Skip to main content

Featured

The Fed Decides Wednesday — Here's What It Means for Your Mortgage, the Loonie, and Your RRSP

  Monday, July 27, 2026 The U.S. Federal Reserve hands down its rate decision at 2 p.m. ET on July 29. For most Canadians it will feel like background noise. It isn't — here's the plain-language version of why it touches your mortgage, your cross-border spending, and whatever's sitting in your RRSP. The short version: Markets are pricing roughly a two-in-three chance the Fed holds its rate at 3.50%–3.75% on Wednesday. That's not the story. The story is that this is one of the least certain "sure thing" holds in years — and Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET could matter more than the decision itself. Why this meeting is different The Fed has held its benchmark rate steady at 3.50%–3.75% through every meeting so far in 2026. On paper, Wednesday should be more of the same. Under the hood, it's messier. Persistent inflation, running well above the Fed's 2% target for a fifth straight year, has kept a rate hike on the table. The oil-...
Post a Comment
Read more

article

Labels

E1 Settlement Approval Deepens West Bank Divide, Sparks Global Concern

 

The E1 land tract one of the last geographical links between Ramallah, in the northern West Bank, and Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.


Israel has granted final approval for the long-disputed E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, a move critics say could permanently derail prospects for a two-state solution.

The plan calls for the construction of roughly 3,500 housing units to expand the Ma’ale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem, effectively severing the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. Rights groups warn this would isolate East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities and make a contiguous Palestinian state nearly impossible.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed the decision as “historic,” framing it as a direct challenge to recent international moves toward recognizing Palestinian statehood. The UN and most of the international community consider such settlements illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace.

If implemented swiftly, infrastructure work could begin within months, with home construction starting in about a year. Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group, called the project a “knockout blow” to peace efforts, warning it would lock in decades of conflict.

The approval comes amid heightened violence in the West Bank, where settler attacks, military operations, and restrictions on Palestinian movement have sharply increased since the Gaza war began in 2023.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment