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POLITICO Pro Central Banker: Fed decisions — AT1 revival — BoE woes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.View in your browser or listen to audioBy GEOFFREY SMITHwith BEN MUNSTER, CARLO BOFFA and IZABELLA KAMINSKASNEAK PEEK— Federal Reserve set to pause tightening cycle as CPI eases.— ECB still expected to hike at policy meeting on Thursday.— Gilts tumble as UK labor market stays red hot.POLICY TICKERECB 3.75% ⇡ — BOE 4.5% ⇡ — FED 5.35% ⇡— SNB 1.5% ⇡— BOJ -0.10% ⇣— RBA 4.10% ⇡— PBOC 3.65%⇣— CBR 7.5% ⇣ — SARB 8.25% ⇡Good morning, everyone, and especially to you cricket lovers. The Ashes are nearly upon us, and the thrill of anticipation is almost enough — but not quite enough — to make your average Englishman forget that he’s living in a nightmarish wage-price spiral that ratchets higher every month. May’s labor market report showed average earnings rising at their fastest pace ever (outside of the pandemic), making more rate hikes from the Bank of England inevitable. Gilts had a wretched day.Despite that, BoE Govern...

San Diego City Council votes to approve homeless encampment ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted 5-4 passing an unsafe camping ordinance, or homeless encampment ban, which has drawn polarized opinions. A majority of the 220 people who signed up to give their public comment on the ordinance spoke out against it. Council chambers were packed and two overflow rooms were also filed as Tuesday's afternoon meeting began at 1 p.m.However, city leaders including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who brought the ordinance to council, have been vocal in their support of the ordinance. “How can the city proceed with criminalizing the homeless when we don’t have enough beds," one person said during public comment.“Encampments are unsafe and unsanitary, we cannot allow them to proliferate, period," Gloria said.Gloria held a press conference with several city leaders, downtown residents, business owners and others to voice their support on the ordinance before the City Council meeting began Tuesday.If passed...

Long-awaited Vietnam energy plan aims to boost renewables, but fossil fuels still in the mix

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Power outages are leaving Vietnamese homes and businesses without power for hours at a time, as a prolonged drought and high temperatures strain the fast-growing economy’s capacity to keep up. A long-anticipated plan meant to fix the energy crunch and help achieve ambitious climate change goals will offer some relief but may not go far enough in weaning the country off of fossil fuels, experts say. The need for progress is evident. Streetlights have been turned off in some major cities and businesses have been told to cut energy use. Amid severe drought, two out of the three largest hydroelectric reservoirs in Vietnam have almost completely stopped operating. “It is a big headache for us,” said Nguyen Thanh Tam, deputy director of Hoa Long printing company in Hanoi. “We need power to operate the machines.”The national energy plan, called Power Development Plan 8 or PDP8, aims to more than double the maximum power Vietnam can generate to some 150...

As conditions for Syrians worsen, aid organizations struggle to catch the world’s attention again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

BAR ELIAS, Lebanon (AP) — Six months after she got the call informing her that her U.N. assistance would be cut, Najwa al-Jassem is struggling to feed her four children and pay rent for their tent in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.She once received food rations and cash that covered most of their modest monthly expenses. The family now only gets the equivalent of $20 a month, which just covers the rent for their cramped tent.Her husband gets only sporadic day labor and “my kids are too young for me to send them to work the fields,” she told The Associated Press in the camp near the town of Bar Elias. “We’re eating one meal a day.”Aid agencies will struggle to draw the world’s attention back to the plight of Syrians like al-Jassem on Wednesday at an annual donor conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels for humanitarian aid to respond to the Syrian crisis. Funding from the two-day conference will also go toward providing aid to Syrians within the wa...

Stock market today: Asian stocks mixed after US inflation cools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday after a cooler reading on U.S. inflation buoyed hopes the Federal Reserve will postpone a possible interest rate hike.Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney rose while Hong Kong and Seoul declined.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.7% to a 14-month high after government data Tuesday showed U.S. consumer inflation eased to 4% over a year earlier in May from the previous month’s 4.9%. It was less than half last June’s peak of 9.1% but still double the Fed’s 2% target.That reinforced hopes the Fed will avoid announcing another rate hike when its monthly meeting ends Wednesday. Two Fed board members have said the U.S. central bank should put off another hike while it studies the impact of previous increases.“The Fed will see this as a window of opportunity to pause,” Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities said in a report.The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 3,241.57 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advanced...

