Wholesale inflation hits three-year high
Fast-rising oil prices sent U.S. businesses’ costs higher in March, lifting wholesale inflation to 4%, the highest annual rate in three years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday. The Producer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices received by producers of goods and services, rose 0.5% from February, the same pace seen the month before. The weekslong war in the Middle East has amplified the significance of inflation gauges like PPI, which could indicate how deeply spiking energy costs are rippling through the economy. The PPI report comes just days after the Consumer Price Index showed Americans are already paying significantly more for a range of goods.
Atlanta tops busiest airports
The world’s busiest airport rankings for 2025 are out. Global air traffic last year showed significant growth, and the No. 1 airport held onto its longstanding title. Total passengers are estimated to come in globally at 9.8 billion in 2025, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by Airports Council International. That’s up 3.6% from 2024. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Delta Air Lines hub in Georgia’s capital city, is once again No. 1 in the world for passenger traffic, with 106.3 million passengers using the airport in 2025. While that’s an impressive number, it does represent a 1.6% decline from the 2024 total and a nearly 4% dip from 2019. Dubai International Airport held onto the No. 2 slot for the third consecutive year. And Tokyo’s Haneda Airport jumped up one slot to take the No. 3 ranking in 2025. Dallas Fort Worth (No. 4) and Shanghai Pudong (No. 5) round out the top five.
War against Iran expected to increase poverty
The fallout of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran is poised to cost the Asia-Pacific economy hundreds of billions of dollars and plunge millions into poverty, a United Nations report said Tuesday. Military escalation in the Middle East could cause output losses of between $97 billion and $299 billion in the Asia Pacific, due to rising costs for transportation, electricity and food, according to an estimate from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). That would equal about 0.3% to 0.8% of regional GDP, the report said. The UNDP also predicted that the war puts 32 million people at risk of falling into poverty globally, 8.8 million of them in the Asia-Pacific region.
Tornadoes accompany severe storms across central U.S.
Severe storms brought multiple tornadoes to the central U.S. yesterday with more possible today. Buildings in Kansas were demolished, heavy rain stranded vehicles on flooded streets in Wisconsin and baseball-sized hail battered parts of three states. Tens of millions of people from the Texas-Mexico border to the Great Lakes are at risk of severe storms Tuesday, including in Chicago, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Oklahoma City, where there’s a Level 3 of 5 threat for large hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes. There were over a dozen reports of tornadoes on Monday in parts of eastern Kansas, northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.
Trump administration accuses Biden of bias
The Trump Justice Department released a new report Tuesday accusing the Biden administration of unfairly using a federal law meant to protect access to abortion clinics to go after anti-abortion protesters. The report is the first product from DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group” – established early in President Donald Trump’s second term – and comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces pressure to pursue prosecutions against Trump’s political adversaries. The report accuses the Biden Justice Department of being biased in its enforcement of the FACE Act, which was passed in 1994 in the wake of attacks on abortion providers. The law also prohibits threats or obstruction at places of religious worship. Biden’s former top civil rights lawyer, Kristen Clarke, defended the Biden administration’s work.
Trump takes down image of him as Jesus
After defending his posting an image of him looking like Jesus, Donald Trump quietly had the image removed from his internet site. The depiction of Trump as Jesus drew heavy criticism as being blasphemous, including from his MAGA base. At the same time, Trump has doubled-down on his criticism of Pope Leo. “Pope Leo said things that are wrong,” Trump told reporters yesterday. Trump had lashed out at the pope last year when the pope criticized Trump’s treatment of immigrants. Pope Leo has been an outspoken critic of the war Trump started with Iran and especially Trump’s threat to wipe out an entire civilization.
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