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S&P/TSX composite gains as investors increasingly bet end of rate hikes is near

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index gained more than one per cent Friday on broad-based strength after the latest GDP report helped bolster hopes that the Bank of Canada could be done hiking interest rates, while U.S. markets were mixed. It’s not every day that Toronto markets diverge so much from the U.S., which tends to set the tone, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser at iA Private Wealth. But usually, it’s because of the way the TSX is weighted compared with U.S. indexes. “It’s one of those days where what is trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange is working,” said Small.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 252.74 points at 20,545.36, a strong start to September after a choppy August. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 115.80 points at 34,837.71. The S&P 500 index was up 8.11 points at 4,515.77, while the Nasdaq composite was down 3.15 points at 14,031.81.Gains in energy stocks were a big part of the market strength north of the border,...

Stock market today: Wall Street edges higher following data that shows the labor market is cooling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

NEW YORK — A choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended Friday with slight gains for stocks, as the market notched its second straight winning week.The market got a boost early on from a closely watched government report that showed U.S. job growth increased at a healthy, but more moderate pace last month. The report supports investors’ hopes that the Federal Reserve will hold off on raising interest rates again in its bid to lower inflation. After initially rising as much as 0.8% following the release of the jobs report, the major indexes shed most of their gains and spent the day wavering between small gains and losses. The S&P 500 finished 0.2% higher. The benchmark index was coming off its first monthly loss since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed less than 0.1% lower. Still, that slight dip broke its five-day winning streak.The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added a solid 187,000 jobs in August. The job gro...

Mexican president’s state of the union address suggests crime is not a problem

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday delivered his second-to-last state of the union, and perhaps what was most striking of his roughly 1 1/2 hour speech was what he didn’t talk about: drugs, crime or drug cartels.Experts and residents agree that wide swaths of Mexico are under the de-facto control of drug cartels, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned gangs — and drugs — exactly zero times. Mexico also has over 111,000 missing people, who weren’t mentioned in the speech.Crime in general merited less than one minute of the president’s speech, which focused almost entirely on what the president viewed as successes of his administration.For example, he cited a decline in the poverty rate in Mexico from 49.9% of the population in 2018 to 43.5% in 2022, though that was in some part due to the huge rise in remittances, the money sent home by Mexicans working abroad.The only thing López Obrador had to say about security policy was that his anti-crime s...

Russia-led alliance holds military drills in Belarus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — More than 2,000 troops from a Russia-led security alliance opened military exercises Friday in parts of Belarus near the borders of NATO countries.The exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization include troops from Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Armenia is also a member of the CSTO but did not send any of its forces; in January, Armenia said it would not host CSTO drills this year amid tense relations with Russia.Belarus’ defense ministry said the exercises, which are to last through Wednesday, are to prepare for joint operations, including responses to a nuclear accident. The exercises are taking place in three western Belarus regions that border NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said the purpose of the military exercises was to destabilize the region.Belarus late Friday claimed that a Polish military helicopter flew at low altitude about 1200 meters (0.75 miles) into Belarusia...

She said she killed her lover in self-defense. Court says jury properly saw her as the aggressor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of a woman who fatally shot her lover in her bedroom, ruling Friday that the trial judge gave appropriate instructions to the jury about the legal limits for deadly force inside a home.Five of the seven justices agreed to overturn a unanimous appellate decision that had ordered a new trial for Wendy Dawn Lamb Hicks, who was convicted in the death of Caleb Adams. Evidence shows he was shot twice in the back in her bedroom doorway.The majority’s primary opinion said it was proper, based on evidence, for the jury to be instructed that Hicks could not cite self-defense and the protection of one’s home to justify deadly force if the jury could infer that she was acting as the aggressor, even if she did not instigate the confrontation.Adams was married to someone else and began a relationship with Hicks after they met at work in 2015.The relationship was tumultuous and strained, marked by the us...

