Hard Numbers: US inflation eases, Iran targeted Bolton, Trump takes the 5th, Kenyans mistrust elections

8.5: US inflation cooled slightly to 8.5% in July, driven by lower gas prices, although the cost of food is now rising at its fastest pace since 1979. The US economy remains in an utterly weird state, with historically low unemployment abating recession fears but the Fed still gung-ho about another interest rate hike.

300,000: The US has charged an Iranian national over an alleged 2020 plot to kill Trump-era national security adviser John Bolton. Prosecutors say Shahram Poursafi — who remains abroad — offered $300,000 to an American to make the hit, presumably as payback for the US assassination of top IRGC general Qassim Suleimani earlier that year.

5: Former US President Donald Trump on Wednesday invoked the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to avoid incriminating himself in questioning by New York's AG in a civil probe into his business empire. Republicans are still up in arms about the FBI raiding Trump's residence in Florida earlier this week.

64: Kenya's presidential election is still too close to call, with Deputy President William Ruto leading opposition leader Raila Odinga by a slim margin. Turnout was lower than in the last vote, hardly a surprise since 64% of Kenyans polled by Gallup say they don't have faith in the honesty of elections.

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