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Oct. 24 (UPI) — The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the Consumer Price Index report Friday, two weeks after calling back economists and other employees to prepare the document despite the government shutdown.

The CPI report was originally scheduled to be published Oct. 15, but the shutdown delayed work. However, federal law requires the Social Security Administration to make its cost-of-living adjustment annually based on inflation from the third quarter.

That adjustment, known as COLA, must be published by Nov. 1, though it was originally expected to be released in mid-October.

The BLS called back economists and IT specialists to prepare the report the second week of October.

Economic experts expect Friday’s report will show that inflation has risen to its highest level since May 2024 — 3.1%, ABC News reported. The Federal Reserve‘s target annual inflation rate is 2%.

NBC News reported the report is expected to be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Thursday marked the 23rd day the government was closed for business pending the passage of a stopgap funding bill, making it the second-longest federal shutdown in U.S. history. Friday is Day 24.

Hapoel Tel Aviv criticised the derby cancellation, accusing Israeli police of “preparing for a war, not a sporting event”, including during discussions in the lead-up to the highly-anticipated match.

“The shocking events outside the stadium and following the reckless and scandalous decision not to hold the match only demonstrate that the Israel Police has taken control of the sport,” Hapoel Tel Aviv said in a statement on X, external.

Maccabi Tel Aviv has not yet commented, except to confirm the match was cancelled.

The decision by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Aston Villa match on 6 November has sparked widespread criticism.

The UK government has since said it is working to overturn the ban and exploring what additional resources might be required to ensure the fixture can be hosted safely.

Villa told their matchday stewards that they did not have to work at the game, saying they understood that some “may have concerns”.

On Thursday, West Midlands Police said it supported the ban and classified the fixture as “high risk” based on intelligence and previous incidents.

That included “violent clashes and hate-crime offences” between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans before a match in Amsterdam in November 2024, when more than 60 people were arrested.

There have been protests at various sporting events over the war in Gaza, including when Israel played Norway and Italy in recent football World Cup qualifiers.

At least 91 Palestinian people were killed on Saturday in relentless Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, including at least 45 in Gaza City, as the military intensified its widely criticised ground invasion.

Gaza’s Government Media Office slammed Israel for misleading the Palestinian people with threats to evacuate to the central and southern governorates by portraying them as “safe humanitarian zones”, while continuing to strike those same areas.

According to a statement issued on Saturday, 1,903 people have been killed in 133 attacks on central and southern Gaza since the forced displacement from Gaza City began on August 11, some 46 percent of all reported deaths across the enclave during that period.

The office said that this shows civilians are being directly targeted, despite being told to move south, and called on the international community to intervene, warning that continued global inaction amounts to a “green light” for further massacres.

Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that since the early hours of Saturday, Israeli attacks have increased in Gaza City and more casualties have been arriving at al-Shifa Hospital.

“Just in the past few minutes, we had confirmation of a family evacuating on a road inside a vehicle when it was struck by a drone missile. Four people were reported killed on the spot,” he said.

“Hundreds of others have been on the move as Israeli drones and fighter jets chase them from one place to another,” he added.

Hospitals attacked

Some hospitals in Gaza City have shut down as Israeli attacks escalate, with plans to seize the city and displace more people each day.

Earlier on Saturday, people in one of the city’s main hospitals, the Jordan Field Hospital, were forced to evacuate all 107 patients and their entire staff after facing heavy bombardment.

Hospitals in Gaza have long been on the brink of collapse amid relentless Israeli strikes. Most are operating in horrific conditions, unable to provide even basic medical supplies, such as anaesthesia and antibiotics, while the doctors, who are going hungry themselves, struggle to treat starving patients.

The few hospitals still partially functioning in central Gaza have become overwhelmed with wounded and sick people fleeing bombardment in the north. Many arrive in need of urgent medical care that cannot be provided.

“Displacement has worsened the situation inside hospitals in the south,” a displaced Palestinian told Al Jazeera. “Now you can see that instead of one patient in one bed, medical staff tried to fit two patients in one bed.”

Dr Khalil Digran, who works at Al-Aqsa Hospital, said that Israeli forces deliberately attacked al-Rantisi Paediatric Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s only specialised medical facility for children.

“Gaza City and the north are left with just two health facilities that are barely functioning: al-Shifa and al-Ahli Hospital,” Digran told Al Jazeera.

“As for the remaining health facilities in central and southern Gaza, Israeli actions are already adding more pressure on these facilities and threatening to bring their service to a total halt.”

Mohammad Khoudary, a displaced Palestinian, told Al Jazeera: “Ever since we became displaced, my father has been impacted and has become very sad.

