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US sending advanced rocket systems to Ukraine

The Biden administration will send long-range rocket systems as part of a $700 million weapons package to Ukraine, senior administration officials told reporters on Tuesday night.

The new package is set to include High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and munitions to allow Ukrainians to more precisely strike targets from a greater distance inside of Ukraine, the officials said.

The official added that the system would be used to repel Russian systems, they would not be used inside of Russian territory.

The news comes after the White House sent conflicting messages after multiple news outlets reported that the administration was preparing to provide Ukraine with U.S.-made Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, which can fire rockets up to 300 kilometers.

Biden told reporters on Monday that the U.S. was “not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that strike into Russia,” as there are concerns about escalating the war into a larger conflict.

But in a guest essay for The New York Times published on Tuesday, the president alluded to sending Ukraine the rocket systems, saying in part “we have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.”

“That’s why I’ve decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine,” he continued.

The HIMARS is a lighter wheeled system that can fire many of the same types of ammunition as the MLRS. One official said that U.S. was comfortable with giving Ukraine the systems after receiving assurances from Kyiv that they would not use them to fire into Russian territory.

In addition to the HIMARS, the package will also include air surveillance radars, Javelin anti-tank missiles, and anti-armor weapons, another official said.

It will also include additional artillery rounds, helicopters, tactical vehicles, and a spare parts package to allow Ukraine to maintain the systems it has already been provided.

The package is the 11^th that the U.S. has provided under presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to pull from its own weapons stockpile. It is also the first to be sent from the $40 billion supplemental package for Ukraine that Congress passed earlier this month.

The U.S. has sent $5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration, of which $4 billion has been sent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

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LGBTQ+ creators come together for first-ever nationwide ‘Pride Eve’

Five months into a year marked by the introduction of hundreds of bills with the potential to harm LGBTQ+ Americans, members of the queer community are coming together to spread positivity and acceptance on the eve of Pride Month, celebrated each June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots and recognize the impact that LGBTQ+ people have had – and continue to have – on the nation’s history.

More than 100 LGBTQ+ influencers, content creators and artists are partnering with the group Invisible Narratives to celebrate the first-ever nationwide “Pride Eve” event, counting down in unison to 12:00 a.m. on June 1 to commemorate the official start of Pride Month.

The live “Pride Eve” broadcast  – featuring influencers like Raven Symone and Big Freedia – will also include pre-recorded tapes from creators across the country who were asked to share their stories and explain what Pride means to them.

In an interview with Changing America, Catherine McEvoy, the co-president of Invisible Narratives, said the idea for the event stemmed directly from recent legislation that has targeted LGBTQ+ people, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law or Alabama’s felony ban on gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth.

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McEvoy said a project like this one would typically require at least six months to a year of preparation, but the 10-person Los Angeles-based startup felt compelled to act after reading up on recent legislative attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, putting the event together in just under 60 days.

“We felt there was an urgency to counteract some of the fear that we feel like the legislation represents with a message of love, acceptance and resilience,” she said.

The hour-long broadcast will be streamed Tuesday across TikTok, Instagram and Youtube, as well as on Inviz.tv, where more than 20 different Pride flags are also available for purchase through June 30.

All profits will be donated to the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group The Trevor Project and Project Contrast, which amplifies LGBTQ+ voices through innovative storytelling.

McEvoy said her team hopes LGBTQ+ people – especially young LGBTQ+ people – that live in places where they are not accepted will be able to access the broadcast. She hopes it’ll provide them with hope for the future and foster a sense of community.

“Even if you’re in a place where you’re too scared to come out, or you’re in a country where there is no community, there may not be parades but there is TikTok,” she said. “I just know that it’s going to help a lot of people,” she said.

Creators involved in the project have expressed a similar desire.

Eureka O’Hara, who appeared on seasons nine and 10 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and co-hosts the HBO show “We’re Here,” told Changing America that “Pride Eve” presents a unique opportunity to advance LGBTQ+ visibility.

“For me, I didn’t really get to learn about people like me until I was in high school,” O’Hara said. “It would have been really special for me to see people of difference and learn who they are, so I can learn who I am.”

O’Hara’s relationship with gender has been a complicated one, and they lived for a number of years as a transgender woman before making the decision to detransition, ultimately realizing that being transgender did not encompass their “full identity.”

“I think the trans person that I was is still a huge part of who I am now,” O’Hara, who uses a gender-neutral pronoun, told The Advocate in 2019. “It was more of discovering that I’m all of these things.”

