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Stock market today: Wall Street rises, and S&P 500 touches highest level in more than a year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is climbing Monday ahead of a big week for central banks around the world, carrying the S&P 500 toward its highest level in more than a year.The benchmark index was 0.8% higher in late trading and near heights it hasn’t seen since April 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 149 points, or 0.4%, at 34,025, as of 3:10 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% higher.The U.S. stock market has been cruising on hopes the economy may avoid a recession and the Federal Reserve may soon take it easier on its hikes to interest rates. Traders are betting the Fed will hold rates steady at its next meeting, which concludes on Wednesday. That would be the first time it hasn’t hiked rates at a meeting in more than a year.Investors see high-growth stocks as some of the biggest beneficiaries of lower rates, and they were helping to lead the market. Tech stocks alone accounted for more than half the S&P 500’s gain, powered by gains ...

Family members say beloved AP photo assistant, driver dies at 64

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Moustafa Bassiouni, an intrepid photo assistant and driver for The Associated Press’ Cairo bureau, has died at age 64, family members said Monday. They said he died in a Cairo hospital on Saturday after experiencing a heart attack. Bassiouni, who started as a driver for the bureau in 1991, became a pillar of the AP’s Cairo operation. Staffers relied on his street smarts and quick reflexes behind the wheel to cover assignments across the massive metropolis and wider Egypt.He drove generations of AP photographers, writers, bureau chiefs and regional managers through the rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, the chaos that followed Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring protests, and the 2013 ouster of the popularly elected but divisive president Mohammed Morsi. He was later promoted to photo assistant because of his inventiveness in getting access to difficult locations, including once by horseback. He retired in 2019.“Moustafa was our driver, translator, fixer and most of all ...

Indoor plants have the power to fight pollution, study says. What does it mean for your health?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

Surrounding yourself with indoor plants will do more than just add a little color to a room. New research shows plants may also fight indoor cancer-causing pollution.From gas fumes to cancer-causing pollutants, a new study has revealed plants are able to remove these toxins from the air we breathe indoors.The University of Technology Sydney led the study and when put to the test, the indoor plants were able to get rid of 97% of the most toxic compounds in the air in just eight hours.Researchers say the more concentrated the toxins in the air, the faster the plants worked to remove them.“Not only can plants remove the majority of pollutants from the air in a matter of hours, they remove the most harmful petrol-related pollutants from the air most efficiently,” said Associate Professor Fraser Torpy, a bioremediation researcher, in a statement.For example, he said the known carcinogen benzene, which is found in gasoline fumes, was digested at a faster rate than less harmful substances,...

Mother jailed in England for medicated abortion later in pregnancy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A 44-year-old mother of three was sentenced Monday to more than two years in an English prison for medically inducing an abortion about eight months into her pregnancy.Justice Edward Pepperall in Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court said the “tragic” case required him to balance the woman’s reproductive rights with the rights of the fetus and said the sentence might deter others from exceeding the 24-week limit on abortions.Pepperall said the mother could have avoided prison if she had pleaded guilty sooner and that he was sentencing her despite her “deep and genuine remorse” and the fact that her children, including one with special needs, would suffer without her.“You are wracked by guilt and have suffered depression,” Pepperall said. “I also accept that you had a very deep emotional attachment to your unborn child and that you are plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face.”The woman was 32 to 34 weeks along when she induced a miscarriage in May 202...

Everton announces departures of 3 directors, chairman Bill Kenwright could be next

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Everton began overhauling its board following the team’s latest scrape with relegation in the Premier League by announcing a trio of departures including chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale on Monday.Long-serving chairman Bill Kenwright could yet join them in the coming days.Barrett-Baxendale, chief finance and strategy officer Grant Ingles and non-executive director Graeme Sharp, who is a former striker at the club, left their roles two weeks after Everton escaped relegation on the final day of the season.Everton will announce their interim replacements this week and said a decision on the future of Kenwright will also be announced.Along with Kenwright, the three directors had been prevented from attending matches at Goodison Park since mid-January because of fan opposition that entailed “threats to safety and security,” according to the club.“The outgoing directors have worked tirelessly over recent months to assist with the preparation f...

