Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-Investors and economists had expected to see some moderation. Instead, prices accelerated again in May, delivering an unwanted surprise.
The news raised the chance that the Federal Reserve, which has already started raising borrowing costs, would make more interest rate increases.
Inflation Spiked Again in May, Delivering a Blow to Biden.
-The Consumer Price Index rose by 8.6%, as price increases climbed at the fastest pace in more than 40 years, underscoring a challenge for President Biden.
-Jan. 6 Panel focuses on the cabinet discussions about removing Trump.
Other reports verify Representative Liz Cheney’s assertion that cabinet members considered using the 25th Amendment to oust Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 riot.
-The Jan. 6 Hearing Put a True-Crime Drama on Prime-Time TV. The first night of the hearings was serious public service, but it told an engrossing story with the tools of a limited series drama, our critic writes.
-Former President Trump disputed his daughter’s account that she had accepted his election loss, saying she had been “checked out.”
-Ukraine’s economy is damaged but functional. Its military is short of Western weapons, giving Russia an advantage along the eastern front.
-The reopening of the restaurants such as McDonald’s, under Russian ownership, illustrates the country’s surprising economic resilience in the face of intense sanctions.
-A top official said that the CDC will re-evaluate the decision in 90 days, and that the requirement could be reinstated. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.
-By endorsing her colleague’s primary challenger, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has escalated a Democratic skirmish rippling beyond the state.
-Republicans caught every break in New York. Then Paladino Arrived.
The incendiary congressional candidacy of Carl Paladino has divided Republicans in the state and now threatens to shake up party leadership.
-The trial of Jeanine Añez, who took power after Evo Morales was ousted, has led to concerns about politicians’ use of the justice system to target opponents.
-After a fortune in cash was stolen from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farmhouse, he kept it secret. Now that word is out, critics ask what he was hiding.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-Wall Street’s S&P 500 and Nasdaq stock indices recorded their worst week since January as fresh evidence of red-hot inflation and expectations of an aggressive central bank response led to big losses on Thursday and Friday.
-The Democrat and the Republican leading the congressional investigation into last year’s attack on the US Capitol aimed to provide a compelling narrative of the events of January 6 2021, and to lay the groundwork for a possible prosecution of the former president for his alleged role in them.
-Constant bombardment has taken a toll on battlefield morale, reflecting a darkening mood in Kiev as Russia’s army uses its advantages in massed artillery to make incremental progress in the Donbas and its weeks-long effort to take the provincial city of Sievierodonetsk.
-The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Goldman Sachs’s asset management division over certain environmental, social and governance claims made by its funds, according to a source familiar with the matter. The civil investigation is scrutinizing certain Goldman Sachs funds with clean energy or ESG in their names, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the investigation. Goldman rebranded its Blue Chip Fund as the US Equity ESG Fund in June 2020, the report said.
-US defense secretary Lloyd Austin accused China of stepping up coercive behavior towards Taiwan as he stressed that Washington would maintain its military capacity to resist any force that threatened the country.
Speaking at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore, Austin said China was engaging in provocative behavior across the Indo-Pacific region that ranged from dangerous naval and aerial maneuvers to increasingly assertive military activity around Taiwan.
-The end of the tech boom has sparked a flurry of job cuts as companies move swiftly to tighten their belts. Recruitment at Meta and Uber has slowed, job offers from Twitter and Coinbase have been rescinded and deep lay-offs have swept parts of the sector.
-The US has agreed to lift its Covid-19 testing requirement for international air travellers entering the country following intense lobbying by US politicians and the business community.
-US president Joe Biden unveiled a “new approach to managing migration” in Latin America on Friday, but observers said the measures were only the start of what was needed to address one of the hemisphere’s most pressing problems.
-Pakistan’s new government on Friday unveiled a budget for the coming financial year that aims to restore broken ties with the IMF and stave off a political challenge from ousted prime minister Imran Khan.
THE NEW YORK POST
-A Maryland factory worker accused of killing three coworkers and injuring two other people in a Thursday shooting was charged with dozens of felonies, including murder, authorities said Friday. Joe Louis Esquivel, 23, of Hedgesville, WV, was hit with a slew of murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons charges in connection with the Smithsburg massacre, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
-Starbucks is considering an end to the “open bathroom” policy at its stores due to mounting concerns about public safety, CEO Howard Schultz said. Schultz said Starbucks was exploring whether to alter the policy, which allows non-customers to use store bathrooms, due to a nationwide “mental health” problem that was posing difficulties for the coffeehouse chains’ employees.
-Elon Musk’s deployment of thousands of Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine has been a major boon for soldiers resisting the brutal Russian invasion – with one top US general stating that the service has helped Ukrainians stay connected to the West.