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Dear Abby: Group outing makes introvert cringe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

Dear Abby: I am in a group of friends who are mainly from the same country. We bond pretty well and occasionally spend time together. We mostly communicate by text in a chat group. Once in a while I get messages from them — mostly greetings or chats about general stuff, but nothing personal.I’m an introvert, so I’m comfortable with the level of closeness we have right now. I don’t crave deeper connections with them, and I’m happy with how things are. If I have the chance to get together, I do my best to see them for meals or other activities.In a few weeks, there is a plan for us to do an outdoor activity that requires an overnight stay. I’m not excited about it. It makes me nervous to think about spending that much time with people who are not my family. I don’t mind having lunch and chitchatting all afternoon, but being around them for more than 24 hours feels like too much to handle.I tried hinting that I’m not interested by saying ...

Stock market today: Asian shares track decline on Wall St as Japan cuts GDP estimate for 2nd quarter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

NEW YORK — Shares fell Friday in Asia after Japan reported its economy grew less than earlier estimated in the last quarter. Oil prices declined, while U.S. futures edged higher. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, grew at a 4.8% annual pace in the April-June quarter, below the earlier estimate of 6% growth, according to data released Friday. Much of that growth was driven by exports, which rose nearly 13%, while private consumption fell 2.2% on weak investment spending. A separate report showed that wages declined in July for the 16th straight month, falling 2.5% from a year earlier. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.9% to 32,681.31, while the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.4% to 2,537.69. Hong Kong’s markets were closed due to a tropical storm. The Shanghai Composite index pulled back 0.5% to 3,105.54, while the S&/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 7,154.50. On Thursday, Wall Street slipped in mixed trading Thursday as the threat of high interest rates continues to dog Big Tech s...

Is it India? Is it Bharat? Speculations abound as government pushes for the country’s Sanskrit name

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — It began with a dinner invitation. How it ends could affect more than a billion people. State-issued invites sent to guests of this week’s G20 meeting referred to India’s president, Droupadi Murmu, as “President of Bharat.” Suddenly, in many circles, the question was everywhere: Would the country of more than 1.4 billion now be called by its ancient Sanskrit name?Since then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s ministers, his Hindu nationalist supporters, Bollywood stars and cricketers have made similar public proclamations: India should officially be rebranded as Bharat.India is known by two names: India, used worldwide, and the Sanskrit and Hindi nomenclature of “Bharat.” Now, Modi’s government is signaling that Indians should shed the name India and instead call their country Bharat.The possibility is resonating with Hindu nationalists who form the prime minister’s core vote base. Their stated reason: the name “India” is tied to colonialism and slavery, a sentim...

Massachusetts investigates teen’s death as company pulls spicy One Chip Challenge from store shelves

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The maker of an extremely spicy tortilla chip said Thursday it is working to remove the product from stores as Massachusetts authorities investigate the death of a teen whose family pointed to the One Chip Challenge popularized as a dare on social media as a contributing factor.The cause of Harris Wolobah’s death on Sept. 1 has yet to be determined and an autopsy is pending, but the 14-year-old’s family blamed the challenge. Since his death, Texas-based manufacturer Paqui has asked retailers to stop selling the individually wrapped chips, a step 7-Eleven has already taken.A vigil for the teen is planned for Friday evening at a park in Worcester in central Massachusetts.The One Chip Challenge chip sells for about $10 and comes wrapped in a sealed foil pouch that is enclosed in a coffin-shaped cardboard box. The package warns the chip is made for the “vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain,” is intended for adults and should be kept out of reach...

America’s retired North Korea intelligence officer offers a parting message on the nuclear threat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The founder of North Korea’s ruling dynasty, an isolationist totalitarian leader named Kim Il Sung, was still building some of the country’s first nuclear facilities when Syd Seiler arrived on the Korean Peninsula as a young U.S. military intelligence officer. Over the four decades since, Seiler has watched closely as Kim, his son and now his grandson have clung to their nuclear program and developed the potential to lob nuclear warheads at the U.S. and its allies if they choose. Now Seiler is freshly retired after decades of advising presidents, military commanders and diplomats, making reported secret trips to North Korea and serving as a lead negotiator on talks to contain its nuclear program. And he has a parting message to American leaders: Don’t be discouraged.North Korea’s fiery rounds of missile test launches are no reason to give up on the international sanctions and pressure, or to simply accept that the ruling Kim family is now a nuclear-arme...

