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POLITICO Pro Morning Central Banker: Energy price relief — Zero-day options — The long arriverderci

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.View in your browser or listen to audioBy GEOFFREY SMITHSNEAK PEEK  — Broad inflationary relief across Europe and a continuing energy sell-off points to a more dovish ECB.  — ECB flags zero-day options risk as it eyes new sources of instability.  — As Visco’s long arrivederci begins, we ask what will happen to Italy’s ECB board seat if Panetta goes? POLICY TICKERECB 3.75% ⇡ — BOE 4.5% ⇡ — FED 5.35% ⇡— SNB 1.5% ⇡— BOJ -0.10% ⇣— RBA 3.85% ⇡— PBOC 3.65%⇣— CBR 7.5% ⇣ — SARB 8.25% ⇡Good morning! June is here, it’s the European Central Bank’s 25th birthday and hopes of an end to its tightening cycle are, as the poet said, bustin’ out all over. It seems a big drop in headline inflation in May in Germany and France, which account for roughly half of eurozone gross national income, has convinced at least some (including Berenberg’s Holger Schmieding) that the ECB should be done hiking by July at the lates...

Chula Vista Elementary board votes in favor of raising Pride flag

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Wednesday was fueled by debate in the South Bay over raising the commemorative Pride flag. Board members of the Chula Vista Elementary School District listened to arguments on both sides of the issue at a special emergency meeting for several hours. After three hours of public comments, the board voted in a 4 to 1 vote in favor of raising the Pride flag during the month of June and other months throughout the year. Residents, parents and students with Pride and American flags packed the board room Wednesday with people lined along the walls, with Pride and American flags in hand symbolic of the change they want to see. Each person there with an individual story, fighting for or against what flies on the flagpole just outside the district office. "Trigger warning, my child, who was befriended by a Christian person in the school once said I’m here to save you. I'm here to save you from being gay that you’re going to die in hell. My child attempted suicide two mo...

Card skimmer, gift card scams victimize local customers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

EL CAJON, Calif. -- Buyer beware! Your next trip to the store could end up making you the victim to two scams hitting San Diego County stores: one involving gift cards and the other involving card readers.Surveillance video posted on the El Cajon Police Department’s social media shows how quickly criminals are able to set up these card skimmers at a register.“It’s a big loss, for months in a row, we had 200 victims a month coming into our station to report the crime,” said Sgt. Kevin Reilly of the El Cajon Police Department.The skimmers record and send your PIN number and the information from the magnetic strip of your card to thieves via bluetooth, stealing your money.“If something looks bulky, maybe give it a tug or ask your cashier to give it a tug and make sure there’s not a device on it, and then on top of that, also the retailer checking this frequently,” Reilly said.El Cajon police recovered 12 card skimmers from stores in the past year alone. Amazon charged with privacy vi...

US companies, nudged by Black employees, have stepped up donations to HBCUs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

Natalie Coles will never forget receiving an unexpected phone call in 2020. On the line was Virginia-based Dominion Energy, offering to give money to Wilberforce University, the small historically Black college where she is in charge of fundraising. The company’s $500,000 donation went in part toward laptops and hot spots for students when the pandemic shut down the college’s campus outside of Dayton, Ohio.“It was like manna from heaven,” Coles said.Historically Black colleges and universities, which had seen giving from foundations decline in recent decades, lately are benefiting from an increase in gifts, particularly from corporations and corporate foundations. Some have received a new look from companies amid the reckoning over racial injustice spurred by the killing of George Floyd. But the colleges also have been pitching themselves, emphasizing their ability to deliver returns on the investment in student mobility.Another factor in the giving by corporations has been the infl...

AI chips are hot. Here’s what they are, what they’re for and why investors see gold

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The hottest thing in technology is an unprepossessing sliver of silicon closely related to the chips that power video game graphics. It’s an artificial intelligence chip, designed specifically to make building AI systems such as ChatGPT faster and cheaper.Such chips have suddenly taken center stage in what some experts consider an AI revolution that could reshape the technology sector — and possibly the world along with it. Shares of Nvidia, the leading designer of AI chips, rocketed up almost 25% last Thursday after the company forecast a huge jump in revenue that analysts said indicated soaring sales of its products. The company was briefly worth more than $1 trillion on Tuesday.SO WHAT ARE AI CHIPS, ANYWAY?That isn’t an easy question to answer. “There really isn’t a completely agreed upon definition of AI chips,” said Hannah Dohmen, a research analyst with the Center for Security and Emerging Technology.In general, though, the term encompasses com...

