📊 Black Code, Dallas Fire, and Inflation Index

Slavery law repealed, Oak Cliff disaster, and spending power freefall.

May 29, 2026

Greetings! Happy National Burger Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

Forwarded this email? Subscribe to PM Daily below:

SPONSORED SECTION

Sponsor PM Daily! Unlike other free daily newsletters, PM’s ad model works differently: 1. one single sponsor slot per issue; 2. 100% share of voice (SOV) guaranteed; 3. higher return on ad spend (ROAS) from your first placement.

No-brainer, little risk, high upside. Q2 slots are filling up quickly! Reach our rapidly scaling, high-intent, vetted premium audience by replying to this email right now.

🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇫🇷 France erases the Black Code. France’s National Assembly voted 254-0 Thursday, May 28th, to repeal the Code Noir. The 1685 decree was signed by King Louis XIV. It governed slavery across French colonies. For nearly two centuries after abolition, it remained formally on the books. The discovery stunned lawmakers into an unusually unanimous vote. Steevy Gustave, a lawmaker from Martinique, spoke through tears. He said descendants of enslaved people were descendants of free human beings reduced to slavery. The code classified enslaved people as movable property. It permitted buying, selling, forced labor, punishment, sexual violence, and killings. Fleeing could bring branding, mutilation, or death. President Emmanuel Macron said the silence around the law had become an offense. He did not issue a formal apology. France ran the third-largest transatlantic slave trade. About 1.4M Africans were transported to plantations feeding sugar wealth in Nantes and Bordeaux. Repeal cannot repair the past, but it forces the state to leave atrocity in the statute attic.

🇧🇷 Brazil moves toward a shorter week. Brazil’s lower house approved a constitutional amendment late Wednesday, May 27th, creating a 40-hour, five-day workweek. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sponsored and promoted the proposal. It must still pass the Senate. The change would replace the current 44-hour week. Many Brazilians now work five eight-hour days plus four hours on a sixth day. The amendment would protect pay while ending that six-day rhythm for at least 37M workers. It would also guarantee two consecutive 24-hour rest days. Supporters framed the vote as dignity for lower-paid workers with the hardest schedules. Paulo Pimenta, the government’s whip in the lower house, urged colleagues to be brave. Business groups and some lawmakers warned the change could chill hiring. Lawmaker Kim Kataguiri said rushed reform could leave workers worse off. Businesses would receive 14 months to adapt. Some negotiators had wanted a 10-year transition. Brazil would join Mexico and Chile in the region’s workweek reset. Latin America’s labor map is becoming a time sheet with politics written in the margins.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🔥 Dallas searches a burned building. A reported gas leak became a mass-casualty fire in Dallas on Thursday, May 28th. An explosion engulfed a two-story apartment building in Oak Cliff. At least three people died, including a child. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans announced the deaths Thursday evening. At least five injured people were taken to hospitals. Officials did not immediately say how many residents were missing. Deputy Chief Mark Berry said the operation had shifted from rescue to recovery. Dozens of firefighters searched smoldering rubble near downtown Dallas. Crews kept water on blackened debris while relatives tried to reach loved ones. Firefighters had been responding to the gas leak call when the explosion occurred. Berry said the cavalry was coming, but the blast had already happened. Atmos Energy Corporation ($ATO), the natural gas provider, said fire officials told it an unrelated construction crew damaged a nearby pipeline. The company said it was supporting emergency responders. Investigators still need to determine the sequence that turned warning into wreckage. One building fell, and a neighborhood waited for names.

🏭 Washington mill search turns grim. Crews in Longview, Washington, recovered the remains of six workers after a chemical tank ruptured at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company. Nine workers had been missing. Officials said 11 people were killed in all. Three victims had still not been recovered. Eight people were injured. The tank held more than 500K gallons of a chemical mixture used to break down wood for paper. It collapsed Tuesday morning, May 26th. The rupture released caustic liquid capable of severe burns and lung injuries. Longview Fire Battalion Chief Matt Amos said the collapse happened during a shift change. The recovered workers had been in a morning gathering area before assignments. Searchers are avoiding the zone closest to the tank because of further collapse risk. Engineers are assessing nearby damaged buildings. Crews must decontaminate remains before transferring them to the coroner. Searchers must also decontaminate themselves. Friends identified electrician Gilbert Bernal as the first confirmed death. What began as an industrial routine became one of America’s deadliest workplace disasters in decades.

🗂️ MISC

💰 Inflation bites harder again. A key American inflation gauge rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier. The Commerce Department said Thursday, May 28th, that was up from 3.5% in March. It was the highest reading since May 2023. Prices rose 0.4% from March. Food, clothing, electricity, and gasoline all added pressure. The Federal Reserve’s 2% target now looks further away. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, rose to 3.3%. That was the highest core rate since October 2023. President Trump has focused heavily on the Iran war while households absorb higher costs. Gas prices have risen more than 50% since Israeli-US attacks on Iran began. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the increases transitory. The word carries old political scars from the 2021 and 2022 inflation shock. After-tax, inflation-adjusted incomes fell for a third straight month. Real spending barely rose. Consumers are watching wallets shrink while policymakers debate whether the next rate move is relief or restraint.

📉 Claims rise, layoffs stay low. American jobless claims rose to 215K last week. The prior week was 210K. The four-week moving average increased nearly 6,300 to 209K. The Department of Labor released the figures Thursday, May 28th. Claims remain low by historical standards. Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency, called the uptick trivial in a 159M-worker labor market. Weekly filings have mostly stayed between 200K and 250K since the pandemic recession ended. Continuing claims rose 15K to 1.79M for the week ending May 16th. Employers are not firing heavily. They are also not hiring aggressively. Job growth averaged 76K a month January through April. That improved from fewer than 10K a month in 2025. It still lagged 122K monthly gains in 2024. The unemployment rate was 4.3% in April. The labor market looks steady, but now sits inside an economy rattled by oil, war, and higher prices.