Federal assistance sought for northeastern vineyards, orchards hit by late frost

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

SHELBURNE, Vt. (AP) — Vineyards and apple orchards across the Northeast are still gauging damage from a late-season frost in May that wiped out a third to most of the crop for some growers who say it’s the worst frost damage they have ever seen.Some states are seeking federal disaster declarations, which would make low-interest loans and other programs available to affected growers, while agriculture officials across the region are contemplating together asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture for direct aid to farmers.In southern Vermont, Scott Farm Orchard lost up to 90% of its apple crop when the temperature dipped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 degrees Celsius) for five hours on May 18. At the northern end of the state, Shelburne Vineyards in Shelburne, Vermont, lost about 50% of its grape crop, which is potentially a half-million dollar revenue loss, according to head wine grower and vineyard manager Ethan Joseph. To make up for lost production, Shelburne Vineyards plans to buy...

Road rage brawl in Granada Hills caught on camera

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

Cellphone video captured the moment fists started flying in an apparent road rage incident along a busy thoroughfare in Granada Hills on Tuesday.  Alessandra Forte and her daughters were in their car when they came up to the intersection at Chatsworth Street and Genesta Avenue at around 3:30 p.m. Video footage shows a white Dodge pickup truck, along with a motorcycle laying in the road and blocking the middle lanes, but it was the fight between the drivers that halted traffic.  “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening, it’s happening,’” Forte told KTLA. “We got a little scared because you don’t know what these people are going to pull out. Are they going to pull out a gun and start shooting? What do we do?”  Gabriella, one of Forte’s daughters, started recording the fight on her phone, while her other daughter, Giulia called the police on hers.  It’s unclear exactly what triggered the incident, but Forte and her daughters say the driver of the pick...

Authorities search for inmate who escaped Los Angeles facility

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

Authorities are searching for an inmate who escaped from a Los Angeles County correctional facility on Sunday.Aleisha Schmitz, 25, walked away from a Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program facility around 7:10 p.m. according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.She was last seen entering a gray or silver-colored Mercedes outside the facility grounds.Agents were alerted after receiving notification of an alarm on Schmitz’s monitoring device. Staff members immediately searched the facility, but she was nowhere to be found.Schmitz is described as a woman standing 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 197 pounds. She has brown eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. She was last seen wearing a blue jacket and gray sweats.Schmitz is currently serving a three-year sentence for charges including second-degree robbery and hit-and-run causing injury of a person other than themself.Aleisha Schmitz in a July 2022 photo from the California Department of Correct...

Oakland A’s fans show up in thousands to execute reverse boycott at the Coliseum, players express ‘full support’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

OAKLAND — They knew it probably wasn’t going to change anything, but A’s fans at least wanted to try.In one last act of desperation, A’s fans flocked to the Coliseum on Tuesday night for the much-anticipated reverse boycott of the team’s expected move to Las Vegas. The announced attendance of 27,759 was a season-high, and the A’s largest home crowd since last August, as the A’s beat the Rays, 2-1, in a game that had a playoff atmosphere thanks entirely to the A’s angry fanbase.In choreographed rhythm, A’s fans chanted at billionaire owner John Fisher to “sell the team” for most of the 2 hours, 19 minutes, taking frequent breaks to throw their support behind the home team, the worst team in baseball 10 days ago that has since rattled off seven straight wins.“The energy, the atmosphere, tonight was everything that this stadium can be,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after the game.The event was organized by fan grou...

Golden Knights blast Panthers to capture first Stanley Cup title

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:22 GMT

By MARK ANDERSON (AP Sports Writer)LAS VEGAS — Golden Knights games have always been as flashy as any show on the Las Vegas Strip, the sword-fighting mascot taking the ice before what seems like a legion of players marching out through the mirrored entrance into the roar of the crowd.If this team was ever going to win the Stanley Cup, it was going to do it with Vegas flash.The Knights delivered just that from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat trick to all-out goal celebrations, capturing the young organization’s first title with a 9-3 romp over the beaten up and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to lead 6-1. The nine goals tied the record for the most in a Cup...