Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s primary lawyers during the then-president’s failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, must now answer to professional ethics charges, the latest career slap after law license suspensions in New York and the District of Columbia. 

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the disciplinary branch of the District of Columbia Bar, filed the charges against the former federal prosecutor and New York mayor alleging that he promoted unsubstantiated voter fraud claims in Pennsylvania. The action was filed June 6 and became public Friday. 

At issue are claims Giuliani made in supporting a Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. That suit, which sought to invalidate as many as 1.5 million mail-in ballots, was dismissed by courts. 

The counsel’s office said Giuliani’s conduct violated Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct “in that he brought a proceeding and asserted issues therein without a non-frivolous basis in law and fact for doing so” and “that he engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.” 

The counsel asked that the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility take up the matter. Giuliani has 20 days to respond, according to the filing. An attempt Saturday to reach a lawyer for Giuliani was unsuccessful. 

The step is the latest against Giuliani for his role in Trump’s debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. 

Last June, an appeals court suspended him from practicing law in New York because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Trump’s loss. An attorney disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend his license on the grounds that he had violated professional conduct rules as he promoted theories that the election was stolen through fraud. 

The D.C. Bar temporarily suspended him last July although the practical implication of that action is questionable, given that Giuliani’s law license in Washington has been inactive since 2002. 

News of the counsel’s action follows the first public hearing by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Giuliani met for hours with the committee last month. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden said he had “not yet” decided if he will travel to Saudi Arabia, a week after he opened the door to a possible trip.

Sources have said Biden was planning a trip to Saudi Arabia, along with a trip to Europe and Israel in late June.

The White House has said the president feels that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a “pariah” for his role in the killing of a political opponent, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in Turkey in 2018.
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U.S. President Joe Biden, along with other Western Hemisphere leaders, unveiled a host of measures to confront migration despite divisions over Biden’s invitation list at their summit in Los Angeles.

The agreement on “The Los Angeles Declaration” came Friday on the final day of the Summit of the Americas, which has been roiled by Biden’s decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela for not being democratic enough. The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras skipped the summit over the move while other South American leaders admonished Biden for his decision.

Biden said Friday that 20 nations have signed up to take part in the Los Angeles Declaration, which he said is “transforming our approach to managing migration in the Americas.”

The declaration includes a series of measures related to migration, including increasing guest worker programs, providing aid to communities most affected by migration and implementing humane border management.

“Migration should be a voluntary, informed choice and not a necessity,” the declaration states, adding, “We acknowledge that addressing irregular international migration requires a regional approach.”

It includes commitments by nations across the Americas, including a plan for Mexico to increase worker visas for Guatemalans and for Costa Rica to extend protections for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Biden said part of the action the United States is taking is a campaign to disrupt human smuggling across the region.

“If you prey on desperate and vulnerable migrants for profit, we are coming for you,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security began the anti-smuggling campaign two months ago, allocating $50 million for the program along with more than 1,300 personnel throughout the region, according to the White House.

The president said the United States is also providing over $300 million to countries hosting refugees and migrants.

He said the money will “make sure migrants can see a doctor [and] find opportunities to work so they don’t have to undertake the dangerous journey north.”

Biden said the United States will expand opportunities for people to come to the United States, allowing 20,000 refugees from the region to resettle in the country over the next two years.

Despite the raft of proposals that are part of the Los Angeles Declaration, some analysts say it does not do enough to address the root causes of migration.

“The structural root cause of migration in countries in Central America that are having enormous difficulties – including Mexico – [is the] fight against its criminal cartels, its organized crime. That is not sufficiently being discussed. And it’s not an easy question,” said Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

The summit has been overshadowed by the disagreements surrounding Biden’s decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Diego Abente Brun, director of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program at George Washington University, told VOA the absence of the leaders of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala – who skipped the summit because of Biden’s pared-down guest list – was not good for the United States.

“Here in the United States, our problem is the migrants from the Northern Triangle. So how would you deal with that without the presence of these three countries that are the most directly involved: Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala?” he asked.

Since Biden became president, he has faced a record surge of migrants at the U.S. southern border. He has been criticized for his handling of the crisis both by Republicans who say he is not doing enough to stop the flow of migrants as well as some in his own Democratic Party who say he has been too slow to repeal Trump-era immigration policies, which they argue were too harsh against migrants.

The president said Friday that the global economic crisis, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and made worse by Russia’s war in Ukraine, along with political turmoil from autocratic regimes, is to blame for record levels of migration.

The president said the migration was not just to the United States, noting that Colombia is hosting millions of refugees from Venezuela, and that 10% of Costa Rica’s population is made up of migrants.
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Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws.

