People use a piece of clothing to hide from the sun during a heatwave in Milan, Italy, August 21, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco Acquire Licensing Rights
Italy's northern city of Milan registered a new record high average daily temperature of 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday as a heatwave which began around mid-August reached its peak, the regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said on Friday.
Milan has registered the highest average daily temperature for the past 260 years, regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said Friday, as much of Italy grapples with a heatwave.
The Milano Brera weather station recorded an average 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, the highest since it started registering temperatures in 1763.
The northern Italian city's previous record, of 32.8 degrees, was set in 2003.
Milan also recorded the highest minimum temperature on Thursday at 28.9 degrees Celcius, ARPA said.
ARPA said the Italian Alps have also been hit by "intense and abnormal" temperatures, but said the heatwave is about to break, with heavy thunderstorms expected in the next few days.
Emissions of greenhouse gases are enabling increasingly intense and long-lasting heatwaves, especially in Europe, which the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says is the world's fastest warming continent.
Heatwaves are among the deadliest natural hazards, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year.
It added that "intense and abnormal" temperatures also hit the Italian Alps.
The heatwave is about to end though, the agency said, giving way to heavy thunderstorms and a sharp drop in temperatures of up to 10-15 C early next week.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following a closed two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, U.S., July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that past interest-rate increases had yet to fully slow the economy, an argument for holding rates steady for now, even though stronger and sustained growth could require higher rates to keep inflation declining.
"Given how far we have come, at coming meetings we are in a position to proceed carefully," Powell said in a heavily anticipated address at the Kansas City Fed's annual symposium in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. "We will proceed carefully as we decide whether to tighten further or, instead, to hold the policy rate constant and await further data."
Fed officials lifted their benchmark federal-funds rate last month by a quarter-percentage-point to a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a 22-year high, continuing the most rapid series of increases in four decades. Their next meeting is Sept. 19-20.
Powell's speech illustrated how he is trying to thread the needle between slowing hiring, investment and spending to bring down inflation without providing so much restraint as to create a needlessly severe economic slowdown.
In June, most officials thought they would raise rates to a range between 5.5% and 5.75% this year, implying one more quarter-point increase later this year. Powell didn't tip his hand on whether the Fed would need to follow through on another rate increase, highlighting instead how coming economic data would inform that decision.
Inflation has slowed in the two months since officials made those projections, but economic activity has shown surprising strength.
Inflation has retreated from a 40-year high last summer, with the consumer-price index climbing 3.2% in July from a year earlier. That is well below the recent peak rate of 9.1% in June 2022.
Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, increased just 0.2% in both June and July, extending a broader slowdown in price pressures.
"Two months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal," Powell said. "There is substantial further ground to cover."
Some officials are uneasy about raising rates further because they expect past increases will continue to slow the economy by making it more expensive and harder for companies and individuals to borrow. Others worry that if the Fed holds rates steady, strong economic growth could cause inflation to decline more slowly than anticipated.
Powell nodded to both concerns in his remarks. He said financial conditions, including lending standards and borrowing rates, have tightened broadly in a way that typically slows down economic activity, "and there is evidence of that in this cycle as well."
"But we are attentive to signs that the economy may not be cooling as expected," he said. Fed officials have been clear that they see inflation declining further because they expect the economy to grow below its long-run trend of around 2% over the coming year. "Additional evidence of persistently above-trend growth could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy," Powell said.
'FINGER ON THE TRIGGER'
Markets reacted by continuing to price in only a modest chance of a rate hike next month - less than 20%, based on rate futures pricing - but an increasing likelihood of a rate hike at one of the Fed's following two meetings - on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Dec. 12-13 - with prices indicating a better-than-50% chance of the policy rate ending the year in a 5.5%-5.75% range.
"My main takeaway is that when it comes to another rate hike, the chair still very much has his finger on the trigger, even if it's a bit less itchy than it was last year," said Inflation Insights' Omair Sharif.
It was difficult, Powell said, to know with precision the degree to which the Fed's current 5.25% to 5.5% benchmark interest rate had cleared the "neutral" rate of interest needed to slow the economy, and therefore hard to assess just where policy stands.
Powell repeated what has become a standard Fed diagnosis of inflation progress - with a pandemic-era jump in goods inflation easing and a decline in housing inflation "in the pipeline," but concern that continued consumer spending on a broad array of services and a tight labor market may make a return to 2% difficult.
