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Blinken on Russia crisis: ‘We haven’t seen the last act’

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States is assuming that the potential threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin might not be over.“This is an unfolding story,” Blinken said Sunday during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We haven’t seen the last act. We’re watching it very closely.”The current crisis in Russia began Friday after Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close confidant of Putin, accused Russian forces of targeting Wagner troops in missile strikes. Prigozhin threatened to lead a “march of justice,” and his forces took control of Rostov-on-Don, a city near the Ukrainian border.The mutiny ended before the weekend was over, after Prigozhin struck a deal that would require him to leave Russia for Belarus while Moscow promised to revoke criminal charges against him. On Sunday, Wagner troops began pulling out of Russia’s southern Voronezh region.Though the conflict was resolved almost as quickly as it began, it was a blow...

Two slain, dozen wounded during shooting at social media promoted street party in Michigan

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — A 51-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were slain and a dozen others wounded during a shooting at a large street party in Michigan that was promoted on social media.The shooting occurred around midnight Saturday in Saginaw, about 102 miles (164 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, state police said.Police initially said about 200 people were in the area of the party and that officers had been dispersing the crowd prior to the shooting, MLive.com reported.Three people also were struck by cars and injured as people quickly fled from the gunshots, WNEM-TV reported. Investigators determined five different guns had been fired in the shooting.No arrests were made.

Guatemalans vote for a new president after a tumultuous electoral season

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalans voted Sunday to elect a new president and vice president as well as fill all congress seats and hundreds of local posts after one of the most tumultuous electoral seasons in the Central American nation’s recent history.A little more than 9 million people were registered to vote, but many Guatemalans expressed disappointment with their presidential choices after three opposition candidates were excluded by authorities. A large number of null ballots were expected, and experts said it could depress turnout.With none of the 22 presidential candidates polling near the required 50% threshold for winning outright, a second round of voting on Aug. 20 between the top two finishers was almost certain. At the Mixed Urban School No. 2, a combined elementary and middle school in Sumpango, voters began lining up outside its muralled wall an hour before voting was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. local time. The town of about 37,000 sits in the mountains less t...

Drug abuse is soaring in Sao Paulo’s downtown. Users, residents and shop owners are all suffering

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — The decline of the downtown area of Sao Paulo, Brazil has accelerated over the last year. Crack users seem to be everywhere, roaming the central streets of South America’s biggest city. Shop owners worry about robberies and residents fret about muggings. And with a haphazard effort by the city to turn things around, it’s no wonder that for the first time in years locals are moving out. Here are some of the people affected by the crisis:THE SHOP OWNERSBalduino Alvares has worked for about three decades in Sao Paulo’s city center. Recently, he has been forced to arrive at 6 a.m. — an hour earlier than before — so that he can clean the human waste from the curb outside his jewelry shop. It is the worst hour of the 62-year-old’s workday.Alvares sprays a pressure washer, scatters powdered soap and sweeps intensely for about 20 minutes. He steps away to rest his tired back as the sickening result marinates. Then he returns with full energy for another 10 minutes. Th...

Sacai caps Paris Fashion Week with a collision of punk, workwear and inventive silhouettes

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The sweltering Paris heat wave, leaving exhausted fashionistas nearly baked in the leafy courtyard of an esteemed Sorbonne University campus, met its stylish adversary: Sacai’s spring men’s co-ed fashion show. The biting Parisian heat was momentarily forgotten as attendees, clutching eco-water for relief, were drawn into Sacai’s final display for this season’s Paris Fashion Week.This year, designer and founder Chitose Abe ventured into Sacai’s signature codes while drawing from the spirit of the 70s punk movement, a cultural emblem of resistance during a world in flux. The result was a creative dialogue between fashion’s past and future, between rebellion and uniformity.Here are some highlight’s of Sunday’s spring-summer 2024 collections:SACAI MIXES IT UPAbe’s exploration of uniformity emerged in a head-to-toe approach, matching jackets, shirts, and pants in either pinstripe, denim, or floral print, demonstrating the designer’s skill at reinventing tradition...

