The Full Belmonte, 7/28/2022
‘The labor market is extremely tight and inflation is much too high,’ Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday at a Washington news conference after the monetary-policy decision.
PHOTO: MANUEL BALCE CENETA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Fed raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage point.
“The unusually large increase, which had unanimous backing from the 12-member committee, will lift the benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 2.25% and 2.5%. The central bank acknowledged indicators of softening spending and production and pointed to robust job gains. The Fed also signaled that more rises are likely coming to tame inflation, which is at a 40-year high. U.S. stocks rose after the announcement.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
News Alert: US economy contracts again, fueling recession fears
“The US economy shrank again in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.
Gross domestic product, a wide-ranging measure of economic activity, fell by 0.9% on an annualized basis from April through June. That decline marks a key symbolic threshold for the most commonly used — albeit unofficial — definition of a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.” Read more at CNN
Viktor Bout, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
“The Biden administration has proposed a prisoner swap to secure the release of two Americans held by Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. President Joe Biden has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year US prison sentence. Multiple sources told CNN that the plan to trade Bout for Whelan and Griner received the backing of Biden after being under discussion since earlier this year. The President's support for the swap overrides opposition from the Department of Justice, which is generally against prisoner trades. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that the US presented the ‘substantial proposal’ to Moscow ‘weeks ago’ for Whelan and Griner. When asked about the possible swap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said ‘so far, there is no agreement on this issue.’” Read more at CNN
“A bill designed to encourage more semiconductor companies to build chip plants in the U.S. passed the Senate Wednesday . The $280 billion measure, known as the CHIPS Act, includes federal grants and tax breaks for firms that construct their chip facilities in the U.S. The legislation also directs Congress to significantly increase spending on high-tech research programs that lawmakers say will help the country stay economically competitive in the decades ahead. Senate passage came by a 64-33 vote with 17 Republicans voting for the measure. The House vote on the measure could come as soon as Thursday as lawmakers try to wrap up business before returning to their home states and districts in August.” Read more at USA Today
“Sen. Joe Manchin has reversed course and agreed to a climate and taxes bill. The deal falls far short of the broader Build Back Better plan Democrats began negotiating last year, but signals a major expansion of their plans since Manchin spiked earlier spending talks.” Read more at NPR
Sen. Joe Manchin last week. Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
“"I’m feeling great": President Joe Biden ended his isolation Wednesday after testing negative twice for COVID-19, crediting vaccinations and medical treatment for a quick recovery.” Read more at USA Today
“Congress has called for the replacement of Trump appointee Joseph Cuffari as lead investigator into possible destruction of Jan. 6 evidence by the US Secret Service. Text messages between agency employees on the day of the insurrection are being sought by Congressional investigators as part of their probe of Donald Trump’s role in fomenting the attack. Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and a former adviser to two Republican governors, failed for months to tell Congress that the Secret Service had erased the messages even after being ordered to preserve them. Cuffari announced his own probe of the matter shortly after a news report revealed his unexplained delay in notifying lawmakers. His investigation, however, has further hamstrung Congress in its probe: Cuffari ordered the Secret Service to effectively cease full compliance with the Jan. 6 committee, claiming it would interfere with his own inquiry.” Read more at Bloomberg
Joseph Cuffari Source: Senate Homeland Security Committee
“One hundred days before the midterms, Americans are anxious about the future and unhappy with their options. A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll shows Democrats with a narrow advantage over Republicans on the congressional ballot, 44%-40%, a bit better than the 40%-40% split they scored in June. But gloom about the nation's economy and its politics still pose big hurdles for Democratic hopes of avoiding significant losses in November.” Read more at USA Today
Andrew Yang in Concord, N.H., in his 2020 heyday. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP
“Andrew Yang announced his Forward Party is merging with a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents in an effort to form an alternative to the two major parties, Axios' Shawna Chen reports.
Why it matters: Yang says the new party, called Forward, is now the third-biggest political party based on resources. Founding members hope it will serve to bridge the stark divide in U.S. politics.
