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Retail sales up 0.4% in April as shoppers pick up spending in solid job market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retail sales up 0.4% in April as shoppers pick up spending in solid job market.

Searching for Yield: Massachusetts Leads Nationwide Increase in Interest in Dividend Related Searches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

Rachel Westgate | Wealth of GeeksRecent findings from a study analyzing dividend-related search engine terms in the U.S. reports that Americans are overall showing increasing interest in dividend-related topics.Residents in Massachusetts are the most interested in dividend-related queries, ranking at the very top for the past 12 months of searches and the third most interested state in the past 30 days. The states of Alabama, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, and Oklahoma demonstrate a recent spike in searches over the last 30 days.Financial information is more widely available now than ever before. Whether people are looking to engage with the personal finance world through online budgeting courses, ads for new investing apps, YouTube videos of personal financial journeys, or how to get rich quick books, the availability of financial advice and information online is vast.A recent study conducted by Wealthy Living examines the impact of this widely available information by anal...

Column: Has the Chicago Bulls core maxed out or is there still time for a course correction?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

After losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr was asked what went wrong.Instead of talking around the subject or making excuses, Kerr conceded the Warriors were not a championship team this season and probably went as far as they deserved to go.“I’m more focused on what went right, to be honest with you,” Kerr said. “The way the season started, we were disjointed and had that 0-5 road trip and it felt like we were swimming upstream from the beginning.“I think we found ourselves down the stretch and in the first round of the playoffs. To be fair, I think this team probably, ultimately, maxed out.”It was refreshing to hear a coach give an honest, unvarnished opinion of his players — and it’s a cautionary tale for Chicago Bulls executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas as he goes about fixing his team for the 2023-24 season.Has this Bulls core maxed out afte...

Consortium building Eglinton Crosstown to take Metrolinx to court, stop working with TTC

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

The construction consortium in charge of building the Eglinton Crosstown LRT intends to take Metrolinx to court and will stop working with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), according to Metrolinx.The president and CEO of Metrolinx says they will defend the legal challenge from Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS) and calls the latest move an “unacceptable delay tactic” at a time when the consortium should be focused on finishing the much-delayed project.“While Metrolinx is driving and supporting CTS to complete the project, CTS is looking for new ways to make financial claims,” reads a statement from CEO Phil Verster. “CTS’s behaviour continues to be disappointing, especially for our Toronto communities who have been waiting patiently for the completion of this project.”Metrolinx says it is already withholding significant payments from CTS for poor performance and will continue to hold the company to account.“Metrolinx and the TTC have been...

Lebanese Central Bank governor no-show in Paris corruption probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s embattled Central Bank governor failed to appear before French prosecutors on Tuesday to be questioned on corruption charges, officials said.A European judicial team from France, Germany and Luxembourg is conducting a corruption probe into an array of financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and alleged laundering of $330 million, implicating the Lebanese governor, Riad Salameh.Salameh, 72, who has held his post for almost 30 years, has repeatedly denied all allegations against him. He has insisted that his wealth comes from his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, inherited properties, and investments.The three European governments in March 2022 froze over $130 million in assets linked to the probe. During a visit to Lebanon in March, the European delegation questioned Salameh about the Lebanese Central Bank’s assets and investments outside the country, a Paris apartment — which the governor owns— and his brother Raja Salameh’s ...

Prize-winning author Clint Smith working on book that will ‘expand monolithic narrative’ of WWII

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Prize-winning author Clint Smith has a three-book deal with Random House, starting with an exploration of the impact of World War II upon everyone from a survivor of a Japanese internment camp in the U.S. to a Jewish activist in Nazi Germany.Smith’s “Just Beneath the Soil” will be his first book since “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” came out in 2021. “How the Word is Passed” was a bestseller that won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was praised by former President Barack Obama among others.In “Just Beneath the Soil,” according to Random House, Smith “will expand the monolithic narrative Americans have created” about World War II and focus on people whose stories are less known. “After publishing ‘How the Word Is Passed’ — in which I explored how different historical sites across the country reckon with or fail to reckon with their relationships to the history of slavery ...

Defense ministers from Japan, China inaugurate hotline to avoid clashes, build trust

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese and Chinese defense ministers inaugurated their long-awaited hotline on Tuesday as a step to build trust and improve communication at a time when Japan and other neighbors are concerned about Beijing’s increasingly assertive military activities. Japan’s Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada and his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, talked for about 20 minutes through the hotline for the first time since it was established on March 31, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.The two ministers welcomed the start of the operational use of the hotline and affirmed the importance of “the maritime and aerial communication mechanism,” which includes the hotline, in building trust between the two sides while avoiding contingencies.Tokyo and Beijing are embroiled in a dispute over tiny Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. China routinely sends coast guard vessels and planes into waters and airspace su...

Prominent foe of female circumcision wins prestigious $1.4 million Templeton Prize

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

Edna Adan Ismail, a nurse-midwife, hospital founder, and health care advocate who for decades has combated female circumcision and strived to improve women’s health care in East Africa, was named Tuesday as winner of the 2023 Templeton Prize, one of the world’s largest annual individual awards.“Rooted in her Muslim faith, she receives this year’s award in recognition of her extraordinary efforts to harness the power of the sciences to affirm the dignity of women and help them to flourish physically and spiritually,” said the announcement. Among her achievements: the founding of a hospital and university which have significantly reduced maternal mortality in Somaliland.The Templeton Prize, valued at nearly $1.4 million, was established in 1973 by philanthropist Sir John Templeton. It honors those “who harness the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.”Ismail, the first African woman to win the prize, &...

As tensions rise, what comes next for China-Canada relations?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, last week, a “spat” between China and Canada resulted in the expulsion of diplomats from both countries. It was the latest episode in a low-heat diplomatic conflict that’s been simmering for years. Each new development, be it takeovers, arrests, allegations of election interference, or threats of retaliation, only serves to heighten the likelihood of future incidents.Stephanie Carvin is a former national security analyst, associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, and author of “Stand on Guard: Reassessing Threats to Canada’s National Security.”“Between the foreign interference, which is not just against democratic institutions, but also against Canadian communities, we’re getting a better understanding of how this actually works,” says Carvin about China-Canada relations.So, how did China and Canada reach this point? What have we learned in the past few months about China’s goals when it co...

Stock market today: US futures point lower after shaky start to big retail week, sluggish China data

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:10 GMT

Wall Street tipped lower Tuesday after data showed China’s economy is weaker than expected, while Home Depot cut its profit and sales outlook for the year, signaling a spending shift by Americans strapped by inflation and anxious about a possible recession.The Dow Jones industrial Average lost 0.3% and the S&P 500 ticked down 0.2% before the bell Tuesday.Home Depot shares skidded 3.6% in premarket trading after the home improvement giant’s first-quarter revenue fell short of analyst expectations. In February, Atlanta company said it expected profits to slip this year after the chain saw booming growth during the pandemic as Americans spent heavily on home repairs and renovations.Later Tuesday, the government will report April sales data from the U.S. retail sector, and later this week Target and Walmart will report their quarterly results.The majority of companies in the S&P 500 have topped expectations so far but overall they are on track to report a drop of 2.5...