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Hong Kong eyes stronger economic and trade ties with Thailand to expand its role in Southeast Asia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday the city would seek to strengthen its economic and trade ties with Thailand after a meeting with the country’s prime minister, as the Chinese financial hub looks for more business opportunities in Southeast Asia.Chief Executive John Lee said at a weekly press briefing that he and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin agreed during a meeting on Monday that the two sides have “good and close relations” and that they would promote more exchanges between their people.Lee’s administration wants to expand the city’s role in Southeast Asia to boost economic growth for the financial hub after years of COVID-19 restrictions. It aims to position the city as a bridge between mainland China and the international community. Lee said Hong Kong will work to deepen regional cooperation and strengthen its work on economic, trade and investment activities with countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Since 2...

Biden’s second try at student loan cancellation moves forward with debate over plan’s details

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s second attempt at student loan cancellation is moving forward with a round of hearings beginning Tuesday to negotiate the details of a new plan.In a process known as negotiated rulemaking, 14 people chosen by the Biden administration will meet for the first of three hearings on student loan relief. Their goal is to guide the Education Department toward a proposal after the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s first plan in June. The negotiators all come from outside the federal government and represent a range of viewpoints on student loans. The panel includes students and officials from a range of colleges, along with loan servicers, state officials and advocates including the NAACP.Biden directed the Education Department to find another path to loan relief after the conservative court ruled that he couldn’t cancel loans using a 2003 law called the HEROES Act.The latest attempt will rest on a sweeping law known as the Higher Education Act, which gi...

Powerball jackpot up to $1.73 billion as lottery losing streak continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.73 billion after no one matched the game’s six numbers Monday and won the giant prize.The winning numbers announced were: 16, 34, 46, 55, 67 and the Powerball 14.There has been no winner for 35 consecutive drawings, since the last time someone won the top prize on July 19. That streak trails the record of 41 draws set in 2021 and 2022. The largest jackpot ever was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize hit by a player in California in November 2022.The scarcity of Powerball jackpot winners reflects the game’s daunting odds of 1 in 292.2 million.The $1.73 billion prize is for a sole winner who is paid through an annuity, with annual checks over 30 years. Most jackpot winners opt for cash, which for the next drawing Wednesday night would be an estimated $756.6 million.Federal taxes eat into the winnings, and some states also tax big lottery prizes.Powerball is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico...

Stock market today: Rate hopes push Asian shares higher while oil prices edge lower

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares have climbed after Wall Street advanced on potentially encouraging news about interest rates, which have been dragging markets lower since the summer. U.S. futures rose while oil prices fell back slightly after surging Monday following Israel’s declaration of war on Hamas following its surprise attack from the Gaza Strip. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 2.2% to 31,682.71 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong picked up 1.3% to 17,740.49. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2% to 7,053.80. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4% for 2,419.77. In Bangkok the SET gained 0.5%. On Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.6% to 4,335.66, flipping from losses to gains after two Federal Reserve officials suggested interest rates might remain steady at their next policy meeting because a jump in longer-term bond yields may be helping to cool inflation without further market-rattling hikes by the Fed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% to 33,604.65 and the Nasdaq...

Kari Lake wants to be elected to the Senate. She also wants to keep fighting the election she lost

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake asked for a show of hands.Who’s been canceled? Who’s lost friends? Has strained relations with family? Been indicted? Sued for defamation? “If your hand did not go up in any of that, then I do think you need to work a little harder. I really do,” Lake told an adoring crowd of Michigan Republicans gathering last month on Mackinac Island. Lake will launch a U.S. Senate campaign for an Arizona seat in a splashy Scottsdale rally on Tuesday, having never conceded that she lost last year’s race for Arizona governor. She is trying out new messages and courting the support of national Republicans she’s insulted in the past. But the former television news host isn’t backing down on the things that made her a star on the far right — her combativeness with perceived enemies, her fealty to Donald Trump and her willingness to defend his election lies. That worries some Republicans who fear she will cost them a race that could decide control of the...

