OTTAWA -- Canada's Manitoba on Thursday declared another province-wide state of emergency as wildfires continue to threaten communities.
The provincial government said in a news release that the declaration was based on the recommendation from the province's wildfire and emergency management officials.
Manitoba previously declared a state of emergency on May 28 that was lifted on June 23. (Canada-Wildfire)
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NEW YORK -- The U.S. Federal Reserve has not surrendered to the Trump administration's call to cut interest rates, because the central bank believes that its job is not to provide cheap government financing but to focus on its mandate to ensure low inflation and plentiful jobs, reported The Washington Post on Thursday.
"With price increases remaining subdued but forecast to rise over the coming months, most officials see little justification for immediately easing rates, at least not at the Fed's next policymaking meeting this month," noted the report.
While there are signs of growing division about when to cut, most Fed officials are content with the existing wait-and-see approach as long as the labor market continues to generate jobs at a steady pace. (US-Fed-Interest Rate)
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UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. sanctions against a UN human rights expert are unacceptable, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.
The imposition of sanctions on UN human rights special rapporteurs is a dangerous precedent, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in response to U.S. sanctions on Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Member states are perfectly entitled to their views and to disagree with the reports by the special rapporteurs, said the spokesman, "but we encourage them to engage with the UN human rights architecture. The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs, or any other UN expert or official, is unacceptable."(UN-US-Sanctions)
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JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel is prepared to negotiate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza during a proposed 60-day truce, but only if the territory is fully demilitarized.
"At the beginning of the ceasefire, we will enter negotiations for a permanent end to the war, that is, a permanent ceasefire," Netanyahu said in a video message from Washington, where he is currently visiting.
"In order to achieve that, it must be done under the basic conditions we've set: Hamas must lay down its arms, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Hamas can no longer possess any governing or military capabilities," he said.(Israel-Hamas-Ceasefire)
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LONDON -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday that Britain and France have signed a new deal to allow the two countries to coordinate their nuclear deterrents for the first time.
During a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at a military base in Northwood, near London, Starmer said the two countries had signed the Northwood Declaration, a deal designed to show adversaries that any attack on either nation would result in a response from both nations.(UK-France-Ties) Enditem
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