U.S. stock index futures were lower on Thursday as investors assessed mixed economic data for clues on the path of future rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, while Kohl’s shares fell after the department store chain withdrew its annual forecasts.

Softer-than-expected inflation data in recent days had boosted expectations of smaller interest rate increases, but strong retail sales figures on Wednesday stoked concerns that the Fed could keep tightening monetary policy further.

“Wall Street was rattled by a conflicting retail picture,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Overall sales were stronger than expected showing consumer resilience had not been knocked by super-sized interest rate hikes aimed at pulling down the price spiral. This has added to expectations that higher rates will have to linger for a lot longer to make a difference.”

Wall Street closed the previous session lower as a grim outlook from Target Corp (TGT.N) sparked concerns about retailers heading into the crucial holiday season.

“There’s still some thought about the Target news of yesterday … investors are trying to understand how weak the fourth quarter might look and its impact on companies,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) is up 8% from its October closing lows on hopes of a less hawkish Fed, though the index is down 17% so far this year on fears of a recession stemming from the hefty interest rate hikes.

J.P.Morgan economists predict a “mild recession” in the United States in the back half of next year.

Focus will also be on housing starts and initial jobless claims figures, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, to gauge economic health.

Meanwhile, UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Thursday raised taxes on higher earners and energy companies as part of his new plan to shore up Britain’s finances, even as he forecast the economy will shrink next year.

At 7:33 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 232 points, or 0.69%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 29.5 points, or 0.74%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 80.25 points, or 0.68%.

Chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) rose nearly 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after beating quarterly revenue estimates on strong demand in its data center business.

Department store chain Macy’s Inc (M.N) gained 8.1% and personal care products retailer Bath & Body Works Inc (BBWI.N) surged 21.5% after raising their annual profit forecasts.

Kohl’s Corp (KSS.N) slipped 3.9% after the company pulled its 2022 sales and profit forecasts, blaming an uncertain economic outlook and the departure of top boss Michelle Gass.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd fell 1.2% after the Chinese e-commerce giant posted a smaller-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue.

