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China factory activity slows, adding to economic strains

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s factory activity decelerated in May, a survey showed Wednesday, adding to signs its economic rebound after the end of anti-virus controls is slowing.A monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the national statistics agency and an industry group declined to 48.4 from April’s 49.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show activity declining.Chinese manufacturers have been hurt by weakening global demand after central banks in the United States, Europe and Asia raised interest rates to cool inflation.At home, Chinese consumer spending revived after anti-virus curbs on travel and business activity were lifted in December. But the recovery has been weaker than expected.Economic growth accelerated to 4.5% over a year earlier in the three months ending in March, from the previous quarter’s 2.9%. Growth will have to accelerate in coming quarters to hit the ruling Communist Party’s annual target of “around 5%.”The Associated Press

DeSantis kicks off presidential campaign in Iowa, vows to ‘fight back’ against Trump

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stepped into Iowa on Tuesday for the first time as a Republican presidential candidate and stepped up to Donald Trump, vowing to “fight back” against the former president as the GOP’s 2024 campaign enters a new phase.Until now, the 44-year-old Republican governor whose slogan is “Never Back Down” had largely avoided any direct confrontation with Trump, his chief Republican rival, who has in turn unleashed a torrent of fierce attacks against DeSantis for much of the year. DeSantis was initially cautious while addressing an energetic crowd of roughly 500 gathered inside a suburban Des Moines church. But speaking to reporters afterward, he pushed back against Trump in a way he had not before on the national stage. “I’m going to fight back,” he declared, taking aim at Trump’s recent criticism of his leadership during the pandemic. “Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me?”He accused ...

Topless protester at Juno Awards pleads guilty to trespassing, agrees to pay fine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

A woman who protested topless onstage at the Juno Awards in Edmonton in March says she has agreed to pay a $600 fine.Casey Hatherly, who goes by the name Ever, says she pleaded guilty to a charge of trespassing.The environmental activist, who initially faced a charge of mischief, walked onto the Junos stage while Canadian musician Avril Lavigne was introducing a performance.Messages written on the protester’s bare torso read “land back” and “save the Greenbelt,” referring to Ontario’s decision last year to open a protected area of land for housing.Hatherly says $100 of her fine will go to a victims support group.She says the timing of her fine is interesting, with the Alberta provincial election having wrapped up on Monday.“Why would I wanna give $500 to this province that literally just elected an oil lobbyist while a third of the province is on fire?” she said in a phone interview, referring to Premier Danielle Smith. “What do ...

Tennessee woman missing during cross-country trip found safe, boyfriend arrested: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

REDDING, Calif. (WKRN) – Police in Redding, California say they have found a Tennessee woman reported missing while she was on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend.According to the Redding Police Department, police in Eureka, California contacted Nikki Alcaraz and confirmed she was safe. Alcaraz was reportedly spotted in Eureka on Monday, nearly a month after she departed for a cross-country trip with her boyfriend, Tyler Stratton, and a dog to visit family in Orange County, California.Early Tuesday morning, police responded to the area and determined Alcaraz and Stratton were "together and had been at the location." Later in the day, someone reported seeing the vehicle Alcaraz and Stratton were believed to be traveling in. Officers found the vehicle and found both inside. Alcaraz reportedly told Eureka Police she did not need any assistance, according to a release from the department. Stratton was taken into custody for his outstanding warrant from Tennessee for failure to appea...

Ivan Melendez etches name in record books with 17-game hitting streak

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After a slow start to his season for the Hillsboro Hops, former Texas Longhorns slugger Ivan Melendez is heating up.On May 24, Melendez set a franchise record for the Hops — the High Single-A affiliate for the Arizona Diamondbacks — with a 16-game hitting streak. He added three more hits the night after against the Tri-City Dust Devils to extend his record to 17, and that's where it stopped.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersMelendez had a stretch of seven home runs in 11 games in mid-May, including four consecutive games with a homer against the Spokane Indians. The first home run of that stretch came on May 9, and it sailed a whopping 475 feet.In May, Melendez is hitting .310 with a .667 slugging percentage. When his hitting streak began on May 5, he was hitting .094 for the season. By May 28, his average jumped to a respectable .264 and he's sporting a ...