The second “March for Our Lives” rally will take place Saturday in front of the Washington Monument, a successor to the 2018 march organized by student protesters after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. 

Now with recent shootings from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, bringing gun control back into the national conversation, organizers of this weekend’s events say the time is right to renew their push for a national overhaul. 

“Right now we are angry,” said Mariah Cooley, a “March for Our Lives” board member and a senior at Washington’s Howard University. “This will be a demonstration to show that us as Americans, we’re not stopping anytime soon until Congress does their jobs. And if not, we’ll be voting them out.” 

About 50,000 participants are predicted to turn out in the District of Columbia, with rain in the forecast. That’s far fewer than the original march, which filled downtown Washington with more than 200,000 people. This time, organizers are focusing on holding smaller marches at an estimated 300 locations. 

“We want to make sure that this work is happening across the country,” said Daud Mumin, co-chairman of the march’s board of directors and a recent graduate of Westminster College in Salt Lake City. “This work is not just about D.C., it’s not just about senators.” 

The protest comes at a time of renewed political activity on guns and a crucial moment for possible action in Congress. 

Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence have lobbied legislators and testified on Capitol Hill this week. Among them was Miah Cerrillo, 11, who survived the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. She told lawmakers how she covered herself with a dead classmate’s blood to avoid being shot. 

On Tuesday, actor Matthew McConaughey appeared at the White House briefing room to press for gun legislation and made highly personal remarks about the violence in his hometown of Uvalde. 

The House has passed bills that would raise the age limit to buy semiautomatic weapons and establish federal “red-flag” laws. But such initiatives have traditionally stalled or been heavily watered down in the Senate. Democratic and Republican senators had hoped to reach agreement this week on a framework for addressing the issue and talked Friday, but they had not announced an accord by early evening. 

Mumin referred to the Senate as “where substantive action goes to die,” and said the new march is meant to send a message to lawmakers that public opinion on gun control is shifting under their feet. “If they’re not on our side, there are going to be consequences — voting them out of office and making their lives a living hell when they’re in office,” he said. 

The “March for Our Lives” movement was born out of the massacre when 14 students and three staff members were gunned down February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by a former student. Surviving students organized bus trips to the state capital to lobby in person, and they succeeded in pressuring the Republican-dominated state government to buck the National Rifle Association’s influence and pass substantial measures targeting gun violence. 

Then-Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, signed legislation that banned bump stocks, raised the gun buying age to 21, imposed a three-day waiting period for purchases and authorized police to seek court orders seizing guns from people deemed threats to themselves and others. 

The Parkland students then took aim at gun laws in other states and nationally, launching “March for Our Lives” and holding the big rally in Washington on March 24, 2018. 

The group did not match the Florida results at the national level but has persisted in advocating for gun restrictions since then, as well as participating in voter registration drives. 

One of the group’s highest-profile activists, co-founder David Hogg, said in a tweet Friday that he believed “this time is different,” pointing to his opinion piece on Fox News. 

He wrote that his group is not “anti-gun” and supports the Second Amendment but wants measures with bipartisan support. “Let’s start there and find common ground to take action, because the next shooter is already planning his attack,” he said.
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Wall Street’s realization that inflation got worse last month, not better as hoped, sent markets reeling on Friday. 

The S&P 500 sank 2.9% to lock in its ninth losing week in the last 10, and tumbling bond prices sent Treasury yields to their highest levels in years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.7%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 3.5%. 

Wall Street came into Friday hoping a highly anticipated report would show the worst inflation in generations slowed a touch last month and passed its peak. Instead, the U.S. government said inflation accelerated to 8.6% in May from 8.3% a month before. 

The Federal Reserve has begun raising interest rates and making other moves in order to slow the economy, in hopes of forcing down inflation. Wall Street took Friday’s reading to mean the Fed’s foot will remain firmly on the brake for the economy, dashing hopes that it may ease up later this year. 

“Inflation is hot, hot, hot,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments. “Basically, everything was up.” 

The growing expectation is for the Fed to raise its key short-term interest rate by half a percentage point at each of its next three meetings, beginning next week. That third one in September had been up for debate among investors in recent weeks. Only once since 2000 has the Fed raised rates that much. 

“No relief is in sight, but a lot can change between now and September,” Jacobsen said. “Nobody knows what the Fed will do in a few months, including the Fed.” 

The nation’s high inflation, plus the expectations for an aggressive Fed, have sent the two-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2008 and the S&P 500 down 18.7% from its record set in early January. The worst pain has hit high-growth technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other particularly big winners of the pandemic’s earlier days. But the damage is broadening as retailers and others are warning about upcoming profits. 