This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. OUR LEAD STORY Opinion| Chappelle didn’t say the harshest things about Jews last week — this other comedian did   Double standard? More than 3 million people have tuned into a standup set on YouTube that mocked Sephardim, cheap Jews and religious rituals around menstruation — and includes a Holocaust joke. The 90-minute show, filmed in Brooklyn and called “Jew,” stars Ari Shaffir, a Jewish comedian. “If we’re upset with Chappelle, why aren’t we livid with Shaffir?” asks our columnist, Rob Eshman. “I’m going to suggest a crazy answer: We shouldn’t be upset with either. We should, if we feel like it, even laugh a little.”   Jewish jokes: “Has no one called out Shaffir because of the rule — illustrated by Chapelle’s frequent use of the N-word — that those in a tribe get a free pass to mock the tribe?” Rob asks. “Or is it because Chappelle poked not at Jewish religion but at Jewish power, a very sensitive subject for people more used to seeing themselves as victims?”     Perspective: “It’s almost unseemly that as Iran snuffs out the lives of peaceful protesters, Ukrainians fight for freedom in the cold and dark, and real white supremacists are reelected to Congress,” Rob writes, “all Jewish Twitter seems to care about is whether one of Jon Stewart’s best friends just launched a pogrom.”    Read his essay ➤ Speaking of Stewart, the former host of “The Daily Show” joined his old friend Stephen Colbert to talk about the controversies surrounding Chappelle, Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, the NBA star who was suspended for sharing a link to movie filled with antisemitic conspiracies. “Penalizing somebody for having a thought, I don’t think it is the way to change their minds or gain understanding,” Stewart said, jokingly calling himself a “spokesJew.” Read the story ➤   Plus: Irving “is continuing his journey of dialogue and education,” according to a source inside the NBA, and could rejoin the Brooklyn Nets as soon as Sunday. (ESPN) The ADL has asked Amazon to remove the movie, “Hebrews to Negroes,” as well as the book on which it is based. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble announced it would stop selling the book. (TMZ) Jerry Seinfeld on the Chappelle monologue: “I did think the comedy was well-executed,” he said, “but I think the subject matter calls for a conversation.” (Hollywood Reporter) Chappelle isn’t the first to suggest that Jews run Hollywood. Here are the origins of the trope. (JTA) Plastic bags filled with fliers reading “Kanye 2024” and “Defcon 3 on Jewish People” along with an image of the rapper and a crossed-out Star of David were found on the driveways and lawns of residents of Warwick, Rhode Island. (WJAR) The Hillel at the University of Florida hosted a solidarity tailgate Saturday to unite students against antisemitism, after the message “Kanye is right about the Jews!” was displayed at its football stadium during a recent game. (WUSF News) Two Jewish groups launched an online portal to help people report and fight against antisemitic content online. (Jerusalem Post) ALSO FROM THE FORWARD Leonard Cohen in 1968. (Getty) Leonard Cohen’s lost novel shows the artist’s surprisingly vulgar and violent side: “A Ballet of Lepers,” which Cohen started writing more than 60 years ago, has finally been published. It tells the tale of a young man whose tempestuous, physically abusive grandfather comes to live with him. The book “is not light reading,” Irene Katz Connelly warns in her review, “but it’s also an astonishingly deft and confident work” on the themes that preoccupied Cohen throughout his life: “passion and violence, sacredness and shame.” Read her review ➤   A fascinating new documentary shows how antisemitic lies were the ‘original fake news’: What do German bankers, a Ukrainian Marxist and a French military family have in common? They are the subject of a new film, “The Conspiracy,” which debuts at the DOC NYC film festival tonight. In an interview, director Maxim Pozdorovkin explained that he “wanted to pick three families that would both get at the core of this conspiracy theory and also destroy it from the inside.” Read the interview ➤   But wait, there’s more… Ivanka Trump says she won’t be involved in her father’s third presidential bid. She is among key Jewish advocates and mega-donors who distanced themselves from the campaign in its first hours. Lizzy Savetsky has quit the “Real Housewives of New York City” reboot before the new season has even wrapped. The Orthodox social media influencer with outspoken pro-Zionist views said she left the show because she “was on the receiving end of a torrent of antisemitic attacks.” A message from our sponsor: iCenter SPREAD THE WORD Forwarding the News is now also available on our website. Click on the blue button below to share it on social media or send to friends. Share WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel ‘Maus’ on sale at a French bookstore in 2017. (Flickr)   Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” along with six other books about the Holocaust geared toward young readers, are among hundreds of books that a handful of Missouri school districts have reportedly removed from their shelves since the start of this school year. The books were yanked after the state passed a new law dealing with child trafficking and abuse that calls for jail time for anyone who provides “explicit sexual material” to students. (JTA)     Larry David is among 13 celebrities targeted in a class action lawsuit for promoting the failed cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. David was featured in an FTX Super Bowl commercial. (JTA)     The Trump-appointed judge who blocked President Joe Biden’s student-loan forgiveness program suggested that allowing debt relief in response to an emergency is similar to a German law that gave Hitler power. (Business Insider)     And while we’re on the topic of Third Reich comparisons … Facebook’s independent oversight board overturned the social media giant’s decision to remove a post that likened Russian soldiers to Nazis. The board said the post did not violate the company’s rules against hate speech and violent content. (Washington Post)     Incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to keep Mike Herzog as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Herzog, a brother of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, was appointed to the post last year, when Naftali Bennett was prime minister. (Axios)     A majority of the parts collected from Iranian drones shot down over Ukraine appear to have been manufactured by Western nations, including Israel and the United States. (Wall Street Journal)     Crown Heights will be more crowded this weekend, as 6,000 Chabad emissaries descend on the Brooklyn neighborhood for their annual reunion. The event, which began Wednesday and runs through Monday, includes workshops focused on colleges, day schools, adult education and other areas of outreach. (Religion News Service)     In an unexpected move, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave its support to a proposed federal law that would codify same-sex marriages. Church doctrine still supports only heterosexual marriages; one expert said the news reflects a “dramatic reversal of previous teachings.” (Salt Lake Tribune)      A memoir by an ex-Hasidic mother of seven is now an opera, which opened Wednesday night in Manhattan. It runs through Saturday. (NY Jewish Week)   Shiva calls ➤  Henry Rosovsky, the first Jewish dean of Harvard’s faculty of arts and sciences and founder of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies, died at 95 … Budd Friedman, whose empire of Improv clubs offered a launching pad for the likes of Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin and Jay Leno, died at 90.   What else we’re reading ➤  Israel’s most-wanted mob boss arrested in South Africa … Austria plans to tighten law banning use of Nazi symbols … Japanese anime is packed with spirituality and gaining popularity among Gen Z. What we’re listening to ➤  Today’s episode of “The Daily” podcast from The New York Times is about the recent rise of the far-right in Israel. Listen here. ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history (1903): The musician and composer Joseph Kaminski was born in Odessa. Kaminski began playing the violin when he was 6 and living in Warsaw. His career took him around the world, but he moved back to Poland after the death of his mother, Ester Rachel Kamińska — known as “the mother of Yiddish theater” — to lead the Jewish Theater Orchestra. In the 1930s, he was invited to join what was then the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, now the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as lead violinist, a position he kept until he retired in 1969.   Last year on this day, our colleagues at the JTA reported that a Brooklyn Judaica store stopped selling a series of children’s books after the author, Chaim Walder, was accused of sexual misconduct. Walder died of an apparent suicide on Dec. 27. In honor of National Homemade Bread Day, check out this simple six-ingredient challah recipe. VIDEO OF THE DAY Netflix released the trailer for the upcoming second season of “My Unorthodox Life,” which continues to follow the journey of Julia Haart, 51, a former Judaics teacher-turned fashion mogul. The new episodes, which drop on Dec. 2, look to shed light on her second divorce, which made headlines earlier this year.  And while you’re waiting for the new season, catch up with my conversation with Haart.   ––– Thanks to Nora Berman, PJ Grisar, Rina Shamilov and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

