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TD Bank Group reports $2.96B Q3 profit, down from $3.21B year ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

TORONTO — TD Bank Group reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its provisions for credit losses rose.The bank said Thursday its net income totalled $2.96 billion or $1.57 per diluted share for the quarter ended July 31, down from $3.21 billion or $1.75 per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue totalled $12.78 billion, up from $10.93 billion in the same quarter last year.Provisions for credit losses amounted to $766 million, up from $351 million a year earlier.On an adjusted basis, TD says it earned $1.99 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from $2.09 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of $2.04 per diluted share, based on estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.“TD delivered strong revenue growth in the quarter and demonstrated the value of its diversified business mix in a challenging economic environment,” TD chief executive Bharat Masrani said in a s...

Sandwich chain Subway will be sold to Arby’s owner Roark Capital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

Sandwich chain Subway said Thursday it will be sold to the private equity firm Roark Capital.Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Roark was offering around $9.6 billion for Subway, which is privately owned.Subway CEO John Chidsey said the deal reflects Subway’s long-term growth potential and the value of the brand. Subway plans to continue to modernize restaurants and expand internationally under Roark’s ownership.Roark is a private equity firm with $37 billion in assets under management. It specializes in franchised businesses, and owns multiple restaurant chains, including Arby’s, Dunkin’ and Buffalo Wild Wings.Subway, which has dual headquarters in Miami and Connecticut, was founded in 1965 and is still owned by its founding families. It’s now one of the world’s largest restaurant chains, with 37,000 outlets in more than 100 countries.But in the U.S., it has been losing market share in recent years to fast-growing rivals li...

FIFA opens case against Spanish soccer official who a kissed player on the lips at Women’s World Cup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA opened a disciplinary case Thursday against the Spanish soccer official who kissed a player on the lips while celebrating the team’s victory in the Women’s World Cup final.The governing body’s disciplinary committee will weigh if Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales violated “the basic rules of decent conduct” and “behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy and medal ceremony on Sunday after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, Australia.Minutes earlier, Rubiales grabbed his crotch as a victory gesture in the exclusive section of seats with Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year-old Princess Sofía standing nearby.Hermoso has said she did not like the kiss and the national players’ union representing her — which Rubiales once led — called Wednesday for his conduct to not go unpunished.FIFA responded Thursday.“FIFA reiterates its ...

Rockslide near the Dead Sea in Israel kills 5-year-old boy and injures 6 others

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — An avalanche of rocks tumbled down a hillside onto a hiking trail near the Dead Sea in Israel on Thursday, trapping many people, killing a 5-year-old boy and injuring at least six others, medics said. The volunteer emergency medical service United Hatzalah said rescue teams recovered numerous people who were trapped under the rubble. Israeli military helicopters airlifted the victims to nearby hospitals.Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said the victims ranged from 4 to 40 years old, including the boy who was found unconscious and could not be resuscitated. A 4-year-old girl was in moderate condition and others were less seriously injured. Medics said the situation was worsened by the fact that the site of the landslide was difficult to reach. The rockslide took place in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve on the western shore of the Dead Sea, a popular tourist site. It was not immediately clear what caused the rockslide. They typically occur when torrential ra...

Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte turns 20, beloved by millions and despised by some

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

The seasonal drink that made pumpkin spice a star is turning 20. And unlike the autumn days it celebrates, there seems to be no chill in customer demand.Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte goes on sale Thursday in the U.S. and Canada, as it does each year when the nights start getting longer and the fall winds gather. It’s the coffee giant’s most popular seasonal beverage, with hundreds of millions sold since its launch in 2003. And it has produced a huge — and growing — industry of imitators flecked with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.In the year ending July 29, U.S. sales of pumpkin-flavored products reached $802.5 million, according to Nielsen. That’s up 42% from the same period in 2019. There are pumpkin spice Oreos, protein drinks, craft beers, cereals and even Spam. A search of “pumpkin spice” on Walmart’s website brings up more than 1,000 products. A thousand products that smell or taste like, well, pumpkin pie. For better — and, some might say, for worse — the phenomenon has moved be...

