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Hong Kong’s Disneyland opens 1st Frozen-themed attraction, part of a $60B global expansion

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong Disneyland opened its first Frozen-themed attraction on Monday, with thousands of eager visitors turning up to experience the new rides, some lining up for hours to get an early start. Based on Disney’s wildly popular Frozen animation film, the new section of the park features landscapes and characters from the movie and two new rides, a roller coaster and a boat ride that takes visitors through different scenes featured in the film. “Over the past decade, the film has grown into one of the most successful franchises in Disney history,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences. “World of Frozen represents Hong Kong Disneyland’s largest and boldest expansion since the park opened in 2005.”The opening comes after Disney announced in September a $60 billion expansion of its parks and cruises over about a decade. Now that Chinese tourists are venturing abroad again after the pandemic, the pandemic, the new attraction is meant to be a game changer for ...

This Week in Business: Dick’s, Deere earnings and home sales

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

Dick’s Sporting GoodsDick’s Sporting Goods reports its third-quarter sales and profit on Tuesday.Wall Street analysts forecast that Dick’s earned $2.45 per share on sales of $2.94 billion. Those number would represent a small decline from last year’s third quarter. Dick’s shares lost nearly a quarter of their value in August after the Pennsylvania company missed second-quarter profit targets, which it blamed on theft.Home salesThe National Association of Realtors on Tuesday reports data on existing home sales in OctoberAnalysts forecast that home sales fell for the fifth month in a row amid surging mortgage rates and a near record-low level of properties on the market. Sales sank 15.4% compared with the same month last year and are down 21% through the first nine months of the year versus the same period in 2022. Existing home sales, in millions, seasonally adjusted annual rate:May: 4.30June: 4.16July: 4.07Aug.: 4.04Sept.: 3.96Oct. (est.): 3.90Source: F...

No more Thanksgiving ‘food orgy’? New obesity medications change how users think of holiday meals

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

For most of her life, Claudia Stearns dreaded Thanksgiving. As a person who struggled with obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing about what she ate — and the guilt of overindulging on a holiday built around food.Now, after losing nearly 100 pounds using medications including Wegovy, a powerful new anti-obesity drug, Stearns says the “food noise” in her head has gone very, very quiet.“Last year, it felt so lovely to just be able to enjoy my meal, to focus on being with friends and family, to focus on the joy of the day,” says Stearns, 65, of Somerville, Massachusetts. “That was a whole new experience.”As millions of Americans struggling with obesity gain access to a new generation of weight-loss drugs, Stearns’ experience is becoming more common — and more noticeable at the times of year when cooking, eating and a sense of abundance can define and heighten gatherings of loved ones and friends. Medical experts and consumers say the drugs are shifting n...

Michigan school shooting survivor heals with surgery, a trusted horse and a chance to tell her story

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

MAYFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — For Kylie Ossege, the 19-year-old college student who survived two deadly mass school shootings in Michigan — one as a senior at Oxford High School in 2021 and another 14 months later as a freshman at Michigan State University — Blaze stands as a source of comfort in a world otherwise shattered by bullets.Ossege runs a brush along Blaze’s broad forehead, then gives him a kiss between the eyes.“I feel very at home when I’m with him,” Ossege says of the 13-year-old American Quarter Horse she has owned since 2019. “He’s my best friend.”A better friend than time, perhaps, which now gathers for Ossege like dust in a corner, a clingy bundle of haunting memories that she can neither forget nor sweep away: Fifteen minutes as she lay shot and bleeding in an Oxford High School hallway. Six weeks recovering in a hospital. Fourteen months between a deadly high school shooting and another at MSU. And daily physical pain she can never fully escape.Ossege was severe...

