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Americans have poor math skills. It’s a threat to US standing in the global economy, employers say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Like a lot of high school students, Kevin Tran loves superheroes, though perhaps for different reasons than his classmates.“They’re all insanely smart. In their regular jobs they’re engineers, they’re scientists,” said Tran, 17. “And you can’t do any of those things without math.” Tran also loves math. This summer, he studied calculus five hours a day with other high schoolers in a program at Northeastern University. But Tran and his friends are not the norm. Many Americans joke about how bad they are at math, and already abysmal scores on standardized math tests are falling even further. The nation needs people who are good at math, employers say, in the same way motion picture mortals need superheroes. They say America’s poor math performance isn’t funny. It’s a threat to the nation’s global economic competitiveness and national security.___The Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition of eight newsrooms, is documenting the math crisis facing schools and highlig...

European court rules Turkish teacher’s rights were violated by conviction based on phone app use

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that the rights of a Turkish teacher convicted of what prosecutors called terrorism offences had been violated because the case was largely based on his use of a phone app.The court said its ruling could apply to thousands of people convicted following an attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 after the prosecution presented use of the ByLock encrypted messaging app as evidence of a crime.Ankara has blamed the coup on the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has listed Gulen’s movement as a terrorist organization known as FETO. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed putsch.Yuksel Yalcinkaya was among tens of thousands arrested following the coup attempt in July 2016, in which 251 people were killed as pro-coup elements of the military fired at crowds and bombed state buildings. Around 35 people who allegedly participated in the plot also were killed.Ya...

1st Saudi envoy to the Palestinians in West Bank, Israeli minister in Riyadh amid normalization push

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority presented his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his first visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a move linked to American efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.The trip by nonresident Saudi ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi came just as Israel’s tourism minister became the first senior Israeli official to make a public visit to Saudi Arabia. In a clear sign that a landmark diplomatic deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia has gained momentum, Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz on Tuesday led an Israeli delegation to Riyadh to take part in a conference hosted by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Katz’s office described the visit as unprecedented for an Israeli minister and said he would hold discussions with officials from across the Middle East.Meanwhile the visit by al-Sudairi to Ramallah, the seat of th...

California, a liberal bastion, may give Donald Trump an unlikely boost in 2024

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Few corners of the U.S. may be less hospitable to Donald Trump than California, where he lost by more than 5 million votes in the 2020 election. But as the former president seeks to return to the White House, the liberal bastion may give him an unlikely boost.A state GOP rule change has opened the possibility that Trump could sweep each of the state’s 169 delegates on March 5, when California is among more than a dozen states participating in the so-called Super Tuesday contests. With Trump already leading his rivals in many state and national polls, a dominant performance in California could move him much closer to the GOP nomination.“This race is quickly consolidating,” said GOP fundraiser Charles Moran, a Trump delegate in 2016 and 2020. With a win in California, he added, “I truly think Trump could take the nomination on Super Tuesday — then this is over.”With less than four months before the Iowa caucuses officially kick off the GOP nomination process, the dy...

MPs have lost confidence in Speaker amid controversy over Nazi veteran invite: Gould

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

OTTAWA — Government House leader Karina Gould says she believes MPs have lost confidence in Speaker Anthony Rota after he invited a man who fought for the Nazis to attend a speech by Ukraine’s president.Gould says she “can’t see” how Rota will maintain the confidence of the Liberals, and it’s time for the Speaker to do the “honourable thing.”Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is also urging Rota to resign, following similar calls by the NDP and Bloc Québécois on Monday.All members of Parliament stood and applauded 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka last Friday during the official visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, without knowing the details of his past.Hunka is a veteran of the First Ukrainian Division, which was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is calling the mistake “deeply embarrassing,...

