Новости за 31.08.2023

Authorities say one man was killed and seven people were wounded in three separate shootings hours apart in Peoria. The shootings Thursday continued a spate of gun violence that started in the central Illinois city last weekend. The man was killed Thursday morning about an hour after two other males were wounded in a shooting nearby, authorities said. Police Chief Eric Echevarria said it’s not clear if any of the shootings are connected. The shootingsfollowed one Wednesday night in which five people were wounded, two critically. Читать дальше...

Orsted, the global wind energy developer, says its first offshore wind farm in New Jersey will be delayed until 2026. The Danish company said Wednesday that's due to supply chain issues, higher interest rates, and a failure so far to garner enough tax credits from the federal government. The company says it could be forced to write off about $2.3 billion on U.S. projects that are worth less than they had been. It also said it had considered simply abandoning the Ocean Wind I project off the southern New Jersey coast. Читать дальше...

The Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would require thousands more firearms dealers to run background checks. It's the latest effort by President Joe Biden's top officials to combat rising gun violence nationwide. People who sell firearms online or at gun shows would be required to be licensed and run background checks on the buyers before the sales. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates the rule would affect anywhere from 24,500 to 328,000 sellers. The... Читать дальше...

Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson have committed $10 million to make direct payments to people on Maui who are unable to return to their homes because of the wildfires. The People’s Fund of Maui announced Thursday will give $1,200 a month to adults who are not able to return to their primary residences because of the recent wildfires. That includes people who owned and rented their homes, according to the fund’s website. At least 115 people were killed in the fires and an unknown number are still missing. Читать дальше...

Elon Musk says his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. But Musk has a history of proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition. He did not say when the features would be available to users. Rival social platforms already offer voice and video calls. San Francisco-based X also updated its privacy policies, which will go into effect on Sept. 29. The new policies will allow for... Читать дальше...

Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law placing strict limits on drag shows is facing another legal challenge. The ACLU is suing a local district attorney who is warning Blount County Pride organizers that he intends to enforce the new statute. A federal judge in Memphis has ruled the ban is unconstitutional, but that decision only applies to the county Memphis lies in. Legal experts are at odds over whether to anticipate district attorneys across Tennessee enforcing the ban and whether the federal court... Читать дальше...

A senior U.S. envoy visiting Beirut says Washington is looking into possibilities for solving a decades-old border dispute between Lebanon and Israel. Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, spoke in Beirut nearly a year after he brokered a deal on the maritime border between the two countries. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Hochstein said he listened to the point of view of Lebanon's government and will soon go to listen to the Israeli point of view.

If you're squeezing in one last summer trip over the Labor Day weekend, expect lots of company. That means crowded airports and full flights. The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that this will be the third busiest holiday weekend of the year so far, behind Juneteenth and Presidents Day. Thursday is expected to be the peak, with more than 52,000 U.S. flights. That includes airlines, the military and some private flights. Travelers are getting a bit of a break from last year’s skyrocketing fares. Читать дальше...

Iceland's government says commercial hunting of fin whales can resume in the country with stricter requirements on hunting methods and increased supervision. Animal rights groups responded to the decision with dismay and called it “shameful.” The temporary ban that Icelandic authorities imposed in June on animal welfare grounds ends Thursday. Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority estimated in a May report that 67% of the 58 whales caught by boats it monitored died or lost consciousness quickly or immediately. Читать дальше...

Former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty and waived arraignment in the case accusing him and others of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Thursday's action means Trump won’t have to show up for an arraignment hearing that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set for next week. Trump and 18 others were charged earlier this month in a 41-count indictment that outlines an alleged scheme to subvert the will of Georgia voters who had chosen... Читать дальше...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's accusers say impeachment charges don't tell the full story of how the three-term Republican reaped the benefits of elected office. Paxton is set to stand trial Tuesday in the Texas Capitol. Twenty articles of impeachment accuse Paxton of bribery and abuse of office that span years of highly publicized criminal and whistleblower accounts. But former employees told impeachment investigators that Paxton sometimes seized smaller opportunities to gain from office, including trips and dinner outings. Читать дальше...

An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month, adding to signs of cooling price increases and raising the likelihood that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged when it next meets in late September. Prices rose just 0.2% from June to July, the third straight modest increase. Compared with a year earlier, prices rose 3.3% in July, up from a 3% annual increase in June. The year-over-year figure, though, is down sharply from the 7% peak it reached a year ago... Читать дальше...

A fire has killed 15 people in a small apparel factory in a Philippine residential area, where flooding, traffic and a wrong address delayed firefighters. A fire protection official said most of the victims appeared to be workers and carpenters who were sleeping in rooms when the fire broke out Thursday morning. The factory owner and his child were among the dead. Three people survived with injuries by jumping off the second floor of the two-story factory in panic. It happened in a residential area in suburban Quezon city. Читать дальше...