Now, O’Hara hopes that sharing their journey will help others discover and celebrate their own gender identity and gender expression. Outside of youth who may be struggling with their identities, O’Hara hopes their message reaches adults who may be unfamiliar or unaccepting of LGBTQ+ people, potentially fostering a cultural shift where queer identities are more normalized.

“People that wouldn’t normally get exposed to queer culture will get a chance to see the human side,” they said. “I think that’s what these Pride events do. They kind of force people to see us. I think Pride Eve is doing that – it’s forcing people to see how we come together and how we support each other.”

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Energy & Environment — EU agrees to oil ban — with an exception

The EU reached a deal to ban most of its oil imports from Russia, and the Pentagon is reporting some drinking water with high levels of toxic PFAS chemicals near its bases. 

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. 

EU agrees to embargo on most Russia oil 

The European Union (EU) on Monday agreed to ban most Russian oil after weeks of uncertainty over the plan.  

The EU will block Russian oil imports by the end of the year but exempt oil carried by pipeline. 

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she expected the embargo to cover about 90 percent of Russian oil imported into the EU. 

Hungary, which is landlocked and therefore can’t import oil via ocean, was a major hurdle to securing an agreement. The pipeline exemption is expected to mollify concerns from its prime minister, Viktor Orbán.  

The announcement was part of a sixth round of sanctions from the European Union on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. 

Read more here from The Associated Press.  

RUSSIA HITS SOME OF EUROPE’S GAS IMPORTS 

Russia is cutting off additional supplies of natural gas to Europe — this time impacting countries including Germany —  as the continent moves ahead with its ban on Russian oil.  

Russian company Gazprom said in Telegram posts on Tuesday that it would cut off gas supplied under a contract with Shell to Germany and under a contract with Danish company Ørsted and Dutch company GasTerra BV. 

The three companies failed to comply with Russia’s new requirement to pay for gas in Russian rubles, Gazprom said.     

In the meantime, companies will try to get fuel from elsewhere:

• Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith said via email that the company has “access to a diverse portfolio of gas from which we will continue to supply our customers in Europe.”
• Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper said the company has been “preparing for this scenario, so we still expect to be able to supply gas to our customers.” Nipper said that there is no gas pipeline that goes directly between Russia and Denmark, so Russia would not be directly cutting of the country’s supply. 
• GasTerra said it “has anticipated this by buying gas from other providers” but also said that it is “impossible to predict” whether the European market can absorb the lost supply without serious consequences. 

Read more about the latest cutoffs here. 

High PFAS levels detected in water near bases 

The Defense Department is reporting high levels of toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water near several of its bases, according to new data released by the department. 

Drinking water testing near bases in Washington state, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan found levels of the chemicals well above a health threshold set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  

A refresher: PFAS is the name for a group of thousands of chemicals, some of which have been linked to health issues such as kidney and testicular cancer and liver damage.   

The substances have been used in products such as firefighting foam, which is used by the military. For this reason, PFAS can be found near military bases and can contaminate nearby water.  

While it has long been known that PFAS have leached into groundwater near military installations, the new data provides an official glimpse into how it is impacting nearby drinking water. 

While the EPA has said that levels of two types of PFAS called PFOA and PFOS should not exceed 70 parts per trillion (ppt) — and states have called for even lower levels — findings at some of the bases far exceed that.  

One assessment from October found a sample of drinking water near the Naval Air Station at Washington State’s Whidbey Island contained 4,720 ppt of PFOS. In September, a sample containing 208 ppt of PFOA was detected.

Meanwhile, a drinking water sample near Washington state’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord Yakima Training Center was found to have 800 ppt of PFOS in January. A separate sample from January at the base was found to have 130 ppt of PFOA.

A sample from near Pennsylvania’s Willow Grove base was found to have 864 ppt of PFOS in October. 

Read more about the data here.

HHS GETS AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE OFFICE 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday announced an Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) within the department to address climate-related health issues particularly affecting poor and marginalized Americans.  

The office, which will be under the aegis of the HHS Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, will be responsible for developing the department’s broader environmental health strategies and coordinating its annual environmental justice reports, according to HHS. The department is seeking public comment on its implementation plan for the new office through June 18.  

Read more about the new office here.  

‘Eco-fascism’ targets old scapegoats for new fears 

Mass shooting suspects, including the man arrested for the recent Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store massacre, are increasingly invoking the so-called eco-fascist movement, which launders racist and anti-immigrant conspiracy theories through the lens of environmentalism. 

