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Zambia central bank delivers bigger rate cut as inflation falls faster
Zambia's central bank cut its policy rate for ?a second consecutive ?meeting on Wednesday, delivering a ?larger-than-expected ?75-basis-point reduction as it projected an accelerated fall in inflation. Analysts polled had predicted a reduction to 14.00%. The annual inflation rate slowed from 11.2% in December to 9.4% this January. Now, the bank expects the inflation rate to be within the 6%-8% target range by the second quarter. Governor Denny Kalyalya stated that a stronger local currency, the kwacha, and an agriculturally favourable backdrop were the key factors in the "better inflation outlook". The bank has forecast that inflation will average 6.9% by 2026. This is down from a projection of 7.6% at its last policy meeting held in November. In 2027 it is predicted to continue to decline, with an average 6.3% for the first three-quarters of the year. Since 2019, the Central Bank of Southern Africa has seen inflation rise above its target range as it struggles to overcome a debt crisis through tortuous restructuring discussions. Zambia's Secretary to the Treasury said earlier on Wednesday that the Government had requested a new?International?Monetary?Fund programme and hoped to achieve a staff level agreement in May. Kalyalya reported that the kwacha gained about 4% against the dollar during the fourth quarter, and has risen another 14% this year. This is due to a stronger supply of foreign exchange from the mining sector. He added that the total foreign exchange supply of the mining sector was $759 million, up from $637 in the third quarter. (Reporting and writing by Anathi Mdubela, Additional reporting by Sfundo parakozov, Editing by Alexander Winning and William Maclean; Reporting by Chris Mfula)
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Gold and oil rise ahead of US job data, causing TSX futures to rise
Futures that track Canada's main index of stocks rose on Wednesday. This was largely due to a 'jump in precious metals' and oil prices, which could provide 'fresh insight' into the Federal Reserve's interest rate path. As of 5:52 a.m., March 'futures' on the S&P/TSX Composite Index were up 0.33%. ET. Toronto's resource-heavy benchmark stock index closed Tuesday at a new record high of 33.256.83, boosted by the strength in industrial stocks and continued gains in mining shares. Investors will be watching the U.S. Jobs data for January. It is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am. ET for clues about the monetary policy outlook. According to a survey by economists, non-farm payrolls grew?by 70,000 last month after increasing 50,000 in December. The spot price of gold rose 1.4% as the dollar fell to a near two-week low. The dollar has fallen to its lowest level in two weeks, making precious metals more affordable. Silver prices rose?6% while copper prices were also firm. The price of oil has risen by more than 1% due to the lingering tensions between Iran and the United States. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said on Tuesday that he would consider sending a second carrier to the Middle East. This was as Washington and Tehran were preparing to resume their negotiations to avoid a new conflict. Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, said that after speaking with Trump, the issue of a $4.7 billion bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario will be resolved. Trump 'threatened Monday' to bar the bridge opening in his latest salvo towards Canada over trade issues. Intact Financial, a property insurer, reported a 12% increase in its net income for the quarter. This was due to favourable underwriting results. The manufacturer Toromont has surpassed its fourth-quarter estimates. Meanwhile, the miner First Quantum also exceeded their fourth-quarter expectations. CLICK CODES TO GET CANADIAN MARKETS UPDATES: TSX Market Report Canadian Dollar and Bond Report Global Stocks Poll for Canada Canadian Markets Directory (Reporting and Editing by Shreya Biwas; Utkarsh T. Hathi)
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After Russian attacks, Ukraine's nuclear power plants are still operating at a limited capacity
