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US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left the door open to interest rate cuts in a keenly watched speech Friday, balancing risks to the economy as President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on the central bank.Last year, the Fed chair used his keynote speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium to indicate the time had come for interest rate cuts. This time, however, the picture is murkier.Powell faces constant attacks from Trump — who is aggressively pushing the independent bank to slash rates — alongside mixed economic data leading him towards a cautious approach.Powell warned Friday that the risks of higher inflation and a weakening jobs market add up to a “challenging situation.””Downside risks to employment are rising,” Powell said in his speech, warning that these challenges could materialize quickly in the form of layoffs.”While the labor market appears to be in balance, it is a curious kind of balance that results from a marked slowing in both the supply of and demand for workers,” he noted.He added that “the effects of tariffs on consumer prices are now clearly visible” and expected to accumulate over the coming months.He said there is high uncertainty about the timing and extent of the tariffs’ impact.But he vowed: “We will not allow a one-time increase in the price level to become an ongoing inflation problem.”Confronted with these dual challenges, Powell alluded to a possible rate cut: “With policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”Asked about Powell’s remarks Friday, Trump told reporters: “We call him ‘Too Late’ for a reason.” The president said Powell should have cut rates a year ago.This marked Powell’s final Jackson Hole speech at the helm of the Fed, with his term as chair ending in May 2026.- Gradual cuts -“That’s about as clear cut as Powell can get” in signaling that he leans towards a September rate cut, said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long.”While he is committed to ensuring that the tariff shocks are a one-time impact on inflation, he is telegraphing that the jobs situation is deteriorating quickly and that is the biggest risk now,” she added in a note.Wall Street rallied Friday after Powell’s remarks, with both the Dow and Nasdaq climbing around 2.0 percent. Treasury yields, which are sensitive to monetary policy developments, pulled back.CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed that the market sees a roughly 85-percent chance of a September rate cut.But Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, said the next rate reduction might not be “the beginning of a series.””Powell stressed that policy isn’t on a preset course and will continue to be based on the incoming data and the balance of risks,” Sweet said.The Fed chair appears to be setting the stage for a “gradual approach” to adjusting rates, he added.- Trump pressure -For now, the Fed sees growing pressure from the Trump administration on various fronts.Trump also said Friday that he would fire Fed governor Lisa Cook if she did not resign, after lashing out at her over claims of mortgage fraud.But the president is limited in his ability to remove officials from the central bank.Cook previously stated that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down,” while indicating that she would take questions about her financial history seriously.Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, repeatedly saying that the Fed chair has been “too late” in lowering rates and calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”He has also taken aim at Powell over the Fed’s headquarters renovation in Washington, at one point suggesting that cost overruns could be cause for ousting the central banker.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.Policymakers cited resilience in the labor market as they monitored the effects of Trump’s tariffs on inflation.But cracks have emerged in the jobs market, which could lead the Fed to lower rates to boost the economy.

National Guard troops will soon carry weapons in Washington, DC, where President Donald Trump ordered their deployment as part of a crackdown on crime, a US defense official said Friday.Trump has said Washington was a “crime-infested rat hole” before he sent troops onto its streets last week and said Friday that Chicago and New York — two more major Democrat-led cities — are set to receive similar treatment.”At the direction of the secretary of defense, JTF-DC members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons,” the defense official said on condition of anonymity, referring to the Joint Task Force-DC.The US Army previously said as troops began to arrive that “weapons are available if needed but will remain in the armory.”There are now more than 1,900 National Guard troops in Washington, both from the city as well as the Republican-led states of West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, which have also sent forces.On Friday, Trump said Chicago and New York are also on his list of targets.”We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”- Lowest violent crime in years -The US president also discussed declaring a national emergency to keep troops in Washington for longer than 30 days.Republican politicians — led by Trump — have claimed that the overwhelmingly Democratic US capital is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.Data from Washington police, however, showed significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, though that was coming off a post-pandemic surge.A Justice Department statement from January said that based on that data, “total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years.”But Trump has accused Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser of “giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures,” threatening “bad things” including a total federal takeover of the city if she does not stop doing so.In addition to the deployment of the National Guard, federal law enforcement personnel — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have also recently surged their presence on Washington’s streets, drawing protests from residents.The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was sparked by immigration enforcement raids.That was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor, who are usually responsible for those forces.