The Buffalo suspect, who has been charged with the murder of 10 predominantly Black shoppers at a grocery store, identified as an eco-fascist. Similar sentiments can be found in the writings of shooters in New Zealand and El Paso, Texas, who targeted Muslims and Latinos, respectively.   

As the climate crisis intensifies and leads to increased migration and political instability, experts say the problem is likely to get worse.  

In practice, the term refers to “a kind of political ideology that combines fascism with some kind of environmental or ecological focus,” said Matthew Lyons, author of “Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right’s Challenge to State and Empire” and co-author with Chip Berlet of “Right-Wing Populism in America.”  

Typically, Lyons said, this equates to scapegoating groups like immigrants and nonwhites for the climate crisis, environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources.  

Eco-fascism is at heart simply a rebranding of a much older “murderous political strategy,” said Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and uses environmental concerns as a sort of Trojan horse for extremist ideas.  

“This is a movement that is looking for any avenue that it can get recruits or to enter larger political conversations,” she said.  “And the language of environmentalism, especially at a time of climate disaster, is a very clear way to do that.”   

Read more here.  

FOREST SERVICE TAKES BLAME FOR FOREST FIRE 

The Forest Service says it was responsible for both the blazes that merged late last month and created the largest fire in New Mexico history. 

The agency said Friday that its fire investigators determined the Calf Canyon Fire was started by a holdover fire, or sleeper fire, from a federal pile burn that concluded Jan. 29. 

Though crews monitored the fire for a couple days following the conclusion of the burn, the Forest Service said, it remained dormant and survived three winter snow events before it reignited and escaped containment lines in April and was “significantly” spread by a wind event. 

The Calf Canyon Fire then merged with the Hermits Peak Fire, which was also started by an escaped federal prescribed burn, to cause New Mexico’s biggest-ever fire. 

Read more here from The Hill’s Lexi Lonas. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Allegations of industry influence rock mine safety commission (Politico) 
• Biden wants to rebuild the EPA. He doesn’t have the money to do it. (The Washington Post) 
• Does California have enough water for lots of new homes? Yes, experts say, despite drought (The Los Angeles Times) 
• Companies Rush to Cash In on EPA Rules for Capturing Methane Emissions (The Wall Street Journal) 
• How John Podesta and the Sunrise Movement Found Common Cause (The New Republic) 

ICYMI

• Brent crude breaks $120 a barrel as gas prices soar 
• Climate activists frustrated as another deadline passes without spending deal

And finally, something offbeat but on-beat: Wooldn’t you know it 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

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On The Money — Biden meets with Powell, turns focus to inflation

The White House is launching a full-court press on inflation featuring a meeting with the Federal Reserve chair. We’ll also look at the president’s plan to bring down prices and the odds of recession. 

But first, check out BTS’ appearance at the White House. 

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Biden urges respect for Fed in meeting with Powell

President Biden met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the White House on Tuesday and urged respect for the Federal Reserve Board amid high inflation. 

“My plan is to address inflation, starts with a simple proposition: respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do,” Biden said in the Oval Office. 

• Ahead of the meeting, Biden laid out a plan in a Wall Street Journal op-ed to fight inflation levels that are topping 8 percent annually and reaching nearly 40-year highs. 
• The gist of the plan is to get out of the way while the Fed raises interest rates to bolster the purchasing power of the dollar while supporting damaged supply chains to make sure that demand for goods doesn’t outpace their supply. 
• The plan also talks about bringing down demand by continuing to reduce the federal deficit, which is projected to fall by $1.7 trillion this year, something the White House is happy to show off as a win. 

Biden called addressing inflation his top priority in the meeting, which also included Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese.  

“Chair Powell and other members of the Fed have noted at this moment they have been laser focused on addressing inflation like I am and with a larger complement of board members now confirmed,” Biden said. 

The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Tobias Burns have more on the meeting here. 

FIVE FOR FIGHTING INFLATION  

Five takeaways from Biden’s inflation plan 

The goal for both Biden and the Fed is a “soft landing” — meaning a drop in prices for American consumers without a drop in overall economic growth. Whether or not they can thread this needle, Biden is emphasizing aspects of the recovery from the pandemic that further his economic agenda. Here are a few of the key takeaways from his plan: 

• Biden needs the labor market to cool and is depending on the Fed: Unemployment is now at 3.6 percent, which has led to growth in nominal wages, up well over 5 percent since last year. But economists say that without higher unemployment rates, or what they call a “looser” labor market, it will be difficult for consumer prices to come down 
• Biden talks a lot about deficit cuts: While economists say that deficit reduction is a way to lower demand for goods and thereby decrease inflation, greater revenues are still only a theoretical fix at this point since they require approval from Congress. 
• Biden wants to do something on housing: People are worried about finding a place to live and are seeing rents and home prices rise. Mortgage rates on the standard 30-year fixed rate mortgage have gone above 5 percent for the first time since 2011 and the share of homes owned by commercial property companies, or professional landlords, is on the rise. 

