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Stock market today: Wall Street rallies as pressure relaxes from the bond market

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rallying Tuesday as pressure on Wall Street from the bond market comes off the boil.The S&P 500 was 1.1% higher in midday trading and on track for a third straight gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 248 points, or 0.7%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher.Some of the strongest action was in the bond market, where Treasury yields eased after trading resumed following a holiday on Monday. It was the first opportunity for yields to move since the weekend’s surprise attack by Hamas on Israel injected caution into global markets.Perhaps more impactfully, it was also the first trading for Treasurys since Federal Reserve officials gave speeches that traders took as a suggestion the Fed may not raise its main interest rate again. The comments helped U.S. stocks swing from early losses to gains on Monday.The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.62% from 4.80% late Friday, which is a considerable move for...

Florida is making some schedule tweaks in hopes of ending road woes at South Carolina

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Billy Napier is making a few tweaks before his team’s next road game.Following lopsided losses at then-No. 14 Utah in the season opener and at Kentucky two weeks ago, Napier decided to change his team’s schedule as it prepares to travel to South Carolina. They’re emphasizing more sleep in the days leading up to the game and planning to get to Williams-Brice Stadium earlier than normal Saturday.“Most of it is mental,” Napier said. “We talked about mentally being prepared, physically being prepared but also emotionally being prepared. You’ve got to anticipate and visualize what it’s going to be like, that it will be challenging.“There will be ups and downs in the game. Our dialogue during the week (has been) about being prepared to respond. … We’ve got to know and apply the things that we’ve learned in the past.”The Gators (4-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) looked far from ready against the Utes and Wildcats.They were flagged nine times in ...

Column: Steve Stricker is having a record year with seniors. Now he’s contemplating the PGA Tour

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The voice still cracks and Steve Stricker fights to hold back the tears, a sure sign winning isn’t getting old. If anything, it’s making the 56-year-old Stricker feel young.That’s why his remarkable, record-setting year on the PGA Tour Champions has Stricker thinking about playing more on the PGA Tour next year.“I don’t know if it will work,” Stricker said at the Constellation Furyk & Friends. “That’s what the fun part is — the challenge of playing with the best in the world.”The temptation comes from beating the best his age with alarming regularity.His performance last week at Timuquana Country Club — shabby by his 2023 standards — was to be expected. Stricker had spent the previous week at Marco Simone as an assistant captain in the Ryder Cup, didn’t touch a club in Rome and tied for 15th. It was the first time since August 2022 he finished out of the top 10.And even that doesn’t fully illustrate his year. St...

X promises ‘highest level’ response on posts about Israel-Hamas war. Misinformation still flourishes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, says it is trying to take action on a flood of posts sharing graphic media, violent speech and hateful conduct about the war between Israel and Hamas.X says it’s treating the crisis with its highest level of response. But outside watchdog groups say misinformation about the war abounds on the platform that billionaire Elon Musk bought last year. A post late Monday from X’s safety team said: “In the past couple of days, we’ve seen an increase in daily active users on @X in the conflict area, plus there have been more than 50 million posts globally focusing on the weekend’s attack on Israel by Hamas. As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response.”That includes continuing a policy frequently championed by Musk of letting users help rate what might be misinformation, which causes those posts to include a note of context but not...

Miami Children’s Fire Safety Festival teaches vital skills through fun

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

It’s safety education with a side of fun as the City of Miami Fire Rescue hosts its 36th Annual Children’s Fire Safety Festival. The Tuesday event, coinciding with National Fire Prevention Week, offered valuable safety lessons to over 2,000 first through third-grade students from public and private schools across Miami-Dade County.The festival’s interactive learning stations immerse children in the National Fire Protection Association’s “Learn Not to Burn” program. Hands-on activities included practical demonstrations of vital skills such as the “Crawl Low Under Smoke” maneuver and the crucial “Stop, Drop, and Roll” protocol. Children also got to experience hands-on 911 simulations, making learning about fire safety engaging and memorable.

