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US applications for unemployment benefits fall again as job market continues to show strength

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week as the labor market continues to show resilience despite elevated interest rates.Jobless claims fell to 202,000 for the week ending Dec. 30, down by 18,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 4,750 to 207,750.Overall, 1.86 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended Dec. 23, a decrease of 31,000 from the previous week and the fewest in two months.Weekly unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. They have remained at extraordinarily low levels in the face of high interest rates.In an effort to extinguish the four-decade high inflation that took hold after an unusually strong economic rebound from the COVID-19 recession of 2020, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate 11 times since March of 2022.Inflation has eased considerably during the past year,...

Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard reflect on the gray areas of ‘Memory’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Jessica Chastain first read the script for “Memory,” she was struck by the flurry of unanswered questions left swirling around in her head about issues pertaining to love, sex and consent — which might be antithetical to what some audiences expect from a movie.“Sometimes I think films can be seen as like lectures of the right way of being,” she says.But the Oscar winner does not subscribe to that philosophy of cinema. And it was writer and director Michel Franco’s willingness to probe gray areas and leave questions unanswered that ultimately persuaded Chastain to star in “Memory,” in select theaters now with a nationwide release set for Friday.“Memory” follows Sylvia (Chastain), who is hired by the family of a man named Saul ( Peter Sarsgaard ) to keep him company as he navigates early onset dementia. Although her background in caretaking is a plus, Saul’s family mostly wants someone to spend time with him — until Sylvia is suspected of developing romantic fe...

Parents of Cyprus school volleyball team players killed in Turkish quake testify against hotel owner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Parents of school volleyball team players who perished when their hotel crumbled in last year’s powerful earthquake testified in the trial against the hotel’s owner Thursday, with one father describing how hopes of finding his two children alive quickly turned to despair.The hotel owner and 10 other people are standing trial accused of negligence over the deaths of 72 people, including members of the team who had traveled from the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus to attend a competition. A total of 39 students, their teachers and parents were staying in the Isias Grand Hotel in the city of Adiyaman when the region was hit by a 7.8-magnitude quake and an equally strong aftershock. Thirty-five of them died. A group of tourist guides were also guests at the hotel.The trial, which opened on Wednesday, is the first relating to the Feb. 6, 2022 earthquake that hit Adiyaman and 10 other provinces in southern Turkey, leaving more than 50,000 dead and hundre...

Alice Hoffman’s novel about Anne Frank will be published in September

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — With the cooperation of the Anne Frank House, a novel based on Frank’s life immediately before she began keeping a diary will be released in September by the children’s publisher Scholastic.“When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary,” written by bestselling author Alice Hoffman, is scheduled for Sept. 17. The project was initiated by Scholastic editors Lisa Sandell and Miriam Farbey, who thought Hoffman ideal for telling the story. Hoffman is known for “Practical Magic” and other fiction about sorcery, but she also has written books for young people and a novel, “The World That We Knew,” about the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.“In the year when I was 12, I discovered many of the books that have meant the most to me, books that changed my life,” Hoffman said in a statement issued Thursday by Scholastic.“The book that affected me more than any other was ‘The Diary of a Young Girl,’ by Anne Frank. It changed the way I looked at t...

A German who served time for a high-profile kidnapping is convicted over armed robberies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German man who served prison time for a high-profile 1996 kidnapping was convicted of robbery and attempted murder on Thursday for his alleged role in a string of armed robberies in Germany in 2018 and 2019.The Cologne state court sentenced Thomas Drach to 15 years in prison, German news agency dpa reported. It also ruled that he should be kept in preventive detention after serving the sentence.The court found that Drach participated in three robberies of cash transporters in Cologne and Frankfurt and in two of those cases fired at the cash carriers, wounding them. His participation in another robbery, in Limburg, couldn’t be proved. Drach rejected the accusations during the trial, which opened nearly two years ago. The 63-year-old told the court before the verdict that he expected a “crystal-clear acquittal.”Drach was convicted and sentenced to 14 1/2 years for extortionate kidnapping in 2001 for the abduction of cigarette heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who was he...

