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Trump amps up complaints, says Pelosi may be guilty of treason

10/07/2019

U.S. economy is ‘currently in a good place,’ Fed’s George says

Kansas City Federal Reserve leader Esther George said Sunday she isn’t worried about low inflation levels right now, in comments that show the official skeptical but open to the need to lower rates again.

“The U.S. economy is currently in a good place with low inflation, low unemployment, and an outlook for continued moderate growth,” George said in text for a speech before the National Association for Business Economics Annual Meeting in Denver.

George, who dissented against the Fed’s quarter-percentage-point rate cuts made at the July and September Federal Open Market Committee meetings, didn’t rule out supporting another rate reduction if it happens. But she appeared skeptical over the need for further action.

Referring to the latest Fed two meetings, George said, “with moderate growth, record-low unemployment and a benign inflation outlook, maintaining an unchanged setting for policy would have been appropriate, in my view.” But she added, “There are certainly risks to the outlook as the economy faces trade-policy uncertainty and weaker global activity.”

“Should incoming data point to a broadly weaker economy, adjusting policy may be appropriate to achieve the Federal Reserve’s mandates for maximum sustainable employment and stable prices,” she said.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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China takes some key trade issues off the negotiating table with U.S.: report

Chinese officials have significantly narrowed the scope of issues they’re willing to discuss at upcoming trade negotiations with the U.S., Bloomberg News reported Sunday. The leader of China’s trade delegation, Vice Premier Liu He, recently told dignitaries that China will not commit to reforming industrial policies or government subsidies — two of the Trump administration’s main complaints — Bloomberg reported. Experts believe China may be gaining the upper hand in trade negotiations as President Donald Trump gets caught up in impeachment proceedings and U.S. economic data continues to weaken, the report said. U.S. and Chinese negotiators are scheduled to hold trade talks in Washington this week.

Former President Jimmy Carter ‘feels fine’ after fall at home that required stitches

Former President Jimmy Carter suffered a fall at his Georgia home on Sunday and needed stitches “above his brow,” according to the Carter Center.

The Carter Center tweeted that Carter said “he feels fine and wanted everyone to know he and Mrs. Carter are eager to be at Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in Nashville, Tennessee.”

Carter fell at his home in Plains, Georgia, earlier this year ahead of a turkey hunt. He underwent hip replacement surgery after the May incident. Two days after Carter’s fall, his wife, Rosalynn, “felt faint” and was admitted to the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Georgia, according to The Carter Center.

Carter survived a bout with brain cancer in 2015.

“I thought I only had maybe two weeks to live,” he told USA TODAY in March 2018. “So I told goodbye to my family and to the Carter Center staff who work with me.”

Carter, the oldest living former U.S. president, celebrated his 95th birthday on Tuesday. He served as the 39th president from 1977 until 1981.

Contributing: Ryan Miller and Sean Rossman, USA TODAY.

In Brazil, Amazon fires threaten millenary rock paintings

Ancient rock paintings in Brazil’s Monte Alegre park are being threatened by some of the fires burning in the Amazon region.

The online news site G1 reports says the Para state environmental institute reported the fires broke out Saturday and continued Sunday.

The park has several archaeological sites, including the one currently at risk, Serra Lua. Experts say the rock paintings in Serra Lua show humans occupied that part of the lower Amazon at least 11,000 years ago. Large yellow and red hand drawings and circles are found over a 200-meter (200-yard) stretch.

Fires in the Amazon broke out at a pace unseen since 2010 in July and August but slowed in September.

Pope Francis urged bishops on Sunday to protect the environment and indigenous communities in the Amazon.

Balloons fill Albuquerque sky in 2nd day of annual fiesta

Hundreds of balloons have filled the sky over Albuquerque in the city’s annual International Balloon Fiesta.

Event officials sent up the green flag just before 6:30 a.m. Sunday, giving the all clear for the mass ascension.

Balloons were mostly tethered to the ground Saturday because of fog and that mass ascension was canceled.

But the weather was ideal Sunday and balloons of all types took off from Balloon Fiesta Park.

The fiesta draws pilots from around the world and from 41 U.S. states.

Organizers expect tens of thousands of spectators for opening weekend and exponentially more over the course of the nine-day event.

The spectacle has grown over nearly five decades and infuses millions of dollars into the economy each year.

North Korea fishing boat, Japan patrol boat collide in Sea of Japan: Coast Guard

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese patrol boat and a large North Korean fishing vessel collided, flooding the latter and leaving about 20 of its crew adrift in the Sea of Japan, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Monday.

The Japanese boat, which belongs to the Fisheries Agency, was attempting to rescue the crew, a spokesman at the Coast Guard said.