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Ikea Canada leaning on automation as it overhauls fulfilment network: new CEO

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

TORONTO — When people north of Toronto visit Ikea’s store in Vaughan, Selwyn Crittendon says it will be hard to tell there’s a transformation underway in the bowels of the building, away from the maze-like aisles leading customers through the showroom.It’s in those hidden spaces that the Swedish home goods and furniture retailer is installing dedicated loading bays so staff don’t have to wheel orders out a side door and lift them onto trucks, said Ikea Canada’s chief executive officer and chief sustainability officer.“From a consumer perspective, you won’t notice so much of the change,” said Crittendon, who has spent roughly three months on the job he took after about 20 years at Ikea U.S..But his hope is that shoppers and staff eventually notice the effects of the invisible changes as orders arrive faster and take much less grunt work.The store’s transformation is only one of the initiatives the company has underway to boost eff...

German government advisers see only modest economic growth next year

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s economy will shrink by 0.4% this year and grow only by a relatively modest 0.7% next year, the government’s panel of independent economic advisers forecast Wednesday.The panel joined several other forecasters in revising downward its outlook for Europe’s biggest economy. Its prediction for this year was in line with one issued by the government about a month ago, but next year’s forecast was considerably gloomier than the 1.3% the government expects.In their previous outlook in March, the experts had forecast that gross domestic product would grow 0.2% this year and 1.3% in 2024.The panel’s chair, Monika Schnitzer, said that “the economic recovery in Germany is delayed — it is … still being slowed by the energy crisis and reduced real income caused by inflation.” She noted that central banks’ interest rate increases and economic weakness in China have made Germany’s trading environment more difficult, while the ...

How Joan Kroc’s surprise $1.8 billion gift to the Salvation Army transformed 26 communities

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

First-class recreation centers in low-income neighborhoods — dozens of them, scattered around the nation. That was the vision of Joan Kroc, billionaire philanthropist and heiress to the McDonald’s fortune of her husband, Ray. When she died in 2003, Joan Kroc stunned the Salvation Army when she left what amounted to $1.8 billion — roughly half her fortune —with instructions to carry out her wish for the centers. In today’s dollars, that is $2.9 billion.And today, 20 years later, 26 grand, state-of-the-art Kroc centers have opened in places as varied as Ashland, Ohio; Guayama, Puerto Rico; and Quincy, Illinois. Salvation Army officials say 1.2 million people belong to Kroc fitness centers, and over 3 million people annually are served through a wide variety of other programs, including job training, theatrical performances, and afterschool care.The Phoenix Kroc Center hosts a financial literacy course and filmmaking workshop. In Boston, a culinary arts program provides job training. S...

Durham police to update investigation into shooting death of security guard at Pickering casino

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Durham Regional Police are set to provide an update on their investigation into the murder of a security guard at a casino in Pickering last month.Police were called to the Pickering Casino Resort in the early morning hours of Oct. 9 for reports of shots being fired.The casino was evacuated and a man was found with a life-threatening gunshot wound. He was later pronounced dead in hospital.The victim was identified as 34-year-old Michael Ferdinand, who was a security guard at the resort. Investigators said he was fatally shot while on the job inside the casino.At the time, police said they were looking for a large group of men and women who fled the scene.The update is set for 10 a.m. at Durham police Central West Division in Whitby.

Bus maker NFI Group raises full-year guidance, reports US$39.9M Q3 loss

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

WINNIPEG — NFI Group Inc. raised its financial guidance for its full year as it reported a loss of US$39.9 million in its third quarter.The bus maker, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its loss amounted to 42 cents per share for the quarter ended Oct.1, compared with a loss of US$40.2 million or 53 cents per share a year earlierRevenue totalled US$709.6 million, up from US$514.0 million in the same quarter last year.On an adjusted basis, NFI says it lost 41 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted loss of 60 cents per share a year earlier.In its outlook, NFI says it now expects revenue of US$2.7 billion to US$2.8 billion for 2023, up from earlier expectations for US$2.6 billion to US$2.8 billion.Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are expected to total between US$45 million and US$65 million, up from earlier guidance for between US$40 million and US$60 million.This report by The Canadian Press was first published N...