Russia puts Ukrainian Eurovision winner Jamala on wanted list

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

KYIV — Susana Jamaladinova, a Ukrainian of Crimean Tatar origin known professionally as Jamala, is now on Russia’s wanted list, state news agencies RIA and TASS reported Monday.The ministry of internal affairs accuses the 40-year-old Eurovision-winner of discrediting Moscow’s army, Russian news website Mediazona reported. The site said Moscow put Jamala on the wanted list in October, and in November the singer was arrested in absentia by a Russian court.Jamala, a vocal critic of Russia’s occupation of her native Crimean peninsula and invasion of Ukraine, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 with the song “1944,” which is about the deportation and ethnic cleansing of around 200,000 Crimean Tatars carried out by Soviet authorities in May 1944.Jamala, who is currently on a fund- and awareness-raising tour in Australia, reacted to the news by posting an Instagram story of herself outside the Sydney Opera House, with a facepalm emoji.

Q&A: How to create a sustainable lithium supply chain for a carbon-neutral world?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

Chile’s Atacama Desert hides a precious secret—salt flats packed with lithium, a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and other gamechanging green technologies. Striving to meet this demand, mining companies are converging on the “lithium triangle” spanning Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. Deposits are abundant, but extracting them sustainably remains a challenge. The possible impact of lithium production on the local environment and neighboring communities are relevant concerns that must be taken into consideration.SQM, the world’s largest lithium producer by volume with more than 25 years of experience in lithium production in Chile’s Salar de Atacama region, has continuously improved production processes, adapted technologies and strengthened its cooperation with local communities in order to respond to those concerns.As production scales, to support the planet’s transition to a low carbon mobility, pushing toward the highest standards of min...

Microsoft hires OpenAI founders to lead AI research team after ChatGPT maker’s shakeup

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

Microsoft announced Monday that it has hired Sam Altman and another co-founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI after they unexpectedly departed the company days earlier in a corporate shakeup that shocked the artificial intelligence world.Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella also tweeted that the major investor in OpenAI — behind the chatbot that kicked off the generative AI craze — looked “forward to getting to know” OpenAI’s new chief executive, former Twitch leader Emmett Shear, and the rest of the management team.Nadella wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Microsoft was “extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.”Altman said “the mission continues,” in reply to Nadella on X. OpenAI said Friday that Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which had lost confidence i...

China welcomes Arab and Muslim foreign ministers for talks on ending the war in Gaza

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s top diplomat welcomed four Arab foreign ministers and the Indonesian one to Beijing on Monday, saying his country would work with “our brothers and sisters” in the Arab and Islamic world to try to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible.The ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Indonesia chose to start a tour of world capitals in Beijing, a testament to both China’s growing geopolitical influence and its longstanding support for the Palestinians. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the foreign diplomats that their decision to start in Beijing shows their high level of trust in his nation.“China is a good friend and brother of Arab and Islamic countries,” Wang said in opening remarks at a state guest house before their talks began. “We have always firmly safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of Arab (and) Islamic countries and have always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people.”China...

In the news today: Canadians still waiting to leave the Gaza Strip

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…No word on Canadians cleared to leave Gaza StripCanadians with loved ones trapped in the embattled Gaza Strip are still waiting to learn whether the 135 people cleared to leave the territory on Sunday were able to make the journey.A daily list from Gaza’s General Authority for Crossings and Borders, which contains the names of foreign passport holders cleared to cross into Egypt via the Rafah land crossing, expanded to include 135 people with ties to Canada on Sunday.But Global Affairs Canada did not provide any details on Sunday as to how many of those people were able to leave the war-torn enclave.Questions swirl ahead of federal fiscal updateQuestions are swirling on Parliament Hill ahead of a fiscal update that’s widely expected to focus on addressing Canada’s housing crisis and cost-of-living concerns. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland i...

Economists expect inflation slowed again in October as high interest rates take hold

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:38:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Forecasters anticipate Canada’s inflation rate took another dip in October as gasoline prices fell from the previous month and grocery prices rise more slowly. Statistics Canada is set to release its consumer price index report tomorrow, coinciding with the federal government’s fall economic statement. BMO expects the annual rate to come in at 3.2 per cent for October, while RBC is forecasting the rate fell to 3.1 per cent.Canada’s inflation rate came in at 3.8 per cent in September. A further slowdown would be welcome news for the Bank of Canada as it looks for evidence of a sustained slowdown in consumer price growth.The central bank opted to hold its key interest rate steady at five per cent at its last two decision meetings, largely due to recent weak economic data. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2022. The Canadian Press