Retail sales in U.S. rise a solid 0.5% in July from June as shoppers appear to shrug off tariff pressures.Reserve’s 2% target.
On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.2% in July, down from 0.3% the previous month, while core prices ticked up 0.3%, a bit faster than the 0.2% in June.
The new numbers suggest that slowing rent increases and cheaper gas are offsetting some impacts of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Many businesses are also likely still absorbing much of the cost of the duties. The consumer price figures likely reflect some impact from the 10% universal tariff Trump imposed in April, as well as higher duties on countries such as China and Canada.
But that may change. U.S. wholesale inflation soared unexpectedly last month, signaling that Trump’s taxes are pushing costs up and that higher prices for consumers may be on the way.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.9% last month from June, biggest jump in more than three years. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices rose 3.3%. The figures were much higher than economists had expected.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a woman was fatally assaulted in the early hours of the morning. The Metropolitan Police said officers were called Chadwell Heath, east London, just after 5.30am on Saturday after reports of an assault.
Paramedics also attended but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene in Chadwell Heath Lane, the force said. The woman has not yet been formally identified, police said, but officers believe she was in her twenties.
Russia’s stock market slid after talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump ended sooner than expected and without tangible progress on the war in Ukraine.
The Moscow Exchange index dropped 2%, erasing about 130 billion rubles ($1.6 billion, according to spot foreign exchange market data published by Reuters) in market capitalization.
Shares of state energy companies led the decline, with Gazprom falling 2.9%, Rosneft 2.6% and Sovcomflot nearly 3% by 11:07 a.m. Moscow time Saturday. Metals producers and state banks also retreated, while flagship airline Aeroflot slid 2.9%.
The ruble weakened on forex markets, with the dollar rising 0.5% to 80.15 rubles and the euro up 0.9% to 93.76. –
Sunderland made a winning start to their first Premier League campaign since 2016-17 as they deservedly beat West Ham at a raucous Stadium of Light.
Eliezer Mayenda, who scored in the Championship play-off final in May, nodded substitute Omar Alderete’s delivery into the corner shortly after the hour mark to spark wild scenes of jubilation among the home supporters.
It was another play-off hero who doubled Sunderland’s lead as Dan Ballard – who rescued Regis le Bris’ team in the semi-final first leg against Coventry – guided his header into the corner.
And Wilson Isidor put the icing on the cake in added time, beating Hermansen with a well-placed shot into the far corner.
The two teams were welcomed by a cauldron of noise before Sunderland’s first top-flight game in eight years, and fans had plenty to shout about after kick-off as both teams went close in a lively opening.
Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs did well to save West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen’s shot from a tight angle, while Mads Hermansen deflected a fierce Habib Diarra drive over the crossbar at the other end not long afterwards.
The Hammers sought to turn the screw as the first half progressed and were denied an opener when Ballard produced a magnificent sliding clearance from El Hadji Malick Diouf’s goal-bound shot.
The early stages of the second half were more subdued, but with the Hammers struggling to pose a threat in the final third, the hosts began to grow in confidence and the lively Diarra sent a powerful shot over the bar from just outside the area.
It was a warning West Ham failed to heed, as Mayenda steered a well-placed header past Hammers debutant Hermansen to open the scoring, before Ballard and Isidor added gloss to the scoreline on a memorable afternoon for Le Bris and his players.
Man arrested after Premier League opener halted due to alleged racist abuse
Referee Anthony Taylor briefly stopped the game to talk with the managers and some players.
A 47-year-old man has been arrested after the Premier League’s season opener on Friday was briefly halted due to alleged racist abuse, local police announced Saturday.
“We have arrested a man following reports racist abuse was directed towards Bournemouth player Antoine Semenyo during his team’s Premier League fixture versus Liverpool at Anfield on Friday 15 August,” the Merseyside Police said in Saturday’s statement.
“The suspect’s identity was confirmed and he was removed from the ground following the report.” • Man arrested after Premier League opener halted due to alleged racist abuse
Referee Anthony Taylor briefly stopped the game to talk with the managers and some players.