The new party will be co-chaired by Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. Its founding base consists of members of the Renew America Movement (RAM), the Serve America Movement (SAM) and Yang's Forward Party, Reuters reported.
RAM was created by dozens of former officials in previous Republican administrations and is led by former Trump White House official Miles Taylor.
SAM is a political organization made up of Democrats, independents and Republicans that was founded by former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.).” Read more at Axios
Two HIV patients appear to have beaten the virus, providing researchers new clues to a possible cure.
“Doctors caring for a 66-year-old Southern California man said they haven’t found any HIV that can replicate in his body since March 2021, when he stopped antiretroviral drug therapy after a transplant of stem cells with a rare, virus-blocking genetic mutation. A woman in her 70s in Spain still has HIV lying dormant in some cells in her body, but the amount is declining. She has high levels of two types of immune cells that the virus normally suppresses and that probably help control viral replication, her physician said.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“In a forthcoming memoir, Jared Kushner alleges that former president Donald Trump’s second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was viewed within the White House as a bully with a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor who once shoved his wife, Ivanka Trump, out of his way after a volatile Oval Office meeting. Kelly denies the allegation.
Kushner, who served as senior presidential adviser, writes in “Breaking History: A White House Memoir” that he and his wife viewed Kelly as “consistently duplicitous” but “only once did Kelly let his mask fully slip.”
“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office,” Kushner writes. “Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.”
In his recounting, Kushner writes that, about an hour later, Kelly visited Ivanka’s second-floor West Wing office to offer what he describes as “a meek apology, which she accepted.”
In an email responding to Kushner’s depiction of the incident, Kelly wrote, “I don’t recall anything like you describe.”
“It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen,” Kelly wrote. “Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologizing to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”
Kushner, however, writes that Julie Radford, Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, had been meeting with Trump and heard Kelly deliver an apology. “It was the first and only time that Ivanka’s staff saw Kelly visit their second-floor corner of the West Wing,” he writes.” Read more at Washington Post
“The extreme heat gripping parts of the US in recent weeks is worsening drought conditions and causing devastating consequences -- including heat-related deaths and damaging wildfires. Many Southern states have been particularly impacted by the heat waves, including Texas, where vital water and lush fields are needed to sustain livestock. Texas cattle ranchers have been especially hit hard by drought, as dry land and triple-digit temperatures make it difficult to maintain healthy cattle. As a result, ranchers are selling off animals at a startling pace not seen in more than a decade, foreshadowing troubling trends for consumer beef prices. Meanwhile, an unrelenting heat wave will continue scorching the Northwest and parts of the South today, with more than 30 million people in the US under various heat alerts.” Read more at CNN
“A district on the outskirts of Wuhan has been shut down, the first time the Chinese city that saw the world’s first Covid-19 lockdown has imposed such a measure since 2020. While the coronavirus pandemic isn’t over, the economic implications of its aftermath are already coming into view: Around 110,000 British workers are off sick with long Covid symptoms, costing them £1,100 ($1,320) a month in lost earnings at a time of an escalating cost of living crisis. Worldwide, Covid-related deaths are rising again. In the US, Covid-related hospitalizations are also increasing as part of the current infection wave.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Ukraine continued its offensive against Russian forces in the south of the country, striking the main bridge that connects the city of Kherson to Russian-occupied territory across the Dnipro River. The region’s Russian-installed authorities said the link was shut after the attack. Ukraine also retook two villages in the area, its southern command said. Elsewhere, Russia shelled Dnipropetrovsk region overnight and hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv with missiles, according to local authorities.” Read more at Bloomberg
An aerial view of Kherson on May 20. The city is a focal point of Ukrainian military efforts to push back Russian occupation forces in the southeast of the country. Photographer: Andrey Borodulin/AFP
“Iraq’s parliament protests. Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has called for calm after supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr stormed parliament on Wednesday and voiced their strong opposition to Mohammed Sudani, the pro-Iran Coordination Framework’s nominee for prime minister. The action is the latest twist in Iraq’s tale of political turmoil following its October election, in which Sadr’s movement won the most seats. The parliament has since been unable to settle on a prime minister, prompting Sadr’s supporters to resign from parliament en masse last month.” Read more at Foreign Policy
Image caption, The government's campaign poster
“Spain's equality ministry has launched a summer campaign to encourage women worried about how their body looks to go to the beach.
