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POLITICO Pro Morning Central Banker: Surprise inflation — March settlement mayhem — Canada conundrum

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.View in your browser or listen to audioBy GEOFFREY SMITHwith ANJULI DAVIES, BEN MUNSTER and IZABELLA KAMINSKASNEAK PEEK— Eurozone consumers give ECB the benefit of the doubt.— The ECB’s Target2 securities annual report points to possible March settlement mayhem.— The truth is out there, but is it being priced into global liquidity? 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 and welcome to Wednesday. What we want to know this morning: Is the European Central Bank going to get away with a “surprise inflation” episode? The textbooks and gut instinct tell us ‘no’, but the data is starting to look as though it might. Send tips to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Tweet us, too: @Geoffreytsmith, @JohannaTreeck, @Ben_Munst...

Waters continue to swell as flooded southern Ukraine copes with day after dam breach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of southern Ukraine braced for a second day of swelling floodwaters on Wednesday as authorities warned that a Dnieper River dam breach would continue to unleash pent-up waters from a giant reservoir. Officials said waters were expected to rise further following Tuesday’s dramatic rupture of the Kakhovka dam about 70 kilometers (44 miles) to the east of the city of Kherson, but were slowing.Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and adjoining hydroelectric power station, which sits in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year. Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area, where the river separates the two sides.Residents sloshed through knee-deep waters in their inundated homes as videos posted on social media showed rescue workers carrying people to safety and an aerial video of waters filling the streets of Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovska on the eastern side of the river. In Ukrainian-controlled area...

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum set to announce 2024 Republican campaign for president

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is set to announce his 2024 Republican campaign for president Wednesday, adding his name to a long list of contenders hoping to dent Donald Trump’s early lead in the race. Burgum, 66, is set to kick off his campaign in the city of Fargo, where he lives and which is near the tiny farm town of Arthur, where he grew up.Known to few outside North Dakota, Burgum faces an immense challenge in a field dominated by former President Trump and the better-known governor in the race, Ron DeSantis of Florida.As evidence of his long odds, Burgum isn’t even the most notable candidate to announce a presidential campaign on Wednesday. Four hundred miles to the south, former Vice President Mike Pence will launch his White House bid in Iowa, taking on the president he served loyally for four years. Burgum, a former computer software entrepreneur, plans to visit early voting states right away. He will campaign Thursday and Friday in Iowa, home of the first-in-the-nat...

In Jerusalem’s contested Old City, shrinking Armenian community fears displacement after land deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A real estate deal in Jerusalem’s Old City, at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor. The 99-year lease of some 25% of the Old City’s Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.“If they sell this place, they sell my heart,” Garo Nalbandian, an 80-year-old photojournalist, said of the Ottoman-era barracks where he has lived for five decades among a dwindling community of Armenians. Their ancestors came to Jerusalem over 1,500 years ago and then after 1915, when Ottoman Turks killed an estimated 1.5 mill...

Zelenskyy commends troops after Bakhmut gains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Ukrainian troops on Monday (5 June) after his top ground commander said the country's forces continued to move forward near the long-contested city of Bakhmut in northern Donetsk."I am grateful to each of our soldiers, to all our defenders, men and women, who have given us today the news have been waiting for. Well done, soldiers in the Bakhmut sector!" Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.He did not provide further details. The commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said earlier that his forces continued "moving forward" near Bakhmut. Russian fighters and officials said the situation there was "very difficult" for Moscow.Russia claimed late last month to have captured Bakhmut following what had become the war's longest and bloodiest battle, but Ukraine has insisted its forces retained a small foothold and denied that Moscow was in full control of the city.Zelenskyy said Russia was reacting "hysterically" to any action u...

Russia says it thwarted major attack in Ukraine but lost some ground

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

Moscow said on Monday (5 June) it had thwarted a major offensive against its forces in eastern Ukraine, although it was unclear whether the attack formed the beginning of Ukraine's long-anticipated counteroffensive.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was enigmatic in his nightly video, hailing "the news we have been waiting for" in Bakhmut in the east. But he did not refer directly to a counteroffensive, which he had said he was ready to launch in a Wall Street Journal interview published on Saturday.Ukrainian officials made no mention of any broad, significant new campaign or sidestepped questions on the matter.The Washington Post reported that some US officials thought the counteroffensive was under way, but White House national security spokesperson John Kirby declined to say whether he thought this was the case."I'm not going to be talking for the Ukrainian military. That's for them to speak to," he told a regular briefing, although he stressed the work the United States had...

La enviada especial de EE.UU. se declara preocupada por el presunto envenenamiento de casi 80 estudiantes en Afganistán

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

(CNN) — La enviada especial de Estados Unidos para las mujeres, las niñas y los derechos humanos en Afganistán declaró este martes que le preocupan las informaciones según las cuales se sospecha que cerca de 80 estudiantes fueron envenenadas durante el fin de semana.“Preocupada por las informaciones según las cuales casi 80 niñas han sido envenenadas en sus escuelas. Deben tomarse todas las medidas para garantizar la seguridad de todos los niños”, publicó Rina Amiri en Twitter.En Irán, los padres temen enviar a sus hijas a clases luego del envenenamiento de niñasUnicef Afganistán también manifestó este lunes su preocupación por el incidente.“@UNICEFAfg está preocupada al enterarse de un presunto incidente ocurrido ayer en el que unas 80 niñas y mujeres enfermaron en dos escuelas del distrito de Sanchark, en el norte de Afganistán”, publicó Unicef Afganistán en Twitter..@UNICEFAfg is concerned to hear of an alleged incident yesterday in which around 80 g...

Rapidly growing Denver picks Mike Johnston as new mayor amid mounting big-city problems

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado state senator Mike Johnston claimed victory as opponent Kelly Brough conceded Tuesday night in a runoff election to become Denver’s next mayor.Unofficial results showed Johnston with 54.05% of the vote to 45.95% for Brough late Tuesday night. Johnston was ahead by 8,000 votes shortly after polls closed and that lead grew to nearly 11,000 votes as the night went on.Johnston will be the city’s first new mayor in more than a decade, replacing Michael Hancock, who was elected in 2011 and was term-limited.Brough, the former president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, told supporters Tuesday night that she had called Johnston and “wished him godspeed in the work ahead because our city is challenged and it needs a lot of work.” The two moderates were the top vote-getters in a 16-way race in April, sending the race to Tuesday’s runoff. Denver has become the tech and business hub of the Mountain West but now faces problems similar to t...

Finland expels 9 Russian diplomats suspected of spying

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

The Finnish government announced Tuesday it was going to expel nine staff members of the Russian embassy in Helsinki who are suspected of spying for the Kremlin.“Finland will expel nine persons working at the Embassy of Russia who are members of intelligence personnel,” the government said in a statement. “Their actions are in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” it added.European security services have cracked down on alleged Russian spies since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February. Around 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover — about half the total number active in Europe — have been expelled, according to Western intelligence officials who have have spoken to POLITICO on condition of anonymity.In March, Poland said it had broken up an entire Russian spy network, arresting several foreign nationals.

Two winning tickets sold for Tuesday’s $70 million Lotto Max jackpot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:58 GMT

TORONTO — Two lucky lottery ticket holders in British Columbia and Ontario will split the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot.There were 15 available Maxmillion prizes of $1 million each, and five winning tickets were drawn.Two of the tickets are each shared between two winners, splitting the money, while one ticket will claim the entire $1 million prize.Three of the Maxmillion winners are in Ontario, one is in B.C. and the other is in Quebec.The jackpot for the next draw on June 9 will be an estimated $22 million.The Canadian Press