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Biden, Xi early headliners as leaders gather in California for Asia-Pacific summit

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Its 21 member economies represent nearly three billion people and 62 per cent of the world’s GDP, generating US$30 trillion in global trade last year alone. But as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gather in San Francisco, the focus — for now, at least — will be on just two of them.U.S. President Joe Biden sits down Wednesday with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, hoping to iron out some of the kinks in their fraught bilateral relationship.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan calls it “intense diplomacy” aimed at ensuring that healthy competition doesn’t devolve into dangerous conflict.Experts say that dynamic will likely make it difficult for Canada to make much of a geopolitical splash in the Bay Area this week. But federal officials say they expect tangible progress from  a busy slate of bilateral meetings during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s three-day visit. The summit comes one year since the Liberal government unve...

Jesmyn Ward’s ‘Let Us Descend’ is among the finalists for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jesmyn Ward’s slave narrative “Let Us Descend” and Jake Bittle’s exploration of climate change’s impact “The Great Displacement” are among the finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence. The medals are presented by the American Library Association and given for fiction and nonfiction, with winners in each category receiving $5,000.On Tuesday, the library association announced that Ward’s novel was a fiction nominee, along with Amanda Peters’ “The Berry Pickers” and the mixed media “Denison Avenue,” by author Christina Wong and illustrator Daniel Innes. In nonfiction, the finalists are Bittle’s “The Great Displacement,” Darrin Bell’s memoir “The Talk” and Roxana Robinson’s investigation into the foster system, “We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America.”Finalists will be announced Jan. 20. The awards, made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, were estab...

Global hacker investigated by federal agents in Puerto Rico pleads guilty in IPStorm case

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A man with Russian and Moldovan citizenship pleaded guilty to illegally taking control of thousands of electronic devices worldwide to rent them to clients who want to hide their internet activity, U.S. prosecutors in Puerto Rico said Tuesday.The scheme ran from at least June 2019 to December 2022 and generated more than half a million dollars, with unidentified customers paying hundreds of dollars a month for the service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico said in a statement. Authorities said Sergei Makinin developed and deployed malicious software to gain control of people’s devices via an extensive network known as a “botnet,” which was dubbed IPStorm. He then sold illegal access to the hijacked devices to clients seeking to keep their Internet activities private, advertising that he had more than 23,000 “highly anonymous” proxies available worldwide, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Juan o...

Parkland expects $6B in cumulative available cash flow from 2024 to 2028

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

CALGARY — Parkland Corp. says it expects $6 billion in cumulative available cash flow from 2024 to 2028 that it plans to use to fund dividends, share buybacks, growth and debt reduction.The company says it plans to use 25 per cent of the expected cash on dividends and share buybacks and 25 per cent to pay for organic growth initiatives.Parkland says the priority for the remaining $3 billion or 50 per cent will be reducing its leverage ratio to the low end of its two to three times target range by the end of 2025. Beyond that and looking forward through 2028, it says it expects capital will be allocated toward opportunities that generate the greatest shareholder returns.For 2024, Parkland says it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $2 billion and capital expenditures between $475 million and $525 million.Parkland has made a number of changes to its business since last March, when U.S.-based activist investor Engine Capital LP publi...

US climate report offers dire outlook, with temperatures expected to cross key thresholds

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

A major federal climate report shows that the U.S. is unlikely to meet national or international climate targets and warns of dire consequences for the country.The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released Tuesday, finds that the planet is very likely to heat up by an average of between 4.5 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 and 4.0 degrees Celsius) compared to pre-industrial times — outpacing goals of both the U.S. and international community.While it puts the likely warming window in that range, the report notes that scientists cannot rule out further warming and “potentially catastrophic outcomes.”“Higher values are not definitively ruled out, and feedback loops such as changes to cloud cover may lead to more warming in the future,” it said. It noted that “tipping points” such as the loss of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, loss of the Amazon rainforest and cloud disappearance risk creating further accelerations to planetary warming. Yet, ...