Read the other takeaways here from The Hill’s Tobias Burns. 

EVEN ODDS  

Top Moody’s economist puts ‘even odds’ on recession in next two years 

The chief economist for Moody’s Analytics on Tuesday said there was a one-in-three chance of an economic recession this year and “even odds” within two years.  

“I would put the odds of a recession beginning in the next 12 months at about one in three, and probably close to even odds over the next couple of years,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said Tuesday on C-SPAN.  

• Economists have offered various views on the likelihood that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation will result in a recession, with the Fed itself conceding that a “soft landing” could be difficult, though is still possible.  
• Analyses from other economists, including Larry Summers, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and former U.S. Treasury secretary, mirror Zandi’s predictions about a looming recession.  

The Hill’s Hannah Schoenbaum has more here. 

ENERGY WAR 

Russia expands Europe gas supply cutoffs 

Russia is cutting off additional supplies of natural gas to Europe — this time impacting countries including Germany — as the continent moves ahead with its own ban on Russian oil.  

Russian company Gazprom said in Telegram posts on Tuesday that it would cut off gas supplied under a contract with Shell to Germany and under a contract with Danish company Ørsted and Dutch company GasTerra BV. 

The companies all said in statements that they would purchase gas from elsewhere. Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith said via email that the company has “access to a diverse portfolio of gas from which we will continue to supply our customers in Europe.”

• The announcements represent an escalation in an ongoing energy battle between Russia and Europe as the European Union and its allies continue to sanction Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. 
• The situation has spiked global oil prices, increasing the cost of gas in the U.S. and around the world.  

The Hill’s Rachel Frazin has more here. 

Good to Know

Americans’ confidence in the economy has plummeted to a new low, hitting likely the lowest confidence since the end of the Great Recession in early 2009, according to a new Gallup poll released on Tuesday. 

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index (ECI) measured -45 in May, which is down from -39 in each of the past two months.  

Here’s what else we have our eye on: 

• Almost 60 percent of borrowers with loans from the Department of Education did not make any payments on their loans during a freeze officials instituted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
• A top aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday called Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) a “phony” after the West Virginia senator called for action to lower drug prices.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

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On gun reform, neighboring Canada takes a different tack

The Canadian government’s swift push this week for tough new limits on firearms is adding fuel to the fierce debate over gun reform south of the border in the United States, where last week’s shooting massacre at a Texas elementary school has sparked Congress’s latest effort to curb endemic gun violence — and triggered new questions about why U.S. policymakers have been so ineffective at doing so. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that his government would push to halt new sales of all handguns, while also proposing a new buyback program on military-style semi-automatic rifles, the purchase of which is already prohibited nationwide.

The proposals are much more aggressive than those being floated by Congress in the wake of last week’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle killed 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers. 

Gun experts are citing numerous reasons for the cross-border contrast, some of them legal, some cultural and some political. But taken together, they point to the same reality that’s practically defined America’s gun violence debate for the past several decades: What reforms are possible in other countries won’t be happening anytime soon in the U.S. 

Indeed, even the more tepid policy changes being pushed by President Biden and Democrats in Congress — including an expansion of background checks prior to gun sales and red flag laws designed to disarm violent people — confront long odds of being enacted this year in the face of overwhelming Republican opposition. And those partisan divisions, some experts warn, have created a culture of inaction that’s gained strength by feeding on itself. 

“Partisan politics have a way of reinforcing themselves,” said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law expert at the UCLA School of Law. “All of these proposals require more political support in Congress than they currently have. And for them to get adopted is going to mean that there’s got to be some changes.”

In Canada, Trudeau’s aggressive campaign to tackle gun violence was initially prompted by a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, when a lone gunman killed 22 people and injured three others, marking the deadliest rampage in the country’s history. 

But the prime minister said the latest round of reforms was also inspired by last week’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 

“Unfortunately, the reality is in our country [gun violence] is getting worse and has been getting worse over the past years,” Trudeau said Monday in announcing the proposals. “We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action, firmly and rapidly, it gets worse and worse and more difficult to counter.” 