The post This comedian said harsher things about Jews last week than Dave Chappelle appeared first on The Forward.

‘Kindred spirits’ Biden, Scholz work to heal U.S.-German ties – The Shared Links – The News And Times shared-links.com/kindred-spirit…

The Asia-Pacific is no one’s backyard and should not become an arena for a big power contest, China’s President Xi Jinping said in written remarks on Thursday, calling on the world to reject any cold war mentality.

“No attempt to wage a new cold war will ever be allowed by the people or by our times,” Xi said in remarks prepared for a business event on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, which he had to withdraw from due to his meetings schedule.

“We should follow a path of openness and inclusiveness,” he said in the speech, which was provided by organisers, adding the region should not turn into “an arena for big power contest.”

“Unilateralism and protectionism should be rejected by all; any attempt to politicise and weaponise economic and trade relations should also be rejected by all.”

The APEC meeting follows a series of regional summits so far dominated by geopolitical tension over the war in Ukraine.

At the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Bali, countries unanimously adopted a declaration saying most members condemned the Ukraine war, but that also acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently. Host Indonesia said the war was the most contentious issue.

Russia is a member of both G20 and APEC but President Vladimir Putin has stayed away from the summits. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov will represent him at APEC.

Host Thailand on Thursday said leaders gathering for the APEC forum should “rise above differences”.

Its Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the meeting of the 21-member bloc, which starts on Friday, “takes place at a pivotal juncture” with the world facing multiple risks.

“Cancel mentality… permeates every conversation and action, (and) makes any compromise appear impossible,” he said in a statement after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers ahead of the main summit.

“That’s why APEC this year must rise above these challenges and deliver hope to the world at large.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are among those also attending the main meeting, while French President Emmanuel Macron is a special guest.

