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Stock market today: World shares slip ahead of update on US consumer inflation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

Stocks retreated Wednesday in Europe and Asia and oil prices rose ahead of a key report on U.S. inflation that could sway the Federal Reserve’s future decisions on interest rates. Germany’s DAX shed 0.5% to 15,636.61 and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.5% to 7,213.81. In London, the FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lower, to 7,518.23. The futures for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials were virtually unchanged as investors awaited the latest monthly update on prices that U.S. consumers are paying across the country. Economists expect it to show that prices were broadly 3.6% higher last month than a year earlier. Thursday will bring reports about inflation at the wholesale level and sales at U.S. retailers. Strong spending by U.S. households has helped keep the U.S. economy humming, but it could also be encouraging companies to keep trying to raise their prices further.Stocks have been see-sawing in recent weeks amid the revived uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve is done wit...

Land mines explode along Lebanon-Syria border wounding 3 Syrians trying to illegally enter Lebanon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Two land mines exploded early Wednesday along the Lebanon-Syria border wounding three Syrians trying to illegally cross into Lebanon, the Lebanese army said in a statement Wednesday.The army said the mines exploded on the Syrian side of the border and that the wounded were rushed by the Lebanese Red Cross to a hospital in northern Lebanon for treatment.Over the past months, thousands of Syrian citizens fleeing worsening economic conditions in their war-torn country made it to Lebanon through illegal crossing points seeking a better life. But Lebanon is going through its own four-year meltdown, with a drowning economy — pinning its hopes on tourism — and crumbling infrastructure where electricity and water cuts are widespread.The local Al-Jadeed TV said one of the victims, an 18-year-old, lost a leg and an arm, and suffered shrapnel wounds in the neck leaving him in critical condition. Another young man also lost his leg while the third, a 27-year-old, suffered some shr...

EU announces an investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is launching an investigation into subsidies that China provides to electric vehicle makers, the head of the bloc’s executive branch said Wednesday, as concern grows that the aid is harming European companies.“Global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars, and their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies. This is distorting our market,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France.“As we do not accept this distortion from the inside in our market, we do not accept this from the outside,” von der Leyen said. “So, I can announce today that the commission is launching an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China.”China’s leaders have helped make the country the biggest market for electric vehicles by investing billions of dollars in subsidies to get an early lead in what is seen as a promising industry. Global automakers face growing competition...

Special mosquitoes are being bred to fight dengue. How the old enemies are now becoming allies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — For decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more effective way to control the disease — and it goes against everything they’ve learned.Which explains why a dozen people cheered last month as Tegucigalpa resident Hector Enriquez held a glass jar filled with mosquitoes above his head, and then freed the buzzing insects into the air. Enriquez, a 52-year-old mason, had volunteered to help publicize a plan to suppress dengue by releasing millions of special mosquitoes in the Honduran capital.The mosquitoes Enriquez unleashed in his El Manchen neighborhood — an area rife with dengue — were bred by scientists to carry bacteria called Wolbachia that interrupt transmission of the disease. When these mosquitoes reproduce, they pass the bacteria to their offspring, reducing future outbreaks.This emerging strategy for battling dengue was pio...

Rescuers recover over 2,000 bodies after floods devastate eastern Libya

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Rescuers have found more than 2,000 bodies as of Wednesday in the wreckage of a Libyan city where floodwaters broke dams and washed away neighborhoods. Officials fear the death toll could exceed 5,000 in the nation made vulnerable by years of turmoil and neglect.Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea.More than 2,000 corpses were collected as of Wednesday morning and over half of them had been buried in mass graves in Derna, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel. Rescue teams were working day and night to recover many other bodies scattered in the streets and under the rubble in the city. Some bodies were retrieved from the sea.The startling devast...

