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Stocks tick higher after inflation cools more than forecast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

By STAN CHOE (AP Business Writer)NEW YOR (AP) — Stocks are ticking higher Wednesday, and Wall Street is relaxing a bit after a report showed inflation is cooling faster than expected.The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 174 points, or 0.5%, at 33,858, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. The main focus on Wall Street for more than a year has been high inflation and how much painful medicine the Federal Reserve will have to dole out to contain it. A report Wednesday morning showed that prices at the consumer level were 5% higher last month than a year earlier. That’s still well above the Federal Reserve’s comfort level, keeping a check on financial markets. But it was better than the 5.2% that economists expected, and it marked a continued slowdown from inflation’s peak last summer. That had the majority of stocks on Wall Street rising, including seven out of every 10...

Palace: Prince Harry to attend his father’s May 6 coronation; Meghan to stay home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

By DANICA KIRKA (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry will attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday, ending months of speculation about his presence.Harry’s wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the palace said. The coronation date coincides with their eldest son’s birthday.Harry’s attendance comes despite the rift within the House of Windsor prompted by Harry’s decision to reveal family secrets in his bestselling book, “Spare.”The revelations included details of private conversations with his father — and his elder brother, Prince William. The disclosures fanned tensions between Harry and his family, which had become public when he and his wife moved to North America in 2020.

Police investigate discovery of ‘possible infant remains’ found in Revere

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

Authorities are investigating what they describe as the discovery of the “possible remains of an infant” outside an apartment building in a community north of Boston, state police said.Revere police responded to the building in the city at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after a man found the possible remains outside, state police said in a statement.According to broadcast reports, the remains were found inside a trash bag near some trash cans.State police assigned to the Suffolk district attorney’s office also responded to the scene.The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was expected to take custody of the possible remains for further forensic examination, state police said.No additional information was released.Massachusetts has a baby “safe haven” law, that allows parents to surrender infants up to 7 days old at a hospital, police station, or staffed fire station without facing criminal prosecution.

UN: Year is off to a deadly start for migrants crossing Med

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

ROME (AP) — The first three months of 2023 were the deadliest first quarter in six years for migrants crossing the central Mediterranean Sea in smugglers’ boats, the U.N. migration agency reported Wednesday, citing nations’ delays in initiating rescues as a contributing factor.The International Organization for Migration documented 441 migrant deaths along the dangerous sea route between northern Africa and Europe’s southern shores during January, February and March. In 2017, 742 known deaths were documented in the same period, while 446 were recorded in the first three months of 2015. “The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable,” IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino, commenting on the figures the agency released in a report.“With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized,” Vitorino said. ”States must respond. Delays and gaps in state-led SAR (search-and-rescue...

Palace: Prince Harry to attend his father’s May 6 coronation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry will attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday, ending months of speculation about his presence.Harry’s wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the palace said. The coronation date coincides with their eldest son’s birthday.Harry’s attendance comes despite the rift within the House of Windsor prompted by Harry’s decision to reveal family secrets in his bestselling book, “Spare.”The revelations included details of private conversations with his father — and his elder brother, Prince William. The disclosures fanned tensions between Harry and his family, which had become public when he and his wife moved to North America in 2020.Danica Kirka, The Associated Press

White House moves to protect some abortion patients’ records

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Wednesday proposed a new federal rule that aims to limit how law enforcement and state officials collect medical records from health providers and insurers if they pursue criminal or civil investigations into women who flee their home states to seek abortions elsewhere. The proposal, prompted by a string of blows to abortion access across the country, follows a federal judge’s ruling on Friday that threatens to pull the most commonly used abortion pill, mifepristone, off the market. The White House’s proposed rule would prohibit health care organizations from sharing personal medical records with authorities for investigations related to reproductive care in states where a woman legally obtained an abortion. While medical records are protected by federal privacy laws, health providers and insurers can be compelled to turn over medical records with a court order. Doctors around the country have voiced concerns about protecting that medical i...

Prince Harry to attend father’s May 6 coronation without Meghan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

Prince Harry will attend the Coronation service of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday, setting aside months of speculation about his presence.Harry’s wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the palace said.The palace confirmation came after weeks of reports noting that Charles’ office has been in touch with Harry about the event. Harry’s attendance comes despite the rift within the House of Windsor prompted by Harry’s decision to reveal family secrets in his bestselling book, “Spare.”The revelations, including details of private conversations with his father — and his brother, Prince William — fanned tensions between Harry and his family that became public when he and his wife moved to North America in 2020.The book also included allegations that members of the royal family regularly feed the press unflattering information about o...

NPR quits Elon Musk’s Twitter over ‘government-funded’ label

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Public Radio is quitting Twitter over the social media company’s recent actions under owner Elon Musk to stamp it with labels the news organization says are meant to undermine its credibility.“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” the news organization said in a statement Wednesday.Last week, Twitter labeled NPR’s main account as “state-affiliated media” on the social media site, a label also used to identify media outlets that are controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media” and gave it to at least one other public news organization, the BBC.“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,”...

Bank of Canada holds key interest rate at 4.5%, bumps up growth forecast for 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is once again holding its key interest rate steady at 4.5 per cent but isn’t ruling out the possibility of more rate hikes down the line.The central bank said Wednesday that recent economic data is reinforcing its confidence that inflation will continue to fall in the coming months.“However, getting inflation the rest of the way back down to two per cent could prove to be more difficult,” the Bank of Canada said in a news release.The central bank said its governing council will continue to assess whether interest rates are high enough to bring inflation back to target.Economists were widely anticipating the Bank of Canada to maintain its interest rate as inflation eases meaningfully.Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 5.2 per cent in February, marking the second month in a row it came in lower than forecast.The Bank of Canada continues to expect the inflation rate to fall to three per cent by mid-year and back down to two per cent by the end of 2...

Text of Bank of Canada’s rate announcement statement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:44 GMT

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate target on hold at 4.5 per cent on Wednesday. Here is the text of the central bank’s rate announcement:The Bank of Canada today held its target for the overnight rate at 4.5 per cent, with the Bank Rate at 4.75 per cent and the deposit rate at 4.5 per cent. The Bank is also continuing its policy of quantitative tightening.Inflation in many countries is easing in the face of lower energy prices, normalizing global supply chains, and tighter monetary policy. At the same time, labour markets remain tight and measures of core inflation in many advanced economies suggest persistent price pressures, especially for services.Global economic growth has been stronger than anticipated. Growth in the United States and Europe has surprised on the upside, but is expected to weaken as tighter monetary policy continues to feed through those economies. In the United States, recent stress in the banking sector has tightened credit conditions...