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15 killed in Congo flooding, with toll expected to rise

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Rescue efforts were underway after flooding and landslides brought on by torrential overnight rains in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province killed more than a dozen people, a local official said Friday.Delphin Birimbi, a community leader in Kalehe in South Kivu, said that there were 15 dead in his village and that more than 30 people are missing in the nearby localities of Bushushu and Nyamukubi. He fears that the death toll will rise significantly as more bodies are recovered.Two rivers broke their banks after the heavy rains which began on Thursday evening and there have been multiple landslides with scores of homes destroyed, Birimbi said. Rescuers are working to find and save anyone who may be trapped under the rubble of their homes.In a statement published Friday, the provincial government of South Kivu offered its sympathies to the families affected and said it was sending a delegation to the scene.Heavy rains have brought misery to thousands in Eas...

Stock market today: Wall Street bounces ahead of jobs report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

BEIJING — Wall Street climbed Friday ahead of new data on U.S. jobs after a rough week for banks that have been caught up in the Fed’s fight against inflation. Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.5% before the bell and the S&P 500 edged 0.7% higher.Regional banks that saw huge declines in their share price Thursday are rebounding in premarket trading. PacWest Bancorp, whose shares lost half their value on Thursday, rose close to 20% before the bell Friday. Western Alliance Bancorp rose 13% in premarket after a 38% plunge Thursday.The financial sector is the strongest component on the S&P 500 in early trading. Still, the S&P MidCap 400 Banks Index is down 14% for the week after the collapse of First Republic Bank on Monday. Los Angeles-based PacWest Bancorp said it’s selling assets and has been approached by potential partners and investors. Regulators seized First Republic and sold most of it to JPMorgan Chase and shares of financial institutions sli...

Kidnapped Nigerian girls freed, return to Chibok with babies

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Two Nigerian women abducted as schoolgirls by a jihadi militant group nine years ago have been rescued, the West African nation’s military has said. One had a year-old baby while the second gave birth to her second child days after her freedom. Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus were among 276 schoolgirls abducted in April 2014 from the Government Girls Secondary School in the village of Chibok by Boko Haram militants.They were rescued in April by Nigerian soldiers and reunited with their families in the northeastern Borno state, according to Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Ali, who leads the Nigerian military operation against the extremist violence experienced in the northeast region for more than a decade.Boko Haram fighters stormed the school in Borno nine years ago as the girls were preparing for exams. The mass kidnap sparked global outrage and led to the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign. More than 20 of the girls have regained their freedom in the past year, b...

Rebels kill 5 Indian soldiers in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Rebels fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir triggered an explosive device during an encounter with the Indian army on Friday, killing five soldiers who were trying to flush them out of a forested area, the army said.The rebels were hiding in a cave in an area with steep cliffs in Tota Gali in the Jammu region, the army said in a statement. Two Indian soldiers died immediately after being hit by the explosion and three succumbed later in a hospital, it said. The rebel losses in the clash were not immediately known.It was the second major attack by rebels in the past two weeks at a time when Indian authorities are increasing security as they prepare to host a meeting of officials from the Group of 20 leading industrialized and developing nations on promoting tourism in the region later this month.India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents to fight its forces for control of Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.Pakistan Foreign Minister Bil...

How we can still save Canada’s last spotted owls

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

There are only three spotted owls outside of captivity left in Canada, only one of which was born in the wild. And as their habitat continues to shrink, restoring the population will only become more difficult.Sarah Cox, a BC-based Investigative Reporter at The Narwhal, says the history of the spotted owl reflects the ongoing dilemma of governments attempting to balance industrial logging interests with environmental goals.“The spotted owl has very much become synonymous with the destruction of old-growth forests in British Columbia. They also are what’s known as an umbrella species … if their populations are secure, then many other species in that forest will also be secure,” says Cox.There is still hope to protect the spotted owls, if federal and provincial governments can work together. So will they?You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

Yeezy shoes are still stuck in limbo after Adidas-Ye split

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Adidas saw operating earnings dwindle in the first three months of the year as the German sportswear company's breakup with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West and his popular Yeezy shoe brand cost it 400 million euros ($441 million) in lost sales.The company is stuck with 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of unsold Yeezy shoes after cutting ties in October with the rapper now known as Ye over his antisemitic and other offensive comments on social media and in interviews.Adidas was “getting closer and closer to making a decision” on what do to with the sneakers stacked up in warehouses and “options are narrowing,” new CEO Bjorn Gulden said Friday in a conference call. But with “so many interested parties” involved in the discussions, no decision had yet been reached, he said. Investors sue Adidas for ‘routinely’ ignoring Ye’s ‘extreme behavior’ Gulden declined to say if destroying the shoes had been ruled out, but the company ...

Dean's Reviews: 'Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3'

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

Check out Dean's review for the latest movie from the Marvel franchise, 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.'Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

Dean's Weekender: Blink-182, Luke Combs and more

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

Check out Dean's Weekender for the latest events coming to the Chicagoland area this weekend.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

Leading GOP candidate for governor in NC mocked school shooting survivors

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

(The Hill) - North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), who is running for governor, was found to have made several social media posts mocking survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.A new report from CNN’s KFile chronicles several social media posts from Robinson in which he attacked the teenage survivors of the Parkland shooting, where 17 people were killed by a gunman.In one Facebook post dated just two weeks after the shooting, Robinson called the students protesting “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN” who “are trying to tell law abiding ADULTS that we must give up our Constitutional RIGHT to own certain weapons.”He also bashed survivor David Hogg, who co-founded the March for Our Lives movement pushing for gun control after the massacre, calling him and and others “silly little immature ‘media prosti-tots.’” “I guess candidates for office who attack kids and school shooting survivors are ALIVE AND KICKING, and trying to wo...

What falling test scores mean for US students

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:34:38 GMT

(The Hill) -- U.S. children's test scores in social studies, math and reading have all plummeted since the beginning of the pandemic, raising grave concerns about students' future.Eighth graders’ scores in U.S. history and civics were both down to where they were back in the 1990s, according to the Nation’s Report Card, released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on Wednesday. Similar drops in reading and math skills were reported in the fall.The most obvious culprit for the drop is COVID-19, but experts also point to concerns such as the effect of culture wars in schools and the lack of resources for the subjects. According to the NAEP results, eighth graders had a 2-point decrease in average civics scores in 2022 compared to 2018. The scores are at the same level as they were in the 1998 assessment, the first year the civics assessment was conducted. U.S. history average scores for eighth graders fell 5 points in 2022 compared to 2018 and 9 po...