Новости за 15.12.2023

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani's new contract could have the added benefit of avoiding most of California's income tax. Ohtani agreed to a $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last week. The Dodgers will pay Ohtani $20 million over the next decade. The decade after that they will pay him $68 million per year from 2034 to 2043. By then, it's possible Ohtani will be retired and could live somewhere other than California. It's impossible to know for sure how much state taxes Ohtani will pay. Читать дальше...

A Connecticut appeals court has upheld $75,000 in fines against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for missing a deposition in the lawsuit filed by Sandy Hook families. The lawsuit led to a $1.4 billion judgment last year against Jones for repeatedly calling the 2012 Newtown school shooting a hoax. Jones says he missed the deposition in March 2022 because he was ill. The state Appellate Court said Friday that Jones continued live broadcasts of his Infowars show when he was claiming to be sick with what turned out to be a sinus infection. Читать дальше...

Spanish police say they have arrested 14 workers at one of the country’s main tourist airports on suspicion of stealing items from checked-in luggage. Police seized allegedly stolen items worth almost 2 million euros — or $2.2 million — from the group of employees at the largest airport in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands. A police statement said another 20 airport employees are under investigation in the same case. The Tenerife South airport handles around 11 million passengers a year. Most of... Читать дальше...

The Congressional Budget Office says it expects inflation to nearly hit the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate in 2024, as overall growth is expected to slow and unemployment is expected to rise into 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years. The office’s Current View of the Economy from 2023 to 2025 report, released Friday, estimates that the unemployment rate will hit 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and remain close to that level through 2025. Compared with its February 2023 projections... Читать дальше...

Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Friday's landmark verdict marks a monumental step in a four-decade struggle for Indigenous land rights and a bitter legal battle which has at times spilled into the streets. It also comes at the close of the U.N. climate summit COP28 which stressed the importance of renewables and energy transition minerals like nickel more than ever. Читать дальше...

This week’s new streaming entertainment releases include Bradley Cooper’s loving look at the life of Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro,” Percy Jackson finds out that Greek myths aren’t just a history lesson in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and PBS celebrates chef Lidia Bastianich. x hosts “A Home for the Holidays” musical special on CBS, drawing attention to families and life-affirming stories of adoption through the foster care system, while artificial intelligence is at the heart of “The Creator,”... Читать дальше...

There are more women than men in some of the largest urban U.S. counties east of the Mississippi River, on the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South. That ratio is reversed in the West, where there are more men in the most populous counties. Figures released last week from the 2022 American Community Survey show that sex ratios vary by geography. That is in part due to gender imbalance in tech companies and the fact that places with large numbers of colleges or universities draw more women. The... Читать дальше...

A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands’ permissive pot policy has gone up in smoke in two Dutch cities as “coffeeshops” began selling the country’s first legally cultivated cannabis. The move is part of an experiment to regulate the pot trade in the Netherlands. But it could mark the beginning of the end for a long-standing legal anomaly: people can buy and sell small amounts of weed without fear of prosecution in the country, but growing it commercially remains illegal. The chairperson of the... Читать дальше...

Jurors have begun their second day of deliberations to decide how much Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies about them after the 2020 election. Giuliani's lies about the election Donald Trump lost led to a barrage of racist threats and upended the workers' lives. The jurors considered the case for more than three hours Thursday after a three-day trial in in Washington’s federal courthouse and returned Friday. Giuliani has already been found liable of defamation. Читать дальше...

Police in Mesquite, Texas, say an officer investigating a stolen vehicle fatally shot a 19-year-old man who was in another vehicle.

Donald Trump has spent less time campaigning in early-voting states than many of his Republican primary rivals. But his campaign has been bolstering his schedule with appearances at major sporting events, including this weekend’s UFC fight in Las Vegas. Videos of his appearances routinely rack up hundreds of thousands of views across social media. It’s a strategy that puts him in front of potential voters who may not closely follow politics or engage with traditional news sources. And it is part... Читать дальше...

Prince Harry has won his phone hacking lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and was awarded over 140,000 pounds ($180,000) in the first of his several lawsuits against the tabloids to go to trial. Justice Timothy Fancourt in the High Court found on Friday that phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at Mirror Group Newspapers over many years. He says private investigators were used substantially and “were an integral part of the system” to gather information unlawfully. He says executives... Читать дальше...