Air traffic controllers at Lebanon’s only civilian airport to go on strike over staffing shortages

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Air traffic controllers at Lebanon’s only civilian airport announced on Thursday they would go on strike next month over severe staffing shortages, partially closing the Beirut hub. The announcement by the team of 13 air traffic controllers at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport follows a report last week by the European Union’s aviation safety watchdog that raised concerns after inspecting the airport, just south of the Lebanese capital. The airport is supposed to have a staff of 87 air traffic controllers, the controllers said. Lebanon’s has been in the grip of a devastating economic crisis since late 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement. Public sector and state institutions have steadily deteriorated as the cash-strapped government struggles to provide adequate funding. The Beirut airport has faced power cuts and equipment shortages for months during the busy tourism season. Over 4 million people flew into Lebanon since the beginning of the yea...

Court rejects appeal by German soldier convicted of plotting to attack politicians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court said Thursday that it has rejected an appeal by a military officer who posed as a Syrian asylum-seeker and was convicted last of year of plotting to attack prominent politicians.The officer, who has been identified only as 1st Lt. Franco A. in line with German privacy rules, was convicted by the Frankfurt state court in July 2022 of preparing a serious crime meant to endanger the state, fraud and violations of weapons laws. The court, which found that he had right-wing extremist views, sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison.The Federal Court of Justice said in a statement that judges rejected his appeal in an Aug. 8 decision, finding that it was “clearly unfounded” and no legal errors had been made to his detriment.The German officer drew the attention of authorities after he was arrested in February 2017 while going to retrieve a pistol he had stashed in a Vienna airport bathroom. He was freed, but Austrian authorities informed Germany. The inve...

Bans on diverse picture books? Young kids need to see their families represented, experts say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

When Wes Brown sought out children’s books for his two young sons, he made sure to seek titles that reflected the family he and his husband were building. He found that in one called “The Family Book,” a 2003 picture book by Todd Parr. It depicts families of all kinds: the traditional nuclear family, but also families with one parent or step-parents, as well as adoptive families and same-sex parents like Brown and his husband.But across the country, books and lessons that represent different families and identities are increasingly the target of conservative pushback — even when they’re for the youngest of learners. Parr’s book for preschoolers and early readers is often among those challenged by parents and activists. “It is important my kids are definitely exposed to that,” Brown said. “What these parents are really doing is demonstrating how fragile their worldview is, that a children’s book is enough to shatter it.”Efforts to ban books have been surging at scho...

Stock market today: Wall Street mixed early as Nvidia pushes Nasdaq higher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

TOKYO — Wall Street was mixed in premarket trading early Thursday after chipmaker Nvidia reported blowout earnings, pushing Nasdaq futures higher.Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.6% before the bell, the Nasdaq jumped 1.3%, while Dow futures lagged, inching back 0.1%.That comes a day after Wall Street rallied to its best day since June as pressures from the bond market relaxed. Nvidia shares jumped more than 8% in off-hours trading after the company’s results covering the May-July period exceeded its own projections for astronomical sales growth. That growth has been propelled by the company’s specialized chips that help power different forms of artificial intelligence, such as Open AI’s popular ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbots.Nvidia’s second-quarter sales doubled from the same time last year to $13.51 billion, culminating in a profit of $6.2 billion, or $2.48 per share. That’s than nine times more than the company made a year ago, and the momentum is still buildin...

What can Toronto’s condo massacre teach us about mass shootings?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:10:30 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, a shooting at a condo in Vaughan in December 2022 left six people dead, including the shooter. The shooter had long held a grudge against the members of the condo board he fired upon. He was known around the property as an angry man, and had a history of domestic abuse and violence. In hindsight, all the signs were there — so how did nobody see this coming? Michelle Henry is a reporter with the Toronto Star who wrote about the man responsible for the condo killings. She says that predicting when someone will go on to commit a mass shooting is extremely difficult, but that establishing strategies for addressing precursor behaviors may help prevent these types of attacks.“If there is domestic abuse, how do we address that? And how do we address it in a way that doesn’t necessarily make that man angrier?” she says. So what can we learn from this senseless attack? And how do we use that information to prevent further violence?You can subscribe to The Big S...