“This has affected his health; he has become dehydrated. I am hoping they will be able to transfer him to Al-Aqsa Hospital.”

Hamas says has not seen ceasefire plan

Meanwhile, on the global stage, protests calling for a ceasefire took place Saturday in Berlin, Germany, Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Hamas has said that it has not received United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, even as Trump this week repeatedly expressed optimism that a deal is close.

In comments to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza.” He offered no details and gave no timetable. Israel has not yet made any public response to Trump’s comments.

A Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said the Palestinian group “has not been presented with any plan”.

Trump is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, whose hard-right governing coalition is opposed to ending the Gaza war until Hamas is destroyed.

Debbie Slater, the mother of Jay Slater, who went missing in Tenerife in 2024, is heard speaking to UK police the day after her son went missing in a new Channel 4 documentary

Jay Slater’s mum says her “legs turned to jelly” and she called police to report him missing

In a new Channel 4 documentary, viewers will hear Debbie Duncan speak to the UK police the day after Jay went missing on holiday. “He has been located miles and miles away from where he is staying, up a bloody mountain,” she tells UK police after calling 999.

She then tells police how Jay spoke to his friend Lucy Law but only had 1% battery so the conversation was short-lived and speaks of her concern and not knowing the two lads he went off with.

Jay, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, went missing in Tenerife in June 2024 after attending a music festival.

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CCTV footage showed him in nightclubs but he then got into a car with two men he had met on the holiday and was driven to an Airbnb in the remote village of Masca, about 22 miles (36km) away from where he was staying.

It is thought he then tried to get back to where he was staying and got into difficulty.

On a separate second call to Spanish police, his friend Lucy tells them: “My friend he’s met some people, and they’ve drove him up into the mountains. I don’t know why and he’s left the house,

“And I don’t know if something happened, and I was telling him, you need to go back to your friends and tell them to drive you back down. And he said ‘No, I can’t. I can’t’. But I don’t know why that was.”

The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 next Sunday night and has never-before-seen CCTV footage, previously unheard audio, the discovery of unsent messages, and access to the Slater family as they search for answers about what happened to Jay.

After the calls to police a huge search was launched before Jay’s body was found in a remote area near the village of Masca on 15 July.

Within hours of Jay ‘s disappearance in the summer of 2024, mass online interest set conspiracy theories flying, causing a social media storm led by true-crime keyboard detectives.

The case became the focus of global attention, with over 30 million videos online speculating about Jay’s whereabouts.

At an inquest into Jay’s death in July, the late teenager’s mother told how her son’s death had “touched the hearts of the nation”. Debbie gave a tribute to the 19-year-old, whose death from head injuries was ruled an accident, following a two-day hearing at Preston Coroner’s Court.

Coroner Dr James Adeley ruled Jay, who had taken a number of drugs, had fallen in a dangerous ravine, suffering un-survivable head injuries while try to walk back to his holiday let across mountainous terrain in Tenerife, in July last year.

Debbie, accompanied by the teenager’s father, Warren Slater, wept as she told the court her son was “full of fun and was always a joy to be around” with many friends.

He was close to completing his apprenticeship as a bricklayer, was learning to drive and had been “counting down the days” to his first holiday with friends abroad.

“Not in a million years did we predict what was to unfold,” she said. “He had a large circle of good friends who have been left devastated at his tragic death. Our lives will never be the same without Jay in it.”

Her son’s disappearance prompted huge media coverage and sparked a multitude of conspiracy theories on social media.

Debbie added: “He may of just been a story for the past 13 months, a story full of untruths. He did touch the hearts of the nation and that overwhelms us. We ask you to please now let Jay rest in eternal peace.”

*The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 on Sunday September 28 at 9pm.

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A COUNTY Championship match between Somerset and Hampshire was postponed due to a bizarre weather ruling on Monday.

Several games in the competition had been rained off elsewhere in the country, but it was the wind which was eventually deemed unplayable in sunny Taunton.

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Rain had passed through the ground overnight and into the morning and prompted a lunch-time pitch inspection of the field, but soon the rain had blown over to sunny skies.

However, it was reportedly another weather phenomena that put the final nail in the coffin of the day’s cricket action, before a single ball was bowled.

High winds in the area had reportedly made removing the covers a hazardous prospect for groundstaff at County Ground.

There is a precedent for such injuries, with groundsman Matt Page of the Western Australian Cricket Association being struck and concussed by one of his own coverings during an Ashes test in Perth in 2017.

