U.S. inflation rate rises to 13-year high of 5.4%

The U.S. inflation rate rose to a 13-year high in September as rising costs for food and shelter pushed the rate up to 5.4 per cent.

Higher prices for food and shelter made up half of the increase in the overall rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics said in a release. But the biggest individual category increase was energy, the cost of which has risen by almost 25 per cent in the past year.

Economists were expecting the number to come in at around 5.3 per cent, which would have been the highest rate since 2013. But the figure ended up being higher than it's been since 2008, right before the financial crisis.

+ Read more at: U.S. inflation rate rises to 13-year high of 5.4% | CBC News

Russia In High-Level Contact With US Over Ukraine

Russia said on Monday (5 April) it was in high-level contact with the United States about tensions over Ukraine and dismissed fears of a Russian military buildup even as it vowed to respond to new Ukrainian sanctions.

US President Joe Biden used a first phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday to offer “unwavering” support after Western nations and NATO voiced concern over Russian troop movements near Ukraine.

There has been a recent spike in violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region where Kyiv’s troops have battled Russian-backed separatist forces in a conflict it estimates has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

Read more at: Russia In High-Level Contact With US Over Ukraine – Eurasia Review