Mining companies betting on autonomous technology to make dangerous jobs safer

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

CALGARY — Forget about the canary in the coal mine — experts say the day is coming when there won’t even be a need for a human.The global mining industry has come a long way since the days when coal-blackened miners would carry a bird underground with them  in hopes its distress would alert them to the presence of toxic gases.Today, companies are employing everything from driverless haul trucks to remote-controlled and robotic drilling machines to remove human labour from some of their most hazardous operations.Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd. — which has been working to develop tele-remote technology at its network of six potash mines in Saskatchewan — successfully mined an entire production wing at its underground Lanigan site last fall without a single human setting foot in the area. Using a combination of radar, cameras, advanced sensing systems and cutting-edge technologies powered by artificial intelligence, Nutrien was able to operate one of its massive potash boring machin...

Sunday Forecast: Storms overnight cause damage, quieter Sunday

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

CHICAGO -- Storms overnight caused damage to some locations across northern Illinois, but also brought some much-needed rain. Rockford, Midway, Crystal Lake and Evergreen Park picked up more than an inch of rainfall.Sunday will be fairly quiet in the wake of that storm system.Partly cloudy skies expected this Sunday with a slight chance of some thunderstorm development around the noon hour. Isolated showers are possible in the afternoon and evening.Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com) Highs will reach the mid 80s for inland locations and low 80s along the lake. Winds will be breezy out of the SSE with gusts near 35 mph. A cold front will pass the area this evening and drop our temperatures to start the work week. Monday highs will be in the low 70s with isolated showers and a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

Human remains discovered in California mountain area where actor Julian Sands disappeared in January

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - Human remains have been discovered in a Southern California mountain area where actor Julian Sands disappeared in January, authorities have confirmed. At around 10 a.m., hikers contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station after coming across the remains in the Mount Baldy Wilderness Area.Authorities recovered the remains and transported them to the coroner’s office where officials are working to identify the body, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office. The remains are expected to be identified this week, and no further details were released. You don’t want this 4-digit code on your boarding pass, TSA says British actor Julian Sands, 65, was reported missing in mid-January. Despite search and rescue efforts at the time, which were hampered by severe weather and “alpine conditions,” Sands was never located.Two other hikers were found dead in the area before Sands' disappearance. One hiker, 75-year-old Jin Chung, was later found alive. On June 19, a ...

Is unlimited vacation time really unlimited?

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Scrolling through job postings, one eye-catching perk is showing up more and more frequently: unlimited PTO, or unlimited paid time off. Over the past several years, many companies — especially in the tech sector — have switched to offering their employees an uncapped number of vacation days or PTO. A 2022 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found 6% of companies were offering unlimited or open leave. "With unlimited PTO, it gives an employee a little bit more control over that work-life balance," explained Yvette Lee with the Society for Human Resource Management. "Say for example, an employee really needed to go away for two weeks to attend a graduation, or they really wanted to take a two-week leave to go on this phenomenal vacation … unlimited PTO means that they would be able to do that." Commute nightmare: These cities are most infuriating, expensive and dangerous for drivers, study finds There are benefits to the employer, as well, Lee ...

The best and worst car colors for resale value

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:22 GMT

(iSeeCars) -- A vehicle’s color can impact its value by up to $5,000, according to new research by iSeeCars.com. This year’s study compared pricing data for over 1.3 million 3-year-old used cars to determine the impact of color on resale value. SummaryThe average car loses 22.5 percent of its value after 3 years, but yellow cars only lose 13.5 percent, which equates to saving more than $3,000 compared to the average vehicleYellow, beige, orange and green cars all lose less than 20 percent of their valueGold, brown and black cars drop the most in value, losing over $10,000 after 3 years “Yellow cars continue to represent the greatest disparity between how many are produced and how many people want one,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer. “While not many people want a yellow car, there are clearly more people who want one than exist, which is why yellow performs so well on the secondary market. The same can be said of orange and green, colors you don’t see often bu...