'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
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."
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.