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Michel Barnier always did have a way with words. “I have the honour of submitting to you the resignation of the government,” said his letter, as if he had just been appointed rather than defenestrated. He is the shortest-serving prime minister in French history, the first for six decades to be forced out by a no-confidence motion. And felled, in effect, by Marine Le Pen. Many had assumed that she was on the way out, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds. But as she has just shown the world, her party is perhaps more potent now than ever. Rassemblement National cannot form a government. It lacks the allies. Barnier was right to say he had been taken out by a “coalition of opposites” who agree on nothing more than the need to remove him. But what unites Le Pen and her new partner in insurgency, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is contempt for Emmanuel Macron. His calamitous decision to call a snap parliamentary election resulted in a hung parliament where his only hope was that the Right and Left could never unite. Once again, his enemies have just proved him wrong. About 20 candidates are mooted as potentials for the next presidential race, but none come close to Le Pen’s popularity. Her support is running at about 40 per cent in some polls. Edouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre, is next at about 25 per cent. A conviction for embezzlement would debar her from the race, but other than that it’s hard to see what could stop her running. Just as the lawfare and obloquy used against Donald Trump ended up making him stronger, the same tactics seem to be powering Mme Le Pen. It wasn’t so long ago that Macron was proposing a centrist “revolution”, publishing a book by the same name. It failed because he failed. For seven years, under the presidency of this former investment banker, French public spending surged – as did national debt – leading to the current budget crisis. The kind of Budget and pension cuts that Barnier was trying to pass are the only solution. But Macron never properly built the case for this, or any proper reform agenda. It was always possible to out-argue Le Pen and hold her fiscal denialism up to ridicule. But portraying her as a far-Right monster was more name-calling than argument. Similar tactics have been deployed against Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Sweden Democrats, Poland’s Law and Justice Party, Geert Wilders’ PVV in the Netherlands and Austria’s Freedom Party. Look around Europe and it doesn’t seem that this tactic is working very well – but it never stops being used. The strange phenomenon we saw in America, how Trump’s enemies attacked him when it was clear that attacks backfired, can be seen all over Europe. Germany is learning this the hard way. Olaf Scholz’s coalition collapsed last month. As the recent state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia demonstrated, the momentum is with AfD. Violent crime in Germany is becoming inseparable from the issue of migration, with police statistics saying that 40 per cent of suspects are foreign-born. Combine this with its woeful economic trajectory and demographics (it’s expected to have one of the sharpest working-age population declines of any major economy) and it adds to a perfect electoral storm for populists. JD Vance, America’s vice-president elect, has a theory that it’s not enough to embody voters’ ambitions: when you’re up against a falling government, you also need to embody their anger. So people vote for Trump (or Le Pen) not because they necessarily think such characters deserve to be president, but because they see him as a necessary corrective to a failed consensus. Under this strategy, attacks are helpful. The louder the shrieks of horror from the establishment, the stronger the Trumpian (or Le Pennian) claim to embody electoral vengeance. Giorgia Meloni has always understood this. Her politics are standard centre-Right (as her presidency has shown) but having the Brothers of Italy denounced as “post-fascist” burnishes her rebel credentials. Now and again, she’ll play it up. She’ll be coy about Mussolini’s record or defend the tricolour flame in her party’s logo (a visual nod to the bad old days) hoping her opponents will take the bait. This is from the Trump playbook of political jiu-jitsu: use your opponent’s vitriol as a campaign fuel. Let them portray themselves as deranged. “They’re not after me, they’re after you,” Trump likes to say. “I just happen to be standing in the way.” The countries where support for the new-Right parties has been waning – Sweden, Poland, Hungary – are those where populists have held or shared power. This is what really hurts: when they get the chance to change, but flop. Perhaps the best way of weakening Le Pen would be having Jordan Bardella, her protégé and parliamentary leader, as prime minister. Let him see how the bruises of government dampen his rebel yell. And if young Bardella would succeed and end up as impressive as Meloni has been? Then the world may have to rethink the far-Right label, one already regarded as nonsense by a good chunk of French voters. But as things stand, Le Pen has Macron exactly where she wants him: in the Elysee, taking the blame, trying to form another government but one which – as she has just demonstrated – can be thrown out by her new rebel alliance at any time. This leaves her in the ideal populist fist-shaking position. As Brexit negotiator, Barnier liked to say that time was running out. Macron has the opposite problem: his time as a lame-duck president has another two and half agonising years to run. Some 59 per cent of French voters want him to stand down earlier but tonight he said he will serve his term “fully, until its end.” To walk away early and trigger another snap election would certainly be a gamble. And after this year’s debacle – and the crisis into which he has now led his country – Macron may well have had enough of those.Renfrew council delays rubber-stamping staff recommendation to award controversial IT contract
