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Europe’s inflation is up after months of decline. Could it delay interest rate cuts?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation plaguing Europe rose to 2.9% in December, rebounding after seven straight monthly declines as food prices rose and support for high energy bills ended in some countries. The rise in price levels fueled debate over how soon interest rate cuts could be expected from the European Central Bank.The figure released Friday was up from the 2.4% annual inflation recorded in November — but is well down from the peak of 10.6% in October 2022.ECB President Christine Lagarde warned that inflation could tick up in coming months, taking a detour from its recent downward path. The central bank for the 20 European Union countries that use the euro currency has raised its benchmark interest rate to a record-high 4% and says it will keep it there as long as necessary to push inflation down to its goal of 2% considered best for the economy.The faster-than-expected fall in inflation over the last months of 2023 had led some analysts to predict the central bank would s...

Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines.They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. A...

AngioDynamics: Fiscal Q2 Earnings Snapshot

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

LATHAM, N.Y. (AP) — LATHAM, N.Y. (AP) — AngioDynamics Inc. (ANGO) on Friday reported a loss of $29 million in its fiscal second quarter.The Latham, New York-based company said it had a loss of 72 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for pretax expenses and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, came to 5 cents per share.The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 9 cents per share.The medical device maker posted revenue of $79.1 million in the period, which missed Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $81.6 million.AngioDynamics expects full-year results to range from a loss of 42 cents per share to a loss of 35 cents per share, with revenue in the range of $320 million to $325 million.AngioDynamics shares have decreased 1% since the beginning of the year. The stock has fallen 43% in the last 12 months._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://au...

Rose-hued Stanley cups for Valentine’s Day spark a frenzy at Target

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

New York (CNN) — The world is going wild for Stanley cups. And no, not the hockey kind.Just ask Target.It appears that for some Valentine’s Day revelers this year, nothing will spell L-O-V-E more profoundly than the gift of an oversized rose-hued stainless steel insulated tumbler that’s downright clunky, way too heavy to carry around when filled up for “all-day hydration,” but is still a solid viral sensation in the New Year.Target in December dropped a limited-edition Valentine’s collection of Stanley tumblers in bright pink and cherry red tones that included an enormous 40-ounce mug, smaller two-pack tumblers in cute packaging with the message “It was Love at First Sip,” and a Stacking Beer Pint tumbler.Shoppers jumped on the items, in some cases quite literally. The proof was documented in TikTok videos that showed people lining up outside of Target stores waiting to rush in to grab these limited-edition Stanleys when doors opened.Other videos captured the mad dash to the Valenti...

Rival Koreas conduct provocative drills along their tense sea boundary, escalating animosities

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas fired artillery rounds into the sea as part of provocative drills along their disputed sea boundary on Friday, in violation of the fragile 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.The firing exercises are expected to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Experts say North Korea will likely intensify a run of weapons tests and its warlike rhetoric ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired 200 rounds in the waters north of their western sea boundary on Friday morning. It was North Korea’s first front-line maritime firing exercise in about a year.Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told a televised briefing that the North’s artillery firing was “an act of provocation that threatens peace and heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” Lee said South Korea suffered no damage.In a tit-for-tat step, South Ko...

Russia ‘will not stop’ at Ukraine, Latvia warns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš said Russia “will not stop” after the war in Ukraine and that NATO needs a “long-term strategy” to contain Moscow.“Russia will not stop, Russia can only be stopped,” Kariņš told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday. “Stopping Russia in Ukraine does not mean that it is over. It simply means we will have to continue. That is what is important for NATO: that we will have to work on a long-term strategy of Russia containment.”Kariņš, a former prime minister, has expressed his interest in succeeding Jens Stoltenberg as NATO’s leader, arguing that the alliance’s next secretary-general should come from a country which has met the 2-percent-of-GDP defense spending target — such as Latvia.Because of Russia’s “imperialistic-fueled ideology,” Kariņš warned that the Kremlin’s threat is bound to continue after the Ukraine war. But NATO has to make sure that “the likelihood of any incidents is simply ruled ...

South Korea’s military says North Korea fired artillery into maritime buffer zone in ‘provocative act’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — South Korea’s military condemned its northern neighbor on Friday after Pyongyang fired artillery rounds that fell within a maritime buffer zone that has long been a flashpoint between the two.North Korea fired more than 200 rounds between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m off its west coast, near South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).The artillery fell north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed de facto border drawn up by the United Nations at the end of the Korean War in 1953.The incoming rounds did not harm any civilians or military, the JCS added, calling the incident a “provocative act that threatens peace and heightens tension on the Korean Peninsula.”In response South Korea’s military held its own maritime shooting exercise on Friday afternoon, with the defense ministry saying it was to “respond to North Korea’s provocation of shooting artilleries inside the no-hostile act zone this morn...

Poop-powered planes: could jet fuel made from sewage take off?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

(CNN) — In the race for alternative, sustainable jet fuels, some companies are getting creative. We’ve heard about planes powered with cooking oil, but what about jet fuel made entirely from human poop? Firefly Green Fuels, an aviation company based in Gloucestershire, UK, has created just that – and, unsurprisingly, the prospect of poop-powered planes is attracting attention.While sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is not new, the idea of using sewage – an abundant and unavoidable waste – is a novelty. So, could it really be the future of air travel?Commercial aviation produces about 2.5% of global carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. Efforts to reduce the sector’s impact are underway, with the development of electric and hydrogen-powered planes. But the technology is still a long way off powering long-haul passenger flights. Instead, the industry is looking to use SAF – with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimating that it could contri...

Official suggests Polish president check social media security after odd tweet from private account

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s minister of digital affairs suggested Friday that President Andrzej Duda check the security of access to his social accounts after a bizarre tweet went out that was almost immediately removed.The tweet published Thursday on Duda’s private account said: “Tell him to ask his wife what ‘having balls’ means. She knows!” The tweet was quickly deleted, but internet users took screenshots that were shared, creating amusement but also criticism that the head of state wasn’t being cautious enough with his online behavior.Duda’s office has not explained what the message published on X, formerly Twitter, referred to, nor did it explain how it was published.The government, led by Duda’s political rival, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, suggested the president should exercise greater caution and said it could offer security assistance.“Due to the fact that an unusual entry appeared on President Andrzej Duda’s account on the X website, which...

Companies pull ads from TV station after comments on tattooing and sending migrants to Auschwitz

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:26 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Prosecutors in Poland are investigating commentators who joked on a right-wing television station that migrants should be sent to Auschwitz or be tattooed or microchipped like dogs, and some companies have pulled advertising from the broadcaster. The remarks were made over the past week by guests on TV Republika, a private station whose role as a platform for conservative views grew after the national conservative party, Law and Justice, lost control of the Polish government and public media.During its eight years in power, Law and Justice turned taxpayer-funded state television into a platform for programming that cast largescale migration into Europe as an existential danger. The state media broadcast conspiracy theories, such as a claim that liberal elites wanted to force people to eat bugs, as well as antisemitic and homophobic content and attacks on the party’s opponents, including the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Spreading hate speech is a crime ...