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Ski Wednesday: Spreading joy of the sport

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

A Massachusetts-raised, Jackson, New Hampshire-based lifelong skier who also happens to be a high school music director has secured a prestigious Share Winter Foundation (https://sharewinterfoundation.org/) grant to introduce dozens of the inner city high school students she works with to the mountain sports life.Danielle Trial Lucini, Music Director at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, was awarded a grant to bring as many as 50 students, many of them transplants from spots like the Dominican Republic and other non-snow climates, and put them on skis and in the proper winter attire, in ski school and best of all, she says, experiencing first hand the beauty of the winter sport.The grant is a next step – a big one, she says – in a project she started when she and another school staffer who loves to ski were on a chairlift and had a brainstorm: Let’s get these kids out here.Lucini pulled it together with a bit of wing and prayer. She reached out to ski areas for discount passe...

India opens an investigation after US says it disrupted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has set up a high-level inquiry after U.S. authorities raised concerns with New Delhi that its government may have had knowledge of a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader on American soil, an Indian official said on Wednesday.The U.S. side shared some information and India “takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue,” a statement by External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.The U.S. government said it had raised the issue with New Delhi but declined to comment on when or how U.S. officials became aware of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, as well as how the alleged assassination attempt was derailed. In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible allegations that the Indian government may have had links to the assassination in that country of...

Biden targeting GOP’s Boebert in fresh political attack on Republicans

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

DENVER (AP) — President Joe Biden will try to turn Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado into the embodiment of Republican opposition to his agenda as he visits her congressional district on Wednesday. The trip comes as Biden struggles with low approval ratings while he prepares for a likely 2024 rematch against former President Donald Trump, leaving Democrats eager for opportunities to score political points against Republicans. Biden plans to tour CS Wind, the world’s largest facility for wind tower manufacturing, in the town of Pueblo. The trip was originally scheduled for last month, but it was delayed as the Democratic president focused on the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. CS Wind is undergoing a $200 million expansion that is expected to create 850 jobs by 2026 with help from the tax benefits in the Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions of dollars of financial incentives. In addition, a new analysis from the Treasury Department said clean energy in...

The world economy will slow next year because of inflation, high rates and war, OECD says

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global economy, which has proved surprisingly resilient this year, is expected to falter next year under the strain of wars, still-elevated inflation and continued high interest rates.The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated Wednesday that international growth would slow to 2.7% in 2024 from an expected 2.9% pace this year. That would amount to the slowest calendar-year growth since the pandemic year of 2020.A key factor is that the OECD expects the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China, to decelerate next year. The U.S. economy is forecast to expand just 1.5% in 2024, from 2.4% in 2023, as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases — 11 of them since March 2022 — continue to restrain growth.The Fed’s higher rates have made borrowing far more expensive for consumers and businesses and, in the process, have helped slow inflation from its four-decade peak in 2022. The OECD foresees U.S. in...

An ailing Pope Francis tells the public he’s better than a day earlier but has aides read speeches

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis presided at his weekly audience with the public at the Vatican, but he said that he’s still unwell and asked an aide to read his remarks for him on Wednesday, a day after canceling an overseas trip.Francis, who will turn 87 on Dec. 17 and had part of one lung removed as a young man, coughed near the end of the hourlong audience in a Vatican auditorium as he made some final comments, then stood up from his chair on the stage to give his blessing. With a soft voice, barely above a whisper, Francis told the public that “since I am not well,” his reading of his speech wouldn’t sound “pretty.” He then handed the printed speech to the aide.But Francis did speak at the end of the audience, voicing his contentment over the truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas, and saying he hopes it continues “so that all the hostages are released and access necessary to permit humanitarian aid” to reach Gaza is provided.“They lack bread, water, the p...

Stock market today: Global shares trade mixed and oil prices advance ahead of OPEC meeting

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — European shares were mostly higher on Wednesday after a mixed session in Asia, where selling of property and technology shares pulled Chinese benchmarks lower. France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.4% in early trading to 7,281.99, while Germany’s DAX added 1% to 16,151.57. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.2% to 7,438.87. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% and that for the S&P 500 also gained 0.3%.In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 0.3% to finish at 33,321.22. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 7,035.30. South Korea’s Kospi shed nearly 0.1% to 2,519.81. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.1% to 16,993.44, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.6% to 3,021.69. Food delivery company Meituan’s Hong Kong-traded shares dropped 12.2% after it forecast its revenue will fall in the current quarter. Troubled property developer China Evergrande sank 10.4% following reports that its property services g...

US military Osprey aircraft with 6 aboard crashes off southern Japan, at least 1 dead

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said. The cause of the crash and the status of the five others on the aircraft were not immediately known, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the U.S. military later revised the number to six, he said. The coast guard received an emergency call from a fishing boat near the crash site off Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima on the southern main island of Kyushu, he said.Coast guard aircraft and patrol boats found one person, who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, and gray-colored debris believed to be from the aircraft, Ogawa said. They were found about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) off the eastern coast of Yakushima. An empty inflatable life raft was also found in the area. “The government will confirm...

A $16 McDonald’s meal is going viral again. Here’s why

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – A $16 McDonald’s order that drew mixed reactions from people on TikTok last year is going viral again, this time reportedly reaching White House officials.  The resurfaced video, originally posted in December 2022, shows a man named Topher Olive venting about the cost of his meal.“So, I get there’s a labor shortage. I get there’s wage increases and a number of other things,” he said in the clip. “But $16? $16 for a burger, a large fry and a drink? It’s just crazy!”An itemized receipt from the McDonald’s in Post Falls, Idaho, shows Olive purchased a Smoky Double Quarter Pounder BLT, a large fry and a large Sprite. The order totaled $16.10 with tax. McDonald’s and Crocs releasing shoes inspired by Grimace, Hamburglar “Bro ordered the most expensive meal they have and acted surprised,” one user quipped.The video, now at more than 670,000 views, began recirculating online shortly after McDonald’s released its quarterly revenue report earlier this month.Several outlets...

US Osprey aircraft with 6 aboard crashes off coast of Japan, at least 1 dead

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.The cause of the crash and the status of the five others on the aircraft were not immediately known, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the U.S. military later revised the number to six, he said.The coast guard received an emergency call from a fishing boat near the crash site off Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima on the southern main island of Kyushu, he said.A Japan's coast guard vessel and a helicopter conduct search and rescue operation around the site where a U.S. military Osprey aircraft was believed to crash in the sea off Yakushima Island, Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. Japan's coast guard has found a person and debris in the ocean where a U.S. military Osprey a...

"Enhanced" severe risk east of I-35 on Thursday

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:04:10 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Clouds increase today ahead of a western storm that will bring rain, isolated thunderstorms, and a low-end tornado risk to parts of Central Texas on Thursday.Today, gray skies will keep temperatures down. We'll be lucky if we clip 60º this afternoon. As clouds lower and thicken late in the day and the atmosphere moistens, drizzle, mist and light fog develop this evening, but generally we should stay dry during the daylight hours today.On Thursday, we are expecting a low risk of severe thunderstorms in our eastern communities, including the possibility of a brief, weak tornado.Scattered showers and thunderstorms Thursday morning through early afternoon may begin to rotate, mainly east of I-35, potentially leading to an isolated, weak tornado similar to what Caldwell County saw in late October. NEW this morning, the severe weather risk has increased to a 2 out of 5 for areas just east of Austin and now an "Enhanced" risk (3 out of 5) for some of our eastern counties w...