-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email 2024 was an ominous year for the future of Earth. Climate scientists anticipate that it will be the first year in which the average planetary temperature was 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels , a critical threshold established in 2015 during the Paris climate accord . Meanwhile a 2023 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found humans brought about as many extinctions over the previous five centuries that if our species had never existed, it would have taken 18,000 years for that same number of genera to have gone extinct on their own. The good news for humanity is that people have the power to stop these mass extinctions and stave off the worst consequences of climate change . The bad news for our species is that we are not doing any of those things; in fact, we are led by science-denying politicians like Donald Trump in the United States, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Javier Milei in Argentina. Related Laser-based lidar tech is rewriting history — if climate change doesn't erase it first Julian Cribb, a British-Australian author who specializes in covering the intersections between science and politics, has published nine books on subjects related to ecocide — the practice in which humans actively destroy their environment. His latest is " How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century ," in which he warns that humanity is running out of time to fix the escalating crisis. Among other things, Cribb proposes the creation of a Global Truth Commission to help leaders separate good science and information from bad; technological innovation to wean humanity off of agriculture and create food in more sustainable ways; and strategies that will address all of the threats to humanity’s future holistically, rather than separately. Cribb discussed his thoughts on humanity’s future with Salon. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and context. In the past, you have advocated for a Global Truth Commission. Can you elaborate on what that means, how it would be implemented, and what you'll say to those who claim this violates free speech principles? A Global Truth Commission basically is a fact-checking agency. The world has 420 fact checking agencies , which are run mostly by media organizations, like Reuters, for example. In Australia, we have one run by the ABC, a fact-checking organization that simply checks the statements of public figures. If they find them to be false or untruthful or misleading, they publish their findings. They don't punish people in any way. They just simply expose the lies for what they are. An Indian farmer checks his wheat crop that was damaged in heavy rain on the outskirts of Amritsar on March 21, 2018. (NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images) And we believe now that, such as the torrent of untruths and deception of lies that are pouring forth from politicians, corporate interests and others, we have to make some corrections. Otherwise, you cannot have a democracy. You cannot even have a society if nobody knows what the truth is, because everything begins to disintegrate. Every decision you take is based on false grounds if you allow untruths to rage unchecked. So a World Truth Commission is simply a fact-checking agency that would check the statements of prominent public figures and publish its findings. How do you deal with the fact that with climate change, pesticide pollution, plastic pollution and all of these ecocidal practices, there is so much misinformation that people can't distinguish between what is real and what is fake? How do you specifically make it easier for scientific facts to be widely distributed? The Council for the Human Future is trying to do just that. We're about to set up a world news website where we will only publish scientifically validated, fact-checked information about these things. People are going to have to learn that if they accept false information, they are likely to incur damage to themselves. That's the penalty of accepting lies. People who believe them end up making bad decisions. "Climate change is not the only threat. There are 10 major catastrophic threats to the human future." You can't thrust this on 8.2 billion people, but you can offer them the truth. You can offer them validated truths. In other words, things that have been checked by experts and, and not just asserted by vested interests in business, in commerce, in politics, and so on. Based on your research into effective political activism, what can individuals who are concerned about climate change do to empower themselves in meaningful ways? The first thing