LONDON — U.S. Southern Command announced on Wednesday that American forces struck another alleged drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people the command described as “narco-terrorists.”
Wednesday’s strike was the 26th since such operations began on Sept. 2. The total death toll as reported by the Pentagon now stands at 99 people.
SOUTHCOM said the “lethal kinetic strike” was launched at the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Task Force Southern Spear.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the statement added. “A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed.”
A video posted alongside the statement showed a vessel in motion before it was hit by an explosion. The video then cut to show a stationary vessel on fire.
In this handout, the mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019. Kypros/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — One day before the deadline for the Justice Department to release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday publicly disclosed another batch of photographs provided by the late financier’s estate in response to Congressional subpoenas.
The cache of about 70 photos includes include heavily redacted photos of women’s passports, images of famous men who associated with Epstein, and “concerning text messages about recruiting women for Jeffrey Epstein,” according to a statement from Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee.
“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people,” Garcia said in the statement. “As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”
The photos released Thursday are from a larger batch of more than 95,000 images turned over last week by the Epstein estate. The photos were provided to Congress without context, timing, or locations. The images are therefore “presented as received,” the Democrats said.
One image shows billionaire Bill Gates standing with a woman — whose face is concealed — in what appears to be a hotel lobby. Another shows the philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky aboard an airplane chatting with Epstein.
The appearance of the men in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Another photo shows a woman’s lower leg and foot on what looks like a bed, with a paperback copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” in the background. On the woman’s foot is a handwritten quote from the controversial 1955 novel about a professor’s obsession with a young girl.
“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock,” the quote reads.
Other images include a heavily redacted Ukrainian passport of a woman, with all the identifying information covered with black boxes to protect her identify. After Epstein’s 2006 arrest and jail sentence in Florida for solicitation of a minor, he was alleged to have turned his focus to recruiting young women from Eastern European countries.
A screenshot released Thursday of a text message chat — whose participants are not revealed — seems to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.
“I will send u girls now,” the message says. “Maybe someone will be good for J?”
A redacted description lists the woman’s name, age, height, weight and physical measurements. The message indicates the woman would be traveling from Russia.
The House Oversight Committee is conducting a broad inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The committee’s efforts are separate from — though at times overlapping — the new law that requires the DOJ to make public its files on Epstein by Friday.
A portrait of 10-year-old Matilda, victim of the Bondi Beach shooting, sits on a flower memorial beside Bondi Pavilion on December 17, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. James D. Morgan/Getty Images
A tiny white coffin was slowly carried out of the synagogue as people sobbed, hugged, clutched teddy bears and held colorful, heart-shaped balloons.
Matilda’s family moved from Ukraine to Australia “for a good life,” a rabbi told The Associated Press.
Matilda’s mother told ABC News that this photo of Matilda in a yellow dress with her face painted was taken on the day she was killed.
In an online fundraiser, a teacher wrote that she knew Matilda — whose last name has not been released — as a “bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her.”
Matilda was among the 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration this weekend in what officials called an antisemitic terror attack. More than 40 others were wounded.
One gunman was killed at the scene and the second is in custody and facing charges.
ABC News’ Nataliia Popova contributed to this report.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The evidence suppression hearing in the case against accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione concluded Thursday after the defense signaled it would call no witnesses.
“The defense rests,” defense attorney Karen Agnifilo said after prosecutors indicated they, too, rested.
The nine-day hearing will determine what evidence will be used against Mangione when he goes on trial on charges of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last year.
The defense has argued the officers violated Mangione’s constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure because they lacked a warrant when they searched his backpack after Mangione was apprehended in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the shooting.
New York Judge Gregory Carro gave the defense until Jan. 29 to make its final argument about the evidence in writing. Prosecutors have until March 5. The defense then has two weeks after that to submit a reply.
Carro said he expected to issue his decision about what, if any, evidence to exclude on May 18, at which point he would also set a date for trial.
Prosecutor Joel Seidemann pushed for the case to move toward trial, noting that Thompson’s mother is 77 years old and is waiting for the case to reach a conclusion.
The suppression hearing included testimony from 17 witnesses and produced new information about the case that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is building against Mangione.
Higher-quality surveillance video of Thompson’s murder that was played in court shows Thompson buckling against the side of the Hilton facade, the suspect calmly walking by the victim and bystanders pointing in the suspect’s direction.
Multiple body-worn camera videos of the hour-long encounter at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, show officers approaching Mangione, placing him under arrest and searching his backpack.
