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European Central Bank raises interest rates by quarter-point to fight inflation after US Fed suspends hikes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank raises interest rates by quarter-point to fight inflation after US Fed suspends hikes.Source

Shedding equity: Housing slowdown leads to first annual drop in US homeowner equity since 2012

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier.Among the roughly 63% of U.S. homes with a mortgage, average homeowner equity per borrower was $274,070 in the first quarter, down 1.9% from the same quarter last year, according to real estate data tracker CoreLogic. The last time average homeowner equity fell year-over-year was in the first quarter of 2012, when the housing market was still regaining its footing after the mortgage meltdown and ensuing foreclosure crisis that helped trigger the Great Recession. All told, U.S. homeowners with a mortgage lost a combined $108.4 billion in home equity between the first quarter of last year and the first three months of 2023, a drop of 0.7%, according to CoreLogic.Homeowner equity, which represents the current value of the property minus what’s still owed on the mortgage, tends to rise and fall along with home prices. In the first quar...

Unidad clandestina ucraniana reclama éxitos contra las fuerzas rusas en Bakhmut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

Este de Ucrania (CNN) — Sus antebrazos se hincharon por el esfuerzo de sujetar la correa tirante de un perro que babeaba. Los gruñidos ahogados de la criatura se podían sentir tanto como escuchar, así como los gruñidos de un camión trucado.Esto era apropiado, dado que el distintivo de llamada de su propietario es Brabus, en honor a la firma alemana que se especializa en aumentar el volumen de vehículos de lujo con testosterona de ingeniería.“Ven”, gruñó Brabus mientras lo remolcaban de regreso a un edificio al borde de la carretera para nuestra reunión clandestina con parte de su equipo de operaciones especiales.Son parte de un oscuro tapiz de unidades que pertenecen a varias organizaciones de inteligencia ucranianas. Operan en los paisajes crepusculares en la guerra contra la ocupación rusa en y más allá de las líneas del frente.Otros grupos dirigidos por la inteligencia ucraniana incluyen la Fuerza Voluntaria Rusa y la Legión Libertad para Rusia —formada por ciudadanos rusos...

Kroger: Fiscal Q1 Earnings Snapshot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

CINCINNATI (AP) — CINCINNATI (AP) — Kroger Co. (KR) on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $962 million.The Cincinnati-based company said it had net income of $1.32 per share. Earnings, adjusted for investment costs and non-recurring costs, were $1.51 per share.The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.43 per share.The supermarket chain posted revenue of $45.17 billion in the period, which missed Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $45.42 billion.Kroger expects full-year earnings in the range of $4.45 to $4.60 per share._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on KR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KRSource

North Korea launches 2 ballistic missiles toward sea in protest of US-South Korea military drills

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Thursday, the South Korean military said, in a resumption of its weapons testing activities to protest just-ended South Korean-U.S. live-fire drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal.The North Korean launch is its first since it failed in an attempt to put its first spy satellite into orbit in late May.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North Korean launches from its capital region on Thursday evening. It said South Korea’s military boosted its surveillance posture and maintains readiness in close coordination with the United States.Japan’s Defense Ministry also said it detected a possible ballistic missile fired by North Korea. Japan’s Coast Guard alerted vessels in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan and the North Pacific seas, warning them to avoid falling objects. There were no immediate reports of damage to ships or aircraft...

Movie Review: Chris Hemsworth returns in ‘Extraction 2,’ a gun-for-hire who pulls you completely in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

Tyler Rake was clinically dead when we last saw him at the end of “Extraction,” tumbling over a bridge in Bangladesh with a fatal, burbling bullet wound to his neck. But death is no match for Netflix.Chris Hemsworth returns as the sad-sack, gun-for-hire Rake in “Extraction 2” and you’ll thank the giant streamer for such a nifty bit of resurrection because this franchise is pure cinematic adrenalin.The new movie comes two years after a surprisingly good first installment, which saw Rake intervene in a feud between two rival drug dealers, survive numerous double-crosses, ask things like “How many hostiles onsite?” and lob an inexhaustible number of grenades.How he survived it all stuns even his friends. Emerging from a coma in “Extraction 2,” he is stashed in a remote chalet in Gmunden, Austria, and told to chill out — learn to knit, go on hikes, try to reach mindfulness. “Enjoy retirement,” he is told. If he did there would be no “Extraction 2.”Inevitably, a new extraction job ...