Jordan’s future king, Saudi bride to tie the knot in palace ceremony signaling continuity of rule

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The future king of Jordan and an architect from Saudi Arabia linked to her country’s own monarchy are getting married on Thursday in a palace celebration that introduces him to the world and emphasizes continuity in an Arab state prized for its longstanding stability.The union of Crown Prince Hussein, 28, and Rajwa Alseif, 29, buttresses the royal family’s order of succession, refreshes its image after a palace feud and may even help resource-poor Jordan forge a strategic bond with its oil-rich neighbor, Saudi Arabia.Excitement over the nuptials — Jordan’s biggest royal event in years — has been building in the capital of Amman, where congratulatory banners of Hussein and his beaming bride adorn buses and hang over winding hillside streets. Shops had competing displays of royal regalia. Royal watchers speculated about which dress designer Alseif would select— still an official secret,Nancy Tirana, a 28-year-old law intern, said she spent the last week scru...

Toyota debuts hydrogen-fueled Corolla race car as auto racing begins shift away from gas guzzlers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

OYAMA, Japan (AP) — In a sprawling circuit near Mount Fuji, a humble Corolla running on liquid hydrogen has made its racing debut, part of a move to bring the futuristic technology into the racing world and to demonstrate Toyota’s resolve to develop green vehicles.Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda, resplendent in a fire-resistant racing uniform, was all smiles as he prepared to buzz around the circuit in the hydrogen-fueled Corolla.“This is a world first for a liquid hydrogen car to race. We hope it will offer another option in the fight against global warming. To bring everyone smiles, I want to go one lap, even one second, more,” said Toyoda, a former CEO of Toyota, grandson of the automaker’s founder and a licensed race driver himself.The hydrogen Corolla race car won’t be turning up at your dealer anytime soon. The Super Taikyu 24-hour race at Fuji Speedway was just a test for the technology, Toyota officials said.Unlike electric vehicles, it has a combustion engine, but it burns liqu...

Japan’s southern Okinawa Islands prepare as tropical storm approaches

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

NAHA, Japan (AP) — A weakened Tropical Storm Mawar headed toward Japan’s southern archipelago of Okinawa on Thursday, leading businesses and the airport to close and fishermen to batten down their boats in preparation.Many residents in the prefectural capital of Naha on the main Okinawan island, where about 20,000 U.S. forces are based, appeared unworried even as they took precautions.Mawar, formerly a typhoon but now packing winds of up to 108 kilometers (66 miles) per hour, was around Miyako, one of Okinawa’s remote islands, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The storm could approach Okinawa’s main island on Friday and bring powerful rainstorms to the region, it said.A 76-year-old fisherman, Tatsunori Yamashiro, said he wasn’t too worried by the weakening storm. “All I can do now is to wait,” he said, sitting in his fishing boat, which he’d securely tied to a port facility. He said Mawar could have caused damage if it hit Okinawa when it was a typhoon. “...

British public figures urge Pakistan to release brother of pro-Imran Khan rights lawyer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Several prominent public figures in Britain have urged Pakistan to release the brother of a human rights lawyer who served as an adviser to ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan.The appeal from former U.K. Cabinet ministers, senior law officers, renowned journalists and legal rights organizations was made on Wednesday evening. It comes after this week’s arrest of Murad Akbar, the brother of attorney Shahzad Akbar.The lawyer, who is currently not in Pakistan, days ago tweeted that his brother was taken by security forces who raided his house. Pakistani authorities have neither confirmed nor denied that Murad Akbar was in their custody.“We call on Pakistani authorities to immediately release Murad Akbar, who we believe is arbitrarily detained and at risk of torture, disappearance and death,” said the joint statement from Britain.They said Murad Akbar has not been charged with any crime and “is a very vulnerable individual, who was under his family’s care after...

Judge agrees to seal court documents in Ralph Yarl shooting; suspect to be in court

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:11:57 GMT

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly came to his door last month is scheduled to be back in court Thursday, days after a judge ruled that court documents in the case will be sealed and kept from the public. The hearing for 84-year-old Andrew Lester is to set new dates for future hearings in the case and is expected to be brief.Lester has pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, who knocked on Lester’s door on April 13 while trying to pick up his young brothers, who were at a home a block away. Yarl, who has celebrated his 17th birthday since the shooting, suffered gunshot wounds to his head and wrist and continues to recover at home. Lester remains free after posting $20,000 — 10% of his $200,000 bond.The shooting drew international attention amid claims that Lester, who is white, received preferential treatment from investigators in the hours after he shot Yarl. Pre...