- Reuters
FOREX-Dollar drops as employers add fewer jobs than expected in April
The dollar fell to a three-week low against the yen on Friday after data showed that U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in April and annual wage gains cooled, boosting bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates two times this year. The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% from 3.8%, still staying below 4% for the 27th straight month. “The data's soft across the board from the Fed's perspective," said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede in Philadelphia.
- Reuters
Yemen's Houthis say they will target ships heading for Israel anywhere within range
Yemen's Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday. "We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach," he said. The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
- Reuters
Spain abolishes national bullfighting award in cultural shift
Spain scrapped an annual bullfighting award on Friday, prompting a rebuke from conservatives over a backlash against a centuries-old tradition they see as an art form but which has run into growing concern for animal welfare. Spanish-style bullfighting, in which the animal usually ends up killed by a sword thrust by a matador in shining garb, is for supporters a cultural tradition to be preserved, while critics call it a cruel ritual with no place in modern society. The Culture Ministry said it based its decision to abolish the award on the "new social and cultural reality in Spain" where worries about animal welfare have risen while attendance at most bullrings has declined.