Recent declines in measures of underlying inflation, stripped of food and energy prices, "were welcome, but two months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably," Powell said.
"Given the size" of the broader services sector, excluding housing, "some further progress will be essential," the Fed chief said, and it will likely require an economic slowdown to deliver it.
"Restrictive monetary policy will likely play an increasingly important role. Getting inflation sustainably back down to 2% is expected to require a period of below-trend economic growth as well as some softening in labor market conditions," Powell said.
While Powell's tone was not as stern as last year, when in a very abrupt set of remarks he disabused market notions that the Fed was then nearing the end of its rate-hike cycle and would cut rates through this year. Still, it was clear he did not want to set aside any options.
“Powell continues to walk a tightrope," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. "This year I think he is demonstrating that he is pleased with how far monetary policy has come and how inflation has been reduced. But he is still holding on tightly to this notion that they are watching it carefully and they still have work to do.”
The Fed chair also indicated he is not open to entertaining a discussion about changing the Fed's 2% target for inflation as some economists have suggested may be warranted in an environment with growth that is persistently above trend.
"Two percent is and will remain our inflation target," Powell said. "We are committed to achieving and sustaining a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to that level over time."
Powell ended his speech on Friday with nearly the same line he finished with last year at Jackson Hole: "We will keep at it until the job is done."
Phosphorus ammunition is a type of weapon that contains phosphorus compounds that combust upon exposure to air. The use of phosphorus ammunition is controversial due to its potential to cause severe burns and damage to civilians and non-combatants.
The Ukrainian military has used phosphorus in the Zaporozhye direction, the head of the surgical department of the separate medical battalion of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces told reporters.
"The use of phosphorus was detected in the area of Zherebyanka, Pyatikhatki. [...] Thank God, our anesthesiologists identified it in time, this lesion, and measures were quickly taken - evacuation, sanitation," a military doctor working on the front line said.
He added that when there is talk in the media about the desire of NATO countries to supply the Kiev regime with new weaponry, it usually begins to be used at the front immediately.
"That is, it is already here. It is starting to be used on this very day," he noted.
The use of phosphorus shells is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. The use of incendiary munitions, including those containing white phosphorus, is restricted by Protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. In particular, it is prohibited where civilians may be harmed.
Such munitions cause severe burns and acute poisoning, as well as bone and marrow damage and tissue necrosis. White phosphorus is toxic - the lethal dose for humans is 0.05-0.15 grams.
Russian Navy Ships Strike Ukrainian Port Infrastructure
The Russian Armed Forces have launched sea-based cruise missile strikes against a port facility used by Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Russian Navy Ships Strike Ukrainian Port Infrastructure Facility
"The objective of the strike has been achieved. The target has been hit," reads the ministry's official summary.
Donetsk Direction
Units of the Yug Battlegroup repelled three attacks in the area of the villages of Zaliznyanskoye, Kleshcheyevka, and Staromikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic. Ukrainian losses included:
Up to 260 troops killed and wounded;
One tank, two armored infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and two military cars;
One Krab self-propelled tracked howitzer, two D-20 howitzers.
Kupyansk Direction
Zapad battlegroup fighters, supported by air and artillery, repelled three breakthrough attempts by the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade and 68th Jaeger Brigade in the areas of Sinkovka in the Kharkov region and Sergeyevka in the Lugansk People's Republic. Ukrainian military losses in the span of 24 hours included up to 50 soldiers, two tanks, three IFVs, two pickup trucks, and a D-20 howitzer.
Zaporozhye Direction
Russian forces repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Kiev regime's forces suffered losses:
Over 110 soldiers;
Two Bradley IFVs, two Stryker armored fighting vehicles, and four military cars;
Three M777 howitzers, two FH-70 howitzers.
Southern Donetsk and Kherson Directions
Battlegroup Vostok repelled an attack near the settlement of Sladkoye in the Donetsk People's Republic. In addition, they hammered Ukrainian Marines of the 38th Brigade in the area of Urozhaynoye. As a result of these engagements, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered casualties:
Up to 125 soldiers;
Three military vehicles;
One Krab howitzer, two M777 howitzers, two Msta-B howitzers, one D-20 howitzer, a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, and an AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder Weapon Locating System.
In the direction of Kherson, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered losses of up to 50 soldiers killed and wounded, three military vehicles, one M777 howitzer, and several Msta-B and D-30 howitzers.