The first deputy Ukrainian Energy Minister said that despite the Russian attacks of last week, Ukrainian nuclear power plants are still not able to operate at full capacity. The Russians attacked Ukraine's electricity system again last week. They struck both thermal?power stations and key electrical substations. This forced nuclear?plants into a reduction in power production. Artem Nekrasov said in a televised?statement that "restoration" is?under?way both at power stations and substations high-voltage, which supply?power?from nuclear plants. He stated that energy restrictions continue to exist across the country, both for the people and the businesses. Ukraine has three nuclear power plants, with a combined capacity of 8 gigawatts. The country needs 18 gigawatts. The war has destroyed or seriously damaged almost all of the?thermal? power plants that provided over a third? of consumption before. The shortfall is covered by maximum imports of?EU energy, a small amount from alternative sources and massive blackouts. (Reporting and editing by William Maclean, with Pavel Polityuk)
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Trump's repealing of climate regulation opens a "new front" for litigation
The Trump administration's impending repeal of an Obama-era finding that greenhouse gasses pose a threat to public health could lead to a new avenue for filing suits against power-plant operators, among other companies. Legal experts warned that the policy reversal could lead to an increase in "public nuisance" lawsuits, which were previously blocked by the Supreme Court's 2011 ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate greenhouse gas emissions instead of courts. Legal experts say that now that the EPA has abandoned this regulatory effort, it is likely that the legal shield created in 2011 will unravel. Robert Percival is a University of Maryland professor of environmental law. He said, "This could be another case of overreach on the part of the Trump administration that comes back to bite them." This week, the Environmental Protection Agency will repeal the 2009 scientific determination known as the endangerment findings that was the basis for federal climate regulations. The endangerment determination is what led the EPA under the 1963 Clean Air Act to take action to curb emissions from cars, power plants, and other industries. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the revocation of the endangerment -finding "the biggest act of deregulation" in the history the United States. The power companies generally support President Donald Trump's deregulation agenda. However, they are concerned that the repeal of endangerment findings will trigger a slew of lawsuits. In September, the Edison Electric Institute (which represents publicly traded utilities) said that the revocation of the endangerment determination could lead to "an increase in litigation alleging common-law claims regardless of their merits." 'NEW ?FRONT' OPENING The U.S. courts recognize a legal concept known as "public nuisance," that prohibits actions that interfere unreasonably with the safety and health of a group. State and local governments typically bring public nuisance lawsuits to force the person responsible to pay for abating or fixing the nuisance. These cases are difficult to win in part due to the difficulty in proving a direct causal link between an individual defendant's emission and a particular climate harm. Legal experts say they could be a tool that environmental activists can use to hold greenhouse gas producers responsible for climate harms. California and five other state alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2004 that the big power companies were responsible for creating a public nuisance through their contribution to climate change. American Electric Power, Xcel Energy and other defendants were named. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the six states were wronged. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court that regulating greenhouse gases should be left to EPA under the Clean Air Act. Ginsburg wrote that the law and subsequent EPA action, such as the endangerment findings, "displaces the claims the Plaintiffs wish to pursue." The 2011 ruling allowed power companies to avoid public nuisance lawsuits brought in federal court, although some cases brought in state courts have survived. Legal experts say that the policy change could give cases of public nuisance a "new lease on live", Sarah Light, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that this could change the stakes of a game. If the Clean Air Act does not apply to greenhouse gas emissions, there is no comprehensive statutory system in which Congress intended to displace nuisance cases, so they could likely?proceed? in court. Meghan Greenfield, an environmental lawyer at Jenner & Block, agreed that a new front for lawsuits could be opening. Greenfield stated that "this is a space where things have been settled over the last 15 years and you can imagine other wanting to push these fronts even harder" as the EPA leaves this area for regulation.
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In 2026, the Southern Hemisphere will experience record heat and wildfires.
