic Games, South Asian Games, and World University Games or Championships in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore, the spokesman said.
Winners in all recognised national competitions and national school games in various sports disciplines will be granted specified scholarships, he said.
Moreover, special emphasis has been laid to meet the sporting needs of the specially-abled through sufficient infrastructure and training facilities, the official said.
The department will also organise several para-games at district and UT levels.
The policy provides for annual recruitment of outstanding sportspersons achieving podium finish and participation in recognised international and national competitions, he said.
Expertise of outstanding players will also be utilised to impart specialised training and coaching to budding players and athletes across the UT.
Through inter-departmental convergences, new vistas of employment will be opened for the youth in the fields of tourism, education, and adventure and winter sports, the spokesperson said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/education/1910852-jk-govt-approves-new-sports-policy | 2022-02-04T18:40:20 | en | 0.939291 |
A major winter storm spread misery from the Deep South where a tornado claimed a life and tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy ice all the way to the nation's northeastern trip where snow and ice caused havoc for travelers on Friday. Hundreds of thousands were without electricity.
In Oklahoma, police were investigating the hit-and-run death of a 12-year-old boy who was sledding when he was hit by a vehicle.
More than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in parts Pennsylvania, New York and New England on Friday but it was freezing rain and ice, accompanied by plummeting temperatures, that threatened to cause the biggest problems for travel and electric service before the storm blows out to sea late Friday and Saturday.
"Snow is a lot easier to plow than ice," said Rick Otto, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
About 350,000 homes and businesses lost power in an area stretching from Texas to Ohio on Thursday as freezing rain and snow brought down branches and encased power lines. On Friday morning, the power outages were concentrated in Tennessee, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
In Memphis, crews worked Friday to remove trees and downed power lines from city streets, while those who lost electricity spent a cold night at home, or sought refuge at hotels or homes of friends and family. Utility officials said it could take days for power to be restored in the city.
There were 225 downed trees on city streets and crews were working 16-hour shifts to clear them, Robert Knecht, Memphis' public works director, said Thursday night.
"It's going to take multiple days, given the inclement weather conditions, to clear the public right of way," he said.
Many schools and businesses remained closed Friday in areas hit by the frigid weather because roads remained icy and temperatures hadn't risen above freezing.
Flights were disrupted at major hubs in the U.S. on Friday, including airports in New York City, Boston and Dallas.
The storm represented a "highly energized system" with waves of low pressure riding along like a train from Texas, where there was snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, said Hunter Tubbs, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Maine.
In western Alabama, a tornado on Thursday killed one person, critically injured three others and heavily damaged a home, Hale County Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told WBRC-TV.
Tornadoes in the winter are unusual, but the atmospheric conditions needed to cause them have intensified as the planet warms, scientists say.
The flight-tracking service FlightAware.com showed more than 9,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Thursday or Friday had been canceled, on top of more than 2,000 cancellations Wednesday as the storm began.
For a second straight night, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport officials mobilized to accommodate travelers stranded at the American Airlines hub overnight by cancellations.
The Ohio Valley was especially affected Thursday, with 211 flight cancellations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday. Nearly all Thursday afternoon and evening flights were canceled at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. UPS suspended some operations Thursday at its Worldport hub at the airport, a rare move.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed Friday at LaGuardia Airport in New York, Boston's Logan Airport and Newark Liberty Airport.
In the Pittsburgh area, commuter rail service was halted Friday when a power line went down, trapping cars at a Port Authority of Allegheny County rail yard.
"With temperatures not expected to rise much throughout the day, quick repairs and restoration of the rail system will be difficult but our crews are out there trying as hard as they can," the port authority tweeted.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay home if possible to avoid ice-coated roadways and the threat of falling tree limbs in the Hudson Valley and Capital regions. "We're not out of the danger zone yet," she said.
In New York's Hudson Valley, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary was relying on generators for power Friday after the overnight ice storm.
"We had trees down all over the property and trees down on our road," said Kathy Stevens, founder of the refuge for rescued farm animals. But the roughly 250 animals at the sanctuary in Saugerties were OK, she said.
In Texas, the return of subfreezing weather brought heightened anxiety nearly a year after February 2021's catastrophic freeze that buckled the state's power grid for days, leading to hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. But Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday's power outages were due to high winds or downed power lines, not grid failures. About 18,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without power Friday morning.
The storm came on the heels of a nor'easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.
___
Sharp reported from Portland, Maine; Foody reported from Chicago; and Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Marina Villeneuve and Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; Jake Bleiberg and Terry Wallace in Dallas; Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis and Jay Reeves in Alabaster, Alabama, contributed to this report.
Massive winter storm that slugged South, Midwest brings misery to Northeast
By DAVID SHARP, KATHLEEN FOODY and JILL BLEED
Associated Press
Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. | https://6abc.com/winter-storm-snow-ice-tornadoes/11537896/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:25 | en | 0.955894 |
BEIJING (AP) — The country where the coronavirus outbreak emerged two years ago launched a locked-down Winter Olympics on Friday, proudly projecting its might on the most global of stages even as some Western governments mounted a diplomatic boycott over the way China treats millions of its own people.
The opening ceremony began just after the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the same lattice-encased National Stadium that hosted the inaugural event at the 2008 Olympics.
With the dimming of the lights and a countdown in fireworks, Beijing became the first city to host both winter and summer Games. And while some are staying away from the second pandemic Olympics in six months, many other world leaders planned to attend the opening ceremony. Most notable: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met privately with Xi earlier in the day as a dangerous standoff unfolds at Russia’s border with Ukraine.
The Olympics — and the opening ceremony — are always an exercise in performance for the host nation, a chance to showcase its culture, define its place in the world, flaunt its best side. That’s something China in particular has been consumed with for decades. But at this year’s Beijing Games, the gulf between performance and reality will be particularly jarring.
Fourteen years ago, a Beijing opening ceremony that featured massive pyrotechnic displays and thousands of card-flipping performers set a new standard of extravagance to start an Olympics that no host since has matched. It was a fitting start to an event often billed as China’s “coming out.”
Now, no matter how you view it, China has arrived — and is putting on another show at the stadium known as the Bird’s Nest, built in consultation with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
But the hope for a more open China that accompanied those first Games has faded.
For Beijing, these Olympics are a confirmation of its status as world player and power. But for many outside China, particularly in the West, they have become a confirmation of the country’s increasingly authoritarian turn.
Chinese authorities are crushing pro-democracy activism, tightening their control over Hong Kong, becoming more confrontational with Taiwan and interning Muslim Uyghurs in the far west — a crackdown the U.S. government and others have called genocide.
The pandemic also weighs heavily on this year’s Games, just as it did last summer in Tokyo. More than two years after the first COVID-19 cases were identified in China’s Hubei province, nearly 6 million human beings have died and hundreds of millions more around the world have been sickened.
The host country itself claims some of the lowest rates of death and illness from the virus, in part because of sweeping lockdowns imposed by the government that were instantly apparent to anyone arriving to compete in or attend the Winter Games.
In the lead-up to the Olympics, China’s suppression of dissent was also on display in the controversy surrounding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. She disappeared from public view last year after accusing a former Communist Party official of sexual assault. Her accusation was quickly scrubbed from the internet, and discussion of it remains heavily censored.
Concerned for her safety, tennis greats and others outside China demanded on social media to know, “Where is Peng Shuai?” A surreal cat-and-mouse game has since unfolded, with Peng making a brief appearance at a youth tennis event and speaking by video link with the IOC’s Bach as part of efforts to allay concerns about her.
In the shadow of those political issues, China put on its show. As Xi took his seat, the performers turned toward him and repeatedly bowed. A simultaneous cheer went up from them, and they raised and waved their pom poms toward their president — China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. A barrage of fireworks, including some that spelled out “Spring,” announced that the festivities were at hand.
A line of people dressed in costumes representing China’s varied ethnicities passed the national flag to the pole where it was raised — a show of unity that the country often puts on as part of its narrative that its wide range of ethnic groups live together in peace and prosperity.
Earlier, dancers, in a variety of colorful white snowsuits, entertained the crowd, including some who boogied with Bing Dwen Dwen, the chubby panda mascot for the Games. The stadium was relatively full — though by no means at capacity — after authorities decided to allow a select group to attend events. Many got into the groove, holding up their phones with the light shining.
Once the cauldron is lit, as with any Olympics, attention will shift Saturday — at least partially — from the geopolitical issues of the day to the athletes themselves.
All eyes turn now to whether Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who already owns three Olympic medals, can exceed sky-high expectations. How snowboard sensation Shaun White will cap off his Olympic career — and if the sport’s current standard-bearer, Chloe Kim, will wow us again. And whether Russia’s women will sweep the medals in figure skating.
And China is pinning its hopes on Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old, American-born freestyle skier who has chosen to compete for her mother’s native country and could win three gold medals.
As they compete, the conditions imposed by Chinese authorities offer a stark contrast to the party atmosphere of the 2008 Games. Some flight attendants, immigration officials and hotel staff have been covered head-to-toe in hazmat gear, masks and goggles. There is a daily testing regimen for all attendees, followed by lengthy quarantines for all those testing positive.
