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China’s economy shows sparks of life, despite persisting weakness in troubled real estate sector

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy showed more signs of reviving in October as retail sales and manufacturing picked up though the property sector remained sluggish, the government said Wednesday. Factory output rose 4.6% from a year earlier in October, while retail sales jumped 7.6%, helped by robust spending during the weeklong National Day holidays. But real estate investment sank 9.3%, and officials acknowledged that the industry was still in the “midst of adjustment,” after a crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers two years ago, coupled with the pandemic, plunged the industry into crisis.Disruptions to manufacturing, transport, travel and virtually every other aspect of life during the pandemic ended nearly a year ago when China’s leaders abandoned their “zero-COVID” policies aimed at preventing infections. So improved economic data from October also reflect lower rates of growth a year earlier. Overall, China’s recovery from the pandemic has been fitful, ...

Many parents don’t know when kids are behind in school. Are report cards telling enough?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

Nearly nine out of 10 parents believe their child is performing at grade level despite standardized tests showing far fewer students are on track, according to a poll released Wednesday by Gallup and the nonprofit Learning Heroes. Report cards, which many parents rely on for a sense of their children’s progress, might be missing the whole picture, researchers say. Without that knowledge, parents may not seek opportunities for extra support for their children.“Grades are the holy grail,” said Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes. “They’re the number one indicator that parents turn to to understand that their child is on grade level, yet a grade does not equal grade-level mastery. But nobody’s told parents that.”In the Gallup survey, 88% of parents say their child is on grade level in reading, and 89% of parents believe their child is on grade level in math. But in a federal survey, school officials said half of all U.S. students started last school year behind...

Cuban private grocery stores thrive but only a few people can afford them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — Until recently, the space was the one-car garage of a private home in Cuba’s capital, Havana. Today, it is a well-stocked, if small, grocery store whose big board at the gate entices shoppers with such offerings as cooking oil, tomato sauce, Hershey’s cocoa powder, Nutella, shampoo, cookies and jam — a treasure trove in a country that is short of supplies.The nameless shop in the residential neighborhood of El Vedado is one of dozens of tiny grocery stores that have sprung up around Cuba in recent months. Locals refer to them as “mipymes” — pronounced MEE-PEE-MEHS. The name derives from the Spanish words for the small- and medium-sized enterprises that were first allowed to open in 2021.By allowing the new businesses, the Cuban government hoped to help an economy in crisis and strengthen local production. The almost 9,000 enterprises approved so far include the likes of sewing workshops, fisheries and construction firms, but it is small retail shops like the one ...

Key US spy tool will lapse at year’s end unless Congress and the White House can cut a deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With just seven weeks until the end of the year, the Biden administration is running out of time to win the reauthorization of a spy program it says is vital to preventing terrorism, catching spies and disrupting cyberattacks. The tool, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, will expire at the end of December unless the White House and Congress can cut a deal and resolve an unusually vexing debate that has yielded unlikely alliances at the intersection of privacy and national security. Without the program, administration officials warn, the government won’t be able to collect crucial intelligence overseas. But civil liberties advocates from across the political spectrum say the law as it stands now infringes on the privacy of ordinary Americans and insist that changes are needed before the program is reauthorized.“Renewing this law before it expires is among the most consequential national security decisions we face as a country,” Assistant...

The Lion, the chainsaw and the populist: The rallies of Argentina’s Javier Milei

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Batman and the Joker, a man decked out in a full-body lion costume, and another whose head and arms have been replaced by chainsaws. This isn’t Carnival or Comic-Con, but rather the outlandish campaign rally for Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei.In just a few short years, the right-wing populist Milei went from being a television talking head who garnered high ratings with his unrestrained outbursts against a “political caste” he blamed for Argentina’s perennial economic woes to a frontrunner for the presidency. He even dabbled in cosplay, dressing up as “General AnCap,” short for anarcho-capitalist, at a 2019 event.Just as his candidacy started as a made-for-television spectacle, his followers picked up the baton and have often turned rallies into opportunities to show their devotion to their candidate using props that go viral on social media.Shortly after he first appeared on television, the self-described libertarian grew a cult-like fo...