is to understand that climate change is not the only threat. There are 10 major catastrophic threats to the human future. And they're all working together. They're all coming together at the one time. Climate change is only one of them. So it's only 10% of the problem we have to understand. The others include resource failure or insecurity — i.e., lack of water and forests and fish and things like that; lack of food; collapse of ecosystems and mass extinction; nuclear weapons, WMDs and things like that; food security/food instability in the global food supply, which is now a major issue worldwide; pandemic diseases, which are breaking out every two or three years now; overpopulation, which occurs whenever you breach environmental boundaries; new technologies, every new technology starts off benign and then becomes malignant very, very rapidly, such as coal being benign in the 1850s, and it's become malignant. Or AI, or nanotechnology, or biotechnology — these are all in danger of becoming malignant because they're uncontrolled. We need control over new technologies; and basically misinformation is a major threat to human survival because people are not being informed about what the real situation is. A view of dried soil after the rising temperatures attributed to climate change have resulted in a reduction of water levels in wells and reservoirs across Sanaa, Yemen on August 26, 2023. (Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Why do you think, when people talk about ecocide, we only discuss climate change? Why do we not talk about this more broadly? Because climate change has had huge scientific effort put into it, and consequently, its publicity has raised its profile above the other major threats. But ecological collapse and extinction are far more dangerous to the human future in the long run. We can't survive on a planet that cannot support life. We're destroying life left, right and center at the moment with global poisoning and the like. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes . Basically ecocide is human overpopulation. Overpopulation is scientifically defined as a state where you start destroying your living environment. Whether you are a grasshopper or a bird or a human, if you start destroying the environment in which you live, then you are overpopulated. That's how we measure overpopulation. And the human species is way overpopulated, about four times overpopulated now. It's not just a number, it's not just about what is the ideal population of the planet, it's about how many people can actually survive here in the long run on the resources which are finite and provided by the Earth. So ecocide is just a kind of a lawyer's term for killing off the cradle of life that supports us. Are we doomed to be poisoned by pollution or can we still clean the planet? Every breath you take, you are inhaling toxic chemicals. Whether it's from the rear end of a truck or a bus, or whether it's just coming out of your sofa or all those PFAS chemicals , flame retardants and stuff. Every child born today is born with toxic chemicals in its blood. It takes it in through its mother's milk. It gets a mouthful of pesticide. That’s World Health Organization data, not mine. We are completely surrounded by toxic chemistry. A lot of it is man-made and a lot of it is man-generated. In other words, actions like mining development, agriculture and so on, unleash a whole lot of chemicals which impinge on us every day. We get them through our mouths, through our skin and in our bones, by breathing. Every person on the planet is being poisoned every second of the day. It seems like the answer is yes. Are there solutions to this? We can fix them if we understand the problem. At the moment, we're only understanding bits of the problem. We're obsessed with plastics over here, and we're obsessed with hormone disruptors over there. We're looking at little bits of the problem. We're obsessed with PFAS chemicals. They're tiny. There's 350,000 manmade chemicals, right? And they all break down to make other chemicals and intermix with other chemicals. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism So it's a very complex issue, but there are things we can do to clean up the planet, yes. It's a major problem. It's five times larger than climate change. It kills 10 times more people than climate change, but there are solutions to it, and I've published them in a couple of books. In some of your books, you made the link between climate change and these other forms of pollution, but also how they are linked to issues like famine and war. The way most people are going to feel climate change is in the failure of the food supply, because clearly famine is spreading around the world at the moment. Food price inflation is going through the roof. It's what destabilized America enough for the Trump regime to get in. Trump is a climate impact, believe it or not. Trump is a climate impact, an impact of climate change, because when people get nervous about food availability, the price of food, they tend to vote for authoritarian conservative or right-wing regimes. And that's what's happening worldwide. It's not just in America. It's happening in Australia, it's happening in Austria, it's happening in Hungary — it's everywhere. The world is swinging to the right because of this uncertainty generated by the climate impact on food. "In all my reading