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Stock market today: Wall Street falls again as its big rally cools some more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are falling again Thursday as Wall Street’s red-hot rally this year cools a bit more.The S&P 500 was 0.5% lower in early trading and on pace for a third straight loss after hitting a 16-month high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 143 points, or 0.4%, at 35,139, as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.A day earlier, U.S. stocks tumbled to their worst loss in months. While the drop came after Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating, several analysts say they expect the move to have minimal impact on financial markets. U.S. Treasury debt is the cornerstone of the global financial system, but the rating change by itself likely won’t push any investors to dump theirs.The big questions remain whether the economy will avoid a recession, how corporate profits will do and where interest rates are heading. Hanging over them all is whether the stock market’s big run this year was overdone, as critics sugges...

Man filmed youth in Mississauga camp washroom, arrested on child porn charges: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

A former Mississauga camp counsellor is facing several charges related to child pornography after allegedly filming a 6-year-old youth while they were in the washroom.Peel Regional Police said between December 2022 and July 2023, while at MC Day Camp in the Lakeshore Road East and Hurontario Street area, a 6-year-old child was filmed in a washroom facility.The accused had been a camp counsellor volunteer since June 2018.Police arrested 26-year-old Alexander Clarke on charges including voyeurism, possession of child pornography, making child pornography and making available child pornography.He was held on bail after attending a court in Brampton.Police executed a search warrant at Clarke’s residence and noted that it became evident there may be additional victims. Officers noted anyone who has had contact with Clarke is asked to contact investigators.

Lebanon hands over to Italy suspected drug dealer arrested near Beirut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon handed over to Italy on Thursday morning a suspected Italian drug dealer arrested last month north of the capital of Beirut, judicial officials said.Bartolo Bruzzaniti was flown to Italy on a private jet that took off from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.The anti-Mafia prosecutors based in Reggio Calabria, a city in the region of Calabria in southern Italy, have called Bruzzaniti a major organized crime figure. He was also described as a prominent player in the Bruzzaniti-Morabito-Palamara clan, which is based near the Calabrian town of Africo and is known for criminal activities abroad.Bruzzaniti was arrested while dining in July at a restaurant in the coastal town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, in a joint action by Lebanon’s General Security Directorate and Italy’s financial police as part of an Interpol action and a crackdown on the prominent Italian organized crime sy...

Mexico recovers 2 bodies from the Rio Grande, one found near a floating barrier that Texas installed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities are trying to identify two bodies found in the Rio Grande this week, including one that was spotted along the floating barrier that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had installed recently in the Rio Grande, across from Eagle Pass, Texas.Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department reported for the first time Wednesday that a body had been found along the floating barrier. The Coahuila state prosecutor’s office later told local media outlets that the two bodies were recovered and that the process of identification was underway. The department initially said one body was found along the barrier, then hours later said a second body was found about 3 miles (5 kilometers) upriver, away from the area of the buoys. The cause of death was unknown in both cases.Many had warned about the danger of the barrier, designed to make it more difficult for migrants to climb over or swim under.The department said Mexico had warned about the risks posed by the bright orange,...

Weekly applications for US jobless aid tick up from 5-month low

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose slightly last week but remained at a historically low level that points to a robust job market. Applications for jobless aid rose 6,000 to 227,000 for the week ending July 29, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell 5,500 to 228,250.Jobless benefit applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week. Thursday’s report comes just a day before the July jobs report will be released, which will provide a broader and more detailed look at the labor market and economy. Economists forecast the report will show that employers added a solid 200,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate will be unchanged at 3.6%. The Associated Press

Lizzo says she’s ‘not the villain’ after her former dancers claim sex harassment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lizzo said Thursday that she’s “not the villain” that three of her former backup dancers falsely accuse her of being in a sexual harassment lawsuit.The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Lizzo pressured the dancers to engage with nude performers at a club in Amsterdam and shamed one of them for her weight gain before firing her.“I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” Lizzo said in a statement posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”Plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez make numerous charges including sexual, religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment. They ...

Swaths of the US are living through a brutal summer. It’s a climate wake-up call for many

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

Veronica Iordanova remembers Octobers growing up in Arizona when it was too cold to trick-or-treat in a short-sleeved Halloween costume. She can’t imagine that anymore.The summer heat lasts longer and feels more intense now, and she knows that is a result of human-caused global warming. She worries about her and her family’s future.“We need to realistically look at the situation and realize it’s not going to get better,” said Iordanova, who lives in Tempe.Across the U.S., many people are living through one of the most brutal summers of their lives. And some psychologists believe the attention on a cascade of record-shattering heat, wildfire smoke, extreme flooding and Jacuzzi-hot ocean water could be “another turning point” in efforts to raise awareness about the everyday impact of climate change, as Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald put it. That’s a crucial step to prompt collective action on global warming.The recognition that human-caused climate c...

Lizzo says she's 'not the villain' after her former dancers claim sex harassment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lizzo said Thursday that she's “not the villain” that three of her former backup dancers falsely accuse her of being in a sexual harassment lawsuit.The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Lizzo pressured the dancers to engage with nude performers at a club in Amsterdam and shamed one of them for her weight gain before firing her.“I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” Lizzo said in a statement posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”Plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez make numerous charges including sexual, religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and f...

VIDEO: School bus crashes into Chicago home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

CHICAGO (WGN) — At least one person was injured after a school bus crashed into a house on Chicago's Northwest Side.The accident happened around 8:20 a.m. Wednesday. Police said a 63-year-old bus driver hit a parked vehicle, a city utility pole and crashed into a home.There were three people on the bus at the time of the accident: the driver, a child in a wheelchair and the child's 43-year-old female caretaker — who was transported in stable condition to a hospital with neck pains. No major injuries were reported. Illinois family still shaken after vandals poured oil into their pool, breaking window Homeowner Myra Rivera was working from home when she was startled by the moment of impact. "I heard this big loud crash. It seemed like the whole house was coming down and I was afraid to look and I didn’t expect to see what I saw," Rivera said.When Rivera came to the front of the home with her puppy, she "saw the bus in my window."Rivera told Nexstar's WGN that she immediately calle...

Lizzo speaks out on allegations in lawsuit from former dancers: 'I am not the villian'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:22:58 GMT

(The Hill) -- Lizzo is speaking out for the first time after a lawsuit by three of her former dancers accused her of creating a “hostile, abusive work environment,” saying that she’s “not the villain that people and the media” have portrayed her to be."As an artist I have always been passionate about what I do," Lizzo, who was born Melissa Jefferson, said in a Thursday Instagram post. "I take my music and my performances seriously because at the end of the day I only want to put out the best art that represents me and my fans."“With passion comes hard work and high standards," the 35-year-old “2 Be Loved” singer added. "Sometimes I have to make hard decisions but it’s never my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable or like they aren’t valued as an important part of the team."She argued that she is "not here to be looked at as a victim.""I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” the Grammy Award winner continued...