TOKYO, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Japanese headline inflation fell below 1% in October for the first time in 2-1/2 years, data showed on Monday as a broad range of commodities began to fade.

The slowdown in commodity-based inflation is in line with the Bank of Japan’s forecasts, and analysts say attention is focused on whether wages and housing costs will increase enough to generate a demand-driven rise in consumer prices.

“Wholesale inflation appears to have cooled as past declines in raw material and energy costs filtered through domestic business-to-business prices,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

He said the effect of government subsidies to curb petrol and utility charges would lead to a reduction in consumer inflation by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2024.

“But the pace of consumer inflation will moderate as labor shortages and higher wages support service prices,” he said.

The corporate goods price index (CGPI), the price companies charge each other for their goods and services, rose 0.8% in October, matching the average market forecast for a 0.9% gain but cooling significantly from 2.2. % rise in September.

This marks the 10th straight month in which headline inflation has slowed, with the year-on-year growth rate falling below 1% for the first time since February 2021, the data showed.

The slowdown was due to a decline in the prices of timber, chemicals and steel products, highlighting the impact of the global commodity price slump.

The rise in headline inflation prompted many Japanese firms to pass more costs home, leading the BOJ to upgrade its inflation forecasts in its quarterly forecasts released in October.

The BOJ said such cost-plus inflation would dissipate and must be replaced by price increases driven further by strong domestic demand to end ultra-low interest rates.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said Japan was making steady progress toward meeting the bank’s 2% target, as conditions for an exit from ultra-easy policy gradually eased.

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Nov 12 (Reuters) – The United States launched two airstrikes in Syria on Sunday against Iran and its allied groups, the Pentagon said, in the latest retaliation for a series of attacks against U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the strikes targeted a training facility near the town of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the town of Mayadeen. President Joe Biden ordered the strikes.

“The president has no higher priority than the safety of American personnel, and he led today’s action to make clear that the United States will protect itself, its personnel and its interests,” Austin said in a statement.

Local sources said the strikes targeted a camp run by pro-Iranian militants in an area west of Albu Kamal in Deir al-Zor province. The other strike was near the Iraqi border and near a bridge near the town of Mayadeen, a stronghold of pro-Iranian militants, the sources said.

The strike was the third since Oct. 26 as the United States tries to quell a wave of drone and rocket attacks against U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran and its supporters say the United States is also responsible for Israel’s declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which it also supports.

US and coalition forces have been attacked at least 40 times in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces in recent weeks. At least 45 US troops suffered traumatic brain injuries or minor injuries.

The U.S. has 900 troops in Syria and another 2,500 in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent an Islamic State resurgence.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attacks took place within the past few hours and said a U.S. review was underway to determine whether they killed or injured anyone.

The U.S. has 900 troops in Syria and another 2,500 in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent an Islamic State resurgence.

Concerns are growing that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread across the Middle East, turning US troops at isolated bases into targets.

Since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on October 7, the US has sent warships and warplanes to the region, including two aircraft carriers, to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops deployed in the region is in the thousands.

Reuters reports that the US military is taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces in the event of attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if necessary.

Officials say the measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and increasing intelligence gathering, including drone and other surveillance activities.

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We’re halfway through the NFL season, and one of the main questions New England Patriots fans are asking themselves is: How bad can it be?

Chapters 2-7. They send quarterback Mack Jones there every week (though he clearly isn’t the answer) and often have no better options. Golden Touch head coach Bill Belichick appears to be gone for once as his game plans and results continue to backslide. New England hasn’t struggled like this in over 20 years.

They have a chance to turn it around against the Indianapolis Colts, but these Colts aren’t the pushovers you’d expect. With first-round draft pick Anthony Richardson out for the season with a shoulder injury, they have a bit of a battle to go with Gardner Minshue as their starting QB. Minshew is a gamer, and last week snapped a three-game losing streak against the Carolina Panthers to move the Colts to 4-5 on the season.

The Patriots aren’t as bad as the Panthers, but they’re close. As the NFL’s international slate wraps up with this final game in Frankfort, will the Pats start to dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves? Or will the Colts punish a much worse team in week two?