A 47-year-old man has been arrested after the Premier League’s season opener on Friday was briefly halted due to alleged racist abuse, local police announced Saturday.
“We have arrested a man following reports racist abuse was directed towards Bournemouth player Antoine Semenyo during his team’s Premier League fixture versus Liverpool at Anfield on Friday 15 August,” the Merseyside Police said in Saturday’s statement.
“The suspect’s identity was confirmed and he was removed from the ground following the report.”
In the 26th minute of the match, broadcast video showed a fan engaging with Semenyo while the forward went to retrieve a ball for an impending throw-in. The fan can be seen shouting and pointing at the winger just before the Ghanaian restarted play.
A short time later, play was temporarily suspended as both sides’ managers and some players gathered with the match referee, Anthony Taylor, in the technical area to apparently discuss the incident between the fan and the player.
On Saturday, Semenyo posted a statement to X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that the night will “stay with me forever – not because of one person’s words, but because of how the entire football family stood together.”
The 25-year-old winger thanked both his Bournemouth teammates and Liverpool’s players, as well as the match officials for reacting in the way they did. He went on to score both of Bournemouth’s goals, though the Cherries ultimately still succumbed to a 4-2 defeat.
100 days of Pope Leo XIV: A calm papacy that avoids polemics is coming into focus-The Denver Post
VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Leo XIV surprised tens of thousands of young people at a recent Holy Year celebration with an impromptu popemobile romp around St. Peter’s Square, it almost seemed as if some of the informal spontaneity that characterized Pope Francis’ 12-year papacy had returned to the Vatican.
But the message Leo delivered that night was all his own: In seamless English, Spanish and Italian, Leo told the young people that they were the “salt of the Earth, the light of the world.” He urged them to spread their hope, faith in Christ and their cries of peace wherever they go.
As Robert Prevost marks his 100th day as Pope Leo this weekend, the contours of his pontificate have begun to come into relief, primarily where he shows continuity with Francis and where he signals change. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that after 12 sometimes turbulent years under Francis, a certain calm and reserve have returned to the papacy.
Leo seems eager above all to avoid polemics or making the papacy about himself, and wants instead to focus on Christ and peace.
That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today’s church needs. wants instead to focus on Christ and peace.
That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today’s church needs.
“He’s been very direct and forthright … but he’s not doing spontaneous press hits,” said Kevin Hughes, chair of theology and religious studies at Leo’s alma mater, Villanova University. Leo has a different style than Francis, and that has brought relief to many, Hughes said in a telephone interview.
“Even those who really loved Pope Francis always kind of held their breath a little bit: You didn’t know what was going to come out next or what he was going to do,” Hughes said.
An effort to avoid polemics Leo has certainly gone out of his way in his first 100 days to try to heal divisions that deepened during Francis’ pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy at almost every turn. Even his signature issue — confronting the promise and peril posed by artificial intelligence — is something that conservatives and progressives alike agree is important. Francis’ emphasis on caring for the environment and migrants often alienated conservatives.
Closer to home, Leo offered the Holy See bureaucracy a reassuring, conciliatory message after Francis’ occasionally authoritarian style rubbed some in the Vatican the wrong way.
“Popes come and go, but the Curia remains,” Leo told Vatican officials soon after his May 8 election.
Continuity with Francis is still undeniable Leo, though, has cemented Francis’ environmental legacy by celebrating the first-ever ecologically inspired Mass. He has furthered that legacy by giving the go-ahead for the Vatican to turn a 430-hectare (1,000-acre) field north of Rome into a vast solar farm that should generate enough electricity to meet Vatican City’s needs and turn it into the world’s first carbon-neutral state.
He has fine-tuned financial transparency regulations that Francis initiated, tweaked some other decrees to give them consistency and logic, and confirmed Francis in deciding to declare one of the 19th century’s most influential saints, John Henry Newman, a “doctor” of the church.
But he hasn’t granted any sit-down, tell-all interviews or made headline-grabbing, off-the-cuff comments like his predecessor did. He hasn’t made any major appointments, including to fill his old job, or taken any big trips.
In marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki last week, he had a chance to match Francis’ novel declaration that the mere possession of nuclear weapons was “immoral.” But he didn’t.
Compared to President Donald Trump, the other American world leader who took office in 2025 with a flurry of Sharpie-penned executive decrees, Leo has eased into his new job slowly, deliberately and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself.
At 69, he seems to know that he has time on his side, and that after Francis’ revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Leo said he expects his papacy will have the effect of a “calming rain” on the church.
Maria Isabel Ibarcena Cuarite, a Peruvian member of a Catholic charismatic group, said it was precisely Leo’s quiet emphasis on church traditions, its sacraments and love of Christ, that drew her and upward of 1 million young people to Rome for a special Jubilee week this month.
Ibarcena said Francis had confused young people like herself with his outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics and approval of blessings for same-sex couples. Such gestures went beyond what a pope was supposed to do and what the church taught, she thought.
Leo, she said, has emphasized that marriage is a sacrament between men and woman. “Francis was ambiguous, but he is firm,” she said.
An Augustinian pope From his very first appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo has insisted he is first and foremost a “son of St. Augustine. ” It was a reference to the fifth century theological and devotional giant of early Christianity, St. Augustine of Hippo, who inspired the 13th century religious Augustinian order as a community of “mendicant” friars.
Like the other big mendicant orders of the early church — the Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites — the Augustinians spread across Christian Europe over the centuries. Today, Augustinian spirituality is rooted in a deep interior life of prayer, living in community, and journeying together in search of truth in God.
In nearly every speech or homily since his May 8 election, Leo has cited Augustine in one way or another.
“I see a kind of Augustinian flavor in the way that he’s presenting all these things,” said Hughes, the theology professor who is an Augustine scholar.
Leo joined the Augustinians after graduating from Augustinian-run Villanova, outside Philadelphia, and was twice elected its prior general. He has visited the Augustinian headquarters outside St. Peter’s a few times since his election, and some wonder if he will invite some brothers to live with him in the Apostolic Palace to recreate the spirit of Augustinian community life there.
A missionary pope in the image of Francis Leo is also very much a product of the Francis papacy. Francis named Prevost bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014 and then moved him to head one of the most important Vatican jobs in 2023 — vetting bishop nominations. In retrospect, it seems Francis had his eye on Prevost as a possible successor.
Given Francis’ stump speech before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio essentially described Prevost in identifying the church’s mission today: He said the church was “called to go outside of itself and go to the peripheries, not just geographic but also the existential peripheries.”
Prevost, who hails from Chicago, spent his adult life as a missionary in Peru, eventually becoming bishop of Chiclayo.
“He is the incarnation of the ‘unity of difference,’ because he comes from the center, but he lives in the peripheries,” said Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Cuda said during a recent conference hosted by Georgetown University that Leo encapsulated in “word and gesture” the type of missionary church Francis promoted.
That said, for all Leo owes to Bergoglio, the two didn’t necessarily get along.
Prevost has recounted that at one point when he was the Augustinian superior, the then-archbishop of Buenos Aires expressed interest in assigning an Augustinian priest to a specific job in his archdiocese.
“And I, as prior general, said ‘I understand, Your Eminence, but he’s got to do something else’ and so I transferred him somewhere else,” Prevost told parishioners in his home state of Illinois in 2024.
Prevost said he “naively” thought the Francis wouldn’t remember him after his 2013 election, and that regardless “he’ll never appoint me bishop” due to the disagreement.
Bergoglio not only made him bishop, he laid the groundwork for Prevost to succeed him as pope, the first North American pope following the first South American.