Scientists predict that extreme heat and wildfires will rage through the Southern Hemisphere in 2026. After three years of record-breaking temperatures, scientists expect even more extreme weather conditions and perhaps another global annual record. In January, Australia was engulfed in a heat dome that set a new record, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees C. (122 degrees F). Meanwhile, heat and wildfires ravaged parts of South America. Remote parts of Argentina's Patagonia were set ablaze, and 21 people died?in coastal communities in Chile. South Africa is also experiencing the worst wildfires it has seen in years. Extremes continue to occur even though the world is still under the cooling influence a weak "La Nina", a climate cycle marked with cooler waters in the eastern and central Pacific which began in December 2024. Temperatures are still reaching new records in many places despite this moderating effect. Theodore Keeping, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who specializes on research into wildfires and extreme temperatures and is part of the international research collaboration World Weather Attribution and the Imperial College London research team. "As the transition from a neutral phase to an El Nino phase occurs, we can expect extreme heat events in the world will be amplified," Keeping said. El Nino has the opposite of La Nina. It warms the eastern and central Pacific, and increases global temperatures. Adam Scaife is the head of long-range predictions at the United Kingdom's National Weather and Climate Service. This would be the fourth year in a row that the temperature will be more than 1.4° C (2.5° F) higher than pre-industrial. The Paris Agreement, a 2015 international climate treaty, aims to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degree F) above preindustrial levels. Scaife stated that a record could still be set in 2026 if a large El Nino develops quickly. Last month, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the last three years had been the warmest ever recorded. FIRE RAGE FROM WOODS AND WATER Wildfires can be caused by humans, but they also occur naturally in many ecosystems. Heat, drought, and extreme temperatures are causing fires to become uncontrollable. Keeping stated that many ecosystems have not adapted themselves to the?hot and dry conditions', causing fires to become more intense and larger, causing damage to be permanent. According to Carolina Vera, a meteorologist at the Center for Ocean and Atmospheric Research of the University of Buenos Aires, the fires that ravaged Argentina's Los Alerces National Park demonstrate the shift. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains trees that are more than 3,000-years-old. Local officials determined that lightning struck caused the fire. Initially, the fire was contained. Vera, however, said that a heatwave and strong winds had caused the fire to spread 20 km (12 miles), making it the most destructive wildfire in two decades. Since 2008, the region has been?drought-stricken. The temperatures during the first two week of January were?6 C (11 F) higher than normal. Vera explained that "these fires used burn themselves out as part of the forest dynamics." Vera stated that "this is an example of climate change altering a natural fire because it appears to have been caused by lightning." This remote area is devoid of any towns. In January, fires broke out in southern Chile, and spread to the Concepcion region, the third largest metropolitan area in the country. They destroyed hundreds of homes, and killed 21 people. Keeping said that the fires resembled recent disasters such as Los Angeles and Athens, or the Hawaiian island Maui. "In the areas where there have been the most deaths, it's almost always because evacuation is difficult or impossible," Keeping explained. This is especially true in areas affected by strong winds blowing downslope toward the coast. WHIRLWINDS of FIRE Around 80% of Punta de Parra was destroyed. This small coastal town, located in southern Chile, is surrounded by mountains and forests. Residents of Punta de Parra said that they only had a short time to evacuate. Doralisa Silva (34), said that she heard of a fire in another community near the town the night before the blaze hit. Silva said, "The forest caught fire out of nowhere and the entire house was on fire." The fire came at us in a blink of an eye. "There was nothing we could have done." Silva claimed that her family fled the scene last because they did not have a vehicle. Silva and Hermes Barrientos, who fled with their 2-year-old child, said that flames blocked the exit while embers fell. Barrientos stated that winds as high as 70 km/h (43.5 mph), whipped the area and created whirlwinds, which spread fire to the beach. Residents were trapped. The family and other residents eventually took refuge in a large field of dirt?in the middle of town and spent the evening watching their community burn. The Future is Filled with Fire The record-breaking heat in southeast Australia is also fueling the worst fires the country has seen since the 2019-2020 deadly season when 33 people died. According to officials, the fire season of 2025-2026 was the worst in South Africa for a decade. It killed wildlife and affected tourist destinations like Mossel Bay and Franschhoek. "The conditions that cause the most extreme fires to occur?--hot, dry, and windy -- are intensifying and becoming more common," Keeping stated. "And this is happening around the globe." Since the 1970s, the Southern Hemisphere's temperature has increased by 0.15 to 0.1 degrees C (0.27 - 0.30 degrees F). This is largely due to its vast oceans absorbing heat more slowly as well as melting ice in Antarctica. Even though southern land masses continue to warm at the same rate as northern land masses, contrasts between melting snow and warming land can intensify weather patterns and lead to heat waves, droughts, or flooding. Keep said that?adaptation was critical. This included authorities managing vegetation around cities, developing effective evacuation plans and?builders utilizing fire-resistant material. Wildfires cause increasing economic damage. A report from the insurance broker Aon in 2026 estimated that global insured wildfire loss would be $42 billion by 2025. This is up from $4 billion on average per year between 2000 and 2024. Los Angeles' fires in last year's record-breaking heat were the most expensive ever. Swiss Re, second largest reinsurer in the world, has found that before 2015 wildfires represented 1% of insured global losses due to natural disasters, but they now account for 7%. Economic losses related to fires have increased by $170 million per year since 1970. "You can't stop many of these large, intense wildfires." "They're just too big," Keeping stated. Keeping stated that the most important thing to do is "have a real conversation about limiting climate change in the future to prevent this problem from getting worse."