Yahoo Sports provides the latest news, scores and highlights from the Week 10 matchup between the Colts and Patriots.

Gotham/GC Pictures

Officer on stage! Taylor Swift screamed that she was in love with boyfriend Travis Kelce during “Karma,” and then Eras ran offstage to kiss him at her show in Buenos Aires on Saturday night (November 11).

It’s All Happening: Swift sang, “Karma’s the guy on the screen come straight home to me,” instead of the original “Karma” lyric, “Karma’s the guy in the Chiefs who comes straight home to me.” It was in front of a live audience at Estadio River Plate, where Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kells was watching the concert with Swift’s dad from the VIP tent.

After the show, Swift ran straight into Kelce’s arms and kissed him.

Kelce, who went to dinner with Swift the night before, was seen hanging out with the pop star’s dad, Scott, at Swift’s Saturday night show.

The Swifties captured some quick and cute footage of Kelce enjoying herself at an Eras Tour concert.

Swift’s “Who Can Stay?” When asked, she sang boyfriendof “The Archer,” he He made a mark It read, “We will stay.”

Earlier during Swift’s speech Always“Champagne Troubles,” Kells proudly joined the crowd in chanting “ole, ole, ole” in support of the singer. Other videos circulating show him Singing along to “Blank Space”. And “Willow” Then the fans speculate on him Pointed to Travis on the right As she sang, “That’s my man.”

Check it all out in the fan-captured clips below, starting with Kelce’s sweet reaction to the lyric change.

CNN
—

House Republicans are pursuing a two-step plan to fund the government, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN, with Congress barreling toward it. Another spending deadline is next Friday.

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the plan on a GOP conference call with members Saturday afternoon and argued that “I’m not the one who created the mess we’re in,” according to a source on the call.

While Johnson embraced the two-step approach of his congressional right wing, he did not fully obey their wishes. The package does not include the deep spending cuts pushed by his right wing, but rather extends the fund at its current level.

“This two-step continuing resolution is the bill needed to put House Republicans in a better position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement Saturday.

The first bill extends funding through Jan. 19 and includes military construction, veterans affairs, transportation and housing, and the energy department. The second part of the bill, which extends funding until February 2, will cover funding for other parts of the government.

Neither bill included additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.

The two-step approach was widely touted by Republican hardliners but rejected by many senators as a cumbersome solution that would be difficult to implement and enforce. However, since funding for the agencies will remain at current levels, it may be difficult for Democrats to rule out.

A top Senate Democratic aide expressed their openness to Johnson’s funding plan, saying “it’s a good thing the speaker is not adding unnecessary cuts and adding defense funding to the second panel of programs.”

However, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called Johnson’s plan “a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns — full stop.”

“House Republicans need to stop wasting time on their own political divisions, do their jobs and work in a bipartisan way to prevent a shutdown,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Ahead of Saturday’s conference call, Republicans weighed several options, including a straightforward stopgap bill with some added sweeteners and the more complicated two-step approach Johnson is pitching.

The conference is divided on which option to pursue, with owners favoring a clean break and members of the Freedom Caucus pitching a staggered approach.

However, a GOP representative who is part of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Chip Roy said at X that he opposes Johnson’s plan because it doesn’t include the deep spending cuts the right wants.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries previously blasted the prospect of a two-step continuing resolution as a non-starter, calling it a “right-wing joyride” that would crash and burn the economy.

If lawmakers fail to pass a spending plan by next Friday, most government operations will be shut down until Congress acts. However, essential government works will continue.

Each federal agency comes up with a contingency plan that outlines which of its operations will continue during the shutdown, which will cease, as well as how many of its employees will continue to work and how many will be furloughed until the shutdown is over.

At the national level, government shutdowns can have long-term economic consequences, stifling growth and promoting uncertainty, especially if they drag on. Some of these are expenses Adds Raising the unemployment rate, reducing GDP growth and raising the cost of borrowing.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Shania Shelton contributed to this report.

Far-right protesters have clashed with police ahead of a demonstration in the British capital.

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in central London to march in support of Palestine, chanting “stop the bombing of Gaza” and “ceasefire now”.

