How the experts got inflation wrong

Good morning! It's Tuesday, June 14th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.

A bear market. You don't have to work on Wall Street to know that's a bad thing to hear. And it's a bad thing to see, if you took a peek at your 401(k) balance yesterday, when the S&P 500 closed more than 20% below its recent high. Some shares recovered this morning, but volatility is sky-high, and more trouble is ahead.

I signed the single biggest economic relief package in American history, and I must say, or any other package, by the way. It's twice as large as any relief ever signed. It's 2.2 billion, but it actually goes up to 6.2, potentially, billion dollars. Trillion dollars.

And one of the first big things Biden did as president was throw more money at the problem, signing a $1.9 trillion aid bill.

This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people, middle class folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance.

That money helped struggling Americans, but also created a supply and demand mismatch. People had tons of money in their pockets, but the pandemic supply-chain problems meant there wasn't as much to buy. What happens next isn't complicated. It was economics 101. If demand goes up and supply goes down, prices rise. A lot. And even as unemployment fell back to pre-pandemic levels, the Fed and our politicians didn't change course.

former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr. The two public hearings so far have been full of his recorded testimony. He criticizes Trump and repeatedly makes clear that he knew the claims about the 2020 election being stolen were lies. Here is some of what was played in yesterday's hearings.

I thought, "Boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has, you know, lost contact with… he's become detached from reality." There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were. And my opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud.

Team Normal. That was in contrast with Rudy Giuliani and others in Trump's orbit. They were pushing him to declare an early victory on election night. Here's Jason Miller, a Trump aide whose video testimony was played before the committee yesterday.

I think, effectively, Mayor Giuliani was saying, "We won it. They're stealing it from us. Where did all the votes come from? We need to go say that we won." And, essentially, that anyone who didn't agree with that position was being weak.

Writing for "The New Yorker," Susan Glasser notes that so many of the witnesses now speaking out against Trump, for a long time, were his enablers. And they were in positions of power to do something. She points out, words after the event aren't worth as much as actions when they could've made a difference.

Who is responsible for the death of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh? Last month, the "Al Jazeera" correspondent was shot in the head while reporting on an Israeli military operation at the Jenin refugee camp.

Some Palestinians have said she was targeted by Israeli forces. Israel has disputed that account, but its messages about the incident have shifted over time. And there are a lot of questions. And key evidence hasn't been independently investigated.

[SPEAKING IN ARABIC]

You can hear a person saying, "There's the Israeli army." Then there are gunshots.

The "Post" commissioned two independent acoustic analyses of the gunshots. Based on the sound and what's known about where Abu Akleh and the Israeli soldiers were standing, it concluded that the shots were fired by Israeli forces.

We're looking for an independent, credible investigation. When that investigation happens, we will follow the facts wherever they lead. It's as straightforward as that. That has not yet happened. But it's something that we very much want to see happen.

In response to the "Post" analysis, the Israeli military says it will, quote, "continue to responsibly investigate the incident, in order to get to the truth of this tragic event." You can see the whole story, with maps and videos that help sort out what we do know, on the Apple News app.

Travel is starting to open up again, and in the wake of the pandemic, an unusual new kind of travel package is emerging. "The Wall Street Journal" reports on the rise of "the breakup trip."

Hotels and resorts are now starting to cater to people who are traveling in the wake of a divorce or separation. A lot of people ended relationships during the pandemic, and the travel industry sees a big opportunity.

You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, including coverage of the massive wildfires in Arizona and California, with some pretty striking pictures. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.