The Times reports that umpires Ben Debenham and David Millns made an inspection of the scene as fans waited for play to finally begin.

But they were waiting in vain, with the game later being abandoned, in line with England and Wales Cricket Board health and safety guidelines.

Those in attendance were initially left in the dark as to the reason for the delay, with the eventual decision being announced after tea

The cricket world was evidently unimpressed by the situation, with several fans of the sport slamming the ECB in reply to The Times’ report.

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One fan said: “And they wonder why the County game is not in rude health? This was simply ridiculous.”

Another fan was just as harsh, saying: “This is a complete disgrace. Why is the ECB not in hot water over this ridiculous rule?

Some fans found the funny side of the ridiculous situation, with a third fan adding: “I’m surprised they allow the ball to land in the crowd…”

And a fourth fan sarcastically chimed in: “How are they allowed to play with that very hard ball?”

Like most of Monday’s postponed matches, the contest eventually got underway on Tuesday, with Somerset choosing to start off with bat in hand.

Middlesex and Lancashire however were subject to a further rain delay as they met at Old Trafford Cricket Ground.

Sept. 13 (UPI) — Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook might not have committed fraud when obtaining a mortgage loan on at least one property for which she is accused of fraud.

Cook in 2021 described the Atlanta condominium that she bought as a second home or a vacation home in documents reviewed by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

A document from May 2021 described the Atlanta property’s use as a “vacation home, and a December 2021 form that she provided to the Biden administration called the condo a second home, according to The Washington Post.

She submitted the December document for review after President Joe Biden nominated her to join the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

A similar review by The New York Times reaches the same conclusions but says the documents are not legal documents and do not disprove claims that she committed fraud by claiming the Atlanta property and another home in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Federal Housing Agency Director Bill Pulte initially raised concern that Cook might have committed fraud and said the newly released documents do not disprove fraud allegations.

“If Dr. Cook solicited estimates as a vacation home and then entered into a mortgage agreement as a primary residence, that is extremely concerning and … evidence of further intent to defraud,” Pulte said, told The New York Times.

Pulte has referred the issue to the Department of Justice, which is investigating the matter.

President Donald Trump announced he is firing Cook, but she challenged her dismissal in a lawsuit and remains a Federal Reserve governor at least until the legal matter is resolved.

AN ancient town that was once the largest behind London is found in the Cotswolds.

Cirencester is often nicknamed the Capital of the Cotswolds, being its largest town.

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It was founded by the Romans, and was even the second largest town behind London at the time.

Now, it remains a popular market town and a commuter spot, being less than an hour from the capital.

There is the central Cirencester Market Place, with a market every Monday and Friday, as well as seasonal ones on Saturdays.

Don’t expect to find many chain shops in town either, with the majority being independent stores.

Make sure to head to Malt and Anchor, named one of the best fish and chip shops in the UK.

The town even has its own Cirencester Castle, which dates back to the 1107.

The town is is home to its own lido as well, which opened back in 1870.

Cirencester Open Air Pool is open until next week, before closing for the season.

There are two pools, a four-lane adult pool which is always at 26C as well as a kids pool.

Our pool’s serenely beautiful setting is just a few minutes’ walk from the centre of town so come and enjoy the sessions that run from May to September.

The main pool is 27m long, has 4 lanes and is kept at an inviting 26 degrees. Originally built as a 30 yard pool, a 1 mile swim is 59 lengths.

We also have a children’s pool that’s 0.5m deep.

One of the popular places to stay is the Kings Head Hotel, which was named as the best hotel breakfast in the UK last year.

Along with that, it also has 66 rooms, as well as an underground spa and on-site deli.

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Otherwise we stayed at The Fleece hotel in in Cirencester – here is what we thought.

There is also the Corinium Museum, named after Cirencester’s original name.

Otherwise there is the modern Barn Theatre if you want to catch a show.

Cirencester has its own train station with direct trains to London taking less than 50 minutes.

Here is a Cotswolds village with its own sandy beach and lagoon.

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Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, James Trafford, Dean Henderson

Defenders: Reece James, Marc Guehi, John Stones, Dan Burn, Ezri Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Tino Livramento, Djed Spence

Midfielders: Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White, Jordan Henderson, Adam Wharton, Morgan Rogers, Declan Rice

Forwards: Harry Kane, Eberechi Eze, Jarrod Bowen, Anthony Gordon, Noni Madueke, Marcus Rashford, Ollie Watkins

Dragons’ Den star Alessandro Savelli left the popular show empty-handed but ended up being worth £40million with his pasta company

Dragons’ Den star Alessandro Savelli left the show empty-handed but ended up being worth £40million. The star co-founded and is the CEO of the popular Pasta Evangelists – a fresh pasta brand which originally started as letter box posted food kits.

