Friday, 11th February, 2022

Page 2
US consumer prices rise
at fastest rate since 1982
Price rises in the US
accelerated by more
than expected last
month, pushing annual
inflation up to 7.5% - the
highest rate since 1982.
Food and energy costs helped
to drive the increases, which left
few spending categories untouched.
The rising prices are squeezing
household finances as wages
fail to keep pace.
Washington is under pressure
to address the issue, with the US
central bank expected to raise
interest rates.
The Bank of England has
already raised interest rates
twice in the last three months in
a bid to dampen down consumer
spending by making borrowing
more expensive.
In the US, consumer spending
held strong for much of last
year despite the rapidly rising
Religious police in
Nigeria have destroyed
nearly four million
bottles of beer in a
crackdown on alcohol.
The bottles were crushed into
the ground by bulldozers in the
northern city of Kano in front of
crowds cheering "Allahu Akbar"
(God is Great).
The predominantly Muslim
city is in one of several northern
Nigerian states that prohibit
alcohol under Sharia law.
The beers had been seized
from trucks coming from the
mainly Christian south, officials
told AFP news agency.
Shariah police, known as Hisbah,
frequently destroy confiscated
alcohol and drugs but Wednesday's
haul was one of the largest
yet in an intensifying crackdown.
Officials say they rolled over
3,873,163 bottles of beer and other
types of alcohol in bulldozers at
a wide open space as part of a
war against intoxicants. Officials
then lit the crushed remains
Four million bottles of
prices, which analysts say have
been caused by a mix of robust
demand, government spending,
supply chain hold-ups and pay
increases following labour shortages.
Amazon, Netflix and Procter
& Gamble are among the many
firms that have announced price
rises in recent months, citing
higher costs. They have said
they expect most households to
absorb the increases.
But the issue is increasingly
a key issue for voters, hurting
President Joe Biden's popularity
despite strong economic growth
last year.
In a statement, Mr Biden
pledged that his administration
would "be all hands on deck to
win this fight", acknowledging
that "Americans' budgets are being
stretched in ways that create
real stress at the kitchen table".
On a monthly basis, consumon
fire and allowed the blaze to
burn into the night, according to
villagers who watched.
"Kano is a sharia state and the
sale, consumption and possession
of alcoholic substances are prohibited",
the head of the religious
police Haruna Ibn Sina declared
at the ceremony.
Alcohol has been prohibited
in Kano since 2001, one of dozens
of states in Nigeria's mainly Muslim
north to have reintroduced a
strict version of Sharia law since
the country returned to civilian
rule over two decades ago.
The ban on alcohol has recently
been a source of tension in
the state's capital.
In December, young people in
one of Kano's Christian neighbourhoods
clashed with religious
police when officials raided
drinking spots in the area.
Non-religious police had to be
brought in to restore order after
a mob was formed and began
setting bonfires alight on the
streets.
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 11th February, 2022
er prices climbed 0.6% in January,
the US Labor Department said.
The rent index rose 0.4%,
while grocery prices jumped 1%,
driven by increases in the cost of
bakery and cereal products.
Detra Thomas, a 60-yearold
human resources assistant
who lives in New York, says she
recently stopped shopping at the
supermarket, opting to order in
bulk online or visit street vendors
in hopes of finding lower prices.
"I just can't afford to buy all
my food from the regular grocery
store," she told the BBC.
She has been delaying
clothing purchases, clipping
coupons and taking other steps
in an effort to make her money
go farther. Though she received
a small pay raise last year, it does
not match the rapid increases in
the cost of living, she says.
"You have to worry about
what am I going to buy, what am
I not going to buy, can I do without
this for a while," she said.
"I would like the stability of
knowing that the supplies are
going to get through in a timely
Former US President
Donald Trump has told
associates he remains
in contact with North
Korea's leader Kim Jongun,
according to the author of a
new book.
Journalist Maggie Haberman
said Mr Kim was the only foreign
leader Mr Trump had said he
remained in touch with.
But, she added, the claims
could not be verified and might
not be true.
In 2018, Mr Trump famously
said he and Mr Kim "fell in love"
after exchanging letters. But they
failed to seal a deal to denuclearise
the Korean peninsula.
Communications between a
former US president and Mr Kim
would be highly unusual, given
North Korea's international isolation
because of its nuclear and
missile programme.
"As we know, [Mr Trump] had
a fixation on this relationship,"
Haberman, a New York Times
journalist, told CNN. The revelation
is in her upcoming book on
Mr Trump, The Confidence Man.
"What he says and what's
actually happening are not always
in concert, but he has been telling
people that he has maintained
some kind of a correspondence
or discussion with Kim Jong-un,"
she said.
Mr Trump held two summits
with Mr Kim aimed at curbing
North Korea's nuclear programme
which failed to produce an agreement.
The country has continued
to carry out ballistic missile tests,
in breach of UN resolutions.
Correspondences from Mr Kim
Global News
manner and that we're not going
to have to pay an arm and a leg
for them."
Analysts said the Labor
Department's report held some
signs that inflationary pressures
may start to cool, noting that
prices for new cars - one of the
key drivers of inflation over the
last year - were unchanged over
the month, while the increases
for used cars slowed.
Rates for hotel rooms also
dropped a hefty 3.9%, which may
have been driven by the impact of
reduced travel due to Omicron.
But given the jumps in food
were among the documents in
15 boxes of papers retrieved from
Mr Trump last month by the National
Archives, the government
agency that manages the preservation
of presidential record.
The documents should have
been turned over to the agency
when Mr Trump left the White
House but, instead, were taken to
his residence in Florida.
The National Archives asked
the Department of Justice to
examine Mr Trump's handling of
White House records, according
to the Washington Post. A justice
department spokesman did not
comment.
and shelter costs, the financial
pressures for most households
are not going away, said Andrew
Hunter, senior US economist at
Capital Economics.
"A rapid cyclical acceleration
in inflation is underway and,
with labour market conditions
exceptionally tight, it is unlikely
to abate any time soon," he said.
"While we still expect more
favourable base effects and a
partial easing of supply shortages
to push core inflation lower this
year, this suggests it will remain
well above the Fed's target for
some time."
beer destroyed in Nigeria
Trump says he is in touch with
North Korea's leader Kim - book
The northern Nigerian city of Kano operates under Sharia law and
Separately, a committee at the
House of Representatives said it
had opened an investigation.
In her interview to CNN,
Haberman also said White House
staff periodically found documents
clogging Mr Trump's toilet
in the White House during his
presidency.
Staff, she said, would then
find "wads of clumped up, wet
printed paper... either notes or
some other piece of paper that
they believe he had thrown down
the toilet".
Mr Trump denied the claim as
"categorically untrue".
to reach a deal to denuclearise the Korean peninsula