of history, I've never found a woman who started a war." There are many ways that climate impacts food.It creates drought, obviously, and that cuts crop harvest yields. It produces heat waves, which often prevent the flowering of the crops, so that destroys their fertility. Rice, for example, will not grow above 42.2 degrees Celsius. The rice plant dies, so you could lose your rice harvest in a certain area. Things like that and floods will also destroy crops. It’s a big problem. Agriculture was a beautiful technology for 7,000 years back in the Bronze Age. It is not appropriate to feed 10 billion people on a hot, climate-ravaged earth. We need new ways to produce food, and there are new ways to produce food, and they're being experimented all around the world at the moment. Climate change is also fueling immigration. How do you propose we handle this? It's very, very hard to control. I read a report from the Swiss in Zurich predicting 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050. That's terrifying. The number's about a hundred million at the moment. There's about 350 million humans on the move worldwide now every year. But Zurich is talking about a tripling or a quadruple in the number of human beings on the move that is going to collapse borders. It's going to sweep away governments completely. It's going to utterly destroy the old nation-states as we know them. For example, if a hundred million refugees come out of Africa and flood into Europe, you are going to lose Spain, Italy and Greece just like that. Their people in turn will flee north into the other countries. You get this displacement effect. It is actually a realistic fear. The only way to keep people in their own countries is to secure their food supply. To do that, you need renewable food and you need to recycle your water. Can you elaborate on the technology that would provide this renewable food and clean water? With water, it is simply a matter of recycling. You just use well-established scientific techniques to cleanse the water that you are currently flushing down the toilet or running off the city streets and you remove the bugs from it and put it back into the system with food. Related "Universal suicide": An imprisoned climate activist on why the fight for the planet still matters There are three main ways of producing renewable food: One is regenerative farming, which is being practiced by advanced farmers around the world; the second one is recycling all of the nutrients and all the water that currently flow through our big cities, enabling cities like New York or Shanghai or Paris to feed themselves by simply recycling nutrients and growing their own food on the spot with the nutrients and water that they've already got using hydroponic, aquaponic and other systems; and the third one is deep ocean aquaculture, which is being pursued by scientists at Berkeley University of California at Berkeley. It's a very feasible technology for producing an endless supply of food from the deep oceans, not from the coast. I hasten to add, it's not a form of farming. You use the deep water where you're not impacting any other species around the planet. You're not displacing anything else. You're not cutting down the Amazon in order to feed people. These three systems will create a renewable food supply. My next question is in one of your books, you mentioned that women would be better to lead on climate change than men. What does smashing the patriarchy, so to speak, have to do with climate change? In all my reading of history, I've never found a woman who started a war. I don't mean Helen of Troy-type mythology. Women have led countries successfully in defense of their own country, people like Golda Meir in Israel and Indira Gandhi in India and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. They've defended their country successfully against aggression, male aggression from elsewhere. But in the last 150 years, all wars that have been started, they've all been started by males, either male-dominated governments or kings, basically.Wars of conquest, which are normally fought over territory, food, land and water are things that blokes like doing. A protester is walking towards a wildfire started by a launched tear gas canister during a march as part of a rally against the construction of a giant water reservoir (mega-bassine) in Migne-Auxances, western France, on July 19, 2024. (Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images) What do you think of the results of the 2024 election in which a candidate who acknowledges science was a woman and lost to a candidate who does not acknowledge science and is a man? That was partly the result of misinformation, which we discussed earlier, but also as I mentioned, climate is already driving up inflation and it's making the food supply less secure. There is drought all through America at the moment. People are feeling very nervous. Now, to give you an example, in the 1930s, Germany had been through a horrendous famine and starvation in World War I, when nearly a million Germans died of hunger. That was what drove Germany into the arms of the National Socialists. Basically, this insecurity regarding food and inflation, a massive inflation under the Weimar Republic, shook people to the core. So basically that's what makes people nervous and they tend to go for big, tough authoritarian male leaders. And I think