Following his appearance on the show, Alessandro’s company is set to open 100 new restaurants across the UK in the next few years, including in the Midlands, Scotland and in the south of England. In a recent chat with The Grocer, the CEO discussed the brand’s plans to expand.

He said they’re pumping £30million into new restaurants. “The demand for our fresh, beautifully cooked artisan pasta is growing,” he explained.

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“Our intention is to become the UK’s fastest-growing, casual dining hot spot and the hottest place to eat for pasta lovers of all ages.”

He continued: “The hospitality industry is going through tough times at the moment, but we are confident that our business model is robust and dynamic.

“And the proof of this is we have already bucked the trend with the confirmed opening of five more restaurants in the space of three months, and more to come.”

Alessandro and his business partner Finn Lagun took part in the show in 2018 asking for a £75,000 investment for a 2.5 per cent cut of the company. Their pitch was rejected, with Jenny Campbell saying Finn was ‘delusional’ and ‘a disaster’.

There were many people who were rejected on Dragons’ Den, including Anshu Ahuja – who entered the Den in an episode that aired, hoping to seek £100,000 for 3 percent of her business, DabbaDrop.

The founder and her business partner had built up their sustainable takeaway business, inspired by the dabbawala system of Mumbai, in 2018, and had valued the business at more than £3,000,000 just a few years later.

The entrepreneur was looking for investment from the likes of Peter Jones, Sara Davies, Touker Suleyman, Deborah Meaden, and Steven Bartlett to help upscale DabbaDrop and encourage its growth outside of London.

However, despite her inspirational ethics behind the sustainable product, and the fact that DabbaDrop had turned over more than £800,000 in its latest year, Anshu failed to convince the Dragons to invest.

Speaking about the show, she said: “We had done quite a lot of work going into Dragons’ Den and our own fundraising round, so the £4million valuation was independently valued, based on our £850,000 revenue and a lifetime value of the 1,500 subscribers at that point of nearly £400 per subscriber. At that point, we also had a 1,000-person waiting list, which is currently, even before airing, standing at 4,000 people.”

Anshu knew it was a “risk” to go on national TV and pitch her business, but was willing to take the leap as the team was fundraising for DabbaDrop at the time of being approached for the show.

They’d already received interest from more than 2,000 investors, had reached millions of views on an Instagram reel, and pledged more than £1,000,000.

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A unique aerial transport operation had been unfolding in the Pacific Northwest this week. The U.S. Marine Corps was prepared to sling-load a retired U.S. Coast Guard HU-25 Guardian jet (based on the French Dassault Falcon 20 business jet) from Astoria, Oregon, to Tillamook, Oregon, under the U.S. military’s most powerful helicopter — the new CH-53K King Stallion. The 50-mile journey would have delivered the retired jet from the Coast Guard Air Station in Astoria to the Tillamook Air Museum for final display. Unfortunately, this will not happen after the HU-25 was damaged during a sling-load test, but at least the jet technically took to the skies, however briefly, one last time.

The news of the aborted mission came today from the great folks from Port of Astoria Regional Airport. Marines had placed straps around the HU-25, and the CH-53K lifted it into the air to make sure the load would hold up for the 50-mile flight. Apparently, once the jet was sat back down on the tarmac, it became clear that the lift had damaged its structure significantly and it would no longer be able to make the flight to the museum. The images below show the crumpled wing root area from the test lift.

The plan was for the CH-53K and an MV-22 Osprey, both from VMX-1, the USMC’s premier air combat test and development unit, which you can read all about in our previous feature here, to both make the flight from Astoria to Tillamook, along with a Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk, a handful of which are based at Astoria.

The operation was seen as a valuable training and test event for the USMC, which has to do these types of recoveries both in peacetime and especially during a conflict. For a fight in the Pacific, being able to rapidly pluck stricken aircraft from remote locales will be a critical capability on many levels, for instance. The three-engined CH-53K, which just entered service in 2022, is the undisputed heavy-lift king within the U.S. military’s stable.

The HU-25 entered service with the USCG in 1983 and served for over three decades, doing everything from search and rescue to drug interdiction missions. Coast Guard Air Station Astoria was one of the type’s bases. The HU-25 in question has been at the installation since its retirement over a decade ago.

It isn’t clear if the lift will be reattempted anytime in the future. It’s possible the aircraft could be partially disassembled and delivered via roadway instead.