The S&P 500 fell 116.96 points to 3,900.86. Combined with its losses from Thursday, when investors were rushing to lock in final trades before the inflation report, it was the worst two-day stretch for Wall Street’s benchmark in nearly two years. 

The Dow lost 880.00 points to 31,392.79, and the Nasdaq tumbled 414.20 to 11,340.02. 

Stock prices rise and fall on two things, essentially: how much cash a company produces and how much an investor is willing to pay for it. The Fed’s moves on interest rates heavily influence that second part. 

Since early in the pandemic, record-low interest rates engineered by the Fed and other central banks helped keep investment prices high. Now “easy mode” for investors is abruptly and forcefully being switched off. 

Not only that, too-aggressive rate hikes by the Fed could ultimately force the economy into a recession. Higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive, which drags on spending and investments by households and companies. 

One of the fears among investors is that food and fuel costs may keep surging, regardless of how aggressively the Fed moves. 

“The fact is that the Fed has very little ability to control food prices,” Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, said in a statement. He pointed instead to mismatches in supplies and demand, higher costs for energy and wages and the crisis in Ukraine, which is a major breadbasket for the world. 

That raises the threat that central banks will overly tighten the brakes on the economy, as they push against a string “and essentially fall into a damaging policy mistake,” Rieder said. 

The economy has already shown some mixed signals, and a report on Friday indicated consumer sentiment is worsening more than economists expected. Much of the souring in the University of Michigan’s preliminary reading was because of higher gasoline prices. 

That adds to several recent profit warnings from retailers indicating U.S. shoppers are slowing or at least changing their spending because of inflation. Such spending is the heart of the U.S. economy. 

 
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WASHINGTON – U.S. consumer prices accelerated in May as gasoline prices hit a record high and the cost of food soared, leading to the largest annual increase in nearly 40 1/2 years, suggesting that the Federal Reserve could continue with its 50 basis points interest rate hikes through September to combat inflation.

The faster-than-expected increase in inflation last month reported by the Labor Department on Friday also reflected a surge in rents, which increased by the most since 1990. The relentless price pressures are forcing Americans to change their spending habits and will certainly heighten fears of either an outright recession or period of very slow growth.

High inflation also poses a political risk for President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party heading into the mid-term elections in November.

“There’s little respite from four-decade high inflation until energy and food costs simmer down and excess demand pressures abate in response to tighter monetary policy,” said

Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “The Fed might still raise policy rates ‘just’ 50 basis points next week, but it could easily ratchet up the pace beyond then if inflation keeps surprising to the high side.”

The consumer price index increased 1.0% last month after gaining 0.3% in April.

Gasoline prices rebounded 4.1% after falling 6.1% in April. Prices at the pump shot up in May, averaging around $4.37 per gallon, according to data from AAA. They were flirting with $5 per gallon on Friday, indicating that the monthly CPI would remain elevated in June.

Food prices jumped 1.2%. Prices of dairy and related products rose 2.9%, the largest gain since July 2007. Food prices have soared following Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.

China’s zero COVID-19 policy, which dislocated supply chains, is also seen keeping goods prices strong.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the monthly CPI picking up 0.7%. In the 12 months through May, the CPI increased 8.6%. That was the largest year-on-year increase since December 1981 and followed an 8.3% advance in April. Economists had hoped the annual CPI rate peaked in April.

The inflation report was published ahead of an anticipated second 50 basis points rate hike from the Fed next Wednesday.

The U.S. central bank is expected to raise its policy interest rate by an additional half a percentage point in July. It has hiked the overnight rate by 75 basis points since March.

U.S. stocks opened lower. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were mixed.

Strong underlying inflation 

Underlying inflation was equally strong last month as prices for services like rents, hotel accommodation and airline travel maintained their upward push. There had been hope that the shift in spending from goods to services would help to cool inflation.

But a tight labor market is driving up wages, contributing to higher prices for services.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI climbed 0.6% after advancing by the same margin in April.

The so-called core CPI increased 6.0% in the 12-months through May. That followed a 6.2% rise in April. Inflation by all measures has far exceeded the Fed’s 2% target.

The core CPI was lifted by rents, with owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence, which is what a homeowner would receive from renting a home, rising a solid 0.6%. That was the largest increase since August 1990.

Airline fares increased 12.6% after surging 18.6% in April. Used cars and trucks prices rebounded 1.8% after declining for three straight months. New motor vehicle prices rose a solid 1.0%, while the cost of medical care increased 0.4%.

Consumers also paid more for household furnishings and operations as well as recreation. Apparel prices rose 0.7%. There were also increases in the cost of motor vehicle insurance, personal care, education and tobacco.
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