The body camera footage shows officers collected more evidence from Mangione than previously known, including handwritten notes that prosecutors characterized as a “to-do” list, as well as possible “escape routes.” One of the notes included a reminder to “pluck eyebrows.”
Prosecutors played several 911 calls, and Pennsylvania correction officers testified that Mangione made statements about health care, how he was being perceived in the media, and about a 3D-printed gun.
Defense attorneys highlighted how Mangione was not read his rights until 19 minutes after officers first approached him. Officers testified they believed Mangione was the suspect in the New York shooting and were trying to confirm his identity without raising his suspicions because they were under a “high level of threat.”
Altoona Patrolman Stephen Fox testified that Mangione saw the crowd of media gathered outside for his arraignment and quoted him saying, “All these people here for a mass murderer, wild.”
Fox also testified that Mangione, after tripping on his shackles, said, “It’s OK, I’ll have to get used to it.”
Community members gather outside of Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Audrey Richardson/Getty Images)
(SYDNEY) — When shots rang out at a Hanukkah celebration on Australia’s Bondi Beach, Arsen Ostrovsky said he thought it could’ve been balloons popping.
“Because it was the carnival, there were clowns and children’s activities,” he told ABC News. “But then it was just non-stop, relentless — so I knew that we were under attack.”
As Ostrovsky ran toward his wife and her children, who were exposed and closer to the shooting, he said he felt a bullet strike his head.
“I fell down and I remember saying, ‘I’m hit, ‘I’m hit,’ and the blood just started gushing,” Ostrovsky said, with part of his head still bandaged up.
Fifteen people were killed — including a 10-year-old girl named Matilda and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor — and more than 40 others were wounded in last weekend’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach.
The two gunmen — who officials say appeared to have been inspired by ISIS — were allegedly father and son. The father, Sajid Akram, was killed by police at the scene, and the son, Naveed Akram, was wounded and taken into custody. He faces charges, including committing a terrorist act and 15 counts of murder.
When asked if he has anything to say to the gunmen, Ostrovsky — who was in Israel during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023 — said he hopes they face justice and understand they will never succeed in taking away his humanity.
“We’ve seen the horrors of the last two years in Israel, thinking that we would be coming here to a safe place, and then having to flee for our lives,” Ostrovsky said.
Ostrovsky said the actions of people at Bondi Beach, like Ahmed al-Ahmed — a bystander who was seen on video jumping in and wrestling a gun away from one of the attackers — and other members of the public who ran toward the danger, have helped him see humanity in the darkness.
People were “running from the surf, coming from shops, running from a beach to help,” he said.
“That’s what I choose to take,” he said.
ABC News’ Karson Yiu and James Gillings contributed to this report.
Brian Walshe, accused of murdering wife Ana Walshe on Jan. 1, 2023, is lead into his hearing at Norfolk Superior Court. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
(DEDHAM, Mass.) —Brian Walshe was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Massachusetts jury found him guilty of killing and dismembering his wife, the mother of their three children, with the judge calling his acts “barbaric and incomprehensible.”
His wife, Ana Walshe, went missing on Jan. 1, 2023, at the age of 39. Her body has not been found.
Brian Walshe, 50, pleaded guilty last month to improperly disposing of her body and lying to police following her disappearance. He had changed his plea on the two charges before jury selection got underway for the trial, while maintaining that he did not kill her.
A Norfolk County jury found Brian Walshe guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, after deliberating for approximately six hours over two days.
He faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Judge Diane Freniere said that the sentence, the only appropriate sentence under the law, is “immensely appropriate and just, given your murderous acts and the life trauma that you’ve inflicted upon your own children.”
She said that because of his lies to police, “thousands of hours of investigative resources were wasted, diverted from other deserving cases,” and that his “acts in dismembering your wife’s body and disposing of her remains in multiple area dumpsters can only be described as barbaric and incomprehensible.”
“You had no regard for the lifelong mental harm that your criminal acts inflicted on your then 2-, 4- and 6-year-old sons,” she said, noting that they will “never being able to properly grieve that loss to say goodbye to their mom.”
She handed down consecutive sentences on the three counts, with up to 20 years for lying to police and up to three years for illegally conveying his wife’s body.
Ana Walshe’s sister addressed the court ahead of sentencing, saying the “incomprehensible act” has left her and their mother with an “unbearable emptiness.”
Her sister, Aleksandra Dimitrijevic, asked the court to consider the “long-lasting” impact her murder will have on her children in handing down the sentence.