Stock market today: Wall Street drops as its September slump gets even worse

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is back to falling on Tuesday as its September swoon worsens.The S&P 500 was 1.2% lower in morning trading, coming off a rare gain and on track for its fifth drop in six days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 294 points, or 0.9%, at 33,712, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower.Stocks have tumbled this month, which is on track to be Wall Street’s worst of the year, as the realization sets in that the Federal Reserve will indeed keep interest rates high for a long time. The growing understanding has sent yields in the bond market to their highest levels in more than a decade, which in turn has undercut prices for stocks and other investments.Treasury yields were holding relatively steady Tuesday following a mixed batch of reports on the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.51% from 4.54% late Monday, though it’s still near its highest level since 2007.One report showed confidence among ...

To TikTok or not to TikTok? One GOP candidate joins the app even as he calls it ‘digital fentanyl’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

Republican presidential hopefuls have largely shunned TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app that some in both parties allege is a potential spy mechanism for China. But entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy recently became the first 2024 candidate to join the platform, which says it has over 150 million U.S. users. That’s even as he’s accused Beijing of pushing TikTok as “digital fentanyl” to Americans and wants the app banned entirely.“We’re in this to reach young people, to energize young people, and to do that, we can’t just hide,” Ramaswamy said in his first post earlier this month. “You can’t play in the game, and then not play in the game, so we’re here.”His competitors face the same conundrum. With U.S.-China tensions already running high, the Republicans running for president have all called for new economic and political measures to punish Beijing. Several major GOP candidates have said they want to ban TikTok. But they also want to reach the younger audiences tha...

UEFA moves toward partially reintegrating Russian teams and match officials into European soccer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA made two moves toward partially reintegrating Russia into European soccer on Tuesday despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.The European soccer governing body decided to try reintroducing Russian under-17 teams into its competitions this season. That’s an easing of a blanket ban on national and club teams from international play imposed within days of the Russian invasion starting in February 2022.UEFA said it was “aware that children should not be punished for actions whose responsibility lies exclusively with adults and is firmly convinced that football should never give up sending messages of peace and hope.”The UEFA executive committee decision was announced during a Women’s Nations League game in Armenia that was the first European game handled by Russian match officials during the war.Russian referees were not specifically banned by UEFA from its games but none were chosen until Vera Opeykina and three assistants were picked this month for the A...

Police: 5 injured after distracted driver causes crash in Northwest Indiana

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

HOBART, Ind. — A distracted driver caused a chain reaction crash on I-65 in Northwest Indiana Monday afternoon, police said.At around 3:45 p.m., authorities responded to a multi-vehicle crash that was blocking all southbound lanes of I-65 near the 254 mile marker.Indiana State Police located four vehicles at the scene and another on the right shoulder. Police believe a 39-year-old Merrillville man, driving a Dodge Caravan, was distracted and did not observe slowed traffic ahead.Police said he rear-ended a Chevy Malibu, which caused a chain reaction.The driver of the Malibu, a 40-year-old woman from Michigan City, had to be extricated from her vehicle. She was flown to the University of Chicago with serious but non life-threatening injuries. Driver injured after car crashes into Northwest Indiana basement Three juveniles inside the Caravan were taken to St. Mary's for pain and another driver was taken to another hospital with non life-threatening injuries.Neither drugs or alcohol a...

Prosecutor calls Delphi 'ritualistic' murder theory 'a fanciful defense for social media to devour'

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:13 GMT

CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland has responded to Richard Allen's defense team's 136-page memorandum that not only asked for evidence collected during a search warrant to be thrown out, but laid out an alternative theory that linked the Delphi murders to a cult that “ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German.”McLeland fired back in new court filings by calling the alternative theory "a fanciful defense for social media to devour" that isn't supported by evidence. McLeland tore into the defense's entire 136-page memorandum, calling the large filing "colorful, dramatic and highly unprofessional." Attorneys for man charged in Delphi murders argue girls died in ritual sacrifice Chief amongst defense attorneys' targets was a search warrant served by investigators on Richard Allen's home in October 2022. The defense accused Sheriff Tony Liggett of lying about key information in order to have the search warrant signed by a judge. Mc...