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Honeywell spin-off Solstice's profit in 2026 is below the estimate due to margin pressure
Solstice Advanced Materials' forecast for full-year earnings in 2026 was below market expectations on Wednesday. This overshadowed the solid growth of sales during the fourth quarter and the continued strength of nuclear?and electronics materials. LSEG data shows that the'specialty materials maker', which spun off from Honeywell last October, expects to earn adjusted earnings per share in 2026 between $2.45 and $2.75. This is below the analysts’ average estimate of 2.93 per share. Solstice estimates annual sales between $3.9 billion and $4.1 billion compared to an estimated $3.96 billion. The revenue forecast ?signals modest growth from 2025, but continued pressure on profitability as the ?company absorbs higher operating costs and navigates the transition to low-global-warming-potential refrigerants. The shift in product, as well as plant downtime, and other operational challenges, have impacted?on margins, even though demand for nuclear energy, data centres, and artificial intelligence is still strong. David Sewell, Chief Executive of the company, said that the company can now see the impact of the strategy it has adopted as a stand-alone business focused on secular trends. The rapid growth of?AI-driven, data centers has boosted demand for thermal management products and refrigerants. Advanced computing is also driving growth in semiconductor electronics materials. He said that the expansion of?AI? and?data centers also supports its nuclear energy business. The fourth-quarter net sales increased 8% to $987 millions, driven by double digit growth in Nuclear Energy Services (Alternative Energy Services), Electronic Materials, and refrigerant products. This also exceeded estimates of $923.3million. The adjusted standalone EBITDA for the October-December period fell by nearly 20%, to $189 millions, and margins narrowed 662 basis points, to 19.1%. (Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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Artist behind the war dead helmet claims that Olympics from Ukraine 'look surreal.