“The most painful part of this loss is knowing her children must now grow up without their mother’s hand to hold,” she said. “They now face a lifetime of milestones, big and small, where her absence will be deeply and painfully felt.”
The Commonwealth argued that each of the three charges “calls for a harsh penalty” and asked that he be sentenced consecutively, while the defense responded that consecutive sentences would be “inappropriate and inhumane.”
Prosecutor Greg Connor suggested the word inhumane “describes the defendant’s actions and the depravity of his actions, of murdering his wife, dismembering her and getting rid of her remains by throwing her away like garbage.”
Connor said those actions deprived Ana Walshe’s family of a grave and memorial.
The judge said she had received and reviewed sentencing memorandums from prosecutors and the defense, as well as multiple written victim impact statements. One submitted on behalf of Ana Walshe’s children from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family Services relayed the “devastating impact on her children,” the judge said.
“It’s clear to me that Ana was a bright light in the lives of many people. She lifted people up,” the judge said.
Freniere said she also considered a letter submitted by Brian Walshe’s mother on his behalf, but she said she “simply cannot reconcile the person Diana Walshe describes in her letter with the person who stands before me for sentence.”
“Mr. Walshe, you will live with the guilt and burden of Ana Walshe’s death for the rest of your life,” Freniere said before sentencing him to life in prison.
Brian Walshe did not testify during the two-week trial in Dedham, and the defense did not call any witnesses.
Defense attorneys said during the trial that Brian Walshe did not kill his wife but found her dead in bed on New Year’s Day in 2023 — calling her death sudden and unexplained — and then panicked and lied to police as they investigated her disappearance.
Prosecutors said Brian Walshe premeditatedly murdered and dismembered his wife, then disposed of her remains in dumpsters. The internet history on his devices on Jan. 1, 2023, included searches such as “best way to dispose of a body,” “how long for someone to be missing to inherit,” and “best way to dispose of body parts after a murder,” prosecutors said.
Evidence presented during the trial included surveillance footage of a man believed to be Brian Walshe buying tools and other supplies at a Lowe’s on Jan. 1, 2023. A receipt showed that items, including a hacksaw, utility knife, hammer, snips, Tyvek suit, shoeguards, rags and cleaning supplies, totaling $462, were purchased with cash.
Additional surveillance footage presented in court showed someone throwing out trash bags at dumpsters on multiple days in early January 2023.
Several blood-stained items recovered from dumpsters by investigators — including a hacksaw, a piece of rug, a towel and hairs — and an unknown tissue were linked to Ana Walshe through DNA testing, a forensic scientist from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory testified during the trial.
Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on Jan. 4, 2023. Brian Walshe told police at the time that she had a “work emergency” at her job in D.C. and left their Cohasset home on New Year’s Day, according to audio of his interview played in court.
Jurors heard testimony, including from a D.C. man with whom Ana Walshe was having an affair, that the mother of three was upset about being away from her young children so much — who were 2, 4 and 6 at the time — and there was stress in the marriage.
At the time, Brian Walshe and their three children were living in Massachusetts while he was awaiting sentencing in a federal fraud case after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings. He was ultimately sentenced to 37 months in federal prison in that case.
Freniere said Thursday it is her understanding that the federal sentence will run concurrent with the one she imposed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Schloss Bellevue on December 15, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Kay Nietfeld – Pool/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Wednesday that Russia is preparing “the coming year as a year of war,” despite ongoing U.S.-brokered peace talks to end Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin sent “signals” of Moscow’s aggressive intent in remarks made on Wednesday, saying the bellicose comments were intended “not only for us.”
“It is important that partners see this,” Zelenskyy added. “And it is important that they not only see it, but also respond, in particular partners in the United States of America, who often say that Russia supposedly wants to end the war. But entirely different rhetoric and different signals are coming from Russia.”
Zelenskyy said an upcoming summit in Brussels to discuss the use of some $250 billion worth of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine was “important,” and that the outcome of the talks “must be such that Russia feels that its desire to continue the war next year makes no sense, because Ukraine will have support. This depends one hundred percent on Europe, it is Europe that must make this choice.”
Zelenskyy arrived in Brussels on Thursday morning.
European leader stressed the significance of Thursday’s meeting.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that either the European Union would agree on “money [for Ukraine] today or blood tomorrow.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post to X, “We have one ultimate goal: peace for Ukraine through strength.”
Zelenskyy later said Ukraine would use any funds “mostly for weapons.” He added, “We can’t afford that Ukraine remains without the answer as for the funding for the next year, it’s a big threat.”
