US inflation falls to 2.4% in January after Trump’s tariffs led to price fluctuations
US inflation moderated in January to 2.4%, an easing after Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered price fluctuations last year.Prices rose 0.2% from December to January, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services.Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy industries, went up 0.
3% over the month.Economists anticipated prices would ease slightly, pushing the annual inflation rate down to 2.5%.The news comes as polls show voters souring on Trump’s economic record.Last year, prices fluctuated wildly from spring to fall, going down to 2.
3% in April, the lowest in more than four years, then slowly climbing up to 3% by September,By November and December, inflation had fallen to 2,7%,Wall Street is closely watching this inflation report to estimate its potential impact on interest rates,The Federal Reserve held off on a rate cut last January, though it is unclear which direction the central bank is leaning before its next board meeting in March.
Last month, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, noted that Trump’s tariffs were still passing through the economy, though he expects they will cause a one-time increase in prices before settling into a new normal.“The expectation is that we will see the effects of tariffs flowing through goods prices, peaking, and then starting to come down,” Powell said.“That’s what we expect to see over the course of this year.”The Fed is also watching the labor market, which showed signs of strength in January, though overall jobs growth in 2025 was revised down.In 2025, 181,000 jobs were added to the economy, compared with 2m in 2024, after revisions.
The White House has largely looked past last year’s jobs numbers, with Trump touting growth in gross domestic product and price stability seen last fall.“We’ll go down as the greatest first year in history that nobody’s ever had, just based on the numbers,” Trump said in January.But recent polling suggests American voters disapproving Trump’s handling of the economy.A February Economist/YouGov poll showed 37% of American voters approve of his job performance – the lowest percentage across his first and second terms so far.Though the dip largely comes from the president’s handling of immigration, among all issues mentioned in the poll Trump’s lowest approval was on inflation.
This poses trouble for Republicans heading into the midterms.Trump ran on heavy promises to tackle high prices, but the president’s focus on tariffs and immigration has left voters weary.The White House appears to be aware of its growing problem on prices.In recent weeks, Trump rolled out measures addressing affordability, including proposals addressing housing prices, credit card debt and drug prices.
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘A code orange de-mental emergency going on here right now’
Late-night hosts unpacked the Trump administration’s continued attempts to distract from and underplay the Epstein files.It took barely a glance at Donald Trump’s social media posts on Tuesday for Jimmy Kimmel to know: “We’ve got a code orange de-mental emergency going on here right now. I mean, he’s gone. He’s totally gone.”The host focused in particular on the US president’s meltdown over the $4
Jon Stewart calls Maga backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show ‘actually pathetic’
Late-night hosts addressed the performative Maga outrage over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show.Jon Stewart returned to his Monday night Daily Show post fired up about the Super Bowl, and particularly the outrage from conservative pundits such as Megyn Kelly and Benny Johnson over Bad Bunny’s half-time show, which he performed, as usual entirely in Spanish.Stewart played numerous clips of Fox News hosts et al complaining that they couldn’t understand the Spanish, then cut to a clip of Turning Point USA “All-American Halftime Show” headliner, Kid Rock, singing his hit Bawitdaba, with its gibberish chorus.The host then tore into the rightwing talking point that Bad Bunny’s half-time show, whose overarching theme was pan-American unity, was not “unifying” because it was in Spanish. “Why the fuck is it the Super Bowl Halftime entertainer’s job to unify the country? Is that their job?” he fumed
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was never a love story. It was a warning
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film about the gap between what we think we can control and what happens when reality hits. Over the years, many critics and fans have celebrated Michel Gondry’s film as a tender-hearted love story. But a rewatch might reveal that Gondry’s second collaboration with postmodern American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is much closer to another, twistier genre: hard sci-fi.By now, the story of Eternal Sunshine is familiar. Depressed introvert Joel (Jim Carrey) meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), whose box-dyed hair colour and moods change as often as the weather
Actor Catherine O’Hara died of a blood clot in her lungs, death certificate says
Catherine O’Hara, the Emmy-winning actor and beloved star of the series Schitt’s Creek and the 1990 hit movie Home Alone, died from a blood clot in her lungs, her death certificate revealed Monday.The death certificate released by the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s office also listed rectal cancer as an underlying cause.The Canadian-born performer was rushed to the hospital on 30 January after having difficulty breathing at her home in the ritzy Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.The 71-year-old, who starred in Beetlejuice and more recently in Apple TV’s Hollywood satire show The Studio, was declared dead a short time later.The actor’s death sent shock waves through Hollywood with tributes pouring in from past co-stars – including Schitt’s Creek creators Eugene and Dan Levy, Beetlejuice’s Michael Keaton and Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin
‘We recorded it in a kitchen!’ How China Crisis made Black Man Ray
Ed and I had just come off a long tour of Europe and North America supporting Simple Minds and needed a break. I immersed myself in music-making with a synth, drum machine and a four-track Tascam Portastudio. I was very inspired by Brian Eno. I’d seen the words “found sounds” on his album credits. The notion that any sound could be included in a recording struck me as magical
Super Bowl: Bad Bunny, the ads and everything but the football – as it happened
Well, I could not tell you a thing about that game – I’ve heard that it was a boring outcome for a boring match-up – but it does not matter: the real winner tonight was Bad Bunny, who delivered a raucous, intricate and wildly ambitious half-time show that exceeded already sky-high expectations. With the world watching and many in the US government actively rooting against him (you can guess who took to Truth Social already), the Puerto Rican artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio thoroughly stomped on the haters with an exuberant 13-minute show that both honored his roots and championed an expansive view of American unity.It’s hard to overstate how much pressure Bad Bunny was under, as the first all Spanish-language half-time performer at a time when the US government is profiling Spanish speakers for its brutal immigration enforcement campaign. But Benito made the whole affair feel light as a feather, from the sugar cane fields to the bodegas to the rollicking casita party to a full-on real wedding (and surprise duet with Latino pop trailblazer Ricky Martin). Truly, this set was exquisite
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