Even so, there is no passing from the Olympic venues through the ever-present cordons of chain-link fence — covered in cheery messages of a “shared future together” — into the city itself, another point of divergence with the 2008 Games.
China itself has also transformed in the years since. Then, it was an emerging global economic force making its biggest leap yet onto the global stage by hosting those Games. Now it is a burgeoning superpower hosting these. Xi, who was the head of the 2008 Olympics, now runs the entire country and has encouraged a personality-driven campaign of adulation.
Gone are the hopeful statements from organizers and Western governments that hosting the Olympics would pressure the ruling Communist Party to clean up what they called its problematic human rights record and to become a more responsible international citizen.
Today, three decades after its troops crushed massive democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of Chinese, the government has locked up more than 1 million members of minority groups, mostly Muslim Uyghurs from its far-western Xinjiang region, in mass internment camps. The situation has led human rights groups to dub these the “Genocide Games.”
China says the camps are “vocational training and education centers” that are part of an anti-terror campaign. It denies any human rights violations and says it has restored stability to Xinjiang, a region it insisted in the months after the 9/11 attacks was rife with extremism, often with little evidence.
Such behavior was what led leaders of the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others, to impose a diplomatic boycott on these Games, shunning appearances alongside Chinese leadership while allowing their athletes to compete.
Outside the Olympic “bubble” that separates regular Beijingers from Olympians and their entourages, some expressed enthusiasm and pride at the world coming to their doorstep. Zhang Wenquan, a collector of Olympic memorabilia, showed off his wares Friday while standing next to a 2008 mascot. He was excited, but the excitement was tempered by the virus that has changed so much for so many.
“I think the effect of the fireworks is going to be much better than it in 2008,” he said. “I really look forward to the opening ceremony. I actually wanted to go to the venue to watch it. I have been trying so hard to watch it at the scene. But because of the epidemic, there may be no chance.” | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/olympics-begin-in-china-amid-pandemic-lockdown-boycotts/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:26 | en | 0.970236 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1150-a-m-est-14/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:26 | en | 0.82511 |
Allu Arjun's 'Pushpa: The Rise' enters 100 crore box office club
South star Allu Arjun starrer action entertainer 'Pushpa
- Country:
- India
South star Allu Arjun starrer action entertainer 'Pushpa: The Rise' has crossed the 100 crore mark at the Indian box office. Indian film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted the figures. "FINALLY... 'PUSHPA' HITS CENTURY, CROSSES 100 CR... #PushpaHindi is truly a one-horse race at the #BO... Crosses 100 cr at the end of Week 7 [3 Feb 2022]... Week-wise data coming up... #Pushpa is a BLOCKBUSTER," he wrote.
'Pushpa: The Rise', an action entertainer directed by Sukumar, was released in theatres on December 17 and has been widely praised. It has been produced by Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar of Mythri Movie Makers in association with Muttamsetty Media. The movie that stars Allu Arjun as Pushpa Raj also features Rashmika Mandanna in the lead role of Srivalli.
Logline for the movie reads, "Violence erupts between red sandalwood smugglers and the police charged with bringing down their organisation in the Seshachalam forests of South India." After the pan-India success of 'Pushpa: The Rise', the actor is all set to gear up for its sequel, 'Pushpa: The Rule', which will have Fahadh Faasil and Rashmika share the screen space with him again. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/1910772-allu-arjuns-pushpa-the-rise-enters-100-crore-box-office-club | 2022-02-04T18:40:28 | en | 0.932986 |
It has become an Olympic tradition: the shirtless athlete in the opening ceremony.
And Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua now has some company.
Meet Nathan Crumpton. Born in Kenya, resident of Utah, graduate of Princeton, skeleton athlete formerly with the U.S. and now competing for American Samoa — and he grabbed attention Friday night at the Beijing Games, by walking in shirtless and underterred by a temperature of minus 5 C (23 F).
Taufatofua wasn’t at these Olympics, ending his streak of three consecutive games — both summer and winter — representing Tonga. He is currently trying to lead relief efforts there after a tsunami caused catastropic damage.
Crumpton carried the (shirtless) flag. He also competed for American Samoa in track and field at the Tokyo Games last summer. His mother’s family background allowed him to switch his athletic allegiance to American Samoa in 2019. | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/theres-a-new-shirtless-flag-bearer-at-the-2022-winter-olympics/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:32 | en | 0.961787 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1157-a-m-est-11/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:32 | en | 0.82511 |
Nora Fatehi returns to Instagram, says "there was an attempted hack"
Hours after Nora Fatehi's Instagram page disappeared, the actor released a statement saying, "someone was trying to hack her account."
- Country:
- India
Hours after Nora Fatehi's Instagram page disappeared, the actor released a statement saying, "someone was trying to hack her account." "Sorry guys! There was an attempted hack on my Instagram! Someone's been trying to get into my account since morning," a note read on her Instagram account.
She also thanked the team of Instagram to help her recover her account. "Thanks to the Instagram team for helping me sort this out so quickly @instagram," she added.
The news of her absence from the social media application surely left fans worried. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/1910804-nora-fatehi-returns-to-instagram-says-there-was-an-attempted-hack | 2022-02-04T18:40:36 | en | 0.979758 |
BEIJING (AP) — Fireworks lit up the Beijing skyline as China launched a locked-down Winter Olympics on Friday.
The opening ceremony began just after the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the same lattice-encased National Stadium that hosted the inaugural event at the 2008 Olympics.
With the dimming of the lights, Beijing became the first city to host both winter and summer Games
The Olympics – and the opening ceremony – are always an exercise in performance for the host nation, a chance to showcase its culture, define its place in the world and flaunt its best side. | https://cw39.com/2022-olympics/watch-fireworks-kick-off-beijing-olympics/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:38 | en | 0.955262 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1217-p-m-est-10/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:39 | en | 0.82511 |
Mumbai: 2 held for stabbing man to death; injured girlfriend involved, will be arrested, say cops
So they conspired with the teen girl and stabbed him to death, he said.The girl, in order to show the attack was genuine, slashed her neck with a sharp weapon, he added.We arrested Kamruddin and Balkishan from Nagpur.
- Country:
- India
Two days after a man was stabbed to death in Mahim in Mumbai and two people were held from Nagpur, police on Friday said the deceased's 19-year-old girlfriend's involvement in the crime has also been revealed.
Mohammad Wasim Sheikh (30) was stabbed on Tuesday evening when he was sitting at Mahim beach with his girlfriend, and a probe zeroed in on Kamruddin (22) and Balkishan (23), both residents of Govandi who were held from Nagpur, an official said.
''The two had fled to Nagpur on the Gitanjali Express the same night. The incident came to light when the girl reached Bhabha Hospital with a neck injury. The girl had told us the attack took place when she and Wasim were seated near Mahim fort,'' he said.
He said a train ticket found from the clothes of the deceased led the probe team to check CCTV footage from Mahim to Govandi, after which it was found that the accused, the deceased and the teen woman had come to Mahim together.
''They visited Mahim dargah first and then reached the fort there. The two accused and the couple had an argument, during which Wasim was stabbed to death. We have found that Wasim was blackmailing Kamruddin and Balkishan with a video and was demanding money from them routinely. So they conspired with the teen girl and stabbed him to death,'' he said.
The girl, in order to show the attack was genuine, slashed her neck with a sharp weapon, he added.
''We arrested Kamruddin and Balkishan from Nagpur. They have been remanded in police custody till February 8. The girl is undergoing treatment in Sion Hospital and will be placed under arrest after she recovers,'' the official added.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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MUMBAI, JAN 21 FOLLOWING ARE THE DIRECT RATES OF EXCHANGE | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/1910820-mumbai-2-held-for-stabbing-man-to-death-injured-girlfriend-involved-will-be-arrested-say-cops | 2022-02-04T18:40:44 | en | 0.985421 |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) – After his final show in Kansas City earlier this week, superstar musician Elton John tweeted a “thank you” to the audience at the T-Mobile Center, but thanked the wrong city.
“What a great night @tmobilecenter in Arkansas City! Thank you to everyone who came down — you were all amazing,” the legendary singer wrote.
Arkansas City is a real place in Kansas, but it’s a 3.5 hour drive southwest of Kansas City. The small town of about 12,000 (2019) people sits about 60 miles south of Wichita.
Another, even smaller, Arkansas City sits in southeastern Arkansas on the border with Mississippi. According to the 2019 census, the town’s population is just over 400 people.
The T-Mobile Center ignored the typo in their response, letting John know that “Kansas City” loves him.
John’s initial tweet has since been deleted.
John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour will continue with shows in the United States, Canada and several countries in Europe.
Two shows in Dallas were postponed last week after John tested positive for COVID-19. Reschedule dates have not been announced. | https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/elton-john-thanks-wrong-city-after-concert-in-kansas-city/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:44 | en | 0.96333 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1218-p-m-est-14/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:45 | en | 0.82511 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1219-p-m-est-7/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:51 | en | 0.82511 |
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A young father charged with killing his two-day-old child and her mother admitted that he lured the woman to her death, then took the baby and threw her into the Mississippi River, according to details outlined in court documents.
