Charles Smith comments

Consumer prices in the United States rose again in April, and measures of underlying inflation stayed high, suggesting that rising costs could persist for months to come.

Prices rose 0.4 per ent from March to April, the government said Wednesday, up from 0.1 per cent from February to March. Compared with a year earlier, prices climbed 4.9 per cent, down slightly from March’s year-over-year increase.

https://worldabcnews.com/u-s-inflation-rate-cools-to-4-9-but-consumer-prices-still-stubbornly-high/

China’s military simulated precision strikes against Taiwan in a second day of drills around the island on Sunday, with the island’s Defence Ministry reporting multiple air force sorties and that it was monitoring China’s missile forces.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, began three days of military exercises around the island on Saturday, the day after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a brief visit to the United States.

https://worldabcnews.com/chinese-military-simulates-strikes-on-taiwan-during-more-drills/

The prediction, which Moore said he plotted out on graph paper based on what had been happening with chips at the time, said the capacity and complexity of integrated circuits would double every year.

https://worldabcnews.com/intel-co-founder-computer-chip-visionary-gordon-moore-dead-at-94/

Expected to last several hours, the hearing is a moment of peril for a politician whose career has been a roller-coaster of scandals and comebacks. If the House of Commons committee of privileges concludes Johnson lied deliberately, he could be suspended or even lose his seat in Parliament.

https://worldabcnews.com/boris-johnson-faces-grilling-by-mps-over-partygate/

The missile launched from the North’s northwestern Tongchangri area flew across the country before it landed in the waters off its east coast, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments. They said the missile travelled a distance of about 800 kilometres, a range that suggests the weapon could target South Korea.

The chief nuclear envoys from South Korea, Japan and the U.S. discussed the launch on the phone and strongly condemned it as a provocation that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. They agreed to strengthen their co-ordination to issue a firm international response to the North’s action, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.

https://worldabcnews.com/north-korea-launches-ballistic-missile-into-sea-in-response-to-u-s-south-korea-drills/

The second phase of Aukus includes cooperation on advanced cyber, artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, electronic warfare, innovation, and information sharing.

https://worldabcnews.com/aukus-row-leaves-royal-navy-admirals-split-over-nuclear-submarines-world-news/

The terrorism charges come over a speech Khan gave in Islamabad on Saturday in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged that a close aide had been tortured after his arrest.

Khan himself appeared to still be free and had not immediately addressed the police charge sheet being lodged against him. Khan’s political party — Tehreek-e-Insaf, now in the opposition — published online videos showing supporters surrounding his home to potentially stop police from reaching it.

https://worldabcnews.com/police-file-terrorism-charges-against-pakistans-ex-pm-imran-khan/

Furious at a visit to Taipei last week by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China had extended its largest-ever exercises around the self-ruled island it claims as its own beyond the four days originally scheduled.

Last week’s drills included launches of ballistic missiles, some of which flew over the island’s capital of Taipei, and simulated sea and air attacks in surrounding skies and waters.

https://worldabcnews.com/china-says-it-has-completed-various-tasks-surrounding-taiwan/

Bells tolled in Hiroshima on Saturday as the city marked the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing, with officials — including the United Nations Secretary General — warning of a new arms race following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24; shortly after the start of the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin obliquely raised the possibility of a nuclear strike. The conflict has also heightened concerns about the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear plants.

https://worldabcnews.com/hiroshima-marks-atomic-bombing-anniversary-amid-fears-of-a-new-nuclear-arms-race/

The U.S. central bank did what it was expected to do on Wednesday, raising its benchmark lending rate by three quarters of a percentage point as it steps up its battle to rein in runaway inflation.

The Federal Reserve raised the upper bound of its benchmark rate — known as the federal funds rate — to 2.5 per cent.

The official U.S. inflation rate topped nine per cent last month, while it’s currently more than eight per cent in Canada.

https://worldabcnews.com/u-s-federal-reserve-raises-benchmark-interest-rate-another-75-points/

Myanmar’s military junta has executed four democracy activists accused of helping to carry out “terror acts,” it said on Monday, sparking widespread condemnation of the Southeast Asian nation’s first executions in decades.

Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the four men had been accused of helping militias to fight the army that seized power in a coup last year and unleashed a bloody crackdown on its opponents.

Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration outlawed by the ruling junta, condemned the executions and called for international action against the junta.

https://worldabcnews.com/myanmar-junta-executes-4-democracy-activists-sparking-international-outrage/

Sri Lanka’s beleaguered leaders have imposed a state of emergency several times since April, when public protests took hold against the government’s handling of a deepening economic crisis and a persistent shortage of essentials.

Wickremesinghe had announced a state of emergency last week, after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to escape a popular uprising against his government, but it had not been officially notified or gazetted.

https://worldabcnews.com/sri-lanka-says-imf-bailout-talks-near-end-after-declaring-state-of-emergency/

Elon Musk wants time to prepare for a trial over his contentious withdrawal from an agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion, according to a filing in a Delaware chancery court by his attorneys on Friday.

Musk’s team says the trial should wait until next year, after Twitter had requested expedited treatment and a hearing as early as this September.

https://worldabcnews.com/elon-musk-asks-court-to-reject-twitters-request-for-speedy-trial/

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said he did not know Abe’s condition. Kyodo news agency and NHK said Abe, 67, appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when taken to hospital.

Shots were heard and a white puff of smoke was seen as Abe made a stump speech for a Sunday upper house election outside a train station in the western city, NHK said

https://worldabcnews.com/japan-ex-leader-shinzo-abe-shot-says-government-spokesperson/

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month, states that have restricted abortion have made it clear this also applies to abortion through medication — a method now used in more than half of all abortions in the country.

But that has raised questions about enforcement of such laws, and whether states actually have the power to ban drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

https://worldabcnews.com/legal-morass-brewing-over-some-u-s-states-fight-to-ban-abortion-pills/

The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling on Friday, made clear their views on abortion, with the conservative majority overturning the Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 and stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi’s law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t join his five fellow conservatives in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi’s favour.

https://worldabcnews.com/what-each-conservative-u-s-supreme-court-justice-said-about-abortion-as-nominees/

The market is shut to a degree the place a few of the actual extra leverage has exited the system and a backside can now begin forming.

https://cryptospacey.com/bitcoin-suisse-director-says-crypto-market-is-forming-a-bottom/

Unions have said the rail strikes could mark the start of a “summer of discontent” with teachers, medics, waste disposal workers and even barristers moving toward industrial action as surging food and fuel prices pushes inflation toward 10 per cent.

https://worldabcnews.com/biggest-rail-strike-in-30-years-brings-uk-to-standstill/

The ruling Friday — which applied to some 3,700 Fukushima residents — was the first word from the top court for evacuees who demanded that the state, not just the utility, pay compensation for the damages inflicted to their lives.

https://worldabcnews.com/fukushima-residents-angered-as-court-rules-government-is-not-liable-for-damages-in-nuclear-crisis/

Bitcoin worth remained in a bearish zone beneath the $25,000 assist zone. The worth spiked beneath the $21,000 degree and settled properly beneath the $23,000 degree.

A low was shaped close to $20,824 and the worth is now trying an upside correction. There was a transfer above the $22,000 resistance degree. Nonetheless, the worth remains to be properly beneath the $24,000 degree and the 100 hourly easy transferring common.

https://cryptospacey.com/bitcoin-shows-signs-of-recovery-23k-presents-resistance/

The cost of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising U.S. inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs.

Consumer prices surged 8.6 per cent last month from 12 months earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year surge of 8.3 per cent

https://worldabcnews.com/u-s-inflation-rate-defies-expectations-again-to-rise-to-another-40-year-high-of-8-6/

Shanghai authorities say they will take some major steps Wednesday toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has throttled the national economy and largely bottled up millions of people in their homes.

Full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections with the rest of China, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak.

“The epidemic has been effectively controlled,” she said, adding that the city will start the process of fully restoring work and life on Wednesday.

https://worldabcnews.com/shanghai-to-start-lifting-2-month-covid-19-lockdown-wednesday/

U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol said after meeting Saturday that they will consider expanded military exercises to deter the nuclear threat from North Korea at a time when there’s little hope of real diplomacy on the matter.

Yoon affirmed in remarks at a news conference that their shared goal is the complete denuclearization of North Korea. The U.S. and South Korea issued a joint statement that said they were committed to a “rules-based international order” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The statement likely sets the stage for how the U.S. and its allies will address any challenges with North Korea.

https://worldabcnews.com/u-s-south-korea-open-to-expanded-military-drills-to-deter-north-as-biden-visits-seoul/

With Russian forces yet to make a remarkable advance in the Donbas, Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA in Washington DC, has said that the battle is “the last major offensive the Russian military can attempt given the current state and availability of forces”. Britain’s Defence Intelligence, meanwhile, reported “Ukrainian resistance has been strong across all axes and inflicted significant cost on Russian forces”.

https://worldabcnews.com/vladimir-putin-facing-do-or-die-moment-as-troops-cut-down-one-chance-to-win-the-war-world-news/

In their only head-to-head confrontation before the electorate has its say in Sunday’s winner-takes-all vote, Macron took the gloves off, arguing that his rival is unsuitable to lead the nuclear-armed and ethnically diverse European power and deal with Moscow. He sought to portray Le Pen as fundamentally untrustworthy, accusing her of dishonesty and of using faulty figures in her election promises.

https://worldabcnews.com/macron-slams-le-pen-over-moscow-ties-pledged-headscarf-ban-in-frances-presidential-debate/

Opening statements in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex abuse case are expected to begin on Monday, as prosecutors try to convince a jury that the British socialite recruited and groomed girls for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.

U.S. prosecutors say that between 1994 and 2004, Maxwell — a former employee and romantic partner of Epstein’s — gained the girls’ trust by taking them to the movies, sending them gifts like lingerie and discussing sexual topics, according to a 2021 indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.

https://worldabcnews.com/trial-of-ghislaine-maxwell-girlfriend-of-jeffrey-epstein-set-to-begin/

The U.S.-led submarine contract supplanted a prior French deal to supply Australia with its own diesel-powered submarines. The U.S. argued that the move, which will arm the Pacific ally with higher-quality nuclear-powered boats, will better enable Australia to contain Chinese encroachment in the region.

https://worldabcnews.com/contentious-submarine-deal-with-australia-was-clumsy-biden-admits-to-frances-macron/

Biden announced a 50 per cent emissions cut for the U.S. by 2030, which is nearly double the target announced by former president Barack Obama. Biden’s goal would represent a serious acceleration for his country, which so far has managed to cut carbon emissions about one percentage point per year since 2005.

https://worldabcnews.com/canadas-past-climate-promises-have-been-a-flop-could-that-change-at-this-summit/

The trial of Michael Kovrig, the second of two Canadians detained in China for more than two years, is underway in Beijing in a closed courtroom, a senior Canadian diplomat said Monday.

China arrested Kovrig, a former diplomat, and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech company Huawei, on a U.S. warrant.

https://worldabcnews.com/canadian-michael-kovrig-accused-by-china-of-spying-goes-on-trial-in-beijing/

Myanmar’s ruling junta has declared martial law in a wide area of the country’s largest city, as security forces killed dozens of protesters over the weekend in an increasingly lethal crackdown on resistance to last month’s military coup.

The United Nations said at least 138 peaceful protesters have been killed in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup, including at least 56 killed over the weekend.

https://worldabcnews.com/myanmar-military-imposes-martial-law-over-countrys-largest-city-after-dozens-killed/