Quebec school districts are improperly handling teacher misconduct cases: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

Quebec’s education minister says it’s absurd that a teacher can commit sexual misconduct and then be transferred without consequences to another school district.Bernard Drainville made his comments Friday in reaction to a report that identified numerous shortcomings in how sexual or violentmisconduct cases against teachers and other employees are treated within the school network.“It makes no sense that a teacher, and more broadly, a service centre employee, can commit acts of a sexual nature or violent gestures and move from one service centre to another without consequence,” Drainville told reporters in Quebec City.Drainville requested the report earlier this year after several allegations of sexual misconduct in schools came to light. It was completed earlier this summer and published Friday, looking at 18 cases at different school centres and boards around the province.The report raises several problems with the way personnel files are handled, including a lack...

UN chief is globetrotting to four major meetings before the gathering of world leaders in September

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief is going globetrotting to four major meetings before the biggest meeting of all – the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly starting Sept. 18.Secretary-General António Guterres heads first to Nairobi on Saturday for the Africa Climate Summit on Sept. 4-5, then to Jakarta for a U.N. summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as ASEAN on Sept. 6-7.From there, he flies to New Delhi for the G20 summit of the world’s 20 major economies on Sept. 8-10 and then briefly returns to New York before heading to Havana for the summit of the G77 — a coalition of some 134 developing countries and China — on Sept. 14-15.He will arrive back in New York just before the General Assembly’s high-level week begins, where the war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the annual meeting for a second year.Albania’s U.N. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, this month’s president of the U.N. Security Council, told reporters Fr...

NC State safety Ashford headed back to Raleigh a day after frightening injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — North Carolina State safety Rakeim Ashford was cleared to return to Raleigh on Friday, a day after being taken off the field on a stretcher during the Wolfpack’s season-opening win over UConn.Medical tests on Ashford came back “normal” on Friday and the 6-foot-1 grad student was being released from a Hartford hospital, team spokeswoman Annabelle Myers said in an email.Ashford, a transfer from Jones College in Mississippi, was hit late by a UConn player at the end of a kickoff return with 1:54 left in the third quarter. He went down and lay motionless for about 10 minutes as both teams knelt and watched emergency crews work on him.A cart was brought onto the field, but not used. Ashford was eventually strapped to a stretcher and wheeled off the field.UConn’s Isiah Davis was called for unnecessary roughness for the blindside hit on the play.The Wolfpack went on to score a touchdown on the ensuing drive to take a 24-14 lead and won by that score.___AP colle...

Metrolinx removing plastic COVID barriers on GO, UP Express trains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

Metrolinx says it is removing the plexiglass COVID dividers that went up on GO and UP Express trains at the start of the pandemic.“During the pandemic, Metrolinx followed the guidance of public health officials and implemented measures to keep customers and employees safe,” Metrolink said in a statement to CityNews.“In consultation with Metrolinx’s health and safety team and in line with public health guidance, the decision has been made to now remove these measures from GO and UP Express trains.”Along with the dividers, decals and hand sanitizer dispensers will also be phased out.“Customers may notice a mixture of GO trains with and without dividers, decals, and hand sanitizer dispensers, while work is underway to remove them,” Metrolinx added.The provincial transit agency first installed the plexiglass barriers between seats in June 2020 as part of a suite of COVID safety measures.The province lifted its mask mandate for public transit in June 2...

Search underway for man missing since November

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:28 GMT

CHICAGO — A search is underway for a missing man who was last contacted in November of 2022, according to Chicago police. Officers say they are searching for Michal Serafin, a 37-year-old man who police say has connections to the North Side of Chicago and in Evanston. According to police, Serafin, who has brown hair and brown eyes, stands 5'8" and weighs around 2502 Lbs. Police have not provided details on what may have led to Serafin's disappearance.Anyone with information on the whereabouts of 37-year-old Michal Serafin is asked to call Area Three detectives at (312)744-8266.Tips for police can also filed at CPDtip.com. Tips can be left anonymously.