Thursday, April 11, 2024

4/11 WAKE-UP CALL: Consumers Still Feel The Pinch

NY Post 4/11/24

Last month’s hot inflation report upended the case for the Fed to cut interest rates in June. The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the economy, rose 3.5% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said. That was a bit higher than economists had forecast and up from February’s 3.2%. So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, also rose more than expected on a monthly and annual basis. 


A third straight month of above-expectations inflation data could convince the central bank to postpone rate cuts until July or later. Its benchmark federal-funds rate is at a 23-year high. The CPI reading rattled U.S. markets.

➤TRUMP DOESN'T FAVOR NEW SPY LAW: House Republican holdouts blocked a critical but controversial national-security spying law. The procedural vote failed 193-228, leaving the future of surveillance up in the air one week before so-called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is due to expire. Democratic and Republican administrations have said the program is vital to protect the country from terrorists, hackers and other foreign threats, but critics point to the collection of some American communications without a warrant. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, had urged passage of the legislation, but this morning, Donald Trump on social media encouraged the GOP to kill it. Separately, Arizona will be ground zero for the abortion fight, a major issue for voters in the swing state. The Arizona Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to bring back a 160-year-old near total ban on the procedure has Republicans on defense.

➤HAMAS URGED TO TAKE DEAL: President Joe Biden pushed Hamas on Wednesday to agree to his administration's latest cease-fire and hostage release proposal. "[It] is now up to Hamas. They need to move on the proposal that's been made," Biden said. CIA Director Bill Burns shared the proposal with negotiators over the weekend in Cairo. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the ball is in Hamas' court to respond. The U.S. is working with Egypt and Qatar to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that would reportedly involve a six-week cease-fire in exchange for the release of 40 militant-held hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

➤NEW LAND CROSSING TO ALLOW AID:  Less than a week after President Joe Biden said conditions in Gaza are unacceptable and demanded they improve, Israel said it will open a new land crossing to allow more humanitarian aid to enter the embattled territory. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters Wednesday the new border crossing, between the southern Israeli community of Zikim and the coastal northern Gaza town of As-Siafa, would make it easier to bring in supplies from overseas and from Jordan to the east. “These breakthroughs have a direct impact on the flow of aid – we plan to flood Gaza with aid," Gallant said. "It will also streamline security checks and strengthen our work with international partners.”

➤ISRAELI AIR STRIKE KILLS 3 SONS OF HAMAS LEADER: Israeli airstrikes killed three adult sons of the head of Hamas’s political leadership. Israel said they were members of the group’s military wing. Four of Ismail Haniyeh’s grandchildren also died in the attack in Gaza on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, according to Hamas. Haniyeh said his sons’ deaths wouldn’t affect the militant group’s negotiating stance. It has largely rejected a U.S. cease-fire plan, mediators said earlier. The dismissal reflects Hamas’s growing confidence that pressure on Israel to end the war gives the U.S.-designated terrorist group the upper hand in negotiations. Hamas said it would put forward its own plan. The U.S. proposal has the group releasing 40 of its hostages in exchange for 900 Palestinians in Israel’s jails, including 100 serving long sentences on terrorism-related charges. Many of the 133 hostages held in Gaza are believed dead.

➤SHOOTING IN PHILLY: A celebration of the end of Ramadan turned into a firefight on Wednesday after two arguing groups broke out their guns at an Eid al-Fitr event in West Philadelphia.

Multiple people were wounded, including an armed 15-year-old who was shot twice by a cop when he did not drop his weapon, according to local Fox affiliate WTXF. It was just before 2:30 p.m. when police heard about 30 gunshots ring out, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said at a news conference Wednesday evening. About a 1,000 people were gathered in a park near the Philadelphia Masjid mosque. Four males and a female were taken into custody as they attempted to run away, and four weapons were recovered from the scene, Bethel said. One of the four, the 15-year-old who was armed, was wounded in the arm and leg by police fire.


➤MAN KILLS EX-DAUGHTER-IN-LAW: A custody dispute for children turned deadly in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday when a father with terminal cancer allegedly killed his son's ex-wife and her new husband, according to multiple reports. Joseph Houston, a 77-year-old Las Vegas attorney, is accused of shooting his ex-daughter-in-law Ashley Prince, 30, and her husband, Dennis Prince, 57, minutes into a deposition hearing at Prince Law Group. After allegedly killing the Princes, Houston took his own life, according to the outlet.

➤UPS DRIVER MURDERED: A UPS driver was shot dead in Birmingham, Alabama, in what police are saying was a "targeted" killing. "When officers arrived on the scene, they observed the victim, an adult male, lying on the ground unresponsive [and] suffering from an apparent gunshot wound," Wade said. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Services arrived on scene and pronounced the victim to be deceased. Police said that initial investigation suggests that the victim was an employee of UPS and had just ended his shift at the company's Inglenook Lane facility, when he was shot. No one has been taken into custody as yet, said the police. The victim was identified as Anthony Lamar Love Jr., 44, of Alabaster, Alabama.

➤SKI STUNT ATTEMPT ENDS IN DEATH: A 21-year-old man attempting a "high-risk" skiing stunt has been killed in Colorado. The accident happened on Highway 40, which is just west of Berthoud Pass Summit, a local mountain pass in the central part of the state. The incident occurred around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a post by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office. A bystander said they had tried CPR on the man and reported that he was “unconscious and not breathing.” The victim had been “trying to clear the width of Highway 40” moments before his death, the sheriff's office said.  “And unfortunately lacked the necessary speed and distance and subsequently landed on the highway pavement. The victim had been wearing a helmet and other protective gear,” the post reads.

➤A-I SPARKS CONCERN OVER HUMANITY:  Elon Musk and Jamie Dimon this week made bold predictions about artificial intelligence’s potential for dramatic change. The CEOs of Tesla and JPMorgan Chase, respectively, joined a chorus of business executives with big-with-a-capital-B prognostications about AI’s future. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said it could be more profound than the invention of fire or electricity. But the technology has prompted stark warnings about humanity’s future, including ones from Japan’s largest telecom company and the country’s biggest newspaper earlier this week. Take a deep breath. Some experts say predictions of AI’s transformative powers are overblown.

⚾MLB SCORES:

  • Royals Win 6th In A Row
    Marlins 5 Yankees 2
  • Rays 4 Angels 2
  • Phillies 4 Cardinals 3
  • Rangers 6 Athletics 2
  • Royals 11 Astros 2
  • Orioles 7 Red Sox 5
  • Brewers 7 Reds 2
  • Padres 10 Cubs 2
  • Guardians 7 White Sox 6
  • Giants 7 Nationals 1
  • D-Backs 5 Rockies 3
  • Mariners 6 Blue Jays 1
  • Twins 3 Dodgers 2
  • Mets Braves PP

➤OHTANI EX-INTERPRETER MAY PLEAD GUILTY: Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter is in the crosshairs of the feds. Ippei Mizuhara, who was fired by the Dodgers in March after being accused of stealing millions of Ohtani’s money to cover sports gambling debts, is “in negotiations” to plead guilty to federal crimes, according to a New York Times report on Wednesday. TMZ, citing law enforcement sources, reported that Ohtani was the victim of fraud and had no knowledge of the alleged scheme that cost at least $4.5 million of the Dodgers superstar’s money.

➤THURSDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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