Trudeau has proposed a countrywide “freeze” on the sale, import and transfer of all handguns, designed to put a permanent cap on the number of those weapons within Canada’s borders. He’s also vowing to implement new limits on high-capacity magazines, install new red flag laws and launch a buyback program for the so-called “assault” rifles that were already in the hands of Canadian gun owners before the 2020 ban on hundreds of models of that style of weapon. 

The reforms are reminiscent of aggressive gun laws adopted by other countries following mass shootings, including a ban on certain firearms in Australia after a violent attack in 1996, and a similar prohibition in New Zealand in the wake of a shooting massacre there in 2019 that left 50 people dead. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with Biden on Tuesday at the White House to discuss the issue. Speaking to reporters afterwards, she noted that her country’s political culture allowed lawmakers to adopt changes that would not be possible in the U.S. 

“Our political system is very different,” she said. “We had the ability with, actually, the unanimous support of parliamentarians to place a ban on semiautomatic, military-style weapons and assault rifles. So we did that.”

Capitol Hill’s response to Uvalde has been much more tempered. 

While the House Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on a slate of eight anti-gun violence bills — including proposals to raise the purchase age on assault rifles and ban the new sale of high capacity magazines — those proposals have little chance of moving through the Senate, where Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to any new limits on the sale or possession of firearms. 

Such opposition is forcing the Senate’s Democratic gun reformers to focus on a tiny sliver of reform proposals, including an expansion of red flag laws and federal background screenings before gun sales. A bipartisan group of senators has been in steady talks since last week in search of a compromise that can win the support of at least 10 Republicans — the number needed to defeat a GOP filibuster in the 50-50 Senate. Even that has gained little momentum so far. 

“To be clear: Using this horror to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens — before we even know what might have prevented this tragedy — and accusing anyone who disagrees of being complicit in this abhorrent crime is not a solution that will make us safer,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said in a statement after the Uvalde shooting, summarizing the sentiment of most GOP senators.

One factor driving the debate is cultural: Many Republicans consider the Second Amendment to be sacrosanct, and any effort to curtail gun rights to be a nonstarter. Winkler, of UCLA, noted that California gun owners simply ignored a state ban on high-capacity magazines, predicting the same trend would follow if Congress tried to implement something like Canada’s buyback program for assault rifles, which are wildly popular in the U.S. 

“There are 400 million guns in America, and the people who have these weapons are the least likely to participate in any kind of buyback program, whether it’s voluntary or mandatory,” said Winkler, the author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms.” 

“There’s going to be a lot of noncompliance.”

Legal factors are also governing the current debate. Daniel Webster, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University who focuses on gun violence prevention, pointed to a pair of Supreme Court decisions — Heller v. District of Columbia in 2008, and McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 — both of which recognized “an individual right to own handguns for protection within the home,” he noted. Those rulings almost guarantee that the high court would overturn any effort by Congress to adopt something like Canada’s ban on handguns. 

“Of course, such a proposal is a political nonstarter in the U.S. as well,” Webster added. 

Not insignificantly, the nation’s powerful gun lobby has pressured Republicans on Capitol Hill to oppose virtually any new gun restriction, raising concerns that support for such measures would prompt a primary challenge from the right. 

“The NRA’s and gun voters’ grip on the Republican Party — that has really shifted,” said Winkler. “It used to be that there were more Republicans who were willing to support gun-safety regulation and there just aren’t anymore.” 

The combination of factors has frustrated gun reformers, who lament that even the most popular changes can’t gain a foothold on Capitol Hill. Background checks, for instance, are widely popular across the political spectrum. 

“In a democracy, when you have a problem like that, you’re supposed to respond with legislation that protects lives, that takes appropriate steps, consistent with your constitution or with your laws,” Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) told CNN on Monday. 

“We obviously have been unable to do that in this country.”

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​​Yellen says she was 'wrong' about 'path that inflation would take'

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged in an interview on Tuesday that she was “wrong” about “the path that inflation would take,” as the lagging COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion in Ukraine have kept prices persistently high.

During an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the network played a clip of previous comments she made in 2021, in which she said inflation would be a “small risk” and added that she didn’t “anticipate that inflation is going to be a problem.”

“Well, look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” the Treasury secretary said when asked about her previous comments. “As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t — at the time didn’t fully understand. But we recognize that now.”