We will keep you updated if new info about the HU-25 airlift mission emerges.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Gareth Thomas has opened up about some of the horrific abuse he has faced from strangers on the street. 

Back in 2019, the former Welsh rugby captain revealed that he was HIV-positive after a tabloid threatened to out his status.

“Now that you have that information, it makes me extremely vulnerable, but it does not make me weak,” he said in a video uploaded on X/Twitter. “I choose to fight to educate and break the stigma around this subject.”

Since that fateful day, Thomas has fervently used his platform to shatter misconceptions and debunk harmful myths about the condition, earning praise from fans, LGBTQIA+ organisations and other advocacy groups.

But despite his incredible contributions to the rugby world, queer community and HIV/AIDS awareness, the 51-year-old has continued to experience hate from bigoted trolls.

During a recent appearance on Bryony Gordon’s The Life of Bryony podcast, Thomas recalled a harrowing interaction he had with “two young lads” who spat on him on the street.

“I won’t sit here and be big guy and say it doesn’t hurt. So the two young lads who walked past spat at me and called me an AIDS spreader,” he recalled.

However, instead of hurling his own set of insults or getting physical, Thomas killed the two individuals with kindness.

“I just stopped, and I opened up my arms. So they walked past me. One spat at my chest, one spat at my feet. They walked past me, they waited for a reaction, and I just opened up my arms, and it kind of put them off because that was completely different,” he continued.

“And then they started calling me names. I was like, ‘Do you want a hug?’ And they were like, ‘We’re not going to have a hug off you. You got effing AIDS.’ And I’m like, ‘Do you want to hug, boys? Do you want to hug?’”

The talented athlete went on to say that he walked away from the interaction feeling that he had won, adding that they wanted an angry reaction from him.

“They wanted confirmation that I was a bad person. And I refused to give the confirmation that I was a bad person,” he continued. 

Elsewhere in his interview, Thomas opened up about the discrimination his loved ones and friends have faced, simply because they are associated with him.

“[My husband] Steve is HIV negative, but he’s a teacher in college, right? He’s a brilliant teacher. It’s difficult for him at times because he’s afraid of the stigma that might come from the students within the college,” he revealed.

Thomas also revealed that his parents have faced pushback, stating that people once knew them as the parents of ‘Gareth, the Welsh rugby player.” However, now they are known as “the mother and father of the guy who’s got HIV.”

“So, the stigma that comes with the association of being open and wanting to be authentic in a certain way, but thinking that will last. Will that stigma disappear for me the day after I talk about my HIV virus because I got nothing to hide anymore,” he said.

“The reality is the day after is when the shit begins, right? It’s when it starts because you’ve opened yourself up, you’ve made yourself vulnerable.”

In addition to his status, the legendary talent discussed being an ‘agony aunt’ for closeted sports players and gushed about his husband’s longstanding support.

Check out Thomas’ full podcast interview here.

A MISSING girl lay dying in her flat alone after police deemed her a “medium” risk and left, an inquest heard.

Alex Duce, 18, was reported missing by her worried mum after she struggled to get in touch with her.

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A police officer went to her flat in Tredegar, South Wales, at 11am to try to speak to the beauty student but failed to get an answer.

An inquest heard PC Michael Lammert left the home because Alex was only deemed a “medium risk” because a pal told him “she does this from time to time”.

PC Lammert said: “To me I took that as she shuts off from people and doesn’t want contact with friends and family sometimes.”

This was despite Alex’s mum telling police she had been struggling with her mental health and had self harmed five weeks earlier.

PC Lammert said: “There was no immediacy. If there was a clear message relaying she was contemplating suicide then that would definitely have been a higher risk.”

The incident at that point was not deemed serious enough to allow Gwent Police to use powers of entry as there was not enough evidence that Alex was inside the flat.

The court heard police returned at 4pm to find Alex’s loved ones outside banging on the door.

But in another tragic delay, the officers had to wait for heavy equipment needed to gain entry to the flat.

At the time, there was only one entry kit per police station that contained the apparatus needed.

PC Lauren Smith, who had gone to the home, said it was common for officers not to be able to locate the kits and admitted it was “frustrating”.

The court heard it took 30 minutes to retrieve the kit – with police finally gaining entry at around 5pm.

Alex was discovered hanged in her room still showing signs of life before being rushed to hospital, the inquest was told.

She was put on advanced life support but her machine was switched off and she died five days later on September 16, 2022.

PC Smith said she began to realise more about the case after being told Alex had self harmed and in her mind the risk became higher.

She said: “That information was never made available to me. The sense of urgency increased while I was there as I gained more information.”

The inquest continues.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.

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