Canada will remove all tariffs on US goods that are compliant with the existing North American free trade agreement, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday, matching exemptions affirmed earlier this month by Washington. President Donald Trump called the move “nice.”Speaking to reporters a day after a lengthy call with Trump, Carney said Canada has “the best deal of any country with the United States right now.”Following a series of agreements the United States has signed with major partners including the European Union, Carney said it was clear the Trump administration is compelling countries “to buy access to the world’s largest economy.”He said the average tariff rate on goods entering the United States from around the world was now at 16 percent, up from two percent before Trump took office. The US tariff rate on Canadian goods was 5.6 percent, the prime minister said, adding “85 percent of our trade is tariff-free.”Carney has said it was crucial the United States decided earlier this month to maintain its tariff exemption on all goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).Effective September 1, Canada will match that exemption as a goodwill gesture, as it aims to “intensify” discussions with the Trump administration on a broader trading relationship, the prime minister said.  – ‘Puck in the net’ -Carney, a former competitive hockey player, said the decision to remove some counter-tariffs reflected the evolving stages of those negotiations. “There is a time in the game… (when) we dropped the gloves in the first period to send a message,” he said, using hockey terminology for punching an opponent.  “There’s also a time in the game… (when) you want to put the puck in the net,” he said, stressing Ottawa was now focused on clinching a deal that could offer long-term benefits for the Canadian economy. Asked if he had received assurances from Trump on Thursday that the tariff announcement would help kickstart talks on a broader trade deal, Carney said “yes.”Trump said he “had a very good talk” with Carney on Thursday. “I like Carney a lot. I think he’s a good, good person,” the president said. Carney also stressed his government was focused on preparing for USMCA revision talks set for next year, a timeline agreed by all sides when the deal was signed during Trump’s first term. Trump’s global sector-specific tariffs — namely those targeting all auto, steel and aluminum imports — have done the most damage in Canada. “Canada will retain our tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos as we work intensively with the US to resolve the issues there,” Carney said. “Our focus now is squarely on these strategic sectors and the future.”

Russia on Friday ruled out an immediate meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, as diplomatic tension with the Ukrainian president escalated and US mediation efforts appeared to stall.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “no meeting” between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky was planned, as NATO chief Mark Rutte visited Kyiv, largely to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.US President Donald Trump had raised expectations for a swift summit between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents by saying earlier in the week they had agreed to meet, but on Friday compared the two men to “oil and vinegar”.”They don’t get along too well, for obvious reasons,” he told reporters in Washington.Lavrov also poured cold water on hopes for direct Putin-Zelensky talks to resolve the conflict, now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin’s maximalist claims.”There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker”. Lavrov told the US broadcaster Putin was “ready to meet Zelensky” as soon as an agenda was prepared, adding that the agenda was “not ready at all”.In Kyiv, speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said Ukraine had “no agreements with the Russians”, saying Ukraine had agreed only with Trump on how the diplomatic direction could proceed.On Thursday, he had accused Russia of “trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting”, adding that Moscow wanted to continue the offensive.  – ‘A utopia’ -The question of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine has been front and centre during the latest US-led diplomatic push to broker a peace deal to end the conflict.Trump earlier said Russia had agreed to some Western security guarantees for Kyiv.But Moscow later cast doubt on any such arrangement, Lavrov saying on Wednesday that discussing them without Russia was “a utopia, a road to nowhere”.”When Russia raises the issue of security guarantees, I honestly do not yet know who is threatening them,” said Zelensky, who wants foreign troops in Ukraine to deter Russian attacks in the future. The Kremlin has long said it would never accept that, citing Ukraine’s NATO ambition as one of the pretexts for its assault. “There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything,” Lavrov told NBC.On a visit to Kyiv, during which an air raid alert sounded across the city, Rutte said security guarantees were needed to ensure “Russia will uphold any deal and will never ever again attempt to take one square kilometre of Ukraine”.Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The postal services of Germany and France on Friday announced a raft of restrictions on package deliveries to the United States due to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.DHL, which owns the Deutsche Post service, said that from Saturday it would “temporarily suspend” its standard category of US package delivery, the preferred option for many small businesses.”The reason for the restrictions, which we expect to be temporary, are new processes for postal delivery which have been put in place by the US authorities,” DHL said in a statement.”Important questions have not yet been answered, including who will have to pay the tariffs and how,” it added.France’s La Poste told AFP it would suspend from Monday package deliveries to the United States, except for gifts sent by individuals with a value of less than 100 euros ($116).It said the new rules had been issued only on August 15, “leaving European postal services with an extremely limited timeframe to get prepared.”Moreover, their related documentation still requires further clarification,” La Poste added in a statement.Each year the French service sends 1.6 million packages on average to the United States, 80 percent from businesses and 20 percent from individuals. – Extra checks -Other European postal services, including in Belgium, Austria and Denmark, have already taken similar measures.DHL said a more expensive “express” service for packages weighing up to 70 kilograms (154 pounds) would still be available.Individual customers will also still be able to send items as presents with a maximum value of $100 (86 euros) but DHL warned that these would be subject to extra checks to prevent the service being used for commercial goods.In late July the Trump administration said that as of August 29 it would abolish a tax exemption on small packages entering the US.Such packages with a value of less than $800 will now be taxed at 15 percent, the same rate as other imports from the European Union.That general tariff rate was agreed under a deal struck between Brussels and Washington late last month.In April, DHL said it was suspending delivery of packages to the United States with a value in excess of $800.It cited changes to US Customs rules as part of Trump’s trade war, which lowered the threshold at which parcels to individuals require formal entry processing by US Customs to $800 from $2,500 — leading to significant delays.

FBI agents on Friday raided and searched the home of one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, his former national security adviser John Bolton.Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation entered Bolton’s home in the Washington suburb of Bethesda early in the morning, an AFP reporter said. A police car with flashing lights was stationed outside the house, while journalists and onlookers gathered in the leafy street.The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.”According to The New York Times and other US media outlets, the search was ordered to determine whether Bolton had illegally shared or possessed classified information.Bolton served as Trump’s adviser in his first term and angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where it Happened.”Legal efforts to block release of the book for allegedly containing classified information were eventually dropped when Joe Biden replaced Trump in the presidency in 2021.Bolton has since become a highly visible and pugnacious critic of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”A longtime critic of Iran’s ruling powers, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Iranians.The raid by the FBI comes seven months after Trump stripped him — and multiple other critics — of government security protections.Since returning to power in January, Trump has embarked on a campaign to punish political opponents or simply anyone not fitting his right-wing agenda.The onslaught has targeted private individuals like Bolton, senior civil servants, elite universities, law firms and opposition Democratic politicians.