Saturday’s “National March for Palestine” was the latest in a series of rallies in the British capital to show support for Palestinians since Israel launched an air and ground attack on the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel. .

About 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 240 captured in the Hamas attack.

Israel’s attacks aimed at destroying the Palestinian Authority, which rules Gaza, have killed more than 11,000 people in 34 days, including more than 4,500 children.

Former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP for Islington also took part in the rally and called for a ceasefire.

Ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/zGe3pCtR9R

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 11, 2023

UK government ministers have called for Saturday’s parade to be canceled as Armistice Day marks the end of the First World War and commemorates those killed in action.

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner should be held responsible for security after the police officer defied demands to ban pro-Palestinian protests on Armistice Day.

Right-wing protesters were arrested

Police said 82 people were arrested in central London on Saturday “to prevent a breach of the peace”. They were part of a group of counter-protesters protesting an ongoing pro-Palestinian rally in the city.

A mile (1.6km) from the start of the rally, around 1,000 people lined the streets to watch commemorations at the cenotaph war memorial hours before Saturday’s protest began.

In the crowd, some Right-wing counter-protesters They protested the pro-Palestinian march, chanting messages including “We want our country back.”

Clashes broke out between police and right-wing protesters near the cemetery. Police used batons to keep the demonstrators at bay, and celebrations at the memorial were not interrupted. Clashes broke out in other parts of the city, including Chinatown, and near the Parliament complex.

Following the clash near the cemetery, police said the counter-protesters were not a group and that officers were monitoring them as they moved to other parts of London. If they try to attack a pro-Palestinian march, police said, “we will use all the powers and tactics at our disposal to prevent that from happening.”

“The scenes of disorder we witnessed by the far right at Cenotaph are a direct result of the Home Secretary’s words. The job of the police has been made very difficult,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan posted on X.

Interior Secretary Suella Braverman recently called pro-Palestinian demonstrations a “hateful march” and said police were “favorite” and taking a soft stance on pro-Gaza rallies.

“The Met has my full support in taking action against anyone spreading hate and breaking the law,” Khan’s post added.

The disorderly scenes we witnessed by the far-right at the cemetery were a direct result of the Home Secretary’s words. Police work has become very difficult.

The Met has my full support in taking action against anyone who spreads hate and violates the law.

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) November 11, 2023

Copenhagen, Nov 10: Global warming has increased the rate at which Greenland’s glaciers are melting fivefold over the past 20 years, scientists at the University of Copenhagen said on Friday.

Melting Greenland’s ice is of particular concern because the ancient ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea levels by at least 20 feet (6 meters) if they melted completely.

Anders Anker Björk, assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Earth Sciences and Natural Resource Management, told Reuters that the rate of melting has entered a new phase in the past two decades in a study of a thousand glaciers in the area.

“There’s a very clear connection between the temperature we’re experiencing on the planet and the changes we’re seeing in how quickly the glaciers are melting,” Bjork said.

Glaciers are shrinking an average of 25 meters annually, compared with 5-6 meters two decades ago, scientists concluded after studying the growth of glaciers over 130 years through satellite images and 200,000 old photographs.

The world is already almost 1.2C (2.2F) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures, and 2023 is “certainly” the hottest in 125,000 years, scientists from the European Union said earlier this month.

Reducing temperatures will require a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, said Jørgen Eivind Olesen, director of the institute’s Climate Institute at Aarhus University.

“I believe we can prepare for the glaciers to continue to melt at an increasing rate,” Oleson said.

Glaciers in Greenland are often used to predict the effects of climate change on the Greenland ice sheet.

“If we start to see glaciers losing mass several times faster than they did over the last century, we can expect glaciers to continue on the same path at a slower and longer timescale,” says senior geologist William Colgan. Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) said.

The Greenland ice sheet contributed 17.3% of the observed rise in sea level between 2006 and 2018 and glaciers contributed 21%. Greenland has about 22,000 glaciers.

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Wall Street traders and brokers are scrambling to absorb the fallout from a ransomware attack on China’s biggest bank that disrupted trading in the $25tn market for US Treasuries.

The attack on the New York unit of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, first revealed by the Financial Times on Thursday, has exposed vulnerabilities in the world’s largest and most liquid treasury market, which underpins asset prices around the world.