that's what, from my reading of all the American commentary, it was basically economic insecurity that delivered Trump the win. But of course, he's already appointing a cabinet of the cognitively impaired, people who simply do not understand the problem or else are hostile to objective information. You're going to get some very bad decisions in the next four years, and America's going to be a very unpleasant place to live for ordinary, decent human beings. A lot of the ugly aspects of authoritarian rule are probably going to become manifest. So you have my heartfelt sympathies, but it's going to happen in a lot of other countries, not just America. It's happening in Britain. It's happening in Australia. It's a pretty universal trend at the moment, and it's not going to save us. It’s going to speed our demise. Read more about climate change Climate change activists urge attorney general to prosecute fossil fuel industry “Absolutely devastating”: Climate change is pushing coral reefs to extinction, experts warn New report accuses Citibank of funding fossil fuel projects amounting to environmental racism By Matthew Rozsa Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022. MORE FROM Matthew Rozsa Related Topics ------------------------------------------ Authoritarianism Climate Change Environment Famine Julian Cribb Pollution War Related Articles Advertisement:Musk and Ramaswamy's DOGE echoes past budget promises that faced big hurdles
With 2025 coming up, the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is closer every day. The 2,5% adjustment will be applied starting January 1 st to all Social Security benefits, with one notable exception. As the Social Security Administration (SSA) explains, “The latest COLA is 2.5 per cent for Social Security benefits and SSI payments. Social Security benefits will increase by 2.5 percent beginning with the December 2024 benefits, which are payable in January 2025. Federal SSI payment levels will also increase by 2.5 per cent effective for payments made for January 2025. Because the normal SSI payment date is the first of the month and January 1 is a holiday, the SSI payments for January are always made at the end of the previous December.” But first, what are Social Security benefits? They are support given by the Federal Government and distributed by the SSA to individuals who qualify because of Retirement, Disability or other types of financial hardship. There are five programs run by the SSA that provide benefits, each with their own characteristics and requirements: Disability Benefits: Monthly payments for those with a qualifying disability or blindness and sufficient work history. Survivor Benefits: Support for family members of a deceased worker who paid into Social Security , such as spouses, ex-spouses, children, or dependent parents. Family Benefits: Monthly payments to certain family members of people who are eligible for Retirement or Disability. Retirement Benefit: Monthly check that replaces part of your income when you reduce your hours or stop working altogether It is based on your work history. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) : Monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources. As an example of the distribution of these benefits, in 2022, 70.6 million people received Social Security benefits, according to the SSA’s Office of Retirement and Disability Policy , with 5.6 million new beneficiaries joining that year. Among disabled workers, the average age was 55.6, and women accounted for 55% of SSI recipients. Furthermore, 85% of SSI payments were distributed to individuals with disabilities or blindness. Changes to Social Security benefits Since those who receive government assistance are more economically vulnerable than their well-paid salaried counterparts, there are changes made every year to ensure that the benefits they receive are enough to make ends meet. One of the most important changes is the previously mentioned COLA. It ensures that beneficiaries do not lose purchasing power over time and can afford to live a comfortable life. For those who wish to lean how the increase will affect their benefits, the SSA sends out yearly notices to beneficiaries explaining the particulars of their specific increase and the amount of their new check. These notices will be distributed in the month of December, but will also be available online to consult for those who have a my Social Security Account. The information that will be available online is another change to the SSA system, as now many forms, especially those related to overpayments or that need to accompany disability applications will be available online and no longer require actual signatures. The last change we will reflect on involves Social Security , but it is not directly related to it. Many beneficiaries (in fact, most of them) are also enrolled in Medicare, and one of the changes to Medicare is the rise in the Part B premiums. Even though the change may seem insignificant, Part B premiums are taken out of Social Security checks before they reach the recipients’ bank account. The increase will be approximately $10, which will significantly impact the 2,5% increase. To put it into context, the average retirement Social Security check is $1,907, which puts the increase around $47. If we subtract the $10 Medicare will take, this will leave retirees with only $37 extra dollars a month.