Brandon Isabelle, who turned 25 on Tuesday, is charged with two counts of murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, murder in connection with kidnapping and tampering with evidence.
Danielle Hoyle, 27, was found dead Tuesday outside her vehicle on a street in Whitehaven. The drivers-side window of the Chevy Cruze was knocked out.
Police say Hoyle had been shot in the head. Her family said when she left the house, she told them she needed to take the baby to the hospital for testing.
Her baby, Kennedy Hoyle, who was the subject of a statewide AMBER Alert on Wednesday, is presumed dead. Crews searched the boat ramp at the north end of Mud Island, but her body had not been recovered Thursday morning.
Police zeroed in on Isabelle, the child’s father, as a suspect on Wednesday evening. During questioning, police say he told them he lured Danielle Hoyle to the intersection of Sedgwick and Levi and shot her.
He then told police that he took Kennedy Hoyle, drove her to the north end of Mud Island where the Wolf River enters the Mississippi River, and threw the child in the water. He also said he threw the weapon in the water.
The baby’s car seat was found near a dumpster outside a Walmart in Whitehaven, police said.
Isabelle was taken into custody Wednesday. He was given no bond and faces an arraignment hearing Friday. His previous record in Shelby County includes only traffic infractions.
The search for Kennedy was suspended on Thursday due to inclement weather. MPD said they will continue the search when the weather permits them to do so.
WREG is working to learn more on this case Thursday. This story will be updated with new details. | https://cw39.com/news/father-tells-police-he-threw-baby-in-river-killed-her-mother/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:51 | en | 0.983915 |
After 2017 boycott, Iranian director Farhadi ready for awards season
It gives those young people some kind of hope so they can continue this path and bring some awards and prizes to Iran." "A Hero", a co-winner of the Grand Prix distinction at the Cannes Film Festival, follows Rahim, a prisoner who makes a plan with his fiancée to sell a bag of gold coins that she has found to pay off his debts so he can be released from jail.
Iranian Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi is prepared to enjoy awards season this time around if his shortlisted film "A Hero" makes it to the final five when the Oscar nominations are announced next week.
In 2017, Farhadi won the Oscar for best foreign-language film for "The Salesman" - but boycotted the ceremony because of then-U.S. president Donald Trump’s ban on travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim nations including Iran. Promoting his new movie from a hotel room in West Hollywood, Farhadi says that, if he is nominated again, these Oscars will be a very different experience.
"It makes me very happy that as an Iranian I’m going through this path," he said. "I know that for part of the Iranian youth, this can create hope ... and this creates this satisfaction feeling inside me. It gives those young people some kind of hope so they can continue this path and bring some awards and prizes to Iran."
"A Hero", a co-winner of the Grand Prix distinction at the Cannes Film Festival, follows Rahim, a prisoner who makes a plan with his fiancée to sell a bag of gold coins that she has found to pay off his debts so he can be released from jail. He has a sudden change of heart and manages to track down the coins' owner. But being hailed as a hero raises unexpected complications for the young man that draw in those around him.
"This contradiction that is inside this title is something that I liked a lot," Farhadi said. "When I announced it for the first time, it was strange for some of my close friends - but when you put the main character next to the title, the combination of these two creates a new meaning."
Thrust into the spotlight by winning the Golden Bear award for "A Separation" at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011, Farhadi is known for creating simple stories that focus on the challenges of being human. "We tried to give all the characters in the film a good amount of time for the audience to understand them and comprehend who they are," he said.
"A Hero" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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CM Ibrahim is one of our senior leaders, I'll speak to him: Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar
Senior Cong leader and MLC C M Ibrahim decides to quit party
Congress leader CM Ibrahim says 'goodbye to party', miffed by appointment of BK Hariprasad as leader of Opposition in Karnataka legislative council | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/1910823-after-2017-boycott-iranian-director-farhadi-ready-for-awards-season | 2022-02-04T18:40:51 | en | 0.970215 |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1232-p-m-est-16/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:57 | en | 0.82511 |
HOUSTON (KIAH) — Here’s what you missed on Eyewitness News at 9 here on CW39 Houston.
Ice causes 10-car crash on Westpark Tollway
At least 10 cars involved in a crash on the Westpark Tollway near FM 1464 Thursday night.
Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputies tell ABC13 the crash happened as icy patches formed along a bridge on the road. Minor injuries were reported.
Freezing rain causes ice throughout Houston overnight
The freezing rain coated the cars at a dealership in Jersey Village on Thursday night. The freezing temperatures are expected to stick around through the morning rush, so the ice won’t melt until midday.
Deputies investigate shooting death of 11-year-old boy
An 11-year-old boy shot and killed in northeast Harris County on Thursday night.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the boy was going out to a car to get a jacket when someone fired seven to eight shots at him.
The boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but he did not survive.
Deputies don’t have much information on the suspect at this point.
After release from jail, Irving man accused of killing mother
Police in a Dallas suburb say a man with a history of violence toward his 81-year-old mother has been charged with killing days after his release from jail.
Irving police said Thursday that 52-year-old Christopher Coggins has been arrested and charged with murder in Laverne Coggins’ death.
Police said that after forcing entry during a welfare check at a home on Monday, officers found Christopher Coggins hiding in the attic and his mother’s body inside a large, zippered bag in the garage.
Police said he had been released on probation from the Dallas County jail on Jan. 27.
For more news and weather from ABC13, join us for Eyewitness News at 9 here on CW39.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://cw39.com/news/local/icymi-ice-causes-10-car-crash-boy-killed-in-shooting-irving-man-accused-of-killing-mother/ | 2022-02-04T18:40:58 | en | 0.972671 |
One arrested in Pulwama for posting anti-national content on Facebook
One person in Pulwama was arrested for uploading anti-national content on Facebook, said the Kashmir Zone Police on Friday.
- Country:
- India
One person in Pulwama was arrested for uploading anti-national content on Facebook, said the Kashmir Zone Police on Friday.
More details are awaited. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Advertisement | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910767-one-arrested-in-pulwama-for-posting-anti-national-content-on-facebook | 2022-02-04T18:40:59 | en | 0.965847 |
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© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ap-top-sports-news-at-1235-p-m-est-12/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:03 | en | 0.82511 |
CHICAGO (WGN) — Some are hoping a longtime history teacher at an Illinois high school who was recently fired for using the N-word in class will get a second chance.
During a history lesson on Jan. 28 at the all-girls Mother McAuley High School, a Catholic school in Mount Greenwood, teacher Mary DeVoto said the N-word twice while trying to explain to her sophomore class that the Washington Football Team’s former name is offensive to indigenous people.
“I was really just trying to tell the children is to say the R-word is just as abhorrent as to say the N-word to African Americans,” said DeVoto, who has taught for 41 years.
DeVoto said she knew instantly that what she said was not OK.
“I don’t know how it came out of my mouth,” she said.
Even so, she continued on with the lesson.
DeVoto’s explanation, captured by a student who frequently records lectures to listen back for studying, was shared with other students and on social media.
DeVoto was suspended Jan. 28 and then terminated on Monday. Since then, her daughters have started a petition to get her reinstated. As of Friday, it had more than 3,000 signatures.
“To me, it doesn’t reflect what I’ve done for 41 years, and I would want the administration to work with me and help me bridge this problem with my students,” she said.
Right now, the school is standing behind its decision, stating:
“As an educational institution, we recognize mistakes happen to each one of us, and we make every effort, regardless of the popularity of such decisions, to embrace the opportunity to learn from such teachable moments. To embrace mistakes means we must learn not to repeat such behaviors, to demonstrate clear remorse and to be able to rebuild trust that has been lost.”
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School
Some parents, however, have shared on social media that they feel the termination should stand.
On Wednesday, Washington’s NFL team announced that its new name is now the Commanders. | https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/some-want-second-chance-for-teacher-fired-for-using-n-word-in-class/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:04 | en | 0.98296 |
US STOCKS-Nasdaq gains as Amazon earnings stall tech rout
Amazon.com Inc jumped 13.1% after reporting robust earnings in the holiday quarter, wrapping up a mixed bag of earnings from megacap growth stocks that dictated market moves this week. Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc's historic plunge after disappointing results shook markets on Thursday, sending the Nasdaq nearly 4% lower in the previous session.
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- United States
The Nasdaq rose in choppy trading on Friday as Amazon results lifted the mood at the end of a week of volatile trading that saw mixed earnings from Big Tech firms and a surprise jump in U.S. jobs growth. Amazon.com Inc jumped 13.1% after reporting robust earnings in the holiday quarter, wrapping up a mixed bag of earnings from megacap growth stocks that dictated market moves this week.
Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc's historic plunge after disappointing results shook markets on Thursday, sending the Nasdaq nearly 4% lower in the previous session. "These are eye-watering, stomach churning moves normally associated with penny stocks, and yet they are happening in companies with billion-dollar market caps," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Despite the earnings-driven whiplash in technology stocks, all three major stock indexes are on track to end their first week of February higher, with the indexes eyeing their second week of gains in a row. Following losses on Thursday, social media companies such as Snap Inc surged 44% after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter user growth and outlook.
