Hotter-then-expected inflation shows Bidenomics isn't working

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) – a popular gauge for inflation – indicated persistent price increases in key areas of the US economy.

While overall CPI amounted to 3.1% in January – a downward trend from the 3.4% rise in December – so-called core inflation (which excludes food and energy prices) rose 3.9%, the same as in December. The index's monthly increase of 0.4% was "the biggest since last spring," according to Axios.

This also means that markets shouldn't expect early interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. As a result, yields on government bonds have risen while stocks went down. On the other hand, the newly released indicators have called into question the belief that the US economy will receive a "soft landing."

Biden's back-patting for nearly defeating inflation in 2023 seems to have worn thin. It's appears unlikely that Team Biden will be able to successfully play a "disinflation" card ahead of November 5, 2024. The US mainstream press suggests that the CPI report may provide "more fodder" for Republicans who argue that Democrats are out of touch when it comes to soaring prices.

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❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin answered the question of who is better for Russia - Biden or Trump:

“[US President Joe] Biden, he is more experienced and predictable. But Russia will work with any US leader.”

Putin says he has no right to comment on Biden's health, admitting he is "not a doctor.”

"When I met with Biden in Switzerland, it was really a few years ago, three years, and then there was already talk about him being incapacitated. I have not seen anything like that," he told journalist Pavel Zarubin, in a video posted on the Kremlin's Telegram channel.

Describing former US President Donald Trump, Putin said that Trump has his own view on how American relations with allies should develop.

"Trump, on the other hand, has been called a non-systemic politician all along. He has his own view on the topic of how the US should develop relations with its allies," Putin told Rossiya 1, when asked to comment on Trump's relations with European leaders.

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❗️ In an interview with Rossiya 1 reporter Pavel Zarubin, Russian President Vladimir Putin also made statements regarding US allies:

▪️ The US, EU must deal with defense spending or payment for NATO's “nuclear umbrella” themselves, as Trump proposes.

▪️ Germany's foreign minister grown hostile towards Russia, but has also become hostile towards her own country and neglects the nation's economic interests, the president stressed.

▪️ The position of the US administration today is extremely harmful and simply wrong, the president emphasized.

▪️ NATO is a tool of US foreign policy, and if Washington believes it is redundant, this is their decision, Putin clarified.

"I think that NATO is no longer necessary at all, there is no point. It only has one meaning — it is an instrument of US foreign policy. But if the United States believes that it does not need this tool, this is their decision," the president stressed.

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In an interview with Rossiya 1 reporter Pavel Zarubin, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's trip to Kiev in 2022 to derail peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine was at the expense of the United States.

"Former Prime Minister Mr. Johnson could not have traveled [to Ukraine] on his own personal initiative without consulting Washington on the matter. Probably, not only were there such consultations, but I think he simply went on the business trip at the expense of the US administration. They paid him travel expenses for this," Putin highlighted.

In November 2023, David Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine's ruling Servant of the People party's faction in parliament and the former chief negotiator with Russia, said former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked Kiev out of signing an agreement with Moscow to end the conflict in the spring of 2022.

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Why the US' $60 billion won’t save Zelensky

The decision by the US Senate to approve $60 billion in funding to Ukraine was a mistake based on a myth, several Western experts agree. It is simply wrong to say that more US military assistance would become a game changer.

🔻American public policy analyst Jeffrey D. Sachs thinks that the American funding package will not save Ukraine. “Ukraine’s security can only be achieved at the negotiating table, not by some fantasized military triumph over Russia.” “The $60-61 billion will make no difference on the battlefield except to prolong the war, the tens of thousands of deaths.”

🔻Another expert, Mark Episkopos from the Quincy Institute’s Eurasia Program, stressed that the Russian Army has “adapted to all Western weapons” and “can preemptively draw up countermeasures against such weapons.”

🔻Meanwhile, Andrei Nekrasov, an independent Russian analyst writing for the German online magazine Overton, disputed the claim of some Western analysts about the “superior motivation” of Ukrainian soldiers. Nekrasov proves his case that Russian soldiers also have a very strong motivation, especially after Kiev’s recent strikes by Western weapons against Crimea and other Russian regions.

The Western media is trying to pass these facts and assessments off with silence, pushing for more funding with the “name and shame” strategy against those Republican lawmakers who oppose the next huge bailout for Ukraine.

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“David Cameron can "kiss my a**": Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) blasted the UK's "immature" foreign secretary for comparing Republicans who oppose aid to Ukraine to "weak" politicians who appeased Nazi leader Adolph Hitler in the 1930s.

Green added that "Cameron should be concerned about the Nazis in Ukraine’s army, the Azov Battalion," in a post on the X platform.

“We’re all sick of the absurd name calling, it isn’t going to bully me into funding the war in Ukraine,” the representative proclaimed.