The former president urged audience members in a packed theater to remain engaged and find ways to communicate with those they disagree with despite a divisive political time. The two spoke about a month after former President Donald Trump's win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. “We’re just passing through, and we all need to just calm down and do something that builds people up instead of tears them down,” Bill Clinton said. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who was defeated by Trump in the 2016 election, said she understands the next couple of years are going to be challenging for voters who don't agree with the decisions being made. "In addition to staying involved and staying aware, it’s important to find something that makes you feel good about the day because if you’re in a constant state of agitation about our political situation, it is really going to shorten your life," she said. The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist. The event was held as part of a weekend of activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Library's opening in Little Rock. The library is preparing to undergo an update of its exhibits and an expansion that will include Hillary Clinton's personal archives. Hillary Clinton said part of the goal is to modernize the facility and expand it to make it a more open, inviting place for people for convene and make connections. When asked about advice he would give for people disappointed by the election results, Bill Clinton said people need to continue working toward bringing people together and improving others' lives. “If that's the way you keep score, then you ought to be trying to run up the score,” he said. “Not lamenting the fact that somebody else is winning a different game because they keep score a different way." “And in addition, figure out what we can do to win again,” Hillary Clinton added, eliciting cheers. The program featured a panel discussion with cast members of the hit NBC show “The West Wing” and former Clinton White House staffers. The weekend amounted to a reunion of former Clinton White House staffers, supporters and close friends, including former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and adviser James Carville. McAuliffe said he and Carville ate Friday at Doe's Eat Place, a downtown restaurant that was popular with Clinton aides and reporters during Clinton's 1992 White House run. He said he viewed the library and its planned expansion as important for the future. “This is not only about the past, but it's more importantly about the future," McAuliffe said. “We just went through a very tough election, and people are all saying we've got to get back to the Clinton model.”Charting the Global Economy: French Government Topples
A Michelin-starred chef has appealed to thieves who stole his van which had 2,500 pies inside to “do the right thing” and give them to people in need. Tommy Banks, who owns two restaurants and a pub in North Yorkshire , announced on Instagram that his van carrying £25,000 worth of stock had been taken. The refrigerated vehicle was due to make a delivery to the chef’s pop-up pie stall at York Christmas Market, but staff found it had disappeared from Barker business park in Melmerby, near Ripon, on Monday morning. Banks urged the perpetrators to drop the pies somewhere such as a community centre, adding: “I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen, do the right thing.” He also asked anyone who is offered pies from someone who is not him to report them to the police. The chef’s video contained the caption: “So @matthewalockwood went into @madeinoldstead this morning to pick up the van and it has been stolen. “These guys had loaded up the van with stock for @tommyspieshop today and left plugged in overnight. I’m guessing the thieves didn’t realise they were stealing 2,500 pies along with the van! The pies are all in boxes with my name on so not very easy to sell. “If you are the thieves and read this I urge you to drop the pies off somewhere. So we can at least give them to people who need food and they are not wasted.” This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue' . The chef, a veteran judge on BBC show Great British Menu, added the stolen items included pies filled with steak and ale, turkey and cranberry, and butternut squash, and would have been enough to stock Tommy’s Pie Shop for a week. North Yorkshire police said it had been informed of the theft and asked anyone with information to get in touch, the BBC reported.NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes fell Thursday following some potentially discouraging data on the economy . The S&P 500 slipped 0.5% for its fourth loss in the last six days. It’s a pause for the index, which has been rallying toward one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 234 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.7% from its record set the day before. A report early in the morning said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. A separate update, meanwhile, showed that inflation at the wholesale level, before it reaches U.S. consumers, was hotter last month than economists expected. Neither report points to imminent disaster, but they dilute one of the hopes that’s driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year : Inflation is slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, while the economy is remaining solid enough to stay out of a recession. Of the two reports, the weaker update on the job market may be the bigger deal for the market, according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. A surge in egg prices may have been behind the worse-than-expected inflation numbers. “One week doesn’t negate what has been a relatively steady stream of solid labor market data, but the Fed is primed to be sensitive to any signs of a softening jobs picture,” he said. Traders are widely expecting the Fed will ease its main interest rate at its meeting next week. If they’re correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It’s hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. A cut next week would have the Fed following other central banks, which lowered rates on Thursday. The European Central Bank cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point, as many investors expected, and the Swiss National Bank cut its policy rate by a steeper half of a percentage point. Following its decision, Switzerland’s central bank pointed to uncertainty about how U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory will affect economic policies, as well as about where politics in Europe is heading. Trump has talked up tariffs and other policies that could upend global trade. He rang the bell marking the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to chants of “USA.” On Wall Street, Adobe fell 13.7% and was one of the heaviest weights on the market despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company gave forecasts for profit and revenue in its upcoming fiscal year that fell a bit shy of analysts’. Warner Bros. Discovery soared 15.4% after unveiling a new corporate structure that separates its streaming business and film studios from its traditional television business. CEO David Zaslav said the move “enhances our flexibility with potential future strategic opportunities,” raising speculation about a spinoff or sale. Kroger rose 3.2% after saying it would get back to buying back its own stock now that its attempt to merge with Albertsons is off . Kroger’s board approved a program to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of its stock, replacing an existing $1 billion authorization. All told, the S&P 500 fell 32.94 points to 6,051.25. