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From New York to Tokyo, stock markets around the world have rallied in 2023

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a great year for stock markets around the world.Wall Street’s rally has been front and center, with the U.S. stock market the world’s largest and its clear leader in performance in recent years. The S&P 500 is on track to return more than 20% for the third time in the last five years, and its gangbusters performance has brought it back within 2% of its record set at the start of 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high Wednesday.Even in Japan, which has been home to some of the world’s most disappointing stocks for decades, the market marched upward to touch its highest level since shortly after its bubble burst in 1989. Across developed and emerging economies, stocks have powered ahead in 2023 as inflation has regressed, even with wars raging in hotspots around the world. Globally, inflation is likely to ease to 6.9% this year from 8.7% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. The expectation ...

University of Arizona announces financial recovery plan to address its $240M budget shortfall

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The University of Arizona has unveiled an extensive financial recovery plan to address its $240 million budget shortfall.In a virtual meeting Wednesday night with the Arizona Board of Regents, university President Robert Robbins announced the resignation of the school’s chief financial officer and other steps to address cash flow issues.“We will implement an immediate hiring freeze,” Robbins said. “We will freeze international travel. We will place restrictions on purchasing. We will defer nonessential capital projects and we will pause strategic investments.”Lisa Rulney, the UofA’s chief financial officer since April 2019, resigned Wednesday from the job that paid her nearly $500,000 annually.Rulney and Robbins told the regents last month that the university had just 97 days worth of cash on hand and not the 156 they previously predicted. The school’s senior administrators blamed a failure of their prediction model that caused the multimillion-dollar miscalcula...

With death toll rising, Kenyan military evacuates people from flood-hit areas

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

MANDERA, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s military hastened efforts Thursday to evacuate hundreds of people trapped by raging floods that have hit many parts of the East African country.Floods have killed at least 170 and displaced more than 600,000 since the onset of heavy rains in November, according to the Red Cross, which is helping to coordinate the rescue efforts.Tens of thousands of people in Northern Kenya have lost livestock, farmland and homes due to the floods described by aid groups as the worst in 100 years. An international team of scientists reported last week that human-caused climate change has made the ongoing rains in Eastern Africa up to two times more intense.Kenya’s meteorological department has warned that heavy rains will continue into the new year. It is urging people living in lowlands and flood-prone areas to evacuate.“While I was running away from the rains and the flood waters, I fell down and broke my hand. After the incident my family and I came here to the displa...

Why Argentina’s shock measures may be the best hope for its ailing economy

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The painful economic steps that Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, announced this week sound draconian: Slashing the currency’s value in half. Reducing aid to provincial governments. Suspending public works. Cutting subsidies for gas and electricity. Raising some taxes. Yet the South American country’s economy is such a basket case — and has been for so long — that many analysts believe that only such radical measures offer a realistic opportunity to rescue the economy.“It was a good start,’’ said Ivan Werning, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If the economy were a house, it is already burning.’’Inflation in Argentina has hit 161%. Its economy is shrinking, in part because of a ruinous drought. In the past five years, its currency has lost about 90% of its value against the U.S. dollar. Its debts, including $45 billion that it owes the International Monetary Fund, are suffocating. One in four Argentinians lives in ...

Kyiv protesters demand more spending on the Ukraine’s war effort and less on local projects

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of protesters angered by what they view as wasteful spending by municipal officials gathered outside Kyiv City Hall on Thursday and demanded that the money should go to Ukraine’s war against Russia instead of local projects.The Money for the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) civic group, which organized the protest, was formed in September by people concerned by what they term “unnecessary” and “poorly timed” spending by the Kyiv City Council.The protesters, who appeared to be mostly in their 20s and 30s, gathered despite multiple air alerts and cold, damp weather. They dispersed in the afternoon when air defense systems burst into action to fend off a missile attack.Protestors chanted, “It’s better to buy drones than build a new park” and, “The more money we spend on the army, the faster Ukraine will win this war.”“At a time when our friends, parents and acquaintances are dying at the front, we have more pressing matters than rebuilding roads and beautifyi...