‘Summer is ours too,’ runs the slogan above an image of five diverse women of different shapes and sizes.
‘All bodies are beach bodies,’ said Social Services Minister Ione Belarra.
Women's Institute head Antonia Morillas said physical expectations affected not only women's self-esteem, but denied them their rights.
The campaign illustration of five women relaxing on the beach also features a topless woman after a mastectomy.
The institute, which is behind the initiative, said it was an attempt to show that all bodies had validity.” Read more at BBC
“Spirit Airlines and Frontier Group Holdings terminated a merger agreement that would have created the nation’s largest deep-discount carrier, opening the door to a rival bid for Spirit from JetBlue Airways.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Meta, Facebook's parent company, posted its first revenue drop since going public in 2012 -- a sign Facebook is in decline. During the course of three months ending in June, the company's profit fell 36% year-over-year to nearly $6.7 billion, a huge reversal from the year prior when its profit doubled. The number of monthly active users on the Facebook app also declined slightly. This comes a few weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year, telling employees in a Q&A that "this might be one of the worst downturns that we've seen in recent history," according to a Reuters report. Meta shares fell as much as 5% in after-hours trading Wednesday following the earnings report before rebounding somewhat.” Read more at CNN
“Credit Suisse Group replaced its embattled chief executive officer and said it would embark on a new turnaround plan just nine months after the last one, as the Swiss bank indicated it aims to slash the size of its investment bank in the face of mounting losses. The firm tapped asset-management head Ulrich Koerner to be CEO starting next week, replacing Thomas Gottstein, who is resigning after a two-year tenure marked by scandal and huge losses.” Read more at Bloomberg
Ulrich Koerner Source: Credit Suisse AG
“BARRE, Mass. (AP) — One by one, items purportedly taken from Native Americans massacred at Wounded Knee Creek emerged from the dark, cluttered display cases where they’ve sat for more than a century in a museum in rural Massachusetts.
Moccasins, necklaces, clothing, ceremonial pipes, tools and other objects were carefully laid out on white backgrounds as a photographer dutifully snapped pictures under bright studio lights.
It was a key step in returning scores of items displayed at the Founders Museum in Barre to tribes in South Dakota that have sought them since the 1990s.” Read more at AP News
“PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Baltimore family is suing a Sesame Street-themed amusement park for $25 million over claims of racial discrimination, alleging multiple costumed characters ignored a 5-year-old Black girl during a meet-and-greet event last month.
The lawsuit comes in the wake of a video, shared widely on social media, showing two other Black girls apparently being snubbed by a costumed employee during a parade at the park in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia. Sesame Place apologized in a statement and promised more training for its employees after the video went viral earlier this month.
The suit, which seeks class action status, was filed in a federal court in Philadelphia against SeaWorld Parks, the owner of the Sesame Place, for ‘pervasive and appalling race discrimination.’
The lawsuit alleges four employees dressed as Sesame Street characters ignored Quinton Burns, his daughter Kennedi Burns and other Black guests during the meet-and-greet on June 18. The lawsuit says ‘SeaWorld’s performers readily engaged with numerous similarly situated white customers.’
During a press conference held Wednesday, one of the family’s attorneys, Malcolm Ruff, called for transparency from SeaWorld and for the company to compensate the Burns family. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.” Read more at AP News
“James Lovelock, the British environmental scientist whose Gaia theory sees the Earth as a living organism, died on his 103rd birthday.” Read more at NPR
“Tony Dow, who played Wally Cleaver in the TV show Leave It To Beaver, has died at 77, according to the gallery owner who represented Dow as a sculptor.” Read more at NPR