Parenting advice YouTuber Ruby Franke and business partner due in court on child abuse charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice via a once-popular YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Friday on charges that she and the owner of a relationship counseling business abused and starved her two young children.Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were charged with six felony counts of aggravated child abuse after their arrests on Aug. 30 at Hildebrandt’s house in the southern Utah city of Ivins. Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped the house that morning and asked a neighbor to call police, according to the 911 call released by the St. George Police Department.The boy was emaciated and had duct tape around his ankles and wrists, but wouldn’t say why, the caller reported. “I think he’s been … he’s been detained,” the caller said, his voice breaking up. “He’s obviously covered in wounds.”As the dispatcher was asking questions, the boy said he didn’t know where his mom wa...

What’s streaming now: Olivia Rodrigo, LaKeith Stanfield, NBA 2K14 and ‘The Little Mermaid’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

Olivia Rodrigo’s much-anticipated sophomore album and LaKeith Stanfield starring in the eight-part horror fantasy series “The Changeling” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near youAmong the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” starring Halle Bailey, the video game NBA 2K14 pays tribute to Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and the popular comfort show “Virgin River” returns for its fifth season on Netflix.NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— The latest Disney live-action remake, “The Little Mermaid,” landed on Disney+ on Wednesday. Not everyone has been a fan of the studio’s regular retreads of animation classics. But they’ve been dependable box-office successes; earlier this year, “The Little Mermaid” grossed $568.6 million worldwide. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called this “Mermaid” “a somewhat drab undertaking with sparks of b...

Trump visits South Dakota for rally that Gov. Kristi Noem’s allies hope is vice presidential tryout

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As his rivals hold town halls and meet-and-greets in early voting states, Donald Trump will head to South Dakota Friday for a party fundraiser that will double as an opportunity for the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, to showcase herself as a potential vice presidential pick.Trump will join the South Dakota Republican Party for a “Monumental Leaders Rally” in Rapid City. Noem will appear alongside the former president and is expected to endorse him, creating an image of the pair that Noem’s allies hope looks like a presidential ticket, according to two senior Republicans familiar with her thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because she had not yet made her endorsement public.Trump’s decision to headline the event underscores his dominance of the Republican race even as he faces four separate indictments and 91 felony counts. South Dakota holds a late primary and isn’t competitive in a general election. But with a huge lead, Trump is skippi...

What to know about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial so far, and what’s ahead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The historic impeachment trial that could remove Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from office began with testimony about an extramarital affair and the Republican’s former top aides testifying they felt compelled to report him to the FBI.Paxton, who is accused of bribery and abuse of office, skipped all of the early testimony. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, sat and listened to it all.The articles of impeachment center on allegations that Paxton improperly used the powers of his office to protect Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer who was indicted this summer on federal charges of making false statements to banks.If convicted by the Texas Senate, where Republicans hold a dominant majority, Paxton would be removed from office and possibly barred from holding any political office in the future.A look at the trial so far and what is still to come.ACCUSERS TAKE THE STANDThe first witnesses were Paxton’s top former staff as Republi...

A Black man imprisoned since 1998 walks free and his attorneys raise concerns about police racism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:16 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In the predawn hours of March 20, 1998, a neighbor heard screams coming from the home in Salem of Harriet “Sunny” Thompson and then saw a white man run from the house, leaving Thompson inside dead of stab wounds.Yet a Black man, Jesse Johnson, was convicted by a jury in 2004 of aggravated murder and sentenced to death. He walked free this week after 25 years behind bars when prosecutors decided to drop retrial efforts, two years after the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed Johnson’s conviction.The jury never got a chance to hear neighbor Patricia Hubbard testify to what she saw and heard that night. After Johnson was convicted, Hubbard told investigators that when she began describing what she had seen to a police detective, he responded, twice using a racial epithet: a Black woman got murdered and a Black man “is going to pay for it.”Johnson’s trial attorney never sought out Hubbard, a fact that the appeals court cited when it reversed the convict...