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Australian central bank hikes interest rate to 3.85%

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s central bank on Tuesday surprised markets by increasing its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.85% despite pausing its climb last month and new evidence that inflation is slowing.The Reserve Bank of Australia’s meeting on April 4 was the first in a year to leave rates on hold to allow time for the bank’s board to observe the impacts of recent hikes. Most economists expected the cash rate would remain steady at 3.6% at the bank’s May meeting. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that inflation in the March quarter had slowed to 7% from 7.8% in December.But bank Gov. Philip Lowe said inflation remained too far outside his bank’s target range of 2% to 3%.“Inflation in Australia has passed its peak, but at 7% is still too high and it will be some time yet before it is back in the target range,” Lowe said in a statement. “While the recent data showed a welcome decline in inflation, the central forecast rema...

Man shot in DC after intervening in attempted scooter robbery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

A man is in the hospital after being shot near the busy intersection of 14th and S street in Northwest D.C.D.C. police said it happened around 7:30 p.m.Witness saw three teenagers try to take another person’s scooter. When the witness tried to intervene one of the teens shot the man before running away on foot, according to police.Authorities said the man was conscious and breathing when he was taken to the hospital.Police said they have not found the suspects.Below is where police said the shooting happened. Source

Unsigned in major leagues, Bauer gets big welcome in Japan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Trevor Bauer will pitch his first official game for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars on Wednesday and, to promote the start, a local department store is to unveil a seven-story poster of the former Cy Young winner on the building’s facade.Bauer was unwanted this season by major league teams — at least no club signed him though he was eligible to play — after claims of domestic violence and sexual assault. However, he’s a baseball celebrity in this famous port city in Japan, with few questions asked about his past — and his answers readily accepted.Small replica posters of the department store version dot train stations around town spelling out “Bauer” in English with the message in Japanese — “He’s here.”“My face it too big,” Bauer said recently, breaking into a seldom-seen laugh with reporters. “It’s very cool. It’s very cool. Growing up as a kid you see professional athletes and movie stars on billboards like that; kind of cool for me...

Los guionistas de Hollywood se declaran en huelga y paralizan la producción de muchas series de televisión

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

Nueva York (CNN) — Más de 11.000 miembros del Sindicato de Guionistas de Estados Unidos se declararon en huelga este martes por la mañana por primera vez desde 2007, una medida que podría paralizar de inmediato la producción de muchas series de televisión y posiblemente retrasar el inicio de las nuevas temporadas de otras a finales de este año.“Aunque negociamos con la intención de llegar a un acuerdo justo… las respuestas de los estudios a nuestras propuestas han sido totalmente insuficientes, dada la crisis existencial a la que se enfrentan los guionistas”, dice un comunicado de la dirección del sindicato.“Han cerrado la puerta a su mano de obra y han abierto la puerta a la escritura como profesión totalmente independiente. Ningún acuerdo de este tipo podría ser contemplado jamás por esta afiliación”.Si bien los miembros del sindicato estarían en huelga a partir de las 3 am hora del este de este martes, el sindicato de guionistas (WGA, por sus s...

Dodgers go deep 4 times in 13-4 victory over Phillies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts had three hits, including a two-run homer, as the Los Angeles Dodgers went deep four times in a 13-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night.The Phillies dropped their second straight but received good news before the game when slugger Bryce Harper was cleared to return less than six months after having Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Harper is expected to be activated off the injured list Tuesday.David Peralta hit a three-run homer, and Will Smith and Jason Heyward had solo shots as the Dodgers extended their winning streak to four. It is the 10th time this season Los Angeles has hit at least three homers in a game, which is second in the majors behind Tampa Bay’s 11.It was a return to long ball for the Dodgers, who didn’t leave the yard in wins on Saturday and Sunday against St. Louis. That was the first time this season they went consecutive games without a home run.Peralta drove in four runs and Betts added three ...

Folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot dies at 84

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Gordon Lightfoot, the legendary folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died Monday. He was 84.Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available.Considered one of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot recorded 20 studio albums and penned hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”In the 1970s, Lightfoot garnered five Grammy nominations, three platinum records and nine gold records for albums and singles. He performed in well over 1,500 concerts and recorded 500 songs. He toured late into his life. Just last month he canceled upcoming U.S. and Canadian shows, citing health issues.“We have lost one of our gr...

San Diego drug prevention advocates weigh in on Snapchat ties to fentanyl locally

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO - Relatives of more than 60 people who died of fentanyl overdoses across the nation are suing the parent company of the social media app Snapchat, arguing the app is a gateway to trade illegal drugs. A massive 205-page lawsuit is out against Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc., alleging the algorithm the app uses links children to drug dealers. Jamie Puerta is just one of the 60 defendants nationwide listed; his son Daniel died by fentanyl poisoning in 2020; he says the messaging app played a key role. "He went on Snapchat, bought what he thought was a pharmaceutical grade oxycodone pill but what he really received was a cloned pill made of fentanyl...and it took his life," Puerta said. “It's like ordering pizza that’s basically what it is, instead of ordering a pizza you’re ordering a pill and the problem is these children don't know these pills are fake.” Jaime Puerta, President of Victims of Illicit DrugsThe lawsuit alleges Snapchat is an open-air drug market, invi...

Challenger in Turkey presidential race offers sharp contrast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The main challenger trying to unseat Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in this month’s presidential election cuts a starkly different figure than the incumbent who has ruled the country for two decades.Where Erdogan is a mesmerizing orator, the unassuming Kemal Kilicdaroglu is soft spoken. Erdogan is also a master campaigner who uses state resources and events to reach supporters while Kilicdaroglu talks to voters in videos recorded in his kitchen. As the polarizing Erdogan has grown increasingly authoritarian, Kilicdaroglu has built a reputation as a bridge builder and vows to restore democracy.The contrasts are reflected in the two men’s political paths. Erdogan’s staying power has kept him in office first as prime minister then as president since 2003. Kilicdaroglu (pronounced KEH-lich-DAHR-OH-loo) has not won a general election since taking the helm of his secular, center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP, in 2010.But that could change...

King Charles III makes space for faith at his coronation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Rabbi Nicky Liss won’t be watching King Charles III’s coronation. He’ll be doing something he considers more important: praying for the monarch on the Jewish sabbath.On Saturday, he will join rabbis across Britain in reading a prayer in English and Hebrew that gives thanks for the new king in the name of the “one God who created us all.”Liss, the rabbi of Highgate Synagogue in north London, said British Jews appreciated Charles’ pledge to promote the co-existence of all faiths and his record of supporting a multifaith society during his long apprenticeship as heir to the throne.“When he says he wants to be a defender of faiths, that means the world because our history hasn’t always been so simple and we haven’t always lived freely; we haven’t been able to practice our religion,” Liss told The Associated Press. “But knowing that King Charles acts this way and speaks this way is tremendously comforting.”At a time when religion is fueling tensions around the world — from ...

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s Game 2 daggers save Nuggets: “He’s the only champion in here”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:52:50 GMT

Jamal Murray looked down at the box score and gawked.“O for 9 from three, bro!” Murray exclaimed as if he wasn’t acutely aware how much he’d struggled from the field in Monday’s Game 2 win over the Suns.Seated to his right was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whose three clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter helped shake a cold spell that’d plagued every single Nugget not named Nikola Jokic. The reigning two-time MVP dumped in 39 points. Aaron Gordon was Denver’s second-leading scorer with 16.“I didn’t even see that,” Caldwell-Pope responded, perhaps giving cover to his star point guard or perhaps telling the truth about how focused he was in Denver’s resounding 97-87 victory.Had Caldwell-Pope looked around, he would’ve seen Murray’s chilly 3-of-15 night, Michael Porter Jr.’s inconsequential 2-of-7 showing, and Denver’s 3-point shooting percentage hovering around 25%. Without Caldwell-Pope’s four 3-pointers, Denver would’ve shot 3 for 23 from outside.Maybe it’s a good thing he had no ide...