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Saudi oil giant Aramco reports $30B in profits, down nearly 40% from last year due to lower prices

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco on Monday reported $30 billion in second quarter profit, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year that it attributed to lower oil prices.Total sales stood at just over $106 billion, down from $150 billion in the second quarter of 2022. In an earnings report filed with the Saudi stock exchange, Aramco said the decrease “mainly reflected the impact of lower crude oil prices and weakening refining and chemicals margins.”The company reported net income of $30 billion, compared to $48 billion in the second quarter of 2022, a decline of 37.8%.Aramco nevertheless raised its dividend paid out to investors to $29.38 billion, compared to $18.8 billion in the second quarter of 2022. The performance-based dividend is partly based on the company’s record earnings last year, it said.“Our strong results reflect our resilience and ability to adapt through market cycles,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in...

Rail service in southern Pakistan is partially restored after train crash that killed 30 people

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Passenger rail service was partially restored Monday in southern Pakistan, a day after a train derailed in the region, killing at least 30 people and injuring scores, officials said. Families were holding funerals for the victims of the crash.According to Aqeel Ahmed Qureshi, a doctor at a hospital in the district of Nawabshah in Sindh province, 27 bodies of the victims have been handed over to relatives for burials while three bodies have still to be identified. Dozens of injured people remained in hospital as funerals got underway on Monday. Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq said engineers had opened a probe into the train accident.“Unfortunately,” he told reporters, “we don’t have enough funds to properly maintain our aging railway tracks, and yesterday’s train crash apparently took place because of it.”Sunday’s crash happened when 10 cars of the Hazara Express train went off the tracks near the Sarhari railway station. Train tra...

Book Review: A private eye’s death sets a Chicago cop on a hairy investigation in ‘Dead and Gone’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

“Dead and Gone,” by Joanna Schaffhausen (Minotaur)A private eye named Sam Tran is dead, hanged from a tree in a local cemetery, and Chicago P.D. Detective Annalisa Vega catches the case. Tran was once on the job himself, but as it turns out, that’s not the only reason the case is fraught.Vega figures the death is most likely related to a case Tran had been working on, of which there were three. Two are cold cases: A young woman had hired him to discover what happened to her mother, who disappeared more than 30 years ago; and a man had hired him to figure out who killed his cheating wife and her lover in a motel room more than 20 years ago.However, the third case makes things more than a little awkward for Vega. Her brother Vincent had hired Tran to catch a mysterious stalker who had been harassing his daughter Quinn and other female students on their college campus. Unsurprisingly, Vega’s first priority is protecting Quinn. This proves problematic since the college is located outsid...

People are losing more money to scammers than ever before. Here’s how to keep yourself safe

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — With the help of technology, scammers are tricking Americans out of more money than ever before. But there are steps you can take to keep your money and information safe. In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion — a 30 percent increase from 2021, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission. The biggest losses were to investment scams, including cryptocurrency schemes, which cost people more than $3.8 billion, double the amount in 2021.Younger adults ages 20-29 reported losing money more often than older adults ages 70-79, the FTC found. But when older adults did lose money, they lost more. Many retirees have assets like savings, pensions, life insurance policies or property for scammers to target.With the rise of the digital economy, scammers now reach targets by social media and text, as well as phone and email. Online payment platforms, apps, and marketplaces have also increased opportunities. Still, many of their tact...

Book Review: James McBride’s latest novel is a tour de force celebrating community and compassion

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride (Riverhead Books)“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” James McBride’s tour de force of a new novel, opens in 1972, when authorities discover a human skeleton and mezuzah at the bottom of a well in the small community of Pottstown in southeast Pennsylvania. Suspecting foul play, they question an old Jewish man who lives in the ramshackle neighborhood of Chicken Hill, where the town’s Jews, Blacks and immigrant whites once lived together in harmony. Waving off the suggestion that something is amiss because the mezuzah wasn’t attached to its customary place on the door of a Jewish home, Malachi offers up this sage observation: “Jewish life is portable.” The very next day, Hurricane Agnes barrels into the region, churning up flood waters that wipe out every trace of the potential crime, prompting this humorous aside from a chorus of elderly Black women: “White folks was jumping off their rooftops in Pottstown like they was on th...

