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US consumer price growth slowed last month, though underlying inflation measures stayed high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices in the United States cooled last month, rising just 0.1% from April to May and extending the past year’s steady easing of inflation. At the same time, some measures of underlying price pressures remained high. Measured year over year, inflation slowed to just 4% in May — the lowest 12-month figure in over two years and well below April’s 4.9% annual rise. The pullback was driven by tumbling gas prices and smaller increases in grocery prices and other items. The drop-off in overall inflation isn’t likely to convince the Federal Reserve’s policymakers that they’re close to curbing the high inflation that has gripped the nation for two years. The Fed tends to focus more on “core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs and generally provide a clearer view of inflation.And core prices remained high last month, rising 0.4% from April to May, the sixth straight month of increases at that level or higher. Compared with a year ago, core i...

Russian missile attack on Ukraine kills at least 11 in Zelenskyy’s hometown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit civilian buildings in a central Ukrainian city overnight, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than two dozen in a warehouse and an apartment building, regional officials said Tuesday.The devastation in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, come as Ukrainian forces are in the early stages of a counteroffensive, more than 15 months after Russia invaded.Russian forces have unleashed overnight missile strikes repeatedly against targets across Ukraine since late April, and Tuesday’s toll was among the highest from a single attack on a city since then. In late April, missile strikes hit an apartment building in the central city of Uman killed 23 people, including six children.Images from the scene relayed by Zelenskyy on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the blaze as pockets of fire poked through multiple broken windows of the damaged apartment building. Charred and damaged vehicles littered the nearby grou...

Children injured by acid poured on playground slides

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

LONGMEADOW, Mass. (AP) — Two children suffered what were described as “burn-like injuries” after playing on slides that had been doused with acid at a Massachusetts park, authorities said.Police and firefighters responded to Bliss Park in Longmeadow on Sunday morning for a report of a suspicious substance on the playground equipment, the fire department posted on social media.At about the same time, firefighters and emergency medical technicians went to a home in town for a report of two children with burns who had just left the park.Authorities determined that someone broke into a storage room where chemicals are kept at the park’s swimming pool and stole some muriatic acid. The acid, which can be used for cleaning or for maintaining a pool’s pH balance, was then poured on three slides, authorities said.Evidence was gathered and sent to the state crime lab for forensic analysis.No one has been charged, but authorities said the suspect or suspects may have also been inju...

A rapporteur resigns. Is a public inquiry on foreign interference next?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

Two weeks ago, special rapporteur David Johnston said nothing would stop him from completing his work investigating foreign interference in Canadian politics. On Friday, he resigned, leading to a weekend of confusion in Canadian politics, followed by a chaotic Monday when the house resumed.Cormac Mac Sweeney, the parliament hill reporter at CityNews, says Johnston’s resignation has left Justin Trudeau and the Liberals in a tough spot politically. “A couple of experts that I spoke to said they don’t see, politically, how the government can really do anything else but a public inquiry right now, to really restore trust in Canada’s democracy,” said Mac Sweeney.So why did Johnston quit? Will Canada now finally get the public inquiry many have lobbied for? And are we going to end up having an election over this?You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

Last day to shop at Nordstrom stores in Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

Tuesday is the last day to shop at Nordstrom stores in Canada before they close their doors for good.The stores have been in liquidation since the high-end retailer announced in March it would be shutting down its Canadian locations on June 13. Some locations are already closed due to lack of inventory.The Seattle-based retailer says discounts of between 70 to 80 per cent are available during its final days of liquidation. Online shopping is already no longer available on the company’s website.Nordstrom’s CEO says the decision to close all six Nordstrom and seven Nordstrom Rack locations across the country was made because they did not see a realistic path to profitability.Nordstrom first expanded to Canada with its first store in Calgary at CF Chinook Centre in September 2014. It quickly expanded its presence with stores at CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa, CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver and CF Eaton Centre, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto.Nordstrom...

German commission backs restitution of Kandinsky painting owned by Bavarian bank to Jewish heirs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — An independent German commission on Tuesday recommended that a painting by Wassily Kandinsky currently owned by the Bavarian state bank be returned to the heirs of a Jewish family that originally owned the piece of art. The commission can be called on in cases of disputes over the restitution of Nazi-confiscated cultural property, especially Jewish property. In the case of the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann and Irma Lewenstein Klein versus Bayerische Landesbank, the commission advised that the 1907 painting “The Colorful Life” by Russian artist Kandinsky be returned to the heirs.The commission’s recommendations are non-binding but are mostly followed by the parties once they have agreed to call on it to resolve the conflict.The large tempera painting shows a group of colorfully clad people on a lawn, some eating or playing music, while others seem to be dancing.In its conclusion, the commission says that from November 1927, the painting belonged to Hedwig and Ema...

Transgender and nonbinary people are often sidelined at Pride. This year is different

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kara Murphy, a transgender woman helping to organize the Union County Pride in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, is heartened to see Pride celebrations across the country, big and small, shining a spotlight on transgender rights this year. “When we look and see who’s standing up for us, it kind of signals the strength of the movement,” she said. Whether it’s transgender grand marshals at the massive New York City Pride parade or a photo display of transgender victims of violence at the much smaller festival in Hastings, Nebraska, many celebrations this June are taking a public stand against state legislation targeting transgender people.Some Prides are putting transgender people front and center at events where they’ve often been sidelined because of a historical emphasis on gay and lesbian rights, along with the same sorts of prejudice and misinformation held by many straight, cisgender people about trans lives.The growing number of new laws ...

Beijing criticizes new US sanctions on companies over pilot training, weapons development

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China on Tuesday criticized new sanctions imposed by the United States on companies believed to be involved in training Chinese military pilots and aiding weapons development.Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin urged Washington to “stop abusing export control measures” to hobble Chinese companies.“The United States has repeatedly overstretched the concept of national security, abused state power, unwarrantedly suppressed Chinese companies, and wantonly disrupted the international economic order and trade rules,” Wang said at a daily briefing in Beijing. “It has reached a level of unscrupulous hysteria.”China “demands that the U.S. immediately correct its wrong practice of politicizing, instrumentalizing, and weaponizing economic, trade, and sci-tech issues with a pretext of human rights or military-related issues,” Wang said.On Monday, the U.S. government placed 43 “entities” on an export control list over national security and foreign policy concer...

Tuesday Forecast: Temps in mid 60s with on and off rain showers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

CHICAGO — Cloudy conditions Tuesday with rain showers. Winds: WNW 10-15 G30. High: 65. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Mainly cloudy tonight with scattered rain expected. Winds: WNW 5-15 G25. Low: 57.TOMORROW: Mostly cloudy, cooler lakeside, N 5-10. High: 76/68.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

Your odds of beating cancer? Who you are, where you live can help determine that

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:05:08 GMT

(The Hill) -- About 2 million people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 600,000 will die from the disease, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates.     But cancer is not equal opportunity.  A wide range of factors plays a role in determining whether a person will get and potentially die from the disease, including their genetics and where they live.  Cancer death rates have decreased over the last 25 years across the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. The sharpest decrease has occurred among Black people, Native Americans and Alaskan natives, according to a February 2022 report from KFF.  This is in part due to improvements in cancer screening, treatments, early diagnosis and changes in behavior like reduced cigarette smoking, according to Latoya Hill, senior policy analyst at KFF’s Racial and Health Policy Program.   &nb...