Fresh off call-up from Round Rock Express, Grant Anderson dazzles in Rangers debut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Reliever Grant Anderson won in an overpowering major league debut and the Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers 10-6 on Tuesday night to improve to 35-19, the best record in franchise history at the one-third mark.Anderson stuck out seven of the nine batters he faced after taking over for starter Martín Pérez in the fifth inning.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters“In all my years, I can’t think of a better debut than what he just did,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He came into a one-run game with the tying run on second base and got eight outs — seven strikeouts. That’s just so impressive.”Texas second baseman Marcus Semien extended his hitting streak to a career-best 19 games with a fifth-inning single. Jonah Heim drove in four runs, Josh Jung homered and had three runs and Aroldis Garcia had four hits and three runs.“Our offense really came through ...

Concert review: With vocal assistance, Janet Jackson crams in her many hits at Xcel Energy Center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

In the time from her 1986 breakthrough “What Have You Done for Me Lately” to her final No. 1, 2001’s “All for You,” Janet Jackson released 38 singles. Nearly every one of them made it into her set Tuesday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. Or, parts of them, anyway.As she did at Target Center in 2015 and Treasure Island Casino four years later, Jackson went for quantity over quality. She performed shortened versions of her biggest hits and, in several cases, cut them down even further and sang them as medleys.Jackson, who turned 57 two weeks ago, kicked off her nearly two-hour show after a crowd-pleasing opening set from Atlanta rapper/actor Ludacris. She performed on a relatively sparse stage that looked like an open dance floor, with a series of large screens that changed positions through the evening. Her band, which included piped-in backing vocals, stayed mostly tucked away at the back, leaving Jackson and her four agile male dancers the focus of the show.The s...

Lynx rally falls short in Dallas, as they fall to 0-5

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

It was a downer in Big D for the Lynx.Seeing plenty of positive offensive signs, the defensive struggles were too much to overcome and Minnesota couldn’t come all the way back, falling 94-89 to Dallas on Tuesday night.Jessica Shepard, Tiffany Mitchell and Kayla McBride carried the team at times, but the Lynx remain winless after five contests.The offensive output and 48.8% shooting are season bests, but back-to-back opponents have put up 94 points.“It’s just putting 40 minutes together both offensively and defensively,” Mitchell said. “Other games we lacked offense, so we’ve just got to find that medium and put those two together.”Returning to the Minnesota lineup after missing two games for her sister’s wedding, McBride finished with 18 points and made four shots from outside the arc.Playing all 40 minutes, Shepard scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and added 10 rebounds for her first double-double this season. And she dished five assists. Mitchell, on the court for all but ...

Astros get to Joe Ryan in Twins’ loss to Houston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

HOUSTON — The first one barely made it to the Crawford Boxes, a home run in just one park. Unfortunately for the Twins, it was the one park they happened to be playing in. The second one was loud, and it was a no-doubter.Those two home runs — one to Alex Bregman and the other to Chas McCormick — marked the first two home runs Joe Ryan had given up in the month of May. His homerless streak topped 37 innings before Ryan was tagged for a pair of them, the first runs the Astros scored in a 5-1 win over the Twins on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park.“They made it difficult,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of the Astros. “They battled in those at-bats and forced Joe to really work.”It was a rare outing for Ryan, who gave up a season-high five runs in a season-low four innings. Some long, early at-bats by the Astros (32-22) forced him to throw more pitches and Baldelli said it was a night that “for a lot of reasons,” the Twins (28-27) didn’t want to “push him to the max pitch-count wise,” wit...

New crackdown on expired temp tags; 15 drivers pulled over so far

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:15:23 GMT

FERGUSON, Mo. - Ferguson police were pulling drivers over for expired temporary license tags in the town’s first-ever "Temp Tag Tuesday." Police are cracking down on people driving with temporary tags that have expired for months, even years.There’s hope that a new Missouri law will be a game-changer when it comes to the temporary tag abuse that’s been plaguing the St. Louis area for years.In the span of about an hour in Ferguson alone Tuesday, FOX 2 cameras saw nearly a dozen cars with tags expired by more than a month, more than a year, more than two years, and with no tags at all. Police had pulled over nearly a dozen drivers for temporary tag violations by early afternoon. Woman ‘saving up’ as Ferguson PD cracks down on expired tags “The efforts are not going to stop any other day of the week; it’s just that Tuesdays it’s something we’re going to focus on,” said Sgt. Jill Gronewald for the Ferguson Police Department. “It is a pretty prevalent violation that we see.”She stresse...