“It’s not just about the frontline but about Ukraine’s overall ability to fight,” Zelenskyy said. “If Ukraine doesn’t receive the money in spring the scale of drone production will decrease several-fold.”
Zelenskyy also said that more talks are expected between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in the coming week.
Zelenskyy’s comments were prompted by remarks made by Putin at the Russian Defense Ministry’s annual meeting on Wednesday, where the Russian leader claimed that his forces had “gained and firmly holds the strategic initiative across the entire front line.”
Putina added that Russian troops were “confidently advancing and ‘grinding down’ the enemy, its groups and reserves, including the so-called elite units and formations trained in Western military centers and equipped with modern foreign technology and weapons.”
Putin said the objectives of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” will be achieved either through diplomacy or through military force.
“We preferred to do this and eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy,” Putin said. “If the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive talks, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.”
The Russian president again sought to frame Ukraine’s European partners as being responsible for the elongation of the war, which Moscow launched in February 2022. The Kremlin has continued to wage its war despite multiple rounds of diplomacy aimed at securing a ceasefire.
“We welcome the progress that has been made in the dialogue with the new U.S. administration,” Putin said. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the current leadership of most European countries.”
Putin even referred to European leaders as “little pigs” in his Wednesday comments, and was also critical of the pro-Ukraine policies of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Meanwhile, both Kyiv and Moscow continued their long-range strikes overnight into Thursday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 82 drones into the country in its latest barrage, of which 63 were shot down or suppressed. Nineteen strike drones impacted across 12 locations, the air force said.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said six people were injured by a drone strike in the ️Cherkasy region, as were three people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 77 Ukrainian drones from Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Othon Leyva, Tom Soufi Burridge, Guy Davies and Yulia Drozd contributed to this report.
A large portion of the damaged plane fuselage is lifted from the Potomac River during recovery efforts after the American Airlines crash, Feb. 3, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government admitted some failures and accepted liability for its role in the deadly Jan. 29 mid-air crash over the Potomac River between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter, according to a filing in a civil suit, but pushed back on a number of claims that were made.
The filing came in response to a suit brought by the family of one of the 67 people killed in the crash between a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight operated by a regional carrier. The family’s lawsuit serves as the “master complaint” on behalf of all deceased passengers.
The regional jet and Black Hawk helicopter both crashed into the icy Potomac River after colliding in midair, launching an overnight search and rescue mission, with no survivors found. Sixty-four people were on the plane and three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.
The government attorneys, in their 209-page filling on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, said that the pilots of both the Black Hawk and the regional jet “failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid each other.”
And it admitted that the Black Hawk pilots’ failure to maintain vigilance was “a proximate cause” of the accident.
“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025,” the government said in the filing.
The government also conceded that the air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport did not comply with regulations that state “[i]f aircraft are on converging courses, inform the other aircraft of the traffic and that visual separation is being applied.”
But it did not concede, as alleged, that the actions of the controller were responsible for the crash.
“The United States denies that any alleged negligence of the air traffic controllers on position in Washington Tower during the accident was a cause-in-fact and a proximate cause of the accident and the death of DECEDENT,” the filing says.
And it denied, as alleged in the suit, that the extremely busy airspace above Reagan National Airport presented an “accident waiting to happen.”
The government conceded that while the airspace above Reagan National is “busy at times and the risk of midair collision cannot be reduced to zero” and “that aircraft have come into close proximity to other aircraft within the Class B airspace near DCA on certain occasions” it did not admit to “collective failures” that led to the crash.
The original lawsuit as it was filed says that among the factors known to the military was that there had been “a substantial number of ‘near miss’ events in and around DCA, which were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
But the government denied the statement that those known misses “were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the case, Rachel Crafton, said in a statement responding to the U.S. filing, “These families remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life.”
“We continue to investigate this matter to ensure all parties at fault are held accountable, and we await additional findings from the NTSB in an anticipated January 26 hearing on this matter in Washington, D.C,” said attorney Robert A. Clifford, who represents Crafton.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its final report with the probable cause and its recommendations by the anniversary of the crash on Jan. 29, 2026.
District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who was appointed in 2023, is presiding over the case, according to court records.
Editor’s Note: A prior version of this story incorrectly attributed allegations from the family’s “master complaint” to the U.S. government, which had reprinted those allegations in its Wednesday filing in order to respond to them.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket carrying astronauts Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyn, Kerianne Flynn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez lifts off from Launch Site One on April 14, 2025 in Van Horn, Texas. Blue Origin’s Mission NS-31 is the first all-female astronaut crew since 1963. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Blue Origin will make history when it sends the first person who uses a wheelchair past the Kármán line, an internationally recognized boundary of space that’s 62 miles above Earth, on its next mission.
