Ohio is pulling out all the stops for Monday’s total solar eclipse, as it braces for potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors. At a Friday news conference, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said it was 1806 when a total eclipse last crossed the state’s path. The next time will be 2099. He has activated the Ohio Emergency Operations Center beginning Sunday to help communities navigate any issues that arise before, during or after the event. Officials urge eclipse watchers to pack snacks, extra phone... Читать дальше...
Earthquakes large enough to be felt by a lot of people are relatively uncommon on the East Coast. Since 1950 there have been about 20 quakes with a magnitude above 4.5, according to the United States Geological Survey. That’s compared with over 1,000 on the West Coast. East Coast residents were jolted Friday by a 4.8-magnitude earthquake centered near Lebanon, New Jersey with weak rumblings felt as far away as Baltimore and the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. No life-threatening injuries or major damage have been reported.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the levels of the crucial heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, growing at near-record fast paces. Friday's NOAA calculations show carbon dioxide, the most important and abundant of the human-caused greenhouse gases, rose in 2023 by the third highest amount in 65 years of record keeping. Scientists are also worried about the rapid rise in atmospheric levels of methane, a shorter-lived but more potent heat-trapping gas. Читать дальше...
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said it would pause the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule while it defended the regulation in court. Wall Street’s top regulator voted in March on the final rule, which requires some public companies in the U.S. to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. The measure faced legal challenges almost immediately. The SEC said it had stayed the rule to avoid regulatory uncertainty for companies that might have been... Читать дальше...
President Joe Biden will announce a significant new plan next week to cancel federal student loan debt for new categories of borrowers. It comes nearly a year after the Supreme Court ended his administration’s first attempt to relieve debt for millions who attended college. Biden will talk about his new plan Monday in Madison, Wisconsin. Three people with knowledge of the plans confirmed this information. The new effort is making good on Biden’s promise after the Supreme Court struck down in June his initial $400 billion proposal. Читать дальше...
An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area Friday morning.
A majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, are calling for a vote to join the United Auto Workers union, which is on a drive to sign up non-union plants across the country. According to the UAW, the Mercedes workers have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for the vote. Their call for a union election arrives just weeks after workers at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, set a date to vote for UAW representation. The Mercedes plant in Vance... Читать дальше...
A tentative timeline has been released for how soon authorities can reopen crucial shipping channels in Baltimore. Commercial-vessel traffic has been blocked since last week’s bridge collapse. Engineers expect to restore navigation in and out of the Port of Baltimore by the end of April. A permanent navigation channel could be open by the end of May. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden plans to visit the city on Friday. He'll get a firsthand look at cleanup efforts. And he'll meet with families of the... Читать дальше...
Johnson & Johnson is pumping more money into heart care with a roughly $13 billion deal for Shockwave Medical, which specializes in technology that helps open clogged arteries. The health care giant said Friday that it will spend $335 in cash for each share of Shockwave. The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors from both companies. Shockwave specializes in intravascular lithotripsy, technology that uses sonic pressure waves to crack calcium lesions in arteries and restore blood flow, along with stenting. Читать дальше...
McDonald’s is buying its restaurants in Israel from a longtime franchisee, hoping to reset sales that have slumped due to boycotts in the region. The Chicago-based burger giant said Friday it will buy Alonyal Limited, which owns and operates 225 restaurants in Israel. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. McDonald’s says it will operate the restaurants and retain more than 5,000 employees. Alonyal has operated McDonald's in Israel for more than 30 years. But the franchisee sparked controversy when it... Читать дальше...
Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation. The iPhone maker notified 614 workers in multiple offices on March 28 that they were losing their jobs. The layoffs became effective on May 27, according to reports to regional authorities. The workers were cut from eight offices in Santa Clara, according to the filings. But it’s not clear which departments or projects the employees were involved in. Читать дальше...
Criminal networks in the European Union are penetrating legal businesses across the 27-nation bloc and rely heavily on corruption to develop their activities. That's the bleak picture emerging from a report published Friday by the EU crime agency.
