🔎💸Minutes of the Federal Reserve Board’s March meeting, released Thursday, show policymakers “generally agreed” to reduce the central bank’s $9 trillion balance sheet at a rate of $95 billion a month – an aggressive move to stem the upward creep of inflation threatening U.S. economic growth.

The amounts would be considerably more than the Fed reduced its holdings during the 2017 to 2019 period when it cut back at the rate of $50 billion a month.

Markets had anticipated the Fed would detail its plans to further pull back on the extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy it has followed since the coronavirus struck in March 2020. At its mid-March meeting, the Fed voted to cut interest rates by 25 basis points, although the minutes reveal some had argued for a larger cut.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

❗️❗️The gunman is reportedly down.

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russian ambassador to the US called sanctions against Sberbank and Alfa Bank a direct blow to ordinary Russian citizens

⚡️🇷🇺🇨🇦 Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov was summoned to the Global Affairs Canada for political demarche over the situation in Ukraine and particularly in Bucha

“A whole range of accusations were laid out ... against our military, a demand was made to stop the military operation, withdraw troops and resolve this crisis through diplomatic negotiations,” he added.

“I told in detail the chronology of what happened in Bucha with reference to the video evidence presented massively on the Internet and social networks of the peaceful withdrawal of our troops, the solemn joyful entry of the mayor of Bucha, who did not find any civilian casualties, the subsequent entry of the Nazi, nationalist Botsman and Safari battalions, according to publications their own participants, who publicly promised on camera to clean up this city,” he explained. “I also noted that all photographs of civilian victims wear a white armband on their sleeves, which is the identification of Russian troops in terms of 'friend or foe.'"

Stepanov continued to say that he pointed out the staging nature, technical inconsistencies that are visible to the specialist.

“Our concern was immediately aroused by the fact that the plot with Bucha was thrown into the political and international discourse in a coordinated manner, media and social networks at the same time,” the envoy said.

“The blame was immediately placed on Russia, which demonstrates at least the unprofessionalism of Western governments. If they were really concerned about the human tragedy in Bucha, they could provide an opportunity for an impartial investigation involving qualified professionals.”


Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⭕️ Biden administration scrambles to prepare for an expected surge in illegal immigration after the Title 42 health authority is lifted next month, the Pentagon has promised to provide “some” support — but will not go so far as to put forces on the southwestern border.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security requested help as border officials brace for record-high numbers of encounters.

Gen. Glen Vanherck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Senate Armed Service Committee that the department was planning to “provide additional capability or capacity based on the potential for additional immigration, or folks coming to the southwest border.”

However, the support will be limited and will not include “additional personnel sent for the monitoring mission” or guarding the border.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

Netizens share other tweets posted by Scott Ritter just before his account was suspended

❗️🇺🇸The US Senate has passed a bipartisan legislation that authorizes President Joe Biden to reach lend-lease agreements with Ukraine

❗️❗️🇷🇺🇺🇸The lack of publicity in the US for The New York Times article about authenticity of the video, where Russian prisoners are killed, shows Washington's bias - ambassador

🚫The father who lived in his daughter’s college dorm room has been convicted of sex trafficking, forced labor, tax evasion, and money laundering after less than a day of jury deliberations, the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York announced Wednesday.

“Twelve years ago, Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in the news release. “And when he got there, he met a group of friends who had their whole lives ahead of them.

For the next decade, he used violence, threats, and psychological abuse to try to control and destroy their lives. He exploited them. He terrorized them. He tortured them. Let me be very clear. Larry Ray is a predator. An evil man who did evil things.”

Prosecutors said in 2020 that the investigation was prompted by an April 2019 magazine article noscriptd “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,” published in New York magazine’s The Cut.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ Australian Foreign Minister announces new sanctions against 67 Russians over Ukraine, reports say

❗️ Moscow warns states that expelled Russian diplomats against shutting country’s Embassies

❗️ China expresses protest, makes representation to US due to approval of deal with Taiwan on patriot air defense systems, Defense Ministry says

📌 The latest on the Ukraine operation from the Russian Defence Ministry:

▪️ Russian air defences shot down five Ukrainian drones;

▪️ Russian forces destroyed four fuel depots in the south and east of Ukraine;

▪️ DPR troops liberated the settlement Sladkoe from Ukrainian nationalists;

▪️ Operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces hit 29 Ukrainian military facilities

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ Video: Strikes with Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea on Ukrainian military fuel depots

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ Russia's Federal Security Service has detained a member of an illegal armed group in Crimea after he disguised himself as a refugee to cross the Russian border

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

❗️Delivery of Western arms to Ukraine will negatively impact Moscow-Kiev talks, Kremlin says

❗ Russian Investigative Committee has evidence on Azov commanders' attempts to kill 8 Russian troops

⚡ Russia summons Finnish envoy to protest against seizure of art from Russian museums

Sputnik drone footage from Mariupol: a humanitarian aid distribution point and other city views

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️Ukrainian forces shell DPR territory from Grad systems, JCCC says