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Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Barbenheimer are expected to add billions to US economy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

By Augusta Saraiva, Bloomberg NewsTaylor Swift, Beyoncé and “Barbenheimer” fever are giving a serious boost to the U.S. economy.The megastars’ tours and blockbuster films are expected to add up to $8.5 billion to U.S. growth in the third quarter, according to Bloomberg Economics. The nearly 50 U.S. concerts the artists have scheduled could add $5.4 billion to gross domestic product, while the films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are projected to add about $3.1 billion in consumer spending and exports from international ticket sales.Taken together, that would raise annualized real personal consumption expenditures and GDP by 0.7 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively, in the July-through-September period, economists Anna Wong and Eliza Winger wrote in a note late Wednesday. The economists nearly doubled their forecast for growth in the July-to-September period, partly as a result of the spending gains.Advertisements for the Oppenheimer movie is seen on the Chines...

Ask a travel nerd: How can I make solo travel affordable and fun?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

By Sam Kemmis | NerdWalletWhen I first became a digital nomad in 2018, I expected a life of adventure and ease. “No more commuting!” I thought. “No more parking tickets or forgetting to water my plants!”Yet far from making my life simpler and better, solo travel was tough at first. For one thing, the way I was doing it was expensive. For another, it was lonely. “No more retirement savings! No more, um, friends?”Not every traveler is looking to become a full-time digital nomad, but solo travel on the whole has become more popular over the past several years. Single-person flight searches were up 36% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to data from Kayak, a travel search platform. And Google searches for “solo travel” have increased 59% in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period in 2019, according to Google Trends.Solo travel can certainly be expensive. Booking a $150 hotel room might not be a big deal for families, but it adds up quickly for singletons. It can also be ...

First Nations ‘shutting down’ B.C.’s Joffre Lakes Park for more than a month

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

Two First Nations say they’re “shutting down” public access to B.C.’s Joffre Lakes Park for more than a month to allow for harvest celebrations.The Lil’wat and N’Quatqua First Nations say they’re asserting their title and rights to shared unceded territory to take time to harvest and gather resources.They say the park will reopen on National Truth and Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30.In a statement, the nations say the decision is supported by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that said First Nations’ consent is required to use its lands and resources.The statement dated Wednesday says the goal is to “ensure our well-being for our future” and asks people to honour the decision.The B.C. Parks website says that due to “unanticipated circumstances,” the park is currently inaccessible to the general public and that day-use pass and reservation holde...

Harris is welcoming Las Vegas Aces to the White House to celebrate team’s 2022 WNBA championship

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will take center court in the East Room of the White House on Friday to welcome the 2022 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces. The Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun 78-71 at home in Game Four of last year’s finals to win the championship trophy, 3-1. The team was lifted to its first championship title by Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, who scored a game-high 20 points; regular season MVP A’ja Wilson, who added 11 points, and shooting by Riquna Williams, who came off the bench to score 17 points.Coach Becky Hammon became the first in WNBA history to win a championship in their first season as head coach. She previously was an assistant coach for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.The WNBA title is the first for one of the league’s original eight franchises. The Aces began as the Utah Starzz from 1997-2002, and relocated to San Antonio as the Silver Stars (and later just the Stars) from 2003-2017. The team moved to Las Vegas before the ...

Prominent Lebanese journalist Talal Salman dies at age 85 after long illness

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Journalist Talal Salman, who founded one of Lebanon’s largest Arabic-language independent newspapers, died Friday after a long illness, the state-run National News Agency said. He was 85.An Arab nationalist whose role model was late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Salman devoted much of his writing to the Palestinian cause and calls for Arab unity.Salman worked for several publications before founding the daily As-Safir in March 1974. The newspaper, which quickly became one of the country’s largest, identified itself as “Lebanon’s newspaper in the Arab World and the Arab World’s newspaper in Lebanon” and published under the slogan “Voice of the Voiceless.”Prominent journalists and writers from Lebanon and the region wrote for As-Safir and Salman was editor-in-chief until the paper closed down on Dec. 31, 2016, because of financial difficulties. After the newspaper ceased publication, Salman continued to write on a website that carried his name.An ear...