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President Joe Biden is expected to get a firsthand look at efforts to clear away the hulking remains of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Cranes, ships and diving crews are working to reopen one of the nation’s main shipping lanes and prepare for eventually erecting a new bridge. Biden's planned visit Friday to the site of a tragedy that killed six bridge workers lays bare the cleanup's high political stakes. The government has provided quick-release funds to start recovery. But... Читать дальше...
Global shares have mostly declined as investors looked to a key U.S. jobs report due later in the day to gauge the health of the economy and see what the Federal Reserve might do on interest rates. Shares rose in early Friday trading in France, Germany and Britain. U.S. futures were mixed. Benchmarks finished lower in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul, while changing little in Hong Kong. Wall Street is looking for the job market to cool enough to remove upward pressure on inflation, but not so much that it... Читать дальше...
The U.S. treasury secretary has called for a level playing field for American companies and workers as she opens a five-day visit to China in a major industrial and export hub. She told the governor of Guangdong province on Friday that the U.S. and others are concerned about spillovers from industrial overcapacity in China. She also met with U.S. business leaders. Yellen has telegraphed that she will raise in her talks what the U.S. considers unfair Chinese trade practices. China has pushed back... Читать дальше...
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's new book “True Gretch” will detail her five-year tenure as governor and her journey along the way. The book set to be published in July undoubtedly will fuel speculation over Whitmer's political aspirations. Her name has often come up as a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. A press release announcing the book was provided exclusively to The Associated Press. It promises Whitmer will share details on how handling the global pandemic... Читать дальше...
An early spring nor'easter is hammering the Northeast with heavy snow, rain and high winds, with some northern areas expected to get up to 2 feet of snow. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power Thursday night from West Virginia to Maine. Police say a falling tree in a New York City suburb killed a woman late Wednesday afternoon. Dozens of flights to and from area airports have been canceled or delayed, and schools and government offices are closed in many towns. The... Читать дальше...
As South Koreans prepare to vote for a new 300-member parliament next week, many are choosing their livelihoods and other domestic topics as their most important election issues. This represents a stark contrast from past elections, which were overshadowed by security and foreign policy issues like North Korean nuclear threats and the U.S. security commitment. Experts say about 30-40% of South Korea’s 44 million voters are politically neutral, and that their support will likely determine the results of the April 10 elections.
Donald Trump’s former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called the former president a “threat to democracy” and says he won't vote for him in 2024. Former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse his former running mate. His former national security adviser John Bolton has described him as “unfit to be president.” As Trump seeks the presidency a third time, he’s being shadowed by a chorus of people who served in his administration who have become sharp critics, some offering dire predictions about his return to power. Читать дальше...
A recent trip to the clothing store that replaced New York's legendary punk club CBGB's was a step back in time for CNN's Alisyn Camerota. Now a successful news anchor, the Jersey girl had a rocky time in high school, a wild trip with sex, substance abuse and even brief homelessness. In a memoir, “Combat Love,” she tells how she got through it, a survivor's tale she hopes will inspire others. Revisiting those times were tough for those who lived through it, including her 84-year-old mother, who'd... Читать дальше...
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research finds that while Americans say they respect the Constitution’s checks and balances and don’t want a president to have too much power, that view shifts if the candidate of their party wins the presidency. Overall, only about 2 in 10 Americans say it would be “a good thing” for the next president to have the power to change policy without waiting on Congress or the courts. But nearly 6 in 10 Republicans say it would be good... Читать дальше...
The American economy is thought to have added 200,000 jobs in March — a more-than-respectable increase though one that would mark a slowdown from February’s vigorous gain of 275,000 and last year’s monthly average increase of 251,000. A modest downshift in hiring could reassure the Federal Reserve that the economy isn’t running too hot, especially if wage growth, a key driver of inflation, also slowed last month. The Fed’s policymakers are tracking the state of the economy, the job market and inflation... Читать дальше...
Malaysia’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak is seeking to serve the rest of his prison term under house arrest, two months after his graft sentence was halved. His application said he had information that the then-king had issued an order allowing his house arrest during the Jan. 29 pardon board meeting that cut his 12-year jail sentence by half and sharply reduced a fine. Najib was convicted in a corruption case linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state fund 1MDB, which caused... Читать дальше...