Krasny Liman Direction
Units of the Tsentr battlegroup, during the course of operations, repelled an attack near the settlement of Kuzmino in the Donetsk People's Republic. In addition, they struck the positions of the 63rd and 67th Mechanized Brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 5th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard, in the areas of the settlements of Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People's Republic, and Torskoye and Grigorovka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Following the actions of the Russian forces, the losses of the Ukrainian Army amounted to:
Donald Trump's mug shot was released on Thursday evening after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former U.S. president's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
Former President Donald J. Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta on Thursday and was booked on 13 felony charges for his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
It was an extraordinary scene: a former U.S. president who flew on his own jet to Atlanta and surrendered at a jail compound surrounded by concertina wire and signs that directed visitors to the “prisoner intake” area.
Former President Donald J. Trump as he arrived in Atlanta on Thursday. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times
Richard Fausset is a correspondent based in Atlanta. He mainly writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal justice. He previously worked at The Los Angeles Times, including as a foreign correspondent in Mexico City. More about Richard Fausset
Danny Hakim is an investigative reporter. He has been a European economics correspondent and bureau chief in Albany and Detroit. He was also a lead reporter on the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about Danny Hakim.
Thomas Fuller is the San Francisco bureau chief. Before moving to California he reported from more than 40 countries for The Times and International Herald Tribune, mainly in Europe and Southeast Asia. More about Thomas Fuller
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 25, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump is Booked at Jail in Atlanta in Election Case.
An unsmiling Trump - inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records - was captured glaring at the camera in the mug shot. The image represented yet another extraordinary moment for Trump, who did not have to submit to a photograph when making appearances in his three other criminal cases.
He wasted little time trying to turn it to his advantage, posting it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as his own social media site, Truth Social. His campaign website featured the mug shot along with a message from Trump defending his actions and asking for donations.
The X post appeared to be Trump's first on the site since his account was banned after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. X owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump's account late last year.
Trump spent only about 20 minutes at the jail before heading back to his New Jersey golf club. Before boarding his private plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, he repeated his claim that the prosecution - along with the others he faces - is politically motivated.
"What has taken place here is a travesty of justice," he told reporters. "I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it."
Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House next year.
Far from damaging his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing. He holds a commanding polling lead in the Republican race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
Dozens of supporters, waving Trump banners and American flags, jostled for a glimpse as Trump arrived at the jail. Among the Trump backers gathered outside was Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the former president's most loyal congressional allies.
Lyle Rayworth, 49, who is in the aviation industry in the Atlanta area, had been waiting near the jailhouse for 10 hours, since early on Thursday.
"Yeah, I'm hoping he sees me waving the flags, showing support," Rayworth said as he awaited Trump's arrival. "He needs us."
The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump's foes and supporters alike.
'A MORE POPULAR IMAGE THAN THE MONA LISA'
"We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa," said Laura Loomer, 30, a Republican former congressional candidate who mingled with other Trump supporters outside the jail on Thursday morning.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, after a Grand Jury brought back indictments against him and 18 of his Acquire Licensing Rights Read more
Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of Oct. 23 for one of Trump's 18 co-defendants, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed that date in response to Chesebro's request for a speedy trial. The judge's order said the schedule does not yet apply to Trump or any of the other defendants.
Eleven of his co-defendants already have been booked, according to authorities. Some, like Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, were stone-faced in their mug shots, while others, such as lawyer Jenna Ellis, smiled for the camera.
All 19 defendants faced a Friday deadline to surrender. Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's White House chief of staff, was processed at the jail on Thursday.
The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized crime, for pressuring state officials to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden's 2020 victory.
TRIAL DATE WRANGLING
Willis originally proposed a trial date of March 4 but moved it up for Chesebro after he asked that his trial start by October. Trump's legal team has yet to propose a date but is expected to push for a much later start. On Thursday, his newest Atlanta lawyer, Steven Sadow, asked for Trump to be tried separately from Chesebro.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the three other cases and denied wrongdoing. In the Georgia case, Willis has requested that arraignments begin the week of Sept. 5, though defendants in Georgia are permitted to waive those appearances and plead not guilty via court filing.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the first case, accusing Trump of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star who claims to have had a sexual encounter with him years ago.
Trump also faces two sets of federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith - one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021. He faces 91 criminal counts in total.
Trump agreed to post $200,000 bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his co-defendants in the Georgia case.
Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday they would investigate whether Willis improperly coordinated with federal prosecutors. They previously launched an investigation of Bragg, who accused them of a "campaign of intimidation."
On Wednesday, Trump's leading rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination met in Milwaukee for their first debate. Trump skipped that event, instead sitting for a pre-taped interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson aimed at siphoning away viewers.
"I've been indicted four times - all trivial nonsense," Trump told Carlson.
Battlegroup East units supported by aviation and artillery destroyed an ammunition depot, a stronghold and a vehicle with Ukrainian army fighters near Urozhainoe settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Battlegroup spokesman Oleg Chekhov said.
There are many speculations in Western states regarding a crash of a plane said to be carrying Wagner Group private military company (PMC) leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, all this is an absolute lie, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"Leading units of the Battlegroup East with the support of artillery and aviation delivered a fire strike against the enemy in the vicinity of Urozhainoe. Two temporary stationing points of the Ukrainian army were hit; an ammunition depot, a stronghold, and a vehicle with fighters were destroyed. Concentrated manpower was hit. A strike UAV destroyed an armored personnel carrier with Ukrainian army infantry," Chekhov said.
Servicemen of the Battlegroup are demonstrating courage and dedication when accomplishing combat missions, the spokesman added.
Depleted Uranium Munitions Make Ukraine 'Unlivable' - Moscow
Deliveries of depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine by Western countries lead to radiation contamination of soils in the country and make it uninhabitable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"Due to the supply of radioactive and highly toxic British and American depleted uranium munitions, Ukraine is turning into an uninhabitable land. Radiation contamination of the soil is already happening and is being objectively recorded," Zakharova said in an article on the kp.ru website.
She said the consequences of the use of such munitions could also affect neighboring Poland, where in May this year, as in the Khmelnytsky Region of Ukraine, there was a significant surge in background radiation.
"The reason is probably the same as in Ukraine: explosion of depleted uranium munitions placed in a depot in Khmelnytskyi," Zakharova said.
She said Ukrainians must demand that radioactive munitions be removed from their country as soon as possible.
Ukraine Loses About 310 Soldiers in Donetsk, Kupyansk Directions - MoD
Ukraine has lost about 310 soldiers in the Donetsk and Kupyansk directions in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Enemy losses in the Donetsk direction amounted to up to 260 Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded, one tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, two cars, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery unit and two D-20 howitzers," the ministry said, adding that Russia also successfully repelled three attacks in this direction.
In addition, Russia repelled three Ukrainian attacks and Kiev lost up to 50 military in the Kupyansk direction, in the South Donetsk and Krasny Liman directions Russia repelled two attacks and Kiev lost a total of 205 soldiers, while in the Zaporozhye direction Ukraine lost 110 military with Russia repelling five enemy attacks, the ministry said.
As many as 73 Ukrainian drones have been shot down and suppressed by means of electronic warfare during the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"In addition, 73 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down and suppressed by means of electronic warfare during the past day," the ministry said in a statement.
Watch Russia's Tor-M2 Missile System Rocket Into Special Op Action
The Tor missile system, also known as the SA-15 Gauntlet, is a mobile air defense system designed to protect military and civilian targets from fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has released footage showing Battlegroup Vostok's Tor-M2 anti-aircraft missile system carrying out the elimination of air targets and protecting troops from enemy air attacks in the Zaporozhye direction of the special military operation.
The Tor-M2 anti-aircraft missile system is capable of detecting, capturing and destroying up to 4 air targets simultaneously. It takes only 2 minutes to occupy a firing point, deploy the system and detect the target. It takes another minute to capture and identify the target, then the anti-aircraft missile is launched vertically.
"Western analogues of anti-aircraft missile defense systems can only dream of entering the flight path this way," the Ministry of Defense emphasized.
The means of objective control show that a Shark-type Ukrainian reconnaissance drone was eliminated by the Tor-M2 SAM system when approaching the line of contact. Drones like these pose a serious threat, they are the ones that guide the HIMARS missiles to their targets.
"The difficulty is that NATO drones fly at low altitudes. Tough terrain... But we shoot them down anyway. No one can hide from us," said the deputy chief of the Tor-M2 SAM system.
In the past few days alone, the Air Defense Forces' Tor-M2 SAM systems have shot down more than a dozen enemy UAVs: attack, reconnaissance and kamikaze drones.