Pinterest Inc rose 6.2% after its quarterly revenue beat estimates as retailers splurged on advertising during the holiday quarter, while Twitter Inc, expected to report results on Feb. 10, rose 5.5%. At 11:54 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 97.68 points, or 0.28%, to 35,013.48, the S&P 500 gained 5.11 points, or 0.11%, to 4,482.55, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 120.54 points, or 0.87%, to 13,999.36.
Four of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors advanced, with energy stocks at the highest since 2018 as crude prices touched a seven-year peak. Of the 278 S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far during this earnings season, 78.4% of them have beaten analysts' earnings estimates, compared with an average of 84% over the past four quarters, according to Refinitiv data.
The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 467,000 jobs last month, compared with the 150,000 jobs addition forecast by economists polled by Reuters. The data for December was revised higher to show 510,000 jobs created, instead of the previously reported 199,000.
"Employment report really stunned markets ... not only did we have a surprisingly strong number, we had a very strong revision," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. "You also have average hourly earnings coming in much hotter than expected, which is just fueling the theme that everything is just leading to more inflation."
Fears of faster-than-expected rate hikes to curb a surge in inflation have haunted markets since the beginning of the year. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by 2-to-1 on the NYSE and 1.1-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 31 new highs and 283 new lows.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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US stocks in multi-week loss, Nasdaq down most since financial crisis | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910788-us-stocks-nasdaq-gains-as-amazon-earnings-stall-tech-rout | 2022-02-04T18:41:07 | en | 0.949587 |
By BEN NUCKOLS
AP Sports Writer
An investigation into sexual harassment of women employed by Washington’s NFL franchise was not as independent as the team and the league claimed, members of Congress said Friday.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released documents that showed the league and the team, now known as the Commanders, agreed to pursue a “joint legal strategy” related to the probe.
The private agreement was signed days after the league said it had taken over an investigation of the team initiated by owner Dan Snyder. It stipulated that any information exchanged as a result of the investigation was privileged and could not be shared without the consent of both the NFL and the team.
The committee also found that the team and Snyder agreed that attorney Beth Wilkinson’s firm, which conducted the investigation, would produce a written report, but that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asked Wilkinson to present her findings to him orally instead.
The investigation found a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and mistreatment of female employees of the team, confirming reports that first emerged when former employees spoke to The Washington Post in 2020. The NFL fined the team $10 million and Snyder temporarily ceded day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
The league claimed that no one of those known to have mistreated women was still employed by the team, but former employee Tiffani Johnston contradicted that claim on Thursday when she told Congress that Snyder sexually harassed her. Snyder denied Johnston’s allegations, calling them “outright lies.”
In a letter on Friday, the committee called on Goodell to release the full findings of the Wilkinson investigation by Feb. 14, threatening “alternate means of obtaining compliance” if he does not cooperate.
“The NFL must explain why a target of its investigation was given the ability to block the release of the investigation’s findings and why the NFL instructed Ms. Wilkinson to reverse course and not provide a written report,” the letter said. “Most importantly, the NFL must end its months-long efforts to hide the truth about misconduct at the (Washington Football Team) and cooperate with the committee’s investigation.”
The committee also said the league withdrew from its common-interest agreement with the team in October, creating a “legal limbo” that is preventing the release of documents requested by Congress.
The NFL and the team did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Johnston and five other former employees of the newly renamed Commanders franchise spoke to the committee in a roundtable discussion on Thursday, detailing their experiences of being subjected to sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by team executives. They said the team has not been held accountable for its toxic workplace culture.
The former employees and their attorneys have also questioned why the league allowed Snyder to buy out his ownership partners while the investigation was ongoing.
___
Follow Ben Nuckols at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/congress-questions-independence-of-nfls-washington-probe-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:10 | en | 0.976945 |
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Friday morning, ERCOT’s live supply and demand tracker reported demand for power in Texas hit 68,681 MW at 8:40 a.m. The tracker projects demand will decrease throughout the rest of the day.
Throughout the week, the state has reported it did not expect to issue conservation alerts. “We have a high degree of confidence our grid, we feel very comfortable in our current situation,” ERCOT’s interim CEO Brad Jones said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott reiterated that confidence, but also said, “No one can guarantee that there won’t be a load-shed event.”
A load shed event occurs when there’s too much demand for our grid to handle, and ERCOT asks providers to start pushing people offline with rolling blackouts. During last year’s event, so much was required to be shed that those rolling blackouts ended up lasting days, and did not roll.
This year, ERCOT has made improvements, including requiring power generators to weatherize, and including a larger margin of safety for supply. Friday morning, even at the peak demand of 68,000 MW, the grid had 83,000 MW of supply, meaning we had a 15,000 MW margin of safety.
This cold snap doesn’t compare to last year’s, though, both with temperatures, the length of the storm and demand. During last year’s freeze, peak demand was 74,000 MW.
There could still be a chance for local outages, but as of Friday morning, there does not seem to be any issues with the state’s grid operations. | https://cw39.com/news/texas/texas-power-grid-passes-peak-friday-morning-no-conservation-alerts-expected/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:10 | en | 0.969583 |
Tiger cub rescued from village in Maha's Gondia, teams try to trace mother
- Country:
- India
A tiger cub was rescued from Ramtola village in Maharashtra's Gondia district, a forest department official said on Friday.
The information about a cub being spotted in Mundipar in Goregaon forest range was received on Thursday after which forest department teams arrived in the area, Gondia DCF Kulraj Singh said.
The cub disappeared into the forest on Thursday evening but was later rescued from a poultry farm in Ramtola, he said.
Ten teams have been formed to trace the mother of the cub and reunite them, he added.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- Goregaon
- the area
- Maharashtra
- Mundipar
- Kulraj Singh
- Gondia
- Ramtola
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PM Modi condoles loss of lives in Maharashtra road accident | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910795-tiger-cub-rescued-from-village-in-mahas-gondia-teams-try-to-trace-mother | 2022-02-04T18:41:14 | en | 0.96096 |
SAN DIEGO (KSWB) – Maybe it’s a partner, a friend or a family member, but we all have loved ones who don’t enjoy the traditional Valentine’s Day fare.
Rather than chocolates, flowers or a teddy bear, Chick-fil-A suggests you think outside the box this year, presenting that special someone with some breaded chicken instead.
The fast-food joint is offering heart-shaped trays of several menu items, including 30 Chick-fil-A nuggets and 10 Chick-n-Minis (nuggets placed on mini-rolls, slider style). If you want to be slightly more traditional, you can go with dessert instead, presenting six chocolate chunk cookies or 12 chocolate fudge brownie halves.
The heart-shaped trays have been available for pickup and via delivery since the start of February, according to the company. There’s no extra cost for the tray, so you’ll pay the standard price for the item and quantity provided by each offering.
Supplies may be limited and not every restaurant will be participating, so it’s a good idea to give your local Chick-fil-A a call before going to pick one up.
You can place orders and check availability on the chain’s mobile app or website. | https://cw39.com/news/you-can-give-that-special-someone-a-heart-shaped-tray-of-chick-fil-a/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:16 | en | 0.894258 |
By SARAH DiLORENZO
Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — China, which used its first Olympics to amplify its international aspirations, invited the world back Friday — sort of — for the pandemic era’s second Games, this time as an emboldened and more powerful nation whose government’s authoritarian turn provoked some countries’ leaders into staying home.
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Games open during a ceremony heavy on ice-blue tones and winter imagery, held in the same lattice-encased Bird’s Nest stadium that hosted the inaugural event of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a member of the country’s Uyghur Muslim minority, delivered the final Olympic flame. The choice of Yilamujiang was steeped in symbolism: Critics say the Beijing government has abused and oppressed Uyghurs on a massive scale.
With the flame lit, Beijing became the first city to host both winter and summer Games. And while some are staying away from the second pandemic Olympics in six months, many other world leaders attended the opening ceremony. Most notable: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met privately with Xi earlier in the day as a dangerous standoff unfolded at Russia’s border with Ukraine.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach addressed assembled athletes: “Dear fellow Olympians: Your Olympic stage is set.”
The pandemic also weighs heavily on this year’s Games, just as it did last summer in Tokyo. More than two years after the first COVID-19 cases were identified in China’s Hubei province, some 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Beijing, nearly 6 million human beings have died and hundreds of millions more around the world have been sickened.
The host country itself claims some of the lowest rates of death and illness from the virus, in part because of strict lockdowns imposed by the government aimed at quickly stamping out outbreaks. Such measures instantly greeted anyone arriving to compete in or attend the Winter Games.
An Olympic opening ceremony typically provides the host nation a chance to showcase its culture, define its place in the world, flaunt its best side. That’s something China in particular has been consumed with for decades. But at this year’s Beijing Games, the gulf between performance and reality is shaping up to be particularly jarring.