Effort to remove Michigan GOP chair builds momentum as infighting and debt plague party

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former staunch allies of Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo, who assumed the role following an unsuccessful secretary of state campaign, are now uniting to remove her as the party remains mired in infighting and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.It’s a swift fall for Karamo, an election conspiracy theorist who in February was overwhelmingly elected by grassroots activists to lead the state party through the next presidential election until early 2025. Michigan Republicans were coming off historic losses in the 2022 midterms, and Karamo promised to rebuild the state party into a “a political machine that strikes fear in the heart of Democrats.”Just nine months later, a petition is circulating within the state GOP calling for a vote to remove Karamo as chairwoman, according to internal communications obtained by The Associated Press. Party members supporting the petition say Karamo has done little in her time to advance the party, which had at l...

Las Vegas hotel workers union reaches tentative deal with Caesars, but threat of strike still looms

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The labor union representing tens of thousands of Las Vegas hospitality workers announced early Wednesday that it had reached a tentative deal with casino giant Caesars Entertainment, a major breakthrough that could help avert an unprecedented strike at more than a dozen hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.The announcement came after several months of tense negotiations and just days before the Culinary Workers Union’s deadline for a strike. The union said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the agreement toward a 5-year contract for about 10,000 workers came after 20-straight hours of negotiations.A walkout could still happen if deals aren’t reached by 5 a.m. Friday with MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts. But the tentative agreement with Caesars could provide the momentum needed for the Culinary Union to win new 5-year contracts for all 35,000 of its members who have been working under expired contracts at 18 properties owned or op...

Cronos: Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — TORONTO (AP) — Cronos Group Inc. (CRON) on Wednesday reported a loss of $1.6 million in its third quarter.On a per-share basis, the Toronto-based company said it had a loss of less than 1 cent.The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 3 cents per share.The cannabis company posted revenue of $24.8 million in the period._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CRON at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CRONThe Associated Press

Kosovo says it is founding an institute to document Serbia’s crimes in the 1998-1999 war

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo is founding an institute to document Serbia’s crimes against its population in the 1998-1999 war, the country’s prime minister said Wednesday.Albin Kurti said the institute would document the war crimes so “the Kosovar Albanians’ tragic history suffered at the hands of criminal Serbia is more widely known.”The war between Serbia and Kosovo killed more than 10,000 people, mostly Kosovo Albanians. It ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign that compelled Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo.Kosovo declared independence in 2008 — a move Belgrade refuses to recognize.“Wounds are still fresh,” said Kurti, adding that more than 1,600 bodies are still missing. He accused Serbia of burying them in unmarked graves and refusing to share their whereabouts.Fourteen years after the end of the war, tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain high, raising fears among Western powers of another conflict as the war in Ukraine rages on.Normalization talks...

Netanyahu and Orbán’s close ties bring Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifying matches to Hungary

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Even before last month’s Hamas attacks in Israel, the leader of Hungary had long promoted his country as the safest in Europe for Jews. Now the Israeli men’s soccer team is taking his word and heading to a tiny Hungarian village as it prepares to play its remaining home games in the Euro 2024 qualifying tournament.With fears of antisemitic acts on the rise around Europe, concern for the players’ security is top of mind. Now they’ll be in an opulent stadium thought to be the pet project of a well-known soccer fanatic: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán himself.Israel will host “home” games against Switzerland next Wednesday and Romania three days later as it chases a qualifying place in the continental championship, which would be its first since joining the European soccer confederation UEFA in 1994.The decision to bring the matches to Felcsut, a village of around 1,900 people where Orbán spent much of his childhood, reflects the close relationship the ri...