Author: Press Room

Source: YouTube

CNN  —  Punxsutawney Phil – the legendary groundhog weather watcher – woke up and saw his shadow Thursday morning, calling for six more weeks of winter. Each February 2, on Groundhog Day, the members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club make the pilgrimage to Gobbler’s Knob, Phil’s official home. The group waits for Phil to leave his burrow and, legend has it, if he sees his shadow we’re in for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we get to bask in an early spring. Phil and his friends have been predicting the seasons since 1887, according…

Islamabad/London CNN  —  Muhammad Radaqat, a 27-year-old greengrocer, is worried. He doesn’t know how much an onion will cost next week, let alone how he’ll be able to afford the fuel he needs to heat his home and keep his family warm. “All we’re being told by the government is that things are going to get worse,” Radaqat told CNN. His anxiety reflects the mood of a nation racing to ward off an economic meltdown. Faced with a shortage of US dollars, Pakistan only has enough foreign currency in its reserves to pay for three weeks of imports. Thousands of…

Famed and furry forecasters of spring are set to make their predictions Thursday morning. It’s Groundhog Day, and as folklore goes, a groundhog will emerge from its burrow and if it does not see its shadow, then spring is just around the corner, while if it does and retreats, then we can expect six more weeks of winter.Celebrity groundhog Shubenacadie Sam kicked off Canada’s first prediction shortly after sunrise over Nova Scotia, followed later by Ontario’s Wiarton Willie.The annual tradition at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, broadcast live on Facebook, has been closed to visitors for the past two years because…

New York sports radio legend Mike Francesa teamed up with Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo for one more take on Wednesday as the two voices of an era appeared on ESPN.Francesa had one scorching hot take as Tom Brady announced he was “retiring for good” following 23 seasons in the NFL, seven Super Bowl championships and three NFL MVP awards. The voice of New York sports proclaimed that the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots quarterback was not the best regular-season or Super Bowl quarterback.”Now I’m gonna throw a little oil on the ceremony,” the 68-year-old New York native…

A passageway near the Bank of England (BOE) in the City of London, U.K., on Thursday, March 18, 2021.Hollie Adams | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesLONDON — The Bank of England on Thursday hiked interest rates by 50 basis points and dialed back some of its previous bleak economic forecasts.The Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 in favor of a second consecutive half-point rate hike, taking the main Bank rate to 4%, but indicated in its decision statement that smaller hikes of 25 basis points may be in the cards in coming meetings. The two dissenting members voted to leave rates unchanged.Crucially,…

Europe’s two largest central banks raised interest rates sharply on Thursday, opting for a bigger rise than the US Federal Reserve as inflation in the region remains near historically high levels. The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England both lifted rates by another half a percentage point. Benchmark interest rates for both are at their highest levels since 2008. Across the Atlantic, the Federal Reserve eased up on rate hikes on Wednesday, opting for just a quarter-point increase as it judged that its battle against inflation was making progress. The ECB said it expected to raise benchmark…

Solana, the world’s 12th largest cryptocurrency boasting $9.2 billion in market capitalization, has continued to turn heads with its exemplary performance since late December. Although the launch of BONK Inu (BONK) the first meme coin on the Solana blockchain ignited the rally, SOL has been able to sustain it for nearly six weeks. Solana price now trades at $25.00 after a 6.3% increase in 24 hours.What’s Driving Solana Price Rally?The cryptocurrency industry seems to have gotten over the woes the Solana ecosystem was facing in 2023. One of the worrying trends that occurred numerous times during the 12 months was…

Andrea Cozzolino and Marc Tarabella, two MEPs caught up in the corruption scandal rocking Brussels, had their parliamentary immunities lifted on Thursday. The vote in the plenary in Brussels follows a request by the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office on 16 January and comes two days after the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee backed the motion. Both MEPs deny any involvement in the illicit lobbying allegedly conducted by Qatar by Morocco.  Italian MEP Cozzolino was not present for the vote but Tarabella, from Belgium, voted to have his immunity waived.”I have been asking for the lifting of this immunity since the very first…

A week that has been chock-full of economic data will be capped off Friday with the first US jobs report of 2023. Economists estimate that 185,000 positions were likely added in January, according to Refinitiv. That would be a considerable drop from the 504,000 jobs added in January 2022 and the 520,000 added in January 2021. It also would nearly match the 183,000 monthly average between 2010 and 2019, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. And yet, while the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes have helped make a dent in inflation and resulted in slower economic activity without stark rises…