Putin blames US for Israel-Hamas conflict

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed a finger at the United States for the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in his first public statement since the Hamas attacks in Israel and Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza.“I think that many people will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of United States’ policy in the Middle East,” Putin told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani on Tuesday, according to the Moscow Times. Putin and his Iraqi counterpart met in Moscow to discuss the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. The U.S. “tried to monopolize regulating [the conflict], but was unfortunately unconcerned with finding compromises acceptable for both sides,” Putin added. The U.S. had specific ideas in mind on “how it should be done” and “pressured both sides,” said Putin. “Each time, however, without taking into account the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people,” he a...

Slovakia’s kingmaker party only wants coalition with populist Fico

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

Slovakia’s next ruling coalition is taking shape following the September 30 election, and it’s a red-brown alliance that is unlikely to please Ukraine or people concerned with EU solidarity.Peter Pellegrini, chairman of the social democratic Hlas (Voice) party, which finished third in the election on 14.7 percent, announced Tuesday that Hlas would henceforth only negotiate with three-time former PM Róbert Fico’s leftist-populist Smer party, the election-winner with 23 percent, as well as with the Slovenská národná strana (Slovak National Party, SNS) nationalists, who took 5.6 percent.Together, the three parties control 79 seats in the country’s 150-seat parliament.Pellegrini, formerly Fico’s colleague in Smer until departing in 2020 to form Hlas, said the party’s leadership board had decided to end even informal talks with other parties who took seats in the elections, including the liberal Progresívne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia, PS), which finished second with 18 percent.“The ...

The coming Gaza hostage crisis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.Hamas “is no different than ISIS. It is no different than al-Qaeda,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan told reporters on Sunday, displaying videos of distraught Israelis seized by Hamas gunmen.Seldom do Israeli diplomats concur with supporters of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, who have been celebrating the Hamas assault on Israel, reveling in the slaughter. And, in turn, Hamas leaders seem ready to please the baying jihadist crowd — that is, if it carries out its threat to execute captives, Israelis and others, and broadcast the gore.Such a move would be straight out of the murderous, macabre playbook of ISIS, which perfected the pornography of violence, filming the barbaric beheadings of journalists and foreign aid workers, burning of Jordanians and Turks, and throwing LGBTQ+ individuals off rooftops.Surely, Hamas doesn’t want to emulate the followers of late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, known for his ruthless brutali...

Israeli airstrikes kill two Hamas ministers, Israeli forces say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza Tuesday killed two Hamas ministers, the Israel Defense Forces said.“An IDF aircraft tonight killed Jawad Abu Shamala, the Minister of Economy of the terrorist organization Hamas,” the IDF said in a written statement.Zakaria Abu Ma’amr was also killed in another airstrike, the army said in a separate statement, in which he is described as one of the “senior members” of Hamas’ political bureau — the armed Palestinian group’s main governing body — and the “head of the Ministry of National Relations in the Policy Bureau of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” Israel launched the offensive on Gaza, it said, as retaliation for Hamas’ attacks on Saturday which killed more than 900 people, including more than 100 soldiers. Israeli officials said between 100 and 150 people are being held hostage in Gaza.Since launching airstrikes inside the Hamas-led Palestinian territory two days ago, Is...

Israel bolsters troops at border with Gaza as Hamas hits Ashkelon with rocket barrage

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:35:59 GMT

(CNN) — Hamas fired hundreds of rockets towards the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Tuesday, in a defiant move as Israel strengthened its military buildup along the border with Gaza.The militant group warned Israeli residents they had just hours to evacuate before it launched the 40-minute barrage, which was witnessed by CNN teams on the ground. Many of the rockets fired towards Ashkelon were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome, its missile defense system designed to shoot down incoming projectiles.Israel continued to pound the coastal enclave with air strikes, hitting more than 200 targets in Gaza overnight. The bombardment has forced more than 187,500 Palestinians to flee their homes, the UN said. Hamas said it launched the strike on Ashkelon in “response to the displacement of civilians in Gaza.”The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had “more or less” secured the border with Gaza, breached on Saturday when Hamas sent fighters pouring into Israeli territory to launc...