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More Americans apply for jobless benefits but labor market remains tight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

U.S. applications for jobless claims rose slightly last week but remain at healthy levels with companies reticent to let go of employees in a tight labor market.The number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the week ending May 20 rose by 4,000 to 229,000 from 225,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s number was revised down by a significant 17,000.The weekly claims numbers are broadly as representative of the number of U.S. layoffs.The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week gyrations, was unchanged at 231,750 after the previous week’s number was revised down by 12,500. Analysts have pointed to a sustained increase in the four-week averages as a sign that layoffs are accelerating, but are reluctant to predict that a spike in layoffs is imminent. Overall, 1.8 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended May 13, about 5,000 more than the previous week.Since t...

US economic growth for last quarter is revised up to a still-tepid 1.3% annual rate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a lackluster 1.3% annual rate from January through March as businesses wary of an economic slowdown trimmed their inventories, the government said Thursday, a slight upgrade from its initial estimate.The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter.The Commerce Department’s revised measure Thursday of growth in the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — marked a deceleration from the second half of 2022.Despite the first-quarter slowdown, consumer spending, which accounts for around 70% of America’s economic output, rose at a healthy pace.The steady weakening of economic growth is a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive drive to tame inflation, with 10 interest rate hikes over the past 14 months. Across the economy, the Fed’s rate increase have elevated the costs of auto loans, credit card borrowing and business loans.Wi...

Sherpa guide who climbed Mount Everest a record 28th time says he’s not ready to retire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — One of the greatest mountain guides said Thursday he’s not ready to retire after climbing Mount Everest for a record 28th time.Nepalese Sherpa Kami Rita reached the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit of the world’s highest mountain on Tuesday, beating his own record less than a week after setting it.“I will continue to climb as long as my body allows,” the 53-year-old guide told reporters after arriving from the mountain at Kathmandu’s airport, where he was given a hero’s welcome by supporters and family members.He said his goal is not to compete for any records but to help his foreign clients scale the mountain.This year’s climbing season is almost over, and his next climb will have to wait until next spring.Kami Rita reached the summit a day after fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa matched his previous record of 27 climbs.A race for the title began with Pasang Dawa climbing the peak for a 26th time on May 14, equaling Kami Rita’s earlier record...

Swedish online fashion retailer blocks 42,000 customers for returning too many purchased items

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden-based online fashion retailer Bootz AB said Thursday it has blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items they had purchased, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. Ask Kirkeskov Riis, a spokesman for the multi-brand e-commerce webstore selling clothes and beauty products online, said customers who where indefinitely blocked had sent back items either because they don’t fit or because they regretted the purchase.He said these customers “repeatedly exploit the high service levels of free shipping and returns at the expense of our business, other customers and the environment.”In an email to The Associated Press, he said they represented less than 2% of “the more than 3 million customers on Boozt” but around 25% of the total return volume. ”By pausing these accounts and reducing unnecessary returns, Boozt saved approximately 791 tons of CO2 in 2022 which has eliminated the need for approximately 600 delivery tr...

How do we fight the bigger, hotter wildfires of the future?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, in the last few weeks, “unprecedented” Canadian wildfires have been occurring due to the persistence of the conditions that allow our forests to burn. But we aren’t helpless.Whether it’s earlier detection, more accurate predictions, different management approaches, or ways to get boots on the ground faster, the way we fight fires is changing, and the playbook is being written in real-time.Dr. Mike Flannigan, a professor at Thompson Rivers University and BC Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management, and Fire Science, says that worsening wildfires are a hard reality we’ll need to contend with in the coming years.“We’re always going to have to learn to live with fire, unfortunately. But we try to minimize the damages done to society,” says Dr. Flannigan.Today’s Big Story covers what we’ve learned about wildfire management, and how we might keep the fires of the future from being as destructive as the ones we ...

Firewalkers in Greece honor Saint Constantine in mystery-shrouded, centuries-old rituals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

LAGKADAS, Greece (AP) — Sotirios Gkaintatzis danced across burning coals, his stomping bare feet raising sparks and puffs of smoke as he held aloft an icon of Saints Constantine and Helen. Gkaintatzis is the leader of a group of anastenaria — the devotees of St. Constantine who celebrate these centuries-old rites in a smattering of small villages near Greece’s border with Bulgaria. Firewalking is the most spectacular and public of these annual rituals that include dancing, prayer, and shared meals in the konaki, a private dwelling where the icons are preserved for generations. “Dancing and firewalking is like communicating with the saints,” Gkaintatzis said through a translator before leading the solemn ceremony in the middle of a residential street in Lagkadas. “It cannot be translated into words. It’s all a matter of faith.” This year’s festival carried extra meaning for Gkaintatzis’ group. It was the first since his father — the group’s former leader — died last...

Swedish appeals court upholds life sentence in Russia espionage case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s highest court on Thursday upheld the life sentence for the eldest of two Iranian-born Swedish brothers for spying for Russia and its military intelligence service GRU for a decade.Peyman Kia, a naturalized Swede, was sentenced to life in January in one of the Scandinavian country’s biggest espionage case in decades. His brother, Payam Kia, was given nine years and 10 months. They were found guilty for having worked jointly to pass information to Russia between Sept. 28, 2011, and Sept. 20, 2021.At first, both brothers appealed the Jan. 19 sentences by the Stockholm District Court. But Payam Kia retracted his appeal last week, hours before the appeals verdict was scheduled to be announced. His lawyer, Björn Sandin, explained to Swedish broadcaster SVT that his client feared getting a higher sentence. Thursday’s verdict by the Supreme Court was postponed a week because of that. As before, proceedings were held behind closed doors most of the time because of t...

Delaware taps artificial intelligence to evacuate crowded beaches when floods hit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

Delaware’s low elevation mixed with crowded beaches and limited exit routes make the state particularly vulnerable to massive flooding, but officials hope an influx of federal infrastructure money will trigger future evacuation plans automatically via artificial intelligence.The Biden administration was set to announce a total of $53 million in grants Thursday to Delaware and seven other states aimed at high-tech solutions to traffic congestion problems. Although the money comes from the infrastructure law the president signed in 2021, many of the programs — including the $5 million for flood response efforts in Biden’s home state — have evolved since then.“What’s new is the predictive analysis; the machine learning,” U.S. Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt, Delaware’s former transportation secretary, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Because now we have access to all this data, it’s hard for us as humans to figure out what is da...

Woman, 25, shot in Jewel-Osco parking lot on Far South Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

CHICAGO — A 25-year-old woman was shot while sitting inside a vehicle in the parking lot of a Jewel-Osco supermarket on the city's Far South Side.The shooting happened around 10:40 p.m. Wednesday at a Jewel-Osco in the 9400 block of South Ashland.Police said the 25-year-old was a passenger in the backseat of a vehicle when a blue car approached and began shooting into the vehicle. Man dead following officer-involved shooting in Des Plaines The woman was shot in the left arm and transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition. No one is in custody. Area Two detectives are investigating.

Thursday Forecast: Temps in low 60s with decreasing clouds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:31 GMT

Thursday Forecast: Decreasing clouds to sun, coolest lakeside, warmer SW, ENE 10-15 G20. High: 63, Low: 57Thursday Night: Clear, NE 5-15. Low: 47Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Friday: Sunny, cooler lakeside, ENE 5-15. High: 68, Low: 61