Iryna Prots, a Ukrainian artist who created the banned helmet of skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych that depicts Ukraine's war-dead, feels detached from the?Games. The 52-year old woman said in her apartment in Kyiv, "Honestly, I find the Olympics surreal." Because the Olympics have always been about peace... when the world was united. Russian airstrikes have ravaged the Ukrainian capital’s electricity grid, causing its residents to be in darkness and cold for months. Russian forces are making slow progress in an attritional conflict that is now entering its fifth year along the 1,200 km frontline. The Prots helmet, featuring portraits from two dozen Ukrainians killed in Russia's War, is at the heart of the standoff between Heraskevych & the International Olympic Committee. They pleaded to him on Wednesday not to wear it. The IOC banned the helmet on February 2, citing that it violated the rules for political statements during the Games. This ruling sparked widespread anger among Ukrainians. Heraskevych's friends were among the dead. He refused to comply and could be disqualified when the competition begins on Thursday. The 27-year-old finished fourth at the World Championships in 2017. On Wednesday, when asked if the helmet was there or not, he replied: "Yes." Artist: DESIGN SHOWS REALITY OF WAR Prots claimed that Heraskevych had asked her, who she knew since he was young, to decorate his helmet. She called her design "a challenge", meant to confront the world with war's reality. The Russian invasion has left behind tens and thousands of psychological scars and ravaged large areas of Ukraine. Kyiv is also under pressure by the Trump administration in Washington to quickly agree on a peace agreement. Prots said, "The world doesn't want the truth to be known." They don't know why we didn't give in, why we weren't willing to surrender. HERASKEVYCH SUPPORTED BY UKRAINIANS Prots' birthday is on the '24th anniversary' of Moscow's invasion on February 24, and he describes each athlete on Heraskevych helmet as an asset lost for the war torn country. She said: "Each pair... of eyes could be seeing the world right now, and they could be competing for their own medals or standing on their pedestals." Moscow says that sport and international conflict should be kept separate. Heraskevych has received a flood of support, including from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Svitlana Shevchenko, 37 years old, is a Kyiv resident who described Heraskevych, as a symbol for how Ukrainians strive to achieve in spite of suffering. We want to live and reach new heights. And we want the world to know it. (Additional reporting and writing by Yurii and Karolos, Alison Williams and Daniel Flynn.
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Five police officers killed in an attack in Northwest Pakistan
Police reported that five police officers were killed by militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday as the nation grapples with an increasing wave of Islamist violence. The police said that they were attacked upon their return after an operation against militants?on the outer outskirts?of the city?of?Dera Ismail Khan. A police statement said that the militants were hiding in a forest and opened fire on police patrols. The statement said that the police killed four militants as a result of a retaliatory strike. The attack was not claimed by anyone. The city is located on the edge of Waziristan, an area that has been ruled by lawlessness along the Afghan border. This area has long been a haven for jihadists, including local Taliban and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Since the TTP revoked the ceasefire agreement with Islamabad in late 2022, militant?violence is on the rise. On?Friday, a suicide bomber killed more than 30 people at a mosque in Islamabad.
100 Days of DOGE: Lots of chaos and not much efficiency
The Social Security Administration is sending lawyers, statisticians, and other senior agency officials from its Baltimore headquarters to the regional offices in order to replace veteran claim processors that have either been fired by the Trump administration or bought out. Two people who are familiar with the situation say that most of the new employees don't have the skills to perform the tasks, which will lead to longer waiting times for the disabled and elderly Americans, who depend on the benefits. In an email, a SSA official responded that reassigned staff "have vast knowledge of our programs and services." Since President Donald Trump sent remote workers to overcrowded offices, the Internal Revenue Service's internet is so patchy that employees are using personal hotspots to access the web, which crashes their computers during tax season. IRS officials did not respond when asked for a comment. The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
Jessica Riedl is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute. A fiscally conservative think-tank that advocates streamlining government, she said, "DOGE does not seem like a serious undertaking." She believes that DOGE is only saving $5 billion and will cost more in the end.
These examples, which were previously unknown, span 14 government agencies. They were revealed in interviews conducted with 30 federal workers and experts on governance. These accounts don't provide a complete picture of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency's project to reduce the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. However, they reveal the collateral damage caused by DOGE's attempts to make the sprawling bureaucracy of the federal government more efficient.
Harrison Fields, White House spokesperson, responded to questions regarding the impact of DOGE cuts on government efficiency in a press release. Fields stated that Musk's group "has already modernized and improved government technology, prevented fraudulent activity, streamlined processes, identified billions in savings for American tax payers." Fields didn't give any examples of how the government's computer systems and workforce have improved.
SAVE BILLIONS
Musk confirmed Tuesday that he would step down from his position as DOGE's leader next month. The end of May was the deadline for his 130-day special government employee mandate. He said that he would continue to work with Trump on the overhaul of government but not full time. The future of DOGE is in doubt because of his reduced role, but experts say that cost-cutting measures will continue.