“The Federal Reserve is taking the steps that it needs to take. It’s up to them to decide what to do. And, for our part, President Biden is focused on supplementing what the Fed does with actions we can take to lower the cost that Americans face for important expenditures they have in their budgets,” she added.

The interview came as Yellen met earlier on Tuesday with President Biden, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese as the Biden administration navigates persistent inflation. 

Powell and Yellen acknowledged in December that they had underestimated how long inflation would last or how high it would rise as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains, further set off by the Russian invasion, and coronavirus relief injected more money into the pockets of consumers.

In an interview with CNBC in March, Yellen predicted “we’re likely to see another year in which 12-month inflation numbers remain very uncomfortably high.”

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Texas police: Teacher closed propped-open door before attack

The Robb Elementary School teacher who propped open an exterior door that law enforcement said a gunman used to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers had closed the door but it did not lock, state police said Tuesday.

Investigators initially said the teacher had propped the door open before Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. Investigators have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since the Friday news conference when it was first stated the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when Ramos crashed his truck.

“She came back out while on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

He continued: “We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock.”

San Antonio attorney Don Flanery told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the loose.

“She saw the wreck,” Flanary told the newspaper. “She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, ‘He has a gun!’ She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun so she ran back inside.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.”

Flanary told the newspaper that the employee had initially propped open the door to carry food from a car to the classroom.

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'Star Wars' defends actor in new 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series after she received racist messages

The “Star Wars” franchise is defending one of its actors in the new “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series after she spoke out about receiving racist messages.

The “Star Wars” Twitter account put out a couple tweets Tuesday defending actor Moses Ingram, who shared a number of hateful messages on her Instagram that she had received since the show premiered on May 27.

“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold,” the tweet from the “Star Wars” account said. “If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist.”

“There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be racist,” a second tweet from the account said.

Ingram earlier in the day shared a number of racist direct messages she had received on her Instagram story, including one that called her a diversity hire and another that said her “days are numbered.”

The actor then addressed the messages in a video on her story, saying that the ones she shared were among “hundreds” of similar hateful messages.

“I question what my purpose is even being here in front of you saying this is happening,” Ingram said. “I think the thing that bothers me is that, like, sort of, this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself, which no one has told me, but this I just have to shut up and bear it, and I’m not built like that.”

Ingram also thanked fans who have stuck up for her and spoke out against the online hate she’s received.

“So I really just wanted to come on, I think, and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places that I’m not going to put myself,” she said. “And to the rest of y’all: Y’all weird.”

Ingram is the latest “Star Wars” actor of color who has faced racism after joining the franchise. Actors John Boyega, who is Black, and Kelly Marie Tran, who is Vietnamese American, also received racist messages on social media after they joined “Star Wars” projects.

Boyega, who first appeared in the 2015 movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” got into a heated back-and-forth with fans on Twitter over the online hate shortly after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, telling them to “f— off.”

The actor told GQ in an interview that Disney did not know how to respond to his and Tran’s experiences as people of color receiving such hateful messages.

“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” Boyega said. “You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f—- all.”

Tran, who starred in the 2017 movie “Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi,” chose to leave social media after the racist backlash to her casting.

“It was basically me being like, ‘Oh, this isn’t good for my mental health. I’m obviously going to leave this,’ ” Tran said in a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Source: TEST FEED1

Abbott issues disaster declaration in Uvalde

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration in the town of Uvalde in an effort to expedite the response to last week’s elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead. 

The declaration “will accelerate all available state and local resources to assist the Uvalde community, as well as suspend regulations that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with the aftermath of the tragic shooting,” according to the governor’s office.

More specifically, it will continue to allow the Texas Division of Emergency Management to use all its resources to respond to the shooting, including providing a temporary facility to serve as a “family resource center” for those “seeking mental health services and other resources.”

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is also working alongside local mental health providers to support people in Uvalde. 

“The community of Uvalde has been left devastated by last week’s senseless act of violence at Robb Elementary School and should not have to encounter any difficulty in receiving the support needed to heal,” Abbott said in a statement on Tuesday.

Since the shooting, Abbott has been criticized by some, including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, his Democratic opponent in November’s gubernatorial election, for his hard-line stance on guns. 

On Sunday, Abbott visited a memorial site at Robb Elementary School and was greeted by a booing crowd. 

“We need change! We need change, governor!” one onlooker shouted.

O’Rourke confronted Abbott at a press conference last week, saying, “You are doing nothing.”

“You said this was not predictable, this was totally predictable, and you choose not to do anything,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1