On Thursday, a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket will take Michaela ‘Michi’ Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer who suffered a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident, along with five others, on a journey past the Kármán line. New Shepard rockets are fully reusable spacecraft that Blue Origin says require less maintenance between flights, saving money and reducing waste.
The NS-37 mission will be the 16th human flight for Blue Origin, which has taken 86 people — 80 individuals — above the Kármán line.
Benthaus, who works for the European Space Agency, has dedicated her career to scientific collaboration to advance interplanetary exploration, according to Blue Origin. Since her 2018 accident, she has advocated for greater access to space.
Benthaus flew aboard a Zero-G research flight in 2022 — also known as the “Vomit Comet” — and completed an analog astronaut mission, simulating space activities on Earth. She continues to pursue sporting activities outside of work, including wheelchair tennis, according to Blue Origin.
The other five members of the team include:
Joel Hyde is a physicist and quantitative investor, and a retired hedge fund partner. He resides in Florida with his wife and five children. Blue Origin says his passion for space was ignited in 1988 during a visit to the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center, leading him to earn a Ph.D. in Astrophysics.
Hans Koenigsmann is a German-American aerospace engineer known for his efforts in developing reusable spacecraft and launch vehicles. He spent two decades at SpaceX and remains influential in the aerospace community, serving in advisory roles across different companies, including Blue Origin.
Neal Milch is a business executive and entrepreneur who is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Jackson Laboratory, where he champions genetic research to enhance human health.
Adonis Pouroulis is an entrepreneur and mining engineer with over 30 years of experience in natural resources and energy. He leads several companies, including Pella Resources and Chariot Limited, focusing on innovative energy technologies.
Jason Stansell is a space enthusiast from West Texas with a computer science degree from Tulane University. Blue Origin says his flight is in honor of his brother, Kevin, who passed away from brain cancer in 2016, by dedicating his upcoming flight to him.
Unlike recent orbital missions flown by SpaceX or NASA, New Shepard flights are suborbital, designed for brief human spaceflight experiences that cross the Kármán line before returning to Earth.
During the 10 to 12-minute flight, the group will experience several minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth.
The flight is scheduled to take off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve on December 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An inflation report to be released on Thursday will offer a look at price increases for the first time in nearly two months, after the 43-day government shutdown impaired data collection.
The fresh data is set to arrive amid an uptick of inflation over recent months that has coincided with a flurry of tariffs issued by President Donald Trump. Economists expect that acceleration of price increases to have continued last month, forecasting a jump in year-over-year inflation from 3% in September to 3.1% in November.
The report will detail the latest price movements for high-profile items like coffee, beef and eggs.
In September — the most recent month for which data is available — the price of coffee soared nearly 19% and the price of beef jumped about 15%, when compared to the same month a year prior.
The year-over-year price of eggs dropped nearly 5% in September, offering a bright spot for consumers.
The federal government will issue partial price data for October, but the release will not include a figure for the overall rise in prices that month, since officials failed to collect sufficient information during the government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) previously said in a statement.
The latest snapshot of price increases comes at a wobbly period for the U.S. economy, landing in a period marked by sluggish hiring and elevated inflation.
Two major economic data releases earlier this week flashed warning signs, some analysts previously told ABC News.
The U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November, which marked a significant decline from 119,000 jobs added in September, the most recent month for which complete data is available, the BLS said in a jobs report on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% in November from 4.4% in September. Unemployment remains low by historical standards but has inched up to its highest level since 2021.
A retail sales report on Tuesday also sounded a cautionary note about consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Retail sales were left unchanged in October from September, meaning performance remained flat despite the ramp-up of the holiday season, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
Last week, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point in an effort to boost the sluggish labor market. The move amounted to the third rate cut this year, bringing the Fed’s benchmark rate to a level between 3.5% and 3.75%.
Interest rates have dropped significantly from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fed is stuck in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. To address pressure on both of its goals, the Fed primarily holds a single tool: interest rates.
The pressure on both sides of the Fed’s dual mandate present a “challenging situation” for the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last week.
“There’s no risk-free path for policy as we navigate this tension between our employment and inflation goals,” Powell added.
The Fed will meet again to adjust interest rates next month. The odds of interest rates being left unchanged stand at about 75%, while the chances of a quarter-point rate cut register at 25%, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
