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What will Federal Reserve do next? Any hint of future rate hikes will be key focus of latest meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is set to leave its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday as it seeks to guide the U.S. economy toward a “soft landing” of cooling inflation without triggering a deep recession.Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have made clear that they’re now inclined to move more gradually and cautiously toward their goal of 2% annual inflation. Their more deliberative approach follows the 11 rate hikes they unleashed beginning in March 2022, which substantially raised borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.Yet with inflation pressures still underlying the economy, Powell won’t be declaring victory on Wednesday, when the Fed’s latest policy meeting ends. The attention of investors and economists will instead focus on what signals the Fed may send about its likely next actions.The clearest signal will likely come from the Fed’s 19-member interest-rate committee in the batch of economic forecasts its members issue ea...

EU lawmakers pressure member countries to complete migration deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament blocked talks on key files of the EU’s migration pact in order to compel member countries into approving the final part of the package.The assembly announced on Wednesday the suspension of negotiations on two files that introduce stricter screening of migrants at the EU’s borders. “The files of the Pact are interlinked and making progress on some proposals rather than others risks leading to a bottleneck in the negotiations,” the European Parliament wrote in a statement on Wednesday, after a meeting between key EU lawmakers working on the migration pact and representatives from the European Council. Members of the European Parliament hope that this will put pressure on EU countries to break a deadlock over the last plank of the flagship asylum deal — the so-called crisis regulation — at a key summit in Brussels next Thursday. The strategy is to link the crisis regulation to tougher screening rules — a key priority for member countries across Europe...

Glyphosate should be allowed in farming for another 10 years, Brussels says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

The European Commission proposes that EU countries authorize the use of the controversial agrichemical glyphosate in farming for another 10 years, according to a document published Wednesday.Glyphosate, a weed-killing chemical, is the most widely used pesticide in the world, but critics say it has been linked to cancer and can be harmful to wildlife. It was last approved for use in the EU in a highly controversial process in 2017, and the five-year license was extended for another 12 months last December.The Commission indicated in July that glyphosate should receive a full stamp of approval from member countries and be re-authorized for use in the EU, following a risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, which found “no critical areas of concern” from the use of the chemical in farming, but identified several data gaps.The application to extend the chemical’s EU license came from a group of companies collectively known as...

MIT researchers developing new living medical device for treating diabetes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

A breakthrough in diabetes testing could mean no more needles for people in the future.A team at MIT says they have successfully reversed diabetes in mice using a living medical device with cells that produce insulin.The device for a human would be about the size of a stick of chewing gum.“What we’ve been able to show is that with a device just sitting under the skin we’ve actually been able to achieve a diabetic reversal that is kind of curing diabetes in an animal model for about a month now,” said researcher Siddharth Krishnan.The teams hopes to eventually move to testing the device in humans.

GTA gas prices plummet overnight to 2-month low

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

A day after the latest inflation numbers suggested rising costs for nearly everything — GTA drivers got a pleasant surprise at the gas pumps on Wednesday morning.Motorists looking to fill-up will find it costing them eight cents per litre less than the day before after a significant drop overnight. The average price at most stations is now 162.9 cents/litre, is the lowest in the city since July.It was only five days ago that the average price matched a yearly high of 173.9 cents/litre.Dan McTeague, President of Canadians for Affordable Energy, tells Breakfast Television the price drop can be attributed to the change over from summer gas to winter gas. The switch means a brief reprieve in the cost to fill-up despite rising oil prices that have recently hit a 10-month high.“In the summer, one of the additives is alkylate, a very pricy component,” he says. “During the winter, we use Butane, much cheaper.”Past month prices in the GTAExperts expect the price...

Most of Spain’s women’s players end boycott of national soccer team after government intervenes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Most of Spain’s World Cup-winning players ended their boycott of the women’s national team early Wednesday after the government intervened to help shape an agreement that was expected to lead to immediate structural changes at the country’s soccer federation.Only two players, Barcelona teammates Patri Guijarro and Mapi León, opted to leave the training camp after receiving guarantees from the government that they would not be sanctioned, with the rest staying after being told that some of their demands for reform would be met.The players reported to camp on Tuesday after being picked by new coach Montse Tomé against their will on Monday in the latest twist in the crisis that has engulfed Spanish soccer since former federation president Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony following Spain’s Women’s World Cup title in Australia last month.Specific details of the changes agreed upon were not reveale...

Ukraine’s allies make legal arguments at top UN court in support of Kyiv’s case against Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine’s international allies filed into the United Nations’ top court on Wednesday to support Kyiv’s case against Russia that alleges Moscow twisted the genocide convention to manufacture a pretext for its invasion last year.The hearing came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly in New York that Russia is “weaponizing” everything from food and energy to abducted children in its war against Ukraine — and warned world leaders that the same could happen to them.An unprecedented 32 states were making brief legal arguments Wednesday to the 16-judge panel at the International Court of Justice, which is holding hearings into Moscow’s assertions that the World Court does not have jurisdiction and should throw out Ukraine’s case.Kyiv filed its case two days after Russia invaded Ukraine. It argues that the attack was based on false claims by Russia of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of easte...

Swedish court upholds prison sentence for Turkish man linked to outlawed militant party

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish appeals court on Wednesday upheld a 4 1/2-year prison sentence for a Turkish man who was found guilty of attempted extortion, weapons possession and attempted terrorist financing, saying he was acting on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.However, the Svea Court of Appeal said Yahya Güngör should not be deported after serving his sentence, reversing the lower court’s ruling.“Since a possible expulsion is not too far in the future, the Court of Appeal considers that it is reasonable to believe that the obstacle will remain at that time,” the appeals court said, citing threats the man would face if deported to Turkey because of his ties to the party, also known as PKK.In July, the Stockholm District Court said he would be expelled from Sweden after serving his sentence and banned from returning.It was the first time that a Swedish court has sentenced someone for financing the party. PKK has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 198...

Challenges to library books continue at record pace in 2023, American Library Association reports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Book bans and attempted bans continue to hit record highs, according to the American Library Association. And the efforts now extend as much to public libraries as school-based libraries.Through the first eights months of 2023, the ALA tracked 695 challenges to library materials and services, compared to 681 during the same time period last year, and a 20% jump in the number of “unique titles” involved to 1,915. School libraries had long been the predominant target, but in 2023 reports have been near-equally divided between schools and libraries open to the general public, the ALA announced Wednesday.“The irony is that you had some censors who said that those who didn’t want books pulled from schools could just go to the public libraries,”’ says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.The ALA defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be r...

Homeowners face spikes in insurance rates as climate change fuels wildfires, storms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A growing number of Americans are finding it difficult to afford insurance on their homes, a problem only expected to worsen because insurers and lawmakers have underestimated the impact of climate change, a new report says.A report from First Street Foundation released Wednesday says states such as California, Florida and Louisiana, which are prone to wildfires and damaging storms and flooding, are likely to see the most dramatic increases in premiums. But the fire that destroyed the Hawaiian community of Lahaina on Aug. 8, as well as the historic flooding that happened in Vermont and Maine in July, are examples of events that could drive up insurance costs for homeowners in other states.Floodwaters rise, July 10, 2023, in Bridgewater, Vt., submerging parked vehicles and threatening homes near the Ottauquechee River. Americans nationwide face hefty increases in their homeowner’s insurance premiums in the coming years, a report by the First Street Foundation said on ...