Author: Philip Walsh

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending was unchanged in March as an increase in outlays on services was offset by a decline in goods, but persistent strength in underlying inflation pressures could see the Federal Reserve raising interest rates again next week. Stubbornly high inflation was underscored by other data on Friday showing labor costs increasing solidly in the first quarter as a tight labor market continued to drive wage gains in the private sector. With the economy, however, shifting to lower gear, the anticipated rate hike next Wednesday could be the last in the current cycle, which…

It was the biggest movement of military personnel on Britain’s railways since Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965. Rail bosses and military officers managing the arrival and departure of 5,000 armed forces personnel and members of the public at London’s Waterloo station for the coronation have described the huge logistical operation as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”. Troops involved in the coronation arrived at the UK’s busiest station on Saturday morning before marching off to take part in the procession, in the biggest movement of military personnel on Britain’s railways since Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965. Members of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF…

So far 28,825 of 40,000 Afghan refugees Canada has committed to settling by the end of this year have arrived Atiq fled Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban took control of Kabul. He went to Turkey, where he is now living in a basement without any status, working in a bakery and facing the risk of deportation every day. “I feel like I’m in jail, scared to go out of my one room beyond work. I’m just counting the days until I can come to Canada. I’m getting depressed,” he said with the aid of a translator. CBC agreed to only use Atiq’s…

Winds as high as 27 miles per hour from the southwest caused massive power outages throughout Stark County on Saturday. Nearly 39,000 customers had lost electricity. As of 8 p.m., AEP Ohio reported on its website that nearly 17,000 customers in Stark County, or 15% of all its Stark customers, were still without power. Ohio Edison, owned by FirstEnergy, said nearly 22,000 customers in Stark, or about 28% of its customers in the county, had lost power. It was unclear how long it would take utility crews to restore power. Tim Warstler, director of the Stark County Emergency Management Agency, said crews…

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith and a group of Republican and Democrat leaders in Congress introduced a resolution Tuesday to urge the State Department to add Nigeria to its annual list of countries that violate religious freedom, known as the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list. The resolution also calls for the appointment of a special envoy to monitor and combat human rights violations in the region. Co-sponsored by Arkansas Republican Rep. French Hill and Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, the resolution will signal U.S. commitment to religious freedom across the world, especially in Nigeria. “Last year alone, 5,014 Christians were…

TOKYOJapan’s inflation-adjusted average monthly wage dropped 3.8 percent in November amid higher food and energy prices, marking the sharpest fall in eight years and six months and declining for the eighth straight month, the labor ministry said Friday. While the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called on firms to raise wages to match inflation in order to create a positive growth cycle, the preliminary figures in the ministry’s monthly labor survey show that price increases in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to outpace pay hikes. Pay rises are expected to be the main focus of…

TOKYOEvery week in community centers and other public spaces across Japan, thousands of volunteers work alongside a much smaller number of professional teachers to help foreign residents learn the country’s language through low-cost “Japanese classroom” initiatives. Receiving government support, the classrooms are the only ones that many foreigners will enter to improve their Japanese skills once they arrive, meaning that they play a key role in helping the acclimatization process. But as Japan sees its foreign population rise again after the hit from the pandemic, is it fair to rely on the goodwill of volunteers — many in their 50s…