US inflation rose 3.1% in November, stubbornly above Fed’s target

Published

2 years ago

December 14, 2023

admin

US inflation rose 3.1% in November, stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s long-term target and bolstering the case for central bankers to keep interest rates at current levels this spring.

The Consumer Price Index — which tracks changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — was down slightly from October’s 3.2% reading, in line with economists’ forecasts, and was its lowest monthly reading since June.

Nevertheless, it remained well above the 2% pace eyed by the Fed — a figure the US economy hasn’t seen since 2012 — as central bankers have ratcheted interest rates to a 22-year high, between 5.25% and 5.5%, in hopes of an economic slowdown.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics attributed the second consecutive month-over-month slowdown to the gasoline index, which saw a 6% decline from last month.

Core CPI a number that excludes volatile food and energy prices and serves as a closely watched gauge among policymakers for long-term trends increased 0.2% in November after rising 0.3% in October.

Per AAA figures, gas averages at about $3.14 in the US on Tuesday, down from the $3.35-per-gallon average when last month’s CPI report was released.

The shelter index, which tracks housing costs, rose 0.4%, “offsetting a decline in the gasoline index,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has kept economists guessing about whether another rate hike is impending, though central bankers themselves have even seemed to be wrestling with conflicting economic signals.

In a hawkish speech earlier this month, he insisted that central bankers will continue their tightening regime until the job is done and inflation is once again 2%.

We are prepared to tighten policy further if it becomes appropriate to do so, he said during a fireside chat at Spelman College in Atlanta.

The full effects of our tightening have likely not yet been felt,” Powell insisted.

However, just days earlier he seemed to take a more cautious approach to raising interest rates moving forward, noting that central bankers were “proceeding carefully,” according to minutes of the Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 session, when the Fed ended up holding the benchmark overnight interest rate steady in the current 5.25% to 5.5% range.

Meanwhile, the CME FedWatch Tool now projects a more than 98% chance that the Fed doesnt raise rates again this year — up from 85% last month.

Economists and prominent Wall Street executives have been worried that without a rate cut soon, the economy could be headed for a so-called “hard landing” — where interest rates are taken so high that it spurs a recession — especially following November’s strong jobs report that signaled the economy’s momentum has continued despite the Fed’s tightening cycle.

US employers added a higher-than-expected 199,000 jobs last month, well above the 180,000 jobs economists expected to be added, according to Refinitiv data.

However, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7% a sign that the economy could skirt a recession in favor of a soft landing.

Lower hiring stints combined with higher-than-expected unemployment historically signals a recession.

World

Vladimir Putin’s spymaster ‘has telephone call with MI6 chief’ as EU leaders meet to discuss Ukraine funding

Published

12 mins ago

December 19, 2025

admin

Vladimir Putin's spymaster 'has telephone call with MI6 chief' as EU leaders meet to discuss Ukraine funding

Vladimir Putin’s spymaster has said he had a “rather lengthy telephone conversation” with the new head of MI6, Russian state news agency Tass has reported.

Sergei Naryshkin, Russia’s foreign intelligence director, said: “A few days ago, I had a rather lengthy telephone conversation with the newly appointed chief of MI6 [Blaise] Metreweli.”

He added that Russian intelligence officers worked officially in London while MI6 officers worked officially in Moscow, according to Tass.

Ms Metreweli took over as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service on 1 October.

Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke believes it shows Moscow is “trying to imply that the Brits are somehow appealing to them… because of the negotiations going on in Washington”.

Further US-Russia talks are expected to take place over the coming days.

EU talks stall amid fears over ‘Russian retaliation’

Mr Naryshkin’s comments came as the European Union held crunch talks on Ukraine funding in Brussels.

EU leaders met at the bloc’s headquarters on Thursday to discuss a plan to use frozen Russian assets – but tensions have arisen, with Belgium vocally opposed to the plan amid fears of Russian retaliation.

Most of the €190bn (£166bn) of assets frozen after the start of the war in 2022 are currently held in Belgium, specifically by Euroclear, the Brussels-based financial clearing house.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the plan to loan Ukraine the frozen assets “drastically increases the risk of Russian retaliation”.

“It’s not acceptable that this happens to Belgium alone,” he added. “If we jump, we jump together.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he understands “the risks that he is talking about, but I think that we face bigger risks”.

“Ukraine has the right to this money because Russia is destroying us,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

In a post on X, he added: “The decision now on the table – the decision to fully use Russian assets to defend against Russian aggression – is one of the clearest and most morally justified decisions that could ever be made.”

Trump claims peace deal is ‘close’

On the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump has been pressuring Ukraine to move quickly to secure a peace deal.

The US president’s envoys are scheduled to meet with a top adviser to Mr Putin in Miami on Saturday, where they are due to discuss the evolving US peace agreement aimed at ending the war.

Mr Trump has been optimistic that a deal can be reached.

“Well, we’re getting close to something, but I hope Ukraine moves quickly because Russia is there,” he said. “Every time they take too much time, Russia changes their mind.”

Russia ‘deploys nuclear-capable missiles’ to Belarus

Russia has deployed its latest nuclear-capable missile system to Belarus according to the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko.