Biden aims for improved military relations with China when he meets with Xi

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to agree Wednesday to restore some military-to-military communications between their armed forces when they meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.The plan is to revive the regular talks under what’s known as the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, which until 2020 had been used to improve safety in the air and sea, said a U.S. official, who requested anonymity to preview the leaders’ expected announcement. U.S. military leaders have expressed repeated concerns about the lack of communications with China, particularly as the number of unsafe or unprofessional incidents between the two nations’ ships and aircraft has spiked.According to the Pentagon’s most recent report on China’s military power, Beijing has “denied, canceled or ignored” military-to-military communications and meetings with the Pentagon for much of last year and this ye...

Mother of boy, 6, who shot teacher faces sentencing for marijuana use while owning a gun

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and could face prison time for using marijuana while owning a firearm, which is illegal under U.S. law. Deja Taylor’s son took her handgun to school and shot Abby Zwerner in her first-grade classroom in January, seriously wounding the educator. Investigators later found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom and evidence of frequent drug use in her text messages and paraphernalia. The federal charges against Taylor appear to be relatively rare and come at a time when marijuana is legal in many states, including Virginia. Some U.S. courts in other parts of the country also have ruled against the federal law that bans drug users from having guns. But the law remains in effect in many states and has been used to charge others including Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. Federal prosecutors in Virginia argued in court filings that Ta...

Madagascar’s president seeks reelection. Most challengers are boycotting and hope voters do, too

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Madagascar’s Andry Rajoelina is pushing ahead with a presidential election that could give him a second term, even as opposition protests roil the island nation and the majority of candidates have announced a boycott.Rajoelina, a 49-year-old former DJ, initially faced 12 competitors for Thursday’s election. But a collective of 10 candidates on Monday said they would not take part, claiming the electoral process is full of flaws. They encouraged people to stay away from polling booths.Those boycotting are a collective of former political rivals including former leaders Marc Ravalomanana and Hery Rajaonarimampianina. They have organized peaceful marches across the capital almost every day since late September but security forces have violently put them down, leading to serious injuries and dozens of arrests.The protests on the the Indian Ocean island intensified in recent weeks as the opposition, some churches and civil society pushed for a postpo...

Labor abuse on fishing vessels widespread, with China topping list of offenders, report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Hazardous, forced work conditions sometimes akin to slavery have been detected on nearly 500 industrial fishing vessels around the world, but identifying those responsible for abuses at sea is hampered by a lack of transparency and regulatory oversight, a new report concluded.The research by the Financial Transparency Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that tracks illicit money flows, is the most comprehensive attempt to date to identify the companies operating vessels where tens of thousands of workers every year are estimated to be trapped in unsafe conditions.The report, published Wednesday, found that a quarter of vessels suspected of abusing workers are flagged to China, whose distant water fleet dominates fishing on the high seas, traditionally lawless areas beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. Vessels from Russia, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea were also accused of mistreatment of fishers.___This story was supported by f...

California program to lease land under freeways faces scrutiny after major Los Angeles fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:14 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The area under an elevated Los Angeles freeway that burned last weekend was a kind of open-air warehouse with businesses storing everything from wood pallets to cardboard boxes to hand sanitizer on lots leased by the state through a little-known program that now is under scrutiny.The blaze Saturday burned about 100 support columns, forcing the closure of a vital mile-long stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown that is used by hundreds of thousands of people daily. It could take crews working around the clock between three and five weeks to repair the freeway, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. Newsom said the state would reassess the practice of leasing land under roads to bring in money for mass transportation projects. Details of that program remain opaque. Newsom’s office directed questions about whether the state has any regular inspection protocols to state transportation officials. The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, did not respond to...