News in brief for May 8

Powell holds rates, says next step is ‘not at all clear'

WASHINGTON (NYT) - The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday for a third meeting in a row, as officials pointed to heightened uncertainty about how significantly President Donald Trump's tariffs will raise inflation and slow growth.

The unanimous decision to stand pat will keep interest rates at 4.25% to 4.5%, where they have been since December after a series of cuts in the second half of 2024.

The Fed gathered at a highly volatile moment for the economy and the global financial system amid an onslaught of policy changes from Trump just months into his second term in the White House.

In a statement Wednesday, the Fed acknowledged that the labor market was still "solid." But policymakers also noted that "uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased further" and "risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen."

At a news conference after the decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he could not yet say "which way this will shake out" in terms of whether to be more worried about inflation or growth.

"It's really not at all clear what it is we should do," he said.

His comments dampened expectations that the Fed will lower rates in June.

Since the Fed's last meeting in March, the administration announced and then rolled back aggressive new tariffs as Trump gave countries time to reach trade deals before a July deadline. Still, a 10% universal tariff remains in place, along with additional levies on steel, aluminum and cars. The president has also imposed a minimum tariff of 145% on Chinese goods.

The whiplash has unnerved financial markets, stoking volatility as Wall Street digested the various twists and turns associated with Trump's trade policy and his subsequent attacks on Powell for ignoring his demands to lower interest rates. Last month, investors started to flee what are considered financial "safe havens," signaling that markets had come under strain.

No pope elected on cardinals' first vote

VATICAN CITY (NYT) - Black smoke puffed from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday night, signaling that 133 cardinals sequestered inside had not reached a decision in a first round of voting for a new pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.

The initial vote had not been expected to yield a pontiff. The cardinals, the most ever to gather in a papal conclave, will retire to guest quarters at the Vatican and return Thursday morning to continue voting. They will remain isolated during their deliberations, without phone or internet access and under oaths of total secrecy, until a two-thirds majority agrees on a candidate.

The first conclave in more than a decade, a little more than two weeks after Pope Francis' death set in motion the process of choosing his successor, comes during an uncertain time for the church, which is facing difficult decisions about its future direction, strained finances and a reckoning over past sexual abuse scandals.

Alligator kills

Florida woman after flipping her canoe

(NYT) - A 61-year-old woman was killed Tuesday when an alligator tipped over the canoe that she and her husband were paddling in Central Florida and attacked her after they fell in the water, authorities said.

The attack took place just after 4 p.m. where Tiger Creek meets Lake Kissimmee in Polk County, which is south of Orlando, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said at a news conference Wednesday.

Maj. Evan Laskowski said that the woman, Cynthia Diekema, of Davenport, Florida, was canoeing with her husband in about 2.5 feet of water "when their canoe passed over a large alligator."

The alligator then "thrashed and tipped the canoe over," Laskowski said, throwing the couple into the water.

Laskowski said alligator trappers were dispatched to the area, where they captured two alligators Tuesday evening.

One was more than 11 feet long, which matched "the length and description of the alligator involved in the incident," he said. The second alligator was approximately 10 to 11 feet long. It was not immediately clear if the gators were euthanized.

US school districts facing extortion attempt after hack

DETROIT (Reuters) - Hackers have tried to extort "multiple" school districts in the United States using previously stolen data from education software and cloud provider PowerSchool, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The California-based provider, which serves more than 60 million students globally, disclosed in December 2024 that personal information from its U.S. student information database had been stolen in a cybersecurity incident. The data stolen varied, the company said at the time, but could have included names, contact information, dates of birth, limited medical alert information, and social security numbers.

In an update on Wednesday the company said it was "aware that a threat actor has reached out to multiple school district customers in an attempt to extort them," and for the first time acknowledged that the company paid a ransom for an undisclosed amount to the hackers responsible for the breach. The extortion attempts relied on data stolen as part of that incident, the company said.

The company made what it called "the difficult decision" to pay the ransom "because we believed it to be in the best interest of our customers and the students and communities we serve."