| Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in a shocking act of political violence. Congress released the “birthday book” for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that includes a drawing and suggestive note purportedly signed by “Donald.” White House officials have denied that President Donald Trump drew the sketch or signed the note. And tensions ramped up significantly abroad: Israel fired missiles at U.S. ally Qatar that set back the Trump administration’s push for peace in the region and NATO shot down Russian drones in Poland’s airspace. “Here we go!” Trump somewhat cryptically posted on social media about the latter, as Polish leaders admonished him. Of Israel, Trump described “very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect.” Here’s what else happened under Trump this week. Inflation is going up. Hiring is going down. The U.S. economy has weathered Trump’s tariffs and deportations surprisingly well over the past few months. Data suggest that’s beginning to change. There’s evidence that the economy is moving toward a nasty economic phenomenon known as stagflation, which is job losses combined with inflation. For evidence that inflation is going up, just look to the Labor Department report on Thursday that said housing and food prices in particular are increasing. At the same time the economy shed jobs this summer for the first time since the pandemic, and there’s new evidence that the job market was slowing even before Trump instituted some of the highest tariffs in a century. Trump’s administration contends that the tariffs, which raise prices on goods for consumers and American businesses, will boost American manufacturing — but that it takes time. Economists I’ve talked to are skeptical of that. “You’re going to see higher prices and a weaker labor market and a big hit to business investment spending,” Michael Strain, an economist with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, predicted. “And then things will continue to get worse.” Trump has to pay out tens of millions for defamation from his previous legal troubles Over the past two years, juries found Trump liable for defamation and determined he needed to pay tens of millions of dollars in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her two decades earlier. Trump appealed the fine. But on Monday, a court said Trump still has to pay Carroll $83 million in damages the jury awarded her. This was one of three cases among Trump’s many legal battles to reach a verdict while Trump was out of the White House, and it may be the only one Trump has to pay damages for. The other was a civil case that found Trump and his company committed business fraud. The judge said Trump’s crimes “shock the conscience” and ordered him to pay nearly $500 million. A state appeals court recently voided the penalty, calling it “excessive,” but kept in place the finding that Trump committed fraud. Trump was also convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for a hush money scheme to pay a former porn actress during his first presidential run. He won the presidential election months later, and a judge instituted no fines or jail time. The Supreme Court keeps giving Trump big breaks This week, the Supreme Court said that immigration raids in Los Angeles that appeared to target people based on their race are okay for now. In many cases, the Supreme Court has been willing to temporarily allow Trump to flex significant presidential power. This week, the chief justice of the U.S. gave Trump the go-ahead for now to fire a Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency that is supposed to be insulated from politics. And the chief justice allowed Trump to freeze $4 billion in foreign aid that Congress previously approved. None of these decisions is about the merits of the case yet. But the tea leaves aren’t hard to read, say legal experts. “This looks like it’s a court that is pretty comfortable with big, bold executive action and enforcement of federal law,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and host of the “Passing Judgment” podcast. RFK Jr. releases a controversial Make America Healthy Again report As he creates policy that experts say makes vaccines harder to get and could put more Americans — especially children — in danger of preventable diseases, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a report this week about the rest of his health priorities. The report calls for pushing for healthier food in schools and researching chronic diseases, and it notably does not try to take on pesticides and ultra-processed food, both of which Kennedy has blamed for many health ills, The Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein reports. On Friday, The Post reported that Trump health officials plan to present a finding linking coronavirus vaccines to the deaths of 25 children, to the alarm of health experts. In previous reports and statements, Kennedy has overstated or trumpeted error-filled science, like that medications can cause mass shootings. The report did not mention gun violence, which by some measures is the leading cause of death for children and teens in recent years. In all, the powerful food and agricultural industries seemed content with the direction Kennedy that wants to take health policy, while environmental groups weren’t. “It looks like pesticide industry lobbyists steamrolled the MAHA Commission’s agenda,” Environmental Working Group’s Ken Cook said in a statement. Philip J. Landrigan, a pediatrician and professor at Boston College, told NPR that “the report contains no recommendations on how to reduce children’s exposures to toxic chemicals in food other than food dyes and heavy metals in infant formula.” | 