At a wine shop in Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, bottles sourced from Europe are becoming costlier to import — and soon, pricier for customers to buy, the owner says — thanks to a resident just down the road in the White House.President Donald Trump has slapped a 15-percent tariff on many goods coming from the European Union, as part of a deal the bloc negotiated to avoid even steeper levies.The continent’s important wine and spirits industry hoped to have a carveout, but details released Thursday showed no exemption to the double-digit duty.The new EU rate took effect this month, replacing a 10-percent levy Trump imposed in April on most trading partners. But even the lower tariff has forced importers to hike prices — and retailers are feeling the pinch.”Everybody’s redoing their price books at this point,” said Michael Warner, co-owner of wine boutique DCanter in Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.He told AFP that price increases from importers and distributors became apparent around June, ranging from 10-15 percent.Over 80 percent of wine in Warner’s store is imported, with about two-thirds from Europe.Businesses may have stocked up to mitigate a price shock from Trump’s duties, but inventory is depleting.As the euro strengthened against the dollar this year too, Warner said many importers “are seeing a 20-percent swing in their costs.” “As more and more importers are increasing their costs, we see that there will be more and more price increases, certainly in the next coming months and going into the holiday season,” he said.- No ‘special treatment’ -EU negotiators have sought to exempt alcohol such as Irish whiskey and French champagne from Trump’s tariffs, but their efforts have been fruitless so far.The bloc’s trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic maintained Thursday that “these doors are not closed forever.”The French wine exporters federation said it was “hugely disappointed” in the outcome.The Italian Wines Union foresees potential losses of 317 million euros ($368 million) over the next 12 months.”We now need determined action to reintegrate our sectors among those that enjoy a totally open US market,” said Giacomo Ponti, president of Italy’s wine and spirits federation.A White House official told AFP this week that the Trump administration “did not agree to any special treatment of EU alcohol” as part of the tariff deal.US Wine Trade Alliance president Ben Aneff argues, however, that his country has “a huge economic surplus on the sale of wines from the EU.”The American wine industry generally operates in a tiered system, where foreign producers sell to importers, who then sell to distributors. They in turn sell to retailers and restaurants.”For every dollar we spend in the European Union on wine, we make $4.52,” Aneff said of the economic impact of the wine changing hands through the supply chain.He estimates the United States buys some $5.3 billion worth of wine annually from the EU: “But that makes us about $24 billion in the United States.”The industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in importing and distribution, alongside tens of thousands of independent wine retailers — who in turn sell to consumers.”There’s no guarantee there will be an exclusion but we do know it’s something that the administration is considering seriously,” Aneff said.- ‘Extraordinarily trying time’ -Harry Root, who operates a wine distribution and import company with his wife, said they have paid “more than $100,000 worth of tariffs already this year.””We made less than $400,000 last year, so this is already like a 25-percent tax on our business,” he said. His firm, Grassroots Wine, serves South Carolina and Alabama.The funds to pay tariffs, according to Root, come from business capital that otherwise would have gone to wine makers, including dozens in the United States.”It puts a big strain on our ability to support our American producers,” he said.US wine producers also rely on imported components ranging from bottles made in Asia to barrels from Europe — and tariffs raise those costs too.While Root has not laid off staff, he has delayed replacing workers who left — departing from ambitious growth plans at the start of the year to expand the business.”Once the tariffs really became a reality, we curtailed that,” he said, adding that the company has had to cut costs.”This is a really, extraordinarily trying time.”

