'We have a responsibility:' Trudeau urges global leaders to support pact for future
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is telling world leaders to either bury their heads in the sand or put differences aside for the sake of future generations.
Britain's inflation rate rose to a new 40-year high of 10.1 per cent in July, a faster pace than in the U.S. and Europe as climbing food prices in the United Kingdom tightened a cost-of-living squeeze fuelled by the soaring cost of energy.
The double-digit surge in consumer prices over a year earlier was higher than analysts' central forecast of 9.8 per cent and a jump from the annual rate of 9.4 per cent in June, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The increase was largely due to rising prices for food and staples, including toilet paper and toothbrushes, it said.
Most economists believe worse is to come. The Bank of England says soaring natural gas prices are likely to drive consumer price inflation to 13.3 per cent in October. It says that will push Britain into a recession that is expected to last through 2023.
Those pressures persuaded the bank to boost its key interest rate by half a percentage point this month, the biggest of six consecutive increases since December. The rate now stands at 1.75 per cent, the highest since the depths of the global financial crisis in late 2008.
"We expect another 50bp (basis points) rate hike in September," said James Smith, developed markets economist and ING Economics. "We wouldn't rule out another hike in November."
Inflation is surging in many countries as Russia's war in Ukraine has triggered unprecedented increases in energy prices worldwide. Russia has reduced natural gas shipments to Europe in retaliation for the West's support of Ukraine, creating a crisis for the fossil fuel that powers factories and heats homes in the winter.
The gas woes are threatening a recession in the 19 countries sharing the euro currency, where inflation hit a record 8.9 per cent in July. The United States has already seen two quarters of economic contraction, intensifying fears of a recession. U.S. inflation eased somewhat to 8.5 per cent in July but is still near a four-decade high.
"I understand that times are tough, and people are worried about increases in prices that countries around the world are facing," U.K. Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi said.
"Although there are no easy solutions, we are helping where we can," he said, including with a 400-pound (US$483) payment to households facing rocketing energy bills.
Britain's Conservative government is under pressure to do even more to help people cope with the cost-of-living crisis. The average U.K. household fuel bill has risen more than 50 per cent this year, and another increase is due in October, when the average bill is forecast to hit 3,500 pounds (US$4,300) a year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to leave office next month and says any new measures must be left to his successor. The favourite to replace him, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, is opposed to major intervention, saying she favours tax cuts over "handouts."
The other contender, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, introduced a 25 per cent windfall tax on oil and gas companies' profits in May that is expected to raise several billion pounds to help fund payments for people with rising utility costs. Opposition politicians want the tax expanded to electricity firms -- a move Truss firmly opposes, saying, "I don't think profit is a dirty word."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is telling world leaders to either bury their heads in the sand or put differences aside for the sake of future generations.
An Edmonton man says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was injured by members of the Edmonton Police Service last year.
The head of the Air Canada pilots union says she'll step down if members opt not to approve a tentative deal with the airline, raising the stakes as aviators mull whether to accept hefty salary gains or drive an even harder bargain.
Unifor says workers at General Motors' CAMI assembly plant and battery facility in southwestern Ontario have ratified a new collective agreement.
The brother of a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot in Scarborough over the weekend has been arrested and charged in connection with his death, say police.
Comedian John Mulaney and actor Olivia Munn now have a second child, a daughter named Mei June Mulaney.
Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties.
At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student's body, officials said.
Body mass index, a long-time tool used to measure a person's health, may soon be out the door as some health professionals push for a system they say is more accurate.
Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.