Protest this way, not that way: In statehouses, varied rules restrict public voices

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Shaking violently between sobs, parent Sarah Shoop Neumann could only manage a whisper as state troopers escorted her out of a Tennessee legislative hearing where she was waiting to testify against a bill that would let teachers carry guns.“I was supposed to speak. I was supposed to testify,” said Neumann, whose son still attends an elementary school where six people — including three 9-year-old children — were fatally shot this year.Moments earlier, a Republican subcommittee chairman ordered law enforcement to clear the public out of the room after the crowd erupted into applause and others defied a new ban on holding signs during committee proceedings. Only after troopers cleared the room was Neumann allowed to return to testify.While acts of protest big and small are common in legislatures, states often have rules in place to limit disruptions to government proceedings, with authorities given wide latitude to remove people who jeer, chant or are otherwise ...

Missouri death row inmate who claims innocence sues governor for dissolving inquiry board

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate is suing Gov. Mike Parson over the governor’s decision to dissolve a board of inquiry that was convened to investigate the man’s innocence claim.The lawsuit on behalf of Marcellus Williams asks a state judge to invalidate Parson’s June order that did away with the inquiry board. Parson also lifted a stay of execution. The next day, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date, though no date has been set. Bailey also is named in the lawsuit filed Wednesday.Williams, 54, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her home in the St. Louis suburb of University City. Gayle worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1981 to 1992 before leaving to do social work.Williams was hours away from execution in 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens halted the process and ordered an investigation. His decision followed the release of new DNA t...

Canada Post loses more than $250 million in second quarter

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada Post continued to bleed cash last quarter, as losses ballooned by 59 per cent.In a release Friday, the Crown corporation reported a before-tax loss of $254 million for its second quarter versus $160 million in losses a year earlier.The country’s main postal operator says revenue dropped by $78 million, or six per cent, year-over-year due to declines across all lines of business.Canada Post says an increasingly competitive market for parcel delivery continued to dent revenues throughout the first half of 2023, while transaction mail and direct marketing deliveries also fell amid businesses’ strained promotional budgets.The cost of operations at Canada Post rose by 1.7 per cent, or $31 million, in the quarter ended June 30 compared to the same period a year earlier, due mainly to higher non-capital investments in technology and operations.Canada Post, which last reported a full-year profit in 2017, announced a transformation plan in June that targeted the e...

Trump and all 18 others charged in Georgia election case meet the deadline to surrender at jail

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia on charges that they participated in a wide-ranging illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election have all turned themselves in to a jail in Atlanta before the deadline at noon Friday.After Trump was booked Thursday evening — scowling at the camera for the first-ever mug shot of a former president — seven co-defendants who had not yet surrendered did so Friday morning. All but one of those charged had agreed to a bond amount and conditions with Fulton County District Fani Willis ahead of time, and they were free to go after booking.Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who is accused of harassing a Fulton County election worker, did not negotiate a bond ahead of time and remained in the jail after turning himself in Thursday. Federal court records from Maryland show Floyd, identified as a former U.S. Marine who’s active with the group Black Voices for Trump, was also arrested t...

Zimbabweans anxiously wait for election results as African observer missions note voter intimidation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:57 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabweans waited anxiously Friday for the outcome of general elections as dozens of armed police with water cannons guarded the national results center, the scene of deadly violence after the previous vote five years ago. African election observer missions criticized this week’s balloting, alleging that a group linked to the ruling ZANU-PF party had engaged in voter intimidation, while Zimbabwe authorities took dozens of local election monitors to court on allegations of subversion that government critics said were trumped-up charges.Early results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission indicated that ZANU-PF was winning in its traditional rural strongholds, while the Citizens Coalition for Change was taking major urban areas that have traditionally voted for the opposition. Results in the presidential balloting are not expected for several days.Zimbabwe’s long history of disputed elections has left many wary of official results.Voting closed Thursday ...