Soldiers from the U.S., Indonesia and five other nations are participating in a combat exercise on Indonesia’s main island of Java amid concerns about China’s aggression. The annual live-fire drill that American and Indonesian soldiers held since 2009 was expanded last year with Australia, Japan and Singapore. The United Kingdom and France are participating in this year’s Super Garuda Shield exercises that began Thursday with about 5,000 personnel. Brunei, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia... Читать дальше...

JCPenney says it plans to spend more than $1 billion by the end of 2025 in a bid to revive the storied but troubled 121-year-old department store chain. The money is going toward remodeling JCPenney stores, upgrading its online shopping site and app, and making its supply network more efficient so that online orders are delivered more quickly. JCPenney’s CEO Marc Rosen is renewing the chain’s focus on its core middle-income shoppers with affordable fashion and housewares. JCPenney emerged from Chapter... Читать дальше...

Microsoft will stop packaging its Teams videoconferencing app with its Office software in Europe in an effort to head off antitrust penalties by regulators. The U.S. tech company also said Thursday it would take steps to make it easier for competing products to work with its software. The announcement comes a month after the EU’s executive Commission opened a formal investigation over concerns that bundling Teams with Office gives it an unfair edge over competitors. The investigation was triggered... Читать дальше...

Batteries in older Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to run gadgets on the go or deliver emergency power in disasters. Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. says it has sold more than 650,000 Leaf EVs. Nissan officials say they are testing the batteries in Leafs after their owners stop driving them, and reusing those that can still hold a charge. The batteries are being used in portable power sources it developed with electronics maker JVCKenwood Corp. Читать дальше...

Inflation paused its decline in Europe in August. The reading of 5.3% held steady from July. That's down from the double-digit peak in October. But it's still too high for the European Central Bank. The ECB has been steadily raising rates to push inflation down to its target of 2%. Bank head Christine Lagarde has said the decision at the Sept. 14 meeting remains open and will be decided based on incoming data - a switch from a year of steady, pre-announced rate rises.

Chinese state media report at least 121 passenger trains are suspending service in anticipation of the arrival of Typhoon Saola, while several cities in coastal areas of southern China have suspended the start of the school year. State broadcaster CCTV reported the suspensions on key lines running from north to south and on regional networks will begin Thursday and continue through Sept. 6. China's national meteorological agency said Saola is due to make landfall Friday afternoon in the southern province of Guangzhou. Читать дальше...

Last year it was Hurricane Ian that drew a bead on Tampa Bay before abruptly shifting east to strike southwest Florida more than 130 miles (210 kilometers) away. This time it was Hurricane Idalia, which caused some serious flooding as it sideswiped the bay area but packed much more punch at landfall Wednesday miles to the north. In fact, the Tampa Bay area hasn’t been hit by a major hurricane for more than a century. The last time it happened, there were just a few hundred thousand people living in the region. Читать дальше...

Asian stock markets are mostly lower after Japanese factory activity and Chinese service industry growth weakened. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Tokyo gained. Oil prices edged lower. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.4% after the U.S. government cut its estimate of economic growth for the second quarter to a still-robust level. Japanese factory activity shrank by 2% in July from the previous month. A survey of Chinese service industries showed activity weakened in July but still was expanding. Читать дальше...

Swiss bank UBS announced plans to save $10 billion in costs as it moves ahead with “full integration” of longtime rival Credit Suisse’s domestic operations, releasing its first earnings report since the government-orchestrated merger to help stave off a possible global financial meltdown. The announcement came as the Zurich-based bank reported a whopping $29 billion in pre-tax profit during the second quarter. But underlying profit before taxes came in at $1.1 billion, which excludes some $29 billion in negative goodwill... Читать дальше...

Tropical Storm Idalia is barreling through the Carolinas on its way to the Atlantic Ocean after leaving a trail of flooding and devastation throughout the Southeast. Idalia was a hurricane when it made landfall Wednesday in a remote area of Florida, where it shredded homes and submerged streets. It weakened to a tropical storm but still packed 60-mph winds as it raced into Georgia and then into South Carolina. In Charleston, a surge from Idalia topped the seawall that protects the downtown, sending... Читать дальше...

Three visual artists are suing artificial intelligence image-generators to protect their copyrights and careers. A federal judge must soon decide whether to dismiss the case. The lawsuit may serve as an early bellwether of how hard it will be for all kinds of creators to stop AI developers from profiting off their work. The issue could affect Hollywood actors, novelists, musicians and computer programmers, among others. Two of the plaintiffs, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz, say the case is essentially... Читать дальше...

With over 14 million people expected to check into airports nationwide for Labor Day weekend, a number of them inevitably will be travelers with dementia or some sort of cognitive impairment. Advocates say nearly a dozen airports in the last few years have modified their facilities and operations to be more dementia-friendly, some at the urging of advocates. From Phoenix to Kansas City, Missouri, airports have incorporated special lanyards, a quiet room and even a simulation center where caretakers... Читать дальше...