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Poland’s central bank cuts interest rates for the second time in month

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s central bank lowered its key interest rate Wednesday, pointing to a drop in inflation despite a still-high rate of 8.2% last month, raising concerns about the cut being a political move.The National Bank of Poland cut its benchmark rate a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75%. Analysts were expecting it after annual inflation dropped last month from 10.1% in August. Inflation was over 18% earlier this year.It was the second rate cut since Sept. 9, when the central bank surprisingly slashed rates by three-quarters of a point. Other central banks worldwide are increasing borrowing costs or holding rates at high levels to tackle inflation stemming from the global economy’s rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which spiked food and energy costs.The European Central Bank hiked its key rate by a quarter-point last month to fight inflation, which has since dropped to a two-year low of 4.3% in the 20 countries using...

Tropical Storm Philippe soaks northeast Caribbean on a path toward Bermuda, New England and Canada

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Philippe drenched the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Wednesday as it spun away from the northeast Caribbean on a path that would take it toward Bermuda and later New England and Atlantic Canada.The storm was located 150 miles (240 kilometers) north-northwest of St. Thomas late Wednesday morning. It had winds of up to 45 mph (75 kph) and was moving northwest at nine mph (15 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.Schools in St. Martin and St. Barts remained closed Wednesday morning, and officials in the French Caribbean territories banned people from swimming in the ocean or doing any nautical activities until Thursday.Forecasters said up to eight inches (20 centimeters) of rain could fall in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, with a maximum of 12 inches (30 centimeters). Meanwhile, up to four inches (10 centimeters) were predicted for Puerto Rico.Philippe is expected to approach Bermuda late Thursday and Friday and ...

Stock market today: Wall Street steadies after selloff as reports suggest US economy may be cooling

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding steadier in mixed trading Wednesday after reports suggested the U.S. economy may be cooling. The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher in morning trading, coming off a 1.4% tumble that had sent it to its lowest level in four months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.2%, a day after wiping out its gains for the year so far. The Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time.Stocks have struggled since the summer under the weight of soaring Treasury yields in the bond market, which have touched their highest levels in more than a decade. High yields undercut stock prices by pulling investment dollars away from stocks and into bonds. They also crimp corporate profits by making borrowing more expensive.The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market, pulled back from its highest level since 2007, down to 4.76% from 4.80% late Tuesday. Shorter- and longer-term yields also eased a bit to o...

Jury selection resumes at fraud trial for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The final stages of jury selection resumed Wednesday at the fraud trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in New York City.Opening statements were expected to begin by the early afternoon in Manhattan federal court, where Bankman-Fried has entered not guilty pleas to seven charges.Prosecutors say the California man defrauded thousands of investors and customers in his businesses by siphoning off their money for his own uses.Defense lawyers insist that their client had no criminal intent as he became famous in the crypto world while growing FTX and a related business, Alameda Research, into multibillion dollar heavyweights in the cryptocurrency industry.Attorneys and Judge Lewis A. Kaplan were reducing a pool of 45 prospective jurors to a jury of 12 with six alternates, who would sit through the duration of a trial projected to last up to six weeks.Bankman-Fried, 31, became a target of investigators when FTX collapsed last November amid a rush of customers seeking to r...

George Takei picture book on his years in internment camps will be published next spring

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Star Trek” actor and political activist George Takei has a picture book scheduled for next spring that draws upon his early childhood years spent in internment camps for Japanese Americans. Crown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that Takei’s “My Lost Freedom,” illustrated by Michelle Lee, will be published April 30, 2024. Takei, 86, spent three years in three different camps during World War II. The camps were established after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing the forced removal on the West Coast of those considered security risks, leading to the incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans. “My childhood behind barbed wire fences is the reason I became an activist,” Takei said in a statement. “It was clear that the story about the injustices Japanese Americans faced should also be told in a way that young children and their caregivers could understand. Especially in today’s political clima...

After judge’s rebuke, Trump returns to court for 3rd day for fraud lawsuit trial

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump returned to his New York civil fraud trial for a third day Wednesday after running afoul of the judge by denigrating a key court staffer in a social media post. Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race, is voluntarily taking time out from the campaign trail to attend the trial. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit accuses Trump and his business of deceiving banks, insurers and others by providing financial statements that greatly exaggerated his wealth. Judge Arthur Engoron already has ruled that Trump committed fraud by inflating the values of prized assets including his Trump Tower penthouse. The ruling could, if upheld on appeal, cost the former president control of his signature skyscraper and some other properties. Trump denies any wrongdoing. With familiar rhetoric, on his way into court Wednesday, he called James “incompetent,” portrayed her as part of a broader Democratic effort to ...

Vehicle crashes through daycare fence in Vaughan: police

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

York Regional Police are investigating after a vehicle crashed into the fence of a daycare in Vaughan.Emergency crews responded to a single-vehicle collision around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Rutherford Road and Melville Avenue.Police say a car crashed into the fence of a daycare.No injuries have been reported.There is no word what cause the crash.More to come.

Rishi Sunak is promising to change Britain. He starts with railway cuts and a crackdown on smoking

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Battling gloomy opinion polls and mounting doubts, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday promised skeptical voters, and his own Conservative Party, that he would make tough choices to “fundamentally change our country.”Two of his boldest plans in a speech to the party’s annual conference — canceling a railway project that has already cost billions and proposing to ban smoking for the next generation — definitely caused ripples. Whether they translate into success for the right-of-center party in an election next year is another question. Opinion polls in recent weeks have put the left-of-center opposition Labour Party 15 to 20 points ahead.Sunak told hundreds of party members packed into a Manchester conference hall that he’s not afraid to make big decisions that will deliver “long-term success” rather than “short-term advantage.”He said proof was his decision to curtail the embattled High Speed 2 project — an overdue, overbudget h...

BRP denies findings from labour board that it underpaid workers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

VALCOURT, Que. — BRP Inc. says it disagrees with findings from Quebec’s workplace health and safety board that the snowmobile maker broke the law in underpaying workers it brought in to work at its plant in Quebec from a facility in Mexico.The company acknowledges the board found what it deemed 76 serious offences that breach the province’s labour standards act following an investigation.The manufacturer behind Sea-Doos and Ski-Doos notes the incidents in question pertain to alleged payment shortfalls around overtime and minimum wage for 25 employees between December 2021 and November of last year.BRP spokeswoman Mélanie Montplaisir says the company paid the Mexican workers at its headquarters in Valcourt, Que., fairly and treated them with respect.She says the company made certain administrative mistakes linked to payroll processing, particularly around overtime, for the employees, who she says will be paid the amounts due.The health and safety board, which declined to comment on t...

Before a North Dakota lawmaker was killed in Utah plane crash, he told his sister: ‘Stay safe’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:29:19 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota lawmaker who had flown to Arizona to be part of his sister’s sendoff before she deployed overseas gave the woman a hug and told her to “stay safe.”Hours later, state Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, and their two young sons were killed on their way home when the single-engine Piper Cherokee he was flying crashed in Utah on Sunday after a refueling stop.Peggy Steimel said it was the first time Larsen, of Mandan, and his family had flown the plane to visit her in Scottsdale, Arizona. She said her brother made the trip so he could be part of her sendoff before she deployed for about a year overseas with the Arizona National Guard.Larsen had been a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the North Dakota National Guard, and Steimel tearfully recalled their final conversation and the advice her older brother gave her.“He gave me a hug and we said we loved each other — and said, ‘Stay safe.’”Larsen, his wife, Amy, and the two boys died later Sunday when his plane cr...