ICBC Financial Services compromised its systems, forcing it to send BNY Mellon a USB stick with trade data that would help it settle trades, according to people familiar with the situation.

According to traders and banks, the attack prevented ICBC from settling treasury trades on behalf of other market participants. Hedge funds and asset managers adjusted trading due to the disruption and the attack had some effect on Treasury market liquidity, according to trade sources.

Some traders suggested the hack at ICBC may have contributed to a sharp sell-off in long-dated Treasuries late on Thursday following a $24bn auction of 30-year bonds.

On behalf of ICBC, BNY on Thursday requested several extensions to the operating hours of Fedwire, the real-time payments platform operated by the US Federal Reserve, to buy more time to settle Treasury trades, people familiar with the matter said.

Because of the hack, ICBC’s US arm needed a $9bn capital injection from its parent company to cover outstanding trades with BNY, two people familiar with the matter said.

BNY declined to comment. ICBC did not respond to a request for comment. ICBC previously confirmed that it had experienced a “ransomware attack, which disrupted some. [financial services] Settings”.

BNY, the world’s largest custodian bank, has electronically disconnected ICBC from its platform and does not plan to reconnect it until a third party certifies it is safe to do so, the people briefed on the matter said. BNY uses manual settlement instead of executing trades.

“No IT group is going to trust anything from ICBC US without rigorous scanning or inspection,” said one cyber expert close to the industry’s response.

Another person involved said: “It’s going to be slow and painful until BNY gets it back together.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that she had been in touch with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng about the hack, but did not see an impact on the Treasury market.

“We are working very closely with the Chinese, with the company and with the regulators in the US,” he said, adding that the Treasury had offered ICBC “whatever assistance we can” on the issue.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it “continues to focus on maintaining fair and orderly markets.” The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents banks and asset managers, held calls with members to discuss their response to the incident.

At a briefing on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said ICBC had done a good job handling the attack on its US financial services unit.

“The ICBC is closely monitoring the matter and has done its best in emergency response and supervisory communications,” said ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

ICBC is the only Chinese broker with a securities clearing license in the US. It built the business after acquiring the prime dealer services unit of Fortis Securities in 2010.

“ICBC is a big Chinese bank and the leaps and bounds it’s dealing with matter,” said Charlie McIlcott, Nomura’s cross-asset strategist. “It’s fair to say that anything that inhibited the ability to participate in the auction would have contributed to the subsequent rise in yields.”

After news of the ransomware attack broke, staff at ICBC’s Beijing headquarters held emergency meetings with their U.S. division, according to an employee who participated in these meetings.

Ransomware attacks have proliferated since the coronavirus pandemic, as remote working has made businesses more vulnerable and cybercriminal groups have become more organized.

“The severity, sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks, which often involve human error, require organizations to urgently rethink their ransomware defense approach,” said Oz Alashe, founder of British cyber security and data analytics firm CybSafe.

Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Kate Duguid in New York, Costas Morselas and George Steer in London, Colby Smith in Washington, Cheng Leng in Hong Kong and Ryan McMorrow in San Francisco

Stocks rose on Friday, after a day in bond earnings that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s more hawkish tone helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq post their longest winning streak in two years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose about 0.5%, or more than 150 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) each gained 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.

Powell’s message remained in focus on Friday, describing the Fed’s policy as “restrained” but insisting that rate hikes are still on the table as the outlook for inflation remains cloudy.

“If it is appropriate to tighten policy further, we will not hesitate to do so,” Powell said in a speech before the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

Other central bank officials said they believe the central bank will implement more tightening this week. On Friday, Dallas Federer’s Lori Logan, Atlanta’s Raphael Bostick and San Francisco’s Mary Daly are scheduled to speak.

Meanwhile, bond yields fell after Thursday afternoon. The benchmark 10-year yield (^TNX) fell below 4.6%.

On Friday, Wall Street will get a fresh look at consumer sentiment with the release of the University of Michigan index.

Among commodities, oil rose for a second straight session after falling to a three-month low on worries about global consumption. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) were at $77 a barrel, while Brent crude futures (BZ=F) traded above $80.