Drugstore chain Walgreens cuts quarterly dividend to get more cash to grow its business

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

Walgreens is chopping its dividend nearly in half as the drugstore chain looks to strengthen its balance sheet.The health care giant said Thursday that reducing its quarterly payout to shareholders to 25 cents per share will help free up capital to spend growing its pharmacy and health care businesses.New CEO Tim Wentworth said in a statement that company leaders believe such growth “will ultimately improve shareholder value.”Company shares jumped in early-morning trading after Walgreens also announced a better-than-expected fiscal first quarter.Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. runs a network of around 13,000 drugstores globally. Most of its locations are in the United States, where its locations are becoming growing sources for care.The company is working with VillageMD to open primary care practices next to some locations with the idea that drugstores and doctor offices work together to help keep patients healthy. But drugstores remain Walgreens’ main business.Tom Murphy, The Associa...

Striking doctors in England at loggerheads with hospitals over calls to return to work

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The longest planned strike in the history of Britain’s state-funded National Health Service entered its second day of six on Thursday with doctors in England at loggerheads with hospitals over requests for some to leave the picket line to cover urgent needs during one of busiest times of year.The strike is the ninth organized by doctors in the early stages of their careers in just over a year amid their increasingly bitter pay dispute with the government. Ahead of the strike, plans were laid out for junior doctors, who form the backbone of hospital and clinic care, to return to work if hospitals got overwhelmed. The British Medical Association, the union that represents the bulk of the 75,000 or so striking doctors, had agreed with NHS managers on a system for so-called derogations, in which junior doctors return to work in the event of safety concerns about emergency care, with hospitals expected to show they have “exhausted” all other sources of staffing before...

Why is everyone so sick this winter?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, it certainly seems like this season has been worse for illness than most previous years. But has it? If it has, is it the pandemic? Is it the “triple-demic”? Or is it a normal pre-pandemic cold and flu season that we use to just live through?Whatever the reasons, hospitals are crammed, and polls say nurses and doctors are fleeing their professions in droves.Dr. Raywat Deonandan is an epidemiologist, a science communicator specializing in global health and an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences. He says data indicates that the perceived increase in illness is likely real, and that it’s being exacerbated by systemic issues like staffing shortages.“Bottom line is yes, it looks like there’s more respiratory illness, and it looks like it’s having a bigger impact on us because of these other structural issues,” says Dr. Deonandan.  So will winters just be like this now? And if they are, is there any alte...

Enghouse Systems buying Mediasite business from Sonic Foundry for US$15.5M in cash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

MARKHAM, Ont. — Business software company Enghouse Systems Ltd. says it has signed a deal with Sonic Foundry Inc. to buy its Mediasite business for US$15.5 million in cash.Mediasite is a video service that helps organizations with recording, live streaming and video management.The deal is subject to approval by Sonic Foundry shareholders and customary closing conditions. The companies say the Sonic Foundry board of directors, executive officers and a major shareholder have agreed to back the deal. Collectively they hold 48 per cent of Sonic Foundry’s outstanding shares.The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2024.Companies in this story: (TSX:ENGH)The Canadian Press

Unsold Christmas trees are on the menu for elephants and bison at the Berlin Zoo

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:32 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — There’s a bit of post-Christmas cheer on the menu for elephants and other tenants at the Berlin Zoo: they can chomp on Christmas trees that didn’t find a home. The tree treats were unwrapped Thursday in what has become an annual event. Elephants tore off branches with their trunks and either gobbled them or tossed them around their enclosure. The European bison nestled into the trees before starting to munch on them. And reindeer sniffed and played with the conifers. The zoo takes only fresh, unsold trees from select vendors. It doesn’t accept trees from the public, which could contain chemicals or leftover decorations.The Associated Press