Macron says pro-Zelensky ‘Coalition of the Willing’ will meet Sunday ahead of Ukraine leader’s DC trip.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office says an anti-Russian “Coalition of the Willing” will convene Sunday ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to the White House and on the heels of Friday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, co-chairs of the coalition, will be included in the virtual meeting.Trump left Anchorage without a cease-fire deal with Putin and wrote early Saturday on social media that he prefers to “go directly” to a full peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The US president has repeatedly said that Zelensky will need to cede land for peace, but the Ukrainian leader says that would be impossible without a national referendum in his country.Trump has attempted to force both sides into making a deal after the US provided about $200 billion in aid for Kyiv’s defense over more than three years of war, causing unease among European leaders who fear concessions to Moscow. The term “Coalition of the Willing” is a throwback to the Iraq War, which began in 2003 when then-US President George W. Bush dismissed opposition from countries such as France and Germany to his plans to topple Saddam Hussein and forged ahead without them.
The precise membership of the current coalition is unclear.
Trump has dismissed the relevance of European leaders in ending the war between Russian and Ukraine.
“There are a lot of European leaders, but they rely on me, very much rely on me. If it wasn’t for me, this thing would never get solved until the last person breathing is dead,” Trump said last week.
Zelensky previously visited the White House on Feb. 28 and was kicked out of the West Wing after an Oval Office argument with Vice President JD Vance, and with Trump accusing Zelensky of disrespecting America.
Malaysian couple set on fire in Bangkok: Family worry medical fees may exceed Thai compensation The Thai government has said it will cover the couple’s medical cost up to a maximum of 500,000 baht (US$15,400) per person, on top of an emotional distress compensation of 50,000 baht each.Malaysian couple set on fire in Bangkok: Family worry medical fees may exceed Thai compensation
Malaysian couple set on fire in Bangkok: Family worry medical fees may exceed Thai compensation The Thai government has said it will cover the couple’s medical cost up to a maximum of 500,000 baht (US$15,400) per person, on top of an emotional distress compensation of 50,000 baht each.
Malaysian couple set on fire in Bangkok: Family worry medical fees may exceed Thai compensation Video screengrabs of the incident and the detained suspect. (Source: Social media)
BANGKOK: The family of a Malaysian couple set on fire in downtown Bangkok while on a holiday fear that the compensation offered by the Thai government may not cover their medical expenses.
Ong Yik Leong, 26 and Gan Xiao Zhen, 27, were reportedly sitting on the steps of Big C shopping centre opposite Central World mall on Ratchadamri Road when an unemployed Thai man allegedly poured thinner on them from behind before setting them alight at about 10 pm last Thursday (Aug 7).
On Monday, the Thai government said it will cover the couple’s medical costs up to a maximum of 500,000 baht (US$15,400) per person, on top of an emotional distress compensation of 50,000 baht each.
This is under its assistance scheme for tourists injured in specific criminal offences or accidents.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should agree a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” after hosting a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield a ceasefire.
In a major shift, Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that negotiators should go straight to a peace settlement — not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with U.S. support, have been demanding.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would travel to Washington on Monday to discuss next steps, while Kyiv’s European allies welcomed Trump’s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia, and again urged the U.S. to offer security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump met Putin for nearly three hours in Alaska on Friday at the first U.S.-Russia summit since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
That statement will be welcomed in Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement — not a pause — but that this will be complex because positions are “diametrically opposed.”
Nearly 200 arrested as federal agents take over D.C. police force Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday announced there have been nearly 200 arrests in the nation’s capital, including those of murder suspects and illegal gun offenders, since the Trump administration federalized the city to tackle crime.
Bondi announced Friday afternoon there have been 189 arrests in Washington, D.C., “and counting.”
Among those arrested were two homicide suspects, 17 suspected drug traffickers, 39 suspected illegal gun offenders, and two sexual predators, according to Bondi.She added there were 75 arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has assisted D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in reinforcing patrols and manning city checkpoints since President Donald Trump took emergency control of the police force on Monday.
“This is what happens when you actually enforce the law,” Bondi wrote in a post on X. “We’re taking back our Nation’s Capital! Together, we will make D.C. Beautiful & Safe Again.” Trump federalized the MPD under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take control of the police force for 30 days.
Hundreds of National Guard members have been spotted in the city, along with agents from federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Capitol Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Nearly 50 people were arrested on Wednesday night alone, including 29 illegal immigrants.
