Morning Bites: 5 things to know for Thursday - Traffic tickets, Inflation report and more

Morning Bites: 5 things to know for Thursday, January 12, 2023 Pay your tickets - Traffic cops in 'fine' form The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) issued a record total of 720, 694 tickets for [road traffic breaches in 2022](. This compares to the 451,412 tickets that were issued by the police in 2021. “This demonstrates the alertness of the JCF and their willingness to apprehend rogue motorists,” said National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang. He was speaking Tuesday in the House of Representatives where he also disclosed that a Traffic Ticket Web-lookup portal will be launched in the coming weeks that will allow motorists to check the status of their traffic tickets, print their records and use this to attend to their matters in the courts. “Though the 37 per cent year-over-year increase is an indication that we have exponentially increased the JCF’s capacity to enforce, it is also a clear signal that there remains a high degree of lawlessness on our roadways," he said. With the more punitive Road Traffic Act set to come into effect on February 1, motorists should take this as warning to clear their outstanding tickets. Justice Ministry launching ‘So-Just’ initiative The Ministry of Justice will host the launch of the Social Justice (So-Just) project at 11:00 am today at the Ministry’s Constant Spring Road office. According to a statement from the ministry, the project aims to use an equitable [human rights and gender responsive approach]( targeting improved changes within the justice sector. The ministry has advised that the project will be funded by the Canadian Government and implemented by the Ministry of Justice and the United Nations Development Programme. Among those expected at the launch are: -The Minister of Justice, Delroy Chuck -Canada’s Minister of International Development, Harjit Sajjan -Chief Justice Bryan Sykes - Canada’s High Commissioner, Emina Tudakovic - UNDP’s Resident Representative, Denise Portland US Inflation report could show welcome sign The [US inflation report for December being released Thursday]( morning could provide another welcome sign that the worst bout of spiking prices in four decades is slowly weakening. Or it could suggest that inflation remains persistent enough to require tougher action by the Federal Reserve. Most economists foresee the more optimistic scenario: They think December marked another month in which inflation, though still uncomfortably high, continued to cool. According to a survey by the data provider FactSet, analysts have predicted that consumer prices rose 6.5 per cent in December compared with a year earlier. That would be down from 7.1 per cent in November and well below a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent in June. On a month-to-month basis, the economists think prices were flat in December. Even more significant, a closely watched gauge of “core” prices — which excludes volatile energy and food costs — is expected to have risen just 0.3 per cent from November to December and 5.7 per cent from a year earlier. The Fed closely tracks core prices, which it sees as a more accurate indicator of future inflation, in setting its interest rate policies. Advertisement Breaking records: Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’ flying off shelves No, the public has not tired of hearing about Prince Harry. Sales for [his memoir ‘Spare’]( have placed the Duke of Sussex in some rarefied company. Penguin Random House announced Wednesday that first day sales for the Harry’s tell-all memoir topped 1.4 million copies, a record pace for non-fiction from a company that also publishes Barack and Michelle Obama, whose ‘Becoming’ needed a week to reach 1.4 million when it was released in 2018. The sales figures for Spare include hardcover, audiobook and e-book editions sold in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom. Spare is the story of someone we may have thought we already knew, but now we can truly come to understand Prince Harry through his own words,” Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of the Random House Group, said in a statement. “Looking at these extraordinary first day sales, readers clearly agree, Spare is a book that demands to be read, and it is a book we are proud to publish.” One of the most highly anticipated memoirs in recent times, Spare is Harry’s highly personal and intimate account of his life in the royal family and his relationship with the American actor Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. Michelle Obama’s memoir has since sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, its sales holding up over time in part because of highly favorable reviews. The verdict is mixed so far for Spare. Bolsonaro eyes return to Brazil as US stay pressures Biden The Biden administration is under growing pressure from leftists in Latin America as well as US lawmakers to expel Jair Bolsonaro from a post-presidential retreat in Florida following his supporters' [brazen attack on Brazil's capital over the weekend](. But the far-right ex-president may pre-empt any plans for such a stinging rebuke. On Tuesday, he told a Brazilian media outlet that he would push up his return home, originally scheduled for late January, after being hospitalised with abdominal pains stemming from a 2018 stabbing. “I came to spend some time away with my family but these weren’t calm days,” Bolsonaro told CNN’s Portuguese-language affiliate in Brazil. “First, there was this sad episode in Brazil and then my hospitalisation.” Bolsonaro arrived in Florida in late December, skipping the January 1 swearing-in of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who became the first elected Brazilian president not to receive the presidential sash from his predecessor since democracy was restored in the 1980s. Bolsonaro is reportedly staying at the Orlando-area home of Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter Jose Aldo, a fervent supporter. His visit to the Sunshine state went largely unnoticed in the US until Sunday's attack by thousands of die-hard supporters who had been camping for weeks outside a military base in Brasilia, refusing to accept Bolsonaro's narrow defeat in an October runoff. Their invasion of Brazil’s congress and presidential palace left behind shattered glass, smashed computers and slashed artwork. ICYMI: WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING Battle rages in Ukraine town The fate of a [devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine]( hung in the balance Wednesday in one of the bloodiest battles of Russia's invasion, while Ukraine's unflagging resistance and other challenges prompted Moscow to shake up its military leadership again. Jill Biden has two cancerous lesions removed - White House Surgeons [removed a cancerous lesion]( above first lady Jill Biden ’s right eye and one on her chest, the White House said Wednesday, while a third lesion on her left eyelid was being examined. Jeff Beck, guitar god who influenced millions, dies at 78 Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78. - AP TODAY IN HISTORY Haiti devastated by massive earthquake A strong earthquake devastated Haiti on this day in 2010, killing 230,000 people, injuring 300,000, and leaving more than one million homeless. For more stories, visit our website at www.jamaicaobserver.com or [sign up for our e-paper](. [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Website]( Copyright © 2023 Jamaica Observer, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 40 - 42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue Kingston 5 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.