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Emmanuel Macron wants to charm China — after failing with Putin

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is jetting off on an ambitious diplomatic mission to woo Beijing away from Moscow. Officials in Washington wish him luck with that. France hopes to dissuade China’s leader Xi Jinping from getting any cozier with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and wants the Chinese instead to play a mediation role over the war in Ukraine. However, it is unclear what leverage Macron has — and the backdrop to his three-day trip starting Tuesday isn’t easy. Europe continues to reel from the impact of cutting off trade ties to Russia and geopolitical tensions are ratcheting up between China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest economies. The French president wants to play a more personal card with his Chinese counterpart, after drawing fierce criticism for hours of fruitless phone calls with Putin last year — an effort that failed to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Macron is expected to spend several hours in discussions ...

UPS drivers rally in Boston ahead of national negotiations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

UPS drivers rallied in Boston on Sunday as their union prepares to negotiate a new contract. Negotiations with impact more than 300,000 drivers and warehouse workers across the country. The union said its ready to strike if they’re not given a contract with better pay and other protections.

Seymour Stein, record exec who signed up Madonna, dead at 80

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80. Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement by his family.Born in 1942, Stein was a New York City native who as a teenager worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, James Brown’s label, and by his mid-20s had co-founded Sire Productions, soon to become Sire Records. Obsessed with the Billboard music charts since childhood, he was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove an astute judge of talent during the 1970s era of New Wave, a term he helped popularize, signing record deals with Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders. “Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple of years ahead of everyone else’s,” Talking Hea...

South Korea, US, Japan hold anti-North Korea submarine drill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea’s military said.The two-day drills come as North Korea’s recent unveiling of a type of battlefield nuclear warhead prompted worries the country may conduct first nuclear test since 2017.The maritime exercises in international waters off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju involved the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and naval destroyers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The training was arranged to improve the three countries’ capacities to respond to underwater security threats posed by North Korea’s advancing submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other assets, the statement said. It said the three countries were to detect and track unmanned South Korean and U.S. underwater vehicles posing a...

TTC cash fares set to rise 10 cents on Monday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

It is going to cost you more to get around on the TTC starting Monday. As part of the transit system’s $2.4 billion budget approved by city council earlier this year, cash fares and one-ride PRESTO tickets are going up 10 cents to $3.35. Along with the fare hike, eligibility for the Fair Pass Transit Discount program will be expanded to an extra 50,000 people while monthly pass users and seniors will see their fares frozen in 2023.Table showing TTC fare increases as of April 3, 2023. TTCThe transit advocacy group TTCriders has called the fare increase “cruel” pointing out that it targets the lowest income people in the city.The fare increase comes on the heels of the TTC’s recent service adjustments on almost 40 bus, streetcar and subway routes which took effect last month.

Bank survey shows Japan’s businesses turning pessimistic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers worsened in the first quarter of this year in the fifth straight decline, according to a central bank survey released Monday.The headline measure in the Bank of Japan quarterly survey called “tankan” found such sentiments stood at plus 1, down from plus 7 in December. It’s the worst quarterly result since December 2020.Sentiments among major non-manufacturers rose one point to plus 20, its the fourth straight quarter of improvement. The Japanese economy has tended to stagnate in recent years, with slow wage increases, and has recently been hit by inflationary pressures, even as some parts of the nation’s economy continue to experince deflation, the opposite trend in which prices continually decrease.Uncertainty about global growth is weighing on the export-reliant country. The recent turmoil over the U.S. banking sector is adding to such woes, just at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent energy prices soa...

Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to receive Edward MacDowell Medal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary maker Alanis Obomsawin is this year’s winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement honor given previously to Toni Morrison, David Lynch and Roseanne Cash among others. She is the first female director to win the medal, presented by the MacDowell artist residency program. She is also the first recipient who descends from the Abanaki People, part of whose homeland is now the setting for MacDowell, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.“It is a distinct pleasure to be counted among such a magnificent group,” the 90-year-old Obomsawin, referring to the other medal winners, said in a statement. A New Hampshire native who grew up in Quebec, she has made dozens of movies, focused often on First Nations people, her credits including “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance” and “Incident at Restigouche.” She is also an activist, actor and musician who has received numerous awards in Canada.“As the Grand Dame of the Indigenous film world an...

Canadian-American filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to win MacDowell Medal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Prolific filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin will receive the MacDowell Medal.MacDowell, an American arts organization, says the Canadian-American documentarian will be the first female filmmaker to win the prize when it’s awarded at a ceremony in July.The award goes to an artist who’s made an outstanding contribution to their field.The 90-year-old Obomsawin, who is Abenaki, has more than 50 films under her belt, including 1993’s “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance” and last year’s short “Bill Reid Remembers.”Past winners of the prize include James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Toni Morrison. Jesse Wente will introduce Obomsawin at an event on the MacDowell campus in Peterborough, N.H.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2023.The Canadian Press

Report: 2 dead, 1 hurt in medical copter crash in Alabama

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A medical helicopter responding to a call to airlift a hiker with breathing problems crashed Sunday southeast of the Alabama city of Birmingham, leaving two of its crew dead and sending the third to a hospital, authorities said.The Eurocopter EC130 crashed near the community of Chelsea in Shelby County with the three crew aboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said in an email to The Associated Press.Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Clay Hammac told news outlet al.com that the downed craft was a medical helicopter called to evacuate a hiker suffering from breathing problems and chest pains. Deputies had set up a landing area for the helicopter, he added.A deputy called 911 to report the crash and said that one of the three crew members was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the report. Two others were taken to a hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead, it added.The condition of the third crew member was not immediately a...

Chicago Tool Library expands on West Side with more than just books

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:27 GMT

CHICAGO — The Chicago Tool Library, where you don't just find books, recently expanded to a new space on the city's West Side. The Chicago Tool Library is a non-profit library, but instead of books, the organization has much more — from home repair and gardening, to sewing, cooking and camping.Executive director Tessa Vierk co-founded the library in 2019, six months before the pandemic hit."Our resources were more important than ever, people were home cooking, doing more projects, in their yards and we were there for them. It was really great to be able to do that," Vierk said.The library first resided in Bridgeport, but now can be found in West Garfield Park.The library's philosophy is that instead of buying a new tool that may hardly be used, people can borrow up to seven items at a time for a week with an option for renewal. The library also recently launched paid memberships for small organizations."I think we can all relate to having too much stuff that we don’t use all the ti...