Overall, inflation is likely to moderate in July because gas prices have fallen this month — a gallon of regular gas hit an average of about $5 in June, and the cost is now hovering around $4.63. But fuel prices are volatile, making it impossible to know if today’s lower gas prices will last, and the report suggested that underlying inflation pressures remained intense.

In particular, a core inflation index that strips out food and fuel prices to give a sense of the broad trend remained surprisingly high. That measure climbed 5.9 percent over the year through June, barely a slowdown from last month’s 6 percent increase. Core prices also jumped 0.7 percent from May to June, more than the previous monthly increase.

The global economy has been buffeted by a series of shocks that have pushed inflation higher since the outset of the pandemic. Factory shutdowns and shipping shortages have roiled supply chains, and worker shortages are making it harder for airlines to fly at capacity and for hotels to rent out rooms. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted gas and food supplies.

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If approved by voters, the measure would reverse a decision the Board of Supervisors made less than three months ago on a 7-4 vote to keep JFK Drive car-free permanently. Specifically, JFK Drive would reopen to car traffic on weekdays as well as Saturdays from October to March. The Great Highway from Skyline Boulevard to Lincoln Way would also be open to cars seven days a week under the measure. The ballot measure is sure to intensify the impassioned debate among residents over the future of car-free streets in San Francisco, and car-free supporters have vowed to fight the Access for All measure.

It won’t be the only JFK Drive measure on the November ballot. A group of city supervisors submitted a separate ballot measure last month to codify the Board of Supervisors’ decision on car-free JFK Drive in response to the signature-gathering effort. Both measures would need 50% voter approval to pass, though the supervisors’ measure would supersede the Access for All measure if it gets more votes.

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The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States.

Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5.

“It’s still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase." Whether it will outcompete BA.5, he said, is yet to be determined.

Still, the fact that it has already been detected in many parts of the world even with lower levels of viral surveillance “is an early indication it is spreading,” said Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that supplies viral sequencing information to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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The Biden administration on Monday said doctors and hospitals need to follow federal law and provide abortions if there is a medical emergency and the health or life of the patient is at risk, regardless of state law.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations. 

Administration officials said the federal government can penalize doctors or hospitals that fail to provide care in those circumstances.

“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care.”

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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol just wrapped up its seventh public hearing. 

The committee focused on the role of extremist groups and how the violent mob came together. The hearing explored the Trump administration's connections to these groups, such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, ahead of the riot.

In closing remarks, Cheney revealed Trump himself attempted to call a witness to the select committee's investigation, and the panel turned over the information to the Department of Justice.

"After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings," Cheney said. "That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice."

She continued: "Let me say one more time; We will take any effort to influence testimony very seriously."

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Next week, I’ll travel to the Middle East to start a new and more promising chapter of America’s engagement there. This trip comes at a vital time for the region, and it will advance important American interests.

A more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways. Its waterways are essential to global trade and the supply chains we rely on. Its energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia’s war in Ukraine. And a region that’s coming together through diplomacy and cooperation — rather than coming apart through conflict — is less likely to give rise to violent extremism that threatens our homeland or new wars that could place new burdens on U.S. military forces and their families.

From the start, my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years. Today, Saudi Arabia has helped to restore unity among the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, has fully supported the truce in Yemen and is now working with my experts to help stabilize oil markets with other OPEC producers.

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Hundreds of firefighters scrambled Monday to prevent a wildfire engulfing an area of rare giant sequoia trees in California's Yosemite National Park. The Washburn fire, in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, was first reported on July 7 and doubled in size over the weekend to 2,340 acres (946 hectares), according to a park report. Yosemite's fire management service said 545 firefighters were battling the blaze, including "proactively protecting" the grove—the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite, with over 500 mature trees.

Further reinforcements were due to be deployed Monday, as the blaze remained out of control with increasingly hot and dry weather forecast, Nancy Phillipe, spokeswoman for Yosemite Fire Information, told AFP.

"It's still showing zero percent containment," Phillipe said.

"We are doing everything we can to put this fire out," including deploying air tankers and helicopters along with ground crews, she added.

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Almost two-thirds of Democratic voters don’t want to see President Joe Biden run for re-election in 2024, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll that follows record-low approval ratings for Biden as the president battles issues such as rising inflation and criticism from some progressive Democrats over his response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

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Brittney Griner pleaded guilty Thursday in a Russian court on drug charges that have led the U.S. government to classify her as "wrongfully detained." Reuters reported from the courtroom that Griner entered a guilty plea. She could face a sentence of up to 10 years, while pressure from her supporters at home calling for her release grows.

Griner, speaking Thursday on the second day of her trial in a suburb of Moscow, has been in Russian custody since Feb. 17. 

"I'd like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn't want to break the law," Griner said in English, per Reuters, which was then translated into Russian for the court.

Griner is due back in court next Thursday. Her guilty plea is unlikely to change much, as her pre-trial detention had been extended last Monday for an additional six months.

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“American Cartel,” reveals how lobbyists, lawmakers and K Street attorneys thwarted efforts to stop the deadly flow of pain pills. By Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz.

Today, America’s opioid crisis is worse than ever. Last year, the nation logged a record-breaking 100,000 drug overdose deaths, most of them due to fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin. There is no end in sight as Mexican drug cartels flood the country with shipments of the cheap and highly addictive synthetic opioid.

Most people don’t know the real story of the opioid epidemic. It’s not solely about Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. It’s about how a constellation of drug companies went after the DEA, and how the DEA lost that war, not to the cartels, but to lobbyists and lawmakers and K Street attorneys.

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