Author: Reporter

Survey finds more business leaders fearful about their company’s survival as AI and climate challenges grow

More executives are feeling better about the global economy, but a growing number do not think their companies will survive the coming decade without a major overhaul because of pressure from climate change and technology like artificial intelligence, according to a survey of CEOs by one of the world’s largest consulting firms, PwC. The survey of more than 4,700 CEOs worldwide was released in January, and it showed a mixed picture of the coming years. Of the executives, 38% were optimistic about the strength of the economy, up from 18% last year, when the world was mired in high...

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Trauma still haunts some families as Ukraine’s Bucha rebuilds two years after brutal occupation

Days after Russian forces withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv in the dramatic first weeks of their full-scale invasion two years ago, a photo revealed what had become of Nataliia Verbova’s missing husband. Poring over the image of eight men executed and lying on cold concrete in the suburb of Bucha, taken by AP photographer Vadim Ghirda, she focused on a man face down with his hands tied. She did not want to believe it was Andrii, who had joined the territorial defense days after the invasion but was detained by the Russians. A month later, she visited the...

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Associated Press to provide hundreds of nonprofit newsrooms with free election results and graphics

The Associated Press is making some of its U.S. elections data available for free to more than 400 nonprofit news organizations in a program funded by the Google News Initiative. The small, primarily digital newsrooms are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News. While that 15-year-old group includes some national outlets like ProPublica, most of its members are smaller organizations that cover local news, most with only a handful of employees and many that operate in areas left otherwise bereft of coverage. On primary nights and the general election, AP will give these outlets ready-to-publish graphics with national and...

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Democrats in down-ballot races hopeful to get a boost under Wisconsin’s new legislative map

Wisconsin’s presidential primary on April 2 clears the way for a general election campaign that Democrats see as an opportunity unlike any in recent state history. New legislative districts adopted last month erase Republican advantages that gave the GOP dominance of the Wisconsin Assembly even as Democrats won 14 of the past 17 statewide elections. Democrats think they can now compete for a majority, but also that invigorated legislative campaigns can help turn out votes for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Ben Wikler, the state Democratic Party chairman, describes the idea as “reverse coattails,”...

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America’s polarization has changed the long-regarded meaning of oaths and pledges for political officials

The resignation letter was short and direct. “I can no longer be under an oath to uphold the New Constitution of Ohio,” wrote Sabrina Warner in her letter announcing she was stepping down from the state’s Republican central committee. It was just days after Ohio voters resoundingly approved an amendment last November to the state constitution ensuring access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. For many, the vote was a victory after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion in 2022. For Warner, a staunch abortion opponent, it meant she could no longer...

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Faith-based self-care programs seek to ease growing concerns of clergy burnout in polarized churches

Every morning, the Rev. Karna Moskalik goes through a “grounding” routine that involves prayer, Bible reading, positive affirmations, and meditations about the best outcomes for the day’s tasks, as well as lighting a perfumed candle and walking through each space of her Lutheran church. “I always feel like work never ends, but at the same time I beefed up grounding because without it, I feel absolutely ineffective,” said Moskalik, who grew up a pastor’s daughter and has led the 700-member Our Savior’s congregation for four years in this small riverside town. That level of faith-based self-care is just what...

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