Good morning. It's Friday, Feb. 11, and we're covering the continuing rise in prices for consumers, Sunday's Super Bowl, and much more. Have feedback? Let us know at [email protected].
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US inflation rose 7.5% during the 12-month period ending in January, according to government data released yesterday, the largest such increase since February 1982. The consumer price index, a proxy for inflation that tracks the price of a basket of goods and services (see 101), rose 0.6% in January, exceeding the 0.5% increase seen in December. Inflation has exceeded a 5% annual rate for the past eight months.
Higher inflation means consumers can buy fewer goods with each dollar they spend. The core index, which removes the sometimes-volatile food (up 7%) and energy (up 27%) components, rose 6% year-over-year—still the highest hike since August 1982. See data for the full basket of goods.
The Federal Reserve, which typically targets annual inflation near 2%, is expected to raise interest rates a number of times this year in an attempt to curb inflation. Read more on the link between interest rates and inflation here.
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Football fans will be treated to an NFL championship with a number of fresh faces Sunday, as the upstart Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI (6:30 pm ET, CBS).
It's the Rams' second appearance in the title game in four years, but the first with veteran QB Matthew Stafford, who joined the franchise in the offseason. Cincinnati, led by second-year QB Joe Burrow, makes their first visit since 1988. Both Stafford and Burrow are former No. 1 picks in the NFL draft.
Both teams arrive in the title game having overcome fourth quarter deficits in their respective conference championships (including a thrilling final minute for the Rams). The game will be played at the Rams' home stadium, a location selected before the season—though Cincinnati will technically be the home team, as conferences alternate the designation each year.
Not really into the game? See the history of each team's mascot, and check out a preview of the most-anticipated commercials here.
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US Eyes Charging Infrastructure
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The Biden administration announced yesterday $5B in funding for states to construct charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. It marks the first tranche of funding drawn for such projects under the $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year.
Initial funds will be focused on fast-charging stations located along major interstate highways, an attempt to address a disconnected and difficult to access charging infrastructure across the country. The administration has set a goal of 500,000 new chargers by 2030, an elevenfold increase over current stations.
Electric vehicles sales in the US jumped 83% in 2021 year-over-year, accounting for 3% of the market (hybrids notched another 5% of light vehicle sales). Still, EVs make up less than 1% of the more than 250 million passenger vehicles on the road today—see a visualization of the challenges facing the industry here.
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
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> Three-time gold medal snowboarder Shaun White ends career with fourth place finish in Beijing (More) | See updated medal count (More) | Former NBA MVP James Harden traded from Brooklyn Nets to Philadelphia 76ers (More)
> Musician Sting sells entire songwriting catalog of roughly 600 songs to Universal for $300M (More) | Betty Davis, an iconic funk musician, dies at 77 (More)
> Popular theater subscription service MoviePass to relaunch this summer two years after its initial shutdown (More)
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> Nobel winner and co-discoverer of HIV, Luc Montagnier, dies at age 89; prestigious researcher was known for a number of controversial ideas in his later years (More)
> Astronomers discover a third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, Earth's closest neighboring star; planet lies within the habitable zone of its host star (More)
> Robot captures first photos of what appears to be melted radioactive fuel at Japan's former Fukushima nuclear plant; destroyed during a 2011 earthquake, officials say it may take up to 40 years to clean the site (More)
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> US stock markets fall (S&P 500 -1.8%, Dow -1.5%, Nasdaq -2.1%) as bond yields increased on highest inflation gains in 40 years (More)
> Coca-Cola and PepsiCo post higher revenues driven by price increases, but both see total profit margins fall amid rising costs (More) | Shares of Twitter fall 2% after company misses user, revenue, and profit expectations (More)
> California regulatory agency sues Tesla over alleged discrimination and harassment against Black employees at company’s Fremont, California, factory (More)
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> Congress passes bill guaranteeing that victims of workplace sexual harassment may take case through courts, as opposed to arbitration; advocates say arbitration practices benefit employers and let cases go unreported (More)
> Automakers say Canadian trucker antimandate protest at US-Canada border forcing plant closures; economic disruption estimated at $300M per day (More) | Officials warn similar protest may be being planned in the US (More) | See US COVID-19 stats here (More)
> Ukraine accuses Russia of blockading the Sea of Azov, which provides a water route to the Atlantic, as the latter begins military exercises; officials say Russia-Germany talks failed to produce diplomatic breakthrough to tensions (More)
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Rest of World | Alizeh Kohari. Can machine learning help decipher an ancient language that has left researchers scratching their heads for a century? (Read)
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Nat Geo | Tara Roberts. The group of Black scuba divers focused on investigating the underwater wreckage of slave ships. (Read, paywall)
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3Blue1Brown | Grant Sanderson. A fun look at a fascinating but complex math concept—using information theory to solve Wordle. (Watch, via YouTube)
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