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United States and China launch economic and financial working groups with aim of easing tensions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department and China’s Ministry of Finance launched a pair of economic working groups on Friday in an effort to ease tensions and deepen ties between the nations. Led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice Premier He Lifeng, the working groups will be divided into economic and financial segments.The working groups will “establish a durable channel of communication between the world’s two largest economies,” Yellen said in a series of tweets detailing the announcement. She said the groups will “serve as important forums to communicate America’s interests and concerns, promote a healthy economic competition between our two countries with a level playing field for American workers and businesses.”The announcement follows a string of high-ranking administration officials’ visits to China this year, which sets the stage for a possible meeting between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in November at an A...

Monte McNaughton leaving provincial politics, Premier Ford to shuffle cabinet again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton is leaving cabinet and politics to take a job in the private sector, Premier Doug Ford announced on Friday.McNaughton, who has represented the riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex since 2011, has served as minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development since 2019.“After serving the province of Ontario and the people of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex for the last 12 years, Minister McNaughton has informed me that he’s stepping away from public life to take on an exciting opportunity in the private sector. He made this decision based on what is best for him and his family at this point in his life and career,” Ford said in a statement.“Whether tackling Ontario’s generational labour shortage, connecting workers to better jobs with bigger paycheques, or breaking the stigma of skilled trades, Monte has been instrumental in our government’s plan to put workers at the centre of Ontario’s economy and unprecedented growth...

Norway drops spying claims against foreign student, says he’s being held now for a ‘financial crime’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norwegian authorities said Friday they have dropped spying allegations against an unidentified 25-year-old foreign student and are now holding him on suspicion of a “serious financial crime.”The student, from Malaysia, was arrested in Norway on Sept. 8 for illegally eavesdropping by using various technical devices. A court ordered he be held in pre-trial custody for four weeks, on suspicion of espionage and intelligence operations against the NATO-member Nordic country.The original allegations against him have now changed, with police saying Friday his use of signal technology was an effort to gain information for financial gain.Marianne Bender, a prosecutor for the Norwegian police’s economic crime department, said the young man used devices for mobile phone surveillance, or IMSI-catchers, in an attempt to commit “gross frauds” in country’s capital, Oslo, and in the city of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city.The International Mobile Su...

Zelenskyy in Toronto: Ukrainian president to attend reception, rally tonight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mission to drum up political and financial support for the Ukrainian war effort continues on Friday his first visit to Canada since the war with Russia began.Zelenskyy arrived in Ottawa late Thursday night and is scheduled to travel to Toronto later in the day for an evening meeting at a downtown hotel and a rally with officials and local community members.His first stop in Toronto will be at the Fairmont Royal York at 6:30 p.m. where he is expected to take part in a round table discussion at the hotel with Canadian business leaders. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will also be in attendance.Following the meeting, the Ukrainian president will accompany Trudeau and Freeland to a reception and rally at Fort York for 8:30 p.m. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow will attend the rally that is expected to include members of the city’s Ukrainian community.Security preparations were underway early Friday morning at both...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says her husband has lung cancer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The husband of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has been diagnosed with lung cancer, the governor’s office announced Thursday.Reynolds said her husband, Kevin Reynolds, 65, has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and expressed optimism about his treatment.“Our doctor has assured us that significant advancements in lung cancer treatment have been very effective and we have every reason to be optimistic,” the governor said in a statement. “We are confident in our team as we begin treatment, and we will beat this together.”Reynolds called her husband “my anchor throughout our 41 years of marriage.”Kevin Reynolds retired in 2017 after a career in soil and water conservation. He and the governor have three daughters and 11 grandchildren.The Associated Press

Russia says a Ukrainian missile strike hit its Black Sea Fleet headquarters, a serviceman is missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine carried out a fiery missile strike Friday on the main headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and one serviceman was missing, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Photos and video showed large plumes of smoke over the building in Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.The ministry initially said one servicemember was killed but then issued a subsequent statement saying he was missing.The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said no one was injured outside the burning headquarters, and he didn’t provide information on other casualties. Firefighters battled the blaze, and more emergency forces were being brought in, an indication the fire could be massive.Sevastopol residents said they heard explosions in the skies and saw smoke, Russian news outlets reported. Images circulated in Ukrainian Telegram channels showed clouds of smoke over the seafront. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the videos.A stream of ambulances arr...

Stock market today: Wall Street higher, but likely not enough to this turn losing week into a winner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

Wall Street ticked modestly higher early Friday, but not nearly enough to erase a week of losses driven by the potential for an era of consistently higher interest rates.Futures for the S&P 500 edged 0.2% higher while the Dow Jones industrials rose just 0.1%. Markets are poised to finish the week with significant losses after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark borrowing rate alone Wednesday, with officials at the central bank signaling that they may cut rates next year by only half a percentage point. Investors had been hoping for bigger, faster cuts to interest rates.Even with no increase at two of its past three meetings, the Fed has raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times in the past year-and-a-half in its bid to extinguish persistent inflation. High rates tend to hit high-growth stocks particularly hard, and Big Tech companies have been among the market’s biggest losers this week.The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite has tumbled almost 6% this week, twice the decline of t...

Targeted strikes may spread to other states and cities as midday deadline set by auto workers nears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

The nation’s biggest automakers – and car buyers everywhere — will learn Friday whether the United Auto Workers union will escalate its strike over a demand for higher wages, a shorter work week and other benefits.UAW President Shawn Fain is expected to announce whether the union will expand a weeklong strike that has so far been limited to three plants – one each at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.Fain said earlier this week he would call on workers at more plants to strike unless there was significant progress in contract negotiations with the carmakers. Bargaining continued Thursday, although neither side reported any breakthroughs, and they remained far apart on wage increases.The strike so far involves fewer than 13,000 of the union’s 146,000 members. The companies have laid off a few thousand more, saying some factories are running short on parts because of the strike.Still, the impact is not yet being felt on car lots around the country – it will probably take a few...

The wild boar paradox and the future of nuclear energy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, in many regions of Europe, wild boars roam the landscape. Also, they’re radioactive. For a long time, it was assumed the Chernobyl disaster was the cause, and that’s still partly true. But the real answer goes back even further and offers us a glimpse of how the by-products of nuclear technology can lay dormant for decades, only detected in the most visible part of a system we’re still learning to understand.Becky Ferreira, a science writer and regular contributor at Motherboard, is on today’s episode.“I think it was a really huge shock because nobody had really considered that the weapons testing would still be around in that quantity,” said Ferreira.This is the wild boar paradox, and this is what it can teach us about nuclear technologies past, present and future.You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

A Chinese dissident in transit at a Taiwan airport pleads for help in seeking asylum

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:25 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Chinese dissident known for posting pictures on social media commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown said Friday he had fled to Taiwan and pleaded for help seeking asylum in the United States or Canada.In a video that appeared to be self-shot and posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Cheng Siming said he was in the transit area at Taoyuan International Airport.“In order to hide from China’s political persecution, I have now arrived in Taiwan,” Cheng said in the video, which was posted about 7 a.m. He added that he hopes to get asylum in the U.S. or Canada.In an interview with Taiwan broadcaster TBVS, Chen said he took the opportunity to transit in Taiwan because it’s a “democratic and free country” and that it was safer than going through Thailand or Laos.It is unclear how Cheng was able to travel to Taiwan, and The Associated Press has not been able to reach him for comment. Taiwan is a self-governing island that is claimed by China.In May,...