The authoritarian leader said the Oreshnik, an intermediate range ballistic missile system, arrived in the country on Wednesday and is entering combat duty.

He did not provide any further details.

Russia has previously deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, the territory of which it used to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

World

Democrats release more Epstein photos – with crucial deadline now just hours away

Published

12 mins ago

December 19, 2025

admin

Democrats release more Epstein photos - with crucial deadline now just hours away

Democrats have shared more pictures from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, a day before the government’s deadline for the full release.

The 68 photos published on Thursday are among more than 95,000 images that the House Oversight Committee Democrats said they were reviewing.

They said the images were “selected to provide the public with transparency into a representative sample of the photos” and to “provide insights into Epstein’s network and his extremely disturbing activities”.

But the Democrats added that they are still analysing thousands more images that are “both graphic and mundane”.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of those pictured in the images – and the context surrounding the photos is not known.

Mystery text quotes price for ‘girl’

The latest cache includes a text message appearing to discuss the price for a girl.

It isn’t clear who sent the messages and to whom, but the screenshot shows some details on an unidentified girl, described as a teenager here.

“I will send u girls now,” one of the texts read.

Writing on body

Several pictures show handwritten messages on a person’s body.

One appears to be quoting the opening paragraph of the book Lolita – which can be seen in the background of the picture.

The book was written by Vladimir Nabokov and tells the story of a girl groomed by a middle-aged literature professor.

Another shows writing on a foot, which reads: “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock.”

Other messages can be seen on the neck, hip, back and chest, with the latter reading: “The tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down”.

In a different image, Epstein is pictured with three girls in his house in New York. One appears to be touching Epstein’s chest, one is holding her wrist up and another is looking at a laptop.

The identity of the women has been hidden.

Epstein with high-profile figures

Some high-profile figures also appear in the newly released images, with one showing Epstein sitting alongside Sheikh Jabor Bin Yousef Bin Jassim Bin Jabor al Thani.

He is the chairman and director of several privately established companies and is a member of the Qatari royal family.

Another image shows Epstein with the former president of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak, who held the role between 2017 and 2018. He is also a former Slovakian foreign affairs minister.

Last month, he told TASR news agency: “The reopening of the Epstein case occurred after I left New York, and the full extent of his inexcusable actions, which I strongly condemn, only came to light after his arrest.”

Shaher Abdulhak, a deceased Yemeni billionaire businessman whose son is a suspect in the murder of a Norwegian woman in Mayfair, was also pictured with Epstein.

His son, Farouk Abdulhak, fled to Yemen after the rape and death of Martine Vik Magnussen in March 2008 and has been wanted for questioning ever since.

Ms Magnussen was found dead among rubble in a basement in Great Portland Street.

She and her friends had been celebrating finishing their end-of-term exams at the Maddox nightclub before she vanished. Her body was found two days later.

Also featured in the newly released images were former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, magician David Blaine, businessman Tom Pritzker, billionaire Bill Gates, director Woody Allen, talk show host Dick Cavett, Trump ally Steve Bannon, and Kuwait’s former information minister Anas al Rasheed.

Photos of identity documents with redacted names were also published, including one with text saying that “the bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor”, which could belong to convicted sex offender Epstein.

Also among the identification documents is a heavily redacted Russian passport. It belongs to a female, but other information has been blocked out.

The release also includes ID documents from the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ukraine, and Lithuania.

Deadline looming

The picture drop came a day before the deadline set by a bipartisan bill that compels the US Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days, which was signed into law by US President Donald Trump last month.

Mr Trump had promised to release the Epstein files during his ultimately successful presidential campaign, but he later made a U-turn, even going as far as calling the Epstein files a Democratic “hoax”, before eventually changing path again to sign the bill.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the deadline that he believes the Department of Justice will release the files in time, and warned that there will be “strong bipartisan pushback” if they don’t.

“Based on my conversations with some of the top Democrats who’ve been working on this matter, related to full and complete disclosure of the Epstein files, we do expect compliance,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Full release going ‘down to the wire’

National security lawyers inside the Department of Justice are “working down to the wire” as Friday’s deadline for the full release of the Epstein files edges closer, according to Sky News’ US correspondent James Matthews.

He said those lawyers are mulling “how much is actually divulged in these documents”.

“There will be redactions… the question is, how far short of everything? How far short of the full story will the release fall?” Matthews said.

“The issue at the heart of it… where does Donald Trump feature? Remember, he emphatically denies all knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities and any involvement in them.”

‘Frustration building’

Meanwhile, frustration is building at the justice department ahead of the release, according to CNN.

A source has told the US broadcaster that there could be up to 1,000 redactions needed from each attorney.

Lawyers reportedly believe they aren’t getting clear or comprehensive direction on how to make the most information available under the law.

A previous batch of images featured more high-profile figures, including Donald Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Bill Clinton, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Emirati businessman Ahmed bin Sulayem, and singer Jimmy Buffett.

Several images of a sexual nature have also been released, including a picture of a bowl of novelty condoms with a caricature of Mr Trump’s face, and various sex toys.

US