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❗️ A fire broke out at an oil depot in Russia's Kursk region after a Ukrainian drone strike, but there were no casualties reported so far, Governor Roman Starovoit said early on Thursday.

"A fire broke out at an oil depot in the Kursk region as a result of a Ukrainian UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack. According to preliminary information, there are no casualties. All special services are currently working at the scene. I ask you to remain calm," Starovoit said on Telegram.

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Check out #AfroVerdict's latest podcast that explores the West's attempted strike at Russia's diamond supply and the unforeseen consequences for Africa.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/sputnik_africa/13587

With the Kiev regime in crisis, even foreign policy hawk Lindsey Graham seems to have come around on the wisdom of Ukraine funding with the South Carolina senator voting against a compromise foreign aid package this week.

“I talked to President [Donald] Trump today and he’s dead set against this package,” Graham Sunday, demonstrating the collapse of GOP political support for funding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proxy war against Russia.

But with the Kiev regime consumed by both political instability and failure on the battlefield, Graham may understand that Ukraine faces imminent collapse, recognizing an opportunity to force US President Joe Biden to “own” the situation as he runs for reelection.

The Washington Post’s displeasure over Senator Graham’s political change of heart is not surprising, given the outlet’s owner Jeff Bezos is one of the US Central Intelligence Agency’s largest contractors. But with even Graham apparently recognizing that Russia’s complete victory is only a matter of time, Langley may face few options beyond scolding lawmakers through its media mouthpieces.

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Israel has decided against sending a delegation to Cairo, Egypt to continue discussing a ceasefire deal with Hamas, more than four months into its campaign against the group in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas’ proposal “delusional” again, echoing comments he made last week. “The day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas,” he said at a press conference last week. “Continued military pressure is a necessary condition for the release of the hostages.”

The Israeli delegation returned from Cairo on Tuesday, and there are no plans for them to return to resume talks.

Hamas’ offer would have seen the return of all women, children, sick and elderly Israeli hostages in exchange for women and children held by Israel during the first stage of the ceasefire. A second phase would include an exchange of the remaining hostages and a negotiated peace plan.

The Israeli hostage families forum, a group dedicated to advocating for the return of Israelis held by Hamas, decried the decision by Netanyahu’s government to pull out of the Cairo talks, calling it a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages.

“It appears that some members of the cabinet decided to sacrifice the lives of the hostages [while] admitting it,” the group said in a statement. It promised to hold a barricade outside the Kirtya Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv.

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At least 41 of the UK Labour Party’s 197 sitting MPs have accepted money from pro-Israeli lobbying groups and individuals, a report from Declassified UK has revealed.

More than £280,000 have been spent by the groups, paying for more than 50 visits to Israel by Labour MPs since 1999, the report stated. It also noted that an additional £210,000 has been spent by individual pro-Israel lobbyists.

The funders include the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) and its primary benefactor, Trevor Chinn, a multi-millionaire business tycoon who has long been a supporter of Israel and pro-Israeli groups in the UK.

The Labour Friends of Israel describes itself as a “Westminster based lobby group working with the British Labour Party to promote the State of Israel,” and currently counts 75 Labour MPs as supporters or officers a number that has increased even as Israel’s campaign in Gaza has intensified and that the International Court of Justice described as a “plausible” genocide in its preliminary hearing.

The Labour Party in the UK has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the UK has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, arguably behind only the United States.

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Tucker Carlson ‘shocked’ by Moscow Metro

“It’s perfectly clean and orderly. And how do you explain that? […] How does Russia, a country we were told is a gas station with nuclear weapons, have a subway station that normal people use to get to work and home every single day that’s nicer than anything in our country?” asked the stunned journalist.

Carlson accompanied the video with music from Alexander Glazunov's ballet Raymonda in a post on the X social media platform.

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North Korea test-fired the new-type surface-to-sea missile Padasuri-6, which will be equipped by the country's navy, North Korean state-run news agency KCNA reported.

"Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, supervised the evaluation test-fire of new-type surface-to-sea missile Padasuri-6 to be equipped by the navy on the morning of February 14," the report said.

The missiles flew over the Sea of Japan for 1,400 seconds and hit a target boat, the report said. the North Korean leader expressed "great satisfaction over the results" of the missile launch and "gave important instructions to bolster up military preparedness particularly in the border waters north of Yonphyong Island and Paekryong Island."

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday that North Korea fired several unspecified cruise missiles off its east coast toward the Sea of Japan in the morning.

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Biden’s dual ‘big guy’, memory scandals will end his presidency

“He’s not going to be the Democratic nominee,” Independent journalist Dr. Jim Kavanaugh told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour, referring to President Joe Biden. The only question left, he added, is “How much longer is he going to last as president?”