Fourteen years ago, a Beijing opening ceremony that featured massive pyrotechnic displays and thousands of card-flipping performers set a new standard of extravagance to start an Olympics that no host since has matched. It was a fitting start to an event often billed as China’s “coming out.”
Now, no matter how you view it, China has arrived — but the hope for a more open country that accompanied those first Games has faded.
For Beijing, these Olympics are a confirmation of its status as world player and power. Yet for many outside China, particularly in the West, they have become a confirmation of the country’s embrace of more oppressive policies.
Chinese authorities are crushing pro-democracy activism and tightening their control over Hong Kong, becoming more confrontational with Taiwan, and interning Uyghurs in the far west — a crackdown the U.S. government and others have called genocide.
In protest of those actions, leaders of the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others, imposed a diplomatic boycott on these Games, shunning appearances alongside Chinese leadership while still allowing their athletes to compete. But China came back with its own symbolic finger in the eye Friday, putting Yilamujiang in the opening night’s most anticipated role.
In the runup to the Olympics, China’s suppression of dissent was also on display in the controversy surrounding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. She disappeared from public view last year after accusing a former Communist Party official of sexual assault. Her accusation was quickly scrubbed from the internet, and discussion of it remains heavily censored.
In the shadow of those political issues, China put on its show. As Xi took his seat, the performers turned toward him and repeatedly bowed. A simultaneous cheer went up as they raised their pom poms toward their president — China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who established the People’s Republic in 1949. A barrage of fireworks, including some that spelled out “Spring,” announced that the festivities were at hand.
A line of people dressed in costumes representing China’s varied ethnicities passed the national flag to the pole where it was raised — a show of unity the country often puts on as part of its narrative that its wide range of ethnic groups live together in peace and prosperity.
But politics still elbowed its way into the proceedings. The parade of athletes from Taiwan — the island democracy that China says belongs to it but that competes separately as “Chinese Taipei” — was greeted with a cheer from the crowd, as were the Russian competitors. An overcoated Putin stood and waved at the delegation, nodding crisply as they marched.
The stadium was relatively full, though by no means at capacity, after authorities decided to allow a select group to attend events.
As with any Olympics, attention will shift Saturday — at least partially — from the geopolitical issues of the day to the athletes themselves.
All eyes turn now to whether Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who already owns three Olympic medals, can exceed sky-high expectations. How snowboard sensation Shaun White will cap off his Olympic career — and if the sport’s current standard-bearer, Chloe Kim, will wow us again. And whether Russia’s women will sweep the medals in figure skating.
And China is pinning its hopes on Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old, American-born freestyle skier who has chosen to compete for her mother’s native country and could win three gold medals.
As they compete, the conditions imposed by Chinese authorities offer a stark contrast to the party atmosphere of the 2008 Games. Some flight attendants, immigration officials and hotel staff have been covered head to toe in hazmat gear, masks and goggles. There is a daily testing regimen for all attendees, followed by lengthy quarantines for all those testing positive. And there is no passing from the Olympic venues through the ever-present cordons of chain-link fence — covered in cheery messages of a “shared future together” — into the city itself.
China itself has also transformed in the years since its first Games. Then, it was an emerging global economic force making its biggest leap yet onto the global stage. Now it is a burgeoning superpower. Xi, who was the head of the 2008 Olympics, now runs the entire country and has encouraged a personality-driven campaign of adulation.
Three decades after its troops crushed massive democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of Chinese, the government locked up an estimated 1 million members of minority groups, mostly Uyghurs, in mass internment camps. The situation has led human rights groups to dub these the “Genocide Games.”
China says the camps are “vocational training and education centers” that are part of an anti-terror campaign and have closed. It denies any human rights violations.
Outside the Olympic “bubble” that separates regular Beijingers from Olympians and their entourages, thousands of people, bundled in winter jackets, gathered west of the stadium hoping for a distant glimpse of the fireworks, but they were pushed back by police.
Elsewhere in the city, others expressed enthusiasm and pride at the world coming to their doorstep. Zhang Wenquan, a collector of Olympic memorabilia, said Friday that he was excited, but that was tempered by the virus that has changed so much for so many.
“I think the effect of the fireworks is going to be much better than it in 2008,” Zhang said. “I actually wanted to go to the venue to watch it. … But because of the epidemic, there may be no chance.”
___
AP video producers Olivia Zhang and Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report. Follow London-based AP journalist Sarah DiLorenzo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sdilorenzo
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/emboldened-china-opens-olympics-with-lockdown-and-boycotts-3/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:16 | en | 0.966009 |
After Texas A&M added yet another blue-chip prospect to the highest-rated recruiting class in college football Wednesday, coach Jimbo Fisher went off about rumors that booster-funded endorsement deals were fueling the Aggies’ success.
“There is no $30 million fund. There is no 10 million, there is no five million. This is garbage,” Fisher said. “It pisses me off.”
College football’s traditional signing period opened with most of the heavy lifting having already been done in mid-December. Texas A&M came into the day with the top-rated class in the country, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings. Southeastern Conference rivals and national title game participants Alabama and Georgia were Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
Then Shemar Stewart, one of the most highly regarded players in Florida, picked the Aggies over Miami to give Texas A&M’s class the best score the website has ever handed out. Stewart is the seventh five-star prospect in Texas A&M’s 2022 class.
While no one has publicly put their name on allegations of improper recruiting by Texas A&M, internet message boards have run wild with speculation.
“To me it’s insulting to the players that we recruited that that’s why they would come here,” Fisher told reporters. “You ever been to a game here? You ever come to school here and see the education? You ever talk about the 12th Man and the Aggie network when you’re done? There ain’t a better university in this country.”
The former Florida State coach called out a specific Oklahoma fan message board post and a site that aggregated the post, which alleged a $30 million fund was set up to pay Aggies players for use of their names, images and likenesses. He said some in the mainstream media have perpetuated the rumors, and that rival coaches are doing the same.
“Clown acts,” Fisher said. “Multiple coaches in our league. And the guys griping about NIL, griping about the transfer portal, are using it the most and bragging about it the most. It’s a joke.”
Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin on Tuesday lamented the lack of detailed rules regulating NIL payments to college athletes.
“It’s basically like dealing with different salary caps,” Kiffin said. “We now have a sport that has completely different salary caps and some of these schools are five- or 10 times more than everybody else of what they can pay these players. I know nobody uses those phrases but that is what it is. I joked the other day that I didn’t know if Texas A&M was going to incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class.”
Fisher did not name any coaches specifically, but he added: “I’ll tell you what, I know how some of those guys recruit, too. Go dig into that.”
Texas A&M is coming off a disappointing 8-4 season, though the Aggies did upset Alabama. In four years under Fisher, A&M is 34-14 but this is its fourth straight top-10 recruiting class.
“If you don’t like that we’re coming on, get used to it,” Fisher said. “We ain’t going nowhere.”
NEW GUYS
For newly hired coaches such as USC’s Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Miami’s Mario Cristobal, Florida’s Bill Napier and LSU’s Brian Kelly, pulling together that first recruiting class can be like trying to rally in the fourth quarter.
“You talk about coming in at the end of November with your main signing day just a few weeks away, really assembling a class that took, I think, all of our talent, patience, skill to assemble,” Riley said Wednesday.
Riley walked into maybe the toughest situation after USC fired Clay Helton early last season. USC had few players committed when Riley arrived, so he leaned heavily on the transfer portal.
USC signed only eight high school players, among them cornerback Domani Jackson, a five-star from California. Riley has signed 13 transfers so far. Most notably, former Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams announced he would be joining his former Sooners coach at USC.
Venables and Oklahoma actually ended up with a top-10 class.
“That was a race,” Venables said. “It’s been a sprint for the past couple of months.”
LSU and Florida both ended up in the top 20 under their new coaches.
Kelly had a big win on Wednesday, landing five-star Harold Perkins from Texas, a player who had been committed to Texas A&M.
Miami also made a strong late push to crack the top 20, beating LSU for four-star running back TreVonte’ Citizen from Louisiana.
DANCE OFF
Twice since getting to LSU from Notre Dame, Kelly has been part of a viral video of him dancing with —- or maybe more accurately near — a recruit during a visit to his new school.
Kelly is one for two on landing those recruits. Tight end Danny Lewis, who was in the latest video, signed with Alabama on Wednesday.
“I like to dance, too,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. | https://cw39.com/sports/recruiting-wars-texas-ams-fisher-says-rumors-are-garbage/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:22 | en | 0.978245 |
By ADAM SCHRECK
Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — For all the talk of a diplomatic boycott, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has managed to attract a globe-spanning roster of presidents, royals and other dignitaries to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
The fact that most of them represent countries that are unlikely to win any medals — if they’re even competing at all — doesn’t seem to matter.
What does, from Beijing’s perspective, is presenting an image that China has emerged as a global power whose authoritarian style of government can go head-to-head with a world dominated by the U.S. and its fellow democracies.
“There is a strong authoritarian tilt among the list of leaders attending,” said Andrew Yeo, who heads the Asian Studies department at The Catholic University of America. “It’s a much different list of global leaders when compared with the attendees of Biden’s Summit for Democracy last December.”