The seatbelt sign pings on, trays rattle, drinks slosh in their glasses. For many flyers, air turbulence can be an unnerving experience — and in a world warming under the effects of climate change, it is only set to worsen, according to a growing body of scientific evidence.Here are the key things to know during another searing summer in 2025.- Why turbulence matters -Beyond making people uneasy, turbulence is also the leading cause of in-flight weather accidents, according to official data.The numbers remain relatively small: there were 207 reported injuries on US commercial flights between 2009 and 2024. But high-profile incidents have thrust the issue into the spotlight.These include an Air Europa flight last year, in which 40 passengers were hurt, and a Singapore Airlines flight where one elderly passenger died and dozens were injured.”Typically injuries (are) to unbelted passengers or cabin crew rather than structural damage,” John Abraham, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of St. Thomas told AFP.”Modern aircraft withstand turbulence, so the main risk is occupant injury, not loss of the plane.”Still, planes must be inspected after “severe” encounters with turbulence — about 1.5 times the normal force of Earth’s gravity — which occur some 5,000 times a year over the US, said Robert Sharman, a senior scientist emeritus at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.Turbulence also increases fuel consumption when pilots must leave optimal altitudes, alter routes or change speeds, Abraham added.- How climate change is making it worse – Mohamed Foudad, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading in the UK, explained there are three main types of turbulence: convective, mountain wave and clear-air turbulence (CAT).Convective turbulence is linked to rising or sinking air currents from clouds or thunderstorms that can be detected visually or by onboard radar, while mountain wave turbulence occurs over mountain ranges. CAT, by contrast, is invisible — and therefore the most dangerous.It generally arises from jet streams: fast-moving westerly winds in the upper atmosphere at the same altitude as commercial jets, about 10–12 kilometers up.With climate change, the tropics are warming faster at cruising altitude than higher latitudes. That increases the temperature difference between the higher- and lower-latitudes, driving up jet stream velocity and wind shear — volatile shifts in vertical air currents that trigger CAT.Foudad and colleagues published a paper last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres analyzing data from 1980 to 2021.”We find a clear, positive trend — an increase in turbulence frequency over many regions, including the North Atlantic, North America, East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa,” he told AFP, with increases ranging from 60 to 155 percent. Further analysis attributed the rising turbulence in certain regions to increased greenhouse gas emissions.- What happens next? -A 2023 paper led by Isabel Smith at the University of Reading found that for every degree Celsius of near-surface warming, winters would see an increase of about nine percent in moderate CAT in the North Atlantic, and summers a rise of 14 percent.Winter has historically been the roughest season for turbulence, but warming is now amplifying CAT in summer and autumn, closing the gap.Jet stream disruption is not the only concern: climate change is also fueling stronger storms.”Climate change may also increase the frequency and severity of thunderstorms under future scenarios, and turbulence encounters near thunderstorms are a major component of turbulence accidents,” Sharman told AFP.In terms of mitigation strategies, Foudad is working on two studies: optimizing flight routes to avoid turbulence hotspots and improving forecasting accuracy.Some airlines are moving towards strategies involving passengers wearing seatbelts more often, such as ending cabin service earlier.Promising technologies are also being tested, says Sharman, including onboard LIDAR, which beams lasers into the atmosphere to detect subtle shifts in air density and wind speed.Ultimately, cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be essential, Foudad added.Aviation is responsible for about 3.5 percent of human-caused warming. Airlines are exploring cleaner fuels to help reduce the industry’s footprint, though progress has been “disappointingly slow,” according to the International Air Transport Association. 

A US federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration and Florida state government from bringing any new migrants to the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” and ordered much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shuttering the facility.Florida’s government swiftly announced it would appeal the decision. The detention center was hastily assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in Florida’s Everglades wetlands, home to a large population of alligators. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards. The White House has nicknamed the facility “Alligator Alcatraz,” a reference to the former island prison in San Francisco Bay that Trump has said he wants to reopen.The center was planned to hold 3,000 migrants, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.But it has come under fire from both environmentalists and critics of Trump’s crackdown on migration, who consider the facility to be inhumane.The new ruling on Thursday by District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.The environmental groups argue that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the legally required environmental impact studies.- Sixty-day deadline -Earlier this month, Williams had ordered further construction at the center to be temporarily halted.Now she has ordered the Trump administration and the state of Florida — which is governed by Republican Ron DeSantis — to remove all temporary fencing installed at the center within 60 days, as well as all lighting, generators and waste and sewage treatment systems.The order also prohibits “bringing any additional persons onto the… site who were not already being detained at the site.”Several detainees have spoken with AFP about the conditions at the center, including a lack of medical care, mistreatment and the alleged violation of their legal rights.”They don’t even treat animals like this. This is like torture,” said Luis Gonzalez, a 25-year-old Cuban who called AFP from inside the center.He recently shared a cell with about 30 people, a space enclosed by chain-linked fencing that he compared to a chicken coop.The Trump administration has said it wants to make this a model for other detention centers across the country. 

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.