Tour boat capsizes in Erie Canal water tunnel cave in Lockport, New York

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Multiple people were sent to local hospitals after a boat capsized Monday during a tour of an underground cavern system built to carry water from the Erie Canal beneath the western New York city of Lockport, officials said.Police and fire crews were called to the Lockport Cave Tours, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Niagara Falls, at about 11:30 a.m. The tours take visitors on an underground boat ride illuminated only by small lights.Police said in a press release that crews were working to assist all parties safely out of the area.“We have had eight of the passengers come into our ER,” said Patricia Brandt, spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport. “None critical. They’re all stable and some have already been released.”Brandt said she did not know the nature of the injuries but believed some were treated for cold from being in the water. Other patients went to other hospitals, she said, but did not have details.Police didn’t immedi...

Timeline of Trump’s classified documents case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

Former President Trump arrived in South Florida as he prepares to surrender in federal court. He is accused of illegally hoarding the highest level of classified information, and on Tuesday, he will make a historic court appearance as the first former president in history to face federal criminal charges.From the White House to facing a federal criminal indictment, former President Donald Trump is making history as the only U.S. president to be indicted twice since leaving office. But how did he get here?The classified documents fight began in May of 2021, when the National Archives and Records Administration began reaching out to Trump aides for missing documents.In January 2022, Trump sent 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives.In those boxes, classified documents were uncovered.As a result, the Justice Department got involved and a subpoena was issued for any remaining classified material.In June, Trump’s attorneys handed over an additional 38 classified records aft...

Police arrest woman accused of breaking into church, spray painting walls in SW Miami-Dade

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

A South Florida woman is being accused of arming herself with spray paint and committing a crime at a South Florida church.Forty-four-year-old Alfa Illescas was charged with criminal mischief.Police arrested Illescas Sunday night after, they said, surveillance video caught her in the act, breaking an altar outside, spray painting the walls, and trashing the courtyard.She is still behind bars and is being held on a $6,000 bond.

Law enforcement officials prepare for former President Trump’s historic arraignment in Miami

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

Protecting a former president, and the crowd that may follow him, is no small job, and South Florida is on deck a day before Donald Trump’s arrival in Miami for his arraignment in federal court. “We wanted to assure the public that we are ready,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.Suarez hosted a news conference, Monday afternoon.“In our city, we believe in the Constitution, we believe people should have the right to express themselves and we also believe in law and order,” Suarez said.“Since the moment the announcement was made, we have been planning and preparing,” said Miami Police Department Chief Manuel Morales.Morales said Miami is ready for a crowd of 5,000 to 50,000.“To make sure that we have a comprehensive approach that is going to ensure that we maintain, not only peace and order, like the mayor said, but that everyone has the right to express themselves and the first amendment rights,” he said. Depending on the crowd si...

Person smoking while connected to oxygen tank causes Cape Coral house fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:02 GMT

CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — According to the Cape Coral Fire Department PIO, one of the occupants was smoking while connected to an oxygen tank, which caused the fire early Monday morning.Cape Coral firefighters responded to a 2100-block South East 16th Street house in Cape Coral after a house caught on fire at around 5:20 a.m.When firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames coming from the front of the house and the roof.According to CCFD, the resident thought he had shut his oxygen off before lighting his cigarette.Caution tape has been placed around the house. While firefighters extinguished the flames that had spread toward the garage.The building inspector red-tagged the home, and Red Cross is assisting with a temporary house.All occupants were able to get out as well as their dog, one person was transported to a hospital for smoke inhalation.This is the second fire caused by a cigarette that Cape Coral firefighters have responded to in less than a week.