Musk and his lieutenants are yet to provide any concrete evidence of how the government will operate more efficiently due to the massive layoffs and the termination of government contracts.
Dozens of government officials told us that DOGE teams have buried themselves into government agencies, and their computers systems are operated in secrecy. DOGE's website, which provides regular updates about the $160 billion it claims to have saved U.S. tax payers so far, is riddled with mistakes and corrections.
The White House gave examples of cost-savings, including the discovery of $630 million worth of fraudulent loans by the Small Business Administration made to applicants aged over 115 but under 11 years old in 2020-2021. $382 million was fraudulently paid out by the Labor Department in unemployment benefits since 2020.
I was not able to independently verify these claims.
DOGE has not responded to any requests for comments. Musk told Fox News' Bretbaier that his team was careful in making cuts, admitted and fixed errors, and had discovered "astonishing amounts" of fraud and waste.
You can't buy dry ice
DOGE has announced that it has cancelled almost 500,000 government-issued credit cards in its efforts to reduce costs. The agency has also imposed a limit of $1 on some cards and centralized decision-making within certain agencies. This means that managers at some regional offices cannot buy basic supplies.
It took a scientist a whole month to obtain authorization from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to purchase $200 worth of dry ice for preserving urine samples. This is a purchase that would normally be made in a local grocery store. A colleague from another regional office, who had a government-issued credit card, paid for the dry air, but the cost was $100 more because the administration barred employees from purchasing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), which supervises NIOSH did not respond when asked for a comment.
DOGE and White House also prohibited many agencies from contacting outside vendors, as they stopped thousands of federal contracts.
A chemical analysis machine worth nearly half a million dollars at a CDC in Cincinnati has been sitting idle for months, because scientists cannot schedule training with the supplier to begin using the device, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The CDC has not responded to a comment request.
In the first week in March, the Social Security Administration's computer systems crashed ten times in four days. One IT worker said that because a quarter the agency's staff has quit or been terminated, it takes longer to bring the systems back online, which disrupts the processing of claims.
Few would dispute that the SSA computer systems are outdated, frequently crash and in need of updating. Musk told Baier that the agency's computers are "failing" and "we're fix it."
HUMANITARIAN AID CUT DOGE, since its creation on Trump's very first day as President, has largely closed down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides humanitarian aid to those in need around the globe, and canceled more than 80% of its programs. By September, almost all the employees of the agency will be terminated, and all its overseas offices will close. Some functions are being absorbed by the State Department.
A tally shows that the overhaul of the government has led to the dismissal, resignation and early retirement of 260,000 civil service employees.
In February, over 20,000 probationary employees (newly hired or recently reassigned workers) were terminated. After court rulings, they were reinstated. However, most were sent back home with full pay. After further court rulings, many are being fired once again.
Trump and Musk both said that the U.S. Government is plagued by fraud and waste. Many civil servants, governance experts and others do not dispute that efficiencies could be made. However, they say that there are people within the federal bureaucracy who already try to save taxpayer dollars. DOGE has targeted some of these offices for cutbacks.
Trump fired 17 inspectors in January. Their mission as government watchdogs included reducing fraud and waste.
Christi Grimm was fired from her position as inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. She said she expected $14.5 billion in "cold, hard cash" to be recovered over the next three years through audits and fraud investigation.
The DOGE eliminated 18F, one of only a few government units tasked with streamlining technology throughout the federal government. Waldo Jaquith who worked at 18F from 2016 to 2020 said that the team saved the Pentagon $500,000,000 in just one project lasting three days after noticing two departments doing the same unknowingly work.
I was not able independently to verify this figure.
Musk and his team have a very specific idea of how they want the government to function. Jaquith stated that when Musk's team discovered it, it was destroyed.
Thomas Shedd, an appointee of Trump at the General Services Administration (GSA), in an email sent to staff members last month, called 18F "noncritical". (Reporting and editing by Ross Colvin, Suzanne Goldenberg, and Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper, Leah Douglas and Julie Steenhuysen)
(source: Reuters)