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How credit cards help my family travel

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

Before having kids, my husband and I loved to travel. When our family grew, we agreed that we wanted to continue to prioritize exploring the world as much as we could. Unlike it may seem on Instagram, no one comes with a magic wand and whisks us away on vacation — we make sacrifices to design these experiences, and we work hard to make them happen.Now that we’re paying for four, credit cards play a major role in our ability to swing our travel, but perhaps not in the way you might think. We don’t rack up debt, and because we pay our bills in full each month, we don’t pay any interest. Instead, we rely heavily on the points and miles that we largely earn from credit card rewards. And with the national average domestic airline itinerary fare hovering just below $400 in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Department of Transportation, every bit we can defray helps.Here are some of the ways that credit cards help make our family’s travel dreams a reality — for a fraction o...

OPP investigating suspected drowning of Toronto man north of Kingston

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the death of a Toronto man following a marine incident on Big Clear Lake in Central Frontenac Township.Police were called to the area around 4:30 p.m. on July 5 for reports a man had been ejected from a personal watercraft.Witnesses said a 52-year-old man from Scarborough, who was not wearing a life-jacket, went under the water and did not resurface.Police and fire departments conducted an unsuccessful search for the man, ultimately suspending it overnight to wait for the OPP’s Underwater Search and Recovery Unit.Members of the USRU found the body of the missing man in the water shortly before 3:00 p.m. on July 6, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.No foul play is suspected, but an OPP collision reconstructionist and the Chief Coroner’s office are assisting with the investigation.

NATO leaders set to offer Ukraine major support package but membership is off the table for now

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO leaders will agree next week to help modernize Ukraine’s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm that it will join their alliance one day, the organization’s top civilian official said Friday. But the war-torn country will not start membership talks soon.At a two-day summit starting Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will also agree to boost defense spending as allies pour weapons, ammunition and other support like uniforms and medical equipment into Ukraine, 17 months into the war.They also hope to welcome Sweden as the next member of the world’s biggest security organization, if they can overcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s objections, even though its accession would only be made official in coming months.“For 500 days, Moscow has brought death and destruction to the heart of Europe, seeking to destroy Ukraine and divide NATO,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Sto...

Suspect killed, officer wounded as robbery spree ends with pursuit, shootout on Ohio interstate

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An armed robbery spree in Ohio ended with a police chase and shootout that left one suspect dead and an officer critically wounded, authorities said. Two other suspects who fled on foot from the shootout were later captured.The spree began around 2:15 p.m. Thursday, when a man stole the keys to an SUV at gunpoint from a worker at a Porsche dealership in Whitehall, according to Whitehall Deputy Police Chief Dan Kelso. That suspect and two other men then robbed a bank in Columbus but were confronted by police.The trio fled in the SUV and the police pursuit began, eventually winding up on Interstate 70 in Columbus. Greg Bodker, the city’s assistant police chief, said the suspects then began shooting at officers, who returned fire.One suspect wounded in the shootout was pronounced dead at the scene. The wounded officer’s partner took him to a hospital, where he underwent surgery and was later upgraded to stable condition. Authorities did not release the name ...

Brazil’s lower house finds compromise in a major reform of the country’s ‘dysfunctional’ tax system

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a major reform of the nation’s notoriously complicated tax system early Friday, showing compromise is possible between the conservative Congress and leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.The long-awaited tax reform aims to simplify the system, widely considered overly burdensome for both individuals and businesses, and boost economic growth that has drifted between downturns and doldrums for the last decade. “Brazil will have its first tax reform of the democratic period. A historic moment and a great victory for the country,” Lula said on Twitter.The vote in the Chamber of Deputies followed decades of attempts to comprehensively reform the current system. The measure will now go to the Senate. If it makes significant modifications, the proposal will return to the lower house for a final vote.Given last year’s highly divisive electoral campaign, there had been speculation that legislative gridlock could stymie any...

Stock market today: Wall Street opens mixed as job growth cools slightly

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is opening mixed after data suggested the U.S. job market is still plenty warm enough to keep the economy growing but maybe not so hot that it stokes inflation. The S&P 500 was little changed in early trading Friday. The Dow fell 42 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%. A lot is riding on whether the economy can navigate the narrow pathway to avoid a long-predicted recession. Friday’s report showed U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs last month, a slowdown from May and not far off economists’ expectations. Treasury yields were mixed. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.U.S. futures fluctuated after monthly U.S. jobs numbers came in slightly better than expected, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track to raise its main borrowing rate at its meeting later this month.Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and S&P 500 were largely unchanged before the opening bell Friday after being down marginally befor...

National employment numbers for June from Statistics Canada, at a glance

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

OTTAWA — A quick look at Canada’s June employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):Unemployment rate: 5.4 per cent (5.2)Employment rate: 62.2 per cent (62.1)Participation rate: 65.7 per cent (65.5)Number unemployed: 1,147,100 (1,093,000)Number working: 20,172,800 (20,112,900)Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 11.5 per cent (10.7)Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 4.4 per cent (4.3)Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 4.4 per cent (4.2)This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.The Canadian Press

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for June, by province

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s national unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent in June. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ Newfoundland and Labrador 8.8 per cent (10.2)_ Prince Edward Island 8.2 per cent (7.2)_ Nova Scotia 6.4 per cent (5.7)_ New Brunswick 6.4 per cent (6.1)_ Quebec 4.4 per cent (4.0)_ Ontario 5.7 per cent (5.5)_ Manitoba 4.3 per cent (4.8)_ Saskatchewan 4.7 per cent (4.4)_ Alberta 5.7 per cent (5.7)_ British Columbia 5.6 per cent (5.0)This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.The Canadian Press

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for June, by Canadian city

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

OTTAWA — The national unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent in June. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ St. John’s, N.L. 5.0 per cent (5.0)_ Halifax 5.7 per cent (4.9)_ Moncton, N.B. 5.4 per cent (5.5)_ Saint John, N.B. 6.0 per cent (5.2)_ Saguenay, Que. 3.4 per cent (3.4)_ Quebec City 3.1 per cent (2.6)_ Sherbrooke, Que. 4.0 per cent (4.6)_ Trois-Rivières, Que. 3.8 per cent (3.9)_ Montreal 4.4 per cent (4.4)_ Gatineau, Que. 4.2 per cent (3.9)_ Ottawa 4.4 per cent (4.3)_ Kingston, Ont. 3.9 per cent (4.3)_ Belleville, Ont. 6.7 per cent (5.3)_ Peterborough, Ont. 7.4 per cent (7.1)_ Oshawa, Ont. 5.2 per cent (5.1)_ Toronto 6.1 per cent (5.9)_ Hamilton, Ont. 5.0 per cent (5.0)_ St. Catharines-Niagara...

Iraq opens an investigation into the kidnapping of a missing Israeli-Russian academic

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:57 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq opened an investigation into the case of a dual Israeli-Russian academic who has been missing in Iraq since March, a government spokesman said Friday.Bassem al-Awadi’s comments were the first official Iraqi statements since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive “and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being.”Netanyahu said Tsurkov is being held by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, a powerful Iran-backed group that the U.S. government listed as a terrorist organization in 2009.Tsurkov, whose work focuses on the Middle East, and specifically war-torn Syria, is an expert on regional affairs and has been widely quoted over the years by international media. Tsurkov last tweeted on March 21.Tsurkov, who is pursuing a doctorate at Princeton University, is a fellow at the Washington-based think tank New Lines Institute.“Due to the ongoing official investigations into th...