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 234.55 to 43,914.12, and the Nasdaq composite sank 132.05 to 19,902.84. In stock markets abroad, European indexes held relatively steady following the European Central Bank’s cut to rates. Asian markets were stronger. Indexes rose 1.2% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai as leaders met in Beijing to set economic plans and targets for the coming year. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.6% for its third straight gain of at least 1%, as it pulls back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law. In the bond market, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 4.33% from 4.27% late Wednesday. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. ( NYSE:RNR – Free Report ) by 367.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 23,956 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.06% of RenaissanceRe worth $8,302,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of RNR. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in RenaissanceRe during the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in RenaissanceRe by 13.1% during the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in RenaissanceRe by 8.3% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 15,391 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in RenaissanceRe in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $243,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in RenaissanceRe by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,530 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Insider Transactions at RenaissanceRe In related news, EVP David E. Marra sold 1,000 shares of RenaissanceRe stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.00, for a total transaction of $279,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,890,276. This trade represents a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink . Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on RNR RenaissanceRe Trading Up 0.2 % RenaissanceRe stock opened at $286.15 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $270.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.30. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a 52 week low of $188.24 and a 52 week high of $300.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.86 billion, a PE ratio of 4.12, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.43. RenaissanceRe ( NYSE:RNR – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The insurance provider reported $10.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.89 by $2.34. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.35 billion. RenaissanceRe had a return on equity of 26.31% and a net margin of 28.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 52.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $8.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 41.94 earnings per share for the current year. RenaissanceRe Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. RenaissanceRe’s dividend payout ratio is 2.25%. RenaissanceRe Company Profile ( Free Report ) RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Property, and Casualty and Specialty segments. The Property segment writes property catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance and excess of loss reinsurance to insure insurance and reinsurance companies against natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis, as well as winter storms, freezes, floods, fires, windstorms, tornadoes, explosions, and acts of terrorism; and other property class of products, such as proportional reinsurance, property per risk, property reinsurance, binding facilities, and regional U.S. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding RNR? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. ( NYSE:RNR – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for RenaissanceRe Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for RenaissanceRe and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Citigroup Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FYBR)
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Graybar Names Bryant L. Summers District Vice President in St. LouisIt’s going to be a very special evening tonight at the Bell Centre. My colleague Michael Petit opened the door to a tribute a few days ago. One wonders if the former Habs will be honored by the club soon → – DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) Unfortunately for fans, there won’t be a standing ovation or a presentation or anything. In fact, Markov doesn’t even know where he’s going to sit and is just hoping to find his seat. The defenseman is an extremely shy man, and Lefrançois’ headline on it quite well: . He’s a man of few words, and fans were quick to notice this at the signing session a few hours before the game. The 79 considers himself a lucky man to have made his mark on the city of Montreal. He doesn’t necessarily want a standing ovation, but if it happens, it happens. I walk down the street and people still recognize me. It’s flattering. It means you’ve done something for the team, for the city. – Andrei Markov As much as he enjoyed his time in Montreal (990 games), he doesn’t hold on to his past any more than he should. Of all his former teammates, P.K. Subban is the only one he keeps in touch with on a regular basis. In his interview with the left-hander also talked about his future in hockey. He also says he doesn’t watch many KHL games and isn’t too aware of what Ivan Demidov is up to in the Russian league. If the Canadiens drafted him this high, it’s because he’s good, he’s talented, and he needs to work on it. – Andrei Markov He finished by praising another part of the team’s future: Lane Hutson. Markov thinks he’s very good and can’t wait to see him live tonight. – The Rocket takes revenge against the Marlies. prospect Owen Beck scores with less than 20 seconds left in the game, securing the win for the Laval Rocket over their rivals, the Marlies. It was his third point of the game. – Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) – Bad news. Just saw Zegras come into Honda Center on crutches and ...... yeaaah, it’s going to be a while for him. – Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) – Matthew Schaefer: a prospect to keep an eye on. – Exclusive interview with Alexis Lafrenière. Like the Rangers, Alexis Lafrenière has had his ups and downs this season. He tells us all about it in this exclusive interview with DETAILS: https: – NHL (@NHL_EN) – He certainly counts. Patrik Laine arriving for his first Saturday night game at the Bell Centre – Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) – He’s the Rookie of the Year. After 25 games, 24 points. – TVA Sports (@TVASports)
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