The Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates in mid-March



Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell believes that the Fed is on track to raise interest rates in mid-March.

“Making appropriate monetary policy in this environment requires a recognition that the economy evolves in unexpected ways. We will need to be nimble in responding to incoming data and the evolving outlook,” Powell said in prepared testimony before Congress.

Powell said that it was too soon to tell how the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent sanctions on Russia issued by Western nations, could affect the U.S. economy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The chairman’s remarks highlight the delicate economic climate that the Federal Reserve must navigate as it raises interest rates for the first time since 2018 amid rapid inflation that could be further exasperated in response to Western sanctions on Russia.

He said, “The near-term effects on the U.S. economy of the invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war, the sanctions, and of events to come, remain highly uncertain.”

It’s typically unusual for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates during times of geopolitical conflict. That said, the Fed is under increased pressure to raise rates since inflation is running far above the Fed’s 2% target and Western sanctions on Russia stand to further raise prices.

In late February, allied leaders of Western nations issued a joint statement expressing their intentions to restrict Russian access to the SWIFT telecommunications network.

In the statement, Western leaders from the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States said, “As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities we are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies.”

Targeting the Russian financial sector, oligarchs, and the Russian central bank with these sanctions will economically isolate Russia and make international commerce extremely difficult for the country.

Similar to previous spikes in inflation being caused by supply chain shortages and difficulty importing goods, Powell and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve believe that the extra duress put on international trade as a result of these sanctions will cause prices to further to inflate for American consumers.

“We are attentive to the risks of potential further upward pressure on inflation expectations and inflation itself from a number of factors. We will use our policy tools as appropriate to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched,” Powell said.

Russia warns that Biden's sanctions could cause it to drop the International Space Station on the United States



Russian leadership threatened to allow the International Space Station (ISS) to crash into the United States or one of its allies following President Joe Biden’s recently announced sanctions on Russia.

Biden issued sanctions on Russia that target the country’s “aerospace industry, including their space program,” the U.S. Sun reported.

In response to Biden’s sanctions, Dimitry Rogozin, the Director-General of Roscomos, suggested that the United States wants to “destroy our cooperation on the ISS.”

Russian leadership claimed that the United States needs to cooperate with Russia if they want to prevent the ISS from falling on the United States or Europe.

Rogozin said, “If you block cooperation with us, who will save the International Space Station (ISS) from an uncontrolled de-orbit and fall into the United States or … Europe?”

He added, “There is also the possibility of a 500-ton structure falling on India and China.”

The world is so insane right now that we're all breezing by the fact that the head of the Russian space agency threatened to... drop the International Space Station on us...??pic.twitter.com/VTR4GcOHe3
— Caleb Watney (@Caleb Watney) 1645822483

NASA has sought to ease tensions with its Russian counterparts.

A spokesperson for the agency said, “NASA continues working with all our international partners, including the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the ongoing safe operations of the International Space Station.”

“The new export control measures will continue to allow US-Russia civil space cooperation,” the spokesperson added, “No changes are planned to the agency’s support for the ongoing in orbit and ground station operations.”

Brandon J. Weichert, a geopolitical and space expert, suggested that Russia has a “decade to 12-year advantage on the U.S. in the galaxies.”

Weichert said that the United States are in “no way fit” to deal with the challenges posed by Russia.

He said, “We are going to get hit very hard soon in space. It is going to be the most debilitating strike on America possibly ever. And, we may not recover from it in a timely fashion. This could be how we lose our first war on Earth is losing the war in space.”

Weichert criticized politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. for not having the foresight to ward off rivals in space exploration after the Cold War.

He said, “They thought there would never be a need for any kind of preventive security measure because we thought we would always be dominant, and we thought no one would be crazy enough to challenge us.”

Weichert added, “Here we are 30 years later, and you have Russia, China, North Korea, and even Iran showing us that it was the wrong assumption.”

The Egyptian government extends the stays of Ukrainian tourists for free in wake of the Russian invasion



The Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry allows tourists affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine to extend their stay at Egyptian hotels free of charge until it is safe to return home.

On Thursday, Ahram Online, Egypt's largest online news organization, reported that Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled Anani, made this decision following the closing of Ukraine's airspace.

The Hotel Association of Egypt also issued a directive to all of its member hotels to extend the stays of Ukrainian and Russian tourists until Russian and Ukrainian airspace reopens, enabling them to return home safely.

Hotels were instructed to provide these stranded tourists with their resort's full amenities free of charge.

The South Sinai Hotels Chamber issued a statement to the general managers of hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh that implored them to extend the stays of Ukrainian tourists who had returned from the airport after having their flights canceled.

The chamber also told hotel management that they should provide stranded Ukrainians with whatever assistance they need and not let "any tourist leave any hotel."

The chamber's statement encouraged hotel management to be careful moderating potential confrontations between Ukrainian and Russian tourists.

The Ukrainian embassy in Egypt shared the Hotel Association of Egypt's directive and the South Sinai Hotels Chamber's statement on its official Facebook page and encouraged stranded Ukrainian tourists to present these documents to hotel management if necessary.

Prior to the Ministry's announcement, the Ukrainian embassy said that it was cooperating with officials in tourism and tour operators to help provide stranded Ukrainians with resources due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the temporary closure of Ukrainian airspace.

The embassy also said that it was working to find routes of entry into Ukraine through Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary so that the stranded Ukrainians can return home.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that due to the closure of Ukrainian airspace, Ukrainian citizens abroad should stay in place, closely follow events, and register in the ministry's digital communications system that connects Ukrainians with their embassies and consulates abroad.

The head of Egypt's National Company for Air Navigation, Ihab Mohi El-Din, said that on Thursday prior to Ukraine barring commercial flight from its airspace, Egyptian airports received hundreds of Ukrainian civilians from airports in Kiev and Lviv.

Egypt is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Ukrainians. In 2019, nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians visited and during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 over 700,000 Ukrainians vacationed in Egypt.