By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Friday’s inflation report is likely to show that consumer prices worsened in September for the second straight month as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have lifted the cost of some groceries and other goods.

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The report on the consumer price index is being issued more than a week late because of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week. The Trump administration recalled some Labor Department employees to produce the figures because they are used to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for roughly 70 million Social Security recipients.

Friday’s inflation report will be the first comprehensive economic data to be released in more than three weeks and will attract intense interest from Wall Street and officials at the Federal Reserve. Fed officials are cutting their short-term interest rate to buoy the economy and hiring, but they are taking some risk doing so because inflation is still above their 2% target.

The issues of affordability and the cost of necessities are gaining in political importance. Concerns over the costs of rent and groceries have played a key role in the mayoral race in New York City. And Trump, who has acknowledged that the spike in grocery prices under President Joe Biden helped him win the 2024 election, has been considering importing Argentine beef to reduce record-high U.S. beef prices, angering U.S. cattle ranchers.

The cost of ground beef has jumped to $6.32 a pound, a record, in part because of tariffs on imports from countries such as Brazil, which faces a 50% duty. Years of drought that have reduced cattle herds have also raised prices.

Friday’s report is forecast to show that inflation rose 3.1% in September from a year earlier, according to a survey of economists by data provider FactSet. That would be up from 2.9% in August and the highest in 18 months. On a monthly basis, inflation is projected to be 0.4% in September, the same as in August.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation in September was likely 3.1% for the third straight month. On a monthly basis, core prices likely rose 0.3%, economists project, also for the third straight month.

Such figures are unlikely to deter the Fed from cutting its key rate by another quarter-point when it meets next week, to about 3.9%. It would be the second cut this year and is driven by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s concerns that hiring is weakening and poses a threat to the economy.

Even as inflation has fallen sharply from its peak of 9.1% more than three years ago, it remains a major concern for consumers. About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress, according to an August poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

And the Conference Board, a business research group, finds that consumers are still referencing prices and inflation in responses to its monthly survey on consumer confidence.

Still, inflation has not risen as much as many economists feared when Trump first announced a sweeping set of tariffs. Many importers built up inventories of goods before the duties took effect, while Trump reduced many import taxes, including as part of trade deals with China, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

And many economists, as well as some Fed officials, expect that the tariffs will create a one-time lift to prices that will fade by early next year. At the same time, inflation excluding the tariffs is cooling, they argue: Rental price increases, for example, are declining on average nationwide.

Yet Trump is imposing tariffs in an ongoing fashion that could raise prices in a more sustained fashion.

For example, the Trump administration is investigating whether to slap 100% tariffs on imports from Nicaragua over alleged human rights violations. The prospect of such steep duties is a major headache for Dan Rattigan, the co-founder of premium chocolate maker French Broad, based in Asheville, N.C.

“We’ve been shouldering some significant additional costs,” Rattigan said. The United States barely produces any cocoa, so his company imports it from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda. The imports from Nicaragua were duty-free because the country had a trade agreement with the United States, but now faces an 18% import tax.

Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the past two years because of poor weather and blights in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. The tariffs are an additional hit on top of that. Rattigan is also paying more for almonds, hazelnuts, and chocolate-making equipment from Italy, which has also been hit with tariffs.

French Broad raised its prices slightly earlier this year and doesn’t have any plans to do so again. But after the winter holidays, “all bets are off … in what is a very unpredictable business climate,” Rattigan said.

By BEN FINELY and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to make her first court appearance in a mortgage fraud case on Friday, the third adversary of President Donald Trump to face a judge on federal charges in recent weeks.

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James was indicted earlier this month on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a 2020 home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia. The charges came shortly after the official who had been overseeing the investigation was pushed out by the Trump administration and the Republican president publicly called on the Justice Department to take action against James and other political foes.

James, a Democrat who has sued Trump and his administration dozens of times, has denied wrongdoing and decried the indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

The indictment stems from James’ purchase of a modest house in Norfolk, where she has family. During the sale, she signed a standard document called a “second home rider” in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agreed otherwise.

Rather than using the home as a second residence, the indictment alleges, James rented it out to a family of three. According to the indictment, the misrepresentation allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties.

James drew Trump’s ire when she won a staggering judgment against the president and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.

James’ indictment followed the resignation of Erik Siebert as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after he resisted Trump administration pressure to bring charges. Siebert was replaced with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and former Trump lawyer who had never previously served as a federal prosecutor and presented James’ case to the grand jury herself.

On Thursday, lawyers for James asked for an order prohibiting prosecutors from disclosing to the news media information about the investigation, or materials from the case, outside of court.

The motion followed the revelation from earlier this week that Halligan contacted via an encrypted text messaging platform a reporter from Lawfare, a media organization that covers legal and national security issues, to discuss the James prosecution and complain about coverage of it. The reporter published the exchange that she and Halligan had.

“The exchange was a stunning disclosure of internal government information,” lawyers for James wrote.

They added: “It has been reported that Ms. Halligan has no prosecutorial experience whatsoever. But all federal prosecutors are required to know and follow the rules governing their conduct from their first day on the job, and so any lack of experience cannot excuse their violation.”

The motion also asks that the government be required to preserve all communications with representatives of the media as well as to prevent the deletion of any records or communications related to the investigation and the prosecution of the case.

Separately on Thursday, defense lawyers said they intended to challenge Halligan’s appointment, a step also taken this week by attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey in a different case filed by Halligan. Comey has been charged with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute him, and he has pleaded not guilty.

A third Trump adversary, former national security adviser John Bolton, pleaded not guilty last week to charges against him of emailing classified information to family members and keeping top secret documents at his Maryland home.