The guest list for Friday includes Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whose tens of thousands of troops are poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Also here: the heads of a good chunk of the rest of the former Soviet Union and the unelected rulers of several energy-rich Gulf Arab states. That leaves plenty of room for diplomatic intrigue and backroom deal-making for those making the trip.
One side effect of the pandemic has been to make face time with Xi more valuable than ever — even if it must be done behind a mask. The Chinese leader hasn’t been abroad in more than two years. His country has sharply limited international travel while pursuing a zero-tolerance policy in fighting the virus.
So anyone who wants to meet Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, or other top officials like Premier Li Keqiang in person has to make the trip — no matter how powerful they are at home. And so they are coming, from Argentina and Egypt, from Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
Just as notable is who won’t be there. The United States and several other like-minded democracies are not sending political delegations as part of stated or unstated diplomatic boycotts of the games.
India became the latest nation to join the boycott Thursday after it emerged that a Chinese military commander involved in deadly clashes with Indian forces along their shared border in 2020 was reportedly chosen to be a torchbearer ahead of the Games.
While the decisions to keep officials away have dented the “propaganda coup” that Xi might have hoped for, the number of leaders that China has managed to attract is nevertheless testament to the country’s growing economic clout, according to Anthony J. Saich, a China expert at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
“They do not want to be seen as slighting China,” he said. The mood this year, he added, has a very different feel from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “when there was international and domestic enthusiasm for the games being held in China.”
That means that the countries most likely to take home medals, aside from Winter Olympics powerhouse Russia, aren’t among those gracing the Bird’s Nest skyboxes.
At least eight of the roughly 20 countries sending high-level officials have no athletes competing. That includes steamy Cambodia, desert-covered Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which at least boasts an indoor ski slope in Dubai. Several others are fielding only a single competitor, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, both of whom have one male skier participating.
No leader aside from Xi himself is being as closely watched as Putin, a winter sports enthusiast who can use his visit to project a visage of business-as-usual statesman even as the U.S. and its allies fear he is preparing for war. His presence is also a reminder that Russia very much is at the Olympic Games even if the country’s athletes can’t compete under their own flag.
An overcoated Putin, standing by himself, waved from the stands as his nation’s team — known once again as the Russia Olympic Committee because of doping sanctions — was introduced.
“This is more than a ‘sideline’ meeting,” Yeo said. “It involves the leaders of two great powers who are looking to strengthen diplomatic and economic relations at a time when both countries feel emboldened to challenge the United States.”
The Russian president met with Xi earlier Friday for their first in-person meeting since 2019. In his opening remarks, Putin said relations between the two nations are progressing in “a spirit of friendship and strategic partnership.”
“They have indeed become unprecedented. It’s an example of dignified relations that support mutual development,” Putin said.
The two countries issued a joint statement reflecting their shared views on global security and planned to ink more than dozen trade, energy and other agreements. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, noted ahead of the meeting that China supports Russia’s demands for security guarantees that have underpinned the standoff over Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a call last week that Moscow’s security concerns need to be taken seriously and addressed, a statement that marked a notable policy shift for Beijing.
Putin will have plenty of other leaders to talk to should he so choose. They include the heads of former Soviet states in Central Asia that Moscow sees, like Ukraine, as a natural part of its sphere of influence.
The region is also crucial for China’s ambitious Belt and Road trade initiative, and trade has surged in recent years. Friday’s attendees include the president of the region’s largest economy, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who enjoyed Xi’s support when he faced a spike in political unrest last month.
But some of the guests don’t fit into neat geopolitical categories. Take the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, for example.
Its powerful emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is fresh off a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday in which his country was designated a major non-NATO ally and hailed as a “good friend and reliable partner.”
But as the world’s second-biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, the 2022 World Cup host is also eager to secure more sales of the fuel to China. And it could prove to be a useful backup option for European gas supplies in the event they are cut or curtailed in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
And then there’s Poland, the only European Union nation sending an elected leader to the Games. While he’s not the main decision-maker in Polish politics, President Andrzej Duda’s presence is noteworthy given the U.S.-led diplomatic boycott and concerns over a crisis in Ukraine, with which it shares a lengthy border.
Duda is scheduled to meet Xi, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach during his visit. His press office said the goal of those talks “is to encourage the interlocutors to play an active role in leading to Russia-Ukraine talks.”
__
Adam Schreck is director of Asia-Pacific news for The Associated Press, based in Bangkok. James Ellingworth in Beijing and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed reporting.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/in-opening-of-winter-olympics-chances-at-politicking-abound-6/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:22 | en | 0.963178 |
CBI arrests 9 persons in Tarak Sahu death case related to post-poll violence in Bengal
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested nine persons in connection with the death of Tarak Sahu during post-poll violence in West Bengal, said the agency on Friday.
- Country:
- India
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested nine persons in connection with the death of Tarak Sahu during post-poll violence in West Bengal, said the agency on Friday. According to CBI, it was alleged that the accused, residents of Pindrakuli, Jhargram attacked Tarak Sahu on March 21, 2021 with sharp weapons like tangi, bhajali, iron rod, etc due to their alleged political rivalry, while the victim was sitting in a tea stall. The victim was later admitted to Jhargram Super Speciality Hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Following the order of the Calcutta High Court, CBI re-registered the case on September 21, 2021 and took over the investigation. The case was earlier registered at Jhargram Police Station (West Bengal) against 14 accused. During the investigation, the role of the accused was found but the accused did not join the investigation. The CBI identified the location of the accused and apprehended them.
The arrested accused were produced before the Court at Jhargram on Friday, said CBI. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910803-cbi-arrests-9-persons-in-tarak-sahu-death-case-related-to-post-poll-violence-in-bengal | 2022-02-04T18:41:22 | en | 0.978688 |
CARLSBAD, Calif. (KSWB) – A miniature Lego version of SoFi Stadium, the host of Super Bowl LVI and home to the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, will be unveiled next month at Legoland California Resort in northern San Diego County.
The model is expected to be the world’s largest Lego stadium once it’s installed at the park’s Miniland U.S.A. in March, a park spokeswoman said Thursday. It will take a team of 25 builders more than 6,000 hours to complete, requiring some 500,000 bricks to model the exact look of the less than two-year-old stadium.
Once complete, the SoFi model will be 30 feet long, 15 feet wide and stand at more than 4 feet tall.
“Football fans will undoubtedly appreciate the extreme attention to detail that went into creating the final LEGO SoFi Stadium model,” the spokeswoman said in an email, noting the players on the field will reflect the Rams’ starters on offense.
It also could showcase various concerts slated to be held at the stadium. None are specifically mentioned, though SoFi Stadium is slated to host a number of major performers this year including Kenny Chesney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bad Bunny and Coldplay, the venue’s calendar shows.
The Guinness World Record holder for the largest Lego brick sculpture of a stadium is a model of Allianz Arena football stadium at Legoland Deutschland Resort in Günzburg, Germany. It was completed in 2005 and features more than 1 million Lego bricks, according to Guinness. | https://cw39.com/sports/the-big-game/30-foot-sofi-stadium-to-be-built-with-lego-bricks/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:28 | en | 0.942397 |
By ADAM SCHRECK
Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — For all the talk of a diplomatic boycott, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has managed to attract a globe-spanning roster of presidents, royals and other dignitaries to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
The fact that most of them represent countries that are unlikely to win any medals — if they’re even competing at all — doesn’t seem to matter.
What does, from Beijing’s perspective, is presenting an image that China has emerged as a global power whose authoritarian style of government can go head-to-head with a world dominated by the U.S. and its fellow democracies.
“There is a strong authoritarian tilt among the list of leaders attending,” said Andrew Yeo, a politics professor at The Catholic University of America and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It’s a much different list of global leaders when compared with the attendees of Biden’s Summit for Democracy last December.”
The guest list for Friday includes Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whose tens of thousands of troops are poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Also here: the heads of a good chunk of the rest of the former Soviet Union and the unelected rulers of several energy-rich Gulf Arab states. That leaves plenty of room for diplomatic intrigue and backroom deal-making for those making the trip.
One side effect of the pandemic has been to make face time with Xi more valuable than ever — even if it must be done behind a mask. The Chinese leader hasn’t been abroad in more than two years. His country has sharply limited international travel while pursuing a zero-tolerance policy in fighting the virus.
So anyone who wants to meet Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, or other top officials like Premier Li Keqiang in person has to make the trip — no matter how powerful they are at home. And so they are coming, from Argentina and Egypt, from Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
Just as notable is who won’t be there. The United States and several other like-minded democracies are not sending political delegations as part of stated or unstated diplomatic boycotts of the games.
India became the latest nation to join the boycott Thursday after it emerged that a Chinese military commander involved in deadly clashes with Indian forces along their shared border in 2020 was reportedly chosen to be a torchbearer ahead of the Games.
While the decisions to keep officials away have dented the “propaganda coup” that Xi might have hoped for, the number of leaders that China has managed to attract is nevertheless testament to the country’s growing economic clout, according to Anthony J. Saich, a China expert at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
“They do not want to be seen as slighting China,” he said. The mood this year, he added, has a very different feel from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “when there was international and domestic enthusiasm for the games being held in China.”