The UK government moves asylum-seekers to a barge moored off southern England in a bid to cut costs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A small group of asylum-seekers has been moved onto a barge moored in southern England as the U.K. government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country, British news media reported Monday.The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a floating hostel that will ultimately house up to 500 men, from other sites around the country. More were expected to arrive later Monday as authorities seek to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in expensive hotel rooms that were requisitioned on an emergency basis as the number of arrivals has surged in recent years.The barge, which is owned by UK-based Bibby Marine, is normally used to provide temporary housing for workers when local accommodation isn’t available. With three stories of closely packed bedrooms, the barge resembles a college dormitory, though the rooms are utilitarian. It also includes a kitchen, dining area, common rooms and laundry facilities.The Bibby Stoc...

Sri Lankan air force training aircraft crashes, killing pilot and flight engineer

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan air force training aircraft crashed Monday, killing the pilot and flight engineer, an official said.The Chinese-built PT-6 plane crashed during a training flight two minutes after taking off from the air force academy at China Bay base in the eastern city of Trincomalee, air force spokesperson Group Captain Dushan Wijesinghe said.He said the bodies of the pilot and flight engineer, the only people on board, were recovered. Wijesinghe did not say what caused the crash. He said air force commander Air Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa has appointed a special committee to investigate.Sri Lanka uses PT-6 planes mainly to train new pilots. The China Bay base is a former British air base that came under attack by Japan during World War II.Trincomalee is about 260 kilometers (165 miles) east of the capital, Colombo. Sri Lanka is a former British colony that gained independence in 1948.Bharatha Mallawarachi, The Associated Press

19-year-old suburban man charged in deadly shooting of teen in Chicago

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

CHICAGO — A 19-year-old man from North Chicago has been charged in the murder of a 17-year-old shot and killed on the Northwest Side in May.Jesus Toledo was arrested Saturday in the 3900 block of Fountain Square in Waukegan. Authorities believe he was one of the suspects responsible for the deadly shooting of a 17-year-old boy on May 20 in the 2000 block of North Pulaski Street. Previous: Boy, 17, shot and killed on Northwest side Toledo was charged with first-degree murder.

Arrested teens speak after being given jobs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

CHICAGO — A non-profit is working to provide jobs to teenagers who have previously been arrested for participating in the so-called teen takeovers, as well as other crimes such as carjackings.Monday, an event organized by Early Walker, CEO of I'm Telling, Don't Shoot, will highlight a community effort to employ teenagers in the restaurant industry. Five teens, with their parents, are expected to speak publicly about receiving the job offers and why they were involved in alleged criminal activity.WGN plans to livestream the event within this story beginning at approximately 10 a.m. Girl, 8, fatally shot in head in Portage Park; offender in custody Multiple teen takeovers have occurred across Chicago during the summer months including one at a gas station in Bronzeville and another along the streets of Lakeview.

Which airlines are most likely to bump you? DOT data explains

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:42:45 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – For most of us, flying is usually a breeze, from arriving at the airport to boarding the plane to picking up your luggage and moving on to your destination. Unfortunately for some, despite their best efforts, they may find themselves watching their plane take off without them. Maybe it’s happened to you: You book your flight in advance, you pick your seat (if your airline allows it), and you arrive on time at your gate — only to find out your flight is overbooked. An airline overbooking the flight (also known as "overselling" the flight) is completely legal, the U.S. Department of Transportation explains. The practice allows carriers to sell more boarding passes than there are seats on a plane to compensate for passengers that do not arrive for the flight. When a flight is oversold, airlines will first ask for volunteers to give up their seat. If there aren't enough volunteers, some passengers will be involuntarily denied boarding. This is more commonly known ...