As Israel pummels Gaza, families of those held hostage by militants agonize over loved ones’ safety

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — In the hours after Hamas blew through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza, Ahal Besorai tried desperately to reach his sister. There was no answer.Soon after, he learned from witnesses that militants had seized her, her husband and their teenage son and daughter, along with dozens of others. Now, aching uncertainty over their fate has left Besorai and scores of other Israelis in limbo.“Should I cry because they are dead already? Should I be happy because maybe they are captured but still alive?” said Besorai, a life coach and resort owner who lives in the Philippines and grew up on Kibbutz Be’eri. “I pray to God every day that she will be found alive with her family and we can all be reunited.”As Israel strikes back with missile attacks on targets in Gaza, the families grapple with the knowledge that it could come at the cost of their loved ones’ lives. Hamas has warned it will kill one of the 130 hostages every t...

Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial resuming with ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg on the witness stand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg helped spare the former president’s real estate empire from its last existential threat, staving off insolvency after casino bankruptcies and an airline failure in the 1990s.Now, after a recent jail stint for tax fraud, Weisselberg is front and center again — set to testify Tuesday in the civil trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, the Trump Organization.Weisselberg, also a defendant in the lawsuit, is expected to testify about his role in preparing Trump’s annual financial statements — including conversations they had while finalizing the documents, which were given to banks, insurers and others to make deals and secure loans.James’ lawsuit alleges that Weisselberg engineered Trump’s financial statements to meet his demands that they show increases in his net worth and signed off on lofty valuations for assets despite appraisals to the contrary....

Lawyers to deliver closing arguments in trial of 2 police officers charged in Elijah McClain’s death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Lawyers will deliver closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of the first two police officers to be prosecuted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was put in a neck hold and pinned down by officers in a Denver suburb before paramedics injected him with a powerful sedative.McClain was stopped while walking home from a convenience store on a summer night, listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face. A 911 caller reported him as suspicious and the police stop quickly became physical with McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist seemingly caught off guard, asking to be left alone. He had not been accused of committing any crime. Prosecution witnesses testified that the sedative ketamine killed McClain. But prosecutors also offered medical testimony that the restraint of McClain by Aurora officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt triggered a series of health problems that made it hard for McClain to breathe and more vulnerable to a ...

US Senate Majority Leader Schumer meets Xi and welcomes stronger Chinese statement on Hamas attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he was grateful for a strengthened statement from China condemning the killing and kidnapping of Israeli and foreign civilians by Hamas, issued during a bipartisan congressional visit to Beijing that included a lengthy meeting with President Xi Jinping. Schumer led a delegation of six senators to China for talks aimed at stabilizing ties following a sharp deterioration in recent years over trade, U.S. support for self-governing Taiwan, human rights and other issues. The delegation, which included three Democrats and three Republicans, was the first visit by U.S. lawmakers since 2019 and came at a time of growing attacks on China in Congress as America contends with Beijing’s rise as a global power. Schumer told Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the day that he had been very disappointed by China’s failure to strongly condemn the attack on Israel and show sympathy for the country and its people. Chinese Foreign Mi...

Biden’s hopes for establishing Israel-Saudi relations could become a casualty of the new Mideast war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than three weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat beside President Joe Biden and marveled that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed within reach — a diplomatic advance that he predicted could lead to lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.Biden was equally optimistic, telling Netanyahu during their meeting in New York, “If you and I — 10 years ago — were talking about normalization with Saudi Arabia, I think we’d look at each other like, ‘Who’s been drinking what?’”Now, the outbreak of war between Israel and the Palestinians after a devastating Hamas attack on Israeli soil is threatening to delay or derail the years-long, country-by-country diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.The so-called normalization push, which began under former President Donald Trump’s administration and was branded as the Abraham Accords, is an ambitious effort to reshap...