Xi was due to have talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday evening.

His meeting comes a day after tensions simmered in Bali, where Xi criticised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting, a rare public display of annoyance by the Chinese leader. Trudeau is also in Bangkok.

The Ukraine war also figured prominently at the East Asia Summit and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits in Cambodia at the weekend, as did the crisis in Myanmar, whose ruling generals were barred from attending due to failure to follow a peace process.

On Thursday, as leaders prepared for the APEC meeting, the junta in neighbouring Myanmar announced an amnesty for 5,774 political prisoners, among them a Japanese filmmaker, a former British ambassador and an Australian economist and former adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Activists and the military’s opponents welcomed the amnesty, but warned the world not to be tricked by the junta, which they said was using people as bargaining chips.

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The global economic crisis has pushed UNRWA, the U.N. agency that delivers basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees, into a “danger zone” that could result in it no longer being able to fulfil its mandate, the agency’s head said on Thursday.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said stagnant resources as costs spiralled were pushing many of the 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East – for many of whom the agency is a lifeline – to unprecedented poverty levels.

“There is an erosion of our capacity to deliver and at a given point if we continue on this trajectory we will reach a situation where we will not be able anymore to fulfil our mandate … this a danger zone,” Lazzarini told Reuters in an interview.

Multiple crises that had hit the region have been worsened by the impact of the war in Ukraine, meaning the plight of Palestinian refugees was “de-prioritised” by many donors, he added.

UNRWA provides public-like services including schools, primary health services, and aid relief in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The renewal of the agency’s mandate for another three years will be put to a vote at the U.N. General Assembly later this year.

“The level of despair and distress is heartbreaking,” Lazzarini said. Poverty rates had gone up to 90% from 80% in some overcrowded camps in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, he said.

The United Nations defines poverty as income of less than $2 per day.

UNRWA, which was established in 1949 in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war under a U.N. mandate, should not be a victim of the international community’s failure to resolve the decades old Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he added.

“It is an anomaly that an agency that was supposed to be created on a temporary basis still has the same function … almost 75 years later,” he added.

The agency averted a major crisis when the U.S. reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump in 2018 to cut all funding to UNRWA, amounting to more than $344 million a year.

“It has been a critical return for the agency and I don’t know how we would have gone without this support today,” he added.

The United States was by far the biggest donor to UNRWA, an agency whose financial needs exceed $1.6 billion for this year, he added.

More cuts in essential services that refugees who already feel abandoned by the international community would only fuel more anger and create fertile ground for more instability, he added.

“In a highly volatile region donors are very much aware that if they withdraw funding from the organisation it might create a vacuum and in a region like this one the vacuum will be filled with something none of us will like,” he added.

The agency was seeking to return back to a predictable funding path by opening new avenues by a wider donor support base and multi-year budgets that steer it away from dependence on voluntary donations, he added.

“We have been in a situation where we do not know at middle of the month if by the end of the month we are able to pay salaries,” he added citing a grim outlook for next year where traditional donors were themselves heading to austerity budgets.

“I keep telling donors don’t take our ability to muddle through with resilience as a given, there will be a point where we will not be able anymore to keep the entirety of our services running if we don’t get more,” Lazzarini said.

Russia again unleashed missiles on Thursday against Ukrainian energy facilities, while its forces stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine, reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson city in the south which Kyiv recaptured last week.

NATO and Poland concluded that a missile that crashed in Poland on Tuesday, killing two people, was probably a stray fired by Ukraine’s air defences and not Russian. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy contested this view in a rare public disagreement with his Western allies.

As the winter’s first snow fell in Kyiv, authorities said they were working hard to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week unleashed what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the nine-month war.

Explosions resounded in cities including the southern port of Odesa, the capital Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, where officials said two people were killed.

“Missiles are flying over Kyiv right now,” Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as saying.

