Erik Menendez was denied parole Thursday more than three decades after he and his brother Lyle slaughtered their parents in the family’s luxury Beverly Hills home.A California panel ordered the 54-year-old to stay in prison, defying a lengthy campaign waged by family, friends and celebrities like Kim Kardashian.”Erik Menendez was denied parole for three years at his initial suitability hearing today,” said a brief statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).The result will be a huge blow to a movement that has swelled in recent years, nourished by documentaries and TV dramas, including the smash Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”The show and other productions have fixated on the grisly details of the 1989 shotgun murders and the televised jury trial that captivated audiences with accounts of their abusive upbringings and posh lifestyles.Thursday’s hearing came 36 years and a day after his family learned of his parents’ deaths, Erik Menendez told the parole board.”Today is the day all my victims learned my parents were dead,” he said during the 10-hour hearing. “So today is the anniversary of their trauma journey.”The parole denial comes the day before Lyle Menendez, 57, will appear before a panel to ask them to release him from prison.”This is a tragic case,” parole commissioner Robert Barton said after the decision was issued. “I agree that not only two, but four people, were lost in this family.”More than a dozen relatives testified to say they’ve forgiven the Menendez brothers, as they came to be known, and to call for their release.”Two things can be true,” Barton said. “They can love and forgive you and you can still be found unsuitable for parole.”- ‘Mafia hit’ -The men are among America’s most celebrated prisoners, and the stars of one of the first-ever televised murder trials.Jurors in the 1990s were told how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.After setting up alibis and trying to cover their tracks, Erik and Lyle shot Jose Menendez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps.Kitty Menendez died from a shotgun blast as she tried desperately to crawl away from her killers.The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but changed their story several times in the ensuing months.Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist.The pair ultimately claimed they had acted in self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.During their decades in prison, changing social mores and greater awareness of sexual abuse helped elevate the men to something approaching cultural icons.- ‘Horrific’ -Thursday’s hearing, which was closed to the public, was expected to last just two to three hours.Instead, it went on all day.Erik Menendez appeared by video link from the San Diego prison where he and his brother are being held.Two or three panel members, whose identity was not released by CDCR, quizzed him on his behavior and attitude towards the murders.The parole hearing became possible when a judge earlier this year resentenced the men, reducing their original full-life tariff to one of 50 years with the possibility of release.Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who opposed the resentencing, applauded Thursday’s decision.”Importantly, the (parole) Board did not bow to public spectacle or pressure, a restraint that upholds the dignity and integrity of the justice system.”Lyle’s hearing on Friday is independent of his brother’s.

US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell is expected to walk a fine line while delivering a closely watched speech at a central banking conference on Friday, as he faces down attacks from President Donald Trump alongside mixed economic data.The US central bank chair may have used his keynote speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium last year to indicate the time had come for interest rate cuts — but analysts warn there is a murkier picture this time around.”The Fed is in a tough position as inflation remains above target and downside risks to the labor market are intensifying,” said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.Powell is due to deliver his final Jackson Hole speech as Fed chair at 10:00 am Eastern Time (1400 GMT) on Friday. His term at the helm ends in May 2026.”Whether they cut or not in September will likely hinge on data that Powell won’t have in hand” at the symposium, Sweet told AFP.Yet, the independent Fed has come under intensifying pressure from the Trump administration this year to lower rates.- ‘No intention of being bullied’ -Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, repeatedly saying that the Fed chair has been “too late” in lowering interest rates while calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”The president has also taken aim at Powell over the Fed’s headquarters renovation in Washington, suggesting that cost overruns could be cause for ousting the central banker.Trump eventually backed off the idea but this week separately called for the resignation of a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, over claims of mortgage fraud. Cook pushed back, saying in a statement that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down” while adding that she would take questions about her financial history seriously.- Jobs, inflation risks -“We expect Powell to comment on both the latest jobs data and the latest inflation data before putting into context an assessment of appropriate monetary policy,” HSBC US economist Ryan Wang said in a note.The Fed, which holds its next policy meeting in mid-September, has kept interest rates steady at a range of between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since its last reduction in December.In keeping rates unchanged, policymakers cited resilience in the labor market as they monitored the effects of Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on the world’s biggest economy.Higher tariffs on imports risk fueling price hikes, according to analysts. The Fed typically keeps interest rates at a higher level to sustainably rein in inflation.The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose 2.6 percent in June from a year ago, and a measure stripping out the volatile food and energy segments was higher at 2.8 percent. Both figures are above the Fed’s longer-term target of two percent.But cracks have meanwhile emerged in the jobs market, which could call for lower rates to boost the economy.Official employment data released this month showed that hiring in May and June was much weaker than originally estimated.Hours after the data was released, Trump ordered the firing of the commissioner of labor statistics, eventually picking an economist from a right-wing think tank as her replacement.Softening employment has raised concern among officials, with Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman voting against the overall decision in July to hold rates steady for a fifth straight meeting.Both had preferred to lower interest rates by 25 basis points. It was the first time since 1993 that two Fed governors dissented.According to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday, Bowman argued that gradually reducing rates would help hedge against further cooling in the economy and the risk of damage to the labor market.Fed officials remain divided on whether Trump’s tariffs would have a one-off effect on inflation or cause more persistent effects.For now, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows the market sees a 73.5-percent chance that the Fed will lower rates in September. “With more employment data to come, we don’t think Powell can firmly guide toward easing at the next meeting,” JPMorgan analysts said in a recent note.