Fed holds interest rates steady amid uncertainty over Trump’s impact on economy

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President has made clear he wants rates to fall as benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%

Federal Reserve officials decided on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady as uncertainty over Donald Trump’s impact on the US economy looms and inflation remains above the central bank’s target levels.

This is the first time Fed policymakers have met since the president, who has made clear he wants rates to fall, returned to the White House. The benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%.

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Dutch police arrest three suspects after the theft of a priceless golden helmet from Romania – The Associated Press

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  1. Dutch police arrest three suspects after the theft of a priceless golden helmet from Romania  The Associated Press
  2. Three arrested after ancient Romanian artefacts stolen from Dutch museum  The Guardian
  3. Three Suspects Arrested After Theft of Ancient Gold Romanian Artifacts from Dutch Museum  ARTnews
  4. Thieves use explosives to steal artefacts from museum in the Netherlands  Euronews
  5. Art Thieves Blew Up a Dutch Museum's Door to Steal an Ancient Golden Helmet From Romania  Smithsonian Magazine
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Family pays tribute to women of three generations killed in Omagh bombing

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Mary Grimes, Avril Monaghan, Maura Monaghan and Avril’s unborn twins died in 1998 attack, inquiry hears

A family from which women of three generations were killed in the Omagh bombing have spoken about the immeasurable pain caused by the atrocity and said they hope no other family suffers as they have.

They were speaking at a public inquiry established to determine whether the attack, the worst in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, could have been prevented.

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White House revokes spending freeze in face of legal challenges

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Move come after federal judge blocked freeze that disrupted payments to medical and childcare providers

Donald Trump’s administration pulled back a proposed spending freeze that threatened to disrupt hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to US programs, a White House official said on Wednesday.

The first major domestic policy reversal of the Republican president’s new term came after one federal judge had temporarily blocked the freeze and before another judge was due to hear a separate legal challenge. The proposal had thrown the federal government into chaos and disrupted payments to medical and childcare providers.

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Far-right AfD’s win on asylum vote rocks German parliament – BBC.com

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  1. Far-right AfD's win on asylum vote rocks German parliament  BBC.com
  2. Olaf Scholz attacks rival’s ‘unforgivable mistake’ as AfD backs migration plan  The Guardian
  3. Opinion | The Trump Effect May Solve Germany’s Migrant Crisis  The Wall Street Journal
  4. Germany’s Merz sparks firestorm by breaking postwar taboo  POLITICO Europe
  5. Germany: Are conservatives' plans on immigration legal?  DW (English)
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London student raped 10 women and filmed attacks as souvenirs, court told

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Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, is accused of attacking women after ‘stupefying’ them with drink or drugs

A PhD student accused of raping 10 women drugged his victims before filming his attacks as “souvenirs” for his own “sexual gratification”, a court has heard.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, was described as seemingly charming and smart, but was in fact a “predator, voyeur and rapist” who ignored pleas from his victims to stop, a jury was told.

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Ecowas: What changes as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger leave the West African bloc? – BBC.com

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  1. Ecowas: What changes as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger leave the West African bloc?  BBC.com
  2. After a Wave of Coups, 3 African Nations Leave Decades-old Alliance  The New York Times
  3. Military governments lead West African trio out of ECOWAS regional bloc  Al Jazeera English
  4. Juntas Exiting West Africa Regional Bloc Raises Instability Risk  Bloomberg
  5. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formally withdraw from ECOWAS  Citinewsroom
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Meta to report fourth-quarter earnings amid DeepSeek mania and ballooning AI investments

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Zuckerberg likely to be asked about plans to spend $60-65bn on AI in 2025 as tech giant faces increased competition

Meta will report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2024 after US stock markets close on Wednesday.

Analysts will probably ask about Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to spend between $60bn and $65bn on AI infrastructure in 2025. That is up from the $50bn the CEO said he expected to spend at the end of last quarter. But as Meta faces increased competition, especially from new player DeepSeek AI, the company is ramping up its AI efforts.

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Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told

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Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed

The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience.

The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring their conscientious motives.

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Harvey Weinstein back in court as judge set to decide #MeToo retrial start

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Disgraced producer wants extra charge involving allegation from woman who was not in original case throw out

A judge on Wednesday set a 15 April trial date for Harvey Weinstein’s retrial, as the disgraced movie mogul pleaded in court to move the trial date sooner citing health conditions.

Weinstein appeared in court in New York on Wednesday morning, seated in a wheelchair. He addressed the court and begged the Manhattan criminal court judge Curtis Farber to move up the trial date to before 15 April, expressing he “can’t hold on anymore”.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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Donald Trump’s ‘Big Stick’ Foreign Policy Could Backfire – 19FortyFive

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  1. Donald Trump’s ‘Big Stick’ Foreign Policy Could Backfire  19FortyFive
  2. Trump’s Transactional Foreign Policy Leads to Flurry of Pledges  Bloomberg
  3. President Trump’s foreign policy playbook has our friends and foes equally rattled  Fox News
  4. Opinion | Trump is playing all his cards all at once  The Washington Post
  5. Do Americans support Trump buying new territories — or invading them? What poll finds  Miami Herald
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