Zelenskiy posted video footage, apparently shot from a car cam, showing a driver’s journey through Dnipro being interrupted by a huge blast ahead that sent flames and black smoke pouring into the sky.

“No matter what the terrorists want, no matter what they try to achieve, we must get through this winter and be even stronger in the spring than we are now, even more ready for the liberation of our entire territory than we are now,” he said.

At least 15 people were wounded in Dnipro, three were hurt in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and at least one was injured in Odesa, local officials said.

State energy company Naftogaz said gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed. Other sites struck included the huge Pivdenmash defence plant in Dnipro.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office (OCHA) warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this winter.

“Millions are facing constant power cuts, and the lack of energy is also affecting water pumping,” it said in a statement.

On a happier note, a deal aimed at easing global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports was extended for 120 days, though Moscow said its own demands were yet to be fully addressed.

President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which helped forge the Black Sea grain deal, said he had been informed after U.S.-Russia talks in Ankara earlier this week aimed at reducing tensions over Ukraine that neither party would use nuclear weapons, according to a readout of his comments to reporters.

The Kremlin later said that no Russian officials were considering the use of nuclear weapons. It also accused Kyiv of moving the goalposts regarding possible peace talks and called on Washington to push Ukraine towards diplomacy.

NATO ambassadors held emergency talks on Wednesday to respond to Tuesday’s blast at a grain facility in Poland, near the Ukrainian border, the war’s first deadly extension into the territory of the Western alliance.

However, Polish President Andrzej Duda said the missile appeared to be a Soviet-made S-300 rocket most likely fired accidentally “by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence”, not by Russia. Russia and Ukraine both use the missile.

NATO’s chief said Russia, not Ukraine, was still to blame for starting the war with its February invasion and launching scores of missiles on Tuesday that triggered Ukrainian defences.

“This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

Nevertheless, Zelenskiy said “I have no doubt that it was not our missile”, based on reports from Ukraine’s military which the president said he “cannot but trust”. An adviser to the Polish president said Ukraine was likely to get access to the site of the blast that it has requested.

U.S. President Joe Biden disputed Zelenskiy’s assertion that the missile was not Ukrainian, telling reporters at the White House on Thursday: “That’s not the evidence.”

Moscow had denied responsibility. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the “mayhem” around accusations of Russian involvement in the blast were “part of a systematic anti-Russian campaign by the West”.

Officials reported heavy fighting in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia claims to have annexed along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September after holding what it calls “referendums” there condemned as illegal by Kyiv and the West.

“In the direction of Svatove and Kreminna (in Luhansk region), the Ukrainian military has managed to push the enemy back a bit. Local residents say they can hear battles going on nearby,” regional governor Serhiy Gaidar said in a TV broadcast.

Moscow’s forces retreated from the southern city of Kherson last week after a Ukrainian counteroffensive. It was the only regional capital Russia had captured since its Feb. 24 invasion, and the pullback was the third major Russian retreat of the war.

Investigators in the Kherson region uncovered 63 bodies bearing signs of torture after Russian forces left the area, Ukraine’s interior minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted the minister, Denys Monastyrsky, as telling national television: “The search has only just started, so many more dungeons and burial places will be uncovered.”

Russia denies its troops target civilians or have committed atrocities. Mass burial sites have been found in other parts previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian bodies showing signs of torture.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a Ukrainian missile struck a village there, killing two people and wounding nine.

The top U.S. general, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, played down chances of any outright military victory for Kyiv in the near term, saying Russia still had significant combat power in Ukraine despite setbacks.

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British finance minister Jeremy Hunt announced a string of tax increases and tighter public spending in a tough budget plan on Thursday that he said was needed after the blow dealt to the country’s fiscal reputation by former prime minister Liz Truss.

Hunt told parliament that the economy was already in recession and was forecast to shrink next year but there was no way to avoid painful fiscal medicine to ensure Britain could build on the recent restoration of calm in financial markets.

“Credibility cannot be taken for granted and yesterday’s inflation figures show we must continue a relentless fight to bring it down, including an important commitment to rebuild the public finances,” he said.