In the news today: Calgary daycare E. coli outbreak, Trudeau to meet MPs in London

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 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…More questions arise in daycare E. coli outbreakA report detailing critical health violations at a central kitchen serving Calgary daycares affected by an E. coli outbreak is raising even more questions about how this could have happened.Among the problems detailed in the report released Tuesday were improper sanitation and what it called “significant evidence of a pest infestation,” with an inspector finding two live cockroaches and at least 20 dead ones on sticky pads.An inspection of the food facility took place one day after an E. coli outbreak at 11 daycares in Calgary was declared on Sept. 4.Trudeau expected to meet with MPs in London, Ont.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to meet with most of his party’s MPs this afternoon as they try to reverse a slump in the polls.Trudeau arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday night after mechanical iss...

Fire that burned in a 9-story apartment building in Vietnam’s capital has killed at least 10 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A fire in a nine-story apartment building in Vietnam’s capital killed at least 10 people, including four children, and injured more than 50 others, state media reported Wednesday.The fire has been extinguished and rescue operations were continuing, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. Authorities have not confirmed the exact number of deaths. Initial reports had suggested a higher death toll as the injured and dead were taken to different hospitals across the city.State-owned national television channel VTV said four children were among those killed.The fire was believed to have started late Tuesday and rescuers struggled to reach the building on a narrow lane in south Hanoi. It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the building had burned.It was home to 150 residents, and 54 of the 70 people rescued from the fire were hospitalized for their injuries, state media said. Residents were being treated for smoke inhalation and injuries sustained as ...

Josh Ross, whose love of music once cost him a job, is now a top CCMA Awards nominee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

TORONTO — Country singer Josh Ross considers himself a thrill seeker by nature and as the top nominee at Saturday’s Canadian Country Music Association Awards, he’s certainly headed on another wild ride.Between taking the stage as one of the night’s big performers and vying for wins in six categories – including fans’ choice, breakthrough artist and single of the year for “On a Different Night” – Ross is already getting psyched for a heart-pumping good time.“I’m definitely an adrenalin person,” the 27-year-old musician acknowledged during a video chat from the road where he’s opening for Alberta rock stars Nickelback on a run of North American dates.“I like doing crazier things — but in a good way.”For instance, a few days earlier the former motocross athlete surprised his tour entourage by investing in a pit bike so he can perform wheelies around parking lots while on tour.“There’s two sides to me, they always joke about, when it comes to songwriting – the party an...

‘Boil Alert’ doc examines most ‘egregious’ examples of water crisis in North America

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

TORONTO — When documentarian James Burns and Apache guitarist Stevie Salas set out to create a film that examined the ongoing impacts of the water crisis in Indigenous communities, the two knew they wanted the final piece to be an exploration of identity and how it’s tied to Earth’s most abundant natural resource. The result is an ambitious 104-minute documentary that blends unscripted real-life moments with scripted vignettes to go beyond the template of using statistics and experts to put the spotlight on an issue that transcends geographical boundaries. “Boil Alert” follows Mohawk activist Layla Staats as she visits communities in Canada and the United States living under boil water advisories and First Nations who have had their water contaminated by toxins. Throughout the film, Staats shares her own personal battles as a person reconnecting with her Mohawk identity.  “It was important that we told a story that wasn’t just about the water, but...

Weather Network forecasts ‘fickle fall’ in Canada with season to start cold, end mild

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:54 GMT

Canadians can expect a “fickle fall” this year as the season is forecast to start off chilly before above normal temperatures lead the country into winter, a prominent forecaster predicts.The Weather Network says winter may appear to taunt Canadians across the country as they face periods of very cold weather during the fall, but the season is expected to end on a mild note because a jet stream in the Pacific Ocean, called El Niño, is expected to be two degrees warmer than usual.“Our forecast team at The Weather Network is seeing a fickle fall ahead for most Canadians, and it’s all due to El Niño,” chief meteorologist Chris Scott said in a phone interview. “Generally in most El Niño falls, we get an early blast of cold weather in the middle of fall and as you’re experiencing, it can be a bit of a slap in the face. But then the weather pattern flips over later in the season.”Scott said the forecast isn’t the best for ski hills in ...