That means that the countries most likely to take home medals, aside from Winter Olympics powerhouse Russia, aren’t among those gracing the Bird’s Nest skyboxes.
At least eight of the roughly 20 countries sending high-level officials have no athletes competing. That includes steamy Cambodia, desert-covered Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which at least boasts an indoor ski slope in Dubai. Several others are fielding only a single competitor, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, both of whom have one male skier participating.
No leader aside from Xi himself is being as closely watched as Putin, a winter sports enthusiast who can use his visit to project a visage of business-as-usual statesman even as the U.S. and its allies fear he is preparing for war. His presence is also a reminder that Russia very much is at the Olympic Games even if the country’s athletes can’t compete under their own flag.
An overcoated Putin, standing by himself, waved from the stands as his nation’s team — known once again as the Russia Olympic Committee because of doping sanctions — was introduced.
“This is more than a ‘sideline’ meeting,” Yeo said. “It involves the leaders of two great powers who are looking to strengthen diplomatic and economic relations at a time when both countries feel emboldened to challenge the United States.”
The Russian president met with Xi earlier Friday for their first in-person meeting since 2019. In his opening remarks, Putin said relations between the two nations are progressing in “a spirit of friendship and strategic partnership.”
“They have indeed become unprecedented. It’s an example of dignified relations that support mutual development,” Putin said.
The two countries issued a joint statement reflecting their shared views on global security and planned to ink more than dozen trade, energy and other agreements. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, noted ahead of the meeting that China supports Russia’s demands for security guarantees that have underpinned the standoff over Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a call last week that Moscow’s security concerns need to be taken seriously and addressed, a statement that marked a notable policy shift for Beijing.
Putin will have plenty of other leaders to talk to should he so choose. They include the heads of former Soviet states in Central Asia that Moscow sees, like Ukraine, as a natural part of its sphere of influence.
The region is also crucial for China’s ambitious Belt and Road trade initiative, and trade has surged in recent years. Friday’s attendees include the president of the region’s largest economy, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who enjoyed Xi’s support when he faced a spike in political unrest last month.
But some of the guests don’t fit into neat geopolitical categories. Take the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, for example.
Its powerful emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is fresh off a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday in which his country was designated a major non-NATO ally and hailed as a “good friend and reliable partner.”
But as the world’s second-biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, the 2022 World Cup host is also eager to secure more sales of the fuel to China. And it could prove to be a useful backup option for European gas supplies in the event they are cut or curtailed in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
And then there’s Poland, the only European Union nation sending an elected leader to the Games. While he’s not the main decision-maker in Polish politics, President Andrzej Duda’s presence is noteworthy given the U.S.-led diplomatic boycott and concerns over a crisis in Ukraine, with which it shares a lengthy border.
Duda is scheduled to meet Xi, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach during his visit. His press office said the goal of those talks “is to encourage the interlocutors to play an active role in leading to Russia-Ukraine talks.”
___
Adam Schreck is director of Asia-Pacific news for The Associated Press, based in Bangkok. James Ellingworth in Beijing and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed reporting.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/in-opening-of-winter-olympics-chances-at-politicking-abound-8/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:28 | en | 0.963053 |
Burkina Faso: Rising displacement adds to Sahel crises
Insecurity in Burkina Faso, particularly in the region bordering Côte d’Ivoire, is pushing more people to seek safety both within and outside the country, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.
The crisis is causing additional strain in Africa’s fragile Sahel region, already plagued by political instability, widespread violence, food shortages and the climate emergency.
The Sahel is contending with an influx of refugees from Burkina Faso, fleeing vicious attacks by armed groups. The region is already plagued by political instability, widespread violence, food shortages & disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. https://t.co/YebwZOQ9g6
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) February 4, 2022
UNHCR Spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov said the plight of Burkinabe refugees is becoming increasingly precarious, as more people arrive in Côte d’Ivoire without personal belongings or food.
‘Vicious’ extremist attacks
“They told UNHCR staff that civilians had been killed and their homes burnt down by extremists,” he said, speaking to journalists in Geneva.
Since last May, some 7,000 Burkinabe have arrived in northwestern Côte d’Ivoire, fleeing vicious attacks by armed groups. UNHCR has so far registered, and provided assistance, to over 4,000.
The influx has accelerated in the past six months, the agency said, but is not seen as being linked to the military coup last month. Local authorities report that an average of 100 people have been crossing the border daily.
Last year, more than 19,000 Burkinabe fled to Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Benin, UNHCR reported, a 50 per cent increase over 2020. Currently, more than 34,000 are now in exile across the region.
Many Ivorian families are hosting up to 30 Burkinabe refugees in small houses. Overcrowding is exacerbating deteriorating sanitary conditions, resulting in numerous cases of malaria, respiratory infections and malnutrition.
Humanitarian challenges
Burkina Faso is also facing an internal displacement crisis.
The number of people uprooted within the country rose to over 1.5 million last year, a 50 per cent increase, which is among the highest proportions of internal displacement on the continent.
Mr. Cheshirkov said that while the regional crisis becomes more protracted, large parts of the Sahel remain - or have become - inaccessible to humanitarians trying to support the 2.5 million people forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
As a result, more people across the Sahel are moving southwards toward coastal countries, or to North Africa, where many find themselves in what he described as “a dangerous limbo”.
Displacement dangers
The Sahel region is confronting an unprecedented rural exodus.
People who have been forcibly displaced are moving to urban areas due to shrinking areas under governmental control, reduced access to land and agricultural production, and multiple environmental challenges.
Displaced populations encounter new risks in urban settings.
“Threats to women and youth are particularly severe, including sexual and labour exploitation, gender-based violence, forced recruitment and trafficking,” Mr. Cheshirkov said.
“Interventions to support women and youth are vital to alleviate suffering and prevent abuse, along with investments in a more positive future for Sahelian communities.”
Meanwhile, the Sahel remains on the frontline of the climate emergency. Temperatures are increasing at 1.5 times the global average, which has aggravated conflict over scarce resources and facilitated encroachment by non-State armed groups, among other threats.
UNHCR will soon launch an appeal for the Sahel region. A $307 million budget for central Sahel operations is only seven per cent funded.
Visit UN News for more.
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Russia says dialogue will continue with U.S. as Geneva talks end | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910806-burkina-faso-rising-displacement-adds-to-sahel-crises | 2022-02-04T18:41:30 | en | 0.935867 |
The Congress on Friday alleged the fear of losing elections has made the government play yet another "trick" by announcing that it will form the committee on MSP after the upcoming elections in five states.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said earlier too, the government used every trick to intimidate and abuse the farmers but when they did not bow down, the black farm laws were withdrawn.
"They were abused, humiliated, lathi-charged, faced bullets, nails were embedded on the ground and roads were dug up but the farmers did not bow down so conspiracies were hatched against them. Cases were registered (against farmers), they were intimidated them, but after getting tired, the 'black' farm laws were repaled. But, the mind remained polluted, so they betrayed (farmers). Fearing a loss in elections, now they have played another trick. #Farmers," Surjewala said in a tweet in Hindi.
His reaction came after Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the Rajya Sabha that the government is committed to forming a panel on Minimum Support Price (MSP) but the Election Commission has said that it can be done after the polls are over.
While announcing the repeal of three farm laws in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to set up a committee to discuss the farmers' demand for a legal guarantee on MSP.
Replying to a supplementary question during the Question Hour, Tomar said the government had written to the Election Commission in view of assembly elections in five states.
The minister said the matter of forming the committee on MSP is under consideration of the ministry and will be formed after the elections are over. | https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-government-s-assurance-to-form-committee-on-msp-after-elections-yet-another-trick-congress-2932367 | 2022-02-04T18:41:34 | en | 0.987532 |
By NOAH TRISTER
AP Sports Writer
BEIJING (AP) — The first day of medals at the Beijing Olympics could be the start of another Norwegian gold rush.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is among the favorites in the men’s downhill — one of the marquee events of NBC’s prime-time coverage Saturday — and fellow Norwegian Therese Johaug looks poised to add to the three Olympic medals she’s already won in cross-country skiing. Norway led all nations with 39 medals at Pyeongchang four years ago, including 14 golds.
The U.S., of course, has its share of contenders. Snowboarder Jamie Anderson is trying for a third straight slopestyle gold, and the final is Saturday night. The team figure skating competition resumes that evening, too. The Americans lead that after a strong start by Nathan Chen and Co.
Here are some things to watch (all times Eastern):
ALPINE SKIING
The world’s top downhill racers had little time to familiarize themselves with the Rock course after test events were canceled because of the pandemic.
“For everybody it is new, us athletes as well as the coaches,” Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt said. “It’s a big challenge for the whole team to find a perfect setup.”
The downhill will be shown live on NBC and Peacock. It’s scheduled to start at 10 p.m.
Kilde, the World Cup leader, is dating American star Mikaela Shiffrin.
FIGURE SKATING
The U.S. leads the powerful Russians and third-place China so far in the team competition. Chen won the men’s short program, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue did the same in the rhythm dance.