Hunt announced changes to tax rules that will mean more people pay basic income tax, a lower threshold for paying the top rate of income tax, and a cut in tax-free allowances for earnings from dividends.

He froze until 2028 a threshold at which employers must start to pay social security contributions, meaning companies will have to pay more.

A levy on the profits of energy companies would be increased to 35% from 25% from Jan. 1 until 2028, and a new temporary 45% tax would be imposed on electricity generators, to raise a total of 14 billion pounds next year, Hunt said.

The belt-tightening comes against the backdrop of a weak outlook for the economy.

Gross domestic product is now expected to contract by 1.4% next year compared with a projection for growth of 1.8% in the previous outlook published in March by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Since then, Britain’s economy has come under strain from an inflation rate now above 11%, a slowing global economy and a bout of severe financial market volatility during Truss’s brief term as prime minister.

Hunt said the OBR forecasts laid out “starkly the impact of global headwinds on the UK economy”.

The OBR forecast GDP would grow by 1.3% in 2024 and by 2.6% in 2025, Hunt said, compared with its previous forecasts for growth of 2.1% and 1.8% respectively.

He said the OBR saw inflation at 9.1% in 2022, up from its March forecast of 7.4%, and at 7.4% next year, up from a previously forecast 4.0%.

Hunt and Sunak have said they will restore investor confidence in Britain after Truss’s failed experiment with unfunded tax cuts.

She quit after just 50 days in Downing Street when her policies sent the pound to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, threatened chaos in the housing market and forced the Bank of England to intervene to prop up the bond markets.

Hunt said the OBR judged that Britain – where high inflation is creating a cost-of-living crisis – is already in recession.

It is the only Group of Seven economy yet to recover its pre-pandemic size, having previously suffered a decade of near-stagnant income growth.

Hunt had warned in the days leading up to Thursday’s announcement that he could only slow a rise in borrowing costs by showing investors that Britain’s 2.45 trillion-pound ($2.91 trillion) debt mountain will start to fall as a share of GDP.

Thursday’s forecasts by the OBR showed that target would be met in the 2027/28 financial year.

Critics have warned against a return to the kind of tight spending controls pursued by the ruling Conservative Party for much of the past 12 years, saying it would hurt already stretched public services and the lives of millions of households, deepening the expected recession in the process.

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Britain’s economy is forecast to shrink next year, finance minister Jeremy Hunt said as he began outlining how he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will raise taxes and cut spending to repair the public finances, despite the grim outlook.

The new forecast is for gross domestic product to contract by 1.4% next year compared with a projection for growth of 1.8% in the previous outlook published in March by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Since then, Britain’s economy has come under strain from an inflation rate now above 11%, a slowing global economy and political and severe financial market volatility during Liz Truss’s brief term as prime minister.

Hunt said the OBR forecasts laid out “starkly the impact of global headwinds on the UK economy” as he started a speech to parliament on Thursday.

The OBR forecast gross domestic product would grow by 1.3% in 2024 and by 2.6% in 2025, Hunt said, compared with its previous forecasts for growth of 2.1% and 1.8% respectively.

Hunt and Sunak have said they will restore investor confidence in Britain after the failed “Trussonomics” experiment with unfunded tax cuts that sent the pound to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, threatened chaos in the housing market and forced Truss to quit after just 50 days in Downing Street.

Hunt said the OBR judged that Britain – where high inflation is creating a cost-of-living crisis – is already in recession. It is the only Group of Seven nation yet to recover its pre-pandemic size, having previously suffered a decade of near-stagnant income growth.

Hunt had warned of more pain in his budget statement in the days leading up to Thursday’s announcement.

He has said he can only slow the rise in borrowing costs if he can show investors that Britain’s 2.45 trillion-pound ($2.91 trillion) debt mountain will start to fall as a share of economic output.