The Justice Department has also been investigating mortgage fraud allegations against Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, whom Trump has called to be prosecuted over allegations related to a property in Maryland. In a separate mortgage investigation, authorities have been probing allegations against Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, who is challenging a Trump administration effort to remove her from her job. Schiff and Cook have denied wrongdoing.

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.

The post on Trump’s social media site came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.

Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.

Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that an ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”

The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.

Carney met with Trump earlier this month to try to ease trade tensions, as the two countries and Mexico prepare for a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — a trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term, but has since soured on.

More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., and nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.

Trump said earlier this week that he had seen the ad on television and said that it showed that his tariffs were having an impact.

“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said then.

In his own post on X last week, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, posted a link to the ad and the message: “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.”

He continued, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”

A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. But Ford previously got Trump’s attention with an electricity surcharge to U.S. states. Trump responded by doubling steel and aluminum tariffs.

The president has moved to impose steep U.S. tariffs on many goods from Canada. In April, Canada’s government imposed retaliatory levies on certain U.S. goods — but it carved out exemptions for some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as remission quotas.

Trump’s tariffs have especially hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, Stellantis said it would move a production line from Ontario to Illinois

Associated Press Writer Rob Gillies in Toronto, Ontario, contributed to this report.

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It’s the end of the world and our auteurs are making movies about it. From “One Battle After Another” to “Eddington” to “A House of Dynamite,” existential annihilation and how to face it are on the brain. And our favorite Greek director of feel-weird cinema, Yorgos Lanthimos, has the starkest and darkest take, with his alien invasion conspiracy freakout picture “Bugonia.”

“Bugonia” marks the filmmaker’s fourth collaboration with star Emma Stone, who levied her Oscar clout post “La La Land” to start making daring cinematic experiments with Lanthimos. She earned her second Oscar for their film “Poor Things” and effectively established a mandate on their outré oeuvre. In the past few years, Stone and Lanthimos have created a troupe of players with whom they have collaborated frequently, including the actors Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley, writers Tony McNamara and Efthimis Filippou (who has been writing with Lanthimos from the start) and composer Jerskin Fendrix.

Lanthimos’ films written with Filippou are dark, odd and abrasive, but unpredictable and anarchic in a strangely enchanting way. McNamara’s screenplays are equally strange and enchanting, but also florid, absurd and randy. With “Bugonia,” they bring a new player into the company, writer Will Tracy (who co-wrote “The Menu”).

Tracy’s script for “Bugonia” blends humor, tragedy and absurdism in the way most Lanthimos films do, but this is more of a biting contemporary social critique, drenched in sorrow. Rather than worlds of fantasy, period settings or outrageous schemes, “Bugonia” hits close to home. It is, in a way, despairing, which is a new register for this master of tone.

It’s remarkable how far Stone is willing to push audiences with her characters, showcasing sharper, more unpleasant sides of range. This is perhaps her most unlikable character yet, and she spends the majority of the movie with a shaved head, covered in white grease paint.

Stone stars as Michelle, a self-optimization-obsessed girlboss CEO of a large biomedical company. We meet her through the eyes of her enemy, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a lowly employee in the shipping division of Michelle’s company, who is convinced she’s an alien.

Specifically, Teddy believes Michelle to be an Andromedon, plotting to create a kind of “colony collapse disorder” (as in honeybees) among human beings on Earth; queen dead, worker bees blown to the wind, atomized, isolated, buzzing alone, without purpose. Teddy has been doing a lot of reading online, you see. He’s blasted through an array of political ideologies and now remains focused on his purpose of saving the planet by vanquishing—or at least negotiating with—the Andromedons. The first thing he has to do is kidnap Michelle.

It becomes immediately clear that Teddy is a man in crisis. He’s suffered traumas both recent and as a child, and his mother (Alicia Silverstone) is in a coma, the result of a drug trial orchestrated by Michelle’s company. His only companion is his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), a young innocent who just wants to help Teddy, who serves as a Greek chorus/audience surrogate (and a representative of Lanthimos’ interest in childlike adults). As Teddy explains his plans to Don, he explains them to us, the audience, while Don asks the obvious questions and offers sympathy to the tortured Teddy.

Once the pair have Michelle in their lair, the film becomes a chamber piece, confined to Teddy and Don’s claustrophobic home. It’s like a play, as two titans of acting, Stone and Plemons, go toe-to-toe in the basement. Michelle is more cunning, figuring out how to play these two to her whims, while Teddy struggles to prove her extraterrestrial origins. He is a paranoid lunatic, but to Stone’s credit, we waffle on if she is an Andromedon or not.

Locked in with these two, “Bugonia” is often uncomfortable and darkly funny, and the film plays an uneasy game of cat-and-mouse with its twists and turns. It shocks but it also proceeds the only way it can go, and somehow ends up in a profoundly goofy place. For the majority of the run time, “Bugonia” is the kind of film you respect more than you enjoy, as the archness and absurdity of Stone’s character is too dissonant with the sincerity of Teddy’s sadness at the core of this story.

But there is a bigger intelligence at play here, of course. It’s not until the final moments of the film, in a series of truly Lanthimos-ian tableaus, that everything snaps into crystal clear focus and it all makes sense. While the end he imagines is starkly shocking, it’s also weirdly kind, perhaps the best version of the end that anyone could possibly imagine. In Yorgos Lanthimos’ end of the world as we know it, it just might be fine.

‘Bugonia’

2 1/2 stars out of 4

Running time: 2 hours

Rated R for bloody violent content including a suicide, grisly images and language.

Where to watch: in theaters Friday, Oct. 24

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