Up next are the women’s short program and men’s free skate. NBC is airing that part of the team event live in prime time.
“We have a really strong team, so we have a lot of chess pieces to play with,” Chen said. “Whatever is the strongest piece at that time is the strongest piece at that time.”
SNOWBOARDING
USA Network is showing men’s and women’s slopestyle live Saturday night. The final runs of the women’s competition are followed by qualifying for the men. NBC will include encore coverage of the women’s final on its late-night slate.
The U.S. swept slopestyle snowboarding in 2018, with Anderson and Red Gerard both winning.
The slopestyle course in Zhangjiakou includes a snow replica of the Great Wall that serves as a backdrop for the rails and jumps athletes will navigate.
NORWEGIAN STAR
Johaug won gold in a relay in 2010 and took two more cross-country skiing medals in 2014. She missed the 2018 Games following a doping ban, but the 14-time world champion is back now. The skiathlon — an event that includes both classical and freestyle techniques — is live on USA Network on Saturday morning with encore coverage on NBC in the afternoon.
ALSO OF NOTE
Of the 13 gold medals China has won at the Winter Games, 10 were in short track speedskating. The hosts have high hopes again in that sport, and the first short track medal will be awarded in the mixed team relay. USA Network is showing that final during its 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. time slot, and NBC will air it in prime time. … Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury is the defending champ in men’s moguls. USA Network will show qualifying and the final live Saturday morning, and the final will also be shown as part of NBC’s late-night coverage. … The U.S. women’s hockey team, which began defending its Olympic title with a win over Finland, faces the Russians live on USA Network at 8:10 a.m. That game will be shown again at 5 p.m. on the same channel.
___
Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister
___
More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/mens-downhill-highlights-first-day-of-olympic-medals/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:35 | en | 0.954907 |
India continues its COVID-19 assistance to Sri Lanka by initiating the delivery of 100,000 Rapid Antigen Self-Test Kit from Friday, according to the High Commission of India in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Taking to Twitter, the High Commission said that the remaining kits to follow in the coming days."A special gift from a friend on #IndependenceDay!! #India continues its #COVID19 assistance to #SriLanka by initiating the delivery of 100,000 RAT kits from today. Remaining kits to follow in the coming days," India in Colombo tweeted.
As Sri Lanka is facing a serious financial crisis, India has stepped up and pledged a whopping USD 2.415 billion to the island nation to help overcome dire financial constraints caused by external debt payments and a lack of US dollars in the country for business.
Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a virtual meeting with the Finance Minister of Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa. During the meeting, Jaishankar conveyed that India has always stood with Sri Lanka, and will continue to support Sri Lanka in all possible ways for overcoming the economic and other challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help Sri Lanka overcome its economic challenges, India under the SAARC currency swap arrangement has made an extension of USD 400 million to Sri Lanka and provided a deferral of ACU (Asian Clearing Union) settlement of Rs 3844 crores by two months.
India`s critical support to Sri Lanka is due to the ongoing fuel crisis where the country is unable to purchase due to short of US dollars in the country, the Policy Research Group (PRG) had said in its report. | https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-india-offers-covid-19-aid-to-sri-lanka-sends-100000-rat-kits-2932368 | 2022-02-04T18:41:36 | en | 0.9438 |
Condemning the attack on AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi`s vehicle in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said who is to blame for such violence. "I condemn the attack on AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. There should be no violence in a democracy. If this violence has happened, then, after all who is to blame for it? What was the intention behind the attack? Some people were caught but intentions should be clear. These people (BJP) claimed that criminals ran away. If criminals ran away, then who did this attack?" Yadav told ANI.
Two men were allegedly arrested for firing at the convoy of Asaduddin Owaisi when he was leaving Meerut`s Kithoudh area for Delhi after poll campaigning, informed Uttar Pradesh Police. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi was in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut for campaigning on Thursday. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election for the 403 Assembly seats would be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. | https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-sp-president-akhilesh-yadav-criticises-attack-on-asaduddin-owaisi-asks-who-is-responsible-for-violence-2932365 | 2022-02-04T18:41:37 | en | 0.980009 |
PM Modi remembers Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on his 100th birth anniversary
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday remembered legendary vocalist and Bharat Ratna awardee Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on his 100th birth anniversary and said that he brought the nation closer through his renditions.
- Country:
- India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday remembered legendary vocalist and Bharat Ratna awardee Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on his 100th birth anniversary and said that he brought the nation closer through his renditions.
"On his 100th birth anniversary, remembering the versatile Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Ji. Through his works, he made landmark contributions towards popularising Indian music and culture. He also brought our nation closer through his renditions," PM Modi said in a tweet.
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was born on February 4, 1922 at Gadag, which was at that time, a part of Dharwad district of Karnataka. In Pune, Joshi attained fame as a pre-eminent exponent of the Khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music - bhajans and abhangs. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1910816-pm-modi-remembers-bharat-ratna-pandit-bhimsen-joshi-on-his-100th-birth-anniversary | 2022-02-04T18:41:37 | en | 0.981678 |
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — UCLA men’s basketball player Mac Etienne was arrested and cited on suspicion of misdemeanor assault after appearing to spit toward a fan after the Bruins lost a road game to Pac-12 rival Arizona, a University of Arizona police spokesman said Friday.
The alleged incident occurred Thursday night as UCLA players left the McKale Center playing floor and entered a tunnel to go to their locker room, said the spokesman, Officer Jesus Aguilar.
Etienne was allowed to go to the locker room and was then arrested, cited and released, Aguilar said.
Local media outlets reported that fans jeered UCLA players when the incident occurred. The Wildcats beat the Bruins 76-66.
UCLA officials knew of the incident and were reviewing it, university spokesman Scott Markley said in a statement.
“UCLA Athletics is committed to and expects the highest level of sportsmanship,” the statement said.
Etienne, a redshirt freshman, was not in uniform and did not play in the game.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether saliva landed on any fans but the misdemeanor assault charge alleges intent, Aguilar said.
“We did have a willing victim who did want to press charges,” he said.
Etienne wasn’t taken into custody or booked into jail but he will be expected to either appear in court on a future date or make alternative arrangements with court officials, Aguilar said.
“We had no reason to take him into custody,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/02/04/ucla-player-arrested-after-allegedly-spitting-at-arizona-fan-2/ | 2022-02-04T18:41:41 | en | 0.971069 |
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — It's official: New York is now the largest sports betting market in America after just four weeks of taking mobile bets.
The Empire State blew past New Jersey in January to seize the market lead, taking over $1.6 billion worth of sports bets, according to figures released Friday by the New York State Gaming Commission. That's $300 million better than the best month that New Jersey ever had.
And those numbers are only going to go up. WynnBET just began taking bets in New York on Friday, and BallyBet has yet to begin operating in the state.
The new figures show that mobile sports betting brought in $1.62 billion in New York between its launch Jan. 9 and the week ending Jan. 30. In-person sports betting at four upstate casinos added close to another $15 million, bringing the monthly total to $1.64 billion.
New Jersey, which had led the nation in terms of the amount of sports bets its casinos and horse tracks took, had its best month in October 2021, when it took $1.3 billion in bets. New Jersey's figures for January 2022 will be released Feb. 16.
“This is great,” said New York state Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr., one of his state's leading proponents of mobile sports betting. “Going back to the first week we started, we did as much in two days as we had in two years before that. And we're still not even firing on all cylinders.”
Kevin Hennessy, a spokesperson for FanDuel, said the company knew New York would be a strong market.
“Legal sports betting in New York has exceeded all of our expectations,” he said. “New York and New Jersey combined are practically the center of legal sports betting in the United States. We are thrilled with how many New York customers have signed up to the FanDuel Sportsbook, and we continue to see New Jersey as a growing market.”
He said the Buffalo Bills playoff run generated heavy interest, and noted that the Winter Olympics, the NHL All-Star Game and the Super Bowl are all imminent.
New York's mobile sports betting operators earned nearly $113 million in revenue on the $1.62 billion in bets they handled after paying off winners and other expenses. That revenue is taxed at 51% in New York.
Caesars is the early leader in New York, handling over $615 million worth of bets in its first four weeks and generating nearly $56 million in revenue. FanDuel took nearly $502 million in bets, generating $23.6 million in revenue.
DrafkKings took $367 million in bets, generating $27 million in revenue; BetMGM took $78 million in bets with $3.2 million in revenue; Rush Street Interactive took $32 million in bets and generated $837,035 in revenue; and PointsBet took $29 million in bets, generating $2.3 million in revenue.
That New York became the No. 1 market for sports betting once it allowed people to bet via cell phones or computers was not a surprise. New York's population of over 19 million people is much greater than New Jersey's population of under 9 million.
New York allowed New Jersey to race to an early lead in sports betting by its refusal to immediately allow mobile wagering. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for years insisted that allowing mobile betting would violate the state's constitution, but New York permitted it beginning Jan. 9 of this year.
___
Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at @WayneParryAC | https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/New-York-blows-past-New-Jersey-for-top-sports-16832162.php | 2022-02-04T18:41:42 | en | 0.970015 |
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