Critics have warned against a return to the kind of tight controls on spending pursued by the ruling Conservative Party for much of the past 12 years, saying it will hurt already stretched public services and the lives of millions of households, deepening the expected recession in the process.

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Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel and Western intelligence services of planning to divide Iran and start a civil war on Thursday, a day after seven people were killed in the southwestern city of Izeh in what state media presented as a “terrorist attack”.

“Various security services, Israel and some Western politicians who have made plans for civil war, destruction and the disintegration of Iran, should know that Iran is not Libya or Sudan,” Hossein Amirabdollahian tweeted, adding that Iranians would not fall for such plans.

Makers of everything from toys to tortillas are increasingly setting minimum prices on their goods to maintain profits and limit price cutting as retailers like Walmart Inc (WMT.N) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) try to grab sales from each other online.

As a result, shoppers face fewer discounts for everyday purchases at a time when inflation is around 8%, and as retailers look to unload hundreds of billions of dollars of excess inventory. read more

For many years manufacturers set the lowest price at which retailers could advertise certain big-ticket items like TVs. They wanted to stop shoppers who scoped out an item on the showroom floor, and then went online to find it advertised by another retailer at a lower price, from buying it there.

Now, as shoppers stick with the pandemic habit of buying more household basics online, companies such as Colgate-Palmolive Co (CL.N) have in recent months used what are known as minimum advertised price policies on less expensive products like its Optic White Pro Series toothpaste on Amazon, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Pro Series toothpaste, now advertised for about $9.96 on Amazon, is a higher-margin product where Colgate wants to protect its profits amid soaring costs. read more As a result, consumers have struggled to find a lower advertised price anywhere else.

Toymaker Hasbro Inc (HAS.O) requires retailers to keep any advertised prices above its specified levels ranging from $6.99 to $33.99 on Monopoly, Twister, Chutes & Ladders and 21 other games and toys, except during the holiday shopping season, according to a company memo seen by Reuters.

Online shopping for consumer staples, coupled with Amazon’s cut-throat competition with Walmart Inc (WMT.N), have driven makers of many consumer products to put price floors on low-cost products, e-commerce consultants said.

Mr. Tortilla, which makes diet-friendly tortillas sold online by Walmart and Amazon, decided to set a minimum price as it expanded sales, aiming to keep prices level across e-commerce retailers, said Ron Alcazar, the company’s chief operating officer.

“We’re seeing categories adopt (these floors) that never had, like food and beverage,” said Jack Gale, an account executive at PriceSpider, which has seen 120% year-over-year growth in the number of brands using its products that help enforce these price floors since 2018.

While legal in the United States, these policies are illegal in many countries, including across Europe in most cases.

Agreements dictating the for-sale price between retailer and manufacturer are also not legal in some states including California and Maryland.

Amazon’s part in these pricing floors stems from its pledge to offer products priced as low as, or lower than, rivals like Walmart. This compels brands that sell huge volumes of goods on Amazon to set, and then enforce, a minimum price. Otherwise, they face shrinking profits.

Wholesalers to Amazon and sellers on its platform can be penalized by poor placement on Amazon.com, among other practices, if the company finds lower prices on the goods elsewhere, the e-commerce consultants said.

“We have no role in creating them or in their continued adoption,” the Amazon spokesperson said when asked about minimum advertised pricing policies. “Like any store, we reserve the right not to highlight prices that are uncompetitive compared to other major retailers. We always set our prices independently.”

A lawsuit California has filed against Amazon claims suppliers have to agree to rules set by Amazon that ultimately lead brands to adopt and enforce minimum advertised price policies.

U.S. Representative David Cicilline, who is working on proposed antitrust legislation aimed at bringing down prices said, “Amazon routinely abuses its monopoly power to coerce sellers and suppliers, preventing them from offering cheaper prices elsewhere.”

Amazon said in response that it does not prevent sellers from offering lower prices elsewhere.

A 2007 United States Supreme Court decision permitting agreements “within reason” on for-sale prices between retailers and suppliers helped set the stage for the expansion of these price policies.