Author: Press Room

Presidential frontrunner pledges support for religious freedom in letter to key voting bloc that mostly backs Bolsonaro.Brazilian presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has published an open letter to the country’s evangelicals, as he seeks to chip away at far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s base in advance of a second round of voting in tightly contested elections. The letter, read at a gathering with evangelical leaders at a Sao Paulo hotel on Wednesday, promised that Lula would respect religious freedoms if elected — as he did during his 2003-2010 presidency. “We are living at a time in which lies are…

LONDON — British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday after just six weeks in office, following a disastrous and rapidly reversed economic plan that sent the pound plunging and her government into chaos.Having been formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 6, Truss is now by far the shortest-serving prime minister in British history and will be remembered as one of the most calamitous.The previous holder of this record, George Canning, lasted 119 days in the early 19th century; Truss announced her resignation after 44.A leadership contest to decide the next leader of the ruling Conservative Party, who will…

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday following a failed tax-cutting budget that rocked financial markets and which led to a revolt within her own Conservative Party.Truss was in office for just 44 days, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. For 10 days of her premiership government business was paused following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.She said in a statement outside 10 Downing Street, “We set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.””I recognize though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on…

One of the EU’s top lawyers has dealt a blow to hopes that a new era of telecoms dealmaking is on the horizon after backing a 2016 decision from Brussels to stop what would have been a blockbuster merger. Examining the proposed £10.5bn merger of the UK businesses of Telefónica’s O2 and CK Hutchison’s Three in 2016, Juliane Kokott, advocate general at the EU Court of Justice, said that a previous judgment, which went against regulators concerned about the effects on competition, should “be set aside”. She called for the case to be referred back to the General Court [the…

A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link. Twelve days from now, the Federal Reserve will meet again, and expectations for the central bank’s next moves are firming up. The consensus among investors: Persistently hot inflation means the Fed will need to continue with its string of aggressive interest rate hikes, which is unprecedented in the modern era. What’s happening: Markets see a 99% probability that rates will rise by another…

Seniors living in long-term care across the country were three times more likely to have been prescribed antidepressants over the last five years than those in the community, a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates. Just over 60 per cent of seniors living in long-term care were prescribed antidepressants in 2017, data analyzed by the institute indicates. That rose to 62 per cent of residents by 2019 and 65 per cent in 2021.Meanwhile, the use of antidepressants among seniors living in the community increased from 22 per cent of seniors in 2019 to 23 per cent…

After months of layoffs, hiring freezes and other cost-cutting measures, big tech companies are set to provide the most detailed look yet at just how bad things have gotten for their businesses amid fears of a looming recession. Snapchat’s parent company, which tanked much of the tech sector in May with a warning about a worsening economy, is set to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday. Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB)-parent Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter (TWTR) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL) will each report earnings results the following week. “People probably should be bracing themselves for these results,” said Scott Kessler,…

‘No magical solutions’ to high gas price: Latvian PMArturs Kariņš told reporters upon arrival at the summit that there is “no magical solution” to high energy prices, stressing the bloc’s dependence on imports from abroad. “The answer is to work together,” he added, highlighting that “right now we’re at the stage where every member state is fending for itself.””That’s not enough. The next level is to see what the Union can do as a whole,” he went on, describing the Commission’s proposal to curb gas prices as “the best on the table right now”. “Maybe the (leaders’) positions won’t all gel today and…

A woman who felt like there was “something in her eye” actually had 23 daily disposable contact lenses stuck deep underneath her eyelid, her ophthalmologist reported.Dr. Katerina Kurteeva of California Eye Associates in Newport Beach, California, was shocked to discover the clump of contacts and “got to deliver” them last month in a case she documented on her Instagram page.“I was just amazed myself. I was like, this is kind of crazy. I’ve never seen this before,” Kurteeva told TODAY. “All the contacts were hidden underneath the upper lid in a pancake stack, so to speak.”Courtesy Katerina Kurteeva/California Eye AssociatesThe…

CNN  —  The UK’s world of politics plunged deeper into turmoil on Wednesday night after a debate on fracking led to alleged physical altercations between Prime Minister Liz Truss’ aides and lawmakers from her own Conservative Party. Last month, Truss’ government formally lifted a ban on fracking for shale gas that had been in place for England since 2019, arguing that strengthening the country’s energy supply was an “absolute priority.” The main opposition Labor Party brought forward a motion to restore the ban, but some Conservative members of parliament reported they were bullied, even manhandled, into voting in line with…