Pope sends Benedict XVI’s former aide back to Germany in latest sign of falling out

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has fired the longtime aide to the late Pope Benedict XVI from his Vatican job and ordered him to return to his native Germany, the final chapter in a very public falling out that culminated with the aide’s tell-all memoir that was highly critical of Francis.The Vatican confirmed that Archbishop Georg Gaenswein had officially ended his job as prefect of the papal household as of Feb. 28. A statement issued Thursday while Francis was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery said the pope had ordered Gaenswein to return to Freiburg, Germany, his diocese of origin, by July 1.While all papal secretaries usually return to their dioceses of origin following the death of the pope they served, the Vatican’s announcement betrayed some of the ill-will that had developed between Francis and Gaenswein. Francis gave Gaenswein no new assignment, and at 66, he is nearly a decade too young to retire. Speculation about Gaenswein’s future had swirled following ...

The UK announces $12 entry fee for travelers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

(CNN) — The United States has been charging visitors for electronic travel authorization since 2009, and now the United Kingdom and the European Union are rolling out entry fees, too.UK to charge travelers for entryVisa waiver schemes have been around for a while. The United States has the $21 ESTA, valid for two years, and Europe will be introducing the 7 euro ETIAS (about $7.50 on exchange rates this week) in 2024. That one will last you three years.The United Kingdom, you may recall, rather famously fled the EU coop a couple of years back. Now it’s revealed the price tag for its own scheme, the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation): £10 (about $12.50) for two years.Admittedly, that’s only about the price of a large fish and chips, but it does mean access to the nations that gave us the Tower of London and Edinburgh Castle will be more expensive than a pass to the home countries of the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Sagrada Familia and the Acropolis combined.The plan is for the s...

North Carolina teacher’s civil rights suit alleges he was fired over teaching of novel about racial profiling during Black History Month

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

(CNN) — A Black North Carolina teacher has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Charlotte charter school, alleging he was fired after some White parents opposed his teaching of a novel about a Black teen struggling with “racial injustice” during Black History Month.Charlotte Secondary School hired Markayle Gray on a contract basis to teach seventh and eighth grade English last October, according to the lawsuit filed in US District Court on Monday.The school terminated his contract in February over what the lawsuit described as “racially inspired backlash” over Gray’s teaching of the novel “Dear Martin” to his seventh grade honors students along with “other aspects” of the class content connected to “racial equality.”“Dear Martin” is a New York Times bestseller about a Black teenager who falls victim to racial profiling by law enforcement.Some White parents complained to school administrators that the novel’s content “was divisive and injected what they regarded as unwelcom...

US students grade their schools a B- on average, according to new report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:00 GMT

(CNN) — US students give their schools an overall B- grade on average, according to a new report released Wednesday that asked fifth through twelfth graders to assess their school’s quality in multiple categories, including teaching, effectiveness in preparing them for the future and mental health support.Two-thirds of students graded their school overall an A or a B, according to the report released by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Nearly a quarter, 24%, gave their school a C and one-tenth gave either a D or F.The average grades for each individual metric ranged from C+ to B.“Whether because of the challenges schools faced during three years of dire disruption to learning during the pandemic or longer-term issues, there is clearly room for improvement,” the researchers wrote in the report.The report is based on 2,062 responses from adolescents in fifth through twelfth grade at public, charter and private schools in the US. The students were surveyed between late April an...