Two-time ABA champion and Indiana Mr. Basketball winner George McGinnis dies at 73

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — George McGinnis, a Hall of Fame forward who was a two-time ABA champion and three-time All-Star in the NBA and ABA, died Thursday. He was 73.The Indiana Pacers said he died early Thursday morning following complications from a cardiac arrest suffered last week at his home. McGinnis also struggled to walk in recent years after undergoing multiple back surgeries because of a hereditary condition.His uniquely deep, deliberate voice, warm personality and passion for the sport helped him create a tight bond with the fans around his basketball-rich home state, Indiana. Here, they watched McGinnis’ development from Indianapolis prep star into an unstoppable force in his one and only college season at Indiana University before eventually taking the Indiana Pacers to those two titles.“From his all-state high school days to his time as an IU All-American and, of course, to his legendary ABA championship runs with the Pacers, George McGinnis shaped so many of the fond...

Experts at odds over result of UN climate talks in Dubai; ‘Historic,’ ‘pipsqueak’ or something else?

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The climate negotiations that just finished in Dubai hit upon the essence of compromise, finding common language that nearly 200 countries accepted, at times grudgingly.For the first time in nearly three decades of such talks, the final agreement mentioned fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — as the cause of climate change and said the world needs to be “transitioning away” from them. But it did not use the words “phase out,” sought by advocates and more than 100 countries who argued it would provide sharper direction for the world to move quickly toward renewable energies that don’t produce the greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet. For an agreement so steeped in compromise, what experts thought of it, including what impact it could have in the years to come, was as polarizing as can be. The Associated Press asked 23 different delegates, analysts, scientists and activists where they would rank COP28 among all climate conf...

Fed keeps rates steady; Dow Jones hits record high

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke at a press conference Wednesday after the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates at 5.25% for the third consecutive month.“We are seeing, you know, strong growth that appears to be moderating.” Powell said. “We're seeing a labor market that is coming back into balance by so many measures and we're seeing inflation making real progress. These are the things we've been wanting to see.”The central bank has steadily raised rates to combat inflation dating all the way back to March 2022.“It's really good to see the progress that we're making. We just need to see more,” Powell warned.The Fed’s goal of 2% inflation may prove to be elusive, partially due to November’s job report claiming 3.7% unemployment. The report last week is a remarkable feat given the 6.3% figure in January 2020.This movement could push inflation back up, as businesses will need to raise wages to retain workers. That wage boost will give many Americans more ...

Cats prey on hundreds of threatened, endangered species, are among 'most problematic' animals, study finds

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

(The Hill) – Cats prey on hundreds of threatened, endangered species, with scientists categorizing felines as part of the most "problematic invasive species in the world," according to a new study. In an assessment of the diet of 533 free-ranging cats — both owned and unowned cats with access to the outdoors — researchers found a total of 2,084 species eaten by cats, of which 347, or 16.65%, fall into the category of "conservation concern." This includes species listed near threatened, threatened, or extinct on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.In the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from several universities, including Auburn and Cornell, said cats have a "generalist diet" and described them as "opportunistic predators and obligate carnivores." As a result of certain physiological demands in cats, the species are known to hunt for a wide variety of animals. In total, cats eat 981 bird species, followed by 463 species of reptiles, 431 ...

AI-generated anchors to debut on news network in 2024

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:00:55 GMT

(NewsNation) — No, it's not science fiction — digital news anchors could be on your TV screen starting next year. Channel 1, which is set for "full launch" in 2024, says it will be the world's first AI-powered news network. The goal is to give each viewer a personalized broadcast. However, the idea has many journalists worried about their future in the news industry. Pope, once a victim of AI-generated imagery, calls for treaty to regulate artificial intelligence The AI avatars will be created from a scan of a real person with a digitally generated voice. Then the AI-generated humans — made to look real — will report the news, though devoid of any real emotion. The founder of the news channel said they are aiming to "get out in front and create a responsible use of technology."But plenty of people are already sounding off, raising concerns about journalistic integrity."I think I'm aging myself by saying I think all of this is so weird. You know the metaverse and artificial intell...