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Putin welcomes Kim Jong Un at cosmodrome for meeting that shows how leaders are coming together

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived at a cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that underscores how the two leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.Putin welcomed Kim at the entrance to a launch vehicle assembly building. The two men shook hands and Putin said he was “very glad to see” Kim. Kim’s translator thanked Putin for the warm welcome, “despite being busy.” The two leaders will inspect the cosmodrome and then sit down for talks, Russian state media reported. Hours earlier, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.For Putin, the meeting with Kim is an opportunity to refill ammunition stores that the 18...

More than a dozen people are feared dead in a massive fire at an apartment building in Hanoi

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Around a dozen people are feared dead after a massive fire broke out at an apartment building in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, state media said on Wednesday.The fire is believed to have started late Tuesday and 54 of the 70 people who were rescued from the building were hospitalized with injuries, the report said.Authorities are yet to confirm the exact death toll.The fire has been extinguished but rescue operations are continuing.The Associated Press

New England braces for more rain after hourslong downpour left communities flooded and dams at risk

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — More heavy rain was in the forecast Wednesday in New England, where residents were cleaning up after downpours dropped nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in six hours and flooded parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.The rainfall was a “200-year event,” said Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston. Two communities declared a state of emergency and officials ordered evacuations out of concern for a dam listed in poor condition.Rain from Hurricane Lee didn’t contribute to Monday’s flooding but could inundate parts of the coastal Northeast during the weekend, forecasters said.Up to 300 people were evacuated by Tuesday morning in Leominster, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Boston, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. That included residents of a high-rise apartment building and a nursing home. Schools closed and shelters were opened.Mazzarella said the city has not seen such widespread damage since a 1936 hurri...

Crimea shipyard burning after a Ukrainian attack and 24 are injured, Russian-installed official says

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

The Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea was on fire Wednesday after a Ukrainian attack, and 24 people were injured, local Russian-installed official reported.Mikhail Razvozhayev, Moscow-appointed governor of the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, said on Telegram on Wednesday that the fire was sparked by a missile attack. The official posted a photo of the fire with smoke billowing over it. The Sevastopol Shipyard is of strategic importance to Russia as vessels in its Black Sea fleet are being repaired there.The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched 10 cruise missiles at the shipyard and three sea drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea. Seven missiles were shot down and all the sea drones have been destroyed, the military said, but some of the missiles damaged two ships that were being repaired in the shipyard.The Associated Press

School district takes teachers union to court for wave of absences that forced school closures

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — School district officials in Las Vegas are asking a judge to put an end to what it claims is a coordinated union campaign of teacher absences during a bitter contract battle, forcing school closures and classroom disruptions in a state where it is illegal for public employees to strike.Since Sept. 1, unexpected staff shortages have forced seven schools to cancel classes for the day and two others to combine classes, according to the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas. The district’s motion seeking an emergency court order said one of those schools had 87% of its teachers call out sick on the same day.“The absentee level at the affected schools is unprecedented,” the motion said, “and these mass sickouts have left students, parents, staff, and administrators scrambling to ensure students’ wellbeing.”The tense contract negotiations in the nation’s fifth-largest school district are unfolding at a time when labor unions across the country...

North Korea fires 2 short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern seas

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern seas Wednesday, its neighbors said.The launch came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was traveling in Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin while there are international concerns about a potential arms deal that could fuel Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missiles being fired 10 minutes apart from an area in Sunan, the site of Pyongyang’s international airport, and that the weapons flew cross-country toward the country’s eastern seas. It didn’t immediately say how far the weapons flew.Japan’s Coast Guard, citing Tokyo’s Defense Ministry, said the missile likely has landed but still urged vessels around the Japanese coasts to watch out for falling objects. Kim has been using the international distraction caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine to ramp up the North’s weapons development, a process that has i...

Last trial in Governor Whitmer kidnapping plot heads to closing arguments

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

A jury is set to hear closing arguments Wednesday in the fourth trial connected to a scheme by anti-government extremists to kidnap Michigan’s governor and inspire a civil war just ahead of the 2020 presidential election.William Null, twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor are the last of 14 men to face charges in state or federal court.They were not among the main group of six people charged with a kidnapping conspiracy in federal court. Instead, they’re accused of having a supporting role by participating in militia-style drills and taking rides to see Whitmer’s vacation home in Antrim County.Molitor, 39, and William Null, 41, acknowledged the road trips but told jurors they didn’t really understand the purpose. William Null said he was regularly exposed to “crazy talk” by pot-puffing plot leaders Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. and didn’t think it was too serious until conversations turned to explosives.Michael Null, 41, declined to testify in...

China’s ‘full-time children’ move back in with parents, take on chores as good jobs grow scarce

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — When she first moved to the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen after graduating from college, Marguerite Wang imagined she would spend her career working hard in a big city. Instead, she’s living with her parents in her hometown in northeastern China. A record of more than one in five young Chinese are out of work, their career ambitions at least temporarily derailed by a depressed job market as the economy struggles to regain momentum after its long bout with COVID-19.Wang, who was laid off from a gaming company in December, is among an estimated 16 million young Chinese who, daunted by the difficulties of finding decent jobs, have moved back home. She asked that her English nickname be used out of concern that speaking to foreign media might hurt her job prospects. After spending six months unsuccessfully applying for jobs in Shenzhen, the 29-year-old did something she had never imagined doing: she asked to move back home. Now she spends her days watching soa...

Stock market today: Asian shares slide after tech, rising oil prices drag Wall St lower

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

NEW YORK — Stocks fell Wednesday in Asia after a slide for technology stocks dragged Wall Street lower ahead of a key report on U.S. inflation. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.3% to 17,970.01 and the Shanghai Composite index sank 0.9% to 3,109.88. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.4% to 32,656.85, while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.2% lower, to 2,532.69. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.8% to 7,146.40. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 4,461.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%, to 34,645.99 The Nasdaq composite dropped 1% to 13,773.61.Software giant Oracle helped lead the losses for tech stocks after reporting its revenue for the latest quarter fell just short of what analysts expected. Its stock tumbled 13.5%, even though its profit topped expectations. Oracle’s forecast for how much revenue it will make in the current quarter also wasn’t as strong as some analysts expected.Apple dropped 1.8% after it unveiled the latest models of its phones and...

Hudson River swimmer deals with fatigue, choppy water, rocks and pollution across 315 miles

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:44:14 GMT

CASTLETON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) — The Hudson River snakes through forests and rushes over boulders in the Adirondack Mountains before settling into a wide, slow flow closer to New York City. It stretches 315 miles (507 kilometers) from source to end.Lewis Pugh is about to finish swimming all of it.The 53-year-old endurance swimmer plans to finish the last miles of his month-long river journey Wednesday at the lower tip of Manhattan. After countless crawl strokes, Pugh has powered through fatigue and sore shoulders. He has dodged tugboats and bobbing plastic garbage. He insists that any discomfort is worth it to highlight the Hudson and the importance of clean rivers.“There is no other river in the whole world where at the source, you’ve got beavers, you’ve got bears, you’ve got vultures,” Pugh told The Associated Press before a leg of his swim recently. “And then at the end, you come underneath the George Washington Bridge and you breathe to your left-hand side and you see thes...