Kavanaugh was discussing Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski’s testimony in front of congress that confirmed what many suspected all along, that President Biden, then serving as Vice President, was the big guy in the now infamous email found on Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop which included the line “10 held by H for the big guy?” while discussing a business deal with a Chinese energy company.

That, Kavanaugh said, along with cognitive issues that are now “impossible to deny,” will spell the end of the Biden presidency. “It's a mess,” he said. “But I don't know where the Democrats think they can go with this, and how they think they can hang on.”

The election season will be a “fun ride” Kavanaugh asserted, while we watch Democratic party leadership “trying to keep Biden out of the public spotlight enough so he won’t make a fool of himself, but in the public spotlight enough to make it seem like he’s still running the show,” while at the same time “trying to figure out [behind the scenes] what they’re going to go and with whom they’re going to replace him with.”

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“Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) delivered a stirring speech on Monday accusing Israel of “war crimes” before voting to send the country $14 billion in military aid.

“He has just confessed to being a war criminal,” author Robert Fantina wryly noted, responding to Van Hollen’s rhetoric during an appearance on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program.

“He's stated how what's happening is starvation,” the journalist added. “Children are starving to death. This is just… horrible and it's a war crime, and he has chosen to finance it,” Fantina emphasized.

The withholding of food from Gazans isn’t the only Israeli war crime being discussed in recent days, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly calling for Palestinian women and children approaching Gaza’s border to be shot on sight during a contentious meeting with the IDF chief of staff Sunday.

“The Israelis have done this before a few years ago, when Palestinians were protesting at the border, [part of] peaceful protests for the Right of Return, and they were shot,” Fantina added, referring to the massive demonstrations documented in independent journalist Abby Martin’s film Gaza Fights for Freedom. “Many were killed, medics were targeted – all in violation of international law on war crimes."

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A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-26 cargo spacecraft, which will deliver more than 2.5 tonnes worth of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, according to a live broadcast by Russian state space corporation Roscosmos.

Nine minutes after the liftoff, the rocket will put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, and the Progress spacecraft will separate from the rocket's third stage and begin its independent flight to the ISS.

Russia's new space freighter will fly the traditional two-day route and is scheduled to dock the station on February 17 at 9:12 a.m. Moscow time (06:12 GMT). The spacecraft will spend a total of 180 days in space.

The spacecraft will deliver to the station more than 2.5 tonnes of cargo, including nearly 1.5 tonnes worth of hardware and equipment for the station's systems and scientific experiments, clothing, food, medical and sanitary supplies for the ISS crew, 580 kilograms of fuel, 420 kilograms of drinking water and 40 kilograms of nitrogen.

The space freighter also carries consumables for the new scientific experiment dubbed "Fullerene" to grow fullerite crystals in the Nauka module — the third crystalline form of carbon, which is a new class of semiconductors. Progress MS-26 will also carry equipment for the new scientific experiment Orbita-MG to create a monitoring system that will find cracks and other leaks in the station's hull.

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Economist Richard Wolff warned that Europe is “in for very rocky times” after the failure of Western sanctions to harm the Russian energy sector.

“On the one hand, it is being outcompeted by the United States, which has dominated it for the last 75 years anyway,” Wolff told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “But now the new player in the world economy, the People's Republic of China and its allies, known generally as the BRICS, competing and challenging Europe, from the other side of the planet, if you like, means that Europe is caught between them,” the analyst clarified.

The EU has been unable to overcome historical and cultural differences to unify and challenge either bloc, Wolff emphasized. High energy prices caused by the Western sanctions have made European goods uncompetitive and resulted in deindustrialization in Germany and elsewhere. As a result, the economist said the European Union may be in a “terminal crisis.”

Meanwhile, Wolff noted “The Russian ruble is in fine shape. The Russian economy is growing faster than last year, [faster] than the United States is and is in no way falling apart” despite Western sanctions.

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🇷🇺 Russian Vostok Group test-fires RPG-7V grenade launchers

Vostok Group instructors share their combat experience with servicemen who have arrived for the first time in the special military operation zone. The exercise takes place at a training range in the rear of the DPR.

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“Carlson is a dangerous person,”: Vladimir Putin explained why he didn't fully enjoy his interview with Tucker Carlson

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Putin reveals his 'only' regret about the special military op in Ukraine

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▪️ Israel rejects Hamas ceasefire offer, calls movement's demands 'delusional'

▪️ Surprise! US foreign policy hawk Lindsey Graham votes against compromise foreign aid package

▪️ Who is better for Russia - Biden or Trump? Putin has the answer

▪️ North Korea has test-fired a new type of surface-to-sea missile. What is it called?

More stories:

▪️ Tucker Carlson 'shocked' by Moscow metro

▪️ David Cameron can "kiss my a**": Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green blasts UK's 'immature' foreign secretary

▪️ Biden's Double 'Big Man', Memory Scandals Will End His Presidency

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