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Los Angeles schools shut down as staff begin 3-day strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District walked off the job Tuesday over stalled contract talks, and they are being joined in solidarity by teachers in a three-day strike that has shut down the nation’s second-largest school system.Demonstrations began at a bus yard and are expected at schools across the city by members of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff.The workers joined picket lines before dawn, demanding better wages and increased staffing. The district has more than 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet at any time day or night. He said Monday a “golden opportunity” to make progress was lo...

Japanese leader arrives in Kyiv as China’s Xi visits Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia on a three-day trip. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine will be in the spotlight at both meetings. Footage shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK showed Kishida walking on the platform of Kyiv Central Station, escorted by a few people who appeared to be Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainian capital has not felt the brunt of the war, which has become bogged down eastern Ukraine. It was uncertain whether either of the Asian leaders’ visits to Kyiv and Moscow would change the course of the almost 13-month war in Ukraine, but the talks about 800 kilometers (500 miles) apart highlighted the war’s repercussions for international diplomacy as countries line up behind rival parties. The meetings came after a week in which China and Japan both enjoyed diplomatic successes that have emboldened their foreign polic...

Ukraine, Russia trade claims after blast rocks Crimean town

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday gave conflicting accounts of what appeared to be a brazen attack late Monday on Russian cruise missiles being transported by train in the occupied Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.A Ukrainian military spokesperson indicated that Kyiv was behind the explosion that reportedly destroyed multiple Kalibr cruise missiles near the town of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea, while stopping short of directly claiming responsibility.Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern operational command, described the strike as a signal to Russia that it should leave the Black Sea peninsula it illegally took from Ukraine in 2014.Speaking on Ukrainian TV, Humeniuk pointed out Dzhankoi’s importance as a railway junction and said that “right now, the way ahead (for Russian forces in Crimea) is clear — they need to make their way out by rail already.”A vague statement by Ukraine’s military intelligence agency on Monday said that multiple mi...

Yellen says bank situation ‘stabilizing,’ system is ‘sound’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is trying project calm after regional bank failures, saying the U.S. banking system is “sound” but additional rescue arrangements “could be warranted” if any new failures at smaller institutions pose a risk to financial stability.Yellen, in an excerpt of remarks prepared for delivery to the American Bankers Association on Tuesday, says that overall “the situation is stabilizing.”“And the U.S. banking system remains sound,” Yellen says.Yellen’s remarks come after a series of troubling bank developments this month.Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California, failed on March 10 after depositors rushed to withdraw money amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history. Regulators convened over the following weekend and announced that New York-based Signature Bank also had failed. They said that all depositors at both banks, including those holding uninsured funds, th...

Yemeni rebels sentence activists to prison for criticism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A court in Yemen’s rebel-held capital on Tuesday sentenced four activists to prison terms, ranging from six months to three years, over their criticism of the Iran-backed rebels on social media, a lawyer said. According to their lawyer, Waddah Qutaish, the four were convicted of inciting chaos, disrupting public peace and insulting the Iran-backed rebels, also known as Houthis. They were detained in Sanaa in December and January on charges stemming from videos they had posed on social media last year criticizing the Houthis over alleged corruption and their handling of the economy. The rebels control Sanaa and most of northern Yemen. The activists’ arrest and trial are part of the Houthis’ crackdown on dissent and on those seen as working for the enemy, the Saudi-led coalition which has been battling the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war since 2015 in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power. One of the activists, Ahmed Elaw,...

Google suspends Chinese shopping app amid security concerns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Google has suspended the Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo on its app store after malware was discovered in versions of the app from other sources.Google said in a statement Tuesday that it suspended the Pinduoduo app on the Google Play app store out of “security concerns” and that it was investigating the matter.The suspension of the Pinduoduo app –- mainly used in China –- comes amid heightened U.S.-China tensions over Chinese-owned apps such as TikTok, which some U.S. lawmakers say could be a national security threat. They allege that such apps could be used to spy on American users.Pinduoduo is a popular e-commerce app in China which often offers discounts if users team up to buy multiples of an item. Google warned users Tuesday to uninstall any Pinduoduo app not downloaded from its own Play store. “Google Play Protect enforcement has been set to block installation attempts of these identified malicious apps,” Google said in its statement. “Users that have maliciou...

Huge fire destroys New Jersey church, draws 150 firefighters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

FLORENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Fire destroyed a large New Jersey church, collapsing its roof as more than 150 firefighters fought to control the blaze.Video showed the Fountain of Life Center in Florence Township engulfed in flames Monday night. No injuries were reported in the fire, which started at about 6 p.m. Monday. The cause wasn’t immediately known. “It’s a devastating loss,” Russell Hodgins, a senior pastor, told Philadelphia’s KYW-TV. He said his grandparents helped build it. “The church is not brick and mortar, the church is really the body of believers,” Hodgins told the station. “God will help us through this, and I believe the church will be stronger than ever.”The center describes itself on its website as a multipurpose, 120,000-square-foot facility with a preschool, basketball courts, and a fitness center. The school and recreation building survived the fire, according to news reports. The Associated Press

Linda Villarosa, Deborah Cohen among Lukas prize winners

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Linda Villarosa’s “Under the Skin,” an exploration of racism’s impact on the American healthcare system, and Deborah Cohen’s history of a network of journalists who confronted fascism before World War II, “Last Call at the Hotel Imperial,” were among the winners of awards announced Tuesday by the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project.Villarosa won the $10,000 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for a nonfiction work that exemplifies reportorial and literary excellence, and Cohen the $10,000 Mark Lynton History Prize for “intellectual distinction” and “felicity of expression.”The project also gave $25,000 awards to two books in progress that are “significant works of nonfiction on American topics of political or social concern”: Jesselyn Cook’s “The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family” and Mike Hixenbaugh’s “Uncivil: One Town’s Fight over Race and Identity, and the New Battle for America’s Schools.” Established in ...

France: Protests continue after Macron’s pension plan push

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Paris police said Tuesday that 234 people were arrested overnight in the capital mostly for setting fire to garbage in the streets, after France’s parliament adopted a divisive bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 pushed that was through by President Emmanuel Macron.Mostly small, scattered protests were held in cities around France, some degenerating late Monday into violent incidents. In Paris, small groups took to the streets to set fire to piles of trash that have formed due to a strike by garbage collectors in the capital that is in its 16th day. Macron has planned a series of political meetings on Tuesday with the prime minister, parliament leaders and lawmakers from his centrist alliance. The French president, who made the pension plan a centerpiece of his second term, is to speak Wednesday on national television, a first since he made the decision last week to use a government’s special constitutional power to force the bill through parliamen...

Millennial Money: Is being a landlord worth it?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:22 GMT

Real estate has been a popular investment for a very long time — for those who can afford it. But in recent years, trends such as house flipping, “house hacking” (living in one room of a property while renting out the others) and short-term vacation rentals have made real estate investment much more accessible, especially for millennials seeking a second income stream in an uncertain economy.Though the potential profit is tempting, being a landlord may not be for everyone. Rental properties involve significant upfront costs, time commitment, legal liabilities and ethical dilemmas that can put a dent in your dividends. So before you take out a loan to buy an investment property in an “up-and-coming neighborhood,” here are three things to consider.KNOW WHAT YOU CAN COMMIT TOThere are many ways to oversee rental real estate, from being fully hands-on to hiring someone else to manage a property you’ve never seen in person. When weighing your options, assess the time and money you can co...