Skip to main content

Featured

Monday’s CPI Could Decide Your Next Mortgage Payment

  Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September. Inflation is sitting at 3%. The Bank of Canada has to decide on October 28 which of those facts matters more, and on Monday morning one more number lands to help it choose. If you carry a variable-rate mortgage, a HELOC or a renewal this winter, that number has a price tag. Two reports pulling in opposite directions The jobs data came first. Statistics Canada reported on October 9 that employment fell by 68,000 in September, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.5% from 6.4%. It followed a drop of about 42,000 in August, which means more than half of the 181,000 jobs gained between April and July have now been wiped out. Ontario shed 20,000 positions on its own. Markets reacted within hours: the odds of a quarter-point Bank of Canada hike on October 28 dropped to roughly 25% from about 40%, according to LSEG data reported by Reuters. Inflation is telling the opposite story. The consumer price index rose 3.0% year over year in August, matching Ju...

article

Revised Account Emerges in Gaza Aid Worker Tragedy

 

The Israeli military has revised its initial account of the tragic killing of 15 emergency workers near Rafah in southern Gaza on March 23. Initially, the military claimed that soldiers fired on vehicles approaching their position "suspiciously" in the dark, without lights or markings, and identified the victims as militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. However, newly surfaced video footage from one of the victims' mobile phones, released by the Palestinian Red Crescent, contradicts this narrative.

The video shows emergency workers in uniforms, operating clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks with their lights on, being fired upon by soldiers. Munther Abed, the sole survivor and a paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent, corroborated this, stating that soldiers targeted clearly marked emergency vehicles.

An Israeli military official acknowledged that the initial report from the field was mistaken and attributed the error to the person providing the account. Investigations are ongoing, with conclusions expected to be presented to army commanders. The United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent have called for an independent inquiry into the incident, which has drawn international attention and condemnation.

Comments