Unlikely duo continue viral Thanksgiving meal - here's how to join

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

Above: Keys to cooking a tasty turkey - Chef Brandon reveals his secrets.PHOENIX, Ariz. (WJW) — Nearly eight years ago, an Arizona grandmother named Wanda Dench sent a text message to what she believed was her grandson’s phone number, inviting him over for Thanksgiving dinner. However, the text ended up going to a 17-year-old teen she didn’t know. Thanksgiving deal: Meijer offering 59-cent per pound turkeys As the story goes, Jamal Hinton was at school when he received the message, and he responded trying to clear up the confusion. To his surprise, he was invited to Dench’s house for a plate, and to her surprise, he came over.Dench lost her husband to COVID in 2020, but she and Hinton continued their tradition. The unlikely friends confirmed they are meeting up again this Thanksgiving, as they have annually since 2016. This year, however, they're inviting others to join in the tradition.Hinton announced on social media that he and Dench are hosti...

Autopsy results presented at Kaitlin Armstrong murder trial

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

Editor's Note: The above video is KXAN's previous coverage from Nov. 13, 2023, of the Kaitlin Armstrong murder trial.AUSTIN (KXAN) — As testimony wrapped Monday, a firearms forensics examiner, Steven Aston, discussed the bullets found at the east Austin apartment where police believe Kaitlin Armstrong killed Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson on May 11, 2022.He continued his testimony Tuesday, addressing how his team ensures their ballistic examinations are unbiased. He has previously identified the projectiles found on the scene - two bullets in different conditions and one set of bullet fragments - as coming from the gun police said Armstrong used. Digital, GPS data reviewed at Kaitlin Armstrong’s murder trial Monday The trial began about two weeks ago. So far, we have heard from the following witnesses:Wilson’s brotherWilson’s friend Caitlin Cash who called 911 when she found Wilson wounded on the floor in her apartment Crime scene analystsAustin Police Department homicide detective...

Where does Austin rank among worst cities for traffic in the U.S.?

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — With pandemic-era restrictions lifting and more American workers returning to in-person operations, so, too, are traffic volumes nationwide, according to a report from financial news outlet 24/Wall St. published on Sunday.The report detailed the worst traffic in cities nationwide, including key findings on commute times lost to traffic, average commute times within the cities and the percentage of commuters who either drive or carpool to work. Among 292 U.S. cities analyzed, Austin ranked No. 19 for the worst traffic levels nationally, based on 2022 data. TRENDING NOW: New rideshare company Wridz taking on Uber and Lyft with driver incentives According to the report, each Austin driver lost an average of 53 hours of commute time to traffic snags in 2022. Traffic delays also surged substantially year over year, climbing 65% in 2022 compared to 2021.Within Austin, the average commute time was ranked at 24.5 minutes, and 90.6% of city commuters drove or carpooled to w...

Jurors at odds, entering fourth day of deliberations in APD officer's murder trial

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- For the fourth day, a Travis County jury will continue to deliberate Tuesday in the trial of Austin Police Officer Christopher Taylor. He is being tried for murder in the 2020 shooting death of Michael Ramos. Monday, Judge Dayna Blazey issued what is referred to as an "Allen charge," asking the jurors who were holding out to consider the majority's side. Blazey said jurors announced earlier in the day that they could not come to a unanimous decision. Should the jurors not be able to come to a unanimous decision, Judge Blazey would be forced to declare a mistrial, it would be the second time in this case. In May of 2023, a judge granted a mistrial because of issues with the jury process. Jury hears closing arguments Tuesday in APD officer’s murder trial During the trial, state prosecutors worked to show that Ramos was driving away from officers -- and that nobody was in danger of being hit by his vehicle -- when Taylor shot and killed him. Meanwhile, the ove...

Meteor believed to cause bright flash, huge boom near Bemidji

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:16:31 GMT

BEMIDJI — Residents of Beltrami County were jostled by a bright flash of light and explosion at about 6:40 p.m. Monday in what county officials now believe was a meteor.Chris Muller, public information officer for the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office, said several residents reported seeing the flash and/or hearing what sounded like a sonic boom.“The Beltrami County Emergency Communications Center received numerous reports of a bright blue/white flash in the sky followed by an incredibly loud explosion,” Muller noted in a statement released about two hours after the event. “I, too, heard it from my residence east of Bemidji. It shook windows, walls and rattled the dishes.”Muller said that after the incident was reported on social media, the sheriff’s office received similar reports across a large area of southern Beltrami County. The county shared a video on Facebook, submitted by an anonymous resident of the Nymore neighborhood of Bemidji, that shows a bright flash and then a very l...