In Other News: EXPLAINER: Why US inflation is so high, and when it may ease; Masks could return to Los Angeles as COVID surges nationwide

Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 16, 2022

EXPLAINER: Why US inflation is so high, and when it may ease

Inflation’s relentless surge didn’t merely persist in June. It accelerated. For the 12 months ending in June, the government’s consumer price index rocketed 9.1%, the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981. And that was nothing next to what energy prices did: Fueled by heavy demand and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy costs shot up nearly 42% in the past 12 months, the largest such jump since 1980. Even if you toss out food and energy prices — which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike — so-called core inflation soared 5.9% over the past year. Consumers have endured the pain in everyday routines. Unleaded gasoline is up 61% in the past year. Men’s suits, jackets and coats, 25%, Airline tickets, 34%. Eggs 33%. Breakfast sausage, 14%. Under Chair Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve never anticipated inflation this severe or persistent. Yet after having been merely an afterthought for decades, high inflation reasserted itself with ferocious speed as shortages of labor and supplies ran up against a propulsive rise in demand for goods and services across the economy.

Masks could return to Los Angeles as COVID surges nationwideNew omicron variants are again driving hospital admissions and deaths higher in recent weeks, causing states and cities to rethink their responses to COVID-19 and the White House to step up efforts to alert the public. Some experts say the warnings are too little, too late. The highly transmissible variants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by vaccination. Health officials say Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, is facing a return to a broad indoor mask mandate later this month if current trends in hospital admissions continue.

Van Gogh self-portrait found hidden behind another paintingA previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings. The National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday it was discovered on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. The self-portrait is believed to have been covered by layers of glue and cardboard when it was framed in the early 20th century. Experts said the bearded subject was instantly recognizable as the artist himself, and the painting is thought to be from his early work. The left ear is clearly visible and Van Gogh famously cut his off in 1888.