A Manhattan jury will soon decide if Jonathan Majors is guilty of assaulting his girlfriend following two weeks of clashing narratives about whether the rising Hollywood star was the aggressor or victim during a chaotic struggle in the back seat of a car. The court case has centered on allegations brought by Grace Jabbari, a 30-year-old British dancer who said the “Creed III” actor struck her on the side of the head, twisted her arm behind her back, and squeezed her finger until it broke during a dispute last spring. Читать дальше...

Jurors will continue deliberating Friday to decide how much Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies about them that led to a barrage of racist threats and upended their lives. Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages over Giuliani’s false claims accusing them of ballot fraud while the former New York City mayor was fighting to keep Republican President Donald Trump in office after the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Читать дальше...

Authorities say a Liberian-flagged cargo ship caught fire in the Red Sea after being hit by a projectile launched from rebel-controlled Yemen. The attack Friday on the Al Jasrah further escalates a campaign by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have claimed responsibility for a series of missile assaults in recent days just missing shipping in the Red Sea and its strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the assault. The Al Jasrah is operated by German-based shipper Hapag Lloyd... Читать дальше...

Asian shares have churned higher after the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to another record high. U.S. futures and oil prices also advanced. Markets have rallied on excitement that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates several times next year. Hong Kong led Asia's gains with property developers jumping after some Chinese cities eased buying restrictions. On Thursday, the S&P 500 gained 0.3% to pull within 1.6% of its record set early last year. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. Stocks... Читать дальше...

California-based Rocket Lab has launched a Japanese satellite from the space company's complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The mission was initially scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed due to forecast strong winds until Friday. The Electron rocket carried the TSUKUYOMI-I satellite into orbit on behalf of Japanese startup Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space Inc. The synthetic-aperture radar satellite will collect images of the Earth. The mission is Rocket Lab’s 10th for 2023, exceeding its annual record of nine set last year. Читать дальше...

As the U.S. tries to restore a key forest ecosystem in the Southeast, landowners must light more fires on private property. The so-called “prescribed burns” are key to clearing forest debris and allowing pine cones to drop seeds onto the floor. That's important for longleaf pine, a resilient tree species that evolved in a natural fire cycle. Forestry experts say volunteer prescribed burn associations are spreading the practice to private landowners, who are crucial to the restoration and unreached by many agencies. Читать дальше...

In a politically polarized nation, Americans seem to agree on one issue underlying the 2024 elections — a worry over the state of democracy and how the outcome of the presidential contest will affect its future. They just disagree over who poses the threat. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk depending on who wins. That view is held by 72% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans, but for different reasons. Читать дальше...

The World Bank is forecasting that China's economy will slow next year, with annual growth falling to 4.5% from 5.2% this year. The report issued Thursday said the recovery of the world's second-largest economy from setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic, among other shocks, remains “fragile.” It said weakness in the property sector and in global demand for China's exports, high debt levels and wavering consumer confidence are significant risks. The estimate of growth of around 5% was in line with others' forecasts. Читать дальше...

A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict a police officer who responded to a call and shot and wounded an unarmed 11-year-old boy inside the home. The grand jury found that Indianola Police Sgt. Greg Capers did not engage in criminal conduct when he shot Aderrien Murry in the chest on May 20 after police responded to a domestic dispute. The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office announced the decision Thursday. Capers has been on unpaid administrative leave since June. The Murry family has filed a federal civil lawsuit against Indianola... Читать дальше...

A 10-year-old Black child who urinated in a parking lot is being sentenced to three months’ probation.

California energy regulators have voted to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to operate for an additional five years, despite calls from environmental groups to shut it down. The California Public Utilities Commission agreed Thursday to extend the shutdown date for the state’s last functioning nuclear power facility through 2030 instead of closing it in 2025 as previously agreed. The plant’s twin reactors, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, supply up to 9% of the state’s electricity. Читать дальше...

Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has unveiled a budget plan that would pay residents an oil-wealth dividend of about $3,400 next year and use savings to plug an estimated $990 million deficit. The proposal does not include an increase in the per-student K-12 school funding formula, though Dunleavy says he expects education to be at the fore of discussions when lawmakers convene for their new legislative session next month. He says one proposal he'd like lawmakers to consider would provide bonuses... Читать дальше...

The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest. It also committed to helping figure out how to offset the hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four controversial dams on the Snake River. The Biden administration stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams, but Northwest tribes and conservationists who have long sought that goal called the agreement a road map for dismantling them to save the fish. Читать дальше...